The Historical Origins of Africa’s Underdevelopment

VoxEU.org ^ | December 8, 2007 | Nathan Nunn

[tcostell]

Threadbare logic, and no causality established. This piece is nonsense, and the author should be ashamed to publish it.

[CarrotAndStick]

The Japan example would not be a good comparison. Say a group of Australians settle on a hitherto-uninhabited island, establish it as a sovereign state and build cities in a short span.

Can that be taken as an example of a nation to have developed almost instantly, when you compare it to the rest of history, and other nations? It can’t because it doesn’t take into consideration the already-developed state of the culture that took over the island, the development that might have taken thousands of years to achieve.

[fightinJAG]

I do think it’s worth exploring the impact of slavery and slave trades on other regions of the world.

Development seems most related to cultural values. Some cultural values facilitate development and some don’t. Then there are climate and natural resource factors, some of which make development easier than others.

[fightinJAG]

Sorry, I forgot one other point I’d be interested in hearing from you on.

What I took from the other poster’s comment was that many regions in the world experienced slavery’s, and the slave trade’s, effects in much the same way as Africa did. Yet not all of these regions remained undeveloped to the extent Africa is.

I have no idea what might account for that and I am not suggesting one thing or another. What I am suggesting is that it’s probably not purely because of the impact of slavery. Some, probably many other factors account for the fact that the African continent has not yet reached its potential for development.

[fightinJAG]

I would think the “most influential” in a society would be able to avoid becoming slaves.

And Poland is roaring back from its losses, including an article today that British employers would much rather hire highly educated Poles than Brits.

So, where does this leave the author’s thesis?

[SkyPilot]

Jews were slaves for centuries - and they have among the highest per capita IQ in the world.

http://www.jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html

Jews currently make up approximately 0.25% of the world's population and 2% of the US population.)

Chemistry (29 prize winners, 19% of world total, 28% of US total)
Economics (25 prize winners, 41% of world total, 55% of US total)
Literature (13 prize winners, 13% of world total, 27% of US total)
Peace (9 prize winners, 9% of world total, 10% of US total)3
Physics (47 prize winners, 26% of world total, 38% of US total)
Physiology or Medicine (53 prize winners, 28% of world total, 41% of US total)

IQ and the Wealth of Nations

[fightinJAG]

Thank you!

[huldah1776]

Thanks for the update, I was also wondering about what part of our own population has the lowest IQ, and how can an IQ score be raised? Are the questions getting easier?

[Eagles6]

save

[Jabba the Nutt]

Muslims were making slave raids into Europe as late as the 1700’s. The European people known as the Slavs were such objects of slave-raiding that they gave their name for the word ‘slave’. The vast majority of Russians were Serfs (a type of slavery) into the 1860’s. Did this history determine economic conditions for all of these people?

[Soliton]

The Slave Trade (the taking of slaves from Africa), was banned at the earliest possible moment in American history. To get North Carolina and Georgia to join the original union, it was agreed in 1787 that the slave trade could not be abolished for 20 years. 20 years later, it was not only abolished, but British and American ships patrolled the seas arresting slavers.

Slavery (the owning of slaves) lasted until abolished by a Republican president.

There was a time when a majority of the population of the world were slaves or a variation of the concept like serfs. The entire Jewish Nation was taken into captivity in Babylon and almost destroyed in WWII.

Black Africans and their diaspora have problems other than slavery. It may be culture, or heredity, but their problem today isn’t the slave trade.

[Jemian]

How then does the author explain the difference in IQ within the indigenous population of New Guinea? Slave trading has been virtually non-existence in those cultures.

[KarinG1]

What makes the author a ‘jerk?’

Maybe his ancestors were enslaved. If it causes laziness, ignorance and poverty surely it can do that as well.

[ChessExpert]

Thanks for the link to an article by Thomas Sowell. He is one of the few people who I can count on to be solid on these topics. He has considered them for decades. He knows economics, applied economics, and history.

There is no “silver bullet” or one variable explanation. It’s not slavery. It’s not Darwinism. Most people of most time have been poor. Progress has come belatedly. It’s an accomplishment of western civilization, prior to and without Marxism. If the west’s main contribution in recent years to Africa has been Marxism/socialism/liberalism, then our contribution has been negative, and has only slowed progress.

