This book was written by Emmanuel Akyeampong, a professor of history at Harvard University. He has written on social history and the history of disease and the environment in West Africa. His most recent work has been in business and political economy, interests strengthened by his participation in the Harvard Working Group. Africa and India were ravaged by famine and mired in poverty, but are now growing economically. widespread poverty and economic decline following independence in Africa. African populations are now returning to per capita income levels. Africa's economic problems were a topic of intense interest to European colonials. Political scientists have focused much more on the politics of contemporary Africa. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In historical perspective, Christopher Ehret argues that as early as 10,000 BC the African continent was on par with the rest of the world in terms of economic development. Agriculture and the development of pottery emerged around 9,000 and 6,000 BC, an early period by global standards. As well as the domestication of livestock between 8,500 and 7,200 BC David Weil suggests that around 1,500 BC Africa was not one of the poorest regions but rather average. Africa was on par with America in terms of urbanization and technological choice, but still lagged behind Europe and Asia. Patrick Manning traces the demographic history of Africa from 1650 to 2000 AD. Total population provides an indicator of economic development and is interesting given the export of humans during the slave trade. It shows that Africa had a large population but was growing at a very slow rate. This implies that it has gone through a prolonged stagnation lasting 250 years. Before 1500 Africa had much higher economic development than the Americas, however, due to the transatlantic slave trade which shipped approximately 12 million Africans to the Americas, enslaved Africans allowed the growth of specialized agriculture and mining, while contributing to Africa. stagnation. African countries such as Dahomey, which is now modern Benin, were surrounded by other similarly armed countries. This resulted in ongoing conflict. The Atlantic slave trade was the reason to militarize these societies and absorb prisoners of war. However, Thornton notes that the slave trade alone is not the only reason Africa lacked industrialization. Thornton claims that the industrial revolution in Europe was not managed by the state but by private enterprise. There was war in Africa, but what people don't see is that political leaders were trying to protect and promote economic activity. In West Africa, the urban core was intended to support merchants and artisans. The military was used to protect markets and promote trade. In East Africa, he focused on long-distance trade, which in turn promoted regional specialization and Smithian growth, or increased well-being resulting from specialization and exchange. All this led to the formation of states that demobilized banditry and transformed war into an instrument of public policy. Douglas and Colson suggest that the lack of state authority in some parts of precolonial Africa resulted in disorder and insecurity of property rights. It is clear that slavery was endemic in Africa well into the 20th century and this resulted in economic inefficiency and one of the reasons for the lack of technological change.In terms of culture in Africa, Platteau focuses on the existence of common cultural traits in the different cultures of Africa. While Olukoju focuses on a culture which is the Yoruba culture. Olukoju argues that in Yoruba culture the rich are encouraged to celebrate their wealth, to show it and share it because wealth is a social act and not just an individual one. It also suggests that the values ​​of this culture cause people to trade wealth for status. Platteau agrees with this, but also says that the rich have their own defense to avoid this and that is to withdraw from the culture and form their own communities. Nunn discusses the impact of early 20th century Christian missions on contemporary values. It showed that Africans influenced by foreign missions achieved a higher level of education. However, for Catholic missions, it mainly affected males, while in Protestant missions it impacted both genders, but to a greater extent for women. Some cultural practices of other societies that have achieved growth have also contributed to Africa's decline. Since there was an absence of writing in much of Africa, it played a role in limiting the growth of science and, consequently, African economies. In the absence of widespread literacy and a printing industry, Africa has failed to generate widespread technical progress. Africa had the technological advances but was unable to spread knowledge across the continent. In fact, the meeting of Africa with Europe promoted the development of Africa to a certain extent, and the onset of trade also promoted the development of African market institutions. Meanwhile, African businessmen also began to be active in trade. Trade with Europe genuinely stimulated African commercial activities because the cost of transportation decreased and European merchants needed more African merchants with economic strength in West Africa. In the agricultural sector, engagement in the global market led to “welfare loss” for Africa because slave workers did not gain the freedom to participate in production and income redistribution was not in accordance with the boom in trade. The main cause of African poverty has not only squeezed African labor but also distorted the structure of African industries and institutions. As a result, the model established by the balsam trade has effectively hindered Africa's constructive creativity and caused African industries to form a “pure extraction” model. Slaves were organized for the plantation industry and exported abroad, which hindered their creativity and possibilities, so the slaves did not really take part in the market and engaged in low-level plantation. From that moment on, slaves could no longer be considered as free labor force in the market, but more likely as "commodity", which shows that they had lost the attributes of labor force and therefore had not brought benefits to the economic development of the Africa. Likewise, the impact of colonialism on the African continent is also a considerable cause of contemporary Africa. The influence of colonialism lasted a long time and therefore influenced the shape of institutions to a large extent. For many years, insufficient and imperfect infrastructure has severely limited the development of the African economy and could be attributed to colonialism. Colonists were reluctant to spread technology to the continent for their greater selfish desires, so a gap opened between Africa and other societies. Even in West Africa, where few European settlers lived, living conditions improved, however, the.