Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- List of acronyms and abbreviations
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Unrecorded trade in goods and currencies
- Part II Foreign exchange constraints
- Part III Longer-term growth in African countries
- 7 Exchange rate, growth, and poverty
- 8 Export crops, human capital, and endogenous growth
- 9 Ethnic rents and the politics of redistribution
- General conclusion
- References
- Index
9 - Ethnic rents and the politics of redistribution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Preface
- List of acronyms and abbreviations
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Unrecorded trade in goods and currencies
- Part II Foreign exchange constraints
- Part III Longer-term growth in African countries
- 7 Exchange rate, growth, and poverty
- 8 Export crops, human capital, and endogenous growth
- 9 Ethnic rents and the politics of redistribution
- General conclusion
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Poor countries are not uniformly poor. In many African countries there is generally a simple mapping between the allocation of wealth across ethnic groups and their geographical distribution. The cultural or religious divisions between ethnic groups in West African countries, for example, are strongly correlated with the difference in wealth between them: there is a sharp contrast between a relatively affluent south and a poorer north in most of the countries of the area. For instance, in Chad, the southerners produce cotton, while the northerners are poor nomadic herdsmen. A similar distribution of activities can be found in Mali and Niger, where southerners are agriculturists and northerners are nomadic herdsmen. In Côte d'Ivoire, the northerners produce also cotton, but it is a poorer crop than the coffee and cocoa produced by the southerners. In Nigeria, the northerners rely on a typical Sahelian agriculture, growing cotton and millet, while oil dominates the southern economy.
In these countries, a typical political pattern seems to emerge: a military regime often prevails when the northerners are in power, while civilian rule seems to be the dominant mode of government when the southerners are in power. Tombalbaye in Chad and Houphouët-Boigny in Côte d'Ivoire were from the south of their countries, and ran civilian governments.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Trade, Exchange Rate, and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa , pp. 213 - 238Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006