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The Peculiarities of Capitalism: Frederick Cooper on Africa and the World Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2019

Geoffrey Traugh
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Abstract:

This essay explores Frederick Cooper’s work on the history of capitalism, bringing together his histories of class struggles on the East African coast and his conceptual interventions into debates on Africa and the world economy. It argues that Cooper’s notion of the “peculiarities of capitalism” illuminates how conflicts over work, rights, and the labor process have shaped where capital went and what it did in Africa. The essay also considers how Cooper’s work might inform the emerging literature on race and capitalism in Africa, exploring in particular the history of tobacco capitalism in postcolonial Malawi.

Résumé:

Cet article analyse les travaux de Frederick Cooper sur l’histoire du capitalisme, en rassemblant ses récits de luttes de classes sur la côte est-africaine et ses interventions conceptuelles dans des débats sur l’Afrique et l’économie mondiale. Cet article veut montrer que la notion de Cooper de “particularités du capitalisme” met en lumière la manière dont les conflits, droits et règles du travail ont façonné les trajectoires et effets du capital en Afrique. Cet article examine également la manière dont les travaux de Cooper pourraient éclairer la littérature émergente sur la race et le capitalisme en Afrique, en explorant en particulier l’histoire du capitalisme du tabac dans le Malawi postcolonial.

Type
Frederick Cooper and the Historiography of Africa
Information
History in Africa , Volume 47 , June 2020 , pp. 83 - 93
Copyright
© African Studies Association 2019

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