Week 2 Why is Africa poor Economic and

Week 2 – Why is Africa poor? Economic and Development Problems in Africa

Lectures • All Tuesday 1 -2 pm lectures cancelled New timetable: • Tuesday 8 -9 AM • Tuesday 10 -11 AM • Wednesday 12 -1 pm

Week 2 & 3 outline • Why is Africa poor? – Complex question involving many disciplines • Economics, history, geography, sociology, anthropology… • Two prong approach: 1. Guns, Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond (Week 2) • Example of reviews 2. Institutions (Week 3) • Botswana case study + Robinson article (First review due)

Guns, Germs and Steel • Why did history unfold differently for different countries? • Why are some countries poor while others are rich? – Yali’s question • How far can we push back the “chain of causation”? • Why were Eurasian societies disproportionately powerful and innovative?

Guns, Germs and Steel • How to understand history? Read the history books of great civilisations? • Writing emerged around 3000 BC • Already by 3000 BC Eurasian/North African societies had – Centralized governments, widespread use of metal tools + weapons, domesticated animals for transport, traction and mechanical power, reliance on agriculture and domestic animals for food. • Need to go further back in history – preliterate past • Diamond posthulates four main causes 1. East-West Axis 2. Differences in domesticable plant/animal endowments

1. Food production • • • Domesticable plants were distributed unequally across the earth. Food production division of labour and specialisation Dense sedentery foodproducing populations chiefs, kings, bureaucrats, armies, wars, conquest Writing has evolved de novo only a few times in human history earliest sites of food production…the rest became literate by diffusion. Important for ideas and technological innovation Area Crop Type Cereals, Other Grasses Pulses Fertile Crescent emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley pea, lentil, chickpea China foxtail millet, broom-corn millet, soybean, adzuki bean, rice mung bean Mesoamerica corn common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean Andes, Amazonia quinoa, [corn] lima bean, common bean, peanut West Africa and Sahel sorghum, pearl millet, African rice cowpea, groundnut India [wheat, barley, rice, sorghum, millets] Ethiopia teff, finger millet, [wheat, barley] [pea, lentil] Eastern United States maygrass, little barley, knotweed, goosefoot New Guinea sugar cane hyacinth bean, black gram, green gram —

1. Food production • • • Domesticable plants were distributed unequally across the earth. Food production division of labour and specialisation Dense sedentery foodproducing populations chiefs, kings, bureaucrats, armies, wars, conquest Writing has evolved de novo only a few times in human history earliest sites of food production…the rest became literate by diffusion. Important for ideas and technological innovation Area Crop Type Cereals, Other Grasses Pulses Fertile Crescent emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley pea, lentil, chickpea China foxtail millet, broom-corn millet, soybean, adzuki bean, rice mung bean Mesoamerica corn common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean Andes, Amazonia quinoa, [corn] lima bean, common bean, peanut West Africa and Sahel sorghum, pearl millet, African rice cowpea, groundnut India [wheat, barley, rice, sorghum, millets] Ethiopia teff, finger millet, [wheat, barley] [pea, lentil] Eastern United States maygrass, little barley, knotweed, goosefoot New Guinea sugar cane hyacinth bean, black gram, green gram — “Peoples who, by accident of their geographic location, inherited or developed food production thereby became able to engulf geographically less endowed people” {Both internationally and inter-Africa}

2. Animal domestication • • Domesticable= sufficiently docile, submissive to humans, cheap to feed, immune to diseases, breed well in captivity. {Genetically modified to become useful to humans} Needed for draft animals, protein and military animals Buffalo, zebra, bush pig, rhino, hippo never been domesticated (even now) Earasia’s native cows, sheep, goats, horses, pigs Why not carnivores? Interaction with plants? (fertilization) People that developed over time with domesticated animals were largely immune to the diseases they carried (evolved with them) GERMS {S-America! + Khoi San} E-W axis – horses Tetsi fly, Species Date (B. C. ) Place – first evidence of domestication Dog Sheep 10, 000 8, 000 Southwest Asia, China, North America Southwest Asia Goat Pig Cow Horse Donkey 8, 000 6, 000 4, 000 Southwest Asia China, Southwest Asia, India, (? )North Africa Ukraine Egypt Water buffalo Llama / alpaca Bactrian camel Arabian camel 4, 000 3, 500 2, 500 China? Andes Central Asia Arabia

