My research seeks to further our understanding of the economic integration of the African countryside in global markets in the 19th and 20th century, with a focus on the colonial era and its aftermath. My work focuses on central-eastern Africa, Uganda in particular, a landlocked region that saw substantial reorientation towards global markets in the first half of the 20th century. I also have a keen interest in Africa's role in global cotton production, as well as broader themes of historical migration and inequality.
I use comparisons and case studies to elucidate broader questions such as:
Why did some African smallholders shift to production of crops for wold markets while others did not?
What were the welfare consequences of production for world markets at the household, country and regional level?
To what extent do we see similarities between commercial agricultural production systems within Africa as well as between world regions, particularly for cotton?
What role did migration play in the reorientation of production systems towards world markets?
To what extent did production of cash crops for world markets undermine economic resilience and food security or generate welfare and economic growth?
How did production for world markets affect urban/rural, male/female, regional and class stratification?
How vulnerable were African producers to world market shocks, such as the Great Depression, and how did they respond to such shocks?
To further our knowledge on these issues, I exploit a wide range of quantitative and qualitative materials from colonial archives as well as oral history to study the informal sector, rural households' production choices in particular. I seek to speak to an audience of economic, social, agrarian, global and African historians, as well as economists and development scholars with an interest in understanding the historical roots of present day development outcomes and trajectories.
In April 2022, I was awarded an NWO Veni grant, to study the impact of and responses to the Great Depression East and Central Africa. I will be working on this project for the coming four years. For more information on this research project, select the "projects" section in the navigation pane.
In November 2024, I was awarded an NWO XS grant to study the rise and decline of Uganda's cotton sector, with a focus on cotton ginneries.