ABSTRACT
From this volume readers should be able to obtain a clear sense of the growth (or otherwise) of African economies over the past half century as measured in quantitative indices (see Lawrence above). African societies have changed rapidly over this time period but these indices have captured relatively little of this; instead, it is the central argument of this essay that they have largely demonstrated the ups and downs on global markets of the resource commodities mined and export crops grown in Africa. As a result, they tell us relatively little about development understood in a more holistic and structural sense.
