Professional Documents
Culture Documents
History Reference's Collection 2
History Reference's Collection 2
INTRODUCTION
My feet have felt the sands
Of many nations,
I have drunk the water
Of many springs.
I am old
Older than the pyramids,
I am older than the race
That oppresses me,
I will live on...
I will out-live oppression.
I will out-live oppressors.
"DETERMINATION"
By John Henrik Clarke.
First of all, I must declare interest, I am a teacher, a teacher of history and geography that enrich me with knowledge of the world
culture and literature. I need to know my history, but this little I know I must share just for the love of the Most-high. One may ask,
why African history and not the rest of the world? The answer is not as you may think, may be is for the love of Africa, or may be is
hatred over the white race; NO, the TRUE answer is simple; the truth must be told and shared. This goes hand with hand with the
response towards the suggestions of most notable history teachers, writers and singers or poets on how to correct the intention
mistakes or errors done in our rich black history. This is out of racism rather admiring my origin and my color. It is not bad thing to
tell my fellow black brothers and sisters how blessed they are, to be born black. Nothing to be shamed about. That is why we as
black people should go through our own history once again.
There is no way to go directly to the history of African without taking a broader view of African world history. In his book Tom-
Tom, the writer John W. Vandercook makes this meaningful statement:
A race is like a man. Until it uses its own talents, takes pride in its own history, and loves its own memories, it
can never fulfill itself completely.
History, according to John Henrik Clarke, is a clock that people use to tell their political time of day. It is also a compass that people
use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they are and what they are. Most importantly,
history tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be.
The role and importance of ethnic history is in how well it teaches a people to use their own talents, take pride in their own history
and love their own memories. In order to fulfill themselves completely, in all of their honorable endeavors it is important that the
teacher of history of the Black race find a definition of the subject, and a frame of reference that can be understood by students who
have no prior knowledge of the subject. This is why we need to level the truth from the past so that as a people, black people can
have such lost happiness that purposely mistakenly to keep them away from any good. It hurts not to be in any part of all good things
like civilization but bad things and all bad fade memories that other races feel proud to talk about. If people swept you out of your
own history, nothing you can do to refute their arguments that they era our creators. We who have the chance to re-correct our history,
not our past, we must do that with pride.
Heritage, in essence, is how a people have used their talent to create a history that gives them memories that they can
respect, and use to command the respect of other people. The ultimate purpose of history and history teaching is to use a
people's talent to develop an awareness and a pride in themselves so that they can create better instruments for living
together with other people. This sense of identity is the stimulation for all of a people's honest and creative efforts. A people's
relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.
You must love history and Africa as an appreciation of the well done work of our ancestors. Today most of us (Black people
especially of Africa), we love the oppressors than we love ourselves. This is a result of the oppressors’ conspiracy to rule their former
masters (the black people) who were also the world political, social and economic master mind of all time. This is undeniable fact to
the white supremacists and their puppets. The only thing that these people, the oppressors did to make their plan work perfect, was
to infuse their education system into our education systems. Then we became proud of their awards as PhDs’ holders and professors
while we keep feeding our own people poison of their minds. This is a discomfiture act ever done to our beloved mother Africa than
any. It is the wickedest thing that has been done than mass killing that the white people ever done to black people. What a nation
without a history of her own? We even cherish the white’s daftness and covetousness with pride and joy than our own beautiful
stories and heroic life we had. Our wars, that were the signs of pride and expression of power, we call them ferocious and primitive
and non-sensible wars but their civil wars (the so called great wars, world war I and II), we are calling them “the wars of emancipating
the world” and even put them in our education system as a very bad acts in the world rather than a source of African emancipation
from colonialism. We participated into their wars to help them win. Did they even recall our brave assistance? Instead they increased
sufferings of our people till we decided to get rid of them. We have to see the wars in the perspective of the answer of God and His
wrath against their treachery than seeing their wars on their perspective.
At this juncture, I only thank God for being an opener towards understanding of history. You do not need to a professor nearby you
to tell you the evils that have been done to you or to understand or have a deep knowledge about our past. Most of them today they
are incapable of telling any truth as they know nothing of the past but money and personal pride. It is a very shame act of killing our
people that I can never be part of. I join other people with courage to speak the truth about black people at any cost. Good teachers
are hard to find I admit, but it does not mean they are not present. Though they are few in this big populous world, I found some that
have helped me to bring this truth to you. The history of our past must be revealed, not written because it is already in writings long
before Jesus was known.
I have a clear conscious that, many shall ignore what I am doing, but those few shall be served from agony and pain of forgetting
our past. It might be unworthy to revive at this time in this manner, but time will tell. It doesn’t matter how many will take time to
agree with what I am about to propose and write; but I did my part of exposing the lies and prejudices that we black people have
been through for centuries now. The only one thing that I can propose for now and future is, true history of black people must be
taught at all level of education in our country. People should know their true history because by that, freedom will have a total
meaning. How can you be free if you being subjected by other people’s history? How can one be a patriot without knowing the worth
of his past? How can you fight without a cause? I feel blessed to have the knowledge of the past from a lot of people that I would
love to share with you their visions and narrations about Africa, and may be with a grace from God, you may join our course towards
reviving our true past.
People especially scholars, do fear to expose the lies about white supremacists not because they will endanger their lives but because
of greed and selfishness, in their minds they think one day a white man will be their friend and make them billionaires. Keep
dreaming, keep poisoning our people, yet the day won’t come. Go back through our history of the past if there is any loophole for
your dream to be fulfilled. We have a lot of scholars, writers and politicians doing more talking than writing and more talking than
acting. We have enough actors. We have enough people to talk about us and to beg. We now need people who understand what real
liberation is all about and who will act to make positive change for black people. Something to bear in mind is that, if there is a
superior race in the world, it damned well is not white people. I am well clear on this point all my life. Because, no people can do to
other people what they have done to the world. European culture has produced people who are terribly insecure and frightened. No
one on this earth should tremble at the sight of them. I would fear because a coward has the upper hand and not because he is brave.
He is not brave. That is something I will never get out of my mind. We born geniuses, we born brave and strong mentally, spiritually
and physically, let them fear us, roar black man roar high and pride, be happy to teach our people the true history that they fear us to
teach. That is a sense of patriotism and nationalism.
An article from Portrait of a Liberation Scholar; Almost from the beginning as a child I started to raise essential questions inside
myself about the things I observed, and about the things people declared "true" and literally dared me to question. These who would
impose the "truth" on me had no control over me when I was alone. I would question their truth and keep my conclusions to myself
I did not argue with them about what I thought or felt because I never told them. I lived inside myself seemingly forever and hoped
for the day when I could speak my mind.
I believe that if God was merciful enough to give you a brain, two functioning hands, and two legs where you put one in front of
the other, then God has given you the facility to take care of yourself, to be responsible for your actions and for what happens to
you. This is as self-evident to me as abilities to taste and to distinguish between a flower and an ear of corn. We use God as an
excuse for not taking responsibility for our lives. This was not an anti-God argument. We have drawn the wrong conclusions from
religion. Instead of being a source of liberation, our religions have become psychological traps. It is ironic that people have to leave
religion as it was (and still is) practiced in order to understand and appreciate its meaning and to enjoy its benefits.
While in Baptist Sunday school, I began to look at the images they presented of God—that God was all loving, and that God was
universal. If these claims are true, why do some people work very little and have so much, and why do others work so hard and
have so little? If he is merciful, show me the mercy in this case? As a child, I could not ask these questions externally because I
would be slapped down and it was impolite. I would be called "child of the devil."
Something grew in me early that I would have to grow to adulthood to understand. I am as religious as any person on earth and I
had something that was above religion—spirituality! I was spiritual and that spirituality is the big umbrella under which religions
function and out of which religions came. To be truly spiritual makes you a part of all religions without having to adhere to the
mythology in any of them. But while growing up I had to brood and keep these impressions to myself. I had not worked out the
images of all those white angels, a white God and white saints. I could not understand how of all the people who died down through
the years, why not a single black or brown person got into heaven? Heaven was snow-white and even the devil was red.
What I grew up brooding over and confused by were the millions of impressions, ideas, and beliefs that see myself and my people
outside the context of history. It appeared that we had no place in history, no place in religion, had contributed nothing to civilization
and, therefore, could not exist or be acknowledge as of value as human beings in the present. This is what drove me to study history
seriously and at an early age in my life. After reading the Bible my curiosity led me to encyclopedias, almanacs, and out of town
newspapers. I used to even read movie magazines. Since I had good memory, I could remember the names of all of the movie stars,
as well as the names of the stars' wives. This was pure nonsense and rubbish of no meaning to black people or to anyone else.
Devoting my mind to nonsense occurred in school as well. Because I was a good student, I had to memorize all of the state capitals.
I had to ask essential questions inside myself amidst a clutter of irrelevant information that those around seemed to think important.
The similar situation or to be precise, is a scenario that most of curious people born with. He gives us some answers that may be
could be of help if well considered. Let us continue with another writing about Africa.
The African, Clitus Niger, King of Bactria, was also a Cavalry Commander for Alexander the Great. Most of the Greeks' thinking
was influenced by this contact with the Africans. The people and the cultures of what is known as Africa are older than the word
"Africa." According to most records, old and new, Africans are the oldest people on the face of the earth. The people now called
Africans not only influenced the Greeks and the Romans, they influenced the early world before there was a place called Europe.
When the early Europeans first met Africans, at the crossroads of history, it was a respectful meeting and the Africans were not
slaves. Their nations were old before Europe was born. In this period of history, what was to be later known as "Africa" was an
unknown place to the people who would someday be called, "Europeans." Only the people of some of the Mediterranean Islands and
a few states of what would become the Greek and Roman states knew of parts of North Africa, and that was a land of mystery. After
the rise and decline of Greek civilization and the Roman destruction of the City of Carthage, they made the conquered territories into
a province which they called Africa, a word derived from "afri," and the name of a group of people about whom little is known. At
first the word applied only to the Roman colonies in North Africa. There was a time when all dark-skinned people were called
Ethiopians, for the Greeks referred to Africa as, "The Land of the Burnt-Face People."
If Africa, in general, is a man-made mystery, Egypt, in particular, is a bigger one. There has long been an attempt on the part of some
European "scholars" to deny that Egypt was a part of Africa. To do this they had to ignore the great masterpieces on Egyptian history
written by European writers such, Ancient Egypt, Light of the World, Vols. I & II, and a whole school of European thought that placed
Egypt in proper focus in relationship to the rest of Africa.
Until recent times most Western scholars have been reluctant to call attention to the fact that the Nile River is 4,000 miles long. It
starts in the South, in the heart of Africa, and flows to the North. It was the world's first cultural highway. Thus Egypt was a composite
of many African cultures. In his article, "The Lost Pharaohs of Nubia," Professor Bruce Williams infers that the nations in the South
could be older than Egypt. This information is not new. When rebel European scholars were saying this 100 years ago, and proving
it, they were not taken seriously.
It is unfortunate that so much of the history of Africa has been written by conquerors, foreigners, missionaries and adventures. The
Egyptians left the best record of their history written by local writers. It was not until near the end of the 19 th century when a few
European scholars learned to decipher their writing that this was understood.
The Greek traveler, Herodotus, was in Africa about 450 B.C. His eyewitness account is still a revelation. He witnessed African
civilization in decline and partly in ruins, after many invasions. However, he could still see the indications of the greatness that it
had been. In this period in history, the Nile Valley civilization of Africa had already brought forth two "Golden Ages" of achievement
and had left its mark for all the world to see.
Slavery and colonialism strained, but did not completely break, the cultural umbilical cord between the Africans in Africa and those
who, by forced migration, now live in what is called the Western World. A small group of African American and Caribbean writers,
teachers and preachers, collectively developed the basis of what would be an African-consciousness movement over 100 years ago.
Their concern was with Africa, in general, Egypt and Ethiopia, and what we now call the Nile Valley.
In approaching this subject, I have given preference to writers of African descent who are generally neglected. I maintain that the
African is the final authority on Africa. In this regard I have reconsidered the writings of W.E.B. DuBois, George Washington
Williams, Drussila Dungee Houston, Carter G. Woodson, Willis N. Huggins, and his most outstanding living student, John G.
Jackson (now deceased; editor). I have also reread the manuscripts of some of the unpublished books of Charles C. Seifert, especially
manuscripts of his last completed book, Who Are the Ethiopians? Among Caribbean scholars, like Charles C. Seifert, J.A. Rogers
(from Jamaica) is the best known and the most prolific. Over 50 years of his life was devoted to documenting the role of African
personalities in world history. His two-volume work, World's Great Men of Color, is a pioneer work in the field.
Among the present-day scholars writing about African history, culture, and politics, Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan's books are the most
challenging. I have drawn heavily on his research in the preparation of this article. He belongs to the main cultural branch of the
African world, having been born in Ethiopia, growing to early manhood in the Caribbean Islands and having lived in the African
American community of the United States for over 20 years. His major books on African history are: Black Man of the Nile, 1979,
Africa: Mother of Western Civilization, 1976 and The African Origins of Major Western Religions, 1970.
Our own great historian, W.E.B. DuBois tells us, "Always Africa is giving us something new ... On its back bosom arose one of the
earliest, of self-protecting civilizations, and grew so mightily that it still furnishes superlatives to thinking and speaking men. Out of
its darker and more remote forest vastness came, if we may credit many recent scientists, the first welding of iron, and we know that
agriculture and trade flourished there when Europe was a wilderness.
Dr. DuBois tells us further that, "Nearly every human empire that has arisen in the world, material and spiritual, has found some of
its greatest crises on this continent of Africa. It was through Africa that Christianity became the religion of the world ... It was through
Africa that Islam came to play its great role of conqueror and civilizer."
Egyptian and the nations of the Nile Valley were, figuratively, the beating heart of Africa and the incubator for its greatness for more
than a thousand ears. Egypt gave birth to what later would become known as "Western Civilization," long before the greatness of
Greece and Rome.
This is a part of the African story, and in the distance it is a part of the African American story. It is difficult for depressed African
Americans to know that they are a part of the larger story of the history of the world. The history of the modern world was made, in the
main, by what was taken from African people. Europeans emerged from what they call their "Middle-Ages," people poor, land poor and
resources poor. They raided and raped the cultures of the world, mostly Africa, and filed their homes and museums with treasures, then
they called the people primitive. The Europeans did not understand the cultures of non-Western people then; they do not understand
them now.
Africa came into the Mediterranean world mainly through Greece, which had been under African influence; and then Africa was cut
off from the melting pot by the turmoil among the Europeans and the religious conquests incident to the rise of Islam. Africa, prior to
these events, had developed its history and civilization, indigenous to its people and lands. Africa came back into the general picture
of history through the penetration of North Africa, West Africa and the Sudan by the Arabs. European and American slave traders
next ravaged the continent. The imperialist colonizers and missionaries finally entered the scene and prevailed until the recent re-
emergence of independent African nations.
Contrary to a misconception which still prevails, the Africans were familiar with literature and art for many years before their contact
with the Western World. Before the breaking-up of the social structure of the West African states of Ghana, Mali and Songhay and
To understand fully any aspect of African American life one must realize that the African American is not without a cultural past,
though he was many generations removed from it before his achievements in American literature and art commanded any appreciable
attention.
Africana or Black History should be taught every day, not only in the schools, but also in the home. African History Month should
be every month. We need to learn about all the African people of the world, including those who live in Asia and the islands of the
Pacific.
In the twenty-first century there will be over one billion African people in the world. We are tomorrow's people. But, of course,
we were yesterday's people too. With an understanding of our new importance we can change the world, if first we change
ourselves.
TOPIC ONE
SOURCES AND IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY
CONCEPT OF HISTORY
“History is a clock that people use to tell their time of day. It is a compass that they use to find themselves
on the map of human geography. It also tells them where they are, and what they are. Most importantly,
an understanding of history tells a people where they still must go, and what they still must be”. John
Henrik Clarke.
Herodotus (484? -425 BC), Greek historian, born in Halicarnassus (now Thucydides (circa 460-c. 400 BC), Greek historian
Bodrum, Turkey). known for his History of the Peloponnesian War, a
He provided information about ancient Greece, North Africa, and the Middle conflict in which he himself had been an important
East. Herodotus traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean world, participant. This book earned him a reputation as one
observing the different peoples he encountered and studying the military of the foremost historians of antiquity.
history of the region. Known as the father of history, Herodotus produced a Antiquity means ancient (old) history, especially the
narrative compilation of his findings, entitled History. period of time during which the ancient Greek and
Roman civilizations flourished
MEANING OF HISTORY
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, history refers to all events that happened in the past. We can talk about the
history of many things, such as countries, people, towns, animals, plants or buildings. For example, the fact that you were born on a
certain day in a certain year is history.
History may also be defined as a branch of knowledge which deals with past events of human beings and their response to their
environment over the years.
R.G Collingwood, in his book The Idea of History (OUP 1994), defined history as a “science concerned with the human actions in
the past, pursued by interpretation of evidence for the sake of Human self-knowledge”
History is a science because it involves finding out things about the past Humankind. It uses scientific methods to try and find out
the origins of man and how man survived in his environment. For example, why he was a toolmaker, why he domesticated animals
and plants? how did man start to use fire? These are questions that provoke scientific curiosity.
History also includes the study of past human activities that influence present and future human achievements. For example, after
discovering fire, man discovered how to cook food? The various cooking methods used today developed from those discoveries.
History is the endless study of past human events and activities. Human history gets longer with every passing moment. Something
that is happening now will be history the next minute. The events happen today will be history tomorrow and in the years to come.
Example, your joining on form one this year, it will be your history in the rest of your life. It is recorded and it can be r emembered
in the future, that is history.
From the above definitions in narrowing them down, one can also say: -
History is a record of human activities.
History is an account of events that took place in the past.
History is the past of anything; of earth, man, disease or animals
History is a branch of knowledge dealing with past events
History is a science concerned with past Human actions
History is a narration of continuing events of man from the past to the recent time (i.e. present)
Since History at secondary level is specifically concerned with the past as it relates to humankind and his response to his environment
over the years, therefore, the following definition can be used to conclude its meaning.
History is an academic discipline which uses a narrative (in written or unwritten form) to examine and analyze the sequences
of the endless story of mankind’s actions and past events, and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that
determine them.
Prehistory refers to the unrecorded history- those activities that humans engaged in before writing and drawing were invented as
ways of storing information. Such information is gained from songs, myths, stories, artefacts, fossils and the language of a people.
According to Carr, E.H (1961). Not all past events are historical events and not all which are said about the past are historical facts.
Some people, either purposely mistakenly, the truth about the past or their misunderstanding of historical facts or event, misinform
people about the past. And always, misinforming people in any occasion, intentionally or unintentionally, is the beginning of
poisoning the society. Teaching is mechanization or feeding of the brain. The health of the brain depends on the right food you give
the patient. Like in the hospital, poor dosage may adversely affect the patient.
For example, today most of students have been taught that the first man was a monkey and the world Tanzania is a blending of two
words, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. When lies dominates the society, is becoming a cancer that only few may survive. Today, it is very
hard to convince people that, the old Israelites were not white people. Because intentionally people had to be fed wrong information
that today is fact to most people.
“Not all facts are historical facts. But the distinction between historical and unhistorical facts is not rigid or constant; and any fact
may, so to speak, be promoted to the status of a historical fact once its relevance and significance are discerned…. Facts cannot be
derived from values. This is partly true, but may also be misleading, and requires qualification. When we seek to know the facts, the
questions which we ask, and therefore the answers which we obtain, are prompted by our system of values”.
A clue to this problem of facts and values is provided by our ordinary use of the word 'truth' - a word which links the world of fact
and the world of value, and is made up of elements of both.
It may be a fact that I went to Dodoma last week. But you would not ordinarily call it a truth: it is lacking of any value content. On
the other hand, when people say that all men are created equal, you may feel that the value content of the statement predominates
over the factual content, and may on that account challenge its right to be regarded as a truth. Somewhere between these two issues,
valueless facts and value judgements still struggling to transform themselves into facts - lies the realm of historical truth.
“The historian, is balanced between fact and interpretation, between fact and value. He cannot separate them. It may be that, in a
static world, you are obliged to pronounce a divorce between fact and value. But history is meaningless in a static world. History in
its essence is change, movement, or progress”. Carr, (1961)
CLASSIFICATION OF HISTORY
The study of humankind’s past can be classified systematically into three;
Social history- dealing with the traditions, values and cultural practices of a people
Economic history; dealing with the means of livelihood of a people, such as hunting, gathering, agriculture and trade.
Political history; dealing with the control system in a society, for example maintenance of law and order, leadership and
security.
To construct history means to write or to collect some historical facts so as to tell it to the people who are unware of those facts/truth
of the past.
1. ORAL TRADITION
Oral traditions refer to historical information that is handed down by word of mouth, usually by elders, from one generation to
another.
This forms a very important source of historical information especially where exists a non-literate society who might not be able
to read.
Oral Tradition or Word of Mouth, is a preservation of personal and cultural history in the oral communication of stories, songs,
and poems. By retelling or reenacting a tale learned from another, it is kept alive for a new generation.
Oral traditions include folk tales, proverbs, songs and stories. Songs, proverbs folktales and stories told to a younger generation
have been very instrumental in the passing of information from one generation to the other. For example, a song about our
struggle for independence in Tanzania during TANU, passes very important information to the younger generation, who not yet
had born at that time.
