The Peopling of Africa

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Peopling of West Africa (ctd)

Central Sudanic Developments

• When we say 'The Central Sudan', we are referring to the region of Africa from the bend of the Niger eastward across to the Lake Chad basin and Dar Fur. It's geography is a continuation of the landscape of the Western Sudan. 4,000 years ago - it was populated by Nilo-Saharans and Afro-Asiatics. The Nilo-Saharans cultivated some crops but also had an aquatic economy based on fishing, hunting and intensive gathering. Lake Chad was a large body of water back then. But it's shrinking caused population dislocations and aided the rise of Chadic speakers, part of Afro-Asiatic dispersals across the Sahara. By 500 CE, their small, walled family compounds and villages dotted the countryside.

What Africa may have looked like when the Sahara was 'green'. Missing a river connecting Lake Chad to the Nile though...

Kanem and Bornu

• East of Lake Chad, Nilo-Saharan herders migrated southwards in search of pasture land and water for their cows. As they mixed with Chadic speakers, they become more sedentary. The prior inhabitants are called the So or Sao and easterly Chadic groups like the Kotoko, Buduma and Musgu may be their descendants. However, the nomads' culture and language prevailed.

Buduma woman

• The Zahgawa, ruled between Lake Chad and Dar Fur around 1000 CE, were the last in a long line of Nilo-Saharan nomads who had the eastern Lake Chad basin as their destination. The synthesis of Nilo-Saharans and Afro-Asiatics led to the formation of the Kanuri people. The founders of Kanem with its capital at Njimi. Their agricultural economy and salt mines at Bilma was the foundation of their wealth. Kanem became regularly involved in the Trans-Saharan trade around the 11th century CE. The caravans left Kanem to Fezzan on their way to Tripoli to exchange slaves for horses. Horses were needed to form cavalry contingents. Since Kanem had no gold, slaves were the priciest 'commodity' they could offer to the North Africans. Islam followed trade and soon the Kanuri populace and elite converted to Islam.
• Kanem reached its height in the mid 13th century CE, with its territory including the desert to Fezzan. Kanuri activity then shifted towards the west of Lake Chad - building a new capital at Ngazaragmu. Chadic peoples were either pushed out or absorbed. A new state, Bornu, came into being. The Kanem were conquered by the Bulala who in tern were conquered by Bornu. But, Kanuri lands east of Lake Chad had been lost, largely to Shuwa Arabs. Bornu continued with Kanuri leadership in the West for several more centuries.

Kanem and Bornu Empires

Kanuri woman

Hausa States

• The only serious rivals to the Kanuris were the Hausas. They are the largest Chadic speaking group. Hausa reached their present distribution around 1500 CE. Probably due to pressure from Bornu. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, several villages grew into cities that controlled the countryside in a radius of 50-60 km. These initial city-states were Gobir, Katsina, Zaria, Kano, Biram, Daura and Rano. These make up the 'true' seven Hausa city-states. Seven later ones are viewed as 'b*stards'.

Hausa city-states can be seen sandwiched between Borno and the Songhai Empire

• Each city had a surrounding wall, residences for the ruling family, quarters for traders and enough agricultural land to feed the population during a siege. Outside the walls were slave villages, free Hausa villages and dispersed family compounds. The city states were never united and thus, could not challenge Bornu. But, they maintained their sovereignty. All Bornu could do was exact tribute. The Hausa were also competing with the Junkun (Kwararafa) to the south and the Nupe too.
• The city states attracted non-Hausa to their walls. Fulbe, Tuareg, Kanuri, Dyula, Songhai, Arabs and North African Berbers. Most were assimilated - a Hausa cultural trait. This trait helped the Hausa expand and absorb Niger-Congo peoples. Islam also strengthened bonds, despite arriving late. But the Hausa were not fully converted to Islam at that time. A Hausa diaspora began in the 16th century CE across West africa. Hausa metal, textile and leather workers are found across the Sudan.

