Transforming Innovations in Africa

Africa abounds with examples of material and immaterial innovations that were envisaged, developed and designed elsewhere yet came to be innovatively and sometimes unexpectedly transformed in Africa. The authors in this volume explore how external innovations (products, technologies, services, institutions and processes) have been appropriated in African societies in order to be acceptable and relevant to local conditions, expectations and demands. Written from different disciplinary perspectives, the chapters demonstrate the depth and richness of innovation in Africa with, in some cases, surprising outcomes. The case studies presented are on subjects as diverse as the wine industry, trading stores, land reforms, washing powder, M-Pesa, cassava, weddings, international borders, guest houses, urban water supply, car technology, shallow wells, and railways and blacksmithing.

Jan-Bart Gewald, (PhD), is a historian at the African Studies Centre in Leiden. His research interests include the history of the social relationship between people and technology in Africa. He co-edited The Speed of Change: Motor Vehicles and People in Africa, 1890-2000 (Brill, 2009), with Sabine Luning and Klaas van Walraven.

André Leliveld, (PhD), is a development economist at the African Studies Centre in Leiden. His research interests include (informal) insurance, and economic transformation and innovation in African economies. He co-edited Inside Poverty and Development in Africa: Critical Reflections on Pro-Poor Policies with Marcel Rutten and Dick Foeken (Brill, 2008).

Iva Peša is a historian and is currently doing her PhD at Leiden University on the social history of Mwinilunga District in northwestern Zambia. Her interests include the changing patterns of (agricultural) production, consumption, labour migration and social relationships.