According to Lynch, P. A (2004). Africa has a long and rich oral tradition that survives to this day. Cultural beliefs, traditions,
histories, myths, legends, and rules for living have been passed down orally from generation to generation. The keepers of the oral
tradition are bards—tribal poet-singers and storytellers. Bards (like poets and songsters) are charged with remembering and passing
along a culture’s history and tradition through story and song. Almost all existing epics come from recordings of live performances
by African bards (known by the French term griot in western Africa).
African storytelling has always been an interactive process, in which audiences are encouraged to help tell the story. Songs are an
important part of the story. Often, a bard will team up with a singer to perform myths and legends. The bard will act as the narrator,
introducing the characters and telling their stories. At times, the singer will take over and lead the audience in what is known as a
“call and response” style of storytelling. Taking the part of one of the characters, the singer will sing a line or two and then encourage
the audience to respond with a specific refrain.
For example, in a tale about an orphan who visits her mother’s grave, the call and response goes something like this:
Singer: “Oh Mother, I am hungry, I am hungry.”
The audience (responding as the dead mother): “My daughter suffers. My daughter suffers.”
Singer: “My older sister gives me rotten cornmeal to eat.”
The audience: “My daughter suffers. My daughter suffers.”
Because they are part of an oral tradition, African myths and legends are flexible and creative, depending on who is telling the story
and why. Tribal elders may use a particular legend to teach religious beliefs or reinforce proper behavior, while children often tell
Choosing the same tale to teach mothers to keep track of their children, the storyteller might create a character of a foolish mother
whose laziness is responsible for her child being eaten by the lion. A child who tells the same story to a group of friends might want
to emphasize how clever children are, making the disobedient child outsmart the lion by doing something silly, like farting in its face
to get away. An adult telling the same story might show the father saving the child from the lion by diverting the lion’s attention
with a whistle.
European explorers, anthropologists, and missionaries were also sources of information about African religions, customs, traditions,
and mythologies. One of the most important of these persons—in terms of the quantity of records of African culture he gathered and
published—was the German explorer and ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873–1938). Between 1904 and 1935, Frobenius led 12
expeditions to Africa. His collections of African epics, legends, myths, and folk tales—which include the famous Soninke and Fulbe
epics—were enormous and were published in 12 volumes.
Finally, present-day religions are an important source of African mythology. The mythologies of African cultures cannot be separated
from African religions.
2. HISTORICAL SITES
Are special places where by the past human remains can be
found and shown to the public. It is a place where the
remains of once lived human in the past can be found.
They comprise man’s physical development, tools that were
made and used from time to time.
In these areas we find /see past human products and animal EAST AFRICAN HISTORICAL SITES
bones.
Examples of historical sites in Tanzania include Isimila, Olduvai George, Kondoa Irangi, Bagamoyo, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Mafia,
Engaruka, Kagera etc.
In Uganda Nsongezi, Biggo, Ntubi, Rusinga Island, Magosi and Ishago.
In Kenya. Lake Rudolf (Turkana), Lake Naivasha, Njoro, Olongesailie, Lake Magadi, Lamu, Mombasa and Mt. Kenya
After studying the available artefacts, the archaeologist formulates his concept of a people’s civilization at the time the artefacts were
used. The existence of artefacts in an area can enable the historian to deduce the material culture of the people who lived in the past.
Historians and archaeologists work with natural scientists like paleontologists, geologists and ecologists and chemistry in discovering
fossils, getting information about soil structure, interpreting man’s relationship to his environment and dating of fossils.
FUNCTIONS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
1. Gives important information about man through different stages.
2. It is a useful method of revealing soil covered historical remains.
3. It arouses curiosity of searching past man historical information.
4. Archaeological remains provide evidence of the material culture during a certain period of history, for example the tools
people used and the clothes they wore.
5. Archaeological methods are used to date materials from the past. This gives a sense of time to historical events.
6. Archaeologists recreate past events using actual objects. For example, past settlement patterns can be traced from the
arrangement of ruins. Also, the remains of animal's teeth can tell a lot about its feeding habits.
7. Archaeology complements other sources of history. For example, if oral traditions state that a certain area was sacred,
finding archaeological remains of altars and idols in the ground would help to validate these claims.
8. By comparing remains from different sites, archaeologists can determine past relations between groups of people, for
example trade, war or migration.
ADVANTAGES OF ARCHAEOLOGY
1. It helps people to know when and how people lived in a certain place.
2. It helps us to know and reveal the technology, pastoral, agricultural and commercial activities of the past man.
3. It reveals religious beliefs of the past man
4. We can know the past relationship between different people such as trading activities, migration, marriage, birth, death and
political relation.
5. Archaeology complements other sources of history and ensures authenticity or truth of information. For example, if there
is a narrative told of an ancient wealthy or trading city, archaeological remains of gold objects in that area would give
validity to the story.
6. Archaeology gives us detailed information on material culture that other sources may not have. This means, past objects
tell us about the life and culture of past people; for example, the type of ornaments people wore or money they used.
7. Using archaeological methods, objects can be dated to give an idea of when they were used and therefore when certain
things happened.
8. Through excavation, we get knowledge of artifacts e.g. Pottery, building etc. because, Archaeology is a source of varied
information
9. Archaeology gives a sense of time, as the artefacts are dated.
10. It provides information of varied nature depending on the materials found on the site. For example, if tools, weapons, coins,
bones, rock paintings and other items are located, at a site, a lot of information maybe deduced.
DISADVANTAGES OR LIMITATIONS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
1. It consumes time because of excavation.
2. It cannot reveal the past people’s language.
3. It cannot give out the out reasons for historical events such as wars.
4. Poorly interpreted remains can bring false information
5. It cannot tell anything about the past social organization
6. Archaeology cannot be used to study recent history. It is limited to the study of ancient history.
7. Archaeology is expensive because it requires hired labourers to dig the site, collect the artefacts and take them to the
laboratories for close examination. Archaeological equipment is also costly.
8. It is sometime difficult for archaeologists to locate an archaeological site.
9. Some artefacts and fossils are fragile and can therefore break or disintegrate during excavation. This may result in distortion
of the analysis of the artefacts.
10. Archaeology is only limited to the study of the ancient period and therefore cannot be used to study recent history.
11. Archaeological information may sometimes be inaccurate since it is often bases on inferences (conclusions) and
reconstructions.
What things do archaeologists use to construct the activities of people who lived in pre-history times?
1. Looking for regions of tectonism (faulting) associated with fossils and artifacts.
2. They look for unique features e.g. stone patterns.
3. Remains of fossils and artifacts dug out by farmers and constructors.
4. They dig, excavate for artifacts and fossils.
5. They study artifacts and fossils found.
6. They make research in regions associated with evolution of man e.g. rift valley.
7. They classify the artifacts and fossils.
8. They use chemical and scientific methods to find ages of their findings e.g. carbon 14-dating method
What problems face archaeologists in their work of re writing history using unwritten sources?
1. The exercise is too expensive.
2. It is dangerous and tedious. Animals like wild dogs can attack scientists.
3. Identification of the site is not easy because some artifacts are buried.
4. Some artifacts can be destroyed in the process of digging.
5. Dating of fossils is difficult.
6. Personnel are few hence more work.
7. Poor infrastructure in rural areas where their researches are mainly based
8. Archaeologists may suffer from diseases caused by changes in climate.
9. Sometimes the climate of their residence differs from that of the place they are taking research. This creates discomfort.
4. ARCHIVES
These are places where collection of public and private
documents and old record are preserved. These
documents include personal letters, early travelers and
missionary records, traders’ writings, personal and
government files, political parties’ documents, etc.
FUNCTIONS OF ARCHIVES
1. Archives preserve public and private records that
have enduring value to the society.
2. The public makes the records in archives available for use.
3. However not all records can be viewed by everyone.
4. Archives collect records of enduring value from various places. For example, the nation archives have records from different
regions of the country.
5. The archives staff maintains registers of the record in the archives.
6. Archives have facilities for restoring damaged documents of enduring value.
7. Archives have facilities for restoring damaged documents of enduring value.
8. The historical information in the archives ensures continuity. For example, company policies from previous years can still
guide the employee today.
ADVANTAGES OF ARCHIVES
1. Easy to identify ideas and literacy level of the past man.
2. It is easy to identify the exact date of historical event.
3. It used to store historical information.
4. Easy to get historical information from different places and different people.
DISADVANTAGES OF ARCHIVES
1. It may lead false information, if author is biased.
2. Illiterate people cannot get historical information.
3. It is not easy to get information of society whose information is not documented.
4. It is difficult to get remote information from archives.
5. It is nonrenewable once disrupted either by wind or o
FUNCTIONS OF MUSEUMS
Preserve historical documents and objects.
Shows concrete remains of objects.
It is the place for tourist and study tour.
It is the center for cultural and national identity.
ADVANTAGES OF MUSEUMS
It preserves objects, which are used as the teaching aids.
Museum preserves culture and national identity.
It used by researcher (source of information)
It acts as tourist center.
People learn about technological development.
Enable learners to arouse creativity.
DISADVANTAGES OF MUSEUMS.
It needs knowledgeable people.
It is possible to distort information through biases by the museum attendant.
Poor preservation of the past items e.g. coins, pieces of cloth, slaves chain can distort information.
It needs extensive care to maintain its beauty or origin.
6. WRITTEN RECORDS
Are the documents, which comprise written historical information. This includes books, letters, maps, magazines, journal,
newspaper, minutes of meetings and conferences. Written records can be found in libraries, schools, colleges, universities,
internet cafes, offices etc.
These are sources in which letters or any other symbols have been put on the surface for the purpose of communication. They
include books, archives, constitutions, journals, novels, plays, newspapers, magazines, documentaries, dairies, annual reports,
periodical and paintings.
Works of fiction such as films plays and novels are important source of historical information. (Fiction is literature in form of prose,
especially novels that describe imaginary events and people).
Since work of fiction involves feelings and emotions, they can give more information about history. Also reading good historical
novels arouses interest in history and gives the reader intellectual fulfillment.
Newspapers convey new or fresh events, which with the passing of time becomes history.
The ancient, prized manuscripts of Timbuktu, one of the largest written records of Islamic and African history from the 13 th to 18th
centuries, have long been housed in the city’s libraries. However, the collection was moved to Bamako by a team of historians after
militants occupied Timbuktu and threatened to burn the manuscripts.
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FUNCTIONS OF WRITTEN RECORDS
1. Written records provide pictures of society.
2. These records reflect public opinion at the time of writing. For example, the letter to the editor in newspaper expresses the
readers’ feelings on current issues.
3. Written records serve as stores of a large variety of information, including discoveries, government policies, statements,
religious beliefs, fashion, speeches and agreement.
4. In-depth reports of daily events are kept as written records. For example, in a diary, newspaper or biography.
7. LINGUISTICS
This refers to the scientific study of languages.
Historical linguistics is the study of language as it changes in the course of time. It seeks to trace the principles of language
change and establish the current genealogical classification of a particular language.
Such a study helps in discovering language form, content, vocabulary and historical experiences of the people who speak the
language.
Distribution of language and relationship between languages is important to a historian. People who speak related languages
may be assumed to have a common origin, be connected, or had been in close contact at some time in the past.
Variations between languages of the same family can show how long ago the break in contact occurred.
ADVANTAGES OF LINGUISTICS
1. It helps to get information from various sources.
2. It helps to determine dates of historical event e.g. “Aluta continua” (Period of struggle for independence in Mozambique)
3. Through linguistics, Facts can be obtained about the movement of people and their relationship. Such information helps
experts to correctly group languages according to language families.
LIMITATIONS OF LINGUISTICS
1. The present language may be corrupted.
2. It is time and money consuming; learning a language takes a long time therefore delaying acquisition of information.
3. There is a danger of omitting a word when translating a language. In the process, vital information about a
people’s history may be lost.
4. Inaccurate information can be passed on where wrong words are borrowed from other languages.
5. Some words may just be difficult to understand.
6. Some languages have become archaic (old-fashioned) and irrelevant hence difficult to translate.
7. Misinterpretation of words may make them difficult to understand.
8. Linguistic analysis for classification purposes may fail to take into account languages with time.
9. One word may have different meanings in different languages. This can easily confuse a researcher.
10. Lack of original speakers in the language under study limits research findings.
11. Some languages are hard to write or understand like of the bushmen like Hadzabe, Tindiga, Sandawe and Khoikhoi
8. ANTHROPOLOGY:
Anthropology is the study of all aspects of human
life and culture. Anthropology examines such topics
as how people live, what they think, what they
produce, and how they interact with their
environments. It can also be defined as, the study of
the society’s cultural systems, beliefs, ideas etc. The
study can give important information about
movements, settlements and production activities of
the past.
The anthropological description of the beliefs and customs of a people will help the historian to determine the cultural past of the
people
Anthropologists ask such basic questions as: When, where, and how did humans evolve? How do people adapt to different
environments? How have societies developed and changed from the ancient past to the present?
Answers to these questions can help us understand what it means to be human. They can also help us to learn ways to meet the
present-day needs of people all over the world and to plan how we might live in the future.
ADVANTAGES OF ANTHROPOLOGY
1. Helps the historian to find traces of the past in the present social structures of the society, forms of social organization, cultures,
etc.. Therefore, using the current reliable information helps us to understand how the past was.
2. Helps the historian to reconstruct the past elements of all cultures. The historian studies the information and research techniques
used by the anthropologist to arrive at a certain conclusion.
3. Anthropologists assist historians to determine the cultural past of the people.
4. It also gives a deeper understanding of a particular aspect of a people’s culture.
DISADVANTAGES OF ANTHROPOLOGY
1. It is an expensive method as it involves living among the people. who under study may try to behave differently when the
researcher is around. A researcher may therefore miss important details.
2. It is a time-consuming method of acquiring information. It is difficult for a researcher to adapt to the environment since the
people they are studying may be of a totally different culture. Where they succeed in adapting, they face the risk of losing their
own culture.
3. A comparison of the social institutions of various societies over a wide area might indicate the influence of one culture upon
another and the time when these cultures developed and spread which may create misunderstanding and hatred between the
different societies
4. The works of anthropology are very limited to time and environment. In the present people may be living in a condition far
different from what their ancestors lived; in the long run the anthropologist will not get the necessary information required in
his study.
5. The knowledge of the anthropologist in this case is very important as one can easily exaggerate or underestimate or interpret
basing on his knowledge a thing that will affect the whole process of trying to reconstruct history. This therefore means that
objectivity of history does not mean objectivity of facts but interpretation.
6. This method is too tiresome. The anthropologist has to live among the people and learn their culture which enables him to
understand all the different aspects of life of a given society and to determine whether it is authentic and worth studying.
7. Generalization; anthropologists may generalize some characteristics which doesn’t either exist or match the particular society
which makes some historian to approve some idea concerning particular explanation. Under this circumstance one may conclude
that, some historian may become bias to reveal the real truth about certain culture. For example, the idea of physical appearance
of some African tribes and the technological advancement of African societies before the coming of foreigners.
9. ELECTRONIC SOURCES.
These include Audio sources such as Radio, audio books and other recorded sounds in electronic devices, like tape, flash, memory
cards, etc.) Visual only sources like slide show with picture and details and Audio-visual like Microfilms, Videos/cinema.
Television, Projectors, slide show with sounds, etc.)
Radio.
This is an authoritative source of historical information SOME ELECTRONIC DEVICES THAT CAN BE USED TO GET
that captures words and emotions of an event as I was. HISTORICAL INFORMATION
For example, radio news on the president’s speeches
gives listeners the actual information on national
matters. However, radio lacks the vividness found in
television and films.
Audiobook, audio recording of a person reading a
book, story, or other written text. People can listen to
audiobooks on cassette or compact disc; they can also
access them through the Internet by downloading audio
programs to their computers.
Films/Videos carry indisputable historical facts as action is recorded live. They also give better understanding of some aspects of
the social history of a given people with regard to their music, dress and leisure activities. Videos and films make the past come
alive.
However, since films are acted, they can sometimes be unrealistic as they may not present facts but an exaggerated version of an
event.
Television on its part gives good historical information as it depicts the situation as it was Databanks and databases.
Databanks are large stores of organized information which can be accessed in number of ways. E.g. if it is a book, information can
be accessed through an index, a table of content or by browsing.
Electronic databases are stored in computer and facilitate easy and faster retrieval of information. One can search for information by
use of a number of search terms.
Information in a database can be printed when required but can also be accessed instantly on computer.
1. They are Subject to bias since most audio visuals contain foreign materials carrying the bias of the producer.
2. Some are limited to the literate only e.g. information in data bases and microfilms can only be accessed by literate people and
even computer literate people only.
3. The information may be inaccurate only giving what is appealing to the public.TV crew depict only what they want to.
Censorship may leave out vital information.
4. Electronic sources of information are too expensive; most people cannot afford e.g. TV, Radios.
5. Some acted films are unrealistic and therefore contain exaggerated information
Muslims start their calendar at Hijra A.H, (Al Hijra or after Hijra) this is when Prophet Muhammad S.A.W (born in the year 570
A.D. and died in the year 632 A.D.), in the year 622 A.D. fled from Mecca to Medina while he was spreading Islam.
Muhammad left Mecca just as his enemies were preparing to murder him, and he arrived in Medina eight days later.
“Hegira or Hejira (Arabic hijrah, means “flight”), specifically, flight in 622AD of Muhammad from Mecca
to Yathrib (now Medina), both in what is now Saudi Arabia; by extension, the term is applied to any similar
flight or emigration. Caliph Umar I, selected the year of the Hegira as the first year of the Muslim era. Hence,
ad 622 became 1 ah (anno hegirae) in the Muslim calendar, which Umar systematized in 639”. Microsoft
Encarta, 2009
1. Recalling events: - here important events are recalled/remembered e.g. drought, famine (hunger/starvation), floods, birth,
eruption of diseases, wars, natural disasters like earthquakes, etc.
TOPIC TWO
EVOLUTION OF MAN, TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT
The English naturalist Charles Darwin first proposed his theory of evolution in 1859 (The Origin of Species). When he applied his theory to the origins of human
beings (The Descent of Man, 1871), he suggested that the birthplace of humankind was prob4bly Africa. At the time Darwin's ideas provoked great controversy
in Europe. This was partly for reasons, Darwin challenged the Biblical notion that God created humankind and all other modern living creatures in a single,
spontaneous week of creation. Darwin's publications also came at a time of heightening European imperial expansion. His writings thus flew in the face of
European notions of racial superiority. Many Europeans found it hard to accept that their own most ancient ancestors had originally come from Africa. Since
the 1950s, however, scientific research in the dry savannah grasslands and woodlands of Southern, Eastern and Northern Africa have provided sufficient
evidence to confirm the truth of Darwin's proposition: Africa is indeed the 'cradle of humankind'. And, what is more, it seems that Africa is the origin not only
of the human species itself, but also of many of the more important technological innovations developed in the ancient world of early human prehistory. Africa
is the only continent in which evidence has been found for man's early evolution. The material evidence for human evolution depends largely upon the recovery
and examination of ancient bones, fossils, stone tools and other artefacts.
SHILLINGTON, K. 2005, pg. 1
Even in prehistory period, people were in great desire to know their origin. Prehistory is the time before written records appeared,
which occurred about 3000 BC. Prehistory includes the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. Societies without written records
preserved their history through stories and myths passed orally from one generation to another. Through stories and myths which
were passed orally, people were telling their children and their generation about their origin, origin of sin and hardship of man, and
so on. Throughout history, philosophers, religious thinkers, and scientists have attempted to explain the history and variety of life on
Earth. During the rise of modern science in western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, a predominant view held that God created
every organism on Earth more or less as it now exists. The increasing interest in the study of fossils and natural history, allowed the
beginnings of a modern evolutionary theory to take shape. Early evolutionary theorists proposed that all of life on Earth evolved
gradually from simple organisms. Their knowledge of science was incomplete, however, and their theories left too many questions
unanswered. Most prominent scientists of the day remained convinced that the variety of life on Earth could only result from an act
of divine creation. Therefore, origin of man can be explained under three categories of theories, which attempt to explain the origin
of man namely, theory of creation, the mythical theory and the theory of evolution.
Every culture has its creation account—a story that explains how the universe, Sun, Moon, stars, Earth, humans, animals, and all that
forms the world came into being. Almost universally throughout Africa, one Supreme Being was held to be responsible for the
creation of everything in existence. Creation accounts are as diverse as the cultures of different tribal groups. One of the themes of
African creation accounts is the “cosmic egg myth,” in which an egg was the beginning of life. A second theme is that of the sacred
word through which creation proceeds or that is given to humanity by the Creator.
Origin of Human; The creation of human beings is mentioned in many accounts. In some African myths, humans were in existence
from the beginning (sometimes in spirit form) and lived in the heavens with the Creator. At some point, the Creator allowed the
humans to descend to Earth to live. In many tales that describe how humans were created, they were made from clay.
The Shilluk tribe of Sudan explains differences in peoples’ skin color with a creation tale about Juok, their supreme god. Juok
traveled to different parts of the Earth to use local clay to make each race of men. When he traveled north, he found light-colored
clay, which he used to make Europeans. Traveling east, he found reddish-brown clay, which was used to make Arab people. In
Africa, Juok found rich black clay, which he used to create African people.
A similar “clay man” creation myth from the Nuba tribe in northern Sudan offers a different reason for racial differences: the
temperature the Creator used to bake his clay men in the oven. The first batch was left in the oven too long and came out black; these
men were sent south on the Nile River to live in Ethiopia. The second batch was taken out too soon and became white men, who
were sent north. By the third batch, the Creator had finally figured out how long to bake his clay men, who emerged perfectly reddish
brown in color. The men of the third batch pleased the Creator so much that they were allowed to stay in the Sudan.
