Gareth Austin argues for constructive responses to the dominance, in the analysis of African economic history, of concepts derived from Western experience. Some of the most influential ideas applied to African economies, past and present, have been coined in the context not of Europe or North America but rather of other relatively poor regions formerly under European colonial rule. He argues that the main requirement for overcoming conceptual Eurocentrism in African history is reciprocal comparison of Africa and other continents and, more precisely, specific areas within Africa with counterparts elsewhere.