Research Group
Economic and Monetary Sovereignity in West Africa
Our research group investigates how West African societies have attempted to increase their political and economic sovereignty with a particular focus on the interaction between governments, finance and labor.


About the group
The research group led by Dr. habil. Kai Koddenbrock, investigates historically and in comparative fashion how West African societies have attempted to increase their political and economic sovereignty with a particular focus on the interaction between governments, finance and labor. The group will attempt to find out historically how most West African countries became exporters of only one or two commodities with the help of foreign capital and military force. In the second step we will focus on how postcolonial, newly independent governments have attempted to move away from this with the help of domestic resources, the creation of public and private banks, foreign debt and, most recently, stronger relations to China since independence. Increasing economic complexity, diversifying the economy and thus to reduce dependencies on the world market have been perennial pursuits but have often failed. The Covid crisis has put this into stark relief, again. How can we explain recurrent debt crises and the difficulties in moving away from raw commodity export dependency? Which role do global and domestic social relations play and what does that mean for the state in West Africa? To find answers to these questions we investigate the role of colonial legacies and the various attempts by governments to increase national self-determination through public policies to arrive at a nuanced picture of what can be done in the current global political economy.
News
Under the theme: “Facing the Socio-Ecological Crisis: Delinking and the Question of Global Reparations”, the Monetary and Economic Sovereignty conference which was held between the 25-28 October 2022 attracted leading scholars across the globe to Dakar. Caroline Cornier participated and has not written synthesis of all that was discussed and agreed.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT
Ghana, like most other countries, is currently dealing with a new debt crisis that has been blamed on covid-induced spending and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war. Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo Spoke with Lev Moscow of the A Correction podcast, arguing that far from Covid and Russia-Ukraine, the unfolding debt storm is rooted in historical, systemic and structural problems.
Capital Claims: Power and Global Finance analyzes how global financialized capitalism operates and reproduces itself, exploring the remarkable ability of the financial sector to maintain its dominance through even the most severe economic crises.
The book defines international financialization as a process by which the number and value, the tradability, and the enforceability of cross-border financial claims increases and is successfully defended against competing social or political agendas. By focusing on financial claims, the volume develops a conceptual toolkit for the study of the political economy of global finance and the inequalities it sustains. The book brings together leading researchers whose work is geared towards opening the black box of cross-border finance. The authors suggest shifting the analytical focus from capital flows to capital claims – credit-debt relations between identifiable actors, embedded in social and political institutions, and infused with power and hierarchy. They show how financial actors wield leverage power, infrastructural power, and enforcement power, both vis-à-vis other private actors and vis-à-vis the state.
Braun, B., and K. Koddenbrock (Eds.), 2022, Capital Claims: Power and Global Finance (1st ed.), Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003218487
Despite a varied picture in terms of their relative economic strength, Developing and Emerging Economies (DEEs) remain in a subordinate position in the global monetary and financial system. While the IPE and economics literatures provide rich insights about the significance of this phenomenon, research efforts remain fragmented. To address this problem, we offer an umbrella concept—international financial subordination (IFS)—to channel research efforts towards cumulative theory-building. IFS is about unearthing why the structural power of finance takes a particularly violent form of expression in DEEs. To provide structure to IFS as a scholarly field, we first assess the contributions of IPE in analyzing various factors that reproduce IFS. To better ground these efforts in processes of accumulation and the histories of the relation between finance and (post)colonial development, we then offer a critical synthesis of three heterodox traditions—dependency theory, post-Keynesian economics, and Marxism. Next, we develop a pluridisciplinary research agenda organized around six analytical axes: the historical analysis of financial relations, the relations between financial and productive subordinations, the constitutive role of monetary relations as expressions of power, the role of the state, the actions and practices of non-state actors, and the spatial relations of financial subordination.
The discipline of international relations has undergone a focus on medium-range theories and analyses. This consensus followed decades of self-assurance in the postwar period and the highly politicized 1970s. In view of the obviously conflictive struggle for global power and global relations of dependence, macro-theoretical perspectives that attempt to grasp the interplay of inner-societal and world-societal processes in political-economic terms are gaining in relevance. Using two examples of German foreign and foreign economic policy and the history of relations between Europe and Senegal, the article illustrates how such a political-economic analysis can be made fruitful for study of IR.
Koddenbrock, Kai, 2022, Die Relevanz der deutschen Internationalen Beziehungen und die Notwendigkeit polit-ökonomischer Konfliktanalyse, In: Bergem, W. and H. Schöne (eds.) Wie relevant ist die Politikwissenschaft?, Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
This briefing explains Ghana’s recent banking sector failures and renewed debt crisis as consequences of its uneven and deleterious integration into the global capitalist financial system, a situation that critical scholars in international political economy call international financial subordination.
Over forty years after the formal end of colonialism, suffocating ties to Western financial systems continue to prevent African countries from achieving any meaningful monetary sovereignty. Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa traces the recent history of African monetary and financial dependencies, looking at the ways African nations are resisting colonial legacies. Using a comparative, multi-disciplinary approach, the book uncovers what went wrong after the Pan-African approaches that defined the early stages of independence, and how most African economies fell into the firm grip of the IMF, World Bank, and the EU’s strict neoliberal policies.
The collection is the first to offer a wide-ranging, comparative and historical look at how African societies have attempted to increase their policy influence and move beyond neoliberal orthodoxy and US-dollar dependency. Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa is essential reading for anyone interested in the African quest for self-determination in a turbulent world of recurring economic and financial crisis.
Ben Ghada, M., Kaboub, F., Koddenbrock, K., I. Mahmoud and N. S. Sylla, 2021, “African monetary and economic sovereignty in the 21st century”, Pluto Books, London.
Our team