Hausa man (note that all the previous images of people carried ritual scarification on their cheeks)

Towards the Forests and Coasts

• 3,000 years ago, the vegetation of West Africa's rainforest was largely still intact. It was dominated by Late Stone Age gatherer-hunters. Those in the west probably spoke Atlantic languages. In the east, Ijoid...Kwa ones maybe? If agriculture occurred, it was patchy. The people of the rainforest were free from the population pressures which were driving migration in the former Green Sahara, the shrinking Lake Chad (among other lakes) and other associated phenomenon.
• We've gotten a few cultigens from the rainforest region. Okra, kola, akee and malagueta pepper. All staples are from outside the region including rice and yams. Both rice and yams may have replaced other staples. Would staples would eventually appear such as banana, cocoyams, plantains and later on maize, sweet potatoes and cassava. New foods generally increased productivity and further the advantage of farmers over hunter-gatherers.
• The tsetse fly's sleeping sickness limited the presence of cattle and goats beyond the dwarf variety. But those varities produce little meat or milk. Human and livestock diseases were barriers to settlement. Sleeping sickness had the greatest impact, though. But, agriculture and iron-making made an apperance in this region around the turn of the 1st millienium CE. The agricultural frontier advanced on 2 fronts: One being rice cultivation in the West (Atlantic and Mande) and the other being yam in the east (Kwa and Benue-Congo). The earliest settlements probably occurred in places where there was light forest cover, better drained soils and access to sea salt/fishing. The origins of the Kru, Ewe, Itsekiri, Ibibio, Efik and Ijoids probably arose among those settlements.
  
• Trade sped up the pace of developments. The volume of trade created long networks which helped to facilitate political centralization. Signs of these changes inclide Igbo-Ukwu (near Onitsha, Nigeria). There was a fairly settled population there by the 9th century CE. Imported goods have been found at this site. Also, local items like bronze and copper have been found despite the raw materials for these metals not being located nearby. Some items are of Mediterranean origin. Igbo-Ukwu is in the homeland of the Igbo people.

Art found in Igbo-Ukwu

• Ife is another important site. It is linked to the origins of the Yoruba. It was among the first of the Yoruba towns to have been founded between the northern margins of the forest ad the adjacent savanna. Each took advantage of north-south trade opportunities. Bronze and copper artificats have been found along with expert works in iron, wood, leather, ivory and cloth. The Yoruba expanded north and south of their strategic position in the border zone.

Bronze works discovered in Ife

• The Edo-speaking peoples founded Benin city-state around 1000 CE as they moved from the savanna into the forest region. They created high density villages after clearing forests to keep sleeping sickness at bay. Power was highly centralized within an a commercial elite class wo traded with the Hausa, Songhai, Yoruba and the fishing communities of the Niger Delta. The Benin expanded through war - typically against the Ijoid peoples.

Artistic depiction of the Oba of Benin meeting with European visitors

• Further west, Begho (now in Ghana) became a market center for the kola trade. It was controlled by a Dyula colony with links to Djenne. The political power lay with the Mossi. However, Begho seems to have been an Akan site, originally. They extended into the forest in search of kola and later gold. Proto-Akan origins along with iron age sites have been founded dating from the 11 century CE.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

\
Edo women

 

[BigMan]

Subs

 

[Crude Abolitionist]

\
Edo women

So beautiful.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Subs

Will finish the West Africa part of the story in a few hours.

 

[BigMan]

Will finish the West Africa part of the story in a few hours.

I want to make a similar thread about the diaspora specifying links between certain groups. Today or tommorow

Good thread btw

I really want to do my DNA test to five out which ethnic groups I match with

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

I want to make a similar thread about the diaspora specifying links between certain groups. Today or tommorow

Good thread btw

I really want to do my DNA test to five out which ethnic groups I match with

Oh, that's cool. I was thinking of doing a thread on the Igbo diaspora caused by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. If you make that thread, I'll add info about the Igbo.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Peopling of West Africa (ctd)

