Global capitalism, under the WTO rules and the economic power of the West, is attempting to revolutionise developing countries' economic structures and institutions. But Africa was ill-prepared to face the international free-trade imperialism' of the 1850s and is now less prepared to survive in the global economic order. In careful detail Tetteh Kofi and Asayehgn Desta examine the economic conditions in Africa during the pre-colonial and colonial periods and provide bold strategies crucial for African development.'