In spite of many years of regional economic integration, African regional blocs have been seriously hampered by historical, colonial, neo-colonial and vertical linkages of their economies to Western economies in terms of trade and investments. This study is essentially a qualitative research and thus relies heavily on secondary sources of data such as trade and investment indicators. The extant literature comparing the extent and depth of these horizontal and vertical integrations among member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is, however, scanty. The thrust of this paper is to examine the varying degrees of vertical integration of the economies of member states to Western economies, and perhaps, within themselves. The study, therefore, argues that the dependence of other SADC member states’ economies on South African economy has resulted in the seemingly high level of integration of SADC member states.

中文翻译：

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非洲的结构依赖性，纵向一体化和区域经济合作：对南部非洲发展共同体的研究

尽管进行了多年区域经济一体化，但非洲区域集团在贸易和投资方面受到其经济与西方经济的历史，殖民，新殖民和垂直联系的严重阻碍。这项研究本质上是定性研究，因此在很大程度上依赖于诸如贸易和投资指标之类的次要数据来源。然而，现有文献比较了南部非洲发展共同体（SADC）成员国之间这些水平和垂直整合的程度和深度。本文的重点是研究成员国经济与西方经济之间以及可能在其内部的垂直整合的不同程度。因此，这项研究