I've discussed this sort of geographic determinism before,
It appeals to a specific type of Hegelian-style reductionist, who uses pseudo-scientific language not to understand African history, but to deny its existence

⤵️
Acemoglu in Kongo
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/acemoglu-i...

4)
population density of tsetse-infested zone was high precisely b'se agric. productivity was high

Despite the modern obsession with using technology (plows) as a proxy for agricultural productivity, historical evidence suggests they weren't correlated
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/acemoglu-i...

3)
On urbanization, many of the largest and oldest cities in pre-colonial Africa were located in the tsetse infested regions of southern Nigeria and the East African coast, ie: the Yoruba & Swahili cities

with higher population densities than those found in the tsetse free region

2)
Regarding centralization, historians tend to associate the southernmost states; Asante, Dahomey, Kongo, with centralized bureaucracies (however anachronistic)

In contrast, large states in the tsetse free Sahel ; Mali, Songhai, Bornu, were never centralized to a similar extent

Surprisingly, the author uses Great Zimbabwe as an example for what would have happened in Africa without the tsetse-free, esp. on political centralization

Yet historians actually consider it to be a "heterachical" rather than hierarchical society

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

"Empty land" has always been a myth that only ever served the interests of imperialists

fusha

“Knowledge (ʿilm) is essential to the doctrine of faith. It relates to the truth, by means of proof (dalīl).

The imitator is he who accepts the words of the ʿulamāʾ (scholars) without proof and then falls back to blind acceptance.”

al-Wālī, Chad, 1688.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...

The philosophical theology of Muḥammad al-Wālī is the subject of my latest Patreon article⤵️⤵️

A 17th-century West African scholar: the philosophical theology of Muḥammad al-Wālī (fl. 1688)
www.patreon.com/posts/17th-c...

Despite residing in a small hamlet in the kingdom of Bagirmi, his works circulated widely and have been discovered in manuscript collections across Mali, Nigeria, Egypt, and Algeria.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...

“The imitator is he who accepts the words of the ʿulamāʾ (scholars) without proof and then falls back to blind acceptance.”

al-Wālī, Chad, 1688.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...

Among these was the theologian Muḥammad al-Wālī (fl. 1688), a rationalist whose writings combined classical philosophy and local oral traditions to challenge the ‘blind acceptance’ of religious authority
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...

While many of these scholars settled in major urban centers such as Kano, others established themselves in rural communities along the frontier.
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...

The Fulbé (Fulani) constituted another significant scholarly diaspora in the region, especially the Toroɓɓe/Torodbe clerisy, which included some of the most prominent scholars in the kingdoms of Bornu and Bagirmi (modern Chad).
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...

The Kano chronicle, for example, records that during the reign of King Yakubu (r. 1452-1463) “the Fulani came to Hausa land from Mali bringing with them books on divinity and etymology,” they then “went to Bornu leaving a few men in Hausaland.”
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/texts-from...