Arebati, the Efe and Mbuti Creator, made the first human from clay, covered the clay with skin, and poured blood into the skin to
bring the human to life. In the Yoruba tradition, Obatala, the representative on Earth of Olorun (the Supreme God), made humans
out of clay, and Olorun breathed life into them. Ama, the Creator figure of the Jukun of Nigeria, is described as building humans up
bone by bone in the way a potter builds a pot from strips of clay. Woyengi, the female Creator of the Ijo of Nigeria, created humans
from soil.
In some traditions, human life began in or under a tree. For the Damara and Herero of Namibia, the first humans originated from the
omumboronbonga tree. A man and a woman were first to emerge, followed by oxen. According to the Nuer of Sudan, humans were
created under a tamarind tree. According to the Mbuti of Democratic Republic of the Congo, a chameleon, hearing a strange noise
in a tree, cut open its trunk. Water came out in a great flood that spread all over the Earth. The first man and woman emerged with
the water. In other emergence myths, people came out of a hole in the ground or a cave.
According to the Shangaan of Zimbabwe, n’wari, the bird god, bored a hole in a reed and laid an egg in the hole. The first human
hatched from this egg. In the zulu creation account, people grew on reeds in a primordial swamp. For the Thonga people of
Mozambique and South Africa, the first humans also emerged either from a reed or a reedy marsh.
In one of the more unusual stories about human origins, Bumba, the Bushongo Creator, vomited up humans. In another unusual tale,
told by the Yao of Malawi and Mozambique, a chameleon found the first humans in a fish trap. Mungu, the Nandi and Swahili
Creator, made humans from the light of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. To have deep knowledge about this theory, let us examine some
of tribes and their belief in creation and origin of human beings.
In Eastern Africa, Mulungu (Mlungu, Mungu, Murun-gu) is the widely spread name of the Supreme God and Creator; many peoples
worshiped him as a sky god whose voice was thunder. In a creation account of the Kamba of Kenya, the first man and woman
emerged from a termite hole, and a second pair—along with a cow, goat, and sheep—were thrown down from the heavens by
Mulungu. From these four people and their children came the clans of the Kamba, Kikuyu, and Maasai.
Among the Nandi and the Swahili of Kenya and Tanzania, The Creator who they call Mungu, made the heavens and Earth. In the
beginning, Earth and sky were the same, until Mungu placed the sky above the Earth. He created the Earth’s waters and the rain.
Then Mungu created fire and the Sun, Moon, and stars. From the light that these created, Mungu made human beings. When he
placed humans on Earth, the harmony of their lives was linked to the movements of the heavenly bodies. This harmony was
sometimes disrupted when a snake approached the Moon and swallowed it. It was the responsibility of people on Earth to intervene
with the snake on behalf of the Moon and force the snake to vomit up the Moon.
According to the Nyamwezi people of Tanzania, Mulungu (The Creator) could not be reached by worship. Communication could
take place only through a hierarchy of spirits that served as intermediaries between humans and the Supreme God. The first people
rejected a medicine that would have given them immortality because the first woman advised them that following death they would
return to the spirit world. The Nyamwezi did not associate death with Mulungu. Instead, an evil spirit was believed to bring death
and misfortune to humans.
According to the Shangaan of Zimbabwe, n’wari, the bird god, bored a hole in a reed and laid an egg in the hole. The first human
hatched from this egg. In the zulu creation account, people grew on reeds in a primordial swamp.
For the Thonga people of Mozambique and South Africa, the first humans also emerged either from a reed or a reedy marsh. In one
of the more unusual stories about human origins, Bumba, the Bushongo Creator, vomited up humans (see bushongo creation account).
The Makua of Malawi and Mozambique, calls their god Muluku; The Supreme God and Creator, who made the Earth and created
the first humans. According to myth, after he created Earth, Muluku dug two holes. A man emerged from one hole and a woman
from the second. He gave them land and the tools they needed to live and instructed them in how to cultivate crops, care for the land,
and use what the Earth gave them. However, instead of working the land, the people went into the forest to live off what they could
find there. Muluku then summoned two monkeys and gave them the same tools and instructions. The monkeys followed his
instructions and pleased him. He cut off the monkeys’ tails and attached them to the humans, saying that from that time on the
humans would be monkeys, and the monkeys would be humans.
In the Herero (Namibia) their god is known as Mukuru; The ancestor god and Creator of the Herero people. Mukuru was considered
a benevolent god who brought life-giving rain, healed the sick, and supported the elderly. When people died, it was because they
were called home by Mukuru. The Herero viewed their tribal chief as the incarnation of Mukuru and believed that he continued
Mukuru’s task as a bringer of culture.
Modimo is the name of Sotho (Lesotho, South Africa) Supreme God, Creator, and head of the Sotho pantheon of gods. As in the
case of many other African deities, Modimo was a god with dual aspects. He was viewed as both father and mother of humanity, as
being in the sky and also in the Earth. When a lightning bolt appeared to enter the Earth, it was said that Modimo was returning to
himself. Modimo was a powerful god, feared for his vengefulness and his control of fire, but at the same time he was seen as remote,
intangible, and unknowable. According to one myth, Modimo lived in a hole in the ground that was also the home of the dead.People
had both their beginning and their end within the Earth.
Makoni in Zimbabwe, on creation account says, in the beginning, Maori, the Supreme God and Creator, made the first man and
called him Mwuetsi, “Moon.” Maori placed Mwuetsi at the bottom of a lake (the sea in one version of the legend) and gave him a
ngona horn (an antelope horn symbolic of the crescent Moon) filled with ngona oil. Mwuetsi begged Maori to let him live on Earth.
Maori allowed him to do so but warned him that he would regret it; the end would be his death.
In the tribes of Anang and Efik of Nigeria. The Supreme God and Creator, who lived in the sky, is known by the name of Abbasi or
Abasi. Like many other African gods, Abassi had a dual nature and was effectively two gods: Abassi Onyong, “the god above,” and
Abassi Isong, “the god below.” According to the Efik, humans could communicate with the Supreme God through Abassi Isong.
The Anang said that Ikpa Ison, a fertility goddess and earth spirit, kept Abassi in touch with earthly activities by means of a vulture.
Spirits played important roles in Anang and Efik religion and mythology. These spirits included spirits of ancestors, guardian spirits,
and evil beings. Fifty-four spirits called nnem had significant religious, social, political, and economic functions. They brought
sacrifices to Abassi so that he could decide how to reward the humans who had made the sacrifices. Abassi created the world and
the first man and woman. Because Abassi did not want anyone to compete with him, he decided that the people he had created could
not be allowed to live on Earth. His wife, Atai, disagreed with him. She insisted that Abassi allow the couple to settle on Earth.
Abassi finally permitted them to do so but with two conditions: They could neither grow their own food nor have children. To make
it unnecessary for the couple to grow crops or hunt, Abassi rang a bell to summon them to the sky, where they ate all their meals
with him. The woman, however, began to till the soil and produce food. Her husband agreed that the food she grew was better than
the food Abassi gave them, so he joined her in the fields. The couple stopped having meals with Abassi. In time, they also began to
have children. Abassi told Atai that he had been right about not letting humans live on Earth; they had forgotten him. Atai reassured
him that humans would never be his equal. To keep people in their place, she sent death into the world.
As it is seen above, most creation stories assume the eternity of matter or even of the world itself. However, these myths hold that
the world in its precreation state was uninhabitable and must be organized either by the action of cosmic forces or by creator deities.
Certain images of the primal, or precreation, state of the universe are common to a number of mythological traditions. Some myths
represent the primal state as a void. Others depict it as a chaos of indistinct elements. Still others present it as a primeval sea, or as a
cosmic egg containing all things in embryonic form.
Some creation myths reflect the environmental circumstances of a particular culture. For example, in Mesopotamia, located between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, a dependence on irrigation systems and the perpetual threat of flooding were a pervasive feature of
life. Accordingly, the action and control of the waters played a major role in the mythology of Sumer, an early Mesopotamian
civilization. In Sumerian mythology, the primeval sea, personified by the goddess Nammu, is the source of the gods and of the
cosmos. When the gods decide to destroy their human creations, they do so by sending a flood (Deluge).
It is now clear that, through mythology people my elaborate the origin of man in different way.
Evolution can be defined as the process of change in living organisms over a number of years, frequently involving the beginning of
new species from earlier species.
According to Charles Darwin, man transformed from simple life slowly over millions of years through environmental mutation,
natural selection, isolation and adaptation.
1. Mutation was a stage of abrupt change.
2. Natural selection is an instinct by which the stronger species out competes the weaker for resources.
3. Adaptation is where the surviving species isolate themselves from others as they adapt to new environment through body changes
and technological changes e.g. ability to grow crops and make shelter.
According to Darwin, isolation and adaptation is the final stage in the evolution process. Having survived through mutation and
natural selection, the merging species increase in number. This leads to search for basic needs and in the process a species may be
isolated from the rest and then finally adapt to the new environment.
The theory of evolution holds that Humans belong to the animal kingdom and that man has evolved over the years. Man is a primate
just as apes like gorillas, chimpanzees and monkeys. However, man belongs to the family of hominidae, while apes belong to the
family of pongidae. Man, according to Darwin developed over the years from his ape-like ancestors.
Reasons why East Africa is regarded as the place where man first evolved
a) Evidence from archaeologists’ show that the earliest apes first evolved around lake and rift valley areas. And if man evolved
from apes, then the first man must have appeared in East Africa.
b) The savanna landscapes found in East Africa favored evolution while the conditions elsewhere (forests and deserts) Were
unfavourable.
c) The bones and weapons and tools which archaeologists are finding are proofs to this. These findings are widespread in Olduvai
Gorge, Olorgesaillie, and Ngorongoro and around lakes of East Africa.
d) The discovery of remains of early hominids and their material culture which form a pattern of human evolution prove this. E.g.
we can trace the evolutionary process from dryopithecus to ramapithecus to Australopithecus to Homo habilis to Homo erectus
to Homo sapiens.
Important archaeological sites found in East Africa.
In Tanzania; - Olduvai Gorge, Eyasi, Isimila, Apis Rock and Garusi
In kenya;- Rusinga Island, Fort Ternan near Kericho, Kariandusi near Elementaita, Gambles cave, Olorgesaillie, Kobi For a near
lake turkana, Hyrax Hill and Njoro River cave.
In Uganda; - Nsongezi, Napak, Magosi, Paraa, Ishanga, Mweya and Nyabusora
In Ethiopia; - Omo River Valley and Hadar.
There are significant gaps in the fossil evidence and so little is known about the earliest hominids. But it appears that sometime
between about ten million and five million years ago they moved out of the tropical forest into the more open savannah grasslands
and woodlands of East Africa. There they began to develop the techniques of standing and walking on two legs (bipedalism). Exactly
how and why they started doing this we do not know for sure, but in terms of survival and evolution it had a number of distinct
advantages. In the open savannah standing upright enabled them to see over the grassland and spot predators such as lion and leopard
who hunted them for food. Those best able to stand upright thus survived longer, reproduced more and passed this advantage on to
their descendants. A further highly important advantage of two-legged walking was that it left the hands free to carry food and use
tools. Fingers no longer needed to be short and strong for hanging on to branches in the forest. The early hominids were able to
evolve elongated fingers for performing intricate (complex or complicated) tasks and, eventually, for making their own tools.
The fossil record of the past five million years is continually being expanded with finds of early hominid fossils from Eastern and
Southern Africa as well as the Sahara. The evidence up to 1.5 million years ago forms a complex story of evolution and extinction
of numerous related species of early hominid. Most of these belong to the genus known as Australopithecus (`Southern ape'). They
were largely scavengers, some vegetarian, others meat-eaters, and had a brain capacity less than a third that of modern humans. They
were tool users rather than tool makers: they did not shape their own tools, but rather used whatever suitable sticks and stones they
found available.
An important change occurred about 2.5 million years ago with the evolution of the first tool makers. Because of this important
change these hominids have been designated Homo habilis (`handy man'), the first of the genus Homo. A number of animals, such
as chimpanzees, use sticks and other implements to assist in their searching for food. But the ability to make and shape one's own
tools and to use these tools for hunting as well as searching does seem to set the Homo line apart from other animals and the
Australopithecines. It is thought that modern humans are descended from Homo habilis, although their brain capacity was still barely
half that of modern human beings. Their stone tools, known as Oldowan (from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania where they were first
discovered), were simple chopping and cutting tools, made by chopping flakes off a volcanic pebble to form a sharp edge. Some of
the flakes thus removed were probably also used for cutting or scraping skins and perhaps for whittling sticks. The final shape of the
tool, however, was determined largely by the structure of the stone.
Some of the late species of Australopithecus continued to live alongside Homo habilis, but they found it increasingly difficult to
compete for food with the more efficient Homo species. By the time of the next major evolutionary advance, 1.5 million years ago,
the Australopithecines had all become extinct.
The next hominid to evolve in the Homo line was Homo ergaster (1.8 million years ago), from whom was descended the better-
known Homo erectus (`upright man') (1.5 million years ago). This was the first hominid to make specific and precise stone tools, to
a predetermined shape, requiring a major advance in brain-power. Homo erectus had a brain capacity two-thirds that of modern
humans.
Homo erectus was the first hominid to move out of Africa into Asia and Europe. Evidence of his remains, or the tools he made
between one million and half a million years ago have been found all over Africa, Southern Europe and Asia, even as far away as
China. The lost remains of 'Peking Man', first discovered in 1927, were probably late examples of Homo erectus.
The tool for which Homo erectus is best known is the land axe', usually referred to as Acheulian' after the place in Southern France
where one was first discovered. The hand axe was a tough, sharp, heavy tool, chipped on both sides and shaped to a deliberate point.
It could have been used for slicing, chopping or digging. Despite the origin of the name, the vast majority of Acheulian tools have
been found in Africa. Archaeologists have found some beautifully-made examples of the hand axe which must have been the product
of hours of skilled labour. Some may even have had symbolic ritual functions. There are certainly signs of some form of ritual or
early religion with the beginnings of the deliberate burial of the dead. Furthermore, with Homo erectus of the Acheulian period we
have the first sign of the use of regular, seasonal camps and cooperative hunting efforts as opposed to simple scavenging. They were
also the first hominids to learn the control and use of fire for roasting meat and probably for warmth. One of the most striking features
of the Acheulian `toolkit, whether in Africa, Asia or Europe, is the degree of similarity in shape and construction of tools, especially
the hand axe. This can be taken as further confirmation of the theory that the species Homo erectus all originally stemmed from one
source, and that source was Africa.
Fossil discoveries on a remote island of Indonesia in 2003 suggested that an evolutionary descendant of the Asian Homo erectus
might have survived into historic times. But there is some doubt about this evidence and it still seems likely that sometime between
1.5 million and 200,000 years ago Homo erectus and all other early hominids became extinct. They were replaced by an early or
archaic form of Homo sapiens (`wise man'), with a brain capacity nearly that of modern humans. This evolution again occurred in
In this period bone began to be used for making certain tools while stone tools were more varied and precise. Regional differences
in their style and manufacture became more apparent. A new technique was developed for striking stone flakes from a pre-prepared
'core'. There was thus less waste and the makers were able to concentrate on selecting only the best, most suitable kind of stone, such
as obsidian, a hard volcanic glass-like rock capable of producing a particularly sharp edge. The flakes themselves were touched up
and improved to produce better 'knives' and scrapers. Some of their shaped stone points were probably used as spear-heads, attached
to wooden shafts by vegetable glue and twine. This and other evidence suggests positive advances in individual hunting techniques.
There was greater use of fire and camps became more organised. Shelters were built out of branches, grass and stones, and in the
cooler climates of Northern and Southern Africa people sought shelter in caves.
Sometime between about 120,000 and 90,000 years ago the final evolution into fully modern human beings, Homo sapiens sapiens,
occurred in the savannah woodlands of Eastern and Southern Africa. These people had the same brain capacity and ability to think
as modern human beings. They were, in effect, the same as us. The only thing they lacked was our learned experience and
accumulated knowledge. They were thus the original pioneers in the development of human thought, philosophy, religion and
technology. Although population levels were still very low by today's standards, by 60,000 years ago Homo sapiens sapiens were to
be found across most of the African continent and had begun to move into Asia and Europe. By 10 000 BCE, (Before the Common
Era) they had spread to all the major regions of the world. Apart from the possibility of some species' survival in remote and isolated
parts of the world (mentioned above), it can generally be assumed that by the time Homo sapiens sapiens had spread to the whole of
the rest of the world, all other earlier Homo species had become extinct.
Since the earliest Homo sapiens sapiens came from tropical Africa, they were probably brown-skinned and similar in appearance to
one or more of the many variations of African peoples today. As they spread throughout Africa and colonized the other continents
of the world, they adapted to variations in climate and environment. Those in the heat of tropical Africa developed the darkest skin
to protect them from the harmful rays of the direct tropical sun. Those moving to cooler climates developed paler skins in order to
absorb more of the beneficial rays of the less direct sunlight. The so-called ‘racial differences’ between the various peoples of the
world are thus literally only skin-deep, local adaptations to climate and environment. All human beings belong to the same species,
and the origins of that species are to be found in Africa”.
Human Evolution is the lengthy process of change by which people originated from apelike ancestors. Scientific evidence shows
that the physical and behavioral traits shared by all people evolved over a period of at least 6 million years. The scientific study of
human evolution is called paleoanthropology.
- Humans are primates which means, the first man belongs to the family of primates that included Ape, Gorilla, Monkey and
Chimpanzee. Physical and genetic similarities show that the modern human species or Homo sapiens, has a very close
relationship to another group of primate species, the apes. Humans and the so-called great apes (large apes) of Africa—
chimpanzees (including bonobos, or so-called pygmy chimpanzees) and gorillas—share a common ancestor that lived sometime
between 8 million and 6 million years ago.
- The earliest humans evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans
who lived between 6 million and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa.
- One of the earliest defining human traits is bipedalism.
- Bipedalism is an ability of an organism to walk on two legs as the primary form of locomotion.
- It evolved more than 4 million years ago.
- Other important human characteristics—such as a large and complex brain, the ability to make and use tools, and the capacity
for language—developed more recently.
- Many advanced traits—including complex symbolic expression, such as art, and elaborate cultural diversity—emerged mainly
during the past 100,000 years.
Scientists have discovered the bones and artifacts of early humans in many parts of Africa and Eurasia. The earliest humans, known as australopithecines,
lived only in Africa. The modern human genus, Homo, also evolved in Africa, but several middle and late Homo species migrated to Europe and Asia.
Early forms of Homo sapiens, or modern humans, lived in Africa and Asia. Only fully modern humans populated the rest of the globe.
a) The skull size of the early human beings became larger indicating bigger brains. For example, Australopithecus, who lived
between 5 and 1 million years ago, had a brain capacity of 530cm3. Homo erectus who lived later on had an improved brain
capacity of between 775 and 1225cm3.
b) Their jaws and teeth became more powerful compared to earlier forms indicating their use in tearing and cutting tough fibres
and even the need for defence as a weapon. The size of the jaws and teeth became smaller.
c) They developed a refined speech as compared to earlier forms.
d) They were taller with less hair on their body.
e) The forearms and hands underwent some changes. They developed a thumb for grasping objects. Their arms and hands became
shorter, more appropriate for an upright posture.
f) Their leg and foot formation also changed. Their feet and toes were smaller than earlier hominids in order to support the weight
of the rest of the body while motionless or mobile. The toes were no longer in need for holding onto branches.
The following are the stages through which the evolution of man passed.
1) Aegyptopithecus - An Early African Monkey
- Aegyptopithecus was reconstructed from a monkey-like skull found at Fayum Depression in Egypt. He forms earliest
evidence of probable man's ancestors.
- Its Teeth were those of a herbivore
- It had a Small, about 4kg and was named Egyptian ape.
- It was highly adapted to forest life. Had stereoscopic vision.
- It could jump skillfully from one tree to other using hands. It Dated 33 million years
2) Dryopithecus Africanus (proconsul)
- Its Remains were found at Rusinga Island within Lake Victoria by Mary and Louis Leakey in 1948.
- Its Skull appearance was more close to modern man than to Aegyptopithecus.
- He had a quadrupedal movement like a chimpanzee. He had a Smooth forehead
- He had long teeth like other animals. The shape of his teeth and jaws indicated that He ate fruits.
- It is his remains that strengthen the belief that East Africa was the first homeland of mankind.
3) Kenyapithecus (Ramapithecus)
- He is believed to have appeared between 15 and 12 million years ago
- First remains found Fort Ternan in Kericho District, Kenya, in 1961 by Dr. Louis Leakey and Mary. Other fossils found at
Samburu Hills, near Lake Baringo as well as in the Lake Turkana basin.
- The equivalent species found in the Siwalikis Hills in northern India near New Delhi was named Ramapithecus
- He had small canines and could occasionally walk on twos without falling.
- The creature was small and weighed 36kg with bigger brains than earlier hominids.
4) Australopithecus (southern ape)
- By 4-2m years ago a series of species known as australopithecines begin to appear. Perhaps it was the earliest homid closer
to modern man.
- The pelvis and leg were similar to that of modern humans.
- They were bipedal and this was important in defence, grasp of objects and vision of an impending danger from a distance.
- His Brain size was smaller than that of a human but larger than gorilla’s.
- He was one of the hairiest hominid that ever existed.
- He was Short but strong with a low forehead. Had large teeth and skulls
- His remains were first discovered at Taung in Botswana by Raymond Dart in 1924.
