The Peopling of Africa

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Agricultural Transformation of Africa and its effects on its peopling

• The peopling of Africa as we know it would've been impossible without African ingenuity which led to the intentional control of plant/animal growth for food/textiles/shelter/tools etc. It also led to the domination of this type of economy over gatherer-hunter groups across the continent.
• Some examples of important food crops of African origin:
  - Sorghum (Sahel-savanna)
  - Bulrush millet (Sahel-Savanna)
  - Finger millet (Ethiopian highlands)
  - African rice (Upper Niger valley)
  - Hungry rice (Upper Niger valley)
  - Teff (Ethiopian highlands)
  - Cowpea (Forest-savanna ecotone)
  - Pigeon pea (Forest-savanna ecotone)
  - Bambara groundnut (West African savanna)
  - Guinea yam (West African rainforest)
  - Watermelon (West African rainforest)
  - Ensete (Ethiopian humid forest)

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

A paper on indigenous African food crops and their systems of cultivation
http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/NtP-Africa's-Indigenous-Crops.pdf

African food crops and their systems in the Americas
Crops of African Origin or African Diffusion in the Americas

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Agricultural Transformation: The Nile Valley

• The Fayum depression, west of the Nile, contains one of the oldest agricultural sites in Africa. It's over 7,000 years old. The predominant crops were barley, emmer wheat and flax. These crops were developed in South-Western Asia (aka the Middle East) 2,000 years earlier.
• Livestock included cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs.
• Fayum was not a permanent settlement. It was seasonal.

Fayum today

• Evidence for dated developments along the Nile floodplain Kemet (Egypt) are a bit harder to discover, given the accumulation of sediment over thousands of years. But, a connection between Fayum and the floodplain makes sense given that similar crops and animals are found in places like Merimde (Western margin of the Nile Delta) - dated 5,700 years ago.
• Agriculture seems to have reached Kemet through contact diffusion rather than immigration or invaders (!)
• As it already known, the Nile gave birth to Kemet. Reliable annual floods which brought rich soil sediments from the volcanic interior helped to restore soil fertility.
• An artificial basin irrigation techniques were introduced to ensure a regular supply of water over a large area.
• The shaduf was invented to increase yields on small garden plots adjacent to irrigation channels. The gardens provided the bulk of vegetables for the population during the New Kingdom and the shaduf ensured water for them year round.
  
  
• Occasionally Kemet had food crises, but in the long-run it was productive enough to ensure a growing population and a large body of labour not dedicated to growing food. Pre-Dynastic Kemet probably had around 400,000 people. That rose to 1.5 million in the Old Kingdom and then 3 million in the late New Kingdom.
• In Nubia, evidence of a livestock keeping, possibly sorghum cultivation culture date from 7,000 years ago.
• Nubia never matched Kemet largely because of its smaller agricultural potential. South of the First cataract, the floodplain of the Nile was discontinuous and less than 2 kilometers wide. Between the 2nd and Dal cataracts and the Fourth and fifth cataracts, the floodplain almost disappears entirely down deep gorges. Only in the Dongola Reach were basin techinques (as previously described) possible.
  
  
• Various peoples inhabited Nubia. The A Culture served as the nucleus of Nubia some 5,000 years ago after absorbing the stone-using Abkan Culture. The A Culture disappeared from Lower Nubia (between first and second cataracts) leaving the area depopulated for centuries. Perhaps because of conflict with Kemet...
• The C Culture repopulated Lower Nubia 4,300 years ago. They were likely descended from the A Culture. Lower Nubia probably had around 20,000 inhabitants. But the Egyptians returned as conquerors. By 3,200 C Culture had disappeared leaving only Kemetians.
• The Kemetians disappeared too (due to Hyksos and Nile irregularities). The remaining Nubians consolidated around the Dongola Reach. This may have been the Land of Yam and it later became Kush. It was this Kush that would later challenge Kemet for hegemony in the Nile valley.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Agricultural Transformation: Littoral North Africa and the Sahara

• In Eastern Libya (Cyrenaica), there's evidence of gatherer-hunters who constructed a sheep/goat herding economy some 7,000 years ago. Shortly thereafter, similar developments took place along the Maghrib coast and around the Atlas and Aures Mountains. This tradition has been called the Neolithic of Caspian Tradition.
• Cattle were not part of this tradition, nor was grain cultivation. Sheeps and goats may have come by the way of Egypt.
• Within 2,000 years - these people were keeping local varieties of African cattle. All in all, these people were likely the ancestors of the Berber-speaking peoples of North Africa.
• In the Sahara, there's evidence of agriculture. In the Ahaggar Mountains, millet may have been grown there 8,000 years ago.
• Rock art from Tassili-n-Ajer indicate that cattle herding along with hunting wild fauna was part of everyday life. Domesticated cattle spread to the modern day regions of Dar Fur, Tibesti and Air.
• Skeletal remains that these herders were 'negroid' or Black Africans. They were likely the ancestors of the Nilo-Saharans whose culture today is centered around cattle-keeping. As the Sahara dried, cattle may have enabled these people to take wander in search of greener pastures in mdoern day Sudan and Lake Chad.
  
  
  Africa when the Sahara was green

Rock art from the 'Wet Sahara' period

More rock art

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Agricultural Transformation: Highland Ethiopia

• Highland Ethiopia was where teff, finger millet, noog, sesame, mustard and several other minor crops were first brought under cultivation. These crops were grown in the environmental setting of the grassy northern and eastern margins of the highlands.
• The other setting was the heavily forested uplands of the southwest where ensete (false banana) was the primary food staple. Coffee also originated there. 5,000 years ago these crops were able to sustain agricultural communities.
  
