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Nationalisation and Indigenisation in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Leslie L. Rood
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Extract

In the last decade the states of black Africa have taken over a score of large industries owned by multi-national corporations and thousands of small enterprises owned by non-African residents. The methods of takeover, the targets, and the stated justifications vary from country to country, and yet there is a pattern throughout it all. Africans want control in their own house. This article reviews the facts of the takings in black Africa, considers the changing international law of nationalisation, and looks into the future of this confrontation between Africans and foreigners.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 1976 , pp. 427 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 428 note 1 Rood, Leslie L., ‘Foreign Investment in African Manufacturing’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XIII, 1, 03 1975, p. 19Google Scholar; Dharam P. Ghai, ‘Concepts and Strategies of Economic Independence’, in ibid. XI, 1, March 1973, p. 21; Chudson, Walter, ‘Africa and the Multinational Enterprise’, in Hahlo, H. R., Smith, J. Graham, and Wright, Richard W. (eds.), Nationalism and the Multinational Enterprise (Leiden, 1973), p. 136Google Scholar; Widstrand, Carl (ed.), Multinational Firms in Africa (Uppsala, 1975)Google Scholar; and O'Brien, Rita Cruise, ‘Lebanese Entrepreneurs in Senegal: economic integration and the politics of protection’, in Cahiers d'études africaine (Paris), XV, 1, 1975, p. 95Google Scholar.

page 429 note 1 See Gluckman, Max, The Ideas in Barotse Jurisprudence (New Haven, 1965), p. 170Google Scholar.

page 430 note 1 See Brownlie, Ian, Principles of Public International Law (Oxford, 1973), p. 517Google Scholar.

page 431 note 1 U.N. Secretary General, Permanent Sovereignty Over Natural Resources, A/9716 (Supplement to E/5425), 20 September 1974.

page 431 note 2 Ibid. Annex p. 1.

page 439 note 1 On expropriation and nationalisation in general, see Brownlie, op. cit. pp. 504–34; Sorensen, Max, Manual of Public International Law (New York, 1968), pp. 485–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Connell, D. P., International Law (London, 1965), pp. 836–67Google Scholar; White, Gihian, Nationalization of Foreign Property (New York, 1961)Google Scholar; Wortley, B. A., Expropriation in Public International Law (Cambridge, 1959)Google Scholar; Katzarov, Konstantin, The Theory of Nationalization (The Hague, 1964)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Steiner, Henry J. and Vagts, Detlev F., Transnational Legal Problems (Mineola, 1976), pp. 408–95Google Scholar; Bishop, William W. Jr, International Law (Boston, 1971), pp. 851–99Google Scholar; Chayes, Abram, Ehrlich, Thomas, and Lowenfeld, A. F., International Legal Process (Boston, 1969), p. 838Google Scholar; Whiteman, Marjorie M., Digest of International Law, Vol. 8 (Washington, 1967), pp. 1020–1185Google Scholar; and Delupis, Ingrid, Finance and Protection of Investments in Developing Countries (New York, 1973)Google Scholar.

page 439 note 2 For authorities questioning the classical view on expropriation, see Anand, R. P., New States and International Law (Delhi, 1972), p. 62Google Scholar; Sinha, S. Prakash, New Nations and the Law of Nations (Leiden, 1967), p. 11Google Scholar; Okoye, F. C., International Law and the New African States (London, 1972), p. 175Google Scholar; Castaneda, Jorge, ‘The Underdeveloped Nations and the Development of International Law’, in International Organization (Madison), XV, 1961, p. 38Google Scholar; Roy, S. N. Guha, ‘Is the Law of Responsibility of States for Injuries to Aliens a Part of Universal International Law?’, in American Journal of International Law (Washington), LV, 4, 1961, p. 863Google Scholar; and Nervo, Padila and Pal, R. B., Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1957, Vol. I (New York, 1957), pp. 155–8Google Scholar. Writers on Africa, aside from Okoye, op. cit. pp. 178–84, pay relatively little attention to the subject: see Elias, T. O., Africa and the Development of International Law (Dobbs Ferry, 1972)Google Scholar; Yakemtchouk, Romain, L'Afrique en droit international (Paris, 1971)Google Scholar; Nwogugu, E. L., The Legal Problems of Foreign Investment in Developing Countries (Manchester, 1965)Google Scholar; and Suckow, Samuel, Nigerian Law and Foreign Investment (Paris, 1966)Google Scholar.