Coastal Transition

• Until the fifteenth century CE, settlements near the coast were small. Mostly based on farming and fishing. Each was self-sufficient though canoes carried on interregional trade, along with footpaths to inland states. The coastal zone was the frontier until the arrival of Europeans. Europeans came to West Africa on their way to avoid Muslim control of trade towards South and East Asia.
• The Portuguese were the earliest 'pioneers' in travelling up and down the coast of West Africa. They established small trading posts whenever opportunities presented themselves. They focused on three regions. First being from the Senegal River to between the modern cities of Freetown and Conakry. They traded with the Wolof, Serer and Malinke guns, ivory, dye woods, slaves, gold and pepper. The second region was between Cape Three Points and Cape St. Paul where they could get gold from the Akans. 'The Gold Coast' soon was the name applied to this area. The Portuguese built a fort at Elmina. The first permanent European structure in Africa south of the Sahara in 1482.
• The third area was the Niger DElta and its hinterland, with Benin as the target.Slaves were obtained to trade for gold at the Gold Coast. Benin, however, showed little interest in the Portuguese (!). They banned the export of slaves (!) and preferred to use them as agricultural laboureres and to sell ivory, gum and pepper. The Portuguese found the region inhospitable due to the heat, humidity and native diseases. They withdrew to the islands of Fernando Po and Sao Tome to create slave plantations there.
• The Portuguese ignored the Bight of Benin where the savanna interrupts rain forest. Here live the Ewe, Aja and Fon. A mixed economy of millet, livestock, fishing and local trade supported a dense pre-colonial population.
• Virtually all of the Portuguese were men and some took local concubines and wives. Their descendants were lancados who negotiated with kings and were intermediaries between the Portuguese and Africans.
• Other Europeans soon joined in. The Dutch came in the 1590s. The following century saw French, British, Danes, Swedes and Prussians. The French focused on the Senegal River where they built many outposts. The others had interest in the Gold Coast and built forts to 'defend' their interests. These forts operated at the discretion of local Africans and the Europeans had to pay rent to operate.
• In the 1620s, the Bight of Benin was included in this trade. They lacked commodities like gold, but they did have slaves. The sale dominated the export economy - inviting Europeans to dub the area 'The Slave Coast'. Also known as 'The White Man's Grave'. Ships avoided the shore and waited offshore for weeks to avoid malaria and yellow fever.
• Soon, the Trans-Saharan trade was eclipsed by the coastal trade. Also, droughts and locust plagues hit the interior causing major food crises/famines. Cities in the Sahel and Sudan went into decline while Africans began congregating in St. Louis, Goree Island, Rifisque, Bissau, Elmina, Christianbourg (later Accra), Cape Coast, Great and Little Popo, Whydah, Porto Novo, Lagos, Calabar and Bonny.

Slave Trade patterns of deportation from Africa

Ethnic Realignments

• The Mande quickened their expansion at the expense of the Atlantic speaking peoples. On either side of the Gambia, the Malinke pushed groups like the Balante (Balanta?) and Diola into smaller and smaller pockets of territory. In what is now Guinea, the Susu and Yalunka expanded their landholdings. In other settings, the Malinke took advantage of the fall of Mali by making themselves the authority. Linguistic shifts occurred reflecting new Malinke overlordship. The Mande concepts of state-building gave them an advantage over largely unstratefied and less organized Atlantic groups. The major exceptions were the Wolof and the Serer whose earlier political achievements helped them hold their lands between the Senegal and Gambia Rivers.

Wolof Woman

Malinke Man

• The Akan continued to advance. In the 16th and 17th centuries, a few Akan states became pre-eminent. However, in the 18th century they all yielded eventually to the Asante. As the Asante pushed out in all directions from their center at Kumasi, migrations fled from their advance. The Brong moved at the expense of the Anyi and Baule, who in turn migrated to southern Ivory Coast where they squeezed others too. The Asante's main competition for regional hegemony came from the Fante who controlled the countryside between the Asante and the coast.

Asante women

Fante men

• In Southwestern Nigeria, the coastal trade further aided Yoruba expansion. By the 17th century, Ijebu and Ondo positioned themselves just inland from the coast. The most powerful state was Oyo. It forced all other states into tribute-paying status. Even Benin had to acknowledge them. But by the end of the 18th century, Oyo was losing its grip owing to internal discord and a declining economy. Several former tributes in the Delta (such as Itsekiri dominated Warri) broke away on the strength of slave trade profits. Oyo also lost some territories to the Dahomey kingdom.

