Production systems in pre-colonial Africa

1 Production systems in pre- colonial Africa Erik Green 1. IntroductionHow productive was Africa before the colonisers came? Was the continent underdeveloped or developing? Was Production stagnant or dynamic? In this chapter we will see that it was both. Pre- colonial history shows us evidence of progress because of African pioneering abilities, but also setbacks because of the hard conditions people had to face in those days. People in pre- colonial Africa were engaged in hunting and gathering, agriculture, mining and simple manufacturing. Agriculture involved most people, so the chapter looks mainly at farming activities. The chapter explains that farmers in those days faced two big challenges: a hostile environment and scarcity of labour.

of labour, such as the family, kinship systems and slavery, played a crucial role in Africa’s pre-colonial economic history. The African environment was in many ways more severely hostile than that of other continents. Two factors that limited exploitation of the …

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