Financing Africa’s Future: A Socio-Economic History of Ghana, 1950-80s

FAIN: HB-282015-22

Bianca Murillo
California State University, Dominguez Hills Foundation (Carson, CA 90747-0001)

Research and writing leading to a history of debt and finance in post-independence Ghana, 1950-1980.  

Financing Africa’s Future will be the first book-length study to situate Africa’s postcolonial past within a broader history of international business, private investment, and financial crime. As the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence in 1957, Ghana became a hot economic opportunity zone attracting businessmen and investors from around the world. I argue that decolonization and the process of nation-building rested on intricate and intimate negotiations of credit, contracts, and massive loans. Such financial transactions not only funded vital development projects, but were also social affairs connecting networks of people and institutions in and beyond the continent. By fusing financial and business history with social and cultural analysis, Financing Africa’s Future brings human relationships to the center of a dynamic economic history that has all too often been reduced to national narratives of disappointment and decline.

Associated Products

The Savundra Affair: The History of an International Fraud (Article)
Title: The Savundra Affair: The History of an International Fraud
Author: Bianca Murillo
Abstract: The 1958 Savundra Affair exposes the complicated histories and social worlds in which global finance in Africa operated. There is a persistent myth that decolonial regimes across Africa were “corrupt” and this alleged corruption has been used as evidence for the failure of African independence and democracy. Erased from these narratives are the networks of globalized finance that were, and are, part of this corruption. The 1958 dispute forces us to consider the global conditions under which Ghana’s new leaders navigated the foreign private investment needed for development. It also shows the difficult financial decisions the government had to make in order to establish economic autonomy and build and maintain a new nation.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decolonisation/the-savundra-affair-the-history-of-an-international-fraud/
Access Model: open
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: History Workshop
Publisher: History Workshop

Postcolonial cons, scandals, and fraud (Article)
Title: Postcolonial cons, scandals, and fraud
Author: Bianca Murillo
Abstract: The past decade has seen a resurgence of histories on Africa’s postcolonial past and a rethinking of African economic history. For Ghana, this new work is comparative, transnational, and moves beyond national narratives of disappointment and decline. While scholars are “thinking critically and imaginatively about what we might term Africa’s postcolonial archive,” writing these histories remains challenging. Such was the case when I began researching the history of international investment, finance, and fraud in the years following Ghanaian independence, and tracking one of the most notorious, and controversial, foreign investors to arrive on the post-independence scene, Noe Drevici. Business fraud and illicit financial flows are not a new problem for Africa—the “Drevici Affair” in Nkrumah’s Ghana is instructive.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://africasacountry.com/2022/10/postcolonial-cons-scandals-and-fraud
Format: Magazine
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Africa is a Country
Publisher: Africa is a Country

“The Debtor Must Still Eat:” Credit, Contracts, and the Politics of Borrowing in Postcolonial Ghana (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “The Debtor Must Still Eat:” Credit, Contracts, and the Politics of Borrowing in Postcolonial Ghana
Author: Bianca Murillo
Abstract: From 1957 to 1965, Ghana’s public debt jumped from practically zero to an estimated £300 million ($840 million). While economic histories have focused on the business of decolonization and the financing of large development projects undertaken by Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah, less is known about how Ghana’s new leaders managed foreign creditors and the accumulation of an ever-increasing debt. By examining the interactions between government officials, private businessmen, and representatives from financial institutions like the I.M.F and the World Bank, I demonstrate how negotiating debt and proving creditworthiness dominated Ghana’s international relations throughout the 1960s and 70s. Because the terms and conditions of borrowing were never clear-cut, and creditworthiness is never simply about economic calculations, the social and cultural contexts in which judgements about Ghana’s creditworthiness were made and refuted are also crucial to my research. Through evoking colonial histories, demanding fair rates and deferment, and contesting predatory contracts, I argue that the Government of Ghana refused to be considered a “bad” borrower and challenged the moral assumptions on which such a label rested— lack of honesty, reliability, and integrity. Although Britain remained Ghana’s largest creditor, proving creditworthiness was an international affair that included several governments, from Israel and Japan to the United States and West Germany, and had implications beyond Ghana. As sources reveal, creditors worried that Ghana debt negotiations would set a precedent and shape future claims by other former colonies. By centering the role of Africans in shaping the policies and logics that guided international negotiations, my research also shows how histories of global debt and credit are embedded within social structures and relations.
Date: 01/05/2024
Conference Name: American Historical Association

International Fraud and the End of Empire: Ghana in the 1950-60s (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: International Fraud and the End of Empire: Ghana in the 1950-60s
Author: Bianca Murillo
Abstract: My research investigates the history of international fraud and scandal during Ghana’s post-independence years. As the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence in 1957, Ghana became a hot economic opportunity zone attracting businessmen and investors from around the world. Partly encouraged by first President Kwame Nkrumah’s efforts to attract foreign capital for his economic agenda, and partly fueled by circulating ideas about Ghana—a newly liberated African colony, ripe with economic possibility— hundreds of businessmen, consultants, investors, and entrepreneurs flocked to the capital city Accra to pitch ideas and strike million-dollar deals with the country’s new political elite. While foreign finance funded much-needed industrial and infrastructural development, some of these transactions became entangled in scandal, lies, and various forms of economic deceit.
Date: 07/06/2023
Primary URL: https://royalhistsoc.org/calendar/odious-investment-how-finance-creates-shapes-and-sustains-global-inequalities/
Conference Name: Odious Investment: How Finance Creates, Shapes, and Sustains Global Inequities Conference-University of Manchester

“The Business of Independence: International Investment, Finance & Fraud in Ghana, 1950-60s,” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “The Business of Independence: International Investment, Finance & Fraud in Ghana, 1950-60s,”
Author: Bianca Murillo
Abstract: This paper situates Ghana’s post-independence era within a broader history of international business, investment, and finance. Unlike settler colonies in East and North Africa, where the end of Empire led to a withdrawal of funds, decolonization in Ghana initiated an influx of capital in the form of credit, contracts, and massive loans. While such transactions were crucial to funding development projects throughout the country, I argue that they were also entangled in notorious cases of international scandal and fraud. For this paper, I focus specifically on one of the most controversial foreign investors to arrive on the post-independence scene—Noe Drevici. Originally representing a group of West German and Swiss companies, Drevici rose to become President Kwame Nkrumah’s “biggest confidence man” and the country’s second largest creditor after the U.K. By the 1970s, Drevici would disappear with millions of dollars in advance payments for factories and projects that were never completed. Drawing on research in corporate, government, and financial archives, as well as local and international media, this paper investigates the extent to which financial relationships forged after independence, and the fraud and scandal that accompanied them, destabilized Ghana’s economic autonomy. By examining the Drevici affair, or the people and processes behind such international negotiations, my research brings to life a dynamic post-independence economic history that is all too often reduced to national narratives of failure, disappointment, and decline.
Date: 11/16/2023
Conference Name: African Studies Association

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