Although previous works have discussed the benefits of precolonial centralization for development in Africa, the findings and the mechanisms provided do not explain the heterogeneity in development outcomes of formerly centralized states. Using new survey data from Nigeria, I find a significant negative effect of precolonial centralization on access to certain public services for centralized re...

This paper argues that a genetic adaptation to the Neolithic Revolution led to differential levels of development in the precolonial era. The ability to digest milk, or to be lactase persistent, is conferred by a gene variant that is unequally distributed across the Old World. Milk provided qualitative and quantitative advantages to the diet that led to differences in the carrying capacities of...

In this historiographical article we analyse the three sources from which historians obtain their material for research of Bahurutshe (a subgroup Sotho-Tswana South Africa) in precolonial era: oral tradition, archaeological studies Iron Age sites, and oldest written accounts by European visitors to Marico. We show that because Batswana were non-literate societies before nineteenth century, stud...