Yoruba woman

Oyo Empire

Itsekiri men

• Dahomey's emergence is tied to the growth of the slave trade. Commercial activity gave rise to the Aja state of Allada. It controlled slave routes north and south and routes to and from Oyo. Allada eventually lost out to other competitors like Whydah, all of which were swallowed up by the Fon kingdom of Dahomey, where the Gbe speakers centralized their kingship and made it militaristic. Muskets helped too. Whydah was overrun in the 1720s along with Allada. The conquest caused a lot of economic disruption and population loss which prevented Dahomey from immediately assuming dominance. When it did restore order, it became one of the major pre-colonial powers in Africa.

Aja men

Fon people

• The last significant area was the Bight of Bonny in the vicinty of the Cross River. The area was populous and consisted of many city-states under the control of Efi, Ijaw and other families. Families organized themselves into commercial and military 'houses' open to strangers (non-kin) which gave them the capacity to increase size and strength and to enslave others.

Ijaw women

Efik men

• Farther inland, Igbo colonization of the higher lands east of the Niger valley continued abated. The Igbo never developed anthing resembling a large-scale state and the impetus of their diffusion apparently had more to do with population growth than trade. Why they had a population explosion is unclear but it may be related to maize and cassava. Igbo expansion pushed Ijaw and Ibibio south and Igala and Idoma north.

Igbo women

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Peopling of West Africa (ctd)

Population and the Slave Trade

• Around 12-15 million Africans were sent to the Americas. The minimum guess is 10 million. The maximum is 20 million. At least 6 million came from West Africa. For the Trans-Saharan route (which was still active) between 1500 to 1900, some 8-9 million were sent to destinations in North and East Africa.
• In the 16th and 17th century, some 10,000 Africans were taken per year. By the 18th century, 40,000 were taken annually.
• West Africa had 25 million people before the trade began. That number remained stagnant for the next few centuries because of the trade and associated wars and economic disruptions. Decline didn't set in because of new agricultural crops and polygamy. Although, the Trans-Saharan route favoured women more than men captives.
• In the 18th century, the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade became more concentrated. After the Asante ran out of Akan peoples to sell, they turned to Gur groups. Many of them suffered major population declines. Invasions by Dahomey made the Aja lose 3 per cent of their population annually for 40 years. Raids in the Cross River Delta area depopualted upper portions of the river valley, while the Igbo (under the Aro) became major slave traders. Some groups disappeared. Other groups grew. It was through this process that the Hausa, Asante, Fon, Yoruba and Igbo gained regional dominance.
• Because of the slave trade local economies suffered. Crafts and agriculture declined. More people began to rely on cassava (easy to grow, stores well), despite it being relatively nutrient poor compared to yams and grains. Protein malnutrition became increasingly common.

Cassava

Prelude to Colonization

• The slave trade made European powers grow deeper and deeper into African affairs. Even the abolition of the slave trade by Britain in 1807 made the Royal Navy a permanent fixture along the African coastline.
• A consequence of Britain's abolition of the slave trade in 1833 was the settlement of Sierra Leon by Black loyalists from the 13 Colonies (originally). Maroons from Jamaica were forced to head there too, along with Black Nova Scotians. Disease induced mortality and lack of agricultural land threatened the survival of the colony. Temne raids became common after they learned that Freetown as a permanent settlment. Freetown relied on being a a relief station for British antislavery naval squadrons. The population went from 2,000 in 1808 to 34,000 in 1834.

Temne women

Sierra Leone Creole

• British culture took hold through churches (Church Missionary Society and Wesleyan Missionary Society). A Krio language also developed as a means for communication along side English. Trade, rather than farming, dominated creole economic activity.
• Another new population was the result of the American Colonization Society for freed American Black people. A small number of them landed in Cape Mesurado in 1822. They founded Liberia and the settlement of Monrovia. No more than 17,000 migrated. The disease burden also took its toll. Nonetheless, a few more settlements sprouted up and it became independent officially in 1848. Americo-Liberian culture was heavily American for obvious reasons. They often confronted the Kru people over matters of authority. For centuries, the Krus took their ocean going canoes (!) to trade with Europeans. Kru villages dotted the coastline. Further inland was also beyond Americo-Liberian reach. The inlanders spoke Mande and Kwa languages.

