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

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

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? – Yalis 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

AreaCrop Type Cereals, Other Grasses Pulses Fertile Crescent emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley pea, lentil, chickpea China foxtail millet, broom-corn millet, rice soybean, adzuki bean, mung bean Mesoamericacorn common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean Andes, Amazoniaquinoa, [corn] lima bean, common bean, peanut West Africa and Sahelsorghum, pearl millet, African ricecowpea, groundnut India [wheat, barley, rice, sorghum, millets] hyacinth bean, black gram, green gram Ethiopiateff, finger millet, [wheat, barley][pea, lentil] Eastern United States maygrass, little barley, knotweed, goosefoot New Guineasugar cane Domesticable plants were distributed unequally across the earth. Food production division of labour and specialisation Dense sedentery food- producing 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 1. Food production

AreaCrop Type Cereals, Other Grasses Pulses Fertile Crescent emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley pea, lentil, chickpea China foxtail millet, broom-corn millet, rice soybean, adzuki bean, mung bean Mesoamericacorn common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean Andes, Amazoniaquinoa, [corn] lima bean, common bean, peanut West Africa and Sahelsorghum, pearl millet, African ricecowpea, groundnut India [wheat, barley, rice, sorghum, millets] hyacinth bean, black gram, green gram Ethiopiateff, finger millet, [wheat, barley][pea, lentil] Eastern United States maygrass, little barley, knotweed, goosefoot New Guineasugar cane Domesticable plants were distributed unequally across the earth. Food production division of labour and specialisation Dense sedentery food- producing 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 1. Food production 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}

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) Earasias 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, 2. Animal domestication SpeciesDate (B.C.)Place – first evidence of domestication Dog10,000Southwest Asia, China, North America Sheep8,000Southwest Asia Goat8,000Southwest Asia Pig8,000China, Southwest Asia Cow6,000Southwest Asia, India, (?)North Africa Horse4,000Ukraine Donkey4,000Egypt Water buffalo4,000China? Llama / alpaca3,500Andes Bactrian camel2,500Central Asia Arabian camel2,500Arabia

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 Egypts 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) didnt make it through tsetsi fly forests – Horses (Eqypt 1800 BC S of Sahara AD+ – Pottery (Sudan 8000BC 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 Diamonds 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 this 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?

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

Criticism of Guns, Germs and Steel The World According to Jared Diamond - J.R. McNeill 3 or 4 groups of five – Summarise your page. Do you think this is a legitimate criticism? Why? 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 Diamonds thesis Page 2 – Long term and large scale framework – Statistically Eurasia shouldve 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 McNeills criticisms

For next weeks assignment Botswana: A Diamond in the Rough 650 words Due Tuesday 21 Feb 8-9AM 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 Botswanas success is replicable elsewhere in Africa? Why? Why not?