  
  

(Ethiopian cuisine with ensete)

• Wheat and barley were introduced from across the Red Sea just a bit before 3,000 years ago but they joined already thriving systems of farming which practices such as manuring and irrigation.
• There are signs of cattle, sheep and goats being herded in the highlands some 5,000 years ago. This supplemented nomadic herding which emerged in the arid rift valleys and eastern lowlands thousands of years ago.
• Distinct economies were developing in each environment. Each linked to a particular branch of Afro-asiatic in ethiopia. Proto-Cushytic has existed in Central Ethiopia for some 9,000 years. Agriculture allowed it to develop into various branches. Central Cushytic developed along highland cultivators and herders. It sprouted a southern branch which journeyed all the way to Kenya and Tanzania. The arid lowlands in the North also developed Cushytic-speaking herders as did the East.

(Cushytic expansion can be observed in the Eastern Horn of Africa and as far south as Tanzania)

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Agricultural Transformation: The Sahel and the Sudan

• Several agricultural systems involving domestic plants were created by Africans south of the Sahara and west of the Nile. Two systems were based on seeds. One on sorghums and millets and the other on African rice and fonio. Secondary crops such as Bambara nuts, cowpeas and Kersting's ground nuts.
• Agriculture-based communities may have formed in this part of the continent as early as 6,000 years ago. But the oldest archaeologically confirmed date is in connection with bulrush millet at Dhar Tichitt, Mauretania, 3,1000 years ago. This signifies the transition away from an aquatic economy (depending on shrinking freshwater lakess) to crop cultivation involving cattle, sheep and goats.
• The Sahara, between 8,000 and 3,000 years ago, was five degrees latitude North than where it is now. It also contained a number of lakes. The lakes flooded annually and were rich with grasses and fish. Several of the grasses went from being protected to being planted as the climate worsened. Eventually, they became domesticated.
• The best available sites for agriculture as the Sahara became drier were within the valleys of the Senegal and Niger Rivers and around Lake Chad. Between these sites, herders abounded. This may have been accompanied by the fleeing of the Tsetse fly - which also went south as the region dried up, opening up land to herders.

• Farther south, in an area of land stretching from Ivory Coast to Cameroon is the Yam Belt. Indigenous yams (not the Asiatic yams which are grown today) were domesticated in this forest-savanna ecotone. Because of the climate, it's hard to find archaeological evidence. A guess would place this occurrence as 5-4,000 years ago.
• The unearthing of the Kintampo culture in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo has revealed permanent settlements in the region dating back 3,800 years. In that site, they found dwarf cattle, cowpea cultivation and goats. Kintampo might show that ancient West Africans both sowed seeds and dug to plant yams.

• The origins of the agricultural system using sorghum, millet and livestock is likely an invention of the Nilosaharans. As the Sahara dried up, a portion of the Nilo-saharan speakers were left behind in West Africa. Cut off from their relatives. They are the Songhai people. These peopled
• were pushed back by Mande-speakers of the Niger Congo. The likely creator of fonio and African rice. Mande peoples eventually claimed most of the better watered sited between the headwaters and bend of the Niger River.

(Songhai woman)

(Mandinka man - Mande speaker)

• The development of yam and oil palm agricultural tradition arose with the Kwa and Benue Congo Niger-Congo peoples. Both originated in the Benue River valley but the Kwa expanded to the West while the Benue-Congo later headed east and south (Bantu migration).

(Yoruba woman - Kwa speaker)

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Peopling of West Africa: The Fulbe (Fulani) Expansion and its connection to Islam

• Despite common beliefs about the Fulani or Fulbe, they are indigenous to West Africa. Their language (Fulfude) is related to Tukulor and the Fulbe might be a mixture of various peoples of the Futa Toro region of the Senegal River basin. Perhaps the Fulbe absorbed Nilosaharan and Berber/Tuareg nomads.
• The Fulbe began migrating with their cattle out of Futa Toro around the 10th century. Perhaps a means to escape the Takrur. Though, some place the Fulbe as being essential to the formation of the Takrur state.
• The Fulbe followed river valleys southward into the Futa Djallon highlands where they lived among the Dyalonke (Yalunka) agriculturalists. A Mande people. They also moved along the river Niger. They reached Hausaland by the 15th century, and by 1800 had reached Dar Fur (!).

(Fulani expansion across West Africa)

• The Fulbe were a minority amongst the people they settled. Supplying meat, milk and hides for grains, vegetables and manufactured goods. Their presence aided local economies. But, they also raided communities for livestock and their nomadic way of life posed an issue for governments which wanted to collect taxes/tribute. By the time of Songhai, they were so numerous that they had to be controlled with military force.
• Some Fulbe became sedentary. Others kept their traditional way of life. The ones in towns adopted Islam and were particularly affected by the militant, fundamentalist Almoravid tradition. Many of them became missionaries and clerics/teachers. They were the ones who converted the Hausa to Islam.
• By the 1700s, declining economic fortunes mixed with concerns about Islam in the region. The Mossi states, Nupeland, Adamawa and other large areas were non-Muslim. These conditions were ripe for jihad. The first under the Fulbe occurred in 1725-26 in Futa Djallon. It became a Fulbe conquest of the region and the Dyalonke fled to refuges in the hills. Others who did not escape were sold into slavery.
• Additional jihads occurred in the 19th century. Hausaland was targeted in 1804. Since Hausa states lacked unity, they were conquered piecemeal. Also, Fulani in the towns easily gained willing Hausas who joined the jihad. This 1804 jihad created the Sokoto Emirate, which encompassed all Fulani conquests in 1817. Nupeland, northern Oyo (Yoruba territory) were invaded. These conquests made the Empire a centre for trade and learning. Kano grew into a major city in Northern Nigeria.
• Attempts to conquer Bornu failed. Shuwa Arabsw from Kanem defeated them. But in Adamawa, south of Lake Chad, they gained greater success. Their foes retreated into the Mandara Mountains to escape.

