ABSTRACT
Like most African states, the development of modern Nigeria resulted from a horrid legacy of a predatory and pernicious European experiment in capitalist expropriation. The structure of economic activities in many parts of Africa prior to 1900 have been well documented. Unlike the Western capitalist model, these activities were organized differently. The economies of most traditional African societies were driven largely by communal well-being rather than the quest for profit maximization. Industrial manufacturing was equally not unknown in pre-colonial Africa. Such manufacturing took place in such sectors as metal work, ceramics, clothing, and food processing. Before the borders of Africa were arbitrarily redrawn by rent-seeking European states and merchants, the continent had well-established political states, with functional external relationships, especially with respect to commerce. The colonization of African states, first by European merchants and followed later by their governments, was thus an economic decision which eventually gave birth illegitimately to the existing African countries, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia.