- The broken up skull found in East Africa at Olduvai Gorge in 1959 by Mary Leakey, was called Zinjanthropus ‘Nut-Cracker
man ‘since it had big jaws that suggest it kept on chewing.
Other fossils found in South Africa, Omo River Valley, Laetoli in Tanzania, near L. Turkana and Baringo in kenya and L. Natron
Four types of Australopithecines that have been identified
a) Australopithecus Afarensis
b) Australopithecus Anamensis
c) Australopithecus Africanus.
d) Australopithecus Robustus
a) Australopithecus Anamensis
- He is aged between 4.2 and 3.9 million years ago and is believed to be one of the oldest Australopithecines.
- Evidence of his existence is obtained from the Reconstruction of Material consisting of 9 fossils from Kanapoi in Kenya
and 12 fossils from Allia Bay in Kenya found by Dr. Meave, Leakey, Dr. Allan Walker and the four fossil hunters (Kamoya
Kimeu, Wambua Mangao, Nzube Mutiwa and Samuel Ngui.)
- The fossil remains (comprising a lower jaw) were named A. Anamensis in August 1995 in a leading British Scientific
journal.
- He had relatively large canines.
b) Australopithecus Afarensis
- The homid was aged between 3.9 and 3.0 million years ago. Its Name is derived from Afar Depression in Ethiopia.
- He had Apelike face and human-like teeth.
- He was small in stature and Bipedal, but walked bent over, not fully upright.
- They had very small brains -Brain capacity from 375 to 500 cc – (Its Brain was the size of an orange.)
- They had a bony ridge over the eyes, a low forehead, a flat nose, and also they had no chin.
- Remains found at Laetoli in Tanzania and Tugen Hills in Baringo District.
c) Australopithecus Africanus (A. Gracilis)
- Africanus existed between 3 and 2.5 million years ago.
- A. Africanus was slenderly built, or Gracile (Gracile means slender) with a height of 1.5m.
- Was significantly more like modern humans than A. Afarensis, with a larger brain and more humanoid facial features.
- Had large teeth, jaws and skull
- Africanus has been found at only four sites in southern Africa — Taung (1924)
More recent discoveries of early man include the Toumai found in Chad in 2002 dating about 6 to 7 mya.
In 2000, another discovery was made in Baringo, Kenya (millennium man) and is believed to date 6mya. The discovery was made
by Martin Pickford and Eustace Gitonga of the National Museums of Kenya.
B. Homo habilis
It lived between 1,500,000 and 750,000 BC.
Homohabilis become more skillful man, because was systematic tools maker.
Homohabilis believed to be the direct ancestor of modern man.
He had bigger brain and he was more systematic toolmaker.
The skull of those creatures was discovered at Olduvai Gorge and in Eastern and Rudolf in Kenya.
3. HOMO ERECTUS.
During this stage, man was fully moving upright. He becomes more skillful tools maker than Homo habilis. Its fossils have been dug
up in Olorgesaille and near Lake Turkana in the Kenya, Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
4. HOMO SAPIENS
Its characteristics
He is a true man of today
Has a large brain in size
Has less thick jaws
He was highly skillful man
He made tools by using stones and bones.
NB: Archaeologist Dr. Leakey in Olduvai Gorge has supported the theory of evolution in 1959
Basic characteristics of human evolution.
(i) Development of man’s ability to design make and use tools.
(ii) Ability of man to walk on two limbs. (Bi-pedalism)
(iii) Ability of man to think.
(iv) Ability of man to domesticate plants and animals.
Requirements reflect Intelligence Planning, foreknowledge of design and Knowledge of breakage pattern of rock. There must also
be Hand-eye coordination
The second phase of the Old Stone Age was marked by tools called Acheulian tools, named after the site of St. Acheul in France.
Others found in Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Kenya, the tools were found at Kariandusi, Olorgesaillie,
Kilombe, Chesowanja, Mtongwe, Isenya and Lewa Downs
Tang- the first tool with a handle was invented in this period- 40,000 years ago in northern Africa.
People learnt to wear animal skins and make waist-belts and necklaces. They also painted themselves with red ochre and oil.
MESOLITHIC – SHELTER.
Man used identifiable shelter. An example was found at Orangia in South Africa. Man also used rock shelter (rocks scooped out to
make hollows). Later man lived in caves with entrance covered with animal skins to keep wind and rain away (e.g. Matupi Cave in
Zaire and Gambles cave near Nakuru.
MESOLITHIC – LANGUAGE AND ROCK ART
Families lived in small groups for security reasons. There were distinct languages to enhance communications.
Rock paintings: - Pictures of animals were painted on walls and rocks. Examples of Cave paintings were left behind at Kondoa and
Singida areas in north Tanzania and at Apollo II cave in S.A. This pictures signified men believe in magic (arrows piercing animals
he hoped to kill).
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
There was efficient group organization as evidenced by the ability to carry out large-scale hunting. Language invention further
strengthened the social bonds and cultures of early man
NEANDERTHALS were the first to create the pointed tip on hunting spears and harpoons
In East Africa, late Stone Age started from around 50,000 BC to the first millennium AD. In this stage,
- Man used better tools compared to the previous stone ages. Tools become sharper and smaller. The tools were still largely
made of stone but they were far better than those of earlier periods were
- Tools were stone exes, blades, spears, arrows, etc.
- Man started permanent settlement.
Example: women become child bearers and cares while man for protecting the families and hunting
Informal education started in this period.
Reading text.
Homo sapiens sapiens initiated a further significant advance in Stone Age technology. The main distinctive feature of this 'Late Stone
Age' was the development of the microlith, meaning literally 'tiny stone'. Stone flakes were shaped and reshaped into tiny precise
points and blades, sometimes in specific geometric shapes such as triangles and crescents. The thick edge of the blade was chipped
back to make it steeper and stronger. These 'backed' blades were almost certainly hafted on to wooden shafts to form spears and
even arrows. One of the main advances in hunting technology during this period was the development of the bow and arrow. This
enabled a great improvement in hunting techniques. Late Stone Age people also made a wide range of fine bone tools: awls, needles,
fish-hooks and barbs for arrows or harpoons. Furthermore, there is evidence of considerable artistic development from eggshell
beads to adorn the person to the great works of rock painting and engraving found across many parts of Africa.
The first people to make and use iron tools in Africa were the people of Ethiopia and Egypt. Iron skills and knowledge were not
uniform or the same in Africa.
TOPIC THREE
DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES AND THEIR IMPACT
INTRODUCTION
This topic will focus on the different economic levels of development achieved by man from the period of pre-history up to 19th
century. Also to examine the factors that influenced the existed economic activities as well as the impact of such activities on the
respective society. The economic activities that were practiced in pre-colonial Africa, pre-historical Africa included:
1. Agriculture which involved the growing of crops and rearing of animals.
2. Handcrafts industries which depended on skills or hand to make and produce goods.
3. Mining concerning with the process of extracting underground minerals for man’s use.
4. Trading involving the buying and exchanging of goods and services.
5. Fishing, lumbering, Hunting and gathering all these differed from area to area. Basing on the environment and the skills
that the people living in a given community were gifted with.
A. AGRICULTURE
Definition of agriculture
It is the domestication of plants and animals. The modern definition of agriculture includes animal husbandry, fish farming and bee-
keeping.
The beginning of Agriculture
The domestication of plants and animals began over 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic period in Africa to be started about 6000
years ago. The use of discovered tools and weapons led to the development of crop cultivation and domestication of animals. True
plant domestication probably began when the weakest plants were rejected and only seeds from the strongest plants were set aside
for re-sowing mainly yielding grasses (cereals) and the same applied to animal domestication.
Why man domesticated plants and animals
a. The increase of human population needed regular food supply -natural environment could no longer provide sufficient food.
b. Climatic changes-increased drought, threatened plant life and animal life making natural food scarce.
c. Competition for existing food in the natural resulted in inadequate wild food/over hunting of animals.
d. Hunting and gathering was increasingly becoming tiresome.
e. Calamities such as forest fires or floods sometimes destroyed vegetation or drove wild animals away.
f. Development of settled life. Man had to stop a life of movement in search of food and water.
g. Development of tools (microliths) e.g. sickles wooden plough, etc.
h. Availability of varieties of indigenous crops e.g. wheat and barley.
WHEAT
Originally grown in South-west Asia
Initial type was brittle wheat-then replaced by a non-brittle type in 7500BC called emmer. Wheat then spread Mesopotamian plains
by 6000 BC to Egypt by 3000BC, then to Mediterranean region, central Asia, India and Southern Europe.
BARLEY
This was the first cereal to be domesticated. Initially grew wildly at Mureybat on the Euphrates in Syria between 7000- 6000 BC.
Another evidence of growth found at Ali kosh (Iran) and Jericho(Jordan). Then spread to Egypt at Fayum in 4500 BC. Then spread
to India and china by about 2000 BC.
RICE.
Originated in Asia where currently is a stable food- in Thailand at about 3500 BC. Then spread to India, Europe and Japan. The
African variety was grown along the upper Niger around 1500 BC
MAIZE
Origin- Central America at about 5000 BC at Tehuacan in Mexico. In Africa, was introduced by the Portuguese in 15 th c.
YAMS
The first root and tuber crop to be domesticated- 9000 BC in South East Asia. The African variety, the white guinea yam was grown
in Ivory Coast.
DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS
The Dog was the first animal to be domesticated. The next animals were the sheep, Goats, cattle and camels. Animal domestication
Began through establishment of ties between man and animals during hunting or when fetching water.
Dog
Assisted humans in hunting, driving away dangerous animals and herding livestock
Goats
The Goat was First domesticated in South west Asia in5000 BC. Evidence of this is found at Tell Abu Hureyra, Tepe Ali Kosh, and
Deh Luren Khuzestan in South-west Iran. Also in Iraq, upper Tigris valley, Turkey and South Jordan. Goat domestication was in
Egypt in 5000 BC.
Cattle.
Cattle was first domesticated in South-west Asia as early as 5800BC in turkey and then in Iran and irag. It then spread to Ethiopia
and North Africa from Asia. The short-horned cattle originated in Mesopotamia then spread to Africa and Europe.
Camel
Though camels are associated with North Africa today, the original home has been traced to North America from where it spread to
South America and Asia. The Asian and s. American species became the ancestors of the Alpaca and Illama. Two types of camels
exist today- the one-humped (found in Middle East, Northern china and Africa), and the two-humped camel (found in central Asia.)
Camels were domesticated about 3000 BC to 2500 BC
READING TEXT
Neolithic Revolution in Pre-Colonial African Societies
All the time man was struggling to control nature so as to increase his labour productivity. This in turn led to the domestication of
animals and plants, the Neolithic Revolution, in the latter part of the Stone Age.
The Neolithic Revolution is the term for the first agricultural revolution, describing the transition from nomadic hunting and
gathering to agriculture and settlement as first adopted by various independent prehistoric human societies in numerous locations in
most continents between 12-10 thousand years ago.
The term refers to both the general time period over which these initial developments took place and the following changes to
Neolithic human societies which either resulted from, or are associated with, the adoption of early farming techniques and crop
cultivation.
Establishment of permanent settlement. The hunter-gatherer way of life was replaced by domestication of crops and animals,
enabling people to live more sedentary lives. Permanent settlements arose, creating new social, cultural, economic, and political
institutions. At first, agriculture was mainly subsistence, people farming for their own consumption (not for sale or profit), and
farmers practised crop rotation (letting fields lie fallow between planting seasons). The need to leave fields in fallow sometimes led
to shifting cultivation, discouraging a strongly fixed sedentary lifestyle. Slash and burn methods of agriculture were closely linked
to shifting cultivation, especially on the frontiers of agriculture where fire not only cleared the land for crops but could act as a
temporary fertilizer. Similarly, the domestication of grazing animals like sheep and goat encouraged the use of fire to convert forest
land into pasture.
Extension of the division of labour that had existed only along sex and age lines. In particular, in opposition to the moveable personal
and communal property of the nomadic hunter-gatherer, a new way of life began that introduced private property, private ownership
of land and buildings, valuable artifacts (and later accumulated money). A private ownership system was protected by the state that
allowed one man to have control over the livelihoods of others. Systemic slavery also emerged in human evolution in this period in
almost all continents where captured humans were considered as "things", the private property of wealthy individuals and families.
As such, this revolutionary period also introduced inheritance and marriage.
Increase of population. Neolithic societies had a major impact upon the spacing of children (carrying more than one child at a time
is impossible for hunter-gatherers, which leads to children being spaced four or more years apart). This increase in the birth rate
was required to offset increases in death rates and required settled occupation of territory and encouraged larger social groups. These
sedentary groups were able to reproduce at a faster rate due to the possibilities of sharing the raising of children in such societies.
Emergence of specialization of labour. Neolithic Revolution encouraged the introduction of specialization by providing diverse
forms of new labour. The development of larger societies called for different means of decision making and led to governmental
organization.
Spread of diseases. Throughout the development of sedentary societies, diseases spread more rapidly than it had been during the
time of hunter-gatherer societies. Inadequate sanitation and the domestication of animals may explain the rise in deaths and sickness
during the Neolithic Revolution as diseases spread from the animals to the human population. Some examples of diseases that could
spread from animals to humans are influenza, smallpox, and measles. In concordance with a process of natural selection, the humans
who first domesticated big mammals quickly developed immunities against the diseases as within each generation the individuals
with better immunities had better chances of survival.
Agricultural development enabled humans to make use of the energy possibilities of their animals in new ways and permitted
permanent intensive subsistence farming and crop production, opening up heavier soils for farming. It also made it possible for
nomadic pastoralism in semi-arid areas, along the margins of deserts leading to the domestication of camel. Overgrazing of these
areas, particularly by herds of goats, greatly extended the areal extent of deserts.
The specific environment determined the economy that was practised. Thus, people in the grasslands tended to dwell in pastoralism
while those in wetter regions tended to go for agriculture, or at least mixing the two. This was the beginning of regional
differentiation leading to the emergence of trade between different communities.
Production of surplus. Increased food production made it possible for one to produce a surplus a factor that in turn brought about
other changes. It now became possible to extend the division of labour within the community. There emerged a group that was not
directly involved in production, but organizing certain aspects of production. Such people used the accumulated wealth of the group
without being directly involved in its production. Thus, the labour of the producers was being separated from them and being
appropriated by others.
Increased population and warfare necessitated closer union between different communities. This was because either aggression or
defence needed a larger group while increased population reduced the amount of empty land separating the communities. So a
number of related clans and communities joined their territories. This in turn led to the emergence of councils of elders, popular
assemblies and military commanders. So a number of related clans and communities joined their territories. This in turn led to the
emergence of councils of elders, popular assemblies and military commanders.
The increased use of iron tools amongst the different societies of Africa, led to the increase of land for cultivation, which resulted
into increased agricultural productivity. The food storage skills insured an insurance against loss of future crops through natural
disasters such as drought or flood thus food supply throughout the year. Some communities whose soils easily exhausted developed
the use of manure which renewed the land and thus increased production. The development and use of irrigation opened up the once
un-cultivatable to be productive for agriculture once again. Not only did the technological improvement contribute to the
development of agriculture but also the environment had the great bearing on the development of agriculture in Africa.
The reliable rainfall supplemented with the fertile soils in given areas resulted in the development of permanent crop agriculture or
cultivation accompanied with increased agricultural production
Pest free and disease free areas were suitable for both crop and animal husbandry, as they would attract settlement. Also in place
is the availability of iron technology in given societies making it possible for the making of iron tools which advanced on the methods
of production and thus increased productivity.
It ensured man with reliable food supplies, the impacts of agricultural development are immeasurable as it ensured man with reliable
food supplies, permanent settlement, labour specialization and surplus production and thus increase in population.
Farming was not suitable in every environment, the disadvantage of settled farming may also have been apparent through farming
could support a larger population; it left the people more exposed to the dangers of famine caused by natural disasters such as drought
and floods.
Areas that received heavy and reliable rainfall were free from pests and diseases, having fertile soil did serve best for permanent crop
cultivation. With the development of iron technology societies which practiced this moved from communalism to feudalism. In East
Africa it was majorly practiced in the interlacustrine regions such as Buganda, Kagera Kenyan highlands, Ankole around Mount
Kilimanjaro, parts of Kigoma and rungwe. In West Africa in the Fante, Yoruba, Ashanti, Ife and Akwam.
With the development of permanent crop cultivation people begn to live in larger, more permanent settlement, the permanence of
settlement quickened the development of instrument production, there were increase in population as a result of improved diet, food
supply became more regular and abundant, brought important social as well as technical changes many developed into centralised
states for example Fante, Benin, Oyo and Meroe.
Mixed farming
This is an agricultural system which involves growing of crops and rearing of animals on the same piece of land. It evolved in areas
which supported both pastoralism and crop cultivation. Crops grown in this agricultural practice included cereals such as millet,
sorghum, cassava and maize animals kept included cattle, goats, sheep, cows and donkey.
The mixed farmers existed because the areas they lived had unreliable rainfall and their soils could easily be exhausted so one thing
had to supplement the other. Mixed farmers in East Africa included the Gogo, Sangu, Sukuma, Kurya and Fipa in Tanzania, Luyia
in Southwest Kenya, the Basoga and Gisu of Eastern Uganda. The relation of production was mainly communal with low production,
division of labour based on age and sex
The mixed farmers in East Africa demonstrated achievement in their practices as they developed centralised political organizations
like the Busoga in Uganda under Omuloki, specialised in different activities. Specialization in these societies resulted into
development of trade, at first it was among the mixed farmers and later it resulted in the formation of long distance trade.
Shifting cultivation
This involves spending a given period of time working on land and moving from one area that is exhausted to a new fresh piece of
land. It was mainly practiced by the people who lived in grassland plateaus for example Miombo wood land savanna in central
Tanzania were the rainfall was little and unreliable and the soil could be easily exhausted
These soils could support the growth of cassava, sorghum, maize, millet, cowpeas, pumpkins plus many more other crops. The
rearing of livestock was made difficult due to the fact that these areas were infected with tsetse flies and other livestock diseases.
The soils that easily became exhausted necessitated people to move from one place to another in search of the fertile piece of land.
However, people in some communities were living a settled life even if they were practicing this type of agriculture.
Pastoralism
This involves the keeping of livestock. The herding of domestic animals (cattle, sheep or goats), which were real and potential source
of food particularly; milk, meat, animal skins and the herds were also exchanged with the different neighboring societies.
Areas with semi-arid and arid conditions like scanty rainfall, (rainfall that is just enough to support the growth of pasture), poor soils
which could only support pastoralism as the major economic activity within the area. In East Africa the dry areas include the lift
valley areas of Tanzania and Kenya comprising of societies like the Maasai, Nyaturu, Barbaig and the karamanjong in Uganda.
Where the people were largely pastoralists their settlement tended to be less permanent as they moved in search of varying season
pastures and water. These people had no centralized political system they used the age set system in their production and they also
kept large herds because of their use value and prestige.
READING TEXT TO PROVE THAT AFRICA WAS DEVELOPED A LONG TIME AGO
BEFORE COLONIALISM OR FORIGNERS
“It must be borne in mind that the first lesson in the humanities is to make a people aware of their contribution to civilization;
and the second lesson is to teach them about other civilizations. By this dissemination of the truth about the civilization of
individual peoples, a better understanding among them, and a proper appraisal of each other should follow. This notion is
based upon the notion of the Great Master Mind: Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The true authors of Greek philosophy were not the Greeks; but the people of North Africa, commonly called the Egyptians;
and the praise and honor falsely given to the Greeks for centuries belong to the people of North Africa, and therefore, to the
African continent. Consequently, this theft of the African legacy by the Greeks led to the erroneous world opinion that the
African continent has made no contribution to civilization, and that its people are naturally backward. This is the
misrepresentation that has become the basis of race prejudice, which has affected all people of color.
For centuries the world has been misled about the original source of the Arts and Sciences; for centuries Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle have been falsely idolized as models of intellectual greatness; and for centuries the African continent has been
called the Dark Continent, because Europe coveted the honor of transmitting to the world, the Arts and Sciences. I am happy
to be able to bring this information to the attention of the world, so that on the one hand, all races and creeds might know the
truth and free themselves from those prejudices which have corrupted human relations; and on the other hand, that the people
of African origin might be emancipated from their serfdom of inferiority complex, and enter upon a new era of freedom, in
which they would feel like free men, with full human rights and privileges”.
From Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy by George G. M. James
Economically, Africa had developed in the in many things. Amongst many things, Africa had the following before the coming of
colonialists.
I. Mining industries
Meaning
These are the industries, which involve the process of extracting underground minerals such as copper, gold, tin and salt mining
industries; or is the extraction of minerals from the underground parent rocks. By the period before and around the 19 th century,
minerals that were being mined in Africa include the following: - Copper, Gold, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Salt.
Most of the minerals were to be taken to handcraft industries where they were then processed into different items. Some other
minerals such as salt were to be consumed directly while some other minerals were to be used as media of exchange in trading
activities. Famous areas in Africa where mining activities were being practiced include the following: -
Katanga in Zaire where there were copper mines.
Tshikapa in Zaire, Machili, Lusu, Kalambo falls and Ingombe ilede.
Gokomere, Mabven, Malapiti and Chivi in the Limpompo valley of Zimbabwe iron was mined.
Mashona and Matebele lands in Zimbabwe as well as Ashanti in Ghana where gold was being mined.
Uvinza in Western Tanzania and Taghaza in Mauritania where there was extraction of salts.
a. Iron industries.