Kai Koddenbrock
Research Group Leader
Kai Koddenbrock
Research Group Leader
Kai Koddenbrock is a political economist (Dr. phil. University of Bremen, Habilitation Goethe-University Frankfurt). He works on colonial and contemporary finance in the field of postcolonial International Political Economy. He has published a monograph on The practice of humanitarian intervention in Democratic Republic of Congo and recently co-edited volumes on Monetary and Economic Sovereignty in 21st century Africa (with Maha Ben Gahda, Fadhel Kaboub, Ines Mahmoud and Ndongo Samba Sylla) as well as Capital Claims: The power of finance in the 21st century (forthcoming with Benjamin Braun)


Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo
Research Associate
Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo
Research Associate
Isaac Abotebuno Akolgo’s current research focuses on the political economy of money and finance in Ghana. Drawing from a variety of heterodox economics perspectives including Dependency Theory and Stratification Economics, his interest lies in explaining longstanding and recent manifestations of finance-based capitalism in Ghana and other parts of Africa. Of particular interest is the analysis of: (1) the ownership and operations of banks and fintechs; (2) sovereign debt accumulation and debt crises; and (3) the distributive effects of monetary policy in Ghana. By sifting through the complexity of money and finance, Akolgo’s research aims to contribute to the policy discourse on the sustainable to path to Ghanaian, and by extension, African economic and financial sovereignty.


Caroline Cornier
PhD Student
Caroline Cornier
PhD Student
Caroline Cornier is a French-German researcher and a member of the junior research group ‘Monetary Sovereignty in West Africa’ led by Kai Koddenbrock. Her research in this group concerns finance and monetary policy in the Franc CFA Monetary Zone and specifically in Ivory Coast. Caroline received her MSc. from Sciences Po Paris and wrote her thesis on the economic and political impact of collective land rights for Afrocolombian communities in the Colombian Pacific region. In her free time, Caroline likes to play saxophone, take photos and travel.


Carla Coburger
Research Associate
Carla Coburger
PhD Student
Carla Coburger is trained in economics and a research associate at the junior research group on ‘Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in West Africa’. She studied International economics in Tübingen, Germany (BSc) and Economics (MSc) at SOAS, London and worked at Rebuilding Macroeconomics at NIESR, London. Her research is mainly concerned with monetary and financial systems and their impact on domestic economic development, industrialization and capability accumulation. She is passionate about philosophy of economics, particularly the performativity of data collection, and complexity economics.


