That's the contention of Fallou Ngom, a linguist at Boston University. But before we get to Ngom's argument: some conventional wisdom: West Africa does not have particularly good numbers on adult literacy, even for sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, some of this might be because West Africa is poorer than other... Continue reading

How much did the French gain from their African possessions? Or how much did they lose on it? This is one of the enduring questions of the economic history of French empire. There are several channels by which economic resources might have flowed either way as a result of the... Continue reading