Abstract
This chapter delves into theories explaining Africa’s postcolonial economic development, with a focus on institutions, human capital, and the often-overlooked role of Christian missionaries. It explores how initial colonial setups, particularly missionary activities in education and healthcare, have lasting impacts on contemporary development. Through a concise examination of existing research, the chapter sets the stage for understanding the nuanced dynamics shaping Africa’s post-independence economic trajectory.
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Growth economists who have sought to understand why economic development has lagged in Africa in comparison to other regions of the world have theorized that Africa’s poverty trap has been a result of the form of European colonialism that characterized a region (Acemoglu et al., 2001, 2002). The underlying assumption behind this theory is that, in regions where European settlers settled in numbers (settler colonies), they introduced development-oriented institutions that typified their places of origin, such as strong private property rights. In contrast, in regions where Europeans did not settle in large numbers (non-settler colonies), they implemented “extractive” institutions that sequestered local populations from participating in political or economic affairs (Robinson & Acemoglu, 2012). The theory that a region’s colonial legacy determines its postcolonial development trajectory is predicated on the premise that institutions are important for development.
The notion that institutions are imperative for economic development has been championed by North (1991). North (1991) defines institutions as “humanely devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interactions.” He further asserts that given a set of constraints (institutions) in the real world, individuals select combination choices that award the most economic benefits. This process is intended to lead people to an ideal economic position. In their earlier assertions, North and Thomas (1973) vehemently argued that the set of institutions adopted by society are key in determining economic development both cross-sectionally and across time. Furthermore, they proposed that the inability of Third World countries to adopt institutions that protect property rights has been a key source of economic underdevelopment.
The extant literature contends that contemporary institutional variations are key in explaining the diverging economic trajectories in developing regions (Acemoglu et al., 2001, 2002; La Porta et al., 1997, 1998). Therefore, this literature has focused its attention on understanding the origins of the institutional variations. This literature proposes that the postcolonial institutional variations in developing countries can be traced back to their colonizers. Consequently, it is these institutional variations that have produced divergent growth paths. Acemoglu et al. (2001) look at the impact of colonial institutions on economic development. La Porta et al. (1997, 1998) seek to understand the impact of legal origins on long-run development. Other studies have explored the impact of legal origins on military conscription (Mulligan & Shleifer, 2005), the regulation of labour markets (Botero et al., 2004), the enforcement of contracts (Djankov et al., 2003) and (Acemoglu & Johnson, 2005), the comparative advantage of a country (Nunn, 2007), a country’s economic growth trajectory (Mahoney, 2001) and female HIV infection rate (Anderson, 2018). Bernhard et al. (2004) analyze the long-term effects of colonialism on the democratic survival of postcolonial democracies; survival and length of colonial rule only hold for the former British colonies.
Most of the literature that has contributed to the colonial legacies debate had initially focused its attention on studying diverging postcolonial economic development based on the broad identity of the colonial power (Acemoglu et al., 2001; Bernhard et al., 2004; Botero et al., 2004; La Porta et al., 2008; Nunn, 2007). Within the broader colonial structures, it is only recently that other political, religious, and economic actors have begun receiving attention regarding their role in shaping postcolonial developmental outcomes (Lankina & Getachew, 2021). Within the generic colonial power identities, the actors that have lately received more attention are the Christian missionaries. In most colonial territories, missionaries were important actors in that they provided the lion’s share of two key elements of human capital development education (Baten et al., 2021; Bolt & Bezemer, 2009; Fourie & Swanepoel, 2015; Frankema, 2012; Gallego & Woodberry, 2010; Montgomery, 2017; Nunn, 2010; Nunn et al., 2014) and health (Doyle et al., 2019; Gallego & Woodberry, 2010; Hardiman, 2006; Walima T Kalusa, 2014). For this reason, in the next section, I consider how historical human capital investments by missionaries may affect long-run development.
Human Capital Investment and Long-Run Development
The concept of human capital was coined by Schultz (1961); he asserted that knowledge and skill are a type of capital, and deliberate investment in human capital may spur economic output and individual earnings. More broadly, Ehrlich and Murphy (2007) define human capital as “an intangible asset, best thought of as a stock of embodied and disembodied knowledge, comprising education, information, health, entrepreneurship, and productive and innovative skills, which is formed through investments in schooling, job training, and health, as well as through research and development projects and informal knowledge transfers.” Schultz (1961) postulated that the puzzles that characterize dynamic and growing economies could be solved once human investment is accounted for. He observed that farmworkers who took on non-farm jobs earned significantly less than industrial workers of similar age, sex, and race. These differences in earnings can be explained by differences in education and health (Schultz, 1961). This book focuses on understanding the colonial investments in public education and health and how these affect long-run human development.