Hanna Estephan Eid
PhD Student
Hanna Estephan Eid
PhD Student
Hanna Estephan Eid is a Palestinian-American researcher and a member of the junior research group ‘Monetary Sovereignty in West Africa’ led by Kai Koddenbrock. His research in this group concerns finance and monetary policy in Ghana and Nigeria. Hanna received his MSc. from Glasgow University and wrote his thesis on how imperialism shaped the PPE market during the beginning months of the Covid-19 pandemic. In his free time, Hanna plays judo, goes hiking and takes film photography.


Fawziyya Suglo Kartu Issah
Student Assistant
Fawziyya Suglo Kartu Issah
Student Assistant
Fawziyya Issah is a Ghanaian studying a master’s in development studies with a specialization in Sociology and Politics at the University of Bayreuth. She acquired her bachelor’s degree in Development studies with a focus on Development Communication from the University for Development Studies in Ghana. She is a student assistant for the Junior Research team led by Dr. Kai Koddenbrock. She has experience working with policy foundations in Africa, media houses and non-governmental organizations focused on deprived people in Africa. Her free time is spent with friends and family on picnics, hikes and simple noisy hangouts.


Carolin Voß
Student Assistant
Carolin Voß
Student Assistant
Carolin Voß is a bachelor student in Geographies of International Development, Focus on Africa (GEFA) at the University of Bayreuth. In the study programme, concepts of ‘development’ and ‘modernity’ are problematized, and colonial continuities examined. In October 2019, Carolin took up the additional study program of Intersectionality Studies and Diversity Competences in order to deepen the understanding of historical discriminatory structures and their relations to capitalism. The work as student assistant provides valuable experience regarding Carolins interest in a master’s program of economic geography.


Felix Birkner
Student Assistant
Felix Birkner
Student Assistant
Felix Birkner supports the research project as a student assistant. His tasks range from the collection of quantitative and qualitative data to the analysis of data and the maintenance of the website. He is studying social sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin and is working on questions concerning the political economy of finance, the study of inequality and political theory.

International Advisors

Max Ajl
Wageningen University, NL
Max Ajl
Wageningen University, NL
Max Ajl is a postdoctoral fellow at the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University and an associated researcher at the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and the Environment. He is an associate editor at Agrarian South. His book, A People’s Green New Deal, was published in 2021 with Pluto Press.


Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
King's College, London
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
King’s College, London
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven is a Lecturer in the Department of International Development, King’s College, London. Her research is broadly centered on the role of finance in development, structural explanations for global inequalities, the political economy of development, and critically assessing the economics field. She is also Founder and Editor of the blog Developing Economics, Founder and Steering Group member of Diversifying and Decolonising Economics (D-Econ), and Coordinator of the Association for Heterodox Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from The New School.


Ndongo Samba Sylla
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Dakar
Dr. Ndongo Samba Sylla
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Dakar
Ndongo Samba Sylla is a Senegalese development economist. He has previously worked as a technical advisor at the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal and is currently a research and programme manager at the West Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Dakar). His publications cover topics such as Fair trade, labour markets in developing countries, social movements, democratic theory, economic and monetary sovereignty. He authored The Fair Trade Scandal. Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich (Pluto Press & Ohio University Press, 2014). He coauthored Africa’s Last Colonial Currency. The CFA Franc Story, (Pluto Press, 2021). He coedited Economic and Monetary Sovereignty for 21st century Africa (Pluto Press, 2021). Dr. Sylla is co-founder of CORA (Collective for the Renewal of Africa). His works have been regularly cited in the international press.

