ABSTRACT
The African economy was rooted in subsistence agriculture and in general was labor intensive and technologically simple. Very seldom could it produce large surpluses. African notions of goods and services were understood and dealt with in a particularly original and different manner. In precolonial black African societies labor appears to have had less of an autonomous role, less of a force independent of the individual. Africa must benefit from both private and public investments at the same time. Desire for profit makes private initiative anxious about good management and productivity. Public investments go to enterprises of public interest which, because of their strategic nature with regard to development, as well as because of the great amounts of capital they inject into the development process, suggest that public authority should play a role of management and supervision. Development policy, enterprise creation, and technology transfer depend on the mobilization of capital.