[Dick Bachert]

Let me make it clear right up front: I am NOT a racist. I campaigned for and gave money to Alan Keyes. I considered him the most principled, intelligent and articulate man in the race. And if he ever runs again, I would probably support him again.

I also consider Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams two of the finest economists and minds extant today. In case you don’t know them, both are black.

Keyes, Sowell and Williams ALL oppose calls for reparations.

The modern descendants of slaves brought here in chains in admittedly miserable, soul-gutting conditions now calling for reparations need to remember something:

They should not only be glad to be in America, they should be glad to be ANYWHERE !

Had their ancestors NOT been brought OUT of Africa – many by Muslim slave raiders —the blood of those ancestors would have run into the earth over there several centuries ago, victims of the OTHER black tribes that captured them in one of the interminable tribal conflicts STILL ravaging that sad continent and these modern day would-be “plaintiffs” would not even exist.

And I would remind you that slavery is STILL practiced in parts of Africa (mainly by muslims) and Asia today.

95% of the African slaves who were transported across the Atlantic went to South and Central America, mainly to Portuguese, Spanish and French possessions, and that less than 5% of the slaves who crossed the Atlantic went to the United States, it was remarkable that the vast majority of academic research, films, books and articles concerning the slave trade concentrated only on the American involvement, as though slavery was a uniquely American aberration.

And should the great-great-great grandchildren of SLAVE OWNING BLACKS also be subject to PAYING these reparations? If so, how do we find THEM?

And I have traced MY family back to the SLAVS. For those who don’t know, that word means “slave.” Do I qualify for reparations? From whom??

The official US Census of 1830 lists 3,775 free blacks who owned 12,740 black slaves. Furthermore, the story outlines the history of slavery here, and the first slave owner, the Father of American slavery, was Mr Anthony Johnson, of Northampton, Virginia. His slave was John Casor, the first slave for life. Both were black Africans. The story is very readable, and outlines cases of free black women owning their husbands, free black parents selling their children into slavery to white owners, and absentee free black slave owners, who leased their slaves to plantation owners.
-”Selling Poor Steven”, American Heritage Magazine, Feb/Mar 1993 (Vol. 441) p 90

Of course, a full telling of Black History would not be complete without a telling of the origin of slavery in the Virginia colony:
Virginia, Guide to The Old Dominion, WPA Writers’ Program, Oxford University Press, NY, 1940, p. 378

And the holier-than-thou Northern liberals are strangely silent on recent archeological evidence from NEW YORK CITY clearly tracing the financing of the slave trade to NORTHERN BUSINESSMEN!!

Robert Hitt Neill tells of attending a Tennessee Mountain Writer’s Conference years ago with several other authors. Among them was Alex Hailey, celebrated author of “Roots.” Watching a TV news show, a group of them watched a demonstration in a Southern state against the “Rebel” flag incorporated into that state’s flag. The very next report covered a famine in Africa. Graphic images showed dead bodies, starving children with distended tummies and runny noses and dying people covered with flies, too weak to brush them away.

Mr. Hailey intoned in a low, serious voice, “Every time an American black sees a story like that, they should find a Confederate flag and kiss it.” He then pointed to the TV screen and continued, “Because these would be me and my descendants, except for American slavery. I thank God that my family and I are here instead of there.”

Next problem!

[omega4179]

BS!

[omega4179]

Why did europe invent iron,fireplaces,the wheel, steam and internal combustion engines?

[Ironfocus]

My problem with this article is the same as with many of this type. The author treats Africa as if it is one monolithic nation, with little or no distinction between the different countries, nations, leaders etc. While it may be so that slavery and colonialism adversely affected the development of some countries in Africa, some have risen above that in some point in their history, while others were simply not affected that much.

I would love to see a breakdown by country, or even at the tribal/nation level of a similar analysis.

[america4vr]

Absolutely!

[BnBlFlag]

Yep. “IQ and the Wealth of Nations”. Ashkenazi Jews are probably, as a group, the smartest people on Earth. The Zorastian Iranians of India are right up there as well.