The said metal working industries were mainly located near their respective mining areas. Prominent societies that were experts in
metal works include:
The people of Chipembe, and Kalomo in Zambia, the people of Mwavarambo, Phopo and Nkope Bay in Malawi as well as
the Yoruba and the Edo of Nigeria who were experts in iron smelting industries.
The Shona and Ndebele of Zimbabwe, the Akan and the Asante of Ghana who were famous in gold coast smelting industries.
The Manganja of Malawi and the people of Taghaza were experts in salt making industries.
The discovery of iron resulted in drastic socio-political and economic changes. The people who were dealing in iron were called
blacksmiths a person whose job is to make and repair things made with iron, learns how to identify rocks containing iron ore.
Traditional method
Under the tradition method salt was obtained from the reeds growing in marshy areas, gathered, dried and burnt to ashes. The ashes
were then collected, filtered and the liquid was boiled to evaporate, the residue was used as salt. The Manganja people settled along
Lake Nyasa commonly used this method.
c. Gold industries
Gold is one of the most precious minerals and it was not found in every area as other minerals which makes it precious and valuable.
The communities that mined gold showed drastic social, political and economic developments.
d. Copper industries
The copper industry is believed to be the oldest industry that existed in almost all pre-colonial African societies. Different societies
did participate to the industries due to the fact that the copper existed in their communities.
This therefore means that nature of resources available in a given society determined the nature of handcrafts industry present in that
society.
It is clear that societies are not fully self-sufficient. Therefore, interactions say between pastoralists with cultivators and
agriculturalists with craftsmen in order to exchange goods are required. The major means of distributions from one hand to another
were through gifts, tributes and taxation.
The exchanges carried out were not aimed at getting profit but it was after the use value of commodities and also strengthening
relations. For example, a person who exchanged his cattle with millet was not in search of profit. Before the emergence of groups of
people who specialized in trade the exchange system was barter this involved.
Methods of trade
Trade was carried out using barter or currency.
Barter trade is whereby goods or services are exchanged for other goods or services. For example, the exchange of cattle for iron
tools between the Maasai and Gweno was barter trade. In Northern Tanzania, the Kisii traded their pots for food from the Pare and
Chagga.
The currency method of trade is whereby money is used. Money is something that is accepted as a measure of value by the people taking
part in trade.
- As societies developed, trade development was also inevitable basing on the fact that some societies were not having specific
resources which could only be obtained through the exchange. Increase in surplus production supplemented with the development
of industries, the presence of safe routes and the regional specialization not forgetting the love for adventure cemented the
development and expansion of trading activities in pre-colonial Africa.
1. LOCAL TRADE.
Refers to the kind of trade, which is conducted within the same geographical area. In local trade, goods are exchanged between
people living in the same geographical area, such as a town or village.
- This was conducted from the village among the homogenous community, it did not require specific places to act as a market,
there was no need of middle men as goods passed freely from the hands of producers to consumers.
- Local trade was not for profit making but just to obtain essential goods. i.e. pastoral communities like the Maasai needed
vegetables and grains from cultivators like the Nyakyusa and the Chaga.
- In local trade, goods are exchanged between people living in the same geographical area such as a town or a village. In pre-
colonial Africa, this type of trade usually took place between communities that produced different goods. For example,
communities that lived in fertile areas produced a lot of food. Pastoral communities had a lot of cattle. Other groups were skilled
in various crafts such as basketry, pottery or ironworking.
Professional traders (trade being their major occupation) came from Yao, Chewa and Bissa of Central Africa. Imbangala and
vimbundu from Angola, Dyula merchants and the Marabouts of West Africa. In East Africa the Nyamwezi, Yao and Kamba were
famous long-distance traders, through trading and supplying ivory, slaves and copper to the exterior of East Africa Indian ocean
coast. This organization required fixed places to act as markets and the use of middlemen as the entrepreneurs.
In East Africa it was mainly carried out during the dry season and during the rainy season they settled down for agricultural activities.
By the 10th century AD the Yao and Chewa were exporting ivory and iron to the coast. The Shona of Zimbabwe exported ivory and
gold to the coast which were then exported to the Far East and then return they imported glass wear, cowrie's shells, beads, cotton
cloth and porcelain from the far and Middle East. They used organised caravans for security reasons and distance standard currency
such as bars of iron or copper and slabs of salt.
The long-distance trade was a blessing for many societies in East and Central Africa as it gave rise to the notorious and professional
long-distance traders like Tip Tippu, Mzilikazi, and Mlosi etc
In addition to that prominent rulers such as Muteesa of Bugnanda, Mirambo of Unyamwezi, Kimweri of Usambara and Mkwawa of
the Uhehe were able to conquer and rule weaker and neighboring societies. All this was facilitated by the acquisition of fire arms
and ammunition which were important commodities from the East coast.
Expansion and consolidation of various kingdoms for example Buganda, Bunyoro, Yao and Nyamwezi led many of the participants
to became very rich and famous from the huge profits that were enjoyed from the trade.
2. The Yao
Initially, the Yao were farmers and they needed iron hoes in order to cultivate their farms. However, only the Kisii clan amo ng the
Yao knew how to make these hoes. Yao traders got beads and cloth from Kilwa and exchanged these items for iron hoes from the
Kisii. Later, these hoes were used to get other items along the trade routes.
In Tanganyika, Yao and Nyamwezi took part in long-distance trade. In the 19th century, the Yao participated in this trade by capturing and
selling slaves from neighbouring communities. In exchange they got beads, glass, cloth and guns from the coastal traders. The Yao chiefs
such as Mpanda, Mataka, Machemba and Mtalika encouraged this practice as they sought to expand their chiefdoms. The gains from the
long-distance trade enabled them to get better weapons with which to conquer new regions.
Yao's love for travel and trade kept the Arab and Swahili traders from the interior of Tanganyika during the 19th century. This is how the
Yao involvement in regional trade began.
3. The Nyamwezi
Regional trade among the Nyamwezi involved conducting the exchange of commodities between the interior of Tanganyika and the
coast. The Nyamwezi were the most successful long-distance traders in Tanganyika in the 19th century. The Nyamwezi traders
succeeded due to the following factors:
1. There existed a variety of trade items such as ivo , hides and rhinoceros horns in the region.
2. Nyamwezi leaders such as Msiri, Nyungu ya Isla e and Mirambo supported
3. this trade. They helped to finance and provide secalong the trade routes in their territories.
4. Nyamwezi were centrally placed on the route to the coast. They could take advantage of the demand for copper from Katanga,
salt from Uvinza, iron ore from Usangi and Mtunze, and the imports found at the coast.
5. There was a high demand for trade items such as ivory, and later slaves, alone the coast and a reciprocal demand for items from the
coast in the interior.
6. Local trade already existed between various groups in the region. This formed the foundation for the long-distance trade.
7. The prosperity of Zanzibar from around 1800AD contributed to the development of this trade. The Nyamwezi organized trading
caravans which supplied ivory to the
Zanzibaris.
By the 1830s, there were three main trade
routes that passed through Nyamwezi
country:
1. The Southern route which linked the port
towns of Mikindani, Kilwa Kivinje and
Lindi to the interior. It went as far as Lake
Nyasa (Lake Malawi), Zambia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
2. The central route which linked the
Bagamoyo and Saadani ports with the
interior. It went through Gogo country
before it reached Unyamwezi. From there
it split into three:
Commodities exchanged
Traders from the coast brought cloth, beads, wire and guns. Initially, the trade involved the exchange of ivory from the interior in
return for imports such as textiles and guns from the coast. However, trade in ivory brought the Nyamwezi into contact with slave
traders from the coast. Arabs had started clove plantations in Zanzibar and Pemba and they needed slaves to work in these plantations.
In addition, the Arabs had contacts with European, Indian and American traders who wanted slaves for their plantations abroad.
Consequently, by the 1830s slaves had become a very important trade item.
The Nyamwezi acquired guns from the coastal traders. They used these guns to raid other communities and get slaves. Due to this
trade, Arab traders made Tabora in Unyamwezi their base. Chief Mirambo benefitted greatly from this arrangement. During his reign
in 1860 to 1884, the Arab traders were forced to pay tribute to him.
By the end of the 19th century, Arabs were blocking Nyamwezi traders from the coastal towns. They set high taxes for the Nyamwezi
and favoured Arab and Swahili traders. This led to a decline in the Nyamwezi long-distance trade.
Trade routes
All the caravan routes in this trade began from the North. Direction the trade routes took was greatly determined by the location of
oases in the desert. The following were some of the most important routes:
1. A route began at Fez, through Marrakech in Morocco, South to Sijilmasa, Taghaza and Wadan, and ended at Audaghost in
western Sudan. Sijilmasa was well placed as a stopover point. It was an oasis where the traders and their animals could rest and
replenish their supplies. Taghaza, on the other hand, was a desert town that produced salt, one of the most valued items in this
trade.
2. A route began in Tunis and went through Ghadames, Ghat, Agades and Gao. From there it passed through Hausaland and Gonja
and eventually ended in Yorubaland in modern Nigeria.
3. A route began at Sijilmasa and went through Timbuktu and on to Gao.
4. There was also a route that started at Tripoli in modern Libya, through Fezzan, ending in Bomu in western Sudan.
5. Central route- This passed Tunis, Ghat, Ghamese, Kano, GAO and Hausa land.
6. Eastern route- This began in Tripoli, Marzul and Bilma.
The following are some of the factors that contributed to the growth of the Trans Saharan trade:
1. Stability of the communities: Both North African and Western Sudan zone were politically stable. For example, leaders like
Sundiata Keita and Mansa Musa collected taxes and established guides on trade routes. This enabled the people to conduct trade
without fear. Up to the end of the 15th century AD, many traders were motivated to come to Western Sudan for trade.
2. Western Sudan provided goods needed by traders from Europe. These goods included gold, ivory and slaves. Through trading
Western Sudan exchanged her own commodities with goods from Western Europe and Asia. In turn, she got clothes, guns and
other commodities. The surplus production in Western Sudan was adequate to sustain demand for products such as kolanuts and
gold, hides, ivory slaves, whereas Taghaza produced enough salt to meet the needs in Western Sudan. The high production
capacity in the region enhanced the growth of the Trans Saharan trade.
3. Honesty: The Berbers of North Africa and the African traders of Western Africa trusted each other. Traders brought in
commodities without fear of theft and robbery, enabling the trade to flourish.
4. The use of camels for transport suited the desert conditions and facilitated the development of the Trans-Saharan trade. These
animals could not only carry more commodities than horses and human porters, but also endured desert conditions. Camels can
survive without water for a longtime. This convenient means of transport strengthened the development of the Trans-Saharan
trade.
5. Geographical location of the region: The location and climate favored the production of kola nuts and other foodstuffs that were
needed in the community, especially the forest region to the South. The region of Western Sudan had no impassable forests
because many areas were covered by short grassland. These enabled traders to cross the desert without fear or any difficulty.
6. The invention of a medium of exchange contributed to the growth of the Trans Saharan trade. At the beginning, only the silent
barter system of trade was practiced. Later on, cowrie shells were introduced as a convenient medium of exchange. This in turn
facilitated the development of the Trans-Saharan trade.
7. From the Northern part, the Berbers provided capital to many traders who used to cross the Sahara Desert.
8. Removal of language barrier: This was attained after Arabic language became the trader’s medium of communication. This in
turn facilitated the trade by making communication between the traders easy.
9. Absence of competition for trading activities in the region: There were no regular ships that visited the coast of West Africa. As
a result, what was produced from the forest zone was peacefully transported to North Africa through the Saharan desert.
10. Scarcity of commodities like gold and salt.
11. Introduction of horses, which were used in conquest and expansion.
12. Development in production in the West African region - whereby the productive forces had developed to enable production of
the trade goods needed in the trade.
13. Increased production of the trade goods by the ruling classes in West Africa, Arabia, North Africa and Southern Europe.
14. Introduction and use of the camel as a means of transport across the Sahara Desert. This was by 100 A.D and used since the 4th
century A.D. Before the camel, donkeys and horses were used but they proved unfit to the desert environment
15. The conquest and occupation of North Africa by Arabs between 641 and 708 A.D. Besides encouraging use of the whole trade
were very influential in the whole trade.
16. Availability of security to the trade routes crossing the desert. Security was provided by kingdoms and empires of Western
Sudan e.g. Ghana, Mali and Songhai.
Positive consequences
1. The profits from the trade stimulated the growth of strong empires. The rulers in this area imposed taxes on the caravan traders
who passed through or traded in their territories. These taxes and other proceeds from the trade enabled leaders to strengthen
their militaries by buying modern weapons such as guns and using horses in the army. The empires that grew in the region
included Ghana, Mali and Songhai.
2. Western Sudanese rulers established ties with people from the outside world. Using the wealth from the trade, the rulers from
the region could travel far and wide. For example, Mansa Musa went on pilgrimage to Mecca and made many international
connections, exchanging ambassadors with Morocco and Mali. This way, foreigners became interested in western Sudan.
3. Many trading centres emerged along the trade routes. Some of these eventually became urban centres. Examples are Jenne,
Taghaza, Timbuktu, Kumbi Saleh, Gao and Kano.
4. A class of wealthy merchants emerged in both regions. These people led affluent lifestyles using profits from the Trans-Saharan
trade.
5. The trade also boosted many arts and industries. For instance, woodcarving, leather tanning, gold working and cloth weaving
expanded, especially in western Sudan. This was because of the high demand for trade items.
6. The Trans-Saharan trade led to the widespread use of iron tools over large parts of western Sudan. Agricultural production
increased greatly as a result.
7. New foods such as oranges, lemons and rice were introduced in western Sudan. These improved the diets of the local people.
Rice became a staple food in many areas.
8. Population in some parts of western Sudan increased due to prosperity and food security in the region.
9. Trade also led to the introduction of the Islamic faith to the western Sudan belt. For instance, many of the Hausa converted to
Islam.
10. Islamic education was also introduced in western Sudan. Schools, universities and libraries were established in the area. The University
of Timbuktu became one of the greatest centres of higher learning in the region. These institutions encouraged literacy and scholarly
research, leading to a more learned society.
11. The Trans-Saharan trade also introduced the people of western Sudan to the Arabic culture, including the Arabic language,
mode of dressing and eating mannerisms.
12. Arabic architectural designs began to be used in western Sudan. The buildings became bigger and more complex, and longer-
lasting materials such as stone were used.
13. Transport became more efficient because of the introduction of camels to western Sudan. Camels were better suited to life in
the desert than the horses that were used previously.
14. Black people became champions of trade and in Africa and other parts of the world, Europe in particular.
15. Contributed to the formation of West African states and kingdoms, the profits that were raised from trade helped in the
development of different states, these were got through the taking over charge or control over the trade routes and everyone
using that route had to pay tax or tributes. For example, Ghana Empire conquered Audaghast in 990 A.D. in view of controlling
the salt mines in that area, Mali and Songhai extended their control as far as Taghaza and Takedda for economic reasons. It is
therefore true to say that trade facilitated the rise and consolidation of the different states.
16. Improvement of political administrations, the caravan trade also improved political administration of the different kingdoms
through the use and employment of well-educated Muslim traders who had been attracted by the trade. Many of the states were
also applying the Islamic ways of administration in their different areas or jurisdiction
17. Exploitation of natural resources, as the influx of the Whites increased, this marked the beginning of the exploitation of natural
resources that were endowed in Africa. It is also believed that this was the time of unequal exchange between Africa and Europe
began.
18. Provision of constant and regular source of income, the attractive profits from trade provided constant and regular source of
income for the different states. This was mainly raised from the custom duties that imposed on the imports and over goods of
great political importance such as horse and the different metals that were imported into the state.
19. Trade also provided the sources for undertaking wars of conquest and expansion through the supply of effective means of war
fare, such as horses and metals that could be used in the making and designing arms as spears, arrows head and axes.
Negative consequences
1. The Trans-Saharan trade led to increased warfare in western Sudan. This was due to the availability of weapons such as guns and
daggers and the use of horses in war. This led to increased loss of life.
2. There were religious conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslim.
3. Due to the demand for ivory, many elephants had to be killed in western Sudan. This contributed to the destruction of the
environment.
4. Many people in western Sudan were enslaved due to the high demand for slaves in the trade. This in turn caused population and
insecurity in some areas.
5. Some empires collapsed because of the conflicts caused by this trade. For example, Morocco invaded Songhai in 1590, leading
to the downfall of the Songhai Empire.
A lecture delivered for the Minority Ethnic Unit of the Greater London Council, London, England, March 6-8, 1986. It was addressed
mainly to the African community in London consisting of African people from the Caribbean and African people from Africa.
In this short talk on a subject that has many dimensions, and a long untold history, I am really talking about the impact of African
people in the opening-up of the Americas and the Caribbean Islands. The appearance outside of Africa of African people in such
large numbers tells us something about the greatest and most tragic forced migration of a people in human history. The exploitation
of African people make what is called the New World possible, and the African's contribution to the sciences, invention and
technology that made this new world possible, is part of a larger untold story. In the United States alone there is supporting literature
and volumes of documents on this subject.
We need to examine the events in Africa and in Europe from 1400 through 1600 A.D. This is a pivotal turning point in world history.
This was a period when Europe was awakening from the lethargy of its Middle Ages, learning again the maritime concepts of
longitude and latitude and using her new skills in the handling of ships to enslave and colonize most of the world.
Africa was now suffering a second catastrophe. The first catastrophe was the Arab slave trade, which was totally unexpected, and
came over six hundred years before the European slave trade. The second catastrophe was the Christian slave trade which started in
the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Many Christians could not deal with what African religions were before the advent of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam nor could they deal with early Christianity which was a carbon copy of African Universal Spirituality. The
first thing the Europeans did was to laugh at the African gods. Then they made the Africans laugh at their own gods. Europeans
would go on to colonize the world. They not only colonized the world, they would also colonize information about the world, and
that information is still colonized. What they would deal with was a carbon copy of Christianity as interpreted by foreigners. This
was part of the catastrophe before it could recover its strength.
In the Americas and in the Caribbean Islands we find Bartholomew de las Casas, who came on Christopher Columbus' third voyage
and who sanctioned the increase of the slave trade with the pretense that this would save the Indian population. When the Pope sent
commissions to inquire into what was happening with the Indians, many of the islands did not have one Indian left, they were all
dead. It was at Christopher Columbus' suggestion that the slave trade was increased to include more of the Africans, again, under the
pretense of saving the Indians. It was the same Christopher Columbus who says in his diary, "As man and boy I sailed up and down
the Guinea coast for twenty-three years...." What was he doing up and down the coast of West Africa for twenty-three years? The
assumption is that he was part of the early Portuguese slave trade. Now is he still your hero? When you look at the Western hero and
how he became a hero, when you look at all those people they called, "The Great," and find out what they were great for you will
then have a new concept of history. There are a number of good books on this subject. Two of the more readable are by Eric Williams,
late Prime Minister of Trinidad, formerly teacher of political science at Howard University. They are Capitalism and Slavery, and
his last big book, The Caribbean from Columbus to Castro.
The subject of this talk is really "The African Inventor in the New World and His Contribution to Technology, Medicine and Science."
While I may be going the long way round, I'll get to the subject. But you will have to know what happened behind the curtain of
slavery and the consequences of the Africans' enslavement and to what extent Europe recovered from its lethargy and to what extent
Europe exploited people outside of Europe. But the main thing that you have to understand is that the African did not come into
slavery culturally empty-handed. In order to stay in luxury, Europe had to have large bodies of people to exploit outside of Europe
where they could get land and labor cheap. Where they could get control of other people's resources, cheap or for nothing. This is
what apartheid is really all about. It is about Western control of the mineral wealth of the African. Africa is the world's richest
continent, full of poor people, people who are poor because someone else is managing their resources. Do you think that if Africans
had all the gold and manganese and zinc and bauxite and uranium that comes out of Africa they would be going around begging
anybody for anything, drought or no drought? Have you ever sailed down the Congo River and seen all the vast bodies of water
flowing into the sea? The Nile River sustained the greatest civilization the world has ever known, and it rarely ever rains in the Nile
River. Yet this one river sustained civilizations for thousands of years, because Africans, at that time, knew what to do with water,
and how to direct it in the way they needed it.
Still going to my subject, my point is that the African was brought to the Western world and survived through his inventiveness,
imagination and his spiritual attitude. Without these he would have not survived. The African was hit harder than the so-called Indian.
Where one died the other would survive. It is not that one had spiritual attitude and the other did not, they both had spiritual attitude
and they both had culture. But many of the Africans had come out of pluralistic cultures and were more accustomed to the nature of
change.
Now, let's get on to the African's inventive mind. The preface to all of this is to deal with the free African craftsman in the Western
world and how these craftsmen became free, that is, "free" with a question mark! In the Caribbean where Africans were brought in
large numbers, once they were taken over by the British and others their condition as an enslaved people was exploited. A class of
Englishmen who had earned no considerable respect in England, came to the Islands as mechanics. Because their white face was a
premium and because they were given privileges and guns and land and had access to African women, they considered themselves
as belonging to the exploitive class. They literally exhausted themselves. But the Englishmen did not have the skills they found were
needed on the islands and they began to disappear, physically, due to death from exhaustion or return to England. The African
craftsmen began to replace them. We now see the beginnings of the Africans' inventive mind in the Caribbean Islands. The same
thing was happing in parts of South America. Many times the English would bring over English-made furniture and there were some
As with the disappearance of the British craftsmen, when the African craftsmen began to emerge, something else began to emerge
in the Caribbean Islands. A class of people whose crafts maintained plantations. The Africans say how important they had become
and began to make demands. This is the origin of the Caribbean freeman. These freemen were free enough to communicate with
other Africans, free enough to go back to Africa, and free enough to go to the United States. These freemen from the crafts class
began to mix friendship with another group of freemen in the United States. Now, how did the freemen become free in the United
States? Mostly in the New England states where the winters were so long that it was not economically feasible to support a slave all
year round, when they could be used only for four or five months. Slavery would have been just as brutal as it was in the South if
the weather permitted. In New England the slaves had become industrial slaves. A large number of them were employed as ship
caulkers. In the era of wooden ships, every time a ship came in the caulkers would have to drill something in the holds of the ship to
keep it from eroding and to keep it from leaking at sea. A large number of Africans became ship caulkers and a large number became
industrial slaves and they began to learn basic industrial skills. Professor Lorenzo Green's book, The Negro in Colonial New England
is especially good in explaining the details of this transformation during the period of slavery.
