Thesis subject

MSc thesis topic: Rethinking borders in pre-colonial Africa: A critical evaluation of the Murdock Ethnographic Atlas

Most borders in Africa today were drawn up in the colonial period and do not correspond with Indigenous political communities as they existed in pre-colonial Africa. Researchers interested in the persistent effect of pre-colonial cultures, and of communities’ partition and amalgamation during the colonial period, have long relied on the “Ethnographic Atlas”, compiled in the 1950s by anthropologist George Murdock. Today, the Atlas has been criticized on many valid grounds, and few scholars believe that it accurately captures social realities in Africa before European rule. Nonetheless, the Atlas continues to form the basis of social science research.

We know that pre-colonial African states were not spatio-temporally static, but their borders often moved. Moreover, the projection of political power was not even across territories, but rather concentric, which means that borders were not strictly defined as, for example, was the case in Europe.

In this thesis project, you will critically evaluate the placement of the ethnic borders that Murdock drew in his Ethnographic Atlas. Questions guiding this research include:

What do the borders drawn by Murdock actually represent? Do they somehow reflect an aspect of precolonial socio-political reality? Or are they rather linked to landscape features like rivers, mountains and forests (which, in their own right, might explain outcomes today)? And to what extent does the map overlap with sub-national borders today?

Objectives and Research Questions

  • Conduct a literature study to find out how Murdock drew up his Ethnographic Atlas, how previous scholars have used the map and what criticisms, have been developed of its validity and reliability
  • Explain the placement of the borders in the Murdock Ethnographic Atlas, not by assuming that they represent “pre-colonial ethnic homelands”, but by investigating how they link to landscape features (rivers, forests, mountains, etc.)
  • Investigate to what extent the borders in the Murdock Ethnographic Atlas align with current sub-national borders.

Requirements

  • Good geospatial analysis skills.
  • Statistical skills
  • Some affinity with or background in the social sciences is recommended
  • Pre-existing knowledge of African history is not required

Literature and information

  • Nunn, N., & Wantchekon, L. (2011). The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa. American Economic Review, 101(7), 3221-3252.
  • Michalopoulos, S., & Papaioannou, E. (2016). The long-run effects of the scramble for Africa. American Economic Review, 106(7), 1802-1848.
  • Paine, J., Qiu, X., & Ricart-Huguet, J. (2025). Endogenous colonial borders: Precolonial states and geography in the partition of Africa. American Political Science Review, 119(1), 1-20.
  • Herbst. J. (2000). States and power in Africa: Comparative lessons in authority and control. Princeton University Press.

Theme(s): Human – space interaction