Early humans first emerged in Africa over 100,000 years ago and began migrating across the continent around 50,000 years ago. As populations grew and evolved, they adapted to different environments and developed diverse languages and cultures. Early Africans survived through foraging, hunting, fishing, and the beginnings of crop cultivation and herding. Around 5,000 years ago, the Bantu expansion spread Bantu-speaking peoples across sub-Saharan Africa. Early societies were typically governed through decentralized systems based on kinship and lineage, though some early states also emerged in places like Egypt, Kush, Axum, and along the Niger River.

1. Understanding Contemporary Africa
Chapter 3 – Historical Context
Dr. Traci D. Wyatt

2. Peopling in Africa
• How did it all start? Who did it start with?
• Africa is the Cradle of Humankind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKOfPzCOdQc
• Homo sapiens (early human beings)
• Theory of humans being descendants of Africa
• As early as 100,000 years ago humans lived all throughout Africa
• 50,000 years ago, as they evolved and developed, it is speculated that they began to break off into
groups forming their techniques and languages as they migrated and adapted to varying environments
• The world’s oldest language families in Africa are:
• Khoisan (being the oldest)
• Niger-Congo
• Nilo-Saharan
• Afro Asiatic

3. Cradle of Humankind
• The site is located in South Africa in
several locations.
• The sites represent places where fossils,
remains, and tools of early humans over
3 million years ago.
• Excavations are still being done in many
of the caves.
• Images shown are believed depictions of
how humans looked based upon bone
structures to reveal the process of
evolution.

4. Peopling in
Africa
• The Cradle of Humankind Cont’d
• Foraging and hunting styles amongst the
language families
• Khoisan – occupied 1/3 of Africa’s southern
region until about 2,000 years ago. Foraging
and hunting on arid/dry land
• Niger-Congo – occupied west and southern
Africa gathering wild yams and oil palm
nuts
• Nilo-Saharan – settled in very wet areas
near lakes and rivers, with foraging and
hunting styles like fishing, planting seeds of
wild grasses, and hunting of crocodiles and
hippopotamuses.
• Afro-Asiatic – occupied the Sahara when it
was wetter, spoke Hebrew and Arabic,
subsistence pattern was gathered grasses.

5. Peopling of Africa
How did people in Africa survive thousands of years ago? How did they
eat? What was the environment like?
• Was the way Africans made much of their living and survived, especially sub-Saharan Africans
about 7,000 years ago due to climate and environmental changes many had to adapt to new ways
of survival for food
• Tools and ways of life were developed and created based upon 3 African environments:
• Tropical Rainforest (small game/animals)
• Open Savannas (large game/animals)
• Lakeside and Riverside (mainly fishing)
• The people living in these environments varied greatly with different value systems, traditions,
and cultural norms
Gathering and Hunting

6. Peopling of Africa
• Gathering and Hunting Cont’d
• Men hunted (giraffe, zebra,
warthog, and antelope)
• Initially men hunted with sticks
and game pits, later on with
nets, bows, arrows, and poisons.
• Women gathered crops and the
like, which was often times
more food for the family than
game from men’s hunting.
• People moved in groups: 300
would gather during the rainy
season, and 30-100 during dry
season.

7. Peopling in Africa
• Fishing
• This community predates the gathering and
hunting, crop raising, and herding communities.
• 11,000 – 5,000 years ago the Sahara was wet,
and many communities gathered around the
Chad River, which had higher water levels at
the time, spreading out over a wider area.
• Other important bodies of water were: Benue
Niger rivers, Lake Nakuru, Lake Turkana, and
Niger Delta.
• Crafted tools: harpoon barbs, bone fish hooks,
pottery, woven baskets, nets of reeds.
• Did a little hunting of crocodiles, hippos, and
water fowl.
• Their communities increased in number more
than others due to their stationary way of life
around bodies of water, which allowed for
more development and larger families.
• Stronger trading networks due to their stability
in not moving around so much.

8. Peopling in Africa
• Crop Raising and Herding
• Thought to be responsible for elaborate social and cultural patterns
• It is theorized that hoe-farming/crop cultivation, animal traction in agriculture created
social hierarchies, gender inequality, and slavery practices.
• Extremely challenging way of life due to 3/5 of the land in Africa being desert, within
the 2/5 left there are large masses of poor soil
• These populations that depended on this subsistence were more likely exposed to
famine caused by natural disasters like heavy rainfall or extremely dry soil.
• Early crop cultivation changed from foraging/seeking food and was developed because
of a growing consumption of beer/intoxicating drinks.
• Again, women, became aware of food supplies, which they harvested seeds and
planted.
• Early crops consisted more of grass grains like teff, fonio, rice, ensete, root crops,
native oil palm.

