Why were the first cowboys in the Americas from West Africa?
What does it mean in Akan culture when a man "eats from another woman's pot"?
And, could a mosquito be the reason Ghana never became a settler colony like South Africa or Kenya?
In the next part of The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch put Africa at the centre of the story, and find it at the centre of ours too.
West African villages with no walls and no kings, because there was enough for everyone. An ancient Ghana nowhere near modern Ghana, and Mansa Musa's gold. Then food: why a Ghanaian host will never let you leave hungry, the European visitors who resented Africa's abundance, a colleague in Senegal who thought the perfect birthday present was a goat, and the jollof wars. Plus the genetic resistance to malaria that shaped the slave trade, and how the mosquito kept European settlers out of West Africa and sent Afua's grandfather to Cambridge.
Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm
[0:00] Land, food and race: three ways Africa shaped the world
[2:01] Is "Africa" even the right word?
[7:22] Villages with no walls and no kings
[11:01] Two Ghanas, and Mansa Musa's gold
[13:08] Why you'll never leave a Ghanaian home hungry
[17:04] The first cowboys in the Americas
[21:56] A goat for a birthday, and the jollof wars
[25:57] Malaria, genes and the slave trade
[29:50] How the mosquito kept settlers out of West Africa
[32:56] Africans telling their own stories
Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions
Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm
Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions
Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.