| dc.contributor.author | Power, Joey. | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-10-21T12:35:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 1990 | |
| dc.date.issued | 1990 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | AAINN71476 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10222/55260 | |
| dc.description | The following pages tell the story of the development of African enterprise in Blantyre-Limbe from 1907 to 1953. African business in the Southern Province of colonial Malawi began with plantation agriculture which proved even more problematic for undercapitalised African planters than for European counterparts. Merchant commerce in towns was closed to Africans as well because of the racialist character of urban life. For many reasons, Africans were forced to the margins of the urban economy where they carved out a special economic niche for themselves in the service sector. The post-1945 construction boom provided greater opportunities for accumulation than ever before and entrepreneurs eagerly took advantage of this, rejecting state efforts to push them into a more "suitable" cooperative framework. | en_US |
| dc.description | The strong individualism and male bias of urban African enterprise had important social repercussions. Firms were closely associated with their proprietors, the "big men". Matrilocality gave way to virilocal residence. Successful entrepreneurs took on increased responsibility for spouses and children and used their new found wealth to build extra-kin clientage networks. Socially recognized wealth reposed in the acquisition of retainers. Entrepreneurs valued material accumulation only in so far as it gained them access to clients. The dominance of lineage values meant the retention of partible inheritance, ensuring that few African firms outlasted the death of their founders. This had important implications for gender relations, but also served to curtail the accumulation of capital over generations. | en_US |
| dc.description | The thesis examines not only the methods of material accumulation employed by entrepreneurs and the institutional obstacles they faced, but looks to the social tension and conflict this created. It argues that even though entrepreneurs followed a capitalist path, they did so in order to succeed in terms of "custom". | en_US |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 1990. | en_US |
| dc.language | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Dalhousie University | en_US |
| dc.publisher | | en_US |
| dc.subject | History, African. | en_US |
| dc.subject | Economics, History. | en_US |
| dc.title | Individual enterprise and enterprising individuals: African entrepreneurship in Blantyre and Limbe, 1907-1953. | en_US |
| dc.type | text | en_US |
| dc.contributor.degree | Ph.D. | en_US |
