THE DIFFUSIONIST THEORY AND FOOD-PRODUCTION IN PRE-COLONIAL WEST AFRICA

Abstract

Some scholars have propagated the diffusionist theory which opines that development in agriculture and the origin of food production in West Africa is linked to the entry of ideas and crops from other parts of the world into the region. This both indicts the economy of pre-colonial West Africa and as well supports the Eurocentric perspective which views pre-colonial West African economy as undeveloped and not being dynamic. But this view when subjected to critical interrogation lacks much merit. This is much because even though pre-colonial West African agricultural economy was not as developed as that of Europe, it still possessed some basic elements that enabled it to maintain food production through which the indigenous population was sustained from one season to another. Hence this work aims at highlighting the fact that food production originated in pre-colonial West Africa independent of external influence and ideas. It would thus conclude on the premise that although food production was of an independent origin in pre-colonial west Africa, ideas and crops from other regions of the world did boost food production and agricultural development in pre-colonial West Africa.