Don’t lose sight of role cultural diffusion played

In the book Why Nations Fail Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that, in the modern world, countries become prosperous because they manage to adopt the advances and technologies that first arose during the Industrial Revolution in 18th-century England. They also say that inequality largely results from the uneven dissemination and adoption of technologies.

The authors have an interesting section on South Africa in which they refer to Colin Bundy’s book The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry.

During the 19th century the influx of immigrants from Europe, the discovery of gold and diamonds, and the establishment of a mining economy saw a growth in the demand for food and agricultural produce. Adopting new technologies like the ox-drawn plough, African agriculturalists responded to these new opportunities in agriculture and trade. A whole class of surplus-producing African peasant farmers emerged. There is evidence of a new economic dynamism and growing prosperity. The introduction of the Natives Land Act of 1913 led to the impoverishment of these African peasant farmers. In the tribal areas agriculturalists reverted to subsistence farming.

Acemoglu and Robinson say that the twin goals of removing competition with white farmers and developing a low-wage labour force for the mining industry and white farms were simultaneously accomplished by the act.

South Africa can be described as a dual economy consisting of a modernising First World sector that is becoming increasingly multiracial and an underdeveloped sector, consisting of the rural and urban poor, the majority of whom are black. Acemoglu and Robinson thoroughly debunk the “culture hypothesis”. The dual economy did not come about because of the differences in the cultural attributes between South Africans of European extraction and black South Africans. They say that the dual economy was the product of the policies of white minority governments and the extractive mining industry.

Social scientists distinguish between an essentialist approach to race and ethnicity, and race and ethnicity as social constructions. People who view modernity as a product of European exceptionalism tend to lose sight of the role cultural diffusion has played throughout history. It was in India that a symbol for the concept of zero was first used. In the 12th century the Italian mathematician Fibonacci introduced the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to Europe.

Looking back on the past one comes under the impression of the Janus-like role technological advancement can play in society, in that it can both open doors and close doors for people. On the one hand technology was the means by which the white minority could shore up power, wealth and privilege at the expense of the rest of the population. On the other hand technological innovations open up new educational opportunities, empower individuals and make it possible for people to challenge established orthodoxy. Furthermore, public investment in infrastructure, as well as improved access to educational opportunities and health care, can make a significant improvement to the general standard of living.

We humans reach out beyond ourselves and the minutiae of everyday existence in search of meaning and purpose. But we also live in a finite world. And we need empirical evidence, reliable and verifiable information to support our judgements and actions.

It is also important that we continue to ask questions about ways in which technological innovations can be applied to specific social and environmental contexts in ways that can contribute to broadly based prosperity.

Sue Krummeck

Durbanville