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Port Systems and Regional Hierarchies in Africa in the Long Term

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African Seaports and Maritime Economics in Historical Perspective

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Maritime Economics ((PSME))

Abstract

This chapter looks at an initial approach to the long-term evolution of African port hierarchies. This analysis of port hierarchies is based on throughput volumes (import and export trade) taking into account the mix of cargo, in order to observe the relative position of each port. Secondly, this paper also explores the degree of centrality of seaports through the number of vessel calls thanks to data collected from the Lloyd index. We assume that both indicators are correlated and they gave rise to the self-reinforcement effects which provided stability and robustness for port hierarchies in the long term.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, grant: Empirical Studies on Structure and Evolution of Maritime Networks [18KK0051].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

    Daniel Castillo Hidalgo

  2. Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France

    César Ducruet

Authors
  1. Daniel Castillo Hidalgo
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  2. César Ducruet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Castillo Hidalgo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

    Ayodeji Olukoju

  2. Department of History-IATEXT, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

    Daniel Castillo Hidalgo

Annex 1

Annex 1

3.1.1 Sources for Tables 3.1 and 3.4

Figures for these tables have been collected from several primary and secondary sources. Sources for the colonial age up to 1960 have been collected from Statistical Yearbooks (i.e. blue books of the colonies, annuaires statistiques des colonies) compiled by the colonial governments or the port authorities. Figures for former French Colonies are also taken from the “Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer” (Aix-en-Provence). In addition, academic literature also provides insightful raw data for early periods. This was the case for Maghreb seaports. For South African seaports, the full collection of data from the Railway and Harbour Corporation is an ongoing project to complete the data set. Nevertheless, secondary sources for this region introduced qualitative and quantitative data for specific cases such as Durban. For the period between 1971 and 1995, we used data from the “Revue de la Marine Marchande” where throughput and disaggregated cargo is included. In addition, we completed data for most of countries for the aforementioned period from the French Diplomatic Archives (Nantes). For the period from 1990 onwards, data is mainly collected from the national Statistical Offices (Yearbooks) and statistical reports from the Port Authorities and port regulators (i.e. Transnet). For some countries (i.e. Kenya), statistical reports are available online from 1938 onwards. We have also collected data for some years and ports for recent periods from other sources such as Review of Maritime Transport, reports from the “Union Monétaire d’Afrique de l’Ouest” or the statistics collected by the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa. Specific sources for each figure included in these tables can be found on the AFRIPORTS database. Specific sources for these figures will be available on demand until the online publication of the database. Please ask author: daniel.castillohidalgo@ulpgc.es.

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Castillo Hidalgo, D., Ducruet, C. (2020). Port Systems and Regional Hierarchies in Africa in the Long Term. In: Olukoju, A., Castillo Hidalgo, D. (eds) African Seaports and Maritime Economics in Historical Perspective. Palgrave Studies in Maritime Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41399-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41399-6_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41398-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41399-6

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