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SUMMARY:Why Malthus wasn’t African. Reviewing explanations and implicati
 ons of low population densities in pre-1900 Sub-Saharan Africa - Professor
  Ewout Frankema\, Wageningen University &amp\; Research
DTSTART:20171130T170000Z
DTEND:20171130T183000Z
UID:TALK74801@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Duncan Needham
DESCRIPTION:Low population densities and open land frontiers\, or alternat
 ively\, the absence of Malthusian conditions\, have been foundational to a
  range of deep explanations of long-term comparative development in Sub-Sa
 haran Africa. According to theories of factor-biased technological change 
 high ratios of land to labour have induced long-term patterns of economic 
 specialisation in land and resource extensive commodities (Austin 2008). H
 igh land-labour ratios have also been argued to have shaped African labour
  regimes (e.g. slavery\, pawning)\, lineage systems and household formatio
 n strategies (e.g. polygamy) (Domar 1970\, Iliffe 2007\,  Fenske 2014). It
  has also been argued that scarce supplies of human labour have induced pa
 rticular colonial policies with respect to labour mobilisation and commodi
 fication (Cooper 1996\, Frankema and van Waijenburg 2012). In addition\, l
 and abundance and limited capacities to tax vast empty hinterlands have be
 en pointed to as barriers to pre-colonial state centralisation (Young 1994
 \, Herbst 2000). \nVery few scholars\, however\, have made attempts to tra
 ce back demographic developments into the distant past (see Manning 2010 f
 or the most important exception). The dearth of quantitative evidence prev
 ents the field from engaging in a more systematic discussion of the possib
 le factors that may have suppressed the growth of African populations befo
 re 1900. Of course\, centuries of slave trading are part of such explanati
 ons as several scholars have pointed out (Manning 2010\, Inikori 2007)\, b
 ut they are not necessarily the dominant factor. \n	This paper reviews the
  possible explanations for the comparatively slow evolution of African pop
 ulations in pre-colonial times by distinguishing time-variant from time-in
 variant factors\, and by using variation in population densities around 19
 50 to develop some systematic arguments.  In my discussion I will pay atte
 ntion to at least five factors: 1) the ecological conditions of food crop 
 cultivation\, 2) ecological conditions for the survival of domesticated an
 d wild animals\, 3) tropical disease incidence\, 4) deliberate practices o
 f population control\, 5) unintended checks on population growth. I will n
 ot try to weigh these factors and rank them in order of importance. Instea
 d\, my focus will be on the question how these factors may be related in d
 etermining the long-term evolution of populations in specific areas and pe
 riods of time. \n
LOCATION:Old Library\, Darwin College
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