With the expulsion of Ibos from Northern Nigeria and Asians from Uganda, the intriguing question of ethnic commercial specialisation and adaptation has increasingly occupied the minds of many scholars. One aspect of economic continuity from the pre-colonial period onwards has been an ethnic dominance in certain occupations and enterprises. Although some groups have lost their traditional commercial specialities, others have continued to be disproportionately influential in a particular sector, and have often maintained an effective monopoly, despite major changes in commerce and local political control. During the November 1972 African Studies Association meeting in Philadelphia, these developments were analysed by a panel organised by Barbara Lewis of Livingstone College. As she pointed out in her paper on ‘The Adaptation of Commercially-Specialised Ethnic Groups to Colonial and Post-Colonial Political Economics’: