Cotton textile industries vanished from much of East Africa during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book investigates the underlying causes of industrial arrest in the region through a series of in-depth case studies. Findings are considered in light of existing studies on comparatively more resilient textile centers elsewhere on the continent to derive insights into the determinants of differing industrial trajectories across sub-Saharan Africa. The author argues that scholars have placed undue weight on global forces as the primary drivers of industrial decline in the Global South. Rather, this book reveals how local factors – principally demographic, geographic, and institutional features – interacted with external forces to influence unique regional outcomes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as sub-Saharan African was increasingly integrated into global trade networks and European colonial empires.

The Twilight of European Colonialism (1961) is a comprehensive appraisal of modern colonialism, as well as providing historical background, of the governments of British, French, Belgian and Portuguese colonies. Political events in colonies and former colonies in all parts of the world are discussed. Charting the political development of each colony, the author analyses at each stage the significance of the major advances toward self-government in addition to critically examining and comparing the policies and performances of the European powers involved.