UBT_PEMESWA2021 - The political economy of monetary and economic sovereignty in West Africa compared

The research group investigates historically and in comparative fashion how Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria have attempted to increase their political and economic sovereignty with a particular focus on the interaction between governments, finance and labor. The group attempts to find out historically how these West African countries became exporters of only one or two commodities with the help of foreign capital and military force. In the second step, we focus on how postcolonial, newly independent governments have attempted to move away from this with the help of domestic resources, the creation of public and private banks, foreign debt and, most recently, stronger relations to China since independence. Increasing economic complexity, diversifying the economy and thus to reduce dependencies on the world market have been perennial pursuits but have often failed. The Covid crisis has put this into stark relief, again. How can we explain recurrent debt crises and the difficulties in moving away from raw commodity export dependency? Which role do global and domestic social relations play and what does that mean for the state in West Africa? To find answers to these questions we investigate the role of colonial legacies and the various attempts by governments to increase national self-determination through public policies to arrive at a nuanced picture of what can be done in the current global political economy.