Episode Nineteen

Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar: A History of Economics Podcast

Co-host Gerardo Serra reports from the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) to discuss new initiatives and research in the history of African economic thought. Guests include Jerome Lange (Associate researcher, University of Paris 1) and Richard Itaman (Lecturer in comparative political economy of late development, King's College, London), the main organizers of the Young Scholars Initiative conference on 'The past and the future of African development', and a group of scholars doing exciting research on the history of African economic thought: Adebayo Adedokun (Lecturer in Economics, University of Lagos), Kohol Sylvester Shima (PhD student in History, University of Ibadan), Takesure Taringana (PhD student and Teaching assistant in Economic History, University of Zimbabwe), and Alex Ugwuja (Lecturer in History and International Relations, Edo University). Topics discussed include the methodological challenges and interdisciplinary opportunities of reconstructing the history of African economic thought, and specific case studies of the history of Igbo economic thought, the theory and practice of 'esusu' as a mechanism of saving and capital formation among the Yoruba, the role played by historian Akiga Sai in reconstructing the economic thought and life of the Tiv people, and the use of proverbs as a source for the history of economic thought in Zimbabwe.