Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
1
Popular literature on the history of technology maintains that the limited adoption of more complex technologies in pre-colonial Africa placed the continent at a disadvantage in its interactions with the wider world.
7th Jun 2026

Stay updated

Get a weekly newsletter with the top 5 articles worth reading every week.

More from African History Extra

What Did Africans Know About The Outside World?

On British “Spies” and News from India

3 hours ago • 1 votes
The Ancient Empires of Africa: Imperial Governments and “Native” Rulers.

Ancient state structures in Africa included Empires, which carried with them all the complexity, inequalities, and political baggage inherent in such systems.

4 weeks ago • 1 votes
The White Masks of Gabon: “Foreign” symbolism in Traditional African sculpture.

Among the most refined works of African art are the distinctive white masks of southern Gabon in Central Africa.

2nd Aug 2026 • 1 votes
A History of Agadez: The Desert city of Aïr (1400-1900)

Journal of African Cities: chapter 21

5th Jul 2026 • 1 votes

More in history

What Did Africans Know About The Outside World?

On British “Spies” and News from India

3 hours ago • 1 votes
But I don’t *want* to save liberal democracy

UK News Report extra

9 hours ago • 1 votes
Sudan, 1898

From the archives

10 hours ago • 1 votes
Five Slogans Re Cultural Drift

I’m wondering how well I might organize my cultural drift messages around a few key slogans.

19 hours ago • 1 votes
Recent addenda to articles 202609: Errors, omissions, and retractions

I was going to start with “it has been a while since we had one of these” but then I saw that the previous one started with “Wow, has it really been 7 months since I did one of these?” and that was in December 2023. Maybe I can make it a more regular thing. Anyway blogging itself has become a more regular thing of late so there is quite a lot to report just from last month. This article was written by an opaque and incomprehensible stoachastic process, namely me. . I have retracted this description.In 2007 I described Naomi Wolf as “very smart” now mentions that "Johnny Doc” was released from prison on the orders of Donald J. Trump.My article from January about crooked policitians and crab cakes In 2022 I published , which ended with “This article, which I wrote at 3:00 in the morning, is filled with many errors, including some that I would not have made if it had been daytime. Please disbelieve what you have read, and await a correction.” I have decided that it is uncorrectable, and retracted the whole thing.an article about the etymology of a purported Dutch phrase Dan Luu pointed out an important omission from .my July article following up on Steph Curry's 2015–16 crushing of the 3PFG record In 2021 I argued for . The coming of LLM technology has rendered my suggestion completely imprctical.an interesting replacement for the usual engineering interview process

yesterday • 1 votes
📚 BoredReading

You seem to be enjoying this.

Join free to unlock everything.

Create free account

Already have an account? Sign in