There were also slave inventors, but these slaves could not patent their own inventions. They had to patent them in the name of their
masters.
Soon after the latter half of the nineteenth century, when the Africans understood that emancipation was not the reality they had
hoped for, they began another resistance movement in the hope of improving their condition. They set up a communication system
with all the slaves. There were no "West Indians," no "Black Americans." These were names unknown to us in Africa. We were and
we saw ourselves as one people, as African people.
In the nineteenth century the Africans began the inventive period, and before the beginning of the twentieth century Africans had
already invented some of the things that made life more comfortable for many in the United States. When you study a list of the
numerous inventions of Africans you will find that they would invent things first and foremost to make life better for themselves.
Benjamin Banneker was the first notable Black inventor. When the Africans arrived in the United States, in 1619, the year before
the Mayflower people arrived, they were not chattel slaves, but indentured slaves. Indentured slaves worked so many years and then
they were free. Most of the indentured slaves were whites. Many times whites and blacks did not see the difference in their lives.
They were both exploited, and they both had to work so many years before they were free. Therefore, during this time, there was a
period when Africans and whites saw no difference in their plight and this was before prejudice and color difference would set in.
Many times they married one another and nobody cared; they were both slaves anyway. Out of these marriages came some people
who helped to change the condition of the slaves in the United States. Benjamin Banneker was a product of one of these relationships.
In his mother's time if a white woman had a Black lover and because of her whiteness she worked her way out of the indenture ahead
of her lover, then she came and bought him out of the indenture and married him. No one took noticed.
Benjamin Banneker, literally, made the first clock in the United States. He dabbled in astronomy, he communicated with President
Thomas Jefferson and he asked Jefferson to entertain the idea of having a secretary of peace as well as having a secretary of war. He
was assistant to the Frenchman L'Enfant who was planning the City of Washington. For some reason L'Enfant got angry with the
Washington people, picked up his plans and went back to France. Benjamin Banneker remembered the plans and Benjamin Banneker
is responsible for the designing of the City of Washington, one of the few American cities designed with streets wide enough for ten
cars to pass at the same time. This was the first of many of the African American inventors that we have with good records. There
will be many to follow and I am only naming a few.
James Forten became one of the first African Americans to become moderately rich. He made sails and accessories for ships. During
the beginning of the winter of the American Revolution it was noticed that the tent cloth they were using for the tents was of better
quality than the cloths they had in their britches. James Forten, the sail maker, was approached to use some of the same cloth to make
the britches for the soldiers of the American Revolution. These britches, made by this Black man, saved them from that third and
last terrible winter of the American Revolution. Now, the role of Blacks in the American Revolution is another lecture in the sense
that 5000 Blacks fought against the United States on the side of England in the American Revolution, and the English had to find
somewhere for them to go after the war. They sent some of them to Sierra Leone, but some of them went to Nova Scotia.
Jan Ernest Matzeliger, a young man from Guyana, now called Surinam invented the machine for the mass production of shoes; this
invention revolutionized the shoe industry.
In the closing years of the nineteenth century the greatest talent was that of Lewis Latimer. He was not only a draftsman, but drew
up the plans for the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell was the one who invented the telephone, but the patent that had to be drawn
up, all the moving parts and all of the vital parts, was done by Lewis Latimer, a Black man. Latimer also did a few other things that
don't make me too happy. He improved the Maxim gun that became the forerunner of the present day machine gun. He is also
responsible for the florescent light. He wrote the first book on the incandescent light that you know as the fluorescent light. He
worked with Thomas Edison. He was one of the Thomas Edison pioneers. While Thomas Edison created the principle of the electric
light, his light went out in twenty minutes. But the man who created the filament made the light go on indefinitely. That was Lewis
Latimer, and he deserves as much credit for the electric light as does Thomas Edison. And he and his accomplishments were
completely left out of history. Only Thomas Edison's accomplishments are mentioned.
Not only did African Americans invent a lot of other things, including labor-saving devices, African Americans have played a major
role in getting America into space. In space medicine the leading doctor is an African American woman. The person that designed
the interior of the ship, including the disposal facility, is an African American man. When they sent some astronauts up without
instructing them in his method of disposal of waste matter, a near catastrophe occurred. The space buggy that they used to walk on
the moon was, basically, a Black invention and so is the camera that they used on the trip to the moon.
You might wonder that after all that the African Americans have contributed in making the United States comfortable, even to the
coupling that hold all the weights together when trains are moving around the country, why are they having so much trouble, and
why are they still having difficulty? Principally because we were not brought to the United States to be given democracy, to be given
Christianity. We were brought to labor and once the labor was done, we were an unwanted population in the United States. We were
a nation within a nation searching for a nationality.
When we put all of us together, we are larger, in number, than all of the nations in Scandinavia put together. Their population would
not be as large as the African American population in the United States alone. According to the statistics of the United Nations and
the Jewish Year Book all the Jews in the world would come to less than one-half the number of African American population in the
United States. Yet Israel gets more financial aid than all of the African nations in the world put together. Principally because we have
not developed the political apparatus to put the right pressures on the leaders in the world to make it [otherwise] so.
I see no solution for African peoples, any place in this world, short of Pan-Africanism. Wherever we are on the face of this earth we
are an African people. We have got to understand that any problem faced by Africans is the collective problem of all the African
people in the world, and not just the problem of the Africans who live in any one part of the world. Once we put all of our skills
together, and realize that between the United States, the Caribbean Islands, Brazil and other South American countries there are 150
million African people, and the population of Africa has been counted as 500 million for over fifty years, implying that the African
man has been sleeping away from home, and you know that is not true.
In the twenty-first century there are going to be a billion African people on this earth. We have to ask ourselves, "Are we ready for
the twenty-first century?" Do we go into the twenty-first century begging and pleading or insisting and demanding? We have to ask
and answer that question and we have to decide if we are going to be the rearguard for somebody else's way of life, or do we rebuild
our own way of life, or will we be the vanguard to rebuild our own nation.
We have to say to ourselves when we look at our history, the great Nile Valley civilization, the kind of civilizations we built on other
rivers, the Niger, the Limpopo, the Zambezi, the kind of civilizations that gave life to the world before the first Europeans wore shoes
or had houses that had windows. We need to say to ourselves, with conviction, that, “If I did it once, I will do it again."
A Family is made up of a husband, wife and children. This is the basic and the simplest unit of social organization being the primary
unit of production. Any Clan in African societies, especially agricultural societies comprised several related families. Mainly those
families in a clan shared (i.e. in past times) blood relations. They came from the same ancestors.
Land, tools of production, and other means of production belonged to a whole clan. These were entrusted to a clan head as the
controller for the common good of the clan members.
This type of organization existed in those places where shifting cultivation was the dominant means of production. With shifting
cultivation, nothing was permanent. There were no permanent cash crops. Everybody in these societies had to produce enough for
his livelihood and land was communally owned.
Examples of clan organizations in East Africa were communities found in the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean, the Rufiji basin, the
Kilombero and Luangnia basins, which included the Pogoro, Makonde, Ndonde, Mwera, Yao, Matumbi, Ngindo and the Ndamba.
In most of these clan organizations, communities lived in communal ways of life by sharing the means of production and distribution
of the produce.
This was the dominant form of organization in pastoral societies. The best examples of these societies were the Maasai of East Africa,
Hausa and Fulani of West Africa and the Khoikhoi of South Africa. The division of responsibilities and duties was based on age and
sex and was mostly done during initiation ceremonies. Youths were taught special responsibilities. Each age set covered a specific
group, as a result, the whole society was divided into age groups.
Age set covered a specific group of years for example, in the Maasai tribe age is being distributed as follows.
a) Children group aged 0-8 years were regarded as non-producers group. They were not directly involved in production.
b) Youth group 8-18 years their main responsibility was to graze animals, trading young animals and milking cattle they were
assisted by women.
c) Moran group (people between youth and adults aged between 35years) and above these were soldiers of the society
d) Laibons; this is the group of elders aged 40 years and above it consisted of elders who were divided in groups namely; junior
elders and senior elders.
Responsibilities of elders:
- To control livestock and all the properties on behalf of their communities.
- To enable norms and ethics to govern the society.
- They were top overseers of all the spiritual and political matters of the community.
- They were responsible for counseling other members of the society.
- To settle disputes among the society members.
- They were regarded as retired producers of the society but their ideas and skills were highly appreciated.
3. NTEMI (MTEMI)SYSTEM
By 1500 most of the peoples of western Tanzania were ruled by chiefs. These chieftainships were like each other in many ways.
Each consisted of a small group of villages ruled by a single chief whom the villagers had appointed. These chiefs were known by
the same title, NTEMI or MTEMI, a word which comes from the Bantu verb ku-tema, meaning 'to cut'. The Ntemi (Mtemi) chief
was the man appointed to 'cut discussion' so as to reach judgments in legal cases and decisions on political questions.
These peoples of western Tanzania did not all accept the idea of rule by Ntemi (Mtemi) chiefs at the same time. It spread from people
to people, over about two centuries, and across a thousand miles of inland Tanzania between the Nyamwezi-Sukuma country in the
north and the shores of Lake Malawi. It was adopted in the south by the Hehe, Bena and Sangu: by the Pangwa, Kinga, and Nyakyusa:
by the Ngonde, Safwa, and many others.
Each Ntemi (Mtemi) chief or king was regarded with the respect due to a man whose position enjoyed the special blessing and power
of God. Each was the holder of special things such as sacred spears. Each maintained a royal fire from which all the fires of his little
chiefdom or kingdom were supposed to be kindled. Whenever an Ntemi (Mtemi) chief died, he was buried with special ceremonies
and expressions of sorrow by his people.
These many little states did not unite. Each remained on its own, speaking its own language, revere (treat somebody with admiring
respect) its own ancestors, thinking of itself as separate and different from its neighbours. There was plenty of land for all of them,
so the problem of settling disputes between neighbouring states did not often arise. Only in later times did large states emerge.
Why, we may ask, was this idea of having chiefs accepted by so many peoples who had previously done without them?
In the beginning, long ago, religious beliefs often led to the appointment of chiefs. Each people wished to make spiritual contact with
their `founding ancestors'. This was done at religious ceremonies. The men who presided over these ceremonies, usually the heads
of important family groupings, gradually came to be recognised as men with political powers as well. 'The religious needs of the
community', in other words, 'were at the heart of political evolution'. Then, depending on the kind of country in which people lived,
and the everyday problems they faced, there followed a number of political developments which made chiefs more powerful.
What caused these developments? Apart from this fact that chiefs sometimes became important religious figures, there are four
answers:
1. The growth of population. This, as we have noted, meant that villages began to need more law and order than family heads could
provide. Chiefs were useful in this respect. They were also useful as leaders in warfare, when peoples who were growing in
number clashed with each other in rivalry for land or cattle.
2. The spread of cattle-raising. Nearly all these peoples with Ntemi (Mtemi) chiefs say, in their traditions, that the idea was brought
to them by cattle-raising folk who came to live among them. We may guess that the spread of cattle-raising brought new problems
Responsibilities of Mtemi
He was the top authority in political and judicial matters. He provided overall guidance in the community.
He was the top authority in the political and matters provided over all guidance in the community.
He enforced proper use of resources such as land, water, forests; etc.
He was an overseer of the communities' food reserve.
He settled disputes in the community.
He had the religious powers. He led people of his community in performing religions ceremonies and offering sacrifices to
the spirits.
To collect tributes from his subjects.
He provided over all guidance over the society.
Factors for the Rise of the Nyamwezi Kingdom
The Nyamwezi who live in Central Tanzania are a group of Bantu societies. Each of these societies had their own settlement headed
by a chief entitled Mtemi. Ntemi (Mtemi)ships (Chiefdoms) were composed of people of shared backgrounds or kinships and beliefs.
Each of the Nyamwezi chiefdoms had Mtemi at the center helped by a council of leaders, the Wanyampala in administration.
Towards the middle of the 19th century a more dynamic political structure developed among the Nyamwezi under Fundikira, Nyungu
ya Mawe and Mirambo. This fostered the institution of Mtemi becoming one of the most powerful positions. The several Nyamwezi
settlements were united under one senior Mtemi.
Factors for the rise of the Nyamwezi Chiefdom can be explained as follows:
Ngoni invasions: The Ngoni invasions in Western Tanganyika made the Nyamwezi people to unite in order to resist Ngoni
attacks.
The Rugaruga: A class of mercenaries had emerged in Central Tanganyika in the middle of the 19th Century due to Ngoni raids
and slave trade intensification. This group was paid to fight for prominent Unyamwezi Watemi, such as Nyungu ya Mawe and
Mirambo who helped to build the kingdom.
The expansion of local trade into regional trade/ long distance trade, saw the emergence of wealthy traders like Mirambo who
made effective use of the Rugaruga.
The entry of Europeans into the coastal interior, trade introduced new trading partners to Nyamwezi traders, who joined together
to effectively resist Europeans pressure to stop slave trade.
The rise of Mirambo as a trader and leader. He used his influence to unify the clans of Unyamweziland.
The use of the gun and gunpowder by Mirambo 's soldiers in making the weaker Watemi submissive to his rule.
4. STATE ORGANIZATION
INTRODUCTION
Historians define state organization in different ways basing on its features. State is a political unit with a centralized government,
with power to collect tributes, make laws and reinforce them. A state could also be defined as a community occupying a certain
defined territory and living under full control of its government and therefore it is independent from external control.
Around 14th to 15th centuries, village communities had emerged in various parts of East Africa. Clan organization, chieftainship and
kingdoms developed centralized political organization known as state villages. In these villages emerged groups of people who
provided services of one kind or another like diviners, medicine men, entertainers, rulers and Rain-Makers. The leader for the
dominant clan assumed political and ritual functions that went beyond his own clan; he was obeyed and respected by other clan heads
Within a given area. Clan which possessed an adequate or enough labor and land resources or had better skills of iron use became
dominant clan and leader of the community or village; they were respected and obeyed by other clan members. Those who disagreed
with them migrated to other lands. In this way leader of the dominant clan assumed political and spiritual or ritual functions. Kings
and queens were state leaders. Village heads who were leaders of many clans in villages were under state of kings or queens also
had their court to deal with judicial matters.
(b) Population growth, high population is usually accompanied by social conflicts. These conflicts required an authoritative figure
to solve them. In this way, chiefs and later kings emerged that led to political centralization. It is population pressure that partly
led to the rise of the Amazulu nation state. Population pressure created war in the whole South of sub-region which even triggered
off the formation of other states for defensive and security purposes.
(c) Climatic condition. This was a factor for the state formation especially in the areas experienced heavy rainfall that favoured
permanent crops that supplied enough food for the population and permanent villages and settlements. The heavy rainfall in a
given areas provided security for food growth and also attracted several people to come and settle in those areas. For example,
the interlacustrine region, many states coming up only because of its heavy rainfall
(d) Existence of trade (intra-trading activities) long distance trade for example attracted many people to participate through barter
system, societies that were living near trading centers they could acquire massive wealth, guns and other instruments of
centralization. Examples Buganda, Bunyoro and Unyamwezi of East Africa and the Asante and the Mandika states of West
Africa.
(e) Migration of people from one region to another also helped in the state formation e.g. the Ngoni came from South Africa and
settled in East Africa, the Luo came from Bae1 ghazel Sudan and settled in East Africa and the Bantu speaking people migrated
from Cameroon through Congo to East and Central Africa eventually formed states.
(f) The 19th Century Jihad Movements of West Africa. These were Islamic holy wars that brought tension between Islam and African
traditional religions. The old order and the new order created Jihads like those of Uthman Dan Fodio, Haji Omar Segu, Ahmad
Bello, Samore Toure and others, contributed to state formation in West African whereby they were using the Islamic religion as
a unifying factor to control trade and political power wl -rich attracted a number of people to settle and form states.
(g) Mfecane- was one of the nineteenth century Africa's internal revolutions that led to the state formation. This referred to the
period of trouble that began in South Africa and its effects spread to East and Central Africa. It brought about migration and
conquest of various tribes/societies that chose to migrate away from the trouble, founded states as well as imppsed their rule
over other peoples spreading what has come to be termed as Nguni imperialism. States that resulted from the spread of Nguni
imperialism included the Ndebele state under Mzilikazi, the Gaza state of Soshangane (in Mozambique) and various Nguni
states that were established in Zambia, Malawi and Tanganyika.
(h) Availability of iron technology which promoted the expansion of agricultural productivity Tools like hand hoes, axe, "pangas"
etc. and improvement of weapons had something to do with expansion of kingdom through conquering neighboring states. The
tools also brought about specialization and made society complex with heterogeneous economic occupations.
(i) Conquest. Some powerful states used their mightiness to overrun the weak states and therefore making them more powerful and
stronger as for the open case of Buganda which took over large areas of Bunyoro in the nineteenth century, a thing that saw it
assume fame and strength.
(j) Size of the kingdom; kingdoms that were small such as Buganda and Ghana were easier to organize, to administer effectively and
to defend unlike the larger kingdoms like the Bunyoro; the effective control was impossible.
Types of state organizations in pre-colonial Africa
Pre-colonial state organization has been categorized into two dominant forms varied from one place to another, these were: -
(a) Centralized states or non-acephalous societies.
(b) Non-centralized states or stateless or acephalous societies.
Those societies developed an expansionism tendency by conquering neighbouring clans, villages or states. They had very strong
leaders whose power was completely assigned to one leader who controlled all the society. Such leaders formed a very strong
standing army to protect the society and achieve the conquering of other states. These were societies that had a central ruling authority
or system of administration with a central figurehead who was a King, a Sultan or an Emperor at the top and other subordinates
follows. Example of non-acephalous societies in Africa include Toro, Buganda and Bunyoro kitara in the interlacustrine region of
East Africa, Ethiopian Empire of North East Africa, the Asante confederacy, Dahomey, Benin, Sokoto, Tokolo and the forest state
of Benin of West Africa, the Ndebele, Rozi, Kalolo and Gaza in Central Africa, the Zulu, Basuto empire and the Swazi in South
Africa.
An examination of the state societies in pre-colonial Africa reveals striking interesting differences but a critical look at them does
not show very marked differences but rather a set of similar political, economic and social features that across these societies. Before
indulging in the intricacies of contrasts it is worth surveying the common characteristics of these precolonial states.
Although they cannot be certain, historians of Africa believe that as many as a third of the people of Africa on the days before
colonial rule lived in stateless or decentralized societies. For many years, these societies were not well studied by historians. There
are a couple of reasons why decentralized societies in Africa have not been well studied by historians.
One of the reasons why these societies were not studied has to do with the availability of historical data. Rulers in centralized states
had an interest in keeping oral or written records. In decentralized societies that had no kings, chiefs or ruling elite, there was little
opportunity or incentive to keep oral or written histories. Consequently, contemporary historians do not have the same rich sources
of oral tradition to draw on when studying the histories of stateless societies.
The second reason why decentralized societies have not been well studied is prejudice (bias). Until quite recently, many historians
have accepted a view that only centralized societies are worth studying. Until the past twenty years, many historians . of Africa looked
at African history through the European lens. Consequently, historians took the existence of states as a mark of political achievement,
the bigger the state, the bigger the achievement. Although, recent authorities suggest that this view is far from accuracy. These
historians allowed their perspective of African societies to be prejudiced by European and North American history as a lens to focus
on African history. Decentralized and stateless societies can develop economically, culturally, and socially, even if they don't have
a centralized system of government.
Decentralized or stateless political societies in Africa were often made up of a group of neighbouring towns or villages that had no
political connection with a larger kingdom or nation. Most stateless and decentralized societies did not have a system of chiefs.
However, some of these societies had chiefs. In these societies, the position of chief was weak and was often not hereditary. The
Some decentralized societies did not have chiefs. They were governed by a council of elders that was comprised of many of the
elderly people in the community. In most decentralized societies in Africa, it was the elders who held social, economic and political
power. Elders were so important that some historians have defined decentralized societies as democracies of age
In his book The Progress and Evolution of Man in Africa, Dr. L.S.B. Leakey states that:
In every country that one visits and where one is drawn into a conversation about Africa, the question is regularly
asked, by people who should know better: "But what has Africa contributed to world progress?" The critics of
Africa forget that men of science today, with few exceptions, are satisfied that Africa was the birthplace of man
himself, and that for many hundreds of centuries thereafter, Africa was in the forefront of all human progress.
In the early development of man, the family was the most important unit in existence. Through the years the importance of this unit
has not changed. The first human societies were developed for reasons relating to the needs and survival of the family. The early
African had to make hooks to catch fish, spears to hunt with, and knives. He searched for new ways of building shelter, gathering
and raising food, and domesticating animals. Our use of fire today simply continues the process started by the early Africans—the
control of fire. In the making of tools that sets man apart from all living creatures, Africans started man along the tool-making path.