9. Peopling of Africa
• What caused Bantu migration? What were some of the factors that forced them to relocate?
What problems did it cause?
• Bantu Expansion
• Bantu speaking peoples who shared common languages expanded from present day
Cameroon over to Kenya and down to South Africa
• Word stem “ntu” meaning “person”
• Prefix “ba” plural = ba-ntu “people”
• Identified by their similar farming and herding practices.
• Around 5,000 BCE or there after, large settlements of Bantu speaking peoples led by
lineage elders settled in the West African savanna near the Benue River
• They raised goats, fished with handcrafted canoes, cultivated yams and oil palms
• 2,500 years ago – there was evidence of iron smiths, who made spears, arrows, hoes,
scythes, and axes
• Bantu’s were forced far south due to growing population, environmental changes, and
food scarcity
• Their migration pushed out the Khoisan speaking peoples through intermarriage and
conquering

10. Political
Patterns of
the Past
How did early societies govern themselves? What about
family conflict?
How did early societies govern themselves? What about
family conflict?
Stateless Societies
Stateless Societies
• Were societies with no centralized form of government
• Up until 2,500 years ago, just about all Africans south of the Sahara lived in
stateless societies
• Social systems were based on kinship/lineage – no center power of authority
• Several million people could be a part of stateless societies/systems
• Lineage systems within this broader system created local level checks and
balances to handle political issues
• Used local lineage power balances and cooperation for conflict resolution
• An ethic of cooperation was used to help keep order and peace in herding and
agricultural societies
• These decentralized and kinship based societies were very effective for many
in fighting off colonial powers due to their many fragments and long
stretching family ties through marriage alliances.
• Prior to colonial rule 1/3 of Africa’s people lived in stateless systems
• Many of these societies were overlooked for years by scholars and researchers
because of a lack of info and a bias towards societies with centralized
governments
• An example: the Igbo-speaking people in southeastern Nigeria

11. Political Patterns of the Past
• What were some of the state societies? Why do you think it
is important to emphasize state societies as well?
• State Societies
• Early state societies were not subsidiaries of Egypt
• The first regional states were likely independent
farming communities that existed about 5,500
years ago (2,500 BCE) below the first cataract
Egypt
• Of course, Egypt was a well structured state with
pharaohs (divine kings/god incarnate), priests,
and nobility
• Kush of Nubia was another independent political
state developed about 3,800 years ago. Matter of
fact, Kushite kings ruled in Egypt from 700-500
BCE
• After Meroe was influenced by the Kushites who
migrated there, Meroe developed into a Coptic
Christian state during the 1st century of the
Christian era, but was later replaced by Islam
about 1,000 years ago
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgJTukYtRCY

12. Political Patterns of the Past
• State Societies Cont’d
• Axum of the Ethiopian highlands, which rose up
against Kush was in existence about 2,000 years ago,
its founders were from southern Arabia, about 1,700
years ago the rulers were converted to Christians
• Africa has had a long and noble tradition of state
building like other areas of the world despite many
of the countries’ current struggles
• Examples are:
• Middle Niger Civilization
• Phoenician founded city of Carthage in
Tunisia
• Tekrur on the Senegal River
• Ghana – 1,000 – 2,000 years old – maybe older
• Mali – established 1230-1235 CE
• Kanem – near the desert edge of Chad

13. Political Patterns
of the Past
• Examples of State Societies Cont’d
• Bornu – Southwest of Lake Chad
• Mossi Kingdom (Mori-speaking peoples) of Burkina Faso
• Segu and Kaarta Kingdoms of Mali
• Hausa states of Kono, Gobir, Kasina in the Sahel regions
• Buganda near Lake Victoria (Tanzania, Uganda, and
bordering Kenya)
• Kongo Kingdom (DR and Republic of Congo and Angola)
• Early 1400s, Luba was founded by Ilunga Kalala
(Democratic Republic of Congo)
• The Lozi Kingdom of upper Zambezi near Zambia
• Shona Kingdom stretching from the Zambezi river region
to the Limpopo Rivers
• Kilwa Kingdom in southern Tanzania
• Benin (Ife) and Oyo (Yoruba) Kingdoms in Nigeria
• Asante Kingdom of Ghana
• Dahomey Kingdom of Nigeria (Amazon women referenced
in Black Panther)
• Zulu Kingdom of South Africa (famous leader Shaka)