Since 1949–53, when the Nigerian élite was first consulted by the British in a constitutional review, the peoples of Nigeria have engaged in a continual regional, communal, and class struggle for a share in the economic benefits resulting from decolonisation and independence, and the accompanying modernisation. The two coups d'état of 1966 and the civil war of 1967–70 were the most virulent of these struggles. This article analyses economic factors contributing to the Nigeria–Biafra conflict and the interrelated coups. Except for a brief discussion of the colonial economic legacy, the emphasis is upon the decade or two prior to the war.

Franco-African relations have come under increasing fire during the past few years. African dissatisfaction with various aspects of the co-operation agreements between France and her former colonies is not new, but has recently been more clearly articulated and specifically focused on the structure and regulations of the franc zone which, it is argued, tend to make African states excessively dependent on France.

This study attempts to measure and analyse the importance of deficit finance in the economic development of the Sudan during the period 1960–9, mainly covered by the Ten-Year Plan of Economic and Social Development, 1961/2 to 1970/1, not implemented beyond 1969. In the light of these findings I shall also review the implications for the success of the present Five-Year Plan, 1970/1 to 1974/5, but since I am basically concerned with the rôle of deficit finance, I shall not attempt to appraise the overall national economic policies and trends, although these significant variables obviously affect each other.

Until the late 1950s it was conventional wisdom in East Africa that the major problem of manpower development was one of attracting and retaining sufficient numbers of workers into the European-controlled labour force. Strategies, however, differed radically between plantation agriculture and industry. In Kenya the Government published two reports in 1955 on wages which well illustrate the contrast, and provide valuable insight into the interests involved in the formation of employment policies in a colonial economy.

No question is currently more topical in development studies than that of employment. This strong concern, which has been linked to income distribution and continuing poverty, as well as more-or-less open unemployment1, is relatively recent in origin. It has generated a number of missions to developing countries by the I.L.O., seen the design (by the same international organisation) of a world employment programme, and given rise to much academic writing. One mildly puzzling feature is that many policies have been prescribed on very limited data.

Since Malawi became independent on 6 July 1964 diplomatic relations with her eastern neighbour, Tanzania, have been almost permanently strained. Differences between the two states have focused on three sets of issues: contrasting attitudes and policies towards the white minority régimes to the South, President Banda's suspicion that Tanzania was aiding and abetting the attempts by certain prominent Malawi exiles to subvert his régime,1 and a dispute over the de-limitation of the boundary between the two states along Lake Malawi (Nyasa).

These issues are not easily separable: for if it had not been for Banda's outspoken policy towards the white South (which led him alone amongst African statesmen to establish diplomatic relations with South Africa), there would have been no compelling grounds for Tanzania, which opposed this policy, to offer asylum and support to his political opponents; and if it had not been for Tanzania's confrontation, not only with South Africa but also with the Portuguese authorities in Mozambique (with whom Malawi also maintained close relations), it is doubtful whether President Nyerere would have been provoked during May 1967 into bringing the Lake dispute into the open. There is no doubt also that Malawi exiles in Dar es Salaam were actively campaigning against Banda's régime, at this time, over the whole range of his policies, including the question of the Lake.

Almost every student of the ideologies of the developing nations is familiar with the thesis regarding African socialism. It is held that village society was traditionally communal, and that consequently the introduction of socialist régimes in the newly established African states might not be expected to pose major difficulties. For many years it has become almost commonplace to comment on this hypothesis in a casual manner, to argue for and against it on the basis of one's own normative commitments, or simply to describe it as a political fact. Rarely has any systematic attempt been made to examine it analytically.