This remarkable book presents an intensive study of economic life and change in a northern Nigerian village between 1976 and 1998. Located in the transition zone between savanna and sahel, Marmara village grew both demographically and economically during a period of wide swings in Nigeria's economic and political fortunes. Using a wealth of data gathered during intensive fieldwork in 1976 and 1977–9 followed by shorter visits in 1985 and 1996–8, Clough argues that Marmara grew through a three-stranded ‘trajectory of accumulation’. Men used net income from farming, trade, and other non-agricultural occupations to expand the size of their households through polygynous marriages and child bearing, and to develop and sustain relationships with clients and creditors (‘trading friends’). Inspired by a deep moral commitment to expanding ‘social bonds of mutual trust and obligation’ (p. 85), the accumulation of dependents and creditors both enhanced and absorbed material wealth – increasing men's access to labor, land, and credit, and their obligations to provide for those who supplied them. Men whose gains exceeded their growing obligations accumulated both material and social wealth; many only managed to maintain their households, but there was very little evidence of destitution.

Arguing that Marmara and villages like it experienced a distinctive trajectory of economic growth based on a dynamic of ‘non-capitalist accumulation’, Clough contrasts his model both to alternative theories of capitalist accumulation and to other culturally-centered analyses of historically-specific patterns of growth. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, farmers in Marmara participated in an expanding range of commercial exchanges, but the ensuing pattern of economic growth corresponds neither to Marxist theories of accumulation based on exploitation, nor to a New Institutional Economics of growth in market-oriented institutions and individual accumulation, in which economically ‘rational’ choices prevail over social obligations. Built on a shared ethos of mutual obligation, in which individual success is gauged by the accumulation of ‘responsibility’ for others, Marmara's moral economy also differs from Guyer and Eno Belinga's model of ‘wealth-in-people’, in which individuality and creativity are valued over collective solidarity.

The bulk of Clough's text presents a wealth of detailed information on economic life in Marmara which he collected through a combination of aggregate data (a census of households and a comprehensive map of fields and field sizes held by residents of the village) together with detailed accounts of ‘trajectories of accumulation’ by individual farmers with whom Clough formed close friendships, traveling with them to markets where they sold their produce and engaging in lengthy and increasingly open discussions of the aims, values, and strategies through which they built their families and their careers. To his credit, Clough does not pretend that these people are ‘representative’ of any larger population, arguing instead that by ‘branching out’ along lines of friendship, he gained greater insight into trajectories of accumulation than could have been obtained from more systematic enumeration. The result is a series of illustrative portraits that do a remarkable job of depicting a rural economy in motion.

At times, the amount of detail in Clough's narrative is a bit overwhelming, and his intense focus on processes of accumulation narrows his account in other ways. Women receive very little attention in the book and the apparent absence of conflict, or even tension, among his actors leaves the reader puzzled. The book is also closely focused on Marmara and the outside markets where residents traded. There is little discussion of this study's significance for the rest of northern Nigeria or the savannas beyond. At the same time, Clough does an exemplary job of explicating his analysis, explaining his methods and admitting their limitations, making both the argument and the data totally accessible for others to build on and assess.

Altogether, this is an exceptional and valuable study. While Clough does not himself place Marmara in comparative perspective, his clearly articulated and richly documented model of non-capitalist agrarian accumulation invites comparative analysis in both conceptual and empirical terms. Scholars of economic development, comparative agrarian history, and African society will find much here to explore and discuss.