(Sokoto Caliphate at its height)

• Another jihad from 1818 to 1827 formed the Massina state which controlled from Timbuktu to Segu, along the Niger River. Large numbers of Bambara and Songhai came to be ruled by the Fulbe this way. Massina in turn was conquered by the Tukulor Emirate created by a Fulbe/Tukulor jihad. The Tukulor state never matched the Sokoto Caliphate's prosperity (perhaps due to less arable land?). Also, the Trans-Saharan trade wasn't as prosperous as it once was due to European encroachment on the West African coast.

• The Fulbe had achieved dominance across the Western and Central Sudan despite their small numbers. Although they once tried to escape its advance, after embracing Islam - it had allowed them to create an Empire.

* The Umarian Jihad destroyed the Segu Bamabara state (the Bamana Empire) by the 1860s. Segu rose after weathering food crises in the 1700s. Although smaller than Mali, Segu was quite similar to it. It contained a core region of productive Bambara grain farmers, plus other occupational communities. Marka traders linked the savanna with the desert and the forest. Somono fished and ferried commerce along the Niger. Fulbe herds provided meat. The Umarian jihad turned the area into a region of small, feuding states.

(Fulbe man)

 

[CoochieWhisperer]

Appreciate this thread breh, a lot of insightful stuff I never knew about. I was pretty ignorant about my family history when I was a kid living as a first generation African American that only knew my family came from the Gambia.

It's actually been in my recent years that I was able to find out a lot more about my heritage, felt like I had to interrogate my family with questions about things they never told me but they assumed they did (but I guess that's due to having only one surviving grandparent).

So as someone who is Serer/Fulani/Bambara/Nar (Mauritanian Black Moor) keep up the good work to all you brehs taking the time to learn about all these different African ethnic groups/tribes.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Appreciate this thread breh, a lot of insightful stuff I never knew about. I was pretty ignorant about my family history when I was a kid living as a first generation African American that only knew my family came from the Gambia.

It's actually been in my recent years that I was able to find out a lot more about my heritage, felt like I had to interrogate my family with questions about things they never told me but they assumed they did (but I guess that's due to having only one surviving grandparent).

So as someone who is Serer/Fulani/Bambara/Nar (Mauritanian Black Moor) keep up the good work to all you brehs taking the time to learn about all these different African ethnic groups/tribes.

Thank you. I'll be writing a summary on Central Africa sometime this weekend.

I'm glad that this thread is spreading knowledge about the ancient history of our continent. May we learn to live in peace, preserve our lands and strengthen ourselves.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Peopling of Central Africa

• Historically, Central Africa had low population density and smaller political societies (compared to say the Sahel). Its large equatorial rain forest was even avoided by hunter-gatherers and farmers until the late stone age. North of the forest in the open woodland, these farmers grew sorghum and millet and tended herds of cattle, sheep and goats. But even in this area, the soil was poor and droughts frequent. Slash and burn agriculture exacerbated this problem. Only in the marshlands of the Shari and Salamat Rivers was there soil rich enough (along with frish) to make permanent villages an early fixture.

• The first farming peoples to enter the rainforest were Bantu speakers. They grew yams but also relied on fishing, supplemented by gathering and hunting. Their migration into the region followed the coastal plan or the riverways into the Congo Basin. Finally south of the Congo Basin, the Bantu eventually entered the dry woodlands that reach the Zambezi. Human population growth was low because of poor soils, droughts and the tsetse fly.

Bantu Origins

• Bantu languages probably originated around the Cross River valley near the border of modern-day Nigeria and Cameroon. 5000 years ago, Bantu speakers were practicising a diverse food economy which included yams, legumes, peppers and gourds. Population growth was sufficient incentivize the Bantu to migrate, but paths to the north and west were blocked by already established agriculturalists.
• Paths to the north in the woodlands above the Congo rainforest were hampered by a lack of food producing sites and Ubangian speakers who already established a yam cultivation system from the Adamawa Plateau. They also learned grain agriculture from Central Sudanic farmers which allowed them to establish villages in moist and dry woodlands. Ubangians reached their maximum range 2000 years ago.

Zande (Ubangian-speaker) man

• The Bantu continued to head south. They moved slowly but 3500 years ago they had passed beyond the Cameroon Plateau and into the equatorial rain forest between the Sanagha and Ogooué rivers. Sometimes they journeyed by seagoing canoe which took them to the island of Bioko. Overland roots into the rainforest brought them into contact with 'pygmoid' gatherer-hunters. Little competition took place because they had different food economy requirements. Bantu settlers stayed along the river valleys of the Congo and the Baka/Mbuti pygmies stayed in the interior rainforest.

