Commonomics: Rhetoric and Reality of the African Growth Tragedy JERRY KOLO* College of Architecture, Arts and Design American University of Sharjah PO Box 26666 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Email: jkolo@aus.edu NNAMDI O. MADICHIE Centre for Research and Enterprise Bloomsbury Institute London 99 Gower Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 6AA Email: nnamdi.madichie@bil.ac.uk CHRIS H. MBAH School of Business and Entrepreneurship American University of Nigeria, PMB 2250, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria Email: dr_cmbah@yahoo.com Abstract This exploratory study addresses the question of a feasible complementary economic model for the teeming population in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) that lives at the subsistence level. The study rationalized the contention that SSA is in a development straitjacket and its much-touted economic rise is more rhetoric than reality. Post-modern Keynesian economics has failed in most of SSA, therefore, an economic paradigm shift is advocated towards ‘commonomics.’ The study draws upon documentary evidence to posit that SSA’s rise is trumpeted by international organizations, non- governmental organizations (NGOs) and SSA governments for various ‘self-serving’ reasons adduced in the study. Despite this purported rise, in 2018, 17 of the world’s 20 least competitive economies are in SSA; the middle class is rapidly disappearing; corruption has become a means of livelihood across all socio-economic classes; and the youth are fleeing their countries, as exemplified by the treacherous trans-Atlantic crossings into Europe. In SSA’s quandary, Africans who are nostalgic about the ‘good old days’ opine that, until the post-colonial era, SSA’s resource-base enabled people to meet their basic needs cost-effectively and sustainably, and that the consumerism and greed that typify the post-modern era of Keynesian economics were non-issues in traditional SSA contexts. In these societies, commonomics, the term used for the model prescribed in this study, was the economic ideology and model. Commonomics aims to meet people’s basic needs through collaborative grassroots initiatives, where the inputs and outputs of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services are initiated, governed, managed and sustained by grassroots citizens. Guidelines for implementing commonomics are outlined in the study. Keywords: Commonomics, Keynesian economics, SSA development, Rhetoric and Reality Acknowledgment: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 18 th EBES Conference, School of Business Administration, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 8-10 January 2016. How to cite: Kolo, J., Madichie, N. O., & Mbah, C. H. (2019). Commonomics: Rhetoric and Reality of the African Growth Tragedy. In Subsistence Entrepreneurship (pp. 17-32). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-11542-5_3