The recent literature has used colonial institutional variations to explain differences in post-colonial development trajectories (Acemoglu et al., 2001, 2002; La Porta et al., 1997, 1998). Offering an alternative view, Lipset (1960) suggests that causation runs from human capital development and growth in income to institutional development. Bolt and Bezemer (2009) postulate that institutional differences may not entirely explain the differential paths in post-colonial development in Africa, but rather by the fact that colonial settlers brought with them their human capital and the necessary resources required to increase the education aspect of human capital via the provision of formal education. The colonial settlers also initiated Western-styled healthcare in Africa (Jennings, 2019; Vaughan, 1994); they essentially brought the necessary human capital and resources to establish and expand Western-healthcare.
Since the white settlers brought and developed human capital through the provision of formal education, the initial endowment of human capital in the various colonies is expected to have a long-term impact on development. Exploiting this notion, Krueger and Lindahl (2001) find a positive correlation between the initial level of education and economic growth. Lipset (1960) also shows that individuals with a higher level of education are more cognizant of their government actions, better able to participate in the affairs of society, and likely to settle differences through the ballot and negotiations rather than through violent clashes. In effect, human capital growth leads to efficient policies and political stability. Reinforcing this view, Glaeser et al. (2004) provide empirical evidence showing that human capital development positively impacts political institutions and leads to economic growth. Castelló-Climent (2008) shows that mass education impacts democracy through the implementation and sustainability of democracies.
Bush and Saltarelli (2000) posited that education might be used as a tool for cultural repression and ethnic division. For example, during the colonial period, more especially in Belgian Africa, minority groups that received an education ruled over the majority, as in the case of Burundi and Rwanda, where the Tutsi minority were favored over the Hutu majority, hence received access to better schooling. Ethnic favoritism by the colonial government ultimately culminated in the 1990s genocide. Badru (2010) cites another example where colonial ethnic favoritism led to violent clashes. In Liberia, the colonial government favored Americo-Liberians who received first-class citizen benefits, such as quality education, hence, more economic opportunities than the Africans. The segregation of the Africans ultimately led to chaos where “the rule of the gun undermined the rule of law.” The examples cited above show that elite education compared to broad-based education may have long-run negative effects. The empirical evidence presented by Dias and Tebaldi (2012) also shows that human capital investments affect long-run economic growth. Still, it takes some time for the accumulation of human capital to translate into growth.
Health is also an important aspect of human capital formation and can contribute to economic growth in several ways. Good health among the labour-force increases productivity and lowers work absenteeism, which raises production (Petchko, 2018). Kalemli-Ozcan et al. (2000) indicate that improvements in health increase the incentives to obtain more education because investment in education can be repaid over a longer working life span. Well (2007) avers that a healthier school-going population is correlated with lower absenteeism and higher cognitive functioning, which raises schooling performance. The idea is that access to good health bolsters the process of knowledge acquisition, increases schooling, and improves the quality of human capital over time, thus fostering economic growth (Petchko, 2018). The study by Huillery (2009) shows that, for French West Africa, 30 percent of contemporary economic performance can be explained by colonial investments in public goods such as education, health, and infrastructure. In effect, she demonstrates that colonial health investments significantly determine current health performance, colonial investments in education affect current educational performance, and current infrastructure development is determined by colonial infrastructure development. The study also finds that regions with more colonial investments continued to have a higher concentration because of the persistent nature of physical facilities and positive spillovers on local demand for these investments. Ricart-Huguet (2022) compares how colonial public education and health investments affected long-run development in British and French Africa. In this study, he finds that non-extractive colonial investments such as education and health explain current economic development, access to healthcare, and educational attainment in French and British Africa, especially in French Africa.
