ABSTRACT
The scholarship of West African economic historians has been informed by received wisdom from the West ranging from classical and neoclassical economics through dependency theory to Marxism. This chapter offers to rescue some of the contributions by West Africans themselves from the obscurity of footnotes. It demonstrates the bulk of the literature on West African economic history follows the Western European tradition of historical scholarship, exemplified by A. G. Hopkins, the acknowledged leading authority on the subject. The chapter highlights the institutional framework for teaching and scholarship in West African economic history. It discusses the contributions of indigenous scholars in both foreign and local outlets. Nigeria, which has more than half the overall population and tertiary institutions in West Africa, accounts for a preponderance of the literature considered. Contributions by some indigenous scholars represent milestones in the development of West African economic history.