Selected Publications
- Akolgo, I. A., 2022, “Collapsing banks and the cost of finance capitalism in Ghana”, Review of African Political Economy, DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2022.2044300
- Akolgo, I. A., 2020, “Putting orthodox economics to the sword: Franklin Obeng-Odoom’s contribution “Property, Institutions and Social Stratification in Africa.””, Journal of African Political Economy and Development, 5(1), 70-75.
- Akolgo, I. A., 2018, “Afro-euphoria: Is Ghana’s economy an exception to the growth paradox?”, Review of African Political Economy, 45(155), 146-15.
- Akolgo, I. A., 2018, “Agenda 2030 in Africa: What the Millennium Development Goals Narrative Teaches about poverty eradication”, African Review of Economics and Finance, 10(1), 3-22.
- Ben Ghada, M., Kaboub, F., Koddenbrock, K., I. Mahmoud and N. S. Sylla, 2021, “African monetary and economic sovereignty in the 21st century”, Pluto Books, London.
- Bieling, H.-J., C. Coburger and P. Klösel, 2021, “Kapitalismusanalysen. Klassische und Neue Konzeptionen der Politischen Ökonomie”, Wochenschau Verlag, UTB.
- Coburger, C. 2021, “The West African CFA Franc Zone as a Double Monetary Union: Loss of Economic Competitiveness and Anti-Developmental Path-Dependencies”, in: Gadha, M. B., F. Kaboub, K. Koddenbrock, I. Mahmoud and N. S. Sylla (Ed.) Economic and Monetary Sovereignty in 21st Century Africa, Pluto Press.
- Coburger, C., P. Klösel, 2017, “Wider das Einheitsdenken. Plädoyer für mehr Pluralismus in der Wirtschaftswissenschaft“ (English translation: Fighting Homogeneous Thinking: Plea for More Pluralism in Economics), Blätter für Deutsche und Internationale Politik 7/17, pp. 99-104.
- Cornier, C., 2021, “Territoriale Autonomie – Sackgasse oder essenzielles Mittel zum Widerstand?”, Forschungsstelle für Radikalisierung gewaltsame Konflike, Fachhochschule Erfurt, Blog Post.
- Cornier, C., 2021, “Forschen als Outsider*in: Feldforschung im globalen Süden”, Forschungsstelle für Radikalisierung gewaltsame Konflike, Fachhochschule Erfurt, Blog Post.
- Cornier, C., 2020, “Kein Frieden am Pazifik”, Jungle World, Newspaper Article.
- Cornier, C., 2019, “Letter from Tumaco: Notes from the forgotten pearl of the Pacific.”, The Bogota Post, Newspaper Article.
- Eid, H.E., 2020, “Imperialism, PPE and Pandemic: Structural Crisis of the Capialist World-System”, Master Thesis.
- Koddenbrock, Kai, 2022, Die Relevanz der deutschen Internationalen Beziehungen und die Notwendigkeit polit-ökonomischer Konfliktanalyse, In: Bergem, W. and H. Schöne (eds.) Wie relevant ist die Politikwissenschaft?, Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
- Koddenbrock, K., 2020, “Hierarchical multiplicity in the international monetary system: from the slave trade to the Franc CFA in West Africa”, Globalizations, 17(3), 516-531.
- Koddenbrock, K., 2019, “Geld, Weltmarkt und monetäre Dependenz: Was uns die Franc CFA Zone über kapitalistisches Geld sagt“, PROKLA, 49 (194), 137-156.
- Koddenbrock, K., 2019, “Money and moneyness: thoughts on the nature and distributional power of the ‘backbone’ of capitalist political economy”, Journal of Cultural Economy, 12(2), 101-118.
- Koddenbrock, K., I. H. Kvangraven and N.S. Sylla, 2022, “Beyond financialization: The need for a longue durée understanding of finance in imperialism”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Online first.
- Koddenbrock, K. and N. S. Sylla, 2019, “Towards a political economy of monetary dependency: The case of the Franc CFA zone in West Africa MaxPo Discussion paper”.
- Kvangraven, I. H., K. Koddenbrock and N. S. Sylla, 2021, “Financial subordination and uneven financialisation in 21st century Africa“, Community Development, 56(1): 119-140.
- Petry J., K. Koddenbrock and A. Nölke, 2021, State capitalism and capital markets: Comparing securities exchanges in emerging markets. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Online first.
- Wang W., A. Gurgone, H. Martínez, M. C. Barbieri Góes, E. Gallo, Á. Kerényi, E. M. Turco, C. Coburger, P. D. S. Andrade, 2022. “COVID19, Mortality and Economic Losses: The Role of Policies and Structural Conditions”, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 15(8): 354.


Contact Us
Dr. habil. Kai Koddenbrock
Universität Bayreuth
Hugo-Rüdel-Straße 10
Room 310
D – 95545 Bayreuth
Phone: +49 921-550-5441