The economic history of Africa is a highly emerging field on the international level. After the publication of Acemoglu/Johnson/Robinson’s “reversal of fortune”-paper in 2002, the field received increasing attention by scholars from various backgrounds, from economics as well as history. Besides an enormous enrichment of our empirical knowledge on African history, the recent two decades of research also renewed methodological debates among historians and development economists. These debates are typical for the current state of the economic history discipline in general and therefore stand topical for the Bayreuth Economic History Initiative with its Master-Program “History and Economics”.

Connecting to the expertise of the DFG-Cluster of Excellence “Africa Multiple” and sponsored by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), we established a guest-professorship programme in African Economic History in 2021.

The 3rd workshop in the DAAD-Guest Professorship-Programme in African Economic History is dedicated to family business in West Africa. Family Business plays an important role for the African Economy. Using examples from West Africa, we want to discuss topics like the impact of culture in business, the relations between families and their businesses, the nature of families that are behind the businesses. How have West African family enterprises fared in the changing contexts of colonialism and independence? What insights can be drawn from comparative perspectives? What differences can we detect in comparison to “Western” family businesses?

The session begins with presentations by two prominent international scholars, Prof. Ayodeji Olukoju (Lagos/Nigeria) and Prof. Anthony G. Hopkins (Cambridge/United Kingdom). Presentations are followed by a panel discussion of international scholars. Interested scholars and students of African Economic History are welcome to join in digital or personal form.