page 440 note 1 See Friedmann, Wolfgang, The Changing Structure of International Law (New York, 1964), p. 317Google Scholar; and Anand, op. cit. pp. 48–66.

page 440 note 2 Brierly, J. L., The Law of Nations (New York, 1963), p. 43Google Scholar.

page 440 note 3 Garcia-Amador, F. V., Yearbook of the International Law Commission, 1959, Vol. II (New York, 1959), p. 18Google Scholar; and Anand, op. cit. p. 41.

page 440 note 4 Castaneda, loc. cit. p. 39; and Nervo and Pal, op. cit. pp. 155 and 158.

page 440 note 5 Brownlie, op. cit. pp. 509–11; Anand, op. cit. p. 41; and Steiner and Vagts, op. cit. p. 357.

page 440 note 6 Katzarov, op. cit. p. 323.

page 441 note 1 Hackworth, G. H., International Law, Vol. 3 (Washington, 1942), pp. 655–65Google Scholar; and White, op. cit. p. 232.

page 441 note 2 Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U.S. 398, 428 (1964).

page 441 note 3 Brownlie, op. cit. p. 518; and Statement of Policy by the President of the United States Concerning the International Minimum Standard, reproduced in Leech, N. E., Oliver, C. T., and Sweeney, J. M., International Legal System (Mineola, 1973), pp. 1070–2Google Scholar.

page 441 note 4 Friedmann, op. cit. p. 321; Katzarov, op. cit. p. 339; and Chayes, op. cit. p. 843. Also Weigel, Dale R. and Weston, Burns H., ‘Valuation upon the Deprivation of Foreign Enterprise: a policy-oriented approach to the problem of compensation under international law’, in Lillich, Richard B. (ed.), The Valuation of Nationalized Property in International Law (Charlottesville, 1972), p. 4Google Scholar.

page 442 note 1 See Steiner and Vagts, op. cit. pp. 433–5; and Bishop, op. cit. pp. 864–5.

page 442 note 2 Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Co., Ltd., International Court of Justice Reports 1970, p. 250.

page 442 note 3 U.N. General Assembly, OfficialRecord, 17th Session, Supplement No. 17 (A/5217), p. 15.

page 443 note 1 Barcelona Traction…, p. 167. See also Bishop, op. cit. p. 866.

page 443 note 2 Williams, John Fischer, ‘International Law and the Property of Aliens’, in British Yearbook of International Law (1928), p. 15.Google Scholar

page 443 note 3 See also Brownlie, op. cit. p. 521; Brierly, op. cit. pp. 284–5; Friedmann, Wolfgang, Law in a Changing Society (Baltimore, 1964), p. 345Google Scholar; and Northrop, F. S. C., The Meeting of East and West (New York, 1946), pp. 45–8Google Scholar. See White, op. cit. pp. 183–243, for an earlier, contrary view.

page 443 note 4 Williams, loc. cit. p. 22.

page 443 note 5 Ibid. p. 22: also Friedmann, Law in a Changing Society, p. 346.

page 444 note 1 Rohwer, James A., ‘Nationalization’, in Harvard International Law Journal (Cambridge, Mass.), XIV, 2, Spring 1973, p. 378Google Scholar.

page 445 note 1 Ibid. pp. 466–7; Wooldridge and Sharma, loc. cit. p. 67; and Delupis, op. cit. p. 67. For the opinion that the withdrawal of a license is not a taking of property under the Kenya Constitution, see Singh, loc. cit. pp. 103–4.

page 445 note 2 Brownlie, op. cit. p. 505; and Ofosu-Amaah, loc. cit. pp. 474–6.

page 445 note 3 See Singh, loc. cit. p. 103; and Wooldridge and Sharma, loc. cit. p. 62.

page 447 note 1 The O.E.C.D. data take into account the disinvestments by nationalisation. The United States, Japan, and Germany, in particular, have continued to invest in extractive industries in the region. Letter from O.E.C.D. to the author, 10 October 1975.