Bantu migration patterns

• However, the Bantu acquired two new technologies which gave them a decisive edge. The first being iron-making which appeared more than 2000 years ago from the Nok-Taruga culture in Central Nigeria. It likely spread to the Bantu by diffusion. Iron-axes allowed them to clear larger fields for farming, meaning more people. The digging stick remained the planting tool until iron hoes changed how seeds were sowed.
• Villages were set up just beyond their parent villages - virtually a hopscotch of village settlement populated parts of Central Africa. However, the expanse was hampered by the time the Bantu arrived south of the rainforest. The coastal zone beyond Bengo Bay was made arid by the Benguela current. Thus, vast areas around the middle Zambezi are quite dry. Only 700 mm of rain per year.

General area of the Nok culture.

• The most important area for early population growth was around the Lower Congo valley, especially around the Malebo Pool. The Bie Plateau (in central Angola) in the vicinity had good soil, high rainfall and high enough elevation to avoid certain flies like the tsetse.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Peopling of Central Africa (2)

• The Bantu who decided to take a direction towards the northeast corner of the Congo rainforest acquired bananas and plantains. First domesticated in Southeast Asia, perhaps Bantu acquired this food technology through trade with India. Or, through Malayan voyagers who came to East Africa after landing in Madagascar. No one really knows. Regardless, bananas became the staple crop in some areas. They had higher yields than yams and little effort was needed to keep the trees (actually giant herbs) bearing fruit.
• Larger and larger Bantu settlements still did not generate conflicts with pygmies. In fact, pygmies began to camp near Bantu villages and would trade meat, skins and medicines for pottery, agro-produce and metal goods. Bantu languages soon overtook any pygmie tongues. Also, agriculture transformed rainforest into savanna or thicket which forced pygmies to migrate.
• Still other Bantu arrived at Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi around the first centuries CE. They adopted millets, sorghum and crops suited for seasonal rainfall in drought prone areas. Iron, better pottery and cattle pushed Bantu expansion further in this area.

• By the 14th century CE, powerful villages enlarged their territorial influence and developed into chiefdoms. Tribute-payment being the marker of servitude towards a dominant village or society. Scarcity of humans made people especialyl valuable and were became the main type of payment as either slaves or clients for some states. Two primary political economic centers emerged: Loango and Kongo.

(in the littoral regions of modern day Rep. of Congo, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Angola)

• South of Kongo, the Kwanza River valley supported the rise of the Mbundu peoples and the Cunene River Valley supported the development of the Ovambo. Around the Kwango River, we see the Yaka and Zombo arising. The Ovimbundu-speakers emerged out of the Bié Plateau
  
  
  

Mbundu woman

Ovambo man

Ovimbundus

• In regard to the peopling of the eastern part of Central Africa, the Mangbetu around 1000 CE advanced into the Ituri forest of the Mbuti pygmies. They are a Central Sudanic people. Moreover, the Lualaba River became a major trade artery based on the river.

Mangbetu man

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Peopling of Central Africa (3)

• Not until after the 1 century CE did Bantu villages move towards the center of the rainforest. This migration largely came from the east. Pioneers followed rivers into the interior, seeking out farming and fishing areas. An advantageous area around the Aruwimi River enters the Congo was settled by the Mongo. Pygmoids disappeared in this area. Perhaps they were absorbed by the Mongo. Other migrations converged around Lake Mai Ndomde and the middle and lower portions of the Kasai River Valley. From this area, in the late 16 century Ce did the Kuba federation come about.

Congo River Basin ethnic map c. 2003

• Important to note that the Khoisan who lived in the woodlands south of the Congo River basin entered direct competition with the Bantu because the area did not support a multitude of food economies, like the rainforest. The Khoisan were wittled to just a few bands.
• Although the norm was low population density, there were some exceptions. One of them being the Upemba region in the upper Lualaba River basin which had numerous lakes and a lot of fish. Other combinations of reliable water supplies, rich soils, tsetse free pastures and fish/game happened in the Upper Zambezi, the Tonga plateau and east of the Middle Kasai River, the lower Luapula River south of Lake Mweru and the Western shores of Lake Malawi - which formed the Maravi chieftancies in the 17th century CE.

Greatest extent of the Maravi Empire in the 1700s

• The Luba eventually conquered the Upemba basin. They gained profit from trading salt, iron and copper. Mining in this area dates back 500 CE. Copper jewelry became a status symbol which adorned the living and the dead. Luba culture spread over a wide area in what is now Zambia and DR Congo.
• The Lozi controlled slightly elevated areas in the Zambezi floodplain. They then gained access to tsetse free pastureland for their cattle. With this cattle wealth, they spread their influence through military conquests which extracted slaves and created tribute-satellites.
• The Lunda adopted cassava as a their main source of carbohydrates in the woodlands east of the Middle Kasai River valley. The Lunda captured neighbouring peoples to grow their population and to gain labour for their cassava plantations. Loaves made from cassava lasted three to four months and were in high demand among long distance traders (!). Colonies were established between the Kasai and Kongo rivers and within the headwaters of the Zambezi. They couldn't penetrate Luba controlled land but some Lunda groups organized a seperate kingdom - the Kazembe. Ivory, copper and salt by tribute Bisa traders enabled Kazembe to control an extensive area.