Americo-Liberian man

Kru woman

• European demand for cocoa, gum arabic, oil palm indigo and others products created incentives for plantations in forest areas along the coastline.
• Some peoples took advantange of this, like the Krobo who became expert palm planters in the lands made empty by the Asante-Fante wars. Originally, they were in the ruggled areas in the Accra Plain.

Krobo children

• As France and Britain deepened their involvement in Western africa, their areas of such as St. Louis and Accra became more entrenched. They also added more lands. Lagos was annexed by Britain in 1860. From their position in Accra, the British intervened in Asantte-Fante wars and became the Fante's protector. The Asante defeat in 1874 after decades of war finally halted Asante expansion. The British and French began moving up areas such as the Niger Delta and the Senegal River to strengthen their own commercial claims to West Africa...the colonial era was about to start.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

I think I'm done.

If I've missed any areas of the African continent (aside from Madagascar, Comoros, Reunion) let me know.

 

[African Peasant]

 

[Karb]

The Swahili States

• The coastline of East Africa provided the setting for the distinctive features of Swahili culture: mercantilism, town dwelling, coral/stone architecture, Islam and an African language with Arabic script, social stratification with elites stressing non-African origins and finally belonging to a wider 'civilization'
• The Swahili language is of Bantu origin. Related to the Sabaki cluster of Northeast coastal Bantu that formed in the lower Tana river-Lamu archipelago around 500 AD.
• The original Sabaki lived in coastal villages or on offshore island villages where they could both fish and farm. Some took up new economic activity trading with merchants from Arabia and the Persian Gulf. Monsoons made the trade possible, with dhows leading the way. The trade is over 2000 years old, although Cushytes (Somalis, Oromo etc.) probably traded with Arabs first
• Between the 9th and 12th centuries AD, the major Swahili towns were founded. The first mentioned by Arabic sources was Kambalu and Rhapta (recently found by archaeologists!). Pate, Shanga, Manda, Kisimani Mafia, Kilwa Kisiwani, Mogadishu (!), Malinidi and Mombasa were other towns that were founded. Hundreds of others were probably founded and then vanished.
• Each town was autonomous and sent ivory, ambergris, tortoise shell, leopard skins, mangrove poles, gold and slaves to Arabia, India and Southern Iraq. Imports consisted of cotton, beads and chinaware.
• Ruling elites constructed separate quarters of stone and coral and constructed a new culture which tried to imagine a foreign origin that linked them to outside traders. They wore long flowing garments (kanga cloth?), ate off china plates using utensils and were among the first speakers of we now calls Swahili

Coral house remnants

Mogadishu was not part of the Swahili civilization. It was it's own sultanate and the ruling sultans were all ethnic Somalis. It was simply known as the "sultanate of Mogadishu".

The city has a history that stretches back to at least 1 AD and was already established as a trade center and recognized as such by Greek travelers. That's like 900 years before any Arab set foot in it.

Arab traders began settling in the city in the 900's. The sultans of the city were all from the "Al-Barbar" I.e. ethnic Somalis. This was also the case when Ibn Battutta visited the city in the year 1331 and he mentions this explicitly in his accounts. He made no mention of huge Arab/Persian/Swahili populations.

There are no Swahili ppl in the city. The only Swahili speakers in all of Somalia are Bajuni ppl who live close to Kismayo and the Bravanese who speak a distinct variation of Swahili and live in the coastal town of Brava (Barawe). The Arabs who lived in the city spoke the benadiri dialect of Somali and not Swahili, unlike the ones who settled in Mombasa.

It was mainly the Arab-Somali minority who invented this lie that the city was established by Arabs and Persians (and thus was part of Swahili civilization) in order to have a stronger claim on the land and some people ran with it. White historians who would rather attribute the history of the city to some hybrid civilization or Arabs and Persians rather than the ppl who actually live in the city and have done so for thousands of years, also kept regurgitating that BS.

