Corruption in Africa

Corruption in Africa examines the historical roots of corruption in Africa beyond the mainstream approach that has tended to characterise corruption as a vice rooted in Africa’s contacts with the Western world. It extends this discussion to the precolonial period with an understanding that colonialism would not have planted the seeds of corruption if there were no fertile grounds for that from within the African socio-political and cultural landscape. Building on this, the authors examine how subsequent historical phases have built on each other to entrench corruption in the continent. By historicising corruption, the authors provide a critical appraisal of anti-corruption strategies to identify areas where Africa and its partners have got it wrong in their unending anti-corruption crusade.

The book contributes to this important but meagre body of knowledge about the historical roots of corruption in Africa. The authors do this by identifying and examining the ways in which pre-colonial socio-cultural, economic and political practices contained seeds of corruption in themselves, and how they paved a way for later abuse by Western traders and colonisers.