A striking feature of African history is the volume of commerce and production that has been possible without the full panoply of credit, insurance, futures markets, stock companies, limited liability, and other legal and financial services that make up the formal sector of modern economies. This volume investigate institutional nexuses through which money has been managed in Africa. Together they present important perspectives that are needed to understand the present economic crisis on the continent.
CONTENTS -- Finance and Credit in Pre-Colonial Dahomey/Robin Law -- On Currency and Credit in the Western Sahel, 1700–1850/James L.A. Webb, Jr. -- Slaves as Money in the Sokoto Caliphate/Jan Hogendorn -- Islamic Financial Institutions: Theoretical Structures and Aspects of Their Application in Sub-Saharan Africa/ John Hunwick -- Appendix: Document on Financial Transactions from Nineteenth Century Timbuktu/Translated by John Hunwick -- Islamic Banking in the Sudan: Aspects of the Laws and the Debate/Endre Stiansen -- Imposing a Guide on the Indigène: The Fifty Year Experience of the Sociètès de Prèvoyance in French West and Equatorial Africa/Gregory Mann and Jane I. Guyer -- Kòse-é-mánì: Idealism and Contradiction in the Yorùbá View of Money/Akanmu G. Adebayo