What was Africa like before colonialism? any documentaries or books you can recommend

[Shabazz]

My grandfather was a bushboy.

stop getting your self-esteem from a fantasy of what Africa was like "before the white people came".

Majority of West Africa were hunter-gatherers, like I said, sometimes unified/assimilated into larger empires, regional governments.
But West Africa was always fragmented politically and socially, two groups that lived 5 miles from each-other could have nothing in common.

Even the empires routinely mentioned by people like you, were rooted in religious/spiritual power/relevance, not actual government structure.
Or they were rooted in economic power because they controlled trade routes, but they weren't "empires" in the Western sense.

You probably believe West Africa had "kings" and royalty too.

I've already said on here before, the problem is you guys try to apply European ideas to African societies all while being "Pan-African",
reading books that are third-hand sources based on second-hand European sources.

Before the 1500s the majority of west Africans were not hunter gatherers, they would have been farming staple foods like yam, rice, and millet as well practicing animal husbandry. To find a majority hunter gatherer west Africa you have to go way back. Also, an empires backbone is its economy so you would have to have control over trade.

 

[13473]

The Project Gutenberg eBook of "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African", by OLAUDAH EQUIANO.

it's a narrative of someone who was a slave but lived in modern-day nigeria first; he later purchased his own freedom. he discussed his culture quite a bit.

 

[ignorethis]

Before the 1500s the majority of west Africans were not hunter gatherers, they would have been farming staple foods like yam, rice, and millet as well practicing animal husbandry. To find a majority hunter gatherer west Africa you have to go way back. Also, an empires backbone is its economy so you would have to have control over trade.

Wrong phrase then, hunters and farmers. Cattle hadn't been established as a widespread concept.

 

[Samori Toure]

Before the 1500s the majority of west Africans were not hunter gatherers, they would have been farming staple foods like yam, rice, and millet as well practicing animal husbandry. To find a majority hunter gatherer west Africa you have to go way back. Also, an empires backbone is its economy so you would have to have control over trade.

To find a majority hunter gatherer society during the medieval period you would literally have to go to Central, South or East Africa, because in West Africa the trade routes of the Mande extended all the way down into the forest belt region along the Atlantic coast (modern day Sierra Leone,Guinea and Ivory Coast) and they established the empires of Kong in modern day Ivory Coast and Gonja in modern day Ghana. Those trade routes connected them up with the Akan people in Ivory Coast and Ghana; and the Hausa and Yoruba people in modern day Nigeria.

So there was literally no place to have hunter gatherer societies in West Africa, because major kingdoms basically bordered each other.

 

[MischievousMonkey]

We always hear about how dirty and shytty medieval Europe was but I want to know how Africa was, mainly the parts where the slaves came from, before colonization. So I guess before the year 1500.

I'm not good with history at ALL but I guess today would be the day to start learning

Colonization started at the end of the XIXth century

 

[ignorethis]

To find a majority hunter gatherer society during the medieval period you would literally have to go to Central, South or East Africa, because in West Africa the trade routes of the Mande extended all the way down into the forest belt region along the Atlantic coast (modern day Sierra Leone,Guinea and Ivory Coast) and they established the empires of Kong in modern day Ivory Coast and Gonja in modern day Ghana. Those trade routes connected them up with the Akan people in Ivory Coast and Ghana; and the Hausa and Yoruba people in modern day Nigeria.

So there was literally no place to have hunter gatherer societies in West Africa, because major kingdoms basically bordered each other.

These "kingdom" weren't nearly as powerful as you think they were.

Secondly there were hunter-gathers, the some of the fulani are still fukking nomadic, cattle poaching, hunter-gatherers to this day.

And I already concede that I messed up saying hunter gathers in West Africa, but all of Africa, including Central and South (which slaves also came from) hunter-gathering was the majority.

West Africa, dense bush allowed some people to settle down into farm based communities. But all of West Africa isn't dense Bush, a lot of it is humid desert.

So you still had hunter-gatherers In those parts.

The Hausa were eventually led under middle eastern leadership through Islam. And by extension the Yoruba had already been exposed to middle eastern influence.

Not even counting those people. I'm talking about Africans that had never ran into white people, or an idea from white people in there entire existence.

 

[Shabazz]

To find a majority hunter gatherer society during the medieval period you would literally have to go to Central, South or East Africa, because in West Africa the trade routes of the Mande extended all the way down into the forest belt region along the Atlantic coast (modern day Sierra Leone,Guinea and Ivory Coast) and they established the empires of Kong in modern day Ivory Coast and Gonja in modern day Ghana. Those trade routes connected them up with the Akan people in Ivory Coast and Ghana; and the Hausa and Yoruba people in modern day Nigeria.

So there was literally no place to have hunter gatherer societies in West Africa, because major kingdoms basically bordered each other.

Yeah, I meant way back in time.

 

[Samori Toure]

Wrong phrase then, hunters and farmers. Cattle hadn't been established as a widespread concept.

