The Distortion of The African Cloth Economy And Other Industries
It has already been indicated that in 15th-century Europe technology wasn’t superior to that of other parts of the world. There were certain specific features that were highly advantageous to Europe–such as shipping and (to a lesser extent) guns. Europeans trading to Africa had to make use of Asian and African consumer goods, showing that their system of production was not absolutely superior, Rodney said.
He also said that by the time that Africa entered the colonial era, it was concentrating almost entirely on the export of raw cotton and the import of manufactured cotton cloth. This remarkable reversal is tied to technological advances in Europe and to stagnation of technology in Africa owing to the very trade with Europe.
In the late 1800s, after accumulating a tremendous amount of wealth from the slave trade, Europeans made technological advances and vital inventions to produce clothes faster and cheaper. Through the initiative, European countries were able to put the African cloth manufacturing industries out of business.
The European cloth industry copied fashionable Africans and eventually replaced them as sellers, establishing a stranglehold on the distribution of cloth around the shores of Africa. This practice repeated itself in other African industries.
