ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the myth of precapitalist eden—functionalist inequality. It also examines the reported, observed, and remembered reality—the early Sudanic state as a power center that both protected, redistributed, and simultaneously preyed on, persecuted, and quite impersonally destroyed those near or even within its borders for the sake of maintaining power. The form is hierarchical—really a kind of redistributive benificence that conditions and supports the myth of "merrie Africa". The political economy of the early state was many things, but it was fearsome and destructive. Equilibrating forces flourished, and widely distributed benefits were indeed part of ordinary life. Ideally just and redistributive, in reality the governments of these early states had to face constant political and economic threats to their survival. To simplify matters, household income—from farm and off-farm activity minus income of household members kept for themselves, is omitted.