You are just flat out embarrassing yourself. The Fulani and Mande people have been herding cattle and that they were cow herders in all of those Sahelian African empires.

These are off of rocks in modern day Niger:

This is form Mauritania:

 

[ignorethis]

You are just flat out embarrassing yourself. The Fulani and Mande people have been herding cattle and that they were cow herders in all of those Sahelian African empires.

These are off of rocks in modern day Niger:

This is form Mauritania:

Some fulani are nomadic farmers, some are roaming bandits that hit small villages and steal everything from them.

This is a fact. Til this day, in modern day Nigeria. Modern day looter/pillagers. You think they weren't doing that in precolonial Africa?

 

[MischievousMonkey]

Majority of West Africa were hunter-gatherers, like I said, sometimes unified/assimilated into larger empires, regional governments.
But West Africa was always fragmented politically and socially, two groups that lived 5 miles from each-other could have nothing in common.

Even the empires routinely mentioned by people like you, were rooted in religious/spiritual power/relevance, not actual government structure.
Or they were rooted in economic power because they controlled trade routes, but they weren't "empires" in the Western sense.

You probably believe West Africa had "kings" and royalty too.

I've already said on here before, the problem is you guys try to apply European ideas to African societies all while being "Pan-African",
reading books that are third-hand sources based on second-hand European sources.

There are several things that I don't get in what you said.

You said that African populations were sometimes assimilated into larger regional governments or empires, then you said that those "weren't rooted in actual government structure". What does that mean? You said they were instead "rooted in religious or spiritual power or relevance" or "rooted in economic power". Admitting this is true (easily dismissable for several of the most known African empires, but let's pretend it is), how is that related to having a "government structure" or not? How does that prevent them from being empires?

Could you expand on the fact that you don't believe West Africa had Kings nor royalty? What disqualifies the rulers of what we commonly (probably mistakenly according to you) refer to as kingdoms from being Kings, in your opinion?

 

[Samori Toure]

Yeah, I meant way back in time.

Way back in time? This Tichitt Walata. It was a Mande trading city built out of stone hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

 

[ATownD19]

Some fulani are nomadic farmers, some are roaming bandits that hit small villages and steal everything from them.

This is a fact. Til this day, in modern day Nigeria. Modern day looter/pillagers. You think they weren't doing that in precolonial Africa?

You keep moving the goal post. This is a discussion on pre-colonial Africa. If you don't know what you're talking about, why don't you humble yourself and ask us for assistance?

 

[Samori Toure]

Some fulani are nomadic farmers, some are roaming bandits that hit small villages and steal everything from them.

This is a fact. Til this day, in modern day Nigeria. Modern day looter/pillagers. You think they weren't doing that in precolonial Africa?

You are so dumb. What the fugg is a nomadic farmer?

Farmers by nature are not nomadic. The Fulani were herdsmen that walked their herds to different pastures, which is why the Fulani are all across West Africa.

Other West Africans were not nomads. They were stationary you dolt. The stationary people are the ones that built the major kingdoms. The Fulani did not settle into sedentary locations until they began converting to Islam.

 

[ignorethis]

There are several things that I don't get in what you said.

You said that African populations were sometimes assimilated into larger regional governments or empires, then you said that those "weren't rooted in actual government structure". What does that mean? You said they were instead "rooted in religious or spiritual power or relevance, or rooted in economic power". Admitting this is true (easily dismissable for several of the most known African empires, but let's pretend it is), how is that related to having a "government structure" or not? How does that prevent them from being empires?

Could you expand on the fact that you don't believe West Africa had Kings nor royalty? What disqualifies the rulers of what we commonly (probably mistakenly according to you) refer to as kingdoms from being Kings, in your opinion?

Because their rulership was still dependent on religion, not everybody believed in a religion and they could choose to not follow them, Not pay dues, not deal with them.

People had way more agency in precolonial Africa than these stories portray. The average African wasn't a serf.

The guys you guys often refer to as kings were often just powerful rich men that help provide for whatever their region was, maybe a couple of villages, maybe a compound, they might have had an population/travel hub where they're name and legend was likely to travel. There were thousands of men with that rank at the time of the "King" you guys refer to, and they weren't bowing down to anybody , they were just being the big dog in their area.

Europeans had kings that ruled over millions of people and a drawn out hierarchy of power, and laws. In in the majority of precolonial West Africa being able to read and write fukking glyphs made you basically the illuminati. That's how little people knew to read and write.

And like I already said, the places you guys often display were middle Eastern colonies in west Africa, not indigenous to West Africans.

 

[⠝⠕⠏⠑]

Way back in time? This Tichitt Walata. It was a Mande trading city built out of stone hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

Not a lot of Westerners know about ancient West African archeology. And old professor colleagues of mine insinuated that it’s a super hush field and the most compelling artifacts are squirreled away into private collections on blk markets.

I wonder what the fukk they hiding.