His argument is that culture is distinguished in so far as it is a way of life for a society. Rodney argues that it essentially stems from a malformed perspective that is centered around a desire to make comparisons from these African “civilizations” to their European counterparts.Įssentially, Rodney differentiates by explaining that he prefers to refer to African civilizations as cultures. One of the most important sections of this early portion of the book is one of the ways in which he says people shouldn’t make comparisons between early African societies and the civilizations of Europe during a similar time period.
Rodney explains how in the more advanced societies such as the Ethiopian and Western Sudan empires, there was a rather prominent division of labor which enabled such a level of development between different sections of society. I find the above passage to be of particular interest as it provides an interesting account of these more developed societies that we seldom see in texts from colonial countries. Even among clans and lineages that appear roughly similar, there were considerable differences.” The empires of the Western Sudan had sophisticated, educated Mandinga townsmen, small communities of Bozo fishermen, and nomadic Fulani herdsmen. The Ethiopian empire embraced literate feudal Amharic noblemen as well as simple Kaffa cultivators and Galla pastoralists. Indeed, there were striking contrasts within any given geographical area.
There are marked contrasts between the Ethiopian empire and the hunting groups of pygmies in the Congo forest or between the empires of the Western Sudan and the Khoisan hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari Desert. “The African continent reveals very fully the workings of the law of uneven development of societies. One of his arguments here is to point out how much more advanced the Ethiopian empire was in comparison to for example the Khoisan hunter-gatherers. He also provides a really great commentary on uneven development between various African societies in this time period.
The first sections of the book focus on various African societies prior to colonialism and their development.
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