Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T09:50:40.842Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Politics of Economic Development: The Case of the Mauritanian Fishing Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

David Gibbs
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Africa has considerable potential for developing its fishery resources. Some of the world's richest fishing grounds lie off the coasts of Mauritania, Angola, Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal. At present, these fisheries are exploited mostly (sometimes almost exclusively) by foreign fishing fleets from Japan, South Korea, the USSR, and several European countries. Official statistics indicate that foreign fishing off West Africa accounted for 1.2 million metric tons in 1976, or roughly 2 percent of the total worldwide marine catch. A Senegalese official claimed (quite plausibly) that those figures were too conservative and that foreign fishing amounted to “at least three times” the official foreign catch (United States Department of Commerce [hereafter USDOC], 1976). In response to this dependence on foreign fishing, several African countries are attempting to develop their own fishing fleets. Nigeria, in particular, has been rapidly expanding its fleet during the last decade (Marine Fisheries Review, 1982). The Organization of African Unity emphasized fisheries development in its 1980 Plan of Action (South, 1983a: 68). African nations are attempting to challenge the Foreign fishing companies' dominant position. As this paper will show, these efforts are likely to increase indigenous participation in the fishing industry.

The issue of economic nationalism in the Third World has been widely discussed. It is frequently noted that Third World countries are now adopting aggressive policies toward foreign investors. Many countries require foreign investors to establish joint ventures in certain industries, to employ indigenous personnel, to share technology, and to construct local manufacturing and processing facilities.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , December 1984 , pp. 79 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

African Business. 1982. “Mauritania, Senegal Push Fishing Rights,” 49 (September): 49–55.Google Scholar
Amin, S. 1973a. Neo-Colonialism in West Africa. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Amin, S. 1973b. “Mauritania: The Economy,” pp. 552–54 in Africa South of the Sahara, 1973. London: Europa Publications.Google Scholar
Barney, G. O. (ed.). 1981. The Global 2000 Report to the President. Vol. II. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Bennoune, M. 1978. “The Political Economy of Mauritania: Imperialism and Class Struggle,” Review of African Political Economy 12: 31–52.Google Scholar
Cardoso, F. C., and Faletto, E.. 1979. Dependency and Development in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaab (Nouakchott). 1982. February 14.Google Scholar
Cardoso, F. C., and Faletto, E.. 1980. September 9.Google Scholar
Clower, R., Dalton, G., Harwitz, M., Walters, A. A.. 1966. Growth Without Development: An Economic Survey of Liberia. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
The Economist. 1982. 283/7242. June 19.Google Scholar
Fanon, F. 1963. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.Google Scholar
Folsom, W., and Weidner, D.. 1977. Mauritania's International Fishery Relations. Foreign Fisheries Leaflet No. 76-4. Washington, D.C.: Office of International Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce.Google Scholar
Folsom, W., and Weidner, D.. 1976. Fisheries of Mauritania, 1974. Foreign Fisheries Leaflet No. 73-3. Washington, D.C.: Office of International Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization. 1981. Yearbook of Fishery Statistics, 1980. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization. 1980. Food Balance Sheets and Per Capita Food Supplies. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A. O. 1978. The Strategy of Economic Development. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. (Originally published in 1958.)Google Scholar
Hoogvelt, A. 1979. “Indigenization and Foreign Capital: Industrialization in Nigeria,” Review of African Political Economy 14: 56–68.Google Scholar
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 1971. The Current Economic Situation and Prospects for Mauritania: Fisheries. Report AW-27a, Vol. III. Washington, D.C.: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.Google Scholar
Joseph, R. 1978. “Affluence and Underdevelopment: The Nigerian Experience,” Journal of Modern African Studies 16/2: 221–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplinsky, R. 1980. “Capitalist Accumulation in the Periphery: The Kenyan Case Re-Examined,” Review of African Political Economy 17: 83–105.Google Scholar
LaPalombara, J., and Blank, S.. 1979. Multinational Corporations and Developing Countries. Research Report No. 767. New York: The Conference Board.Google Scholar
Latest Developments in International Fisheries. 1982. IFR-82/97. Washington, D.C.: Foreign Fisheries Analysis Division, U.S. Department of Commerce. June (Part I).Google Scholar
Lee, S. H. 1984. “Distant-Water Fishing Nations' Responses to Extended Fisheries Jurisdiction: The Experience of South Korea,” Marine Policy Reports 6/5: 1–4.Google Scholar
Legum, C. (ed.). 1984. Africa Contemporary Record, 1982-83. New York: Africana Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Legum, C. (ed.). 1981a. Africa Contemporary Record, 1979-80. New York: Africana Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Legum, C. (ed.). 1981b. Africa Contemporary Record, 1980-81. New York: Africana Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Legum, C. (ed.). 1980. Africa Contemporary Record, 1978-79. New York: Africana Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Leys, C. 1978. “Capital Accumulation, Class Formation, and Dependency: The Significance of the Kenyan Case,” pp. 241–66 in Miliband, R. and Saville, J. (eds.) The Socialist Register, 1978. London: The Merlin Press.Google Scholar
Marine Fisheries Review. 1982. “Nigeria Plans Large Fishing Fleet Expansion,” 44/5 (May): 28–29.Google Scholar
Moran, T. H. 1980. “Corporate Bargaining Strength, and Strategies to Offset Political Vulnerability,” pp. 76–79 in Moran, T. H. (ed.) International Political Risk Assessment: The State of the Art. Landegger Papers in International Business and Public Policy. Washington, D.C.: School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Moran, T. H. 1974. Multinational Corporations and the Politics of Dependence: Copper in Chile. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Olson, M. Jr. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Povolny, J. 1980. “Fishery Management and Development in the Eastern Central Atlantic Ocean: Mauritania and Senegal.” M.A. thesis, University of Delaware.Google Scholar
South. 1983a. “The Rape of the Seas: How the Fishing Invaders Strip Africa,” 30 (April): 68–69.Google Scholar
South. 1983b. “Tightening the Nets,” 30 (April): 69.Google Scholar
Turner, T. 1978. “Commercial Capitalism and the 1975 Coup,” pp. 166–200 in Panter-Brick, K. (ed.) Soldiers and Oil: The Political Transformation of Nigeria. London: Frank Cass and Co.Google Scholar
United States Department of Commerce. 1981. Japanese-Mauritanian Fishery Agreement. IFR-81/168. Washington, D.C.: Foreign Fisheries Analysis Division, U.S. Department of Commerce.Google Scholar
United States Department of Commerce. 1976. Five West African Countries Meet in Dakar to Discuss Foreign Overfishing. IFR-76/250. Washington, D.C.: Office of International Fishery Affairs, U.S. Department of Commerce.Google Scholar
United States Embassy, Nouakchott. 1981. “GRIM Perceptions of State of Mauritanian Fisheries.” Unclassified cable to the U.S. Department of State, July 31.Google Scholar
Wadelton, J. S. 1982. “Mauritanian Fisheries in 1981.” Report from the U.S. Embassy, Nouakchott, April 19 (unclassified sections only).Google Scholar
Warren, B. 1973. “Imperialism and Capitalist Industrialization,” New Left Review 81: 3–44.Google Scholar
Westebbe, R. W. 1971. The Economy of Mauritania. New York: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Wohlers, L. 1980. “Mauritania: The Politics of Fishing.” Report from the U.S. Embassy, Nouakchott, June 6 (unclassified sections only).Google Scholar
World Bank. 1981. Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.Google Scholar