3. East-West Axis • Africa = only continent with E-W axis • Why should this matter? – Climate, Habitat, Rainfall, Day length, Diseases of crops and livestock • Difficult to move crops and animals • Eg Egypt’s wheat and barley require winter rains and seasonal variation in day length for germination • Human technology thus also slow to move • Examples: – Bantu cows (from tsetsi free Sahel) didn’t make it through tsetsi fly forests – Horses (Eqypt 1800 BC S of Sahara AD+ – Pottery (Sudan 8000 BC Cape AD 1 – Writing (Egypt 3000 BC writing had to be brought by Arabs/Europeans

Fertile Crescent • Fertile Crescent (E + W) Egypt Europe

Factors underlying broadest pattern of history • Ultimate (real cause) • Proximate (closest to)

Implications? • Food production and domestication development, yes, but also inequality. • Opportunity to accumulate wealth in material objects • Opportunity to accumulate new techniques, tools and knowledge

Questions… • Do you agree with Diamond’s analysis of history? 1. Are current differences in economic development simply due to “differences in real estate” (i. e. geography)? 2. Are there alternative explanations? 3. How useful is theory for modern times? Be able to answer this question from a 13 year old Mozambican boy: “Why are white people rich and black people poor? ” “How come you guys have so much cargo? ”

Group presentations - 5% of FINAL mark (group-work mark) 20 minutes Things to discuss i. iii. iv. v. Brief history/background Political environment Economy Social + cultural context 3 main problems (+Solutions? ) Countries 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Botswana (Week 3) Kenya (Week 4) DRC (Week 6) Sudan (N+S) (Week 7) Ivory Coast (Week 8) Ghana (Week 10) Zambia (Week 11) Marking criteria: Presentation (20%), Content (50%), Interesting (30%) 14 5%

Criticism of Guns, Germs and Steel • “The World According to Jared Diamond” - J. R. Mc. Neill • 3 or 4 groups of five – Summarise your page. • Do you think this is a legitimate criticism? Why not? – Provide a few (max 3/4) labels for the sections of your page. Each label MUST be less than 8 words – Come together and put all the arguments in context • Pick max seven labels – Provide feedback to class

My labels • Page 1 – Broad agreement but specific disagreement (Ch 20) – Summary of Diamond’s thesis • Page 2 – Long term and large scale framework – Statistically Eurasia should’ve succeeded anyway • Page 3 – – Of Eurasia, why Europe? Explaining temporary dominance using permanent factors Fragmentation is not always a good thing (Africa) Intra-country fortunes varied dramatically (Egypt)

My labels • Page 4 – East-West axis argument flawed (inter-Europe + inter-Africa) • Dispersion of plants/animals/ideas dependent on more than geography – Cattle, Coffee • Page 5 – – Inappropriate to compare continents Societies aim to maximise wealth + power (false assumption) Things are more complex than simply geography Useful in that it forces us to acknowledge prehistory

More specifically. . . Summary of Mc. Neill’s criticisms

For next week’s assignment “Botswana: A Diamond in the Rough” • 650 words • Due Tuesday 21 Feb 8 -9 AM lecture • Arial, 11 font, 1. 5 line spacing • Answer the following three questions: 1. Is Botswana a success? (provide reasons why and why not) 2. What do you believe were the 3 main factors that made Botswana successful? 3. Do you think Botswana’s success is replicable elsewhere in Africa? Why not?