Lattee Fahm
Lattee Adees Fahm (1930–1998). He was a Professor of Economics and Public Policy and the first Black person to obtain a PhD in Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT, 1963).[1]
Education
Lattee Fahm was born in Lagos, Nigeria on 2nd May 1930. He moved to Ghana in his teens, and in the early 1950s he won a scholarship to study in the USA. Upon arrival in the US, Fahm first enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, California. He subsequently received a bachelor's degree in Economics from UC Berkeley in 1957. After graduating, he was admitted to MIT, where he earned a PhD in Economics in 1963, becoming the first Black person to do so. His dissertation, A Study in Economic-Functional Analysis of Government Spending, Nigeria: 1951-1960 was supervised by Professor Paul Samuelson[2]
Career
Fahm's career consisted of teaching, consulting and policy-making. Soon after graduation in 1963, Fahm took up an Assistant Professor position at University of Connecticut[3] until 1965. He then spent four years at the Economics Department of University of Lagos, Nigeria. He returned to University of Connecticut as Associate Professor of Economics in 1969.[4] In 1974 he spent a year at UNITAR: The United Nations Institute of Training and Research. In 1978, he began his own consultancy: Economic Research Associates in Berkeley. He was the Executive Director of Economic Research Associates until his death in 1998.
Publications
Key ideas
Fahm's main ideas are in the field of development economics.
Human Waste Management: In The Waste of Nations,[5] he recognized the challenge of human waste management, and how it can be turned into a societal advantage. He used the term “social poleconecologist” in the context of explaining the processing and application of humanure for its agro-nutrient content. The term brings the interplay of ecology together with the dominant role of economics and politics in policy making. Fahm concluded “In today's world [1980], some 4.5 billion people produce excretal matters at about 5.5 million metric tons every twenty-four hours, close to two billion metric tons per year. [Humanity] now occupies a time/growth dimension in which the world population doubles in thirty-five years or less. In this new universe, there is only one viable and ecologically consistent solution to the body waste problems” - the use of human waste in agriculture.
Government Expenditure: In his doctoral thesis, A Study in Economic-Functional Analysis of Government Spending, Nigeria: 1951-1960 (MIT 1963),[2] Fahm provided insights into government spending patterns in the colonial Nigeria economy.
Role of Research in Development: In the early 1960s, as many African countries became independent, Fahm argued that research can provide solutions for many of the pressing problems faced by these countries.[6] While recognizing that African states may not have the financial wherewithal to undertake rigorous research that could be beneficial, he called for greater cooperation between African states and advanced countries that may be interested in funding such research. His basic concern is that only research aimed at problem solving and providing practical solutions should be given priority. Furthermore, in International Organization and African Economic Growth published in Herskovits (1961), Fahm gave recommendations on how the newly independent African countries can effectively use membership of international organizations to advance economic growth.[7]
Lattee Fahm died on 24th May 1998 in Oakland, California. He is survived by Shade Thomas Fahm (married 1970) and their son Fauzi Abdul-Aziz Fahm. Lattee Fahm is also survived by Carolyn Fahm (married 1985), a biomedical scientist.
References
- ↑ Darity, W.; Kreeger, A. (2014-01-01). "The Desegregation of an Elite Economics Department's PhD Program: Black Americans at MIT". History of Political Economy. 46 (Supplement 1): 317–336. doi:10.1215/00182702-2716217. ISSN 0018-2702.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fahm, Lattee A. "A Study in Economic-Functional Analysis of Government Spending, Nigeria 1951-1960. Institute Archives - Noncirculating Collection 3 | Thesis Econ 1963 Ph.D." library.mit.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
- ↑ University of Connecticut (1965-07-21). "Minutes, July 21, 1965". Agendas and Minutes: 3445.
- ↑ University of Connecticut (1969-05-21). "Minutes, May 21, 1969". Agendas and Minutes: 4130.
- ↑ Fahm, Lattee A. (1980). The waste of nations : the economic utilization of human waste in agriculture. Montclair, N.J.: Allanheld, Osmun. ISBN 091667228X. OCLC 5100755. Search this book on
- ↑ "Section Meetings, October 22: The Future of Research in Newly Independent States, Inter-Group Relations in African Culture, Contributed Papers". African Studies Bulletin. 4 (4): 35–40. 1961. doi:10.2307/523110. ISSN 0568-1537. JSTOR 523110.
- ↑ Herskovits, Melville J; Harwitz, Mitchell; Social Science Research Council (U.S.); Committee on Economic Growth; Conference on Indigenous and Induced Elements in the Economics of Subsaharan Africa (1964). Economic transition in Africa. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press. OCLC 681327343. Search this book on
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