1970s–1990s: (Economic Crisis and Its Causes — Rapid Population Growth Straining Resources, the Collapse of Agricultural Export Prices Through the 1970s and …

1970s–1990s: (Economic Crisis and Its Causes — Rapid Population Growth Straining Resources, the Collapse of Agricultural Export Prices Through the 1970s and 1980s, the Fall in Copper Prices Devastating Zaire and Zambia, the 1970s Oil Price Shock Destroying Transport Systems, the Pursuit of Industrialization at the Expense of Agriculture, Ghana’s Volta Dam While Cocoa Was Neglected, Nyerere’s Forced Villagization in Tanzania, Spiraling Debt from Foreign Loans for Industrial Projects, and Neocolonialism as Nothing Particularly Neo — a Reversion to Nineteenth-Century Economic Relations): By the 1970s the continent was in economic crisis. Rapid population growth from the 1950s onward placed enormous strains on resources, while states dependent on a small handful of exports were devastated by collapsing global prices — agricultural export prices fell through the 1970s and remained low through the 1980s, and the dramatic fall in copper prices ravaged Zaire and Zambia. When oil prices spiraled in the early and mid-1970s, African importers were devastated and transport systems began to deteriorate. African politicians also made disastrous policy choices — believing that economic development required emulating European industrialization, nation-building elites who regarded peasants as symbolic of backwardness failed to invest in agriculture. In Ghana, expensive prestige projects like the Volta Dam were pursued while cocoa farming was neglected, contributing to a collapse in cocoa production and Nkrumah’s overthrow. Nyerere in Tanzania pursued forced villagization as an African solution to African problems, but entire communities were moved at gunpoint, productivity collapsed, and disenchanted peasants drifted to cities. Industrial projects required foreign technology and loans, leading to spiraling debts that in turn led to increased dependency on cash-crop and mineral exports — the only means of acquiring hard currency — creating a vicious cycle of poverty. Neocolonialism described the West’s continuing economic control over politically independent Africa, but there was nothing particularly neo about it: it was a reversion to an earlier nineteenth-century economic relationship, the colonial economy in essentials without the political encumbrances.