Reinterpreting African Economic History

New evidence requires a reinterpretation of Africa’s precolonial economic history, which can now be extended back to the thirteenth century. During this period, Africa became the hunting ground for the slaves of both Christian and Muslim empires, not because African slave markets were already well developed, but because environmental constraints on agricultural productivity imposed severe limitations on the ability to accumulate wealth, including slave wealth. Regional divergence follows the spread of “freedom” in Europe and “slavery” in Africa. The penetration of international slave markets, especially capitalist ones in the eighteenth century, often evolved into a region-wide arms race of “raid or be raided” that few Africans could escape, even if they wanted to. Institutions spread that were better suited for capturing people and transporting them to the coast – slavery, polygyny, matrilineal descent, and weak political institutions: the mirror image of Europe.