With the discovery of metals and how to use them all Africa took a great leap forward. Man had learned how to take iron from the
ground and turn it into spears and tools. Iron cultures spread rapidly across Africa and there were very few parts of Africa that were
not influenced by these Iron Age cultures. Iron cultures had their greatest development in the area of Africa that is now the Eastern
Sudan, in the great city-state of Meroe. The use of iron accelerated every aspect of African development and introduced a new
danger—the eventual use of iron weapons in warfare.
Egypt first became an organized nation about 6000 B.C. Medical interest centers upon a period in the Third Dynasty (5345-5307
B.C.), when Egypt had an ambitious pharaoh named Zaser. Zaser, in turn had for his chief counselor and minister a brilliant
Egypt gave the world some of the greatest personalities in the history of mankind. In this regard, Imhotep is singularly outstanding.
In the ancient history of Egypt, no individual left a deeper impression than the commoner Imhotep. He was the world's first multi-
genius. He was also the real father of medicine. In his book, Evolution of Modern Medicine (London, 1921, 9. 10), Sir William Osler
refers to Imhotep as "the first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity."
The period in Egyptian history from the Third Dynasty to the first invasion of Egypt by the Hyksas, of Shepherd Kings, in 1700 B.C.
is, in my opinion, the apex of the first Golden Age. The Western Asian domination over Egypt lasted about one hundred and twenty
years and was ended by the rise of Egyptian nationalism during the Seventeenth Dynasty. During this period the pharaohs (or kings)
at Thebes consolidated their powers and began a united campaign to rid Lower Egypt of Hyksas invaders. When the invaders from
Western Asia were finally driven out by the Pharaoh, Ahmose I, the splendid Eighteenth Dynasty was established and Egypt's second
Golden Age began. Egypt's Golden Age did not belong to Egypt alone but included nations in Africa, mainly Kush and Ethiopia
(which at certain periods in history were one and the same.) These nations farther to the South were the originators of the early
culture of Egypt. Egypt at this juncture in history was no longer dependent on her cultural parents and was, once more, the most
developed nation in the world.
During the reign of Thothmes III, the influence of Egypt was once more extended to Western Asia, now referred to as the Middle
East. The age of grandeur continued. This age had a dramatic and lasting change in 1386 B.C. Sometime around 1386 B.C., Queen
Tiy of Egypt gave birth to a boy who was first named Amenhates after his father. Very little is known of his childhood except that
he was sickly from birth and developed an interest in art, poetry, and religion. His closest companion was said to be Nefertiti, the
beautiful little cousin. (Some archaeologists have referred to her as his sister.)
When the Crown Prince was about 21, he and the lovely Nefertiti were married. Three years later, his aging father, Amenhotep III,
named him co-regent of Egypt and crowned him Amenhotep IV. After the death of his father, he came into full power in Egypt and
took the name Akhenaton. He produced a profound effect on Egypt and the entire world of his day.
Akhenaton, often referred to as "The Heretic King," is one of history's most extraordinary monarchs. Thirteen hundred years before
Christ he preached and lived a gospel of love, brotherhood, and truth. He has been called the world's first idealist, the first temporal
ruler ever to lead his people toward the worship of a single God.
When Akhenaton came to the throne more than 3,000 years ago, Egypt dominated the world.
Egypt's Golden Age gradually waned and the pride and splendor that had marked the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties gave way
to internal strife and confusion. Wars of conquest and colonization had drained much of her military and economic strength. In the
meantime, as the nations to the South grew more powerful, they became predatory toward Egypt, which had once been their master.
The nation that is now called Ethiopia came back upon the center stage of history around 900 B.C. It was then represented by a queen
who in some books is referred to as Makeda, and in others as Belkis. She is better known to the world as the Queen of Sheba. In his
book, World's Great Men of Color, J.A. Rogers gives this description: "Out of the mists of three thousand years emerges this beautiful
love story of a black queen, who, attracted by the fame of a Judean monarch, made a long journey to see him...."
In Ethiopia, A Cultural History, Sylvia Pankhurst tells the story of this journey:
The history of the Queen of the South, who undertook a long and arduous journey to Jerusalem, in order to
learn of the wisdom of King Solomon, is deeply cherished in Ethiopia, as part of the national heritage, for
she is claimed as an Ethiopian Queen, Makeda, "a woman of splendid beauty," who introduced the religion
and culture of Israel to her own land."
By the tenth and ninth centuries B.C., Egypt had been weakened by outside attacks and by bitter disputes between its priests and the
royal families. This had allowed the Kushites to the South to gain a measure of independence. They now had the confidence to move
Northward and conquer their former masters. In spite of the war of conquest, these Kushite (or Ethiopian) kings brought Egypt her
last age of grandeur and social reform. There is a need to make a serious study of this act of internal African colonialism and what it
achieved at the end of the Golden Age for both Egypt and Kush.
These Kushite kings restored the declining culture and economy of Egypt and took this nation to unprecedented heights of leadership
in the way it cared for its people. Though a colony, Egypt was once more a world power.
In Egypt a strong and shrewd young girl tried to deal with the plight of her country under the threat of Roman domination. Her name
was Cleopatra.
More nonsense has been written about Cleopatra than about any other African queen, mainly because it has been the desire of many
writers to paint her white. She was not a white woman; she was not a Greek. Let us dispose of this matter before explaining the more
important aspects of her life. Until the emergence of the doctrine of white superiority, Cleopatra was generally pictured as a distinctly
African woman, dark in color. Shakespeare in the opining line of "Anthony and Cleopatra" calls her "tawny." In his day, mulattos
were called "tawny Moors." The word "Moor" came into the European languages meaning black or blackamoor. In the Book of Acts,
Cleopatra describes herself as "black."
Born in 69 B.C., Cleopatra came to the throne that she shared with her brother, Ptolemy XIII, when she was 18 years old. Egypt,
now a Roman protectorate, was beset with internal strife and intrigue. Cleopatra aligned herself with Julius Caesar, who reinforced
her power. Their political and sexual relationship was a maneuver to save Egypt from the worst aspects of Roman domination. After
Julius Caesar was murdered, Cleopatra, still in her early twenties, met Mark Anthony and a love affair strongly motivated by politics
began.
Her effect on Mark Anthony was profound. This noble Roman turned traitor to his own people when he attempted to save the country
of this fascinating black queen from Roman domination. After Anthony's death, the victor, Octavius, assumed full control of Egypt,
and Cleopatra, now without a protector or champion, committed suicide.
After Cleopatra's death, Egypt became a Roman colony and the harsher aspects of Roman rule settled over Egypt and the Middle
East. To the South, in the lands untouched by Rome, new proud civilizations were rising. And in the centuries that followed, black
women once again began to play major roles in the theatre of history.
Lights of achievement did shine in other parts of Africa, though the second Golden Age was over.
The more ruthless aspects of Roman rule made African and Middle Eastern people question old gods and search for new ones. This
led to the development of Christianity and subsequently Islam. From the beginning these were religions of the oppressed.
When the oppressor, the Romans, stopped killing Christians and became "Christian" the religion was dramatically changed. Their
misuse of this religion and widespread dissatisfaction in the Roman colonies of North Africa and the Middle East facilitated the rise
of Islam.
The first of the great empires of the Western Sudan to become known to the outside world was Ghana. It began as a small settlement
during the second century of the Christian era. It would later develop into a state with a known history of more than a thousand years.
In Europe and in the Arab countries, Ghana was known as country rich in gold. This was a natural attraction for the Arabs and later
the Europeans. The country reached the height of its greatness during the reign of Tunkamanin, one of its greatest kings, who came
to power in 1062 A.D. The king lived in a palace of stone and wood which was built to be defended in time of war. The Empire was
well organized. The political progress and social wellbeing of its people could be favorably compared to the best kingdoms and
empires that prevailed in Europe at this time. The country had a military force of 200,000 men.
In one of a number of holy wars, or Jihads, Ghana was invaded by the Almoravides under the leadership of Abu Bekr of the Sosso
Empire in 1076 A.D. This conquest brought as end to Ghana's age of prosperity and cultural development. The character of the
country was slow to change. Nearly a hundred years later the Arab writer, El Idrisi wrote of it as being said: "Ghana ... is the most
commercial of the black countries. It is visited by rich merchants from all the surrounding countries and from the extremities of the
West."
In 1087 the country regained its independence, without regaining its old strength, state organization, and grandeur. The ruins of the
Empire of Ghana became the Kingdoms of Diara and Sosso. The provinces of Ghana became a part of the Mali Empire and were
later absorbed into the Songhai Empire.
The great drama of state building, trade and commerce, and power brokerage unfolded at Timbuktu, the queen city of the Western
Sudan.
Two hundred miles down the Niger from Timbuktu the competing city of Gao stood. It was founded about the seventy century and
was the capital of the large black empire of Songhai. Like Timbuktu, it was in a favorable position for the Trans-Saharan trade, in
the days of the regular caravans from North Africa. Like Timbuktu, the greatest days of Gao came in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries
The scholars of Timbuktu yielded in nothing to the saints and their sojourns in the foreign universities of Fez, Tunis
and Cairo. They astounded the most learned men of Islam by their erudition. That these Negroes were on a level
with the Arabian savants is proved by the fact that they were installed as professors in Morocco and Egypt. In
contrast to this, we find that the Arabs were not always equal to the requirements of Sankore.
To the outside world, of the late medieval period, the Emperor Mansa Mussa was more than an individual. He was Africa. He
conquered the Songhai Empire and rebuilt the University of Sankore. He figured, by name, on every map. In his lifetime he became
in person the symbol of the mystery and of the fabulous wealth of the unknown African continent. He was the most colorful of the
black kings of the fourteenth century. He still held this position nearly two centuries after his death.
The German writer, Henry Barth, in his famous work Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, calls Askia the Great
"one of the most brilliant and enlightened administrators of all times." He reorganized the army of Songhai, improved the system
of banking and credit, and made the city-states of Gao, Walta, Timbuktu, and Jenne into intellectual centers. Timbuktu during his
reign, was a city of more than 100,000 people, "people filled to the top," says a chronicler of that time, "with gold and dazzling
women."
Askia encouraged scholarship and literature. Students from all over the Moslem world came to Timbuktu to study grammar, law,
and surgery at the University of Sankore; scholars came from North Africa and Europe to confer with learned historians and writers
of this black empire. A Sudanese literature developed and many books were written. Leo Africanus, who wrote one of the best
known works on the Western Sudan, says: "In Timbuktu there are numerous judges, doctors, and clerics, all receiving good salaries
from the king. He pays great respect to men of learning. There is a big demand for books in manuscript, imported from Barbary
(North Africa). More profit is made from the book trade than from any other line of business."
Askia has been hailed as one of the wisest monarch of the Middle Ages. Alexander Chamberlain, in his book, The Contribution
of the Negro to Human Civilization, says of him: "In personal character, in administrative ability, in devotion to the welfare of his
subjects, in open-mindedness towards foreign influences, and in wisdom in the adoption of enlightened ideas and institutions from
abroad, King Askia was certainly the equal of the average European monarch of the time and superior to many of them."
Timbuktu provides the most terrible example of the struggles of the West African states and towns as they strove to preserve what
was once their Golden Age. The Arabs, Berbers and Tuaregs from the North showed them no mercy. Timbuktu had previously been
sacked by the Tuaregs as early as 1433 and they had occupied it for thirty years. Between 1591 and 1593, the Tuaregs had already
taken advantage of the situation to plunder Timbuktu once more. Between 1723 and 1726 the Tuaregs once more occupied and looted
Now, West Africa entered a sad period of decline. During the Moorish occupation wreck and ruin became the order of the day. When
the Europeans arrived in this part of Africa and saw these conditions they assumed that nothing of order and value had existed in
these countries. This mistaken impression, too often repeated, has influenced the interpretation of African and Afro-American life in
history for over four hundred years.
The people and nations of Central Africa have no records of their ancient and medieval history like the "Tarikh es Sudan" or the
"Tarikh el Fettach" of the Western Sudan (West Africa). The early travelers to these areas are mostly unknown. In spite of the forest
as an obstacle to the formation of empires comparable to those of the Western Sudan, notable kingdoms did rise in this part of Africa
and some of them did achieve a high degree of civilization.
The Congo Valley became the gathering place of various branches of the people we know now as Bantu. When the history of Central
Africa is finally written, it will be a history of invasions and migrations. According to one account, between two and three thousand
years ago a group of tribes began to move out of the region South or Southwest of Lake Chad. Sometime during the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries the center of Africa became crowded with pastoral tribes who needed more land for their larger flocks and herds.
This condition started another migration that lasted for more than a hundred years. Tribes with the prefix Ba to their names spread
far to the west into the Congo basin and Southward through the central plains. The Nechuana and Basuto were among these tribes.
Tribes with the prefix Ama—great warriors like the Ama-Xosa and Ama-Zulu—passed down the Eastern side.
In the meantime, some of the more stable tribes in the Congo region were bringing notable kingdoms into being. The Kingdom of
Loango extended from Cape Lopez (Libreville) to near the Congo; and the Congo Empire was mentioned by the Portuguese as early
as the fourteenth century. The Chief of Loango, Mani-Congo, extended his kingdom as far as the Kasai and Upper Zambesi Rivers.
This kingdom had been in existence for centuries when the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century. They spoke admiringly of its
capital, Sette-Camo, which they called San Salvador. The Kingdom of Congo dates back to the fourteenth century. At the height of
its power it extended over modern Angola, as far East as the Kasai and Upper Zambesi Rivers.
Further inland the Kingdom of Ansika was comprised of the people of the Bateke and Bayoka, whose artistic talents were very
remarkable. Near the center of the Congo was the Bakuba Kingdom (or Bushongo), still noted for its unity, the excellence of its
administration, its art, its craftsmanship and the beauty of its fabrics.
South of the Congo basin the whole Bechuana territory formed a vast state which actually ruled for a long time over the Basutos, the
Zulus, the Hottentots and the Bushmen, including in a single empire the greater part of the black population of Southern and Central
Africa. This was the era of Bushongo grandeur; the people we now know as Balubas.
Only the Bushongo culture kept its records and transmitted them almost intact to modern research. The Bakubas are an ancient people
whose power and influence once extended over most of the Congo. Their history can be traced to the fifth century. For many centuries
the Bakubas have had a highly organized social system, an impressive artistic tradition and a secular form of government that
expressed the will of the people through a democratic political system. Today, as for many generations in the past, the court of a
Bakuba chief is ruled by a protocol as rigid and complicated as that of Versailles under Louis XIV.
At the top of the Bakuba hierarchy is the royal court composed of six dignitaries responsible for cabinet-like matters such as military
affairs, justice and administration. At one time there were in the royal entourage 143 other functionaries, including a master of the
hunt, a master storyteller and a keeper of oral traditions. In the sixteenth century the Bakubas ruled over a great African empire. The
memory of their glorious past is recalled in the tribe with historical exactitude. They can name the reigns of their kings for the past
235 years. The loyalty of the people to these rulers is expressed in a series of royal portrait-statues dating from the reign of Shamba
Bolongongo, the greatest and best known of the Bakuba kings.
In the Bakuba system of government the king was above all a symbol, rather like the Mikado in the eyes of the Japanese. His
ministers, the Kolomos, paid him great respect in public, even if they were his known enemies. In private they made no pretense of
subservience. If the king wanted to see his ministers he had to go to their houses or meet them on neutral ground. The ordinary
members of the tribe had representatives at the court on a political and professional basis. Some of these officials represented
geographical areas, trades and professions. The weavers, the blacksmiths, the boat-builders, the net-makers, the musicians and the
dancers all had their representatives at court. There was even a special representative of the fathers of twins. The representative of
the sculptors was held in highest esteem. The Bakuba sculptors are considered to be the finest in Africa.
Shamba Bolongongo was a peaceful sovereign. He prohibited the use of the shongo, a throwing knife, the traditional weapon of the
Bushongo. This wise African king used to say: "Kill neither man, woman nor child. Are they not the children of Chembe (God), and
have they not the right to live?" Shamba likewise brought to his people some of the agreeable pastimes that alleviate the tediousness
of life. The reign of Shamba Bolongongo was really the "Golden Age" of the Bushongo people of the Southern Congo. After
abolishing the cruder aspects of African warfare, Shamba Bolongongo introduced raffia weaving and other arts of peace. According
Early in the twentieth century when the European writer, Emil Torday, was traveling through the Congo collecting material for his
book On the Trail of the Bushongo, he found the Bakuba elders still singing the praises of Shamba Bolongongo. They also repeated
the list of their kings, a list of one hundred twenty names, going back to the godlike king who founded their nation. From these
Bakuba elders, Emil Torday learned of Bo Kama Bomanchala, the great king who reigned after Shamba Bolongongo. The elders
recalled the most memorable event that had occurred during his reign. On March 30, 1680, there was a total eclipse of the sun,
passing exactly over Bushongo.
Jose Fernandez, one of the first European explorers to visit Central Africa, went there in 1445. Any number of subsequent expeditions
were carried out by such men as Diego Borges, Vincente Armes, Rebello de Araca, Francisco Baretto and Dom Christovao da Gama.
The parts of Africa visited, explored and discovered by these men included the kingdom of the Congo, Timbuktu, the East Coast of
Africa, Nubia, the Kingdom of Angola, Abyssinia and the Lake Tsana region.
Much of the history and civilization of Central Africa and East Africa was revealed by the study made by the Portuguese African
explorer Duarte Lopez in his book History of the Kingdom of Congo. Duarte Lopez went to the Congo in 1578 and stayed for many
years. From his study and description of the Congo we learn that the Kingdom of the Congo included the territory formerly known
as the Congo, Angola and parts of the Cameroons.
According to Lopez, the kingdom of the Congo at the time measured 1,685 miles. The King, still reliving his past glory, styled
himself Dom Alvarez, King of Congo, and of Abundo, and of Natama, and of Quizama, and of Angola, and of Angri, and of Cacongo,
and of the seven Kingdoms of Congere Amolza, and of the Pangelungos, and the Lord of the River Zaire (Congo) and of the
Anzigiros, and of Anziqvara, and of Doanga, etc. He also tells us that the Kingdom of Angola was at one time a vassal state of the
Congo.
At the time of Lopez's twelve years stay in the country, the Kingdom of the Congo was divided into six provinces. The province of
Bamba was the military stronghold of the kingdom, and was capable of putting 400,000 well-disciplined men in the field.
The rich gold mines at Sofala (now a port of Mozambique) attracted the Portuguese to the East Coast of Africa. They used
intermarriage with the Africans as a means of gaining favor and pushing into the interior of Africa. In turn, the Africans gradually
lost their anti-Christian hostilities and gave in to being converted to Christianity. And thus Christianity was introduced into the Congo
before 1491. The Mani Sogno was the first Congo nobleman to embrace the Christian faith. The Moslems, coming into the Congo
from the East Coast, prevailed upon the Africans to resist being converted to Christianity, telling them that Christianity was a subtle
method used by the Portuguese to take over their country. This warning notwithstanding, Christianity continued to spread in the
Congo.
In 1513, Henrique, son of Dom Affonso, then King of the Congo, was sent to Lisbon and to Rome to study theology. In 1520, Pope
Leo X appointed Henrique Bishop of Utica and Vicar-apostolic of the Congo. Unfortunately, Henrique died before he could return
to the Congo. He was Rome's first Central African bishop. The royal archives of Portugal still hold the records reflecting the
ceremonial respect that was paid to this Christian son of an African king and queen.
In the years that followed, Portuguese evangelization of the Congo continued. The Holy See received ambassadors from and sent
legates to the Congo. In 1561, Father Dom Goncalo da Silvera baptized the Emperor of the Court of Monomotapa.
The peaceful relations between the Africans and the Portuguese were eventually disrupted by the rising European lust for slaves and
gold. It was from Angola and the Congo that the Portuguese New World was to derive its greatest source of slaves. In 1647, Salvador
Correia of Brazil organized an expedition of fifteen ships for the purpose of reconquering Angola, which had been under Dutch rule
for eight years. This event might be considered go be one of the earliest political interventions of the New World in the Affairs of
the Old.
Portuguese domination founded on the dire necessities of the slave trade persisted in Angola. After a period of relative splendor, the
Christian Kingdom of the Congo began to weaken and was practically destroyed by European fortune hunters, pseudo-missionaries
and other kinds of freebooters. By 1688, the entire Congo region was in chaos. By the end of the seventeenth century European
priests had declared open war on the non-Christian population of the Congo. They were attempting to dominate Congolese courts
and had ordered the execution of Congolese ancestral priests and indigenous doctors. Now the Congolese Christians were pathetic
pawns of the hands of unscrupulous European priests, soldiers, merchants and other renegade pretenders, mere parish priests from
Europe were ordering Congolese kings from their thrones.
Soon treachery, robbery and executions compounded the chaos in the Congo. Violence became the order of the day as various
assortments of European mercenaries vied for control of this rich area of Africa. In the ensuing struggle many of the Christian
churches built by the Portuguese were destroyed. The Dutch, still feeling the humiliation of the decline of their influence in Angola,
came into the Congo and systematically removed all traces of the once prevailing Portuguese power.