Luba women

Lunda people

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Peopling of Central Africa (4)

• The Portuguese were the Europeans who began a process which irrevocably changed Central Africa forever. Initially, they were focused on the Kingdom of the Kongo (as described above). It was a centralized kingdom, with a kingdom-wide shell based currency and a trade route to the Malebo Pool where a lot of riverrinve traffic from the Congo river converged. A bilateral relationship between Portugal and Kongo was established and Kongo elites converted to Roman Catholicism. Even going to Portugal to become educated in their ways. Pombeiros, a Luso-African community, soon formed.
• By 1514, slaves were exported from Kongo. First, ivory and beeswax was used to pay for textiles, alcohol, tobacco and metals - but they were too little in value. Slaves were sold off instead such as servants or criminals. They then turned to their neighbours. Teke, a Tio Kingdom, was a source for Kongo's slaves. These slaves later served in sugar plantations on Sao Tome and Principle until Brazilian competition and a slave revolt in 1574 ended the plantation economy there.
• Slavery began to weaken the authority of Kongo's elites as the Pombeiros grew more powerful. Factions arose among the upper clases. Furthermore, the Portuguese colony as Angola became a rival. This was worsened as the Jaga began raiding. They were an Ovimbundu warrior class initially. Another Jaga called the Tio raided Kongo territory in 1568. The Portuguese had to intervene to prevent the rule of the Kongo's king from collapsing.
• The economic competition between Kongo and Angola became a series of war between 1622-72. When it was over, the Kongo was finished as a regional power.
• The search for slaves continued farther and farther from the coast. The Kasanye Kingdom formed as a mixture of Imbangala and Mbundu and it became a trading entrepot. By the early 19th century, raiders were reaching the Lunda kingdom and invading from the south.
• New ethnicities formed as villages south to protect their lives and their trading interests from the slave-raiders. The Bobangi were the most active traders - they controlled river traffic in their caoes from the Ubangi down to the Malebo Pool. Others like the Likuba, Likwala and Bonga formed too.
• By the late 18th century, refugees becamea steady stream of slaves headed for Brazil from the port of Benguela. A smallpox epidemic in 1800 and 1805 further reduced resistance.

The Slave Trade's penetration of Central Africa

• The Loango too faced competition from Europeans. Their caravans headed into the interior to gain slaves from the Bobangi, but the port of Cabinda (established by the Portuguese) broke their trade monopoly.
• The Duala of modern-day Cameroon also moved closer to the coast to profit.
• The slave trade devastated Central Africa. In 1500, 15 million people lived in the region. In the next 300 years, it grew to only 20 million. Their was still growth from new crops which were introduced (cassava). The fact that slave-raiders moved on from an area after a generation which contributed to stabilization after some time.
• Even by the mid 19th century, the slave raids continued. The Mpongwe became principal traders. The interior became even more sparsely populated. Diseases like smallpox also played a role.
• The Fang entered into empty spaces and were pushed their by Fulbe (Fulani) conquests.
• In some areas, commerce other than slave-raiding sprang up. Oil palms sprang up near the coast. So did timber, ivory and rubber collection. The Congo River became an artery of trade. At strategic junctures, towns of 5-10,000 sprang up.
• Slave raiding grew more intense in the southern woodlands. As did ivory. Ovimbundu caravans were replaced by the Chokwe. The Chokwe were once refugees who supported themselves by collecting and selling beeswax. They were also excellent hunters which aided them in the acquisition of ivory. Ivory allowed them to purchase women which swelled thier numbers. They spread even into the Congo Basin.
• The Lozi also adapted to this choas by becoming slave raiders. Up to 50 per cent of their population were slaves.

Chokwe Women

• Slave raiding from the Islamic North also did its damage. The conquest of the Bagrimi by the Fulbe pushed the slave raiding frontier into what is now the Central African Republic. Traders from Dar Fur and Wadai arrived too. Diseases like smallpox, measles also created crises which canceled population growth. Syphilis and gonorrhea too created a legacy of infertility that's only recently been treated. Shuwa Arabs, and Hausas also played a role.
• The Adamawa Plateau and Bamenda Hills in mostly Cameroon (some parts of Nigeria) were spared the full brunt. They formed the Mbum Confederation due to their blessed access to agricultural resources. The Zande also began to conquer too, taking women and expanding their chiefdoms along the Mbomu and Chinko Rivers.
• Some Jallaba Arabs moved South and west while Adamawa trade increasingly became done by Hausa and Bornu (Kanuri) merchants. But, indigenous trade specialits like the Ngala offshoot of the Bobangi made inroads too.
• A new wave of destabilization from Sudan (the Mahdist State) began to seek havoc around the mid 19th century. Arabs and Nubians created a series of forts to control the countryside and create vassals of regional peoples. The Mangbentu state in Ituri-Uele fell apart. The Fulbe also began raiding again. Their slaves were sold to emirates in what is now Northern Nigeria.
• The locals responded by seeking protection with the Sudanese or Fulani. Others converted to Islam.
• The last precolonial intruders were the Nyamwezi from the other side of Lake Tanganyika. They became the Yeke Kingdom and conquered numerous peoples around Katanga, putting an end to the Kazembe. They were after copper and ivory which was shipped to Zanzibar for the Swahili/Oman Arabs.
• Arabs and Swahilis soon appaered too to trap trade from the Kazembe lands. Slaving expeditions were launched intro Maravi from their base at Kasongo Nyangwe.
• Two other peoples gained advantage - the Chikunda and the Bemba. The Chikunda followed the Zambezi valley to the uplands of the Kafue River in search of ivory/slaves. The Bemba gained control of he land between Luapula and Luangwa Rivers valleys. The soil was quite poor, among the poorest in Africa but elephants were there in plenty. Ivory was used to buy guns from Arab-Swahilis so they could conquer their neighbours like the Bisa.