Christian missionaries were important colonial actors that contributed to the human capital accumulation in Northern Rhodesia via the provision of broad-based education and healthcare (Calvi & Mantovanelli, 2018; Chiseni & Bolt, 2022; Jennings, 2019; Vaughan, 1994). Considering the missionary legacy of human capital development in Africa, the extant literature has endeavored to understand the impact of missionary exposure on long-run development. Lankina and Getachew (2021) and Woodberry (2004) find a positive correlation between the historical presence of missionaries and democracy. Nunn (2009) finds evidence showing that, through increased education, Protestant missionaries proliferate the incidence of attitudes that favour democracy and civic participation. Fourie and Swanepoel (2015) show that Africans who lived in districts with missionaries in 1849 exhibited higher levels of education 150 years later. Alesina et al. (2021) find that main mission stations in Africa are significantly related to current intergenerational mobility and educational attainment. In Benin, Wantchekon et al. (2015) document positive human capital externalities from religious schools. The study finds a positive treatment effect of education on living standards for first-generation students and their descendants; additionally, it finds that they are more likely to have a political voice and less likely to be farmers. Meier zu Selhausen (2014) links missionary exposure in Uganda to female empowerment. Meier Zu Selhausen (2019) examines the origins and long-term development of African mass education in colonial Sub-Saharan Africa. The study accentuates the importance of African agency, local demand, and the supply of missionary-trained African teachers in the development of mass education. For other regions, Valencia Caicedo (2019) shows a positive effect of missionaries on educational attainment in South America; Mantovanelli (2014) and Castelló-Climent et al. (2015) show that missionaries had a positive impact on literacy and tertiary education in India.
A critical assessment of the literature on the long-run impacts of human capital investment reveals the following mechanisms through which Christian missionary investment in education and health may affect development today. The missionaries used their educational and health platforms to teach the fundamental Christian ethos to those that received their services. Hardiman (2006) pointed out that while patients were waiting to receive treatment at the missionary hospitals, the missionaries used this opportunity to preach the gospel. Additionally, Kelly (1999) also indicated that the purpose of missionary education was to equip Africans to participate in the colonial economy and enable the converts to read the bible, more so for the Protestant than Catholic missionaries.
In essence, missionaries were agents of human capital formation and agents of cultural transformation. Bisin and Verdier (2000) have argued that preferences, values, and social norms are formed and transmitted across generations over time via various cultural interactive processes. The following studies also establish from an empirical standpoint the enduring impacts of culture on various contemporary outcomes, economic development in Europe (Guiso et al., 2003; Tabellini, 2010), and violence in the USA and Germany (Grosjean, 2014; Voigtländer & Voth, 2012). It is possible then that exposure to Christian missionaries over a long period may shape societal norms and values which persist over time (Mantovanelli, 2013). The link between religion and long-term economic growth was formalized by Weber (1905), who pointed out that Protestant ethics such as hard work, wealth creation, and literacy fostered economic prosperity, inculcated a capitalist spirit and led societies on a path of industrialization. Nunn (2014) also postulates that culture may shape institutions that promote long-term economic growth.
Moreover, through the provision of broad education, missionaries increased the accessibility to formal education for the local population, raising the level of the educated population. Bolt and Bezemer (2009) pointed out that an increase in the level of the educated colonial African population altered current levels of education and fostered long-term economic growth. Bisin and Verdier (2000) indicated that values and social norms are transmissible across generations; therefore, the missionaries could have instilled the value for formal education in the indigenous people, which ultimately transmitted to generations that followed; henceforth increasing the current levels of education. Moreover, Huillery (2009) also indicated that colonial education infrastructure positively determines current schooling infrastructure; in essence, current educational levels could have been affected by the persistence in schooling infrastructure largely established by missionaries.
Additionally, missionaries emphasized that those who converted to Christianity must embrace the Christian values and ways of living; for example, the missionaries taught abstinence from sex until marriage monogamy, and they taught against contraceptives. Through the generational transmission of values and social norms (Bisin & Verdier, 2000), it is therefore expected that those exposed to missionary praxis pass on these doctrines to subsequent generations.
Lowes and Montero (2021) find that African colonial medical experiences in Central Africa shape contemporary attitudes towards medicine. More precisely, the study indicates that greater exposure to forced colonial medical campaigns reduces current trust in medicine; additionally, the study finds that World Bank projects in the health sector are less successful in areas with greater exposure to colonial medical campaigns. Huillery (2009) also indicates that colonial investments in healthcare infrastructure positively determined current healthcare infrastructure. More recently, Baumert (2022) found that in Cameroon, regions exposed to institutionalized medical facilities during the late interwar period exhibit a higher density of public hospitals and non-hospital medical facilities today. He asserts that this may be driven by the acceptance of Western healthcare, a strong political voice and human capital accumulation of the Africans. Because of the persistence of colonial missionary healthcare infrastructure, it is possible that individuals who live in regions that received more missionary healthcare may still have access to these facilities. As indicated by Kalemli-Ozcan et al. (2000) and Petchko (2018), access to healthcare increases the incentives to obtain more education and increase worker productivity hence fostering long-run economic growth. Well (2007) shows that access to healthcare lowers absenteeism and increases cognitive function; hence, access to good health may increase educational attainment.
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Chanda Chiseni, M. (2024). Theory and Previous Research. In: The Economic Impact of Christian Missionaries in Zambia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65304-9_4
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