Traditional African society distributed wealth communally so none starved

Evidence

The basic difference between a socialist society and a capitalist society does not lie in their methods of producing wealth, but in the way that wealth is distributed. While, therefore, a millionaire could be a good socialist, he could hardly be the product of a socialist society. … This is exactly what traditional African society succeeded in doing. Both the “rich” and the “poor” individual were completely secure in African society. Natural catastrophe brought famine, but it brought famine to everybody – “poor” or “rich”. Nobody starved, either of food or of human dignity, because he lacked personal wealth; he could depend on the wealth possessed by the community of which he was a member. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 253

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Julien Nyerere-inspired claims and wider ‘African socialism’ literature, and echoes the pre-state community provisioning themes from the economic anthropology readings.
• DEFINE: Defines African socialism as communal distribution guaranteeing both food and human dignity regardless of personal wealth.