Bemba men

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

@KidStranglehold
The Peopling of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa

• Ethiopia/Horn of Africa's striking geographic features have contributed to the region's diversity - yet this diverse region has been unified by shared historical events.
• In the region, two sub-groups of Afro-Asiatics exist. Eastern Cushytic (Oromo, Somali, Afar, Saho) who are historically associated with nomadic herding lifestyles. The other is the Ethio-Semitic (Amhara, Tigrinya, Tigre). Perhaps they are a fusion of Central Cushytes (ex. the Agaw) and Semitic speakers from around the Red Sea?
• Isolation allowed groups like the Omotic speakers (Bako, Ometo) to continue existing in the southwest, while Northern Cushytes like the Beja have their lands in the extreme northeast of the region. Nilotic speakers like the Kunama, Berta and Koman were sadly historically a source of slaves.

Oromo mother and child

Amhara men

Kunama woman

Origins

• The fertile soils of the Ethiopian plateaus and plentiful rain was the setting where Central Cushytes first grew teff, finger-millet and other agricultural crops 4,000 years ago. Farming communities must've dotted the landscape from Shewa to Tigray and Eritrea.
• If Afro-Asiatics originate in Africa (they likely do) Semitic speakers could've lived in the region for as long as 8,000 years. Semitic speakers introduced wheat, barley, oxen and the plow to the region. With these crops, animals and tools - the population grew even larger.
• Historical evidence suggests that a group of Semitic Sabaean Arabs came to the Horn of Africa 2,500 years ago and may have introduced a writing script along with trading connections which stretched around the Indian Ocean. Sabaeans may have been drawn to the region because of spices and gums that were highly prized in places like Egypt and India.
• If some historians are correct, a fusion of Central Cushytic and Sabaean cultures began to happen. An urban society flourished. Trade centers like Melazo, Yeha and Matara did well. Adulis served as the port which connected the interior to the rest of the world. Tigre and Ge'ez had been developed by this point along with Gurage, Harari, Amharic, Gafat and other languages. Moreover, Judaism probably first came to the Horn of Africa from what is now Yemen during this time.

Ancient trade routes which connected the Horn of Africa to Asia and Northern Africa

• The speakers of Ge'ez grew in wealth and population eventually created the Kingdom of Aksum (or Axum). Today, one can walk through Aksum and see impressive ruins of stone stelae, rock cut tombs and huge masonry. The lack of walls indicate that the ancient Aksumites had nothing to fear from their neighbours. Adulis was still their primary access to the sea to Arabia and Rome. They also had sea and land routes to Egypt and Meroe.
• By the 2nd century CE, Aksum had become the most important commercial center in northeastern Africa outside Egypt. Eclipsing even Meroe. In this kingdom ruled the Negusa Nagast or "king of kings". The kingdom probably had between half a million and a million people.
• In the first half the fourth century, Monophysite Christianity was adopted as the state religion and over 200 years it replaced the polytheistic beliefs of Cushytic-Semites. Ge'ez supplanted the initial Greek and Syriac liturgical and courtly languages. The rise of Christianity sealed the fate of Judaism in the Horn of Africa. Jews left Aksum for Lake Tana and the Semien Mountains, converting local Agaw. This fusion between the Aksumite Jews and Agaw became the Falasha, although this word wasn't applied until the Falasha became an enemy of the Christian monarchy in the 15th-16th centuries. Beta Israel is the other common term for Ethiopia's Jews.
• Aksum grew more powerful. It extended its domain over the former lands of Meroe. It even occupied Arabia several times between the 3rd and 6th centuries. It imported ironware, glass, ceramics, wine, sugar, oils, spices and germs for ivory, emeralds, rhinoceros horns, wild animals, shells, fragrances and slaves. It's coinage system issued gold, silver and bronze.
• When the Sassinid Persians took over Southern Arabia (Yemen), it sealed the fate of Aksum. This, plus lower food production due to drought and loss of access to the Indian Ocean trade harmed the land. The initial expansion of Aksum was accompanied by a wet phase, so when this period ended - so did the initial prosperity. Furthermore, the Beja began raiding during the 7th and 8th centuries. More forces, ideological in nature would redraw the map of the region entirely.

The Coming of Islam

• Aside from accounts in the Quran, Islam came to the Horn in the early 8th century with Arab merchants who traded in the Dahlak Islands. By using religious affiliation, they excluded non-Muslim traders like Byzantine Greeks from lucrative contracts. They then destroyed Adulis and carried Islam to the Beja, Afar, Saho and Tigre.
• Aksum turned inland after being completely cut off from its former trade preeminence. Aksum increased its trade with the Agaw and spread Christianity further inland. This sparked a revolt by the Agaw kingdom of Damot in the 970s that pushed the Aksumites back to their rugged homeland in the mountains of Lasta and Tigray. Surrounded by Muslims and the Agaw, later Ethiopian society formed in this insular millieu. Religious devotion became further embedded in their society.
• Islam continued to expand up the Awash valley from the Muslim controlled port of Zeila. Another route was through the Harar plateau going to the unchristianized Sidama states of the Southern rift valley which were rich in gold, ivory and slaves. Slaves from this region fed the Indian Ocean slave trade which took Africans from ports stretching from Yemen to India.
• The Somali in this time period took possession of most of the low plateau south of the Danakil depression and produed their two main branches - the largely pastoral Dir, Isaaq, Hawiye, and Darod clans of the Ogaden and Northern Horn & the more sedentary Digil and Rahanwiin clans of the Shabele and Juba river valleys in the South. The Somalis mythologized Arab origins going back to the Prophet Muhammad and although wealthy Arab merchants may have married Somalis - the Somalis are entirely Eastern Cushytic Africans. The Harari and Argobba also converted to Islam. Towards the end of the 12th century, a chain of Islamic principalities from the coastal ports, to the Awash valley and Harar with Shewa and rift valley lakes of the South. The most powerful state was Ifat, followed by Dawaro, Fatagar, Hadya and Bali. The Jabarti class of merchants also formed too.

