Did slavery sow distrust in Africa?
https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/did-slavery-sow-distrust-in-africa
The “deep roots” literature in economics seeks to explain the enduring nature of global inequality by tracing the economic destinies of nations to events that happened decades or centuries ago. From the coercive labor systems of colonial Latin America to the trust-eroding effects of Africa’s slave trade, the literature posits that historical events cast long shadows that shape present-day outcomes. However, this thesis falls apart under emprical scrutiny.
The deep roots literature offers a compelling story: that the economic destinies of nations were determined by events dozens or even hundreds of years ago. But as the latest research makes clear, this narrative is at best incomplete and at worst simply wrong. From Peru to Singapore, we see that institutions can dissolve, recover and reform. The persistence framework compresses decades or centuries of institutional change into simple, path-dependent trajectories—ignoring political agency. While sometimes constrained by genes or geography, societies can and do remake themselves.