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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. 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?

  5. 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 • East-West Axis • Differences in domesticable plant/animal endowments

  6. 1. Food production • 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

  7. 1. Food production • 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 “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}

  8. 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,

  9. 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 8000BC  Cape AD 1 • Writing (Egypt 3000 BC writing had to be brought by Arabs/Europeans

  10. Fertile Crescent • Fertile Crescent (E + W)  Egypt  Europe

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

  12. 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

  13. Questions… • Do you agree with Diamond’s analysis of history? • Are current differences in economic development simply due to “differences in real estate” (i.e. geography)? • Are there alternative explanations? • 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?”

  14. Group presentations 5% • 5% of FINAL mark (group-work mark) • 20 minutes Things to discuss • Brief history/background • Political environment • Economy • Social + cultural context • 3 main problems (+Solutions?) Countries • 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%)

  15. 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

  16. 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)

  17. 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

  18. More specifically... Summary of McNeill’s criticisms

  19. For next week’s 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: • Is Botswana a success? (provide reasons why and why not) • What do you believe were the 3 main factors that made Botswana successful? • Do you think Botswana’s success is replicable elsewhere in Africa? Why? Why not?

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