Islam in the modern Ethiopian state

Christian Revival and the Amhara

• Under the Zagwe Dynasty of the 12th century, Christian Ethiopia reinvigorated itself. A largely Agaw dynasty, it shifted its capital to Lalibela from Lasta pushing the ancient culture of Aksum further south. It also reclaimed parts of its northern territory from the Beja. The dynasty did not last long and ended in 1270. Soon the Amhara gained power in the land. They accepted Christianity in the 9th century and gained prominence under the Agaw.
• The Amhara made their greatest territorial gains between 1314 and 1344. Many smaller non Christian semites and Cushytes were conquered including the Damot and main Islamic principalities. They consolidated their power by instituting a version of serfdom in which territorial governors and military garrisons represented royal authority in the dominion. Monks built a network of monasteries from where they could promote Christianity and recruit subjects to the regime. The Ethipian national epic, Kebra Nagast, was constructed in the 15th century to affirm Aksum as the cultural ancestor of the now Amharic-centric Ethiopian state under the Solomonic Dynasty.
• The Amhara, Begemder, Shewa and Gojjam provinces were integral to the Empire. Less integral were Tigray, Wag and Lasta. The Tigray resented Amhara rule but the Emperor allowed a degree of political autonomy for the Tigray by recognizing the local authority of Tigrayan families. The size of the Empire made that loyalites in remote areas lied with traditional rulers more than the Emperor in Lalibela. This created a perpetual state of siege between the Ethiopians and regions like northern borderlands with a predominantly Muslim population.

Islamic Resurgence

• Conflicts in the early decades of the 15th century erupted between Ethiopia and Adal, a Muslim state that was never brought under its orbit. Adal began to take territory from the Ethiopians along with numerous captives to sell as slaves. No side was dominant until the aid of Somali and Afar recruits starting in 1529 launched a massive jihad into the heart of Ethiopia. Christian armies were driven up into the mountain refuges within two years. Crucial to the invaders success was Ottoman support, mostly in the form of modern artillery.
• Subject peoples of the Empire joined forces with the invaders including marginally converted Agaws. By the end of the 1530s, nearly all of Ethiopia had been conquered and a new Islamic Empire appeared to be in the making. All that was left was the Ethiopian court and its armies in the northern mountains.
• But in the 1540s, the jihad had lost its momentum. A possible reason for this was Portuguese intervention in 1541 which was part of a larger effort to weaken the Ottoman Empire. This revitalized the Ethiopians who defeated the Adal Sultanate at the Battle of Wayna Daga. Ethiopia began to retake its lost territories in the 1550s from peoples like Damot, Adal and the Beta Israel but this process was interrupted by the Oromo Expansion.

Oromo Expansion

• The origins of the Oromo can be traced to modern day Southern Somalia. Organized as loosely organized clans, they migrated across much of Ethiopia starting in the early 16th century. They either headed north and west into the Ethiopian highlands or east through Bale.
• It was probably their nomadic lifestyle which caused this migration. They needed grazing lands and water for their flocks. Moreover, every 8 years a new warrior class formed and took livestock and other booty from their enemies. Peoples the Oromo encountered either fled, were destroyed or absorbed intor their flexible social system.
• Some of the Sidama managed to fend off the Oromo but others were quickly overrun. Some Oromo had abandoned nomadic herding for farming and trade related occupations and had considerable Sidama influence. In Harar, they wrested control of the plateau from the Adal and destroyed them. Only the Harari escaped their onslaught. The Oromo converted to islam in this region. The Oromo also had long-running grazing conflicts with the Somali, Afar and Saho for grazing and water access. But in time, a pattern emerged. The Oromo occupied the grasslands while the Somalis, Afar and Saho got lowlands of lesser qualities farther from the highlands.
• The initial Ethiopian reaction to the Oromo was a lack of concern. They were still fighting the Ottomans in Tigray, Beta Israel and the unconverted Agaw. Because of this situation, the Oromo could overpower the overstretched Ethiopian forces. They seized control of Amhara and Shewa. They learned how to use horses and guns just like the Ethiopians. The court fled to Gondar, north of Lake Tana but the land was peripheral to power in the highlands.
• However, many communities survived by retreating into flat-topped hills known as ambas in the mountains. The Wars continued into the 18th century but the Oromo began to take up agriculture, Christianity and even Amharic or Tigrinya. The integration of the Oromo into the cultural tradition of ancient Aksum was quick.
• But the court was decimated because of the Oromo. Numerous warlords controlled the land - whether of Amharic, Tigrayan or Oromo origin. Slaves and coffee still flowed from the interior to Muslim ports on the coast.

Reformation

• In spite of this disorganization, reformation was in the air. In the 1820s and 30s Egypt took territory along the Red Sea coast and sent armies up the Blue Nile River valley. It created a strong Islamic response, notably among the Somali. Islam gained converts from the Oromo groups in the east and in Sidama.
• In the highlands, warlords began to centralize their authority. An Ethiopian invasion was repelled. The capital was moved to Debre Tabor in Shewa, centralizing the authority of the Amhara and campaigns to restore lost lands was underway in the mid 19th century....