It's pure bullshyt. Some even claim that it was established by the Persians and that it's name "Mogadishu" comes from the Arabic "Maq'ad Al-Shah" (the seat of the shah), but this is pure trash since there are no records of Persian rulership of the city and the actual origin of the name is Muuqa = Sight and Disho = killer, "killer of the sight" I.e. breathtakingly beautiful.

Some ppl use the architecture of the city as evidence, but for one it doesn't even resemble Swahili architecture and secondly the exact same architecture is found in Merka and Benadir which have always been entirely Somali

The local Arab communities did contribute a lot to the success of the city, but let's not get it twisted, it was always in somali hands. Most of the citizens were somali and the local sultans were all somali even before the Ajuraan dynasty captured the city. Ffs one of the largest Somali tribes, the Hawiye, has always lived in that area - particularly the Abgaal tribe who still controls the city.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Mogadishu was not part of the Swahili civilization. It was it's own sultanate and the ruling sultans were all ethnic Somalis. It was simply known as the "sultanate of Mogadishu".

The city has a history that stretches back to at least 1 AD and was already established as a trade center and recognized as such by Greek travelers. That's like 900 years before any Arab set foot in it.

Arab traders began settling in the city in the 900's. The sultans of the city were all from the "Al-Barbar" I.e. ethnic Somalis. This was also the case when Ibn Battutta visited the city in the year 1331 and he mentions this explicitly in his accounts. He made no mention of huge Arab/Persian/Swahili populations.

There are no Swahili ppl in the city. The only Swahili speakers in all of Somalia are Bajuni ppl who live close to Kismayo and the Bravanese who speak a distinct variation of Swahili and live in the coastal town of Brava (Barawe). The Arabs who lived in the city spoke the benadiri dialect of Somali and not Swahili, unlike the ones who settled in Mombasa.

It was mainly the Arab-Somali minority who invented this lie that the city was established by Arabs and Persians (and thus was part of Swahili civilization) in order to have a stronger claim on the land and some people ran with it. White historians who would rather attribute the history of the city to some hybrid civilization or Arabs and Persians rather than the ppl who actually live in the city and have done so for thousands of years, also kept regurgitating that BS.

It's pure bullshyt. Some even claim that it was established by the Persians and that it's name "Mogadishu" comes from the Arabic "Maq'ad Al-Shah" (the seat of the shah), but this is pure trash since there are no records of Persian rulership of the city and the actual origin of the name is Muuqa = Sight and Disho = killer, "killer of the sight" I.e. breathtakingly beautiful.

Some ppl use the architecture of the city as evidence, but for one it doesn't even resemble Swahili architecture and secondly the exact same architecture is found in Merka and Benadir which have always been entirely Somali

The local Arab communities did contribute a lot to the success of the city, but let's not get it twisted, it was always in somali hands. Most of the citizens were somali and the local sultans were all somali even before the Ajuraan dynasty captured the city. Ffs one of the largest Somali tribes, the Hawiye, has always lived in that area - particularly the Abgaal tribe who still controls the city.

Thanks for contributing this fact! That's the problem when knowledge production is out of African hands. I hear that Somali studies are dominated by Northern Europeans

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

@Karbaash - Going through Google now. So many websites link Mogadishu to being a Swahili city-state.


Scholars claim that there was a Bantu presence at the Benadir coast when Mogadishu was founded.

 

[Karb]

@Karbaash - Going through Google now. So many websites link Mogadishu to being a Swahili city-state.

Bruh, they want to believe that it was established by Arabs

It's Europeans and Arabs who spreading this BS even though they all agree that the sultans were from "Al-Barbar" which is what the Arabs used to refer to ethnic Somalis (also other Cushytes like Afar).

The elites of the city were always ethnic Somalis, not these Arab minorities who were subdued and were even forced to pay tribute to local Somali clans at times

They are pretty much somalized now.

Plus the city was established far before Arabs set foot in East Africa.