Fri, September 29, 2017 at 4:33 pm GMT
Hello Karen. The following is the part of the history of INTERACTIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA. It is very interesting to me.
Interaction is the way in which different group of people come into contact with each other and the changes that occur as an impact of it. The contact among the people of Africa was due to various struggles to meet their basic need. Through this contact African societies manage to establish relationships related to their modes of production.
Social and economic factors for the interactions:
Social factors
I) Migration; Some African societies kept on migration due to draught, famine and hunger and frequent diseases. For example, pastoral societies run from tsetse flies and locusts that affect their livestock. The areas where the cholera outbreak is high were left.
II) Population pressure; In African continent the number of people increased due to different factors either natural or immigration. With the increase numbers of people the sources were not enough to meet the needs. This forced other people to opt for migration to other places where could sustain their daily life. Through migration people of different races, ethnic and social background had established new relationship. For example the people left the eastern side Mt Drakensburg in South Africa and go to the North.
III) Marriage; Marriage between the people of different ethnic groups occurred due to long process of trade and population increase. For example Bantu interacted with one another e.g. Ngoni interacted with Yao, Lozi and Ndebele; Datoga interacted with Iraqw and intermarried with one another. Also during the coastal contact with Asia African Bantu societies interacted with Arabs.
IV) Language; Through common language relations, People of different cultural settings and background could meet and establish social relation. They create new values and norms which will strengthen socialization and created peace among the Bantu people, Nilotes and Kushites.
V ) Wars; In Africa most of the areas were conquered due to war e.g. from 1820s Egypt started to conquer her neighboring regions of Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. In 1820 Mohamed Ali’s army conquered South Eastern Sudan. By 1839 Egypt had established her base at Gondonkoro1000miles South of Khartoum aiