Rethinking African Progress

Is Africa’s current state of ‘underdevelopment’ directly related to the fact that millions of Africans did not die, suffer and become dispossessed in ancient wars of state formation and expansion? Africa has often been described as the poorest continent on earth; and, indeed, since the 16th century, transforming African economies—which depended on slave and raw material exports—has proven difficult. At distinct moments in history, the slave trade, European colonialism, and post-colo

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