The African Retail Market

In the context of this paper, the African Retail Market refers to the demand for consumer goods by Africans in both the rural and urban areas of Rhodesia. It is also accepted that DEMAND is a function of population growth, income and climatic conditions. These factors have a cumulative effect on the volume and quantity of goods demanded and they determine in varying degrees the value and potentiality of the African market. In other words, we set out to examine the participation of 6 million black people in the economic life of this country, by trying to find out their purchasing power, their purchases and from whom they make the purchases. In this market the majority of consumers are in the low-income group, whose propensity to consume is higher than their propensity to save.

A Rhodesia Journal of Economics (RJE) article on the problems and difficulties that were then being encountered by black Africans in participating in the racially structured Rhodesian economy.