By 1820 Arab slave traders had penetrated the Congo from Zanzibar and through Tanganyika. Soon after their arrival their slave
raids were decimating the population. The European rediscovery of the Congo and neighboring territories began in the middle of the
nineteenth century. In 1858, two Englishmen, Burton and Spoke, discovered Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, approaching them from
the shores of the Indian Ocean. The Scotch Protestant missionary, Livingstone, explored the regions of the big lakes and in 1871,
In the meantime, King Leopold II of Belgium focused his attention on Central Africa and in 1876 founded the Association
International Africaine. In 1878, King Leopold commissioned Stanley to establish connection between the Congo River and the
ocean in the non-navigable part of the river. From 1879 to 1885, a handful of Belgian officers sent by the King set up posts along
the Congo River. They were followed by Catholic and Protestant missionaries.
King Leopold's undertakings gave rise to competition and greed. Other European nations had designs on the Congo. The King's
diplomatic successes at the Berlin Conference of 1884 settled this matter. The members of the Conference marked out spheres of
influence in Africa and determined boundaries that are still in existence. The Congo Free State came into being. The Belgian
parliament agreed that Leopold should have "exclusive" personal ownership of the Congo. The United States was the first power to
ratify the arrangement, largely through the efforts of General Henry S. Stanford, who was American minister to Brussels at the time.
INTRODUCTION
We have looked at the rise and development of Western, part of West Africa. Now let us direct our attention to the Eastern part of
Sudan of west Africa, where we find two important empires Kanem-Bornu and the Hausa relates.
The earliest beginnings of Kanem-Bornu are little known. Probably they occurred after 800 A.D. The Trans-Saharan trade contributed
to the development of this state. To the East and West of Great Lake of Chad there lay a vital crossroad of trade. In the lands
surrounding Lake Chad were situated the Southern market centres of the Trans-Saharan trade not only with Libya and Tunisia in the
far North, but also with Nubia on the middle Nile and Egypt to the far North-East. These markets were valuable exchange centres
for all goods going North from the lands of Eastern Guinea i.e. in Southern Nigeria today. So the states of Lake Chad that later on
constituted Kanem-Bornu had contacts with Eastern Guinea in the South, the Nile through the hills of Darfur, Libya arid Tunisia in
the North through Biluna basis and the settlements of Air.
The early state of Kanem came into being under a line of kings belonging to the Sefawa family. This dynasty held power from about
850 AD. Two centuries later, in 1086, a Sefawa king called Hume, accepted Islam as his own religion and that of his court. From
then all rulers of Kanem-Bornu were always Muslims.
Two main periods of early expansion can be distinguished as suggested by Basil Davidson: Under Dunama Dibelemi and the kings
immediately before him and under Mai Gai (1472-1504).
By 1250 Mai Dunama Dibelemi had extended control of the Northern trade routes as far as the Fezzan in Southern Tunisia on the
Northern side of the desert. He also got hold of Abamawa, old Bornu and Kano as well as Wadai to the East of Lake Chad. After
him there followed a period of decline when this first empire of the Kanuri went through a time of troubles. Some of these were
caused by disputes between leading men and their families. Others were due to unsuccessful wars against their neighbours. Troubles
continued up to the reign of Mai Daud, 1377-86, when the Bulala, Kanemi's biggest rivals drove the king and his court out of old
Kanuri capital of Nkimi, near Lake Chad. Another king Mai Umar, 1394-98 suffered worse defeats. At this time the capital was
transferred to Bornu on the western side of Lake Chad. From now on we can speak of the empire as Bornu.
The second period of expansion began late in the fifteenth and especially under Mai Ali Gaji, 1472-1504. His successful conquests
were Eastward against some Hausa states including Kano and Eastward against the Bulala, while at the same time he regained control
of the Northern trade routes and fought off raiders from the South (near the region of the middle Benue River).
These successes were continued under the next ruler, Mai Idris Katarkanabi, 1504-26. He was able to liberate the old capital of Nkimi
from the Bulala but the centre for the new empire stayed at the Bornu capital of Ngazargamu founded by Mai Ghaji. So, the Bulala
once again became the subjects of the empire. Mai Muhammad, 1526-45 marched North into Air, then under Songhai rule. From
this time the country of Air which was vital for the Northern trade from Bornu and Hausaland came under the influence of Bornu.
After Mai Muhammad came Mai Ali who clashed with Kebbi who died in 1546. He was succeeded by Mai Dunama (1536-63)
followed by Mai Dalla who reigned from 1564 to 1570.
After some confusion emerged Mai Idris Alooma. He is remembered for reinforcement of Islamic beliefs and customs. He placed
much weight on obedience to Islamic code of law and tried hard to raise the prestige of his magistrates, even making it a habit to
submit his own problems to their advice and decision.
DECLINE OF KARNEM-BORNU
Internal and external factors account for the decline of Kanem-Bornu empire. Externally, there were several attacks: from Kwararaga,
from the South-East and from the North Kanem-Bornu was also attacked by the Tuaregs.
Internally there were rebellions and struggles, especially from the Hausa states of Kano and Kabins. After Mai Idris Alooma there
followed Mai Muhammad Mai Ibrahim and Mai Haji Umar in 1800. These other Mais were less effective.
Other internal factors include frequent famines especially in the reign of Mai Dunama. As a result of these famines the Tuareg
penetrated further South into the Sahel and the Savannah of Bornu for food.
Each Hausa city was a market place for the nearby countryside. Here country people could exchange their products for the goods
that town craftsmen made in leather and other materials.
Each Hausa city became gradually a centre for long distance trade. It became a place for the exchange not only for locally produced
goods but also of goods brought from North Africa and Egypt and from the rest of Sudan and also from Guinea.
These cities sometimes cooperated for the common good. They had a single 'government that ruled them all. They did not form
Hausa empire. Yet, the 'Hausa states were generally more friendly with each other than wish their neighbours. They had influence
and commercial power over a wide area of the Eastern region.
These states also were in close and constant touch sometimes by war but more often by peaceful trade with peoples of the forest
lands of Eastern Guinea, notably with the Yoruba and their neighbours. This is because it wits largely through Hausaland that the
goods of the Yoruba country, especially Kolanuts, went Northward into the western Sudan and across the Sahara to North Africa. It
was also largely through Hausaland that the peoples of Eastern Guinea could import the North African goods they needed. Hausa
states were a necessary and, therefore, prosperous link between Guinea and the far North.
The administrative structure of these states was similar to Songhay and Kanem-Bornu. The structure was, however, at the expense
of the ordinary people. The needs of courts and armies expanded and weighed down on tax paying citizens and farmers. By 1450
Muslim rulers intensified slave labour by capturing more and more of them. In that year, for instance, the ruler of Kano sent out
soldiers on raids for captives. They are said to have brought him as many as one thousand slaves a month. This involved capturing
of more land on which the slaves could work. Slaves were also used to build luxurious palaces and owned large areas of land. So,
these states prospered though at the expense of the few.
However, this prosperity, whether from trade or taxation attracted raiders. In this case the most important raiders included the armies
of the Songhai emperor who attacked Kano, and Kebbi who attacked Gobir and Katsina.
As regards the first factor, by the 17 th century the Asante people had founded a number of states around Kumasi. These include
Nampon, Afigayaasi, Saniagya and many others. The development of these small states within a small area was caused by trade
routes to and from Mandeland to the North-West and Hausaland to the North-East. These routes met in that region. From there,
further routes radiated Southwards to the coast. They converged on this area because it was a source of two main products, namely
gold and kolanuts.
The harsh rule of Denkyira: All pre-Asante hated the oppressive rule of the Denkyira. All states Asante states had been conquered
and subjected to a very tyrannical rule. He prevented the people from trading directly with Europeans on the coast. So the Asante
revolted, mainly for commercial reasons.
Concerning the rise of Atlantic Trade, all the people of the interior became increasingly anxious to trade directly with Europeans on
the coast as the Atlantic slave trade grew in volume and profitability, particularly with rise of demand for slaves for sugar plantations
from 1640 onwards.
(1) They were a much more closely-knit group. The founders of Oyoko states believed that they came from a single lineage of family.
The kings of Dwaben, Bekwai, and Kumasi regarded and still regard themselves as brothers, and they all looked upon the king of
Kokofu as their uncle. Hence, instead of competing among themselves as other states were doing, the Oyoko states cooperated closely
and as all of them were concentrated within an area of twenty miles from Kumasi, a core of an empire was thus created.
(2) The growth of this core into an empire of Asante under the rule of Kumasi lineage of the Oyoko clan was the result of the work
of the rulers, Obiri Yeboa, Osei Tutu and Opoku ware.
It seems that the branch of the Oyoko which moved into Tafo area founded its town, Kumasi, and later, whether through marriage,
diplomacy or war, established its dominations over the other clan states in the region. The move was started by Obiri Yeboa. He
embarked upon war of expansion attacking many states in the neighbourhood. He was killed in 1670s in a war against the Dumaa.
Yeboa was succeeded by Osei Tutu.
Osei Tutu's role in building the Asante empire can be summarized as follows: -
(a) He created a lasting union of the forest states by playing on the common fear of the Denkyira. He invented the golden stool as a
symbol of unity. He urged that the stool was an embodiment of their strength, vitality and their very survival. Thus the golden
stool had to be guarded at all costs. It was agreed that the occupant should be recognized as the Asantehene i.e. the supreme
religious and political head of the union states. And that the Asantehene must come from the family of the Osei Tutu or Obiri
Yeboa.
(b) Osei Tutu established that Kumasi should be capital of the Asante empire. And once every year the members should attend
Odwira festivals, which were meant for prayers for the entire nation settling disputes, and an occasion for planning the future of
the nation.
(c) Osei Tutu also came up with a constitution for the whole Asante empire. And the Asantehene had to recognize Kumasi's court
as the supreme court of the union. They were also forced to pay tribute and attend the Odwira festivals and swear allegiance to
him.
(d) He reorganized the army and strengthened it for the whole nation.
(e) He extended the empire by wars which attracted the whites, attention at the coast by 1720. Osei Tutu was killed in 1717 in a
campaign against Akayoma. He was succeeded by Opoku Ware. This ruler is well known for the further expansion of the
Asante empire to occupy the whole of modern of modern Ghana.
(1) All the rulers of the 2nd half of the 17th century and early decades of the 19th century (whose names include Kusi Obodum, Oseli
Kwadwo, Osai Kwame and Osei Bonsu), were able to provide the necessary leadership and inspiration and to suppress all therevolts
and rebellions that broke in the empire. These included those of the Gyaaman, the Banda and Akyem Abuakwa.
(2) The strength of its army. Throughout the period, the Asante army remained strong and invincible.
(3) The healthy economy of Asante. The area in which Asante empire emerged was suitable for agriculture, it also produced two
important products both for the savannah people in the North and Europeans at the coast. The products were gold and kolanuts. Not
In metropolitan Asante the power of the Asantehene was supreme in Kumasi. In the empire his power was not determined by
constitutional practices but by the personality, ability and the tact of the individual Asantehene. Unfortunately, the other Asantehenes
who followed were nol as effective as the Osei Tutu, hence the collapse.
Another weakness was that, none of the states conquered after Osei Tutu's reign was effectively brought into the union. They were
not given a place in the union council and the golden stool had no significance for them. They did not have even direct access to the
Asantehene and could see him only through Kumasi chiefs.
There were external pressures too. From 1830s the Asante were invaded by the British along the coast. A conflict occurred between
the British and the Asante. The reasons for the conflict were many, but opinion of some; historians has it that the Asante were warlike
and expansionist. However, it has been pointed out by others that the Asante took up arms against the British when negotiations
failed. The Asante wanted to maintain. intact the empire inherited from their forefathers. The Asante wars were mainly aimed at
punishing rebellious states and to maintain Elmina Castle, so that they could gain access to the coast and thereby ensure regular
supply of arms and ammunition.
The wars with British, 1860-70 and in 1873, were to prevent Elimina from falling into the hands of the British as a result of the
Anglo-Detach exchange of forts. The Dutch finally departed from Ghana in 1872.
The British were interested in trade and, therefore, could not allow a powerful state to establish a firm hold of the coast. The first
British war with Asante occurred in 1824 when the British were defeated and governor Sir Charles MacGarthy killed. In 1824 and
1826 the British decisively " defeated the Asante. In 1874 Kumasi was invaded, sacked and set on fire by the British army under the
command of Sir Garnet Wolsley.
As a result of this war, the Asante military superiority was weakened because the flow of arms stopped. The component states of the
Asante empire declared independence. Also these wars brought together the Asante states into a form of confederation. And in 1874
the British declared the Asante states of a British crown colony or Gold Coast.
Expansion
Between 1610-1770 the kings, known as the Alafins of Oyo, were able to unite the small city-states and towns within the
neighbourhood between Nupe and Moshi river to the North and Ogun to the South-west. But between 1500 and 1540 the Alafins
were defeated by Nupe and Oyo was sacked. They regained strength during the first decade of the 17th century. The period between
1790 and 1836 was one of the decline and fall.
Oyo manufactured most of its every day needs, such as iron tools weapons pottery and cotton cloth. Oyo cloth was woven In no,
Ijama, and Egbado provinces. Cotton was grown locally. More expensive cloth was made with a trans-Saharan import. The cloth
There was local trade, long distance trade and inter-regional trade. Local trade consisted of many market places in all towns of any
size where food crops, raw materials and other products were sold.
Long distance trade was trade with the North. Oyo exports there included slaves. Imports included horses, leather goods, textile from
Hausaland, copper and beads from North Africa and Sahara.
Through. interregional trade, food stuffs and manufactured goods such as cloth, kolanuts, sea-salts and others were sold in savannah
regions of the empire. In all this trade the medium of exchange was cowries.
Oyo also traded with the coast and Southern areas, through the ports of Allada, Badagry and Porto Novo. The main commodities
sent to the European traders along the coast were Oyo cloth, ivory and mainly slaves. The bulk of revenues of the Alafins of Oyo
came from duties levied on the trade into and from the capital city and other provinces in which systematic collection of toll were
established.
There were also external factors. The major one was interventions from the Fulani, the British and Dahomey.
By the second decade of 19th century the Fulani had conquered all the Hausa states in the North thus dislocating trade.
Dahomey state attacked Yorubaland after it had declared itself independent in 1821. The British had intervened in Oyo empire from
1'065 onwards during the abolition of slave trade. By 1890 the British conque0d and annexed Yorubaland.
The division of society into antagonistic classes went hand in hand with the separation of towns and countryside. The first group was
concentrated in towns and cities while the second one was mainly in the countryside. It was the toiling masses in the countryside
who fed those living in towns. The collapse of feudalism in Egypt did not only lead to the formation of the state but also to production
of surplus.
Decline of Nubian
1. Feudal lords were against the peasants
2. Attacks by Muslims
3. Disunity
ASANTE EMPIRE
Asante or Ashanti empire was found as a result of emergence of several cities in the region of Kumasi. The people of Asante were
Akan ruled by the Oyuko clan. The King was Obiri Yeboa who was Osei Tutu. The capital city of Asante or Ashanti was Kumasi.
The symbol of Asante union was a Golden stool. The ruler of Asante was known as Asantehene.
In the interlacustrine region, for instance, societies organized in class lines emerged shortly after 1000 A.D. The earliest of them was
Kitara, followed by several others including the kingdoms of Bunyoro, Buganda, Nkore, Karagwe, Rwanda, Burundi, Buha and
Buhaya, which grew at different times. These kingdoms became feudal as they developed between the fifteenth and first half of the
nineteenth century.
In order to understand how they became feudal, we must examine how some of these societies developed after the fifteenth century.
Around the fifteenth century Buganda was no more than its small nucleus in Kyadondo but by the nineteenth century it had become
a formidable and recognized kingdom within the interlacustrine region. Its steady growth and expansion is attributed to a number of
reasons.
First was its location in a fertile zone. The Lake Victoria shores are also blessed with ample rainfall. These factors enabled
agriculture throughout the year. Consequently, there was enough food to feed her expanding population. Famine was unheard
of unlike in contemporary Bunyoro and this helped the kingdom to expand.
Buganda was also blessed with ambitious, charismatic and enterprising kings such as Suna II and Mutesa I. These are said to
have worked tirelessly for the defense and expansion of Buganda Kingdom.
Fortunately for Buganda, by the time of its expansion Bunyoro was on decline. It has been pointed out that had it not been for
the declining state of Bunyoro, Buganda would have not established herself as a powerful kingdom. Buganda seized the
opportunity obtaining the fertile territory of Buddu in addition to carrying out a series of raids that enabled her get a lot of
Bunyoro riches.
Originally, Buganda was small and intact. This enabled the Kings to administer effectively. Through appointed chiefs and clan
heads the king would be well informed on matters pertaining to his kingdom. Besides, the small size of the kingdom allowed
the king to have close contacts with his subjects hence making him an affective reader. This eventually catalysed the growth and
expansion of Buganda.
Buganda was also commercially active and engaged in both internal and external trade. By 1840s Buganda had trade contacts
with the Arabs. This made the kingdom to obtain fire arms (guns) that served as instruments of expansion. Moreover Buganda
ensured her rivals like Bunyoro are denied access to this trade. This denial gave Buganda a monopoly advantage over her
neighbours hence her expansion and development of powerful and admirable political, economic and social institutions by mid
nineteenth century
The Buganda administrative system of the Kabaka governed the Kingdom with assistance of advisory council; (Itikiiko) the
council constituted the prime minister (katikiro), thetreasure (muwanika) and the chief justice (mulamuzi) as well as the country
chiefs, all these were kabaka nominees. The legislature council gave advice to the Kabaka and enacted laws, such administration
promoted stability and order in the kingdom thus, the expansion of state.
The existences of outstanding army, Kabaka established strong and well equipped army, with navy canoe on Lake Victoria for
the sake of maintaining political stability in the state and defend the kingdom from external aggression. The Kabaka used the
army to cement his authoritarian power and to expand the empire. By 1853 -1884 Kabaka Mutesa I, being a commander in chief
manipulated the strength of his army to expand the frontiers of land of Buganda. The army as employed to fight and grab captives
of other smaller kingdoms which included Bunyoro and Toro.
The Buganda security system, the Kabaka created security system for the sake of controlling the vassal states chiefs. In these
circles the Kabaka attached women officials to spy his chiefs. These were responsible to give reports to Kabaka pertaining the
individual chiefs, the Kabaka choose a woman as his personal adviser known as the Namasole. This woman was an important
figure in Buganda politics, such as ensuring a spy-network throughout the whole kingdom. At times however, these women
would provide false information in order to favour one chief over the Kabaka.
The polygamous system of Kabaka; Buganda kingdom had approximately 52 clans, each with its own leadership. These provided
basic political unit for the whole administration of the kingdom, for the sake of political harmony in the kingdom. Kabaka
married from almost every important clan; hence intermarriages were a political weapon and created the possibility of getting
the Kabaka from any clan. This brought all clans together, equality among clans and ensured loyalty of the Kabaka dictatorship.
The decentralized system of Buganda in order to ensure effective administration of the kingdom. The whole of Buganda was
divided into counties then into parishes (called Muluka) and finally the parishes into sub-parishes. At all levels the chiefs were
the Kabaka's appointees. Each exercised a specific function and remained directly accountable to the kabaka. Such a system of
decentralize helped to maintain the homogeny city of the kingdom and the implementation of decisions.
Religious system of Buganda, Buganda also practices ancestral worship. As the clan head, kabaka was a spiritual leader who
presided over religious function and was regarded by the Ganda as a semi divine person. A long with being the religious head
he was surrounded by the religious leaders from different tribes. The local people mainly engage in the practices of the inhale
cuts which possessed various goods. These include Musoke who was in charge of rain, Mukara who was in charge of lakes and
Walumbe who was in charge of death, sacrifices were made to appeal to gods in times of calamities, and religion was one of the
pillars that encouraged social and political cohesion.
Judicial system, the Buganda had developed judicial system. The traditional law courts were for ruling local disputes within the
kingdom. These were sort of customary law which every member of the given clan was bound to observe (totem and taboos).
4. Nyamwezi Kingdom
The Nyamwezi who live in Central Tanzania are a group of Bantu societies. Each of these societies had their own settlement headed
by a chief entitled Mtemi (Ntemi (Mtemi)). Ntemi (Mtemi)ships (Chiefdoms) were composed of people of shared backgrounds or
kinships and beliefs. Each of the Nyamwezi chiefdoms had Mtemi at the center helped by a council of leaders, the Wanyampala in
administration.
Towards the middle of the 19th century a more dynamic political structure developed among the Nyamwezi under Fundikira, Nyungu
ya Mawe and Mirambo. This fostered the institution of Mtemi becoming one of the most powerful positions. The several Nyamwezi
settlements (Ntemi (Mtemi)ships) were united under one senior Mtemi.
Factors for the rise of the Nyamwezi Chiefdom can be explained as follows:
i. Ngoni invasions: The Ngoni invasions in Western Tanganyika made the Nyamwezi people to unite in order to resist Ngoni
attacks.
ii. The Rugaruga: A class of mercenaries had emerged in Central Tanganyika in the middle of the 19th Century due to Ngoni raids
and slave trade intensification. This group was paid to fight for prominent Unyamwezi Watemi, such as Nyungu ya Mawe and
Mirambo who helped to build the kingdom.
iii. The expansion of local trade into regional trade/ long distance trade, saw the emergence of wealthy traders like Mirambo who
made effective use of the Rugaruga.
iv. The entry of Europeans into the coastal interior, trade introduced new trading partners to Nyamwezi traders, who joined together
to effectively resist Europeans pressure to stop slave trade.
v. The rise of Mirambo as a trader and leader. He used his influence to unify the clans of Unyamweziland.
vi. The use of the gun and gunpowder by Mirambo 's soldiers in making the weaker Watemi submissive to his rule.
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