Tewodros II, the man who recreated a unified Ethiopian state in the 19th century

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Peopling of North Africa

• Three thousand years ago, virtually all of Africa from the Sahara to the Mediterreanean was firmly anchored in Afro-Asiatic languages and cultures. Ancient Kemet was in decline from the height of the New Kingdom but it retained its independence. No qualitative population change had gone on in Nubia during this time. Cushytic Beja herders roamed in the Red Sea Hills from their homeland in Eritrea. To the west of the Nile, various groupings like the Garamantes, Troglodytes and Mauri were the immediate ancestors of the peoples we now call Berbers. Then, they were referred to as Libyans.
• Most Libyans lived along the Mediterrenean coast and within the Atlas-Aures Mountain chain mixing grain farming with herding developed during the Caspian neolithic period. Some had moved into the Sahara and settled in oasis relying on figs, dates and olives. This expansion occurred at the expense of Nilo-Saharans who held out in places like the Tibesti and Dar Fur.
• Up to this point, non-Africans scarcely influenced the regional population trends.

(Ancient Egyptian depicion of a Libyan - note the feathers in his head which was common in depictions of Green Saharan Africans. This may indicate cultural exchanges which occurred during and after the drying of the Sahara)

Phoenicians

• The dynamic began to change with Phoenician settlement in North Africa at Utica around 1100 BCE. They were expanding their mercantile economy and seeking gold, silver, copper and tin. The initial settlements were way-stations used for ships that were on their way to Spain where large silver deposits were found and where also they could access tin from Britain.
• These settlements only began expanding after the fall of Tyre by the Babylonians and the rise of Ionian commercial activity in the Eastern Med. By the sixth century BCE, Carthage was the pre-eminent Phoenician city in the North African littoral. It may have contained a population of over 300,000 at its height.
• Carthaginian owned estates (latifundia) were established on the fertile plains of the Bon Peninsula - disposessing local Berbers and enslaving them. The farms produced wheat, barley, livestock and new crops that the Phoenicians had brought such as fig, olive, plum, peach, pomegranate, almond, pistachio, grape etc. Berbers had to pay tribute in grain or risk being invaded. Agro produce wa the vital part of Carthage's trade and was crucial to supporting its armies - especially those stationed in Sicily.

(Phoenician commercial trading world)

• Phoenician colonies also spread to Tripolitania but they were smaller because they had a limited area for cultivation. Lepcis was the dominant city and its merchants carried trans-Saharan trade via the Garamantes in what is now southwestern Libya. Carbuncle and slaves were the main 'products' heading north. Pottery, glassware and metal tools headed south. The slaves might've been Nilo-Saharan in origin.
• The sacking of Carthage in 146 BCE didn't bring an end to Phoenician presence. Punic, their language, remained in widespread use. Another influence of theirs were the introduction of iron and Western Asian crops to the region which contributed to its sedentarization among the Berber population with a seaward orientation.

Ionians

• Greek presence in Africa dates back to when the Saite dynasty invited mercenaries to fight against Assyrian invaders in the 7th century BCE. After, Ionian traders founded Naukratis as a business center along the Nile. Grain, linen and papyrus were in demand. More Ionians came after the Greeks conquered Egypt's Persian overlords in 332 BCE. They began to build Alexandria to serve as a monument and a point of contact between Egypt and Greece.
• After the Ptolemies took over in 323 BCE, Greek became the official language of Egypt. This overwhelmingly favoured Ionians in terms of employment in the bureaucracy and military. Others became landowners. Ionian dominated cities began to appear frequently such as Ptolemais and Paraetonium (evidence that Egyptians began to be demographically replaced in some areas by foreigners....)
• Intermarriages became frequently common between Egyptian women and Ionian men. Hellenistic influences began to grow in Egyptian society. Alexandria became the biggest city over Memphis. Alexandria profited off of Med. trade and increasingly trade as far east as India. Sea-borne trade and Alexandria's rise led to Lower Egypt increasing in population. Marsh drainage and the saqiya water-lift extended the area of land to be used for irrigation. Egypt may have had 4 million people with 300,000 living in Alexandria.
• Ionians also settled in Cyrenaica, displacing local Berbers.

Romans

• Romans controlled territory in North Africa from the fall of Carthage in 146 BCE to the Arab Conquests in 639 CE (with Rome in the form of Byzantium).
• Roman presence in Egypt was largely concerned with collecting both grain and taxes. Roman rule brought stability and enhanced Red Sea/Indian Ocean commerce. Egypt's population reached 5 million - a high point for centuries to come. Alexandria was still the biggest city but 40 major urban centers were added to the mix. But then, decline set in as it became more expensive to support Rome's legions in the area. Also epidemics crashed Egypt's population to 3.25 million in 300 CE.
• In the Maghrib, Rome's role did not strengthen until the coming of colonists in the last century BCE. Romans re-established latifundia in Tunisia. A series of roads and trenched characterized the southern frontier of their settlements. These routes funneled the migration of herders which allowed easier access to meat and tax collection. These colonists were commonly retired Roman soldiers or Italians who were land-poor. A Roman-Berber identity began to establish itself as Berbers were drawn to cities and their markets. Over 500 towns were established. The largest, Lepcis Magna, may have had 100,000 people. Roman North Africa probably had more than 5 million people.
• Agriclture was the anchor of the economy. It was even labeled the "granary of Rome" and the Romans put more agricultural infrastructure (irrigation canals, plantations) to increase grain productivity. Some trans-saharan trade took place for gold and wild animals like lions after Atlas Lions were made scarce.
• But, like Egypt, plagues hastened collapse. Especially, the Plague of Justinian 542-543. It was likely Bubonic plague. The region's population density which contributed to its strength was also its weakness.