ABSTRACT
It has been claimed by some writers that African land tenure was feudal in kind; others have disputed this contention, denying the utility of the concept of a landed fief in Africa. Most of this discussion has taken place on a politico-legal level, but there is one crucial and obvious difference which has been largely overlooked. It is a difference which means that land tenure (and hence vassalage and landed fiefs) in Africa were basically different from Europe and indeed from the Eurasian continent generally; and it has to do with the means of production rather than with productive relations, though its influence upon these relations is of some importance. Basically Africa is a land of extensive agriculture. I The population is small, the land is plentiful, and the soils are relatively poor. Moreover, one fundamental invention that spread throughout the Eurasian continent never reached Africa south of the Sahara, with the exception of Ethiopia. I am referring to that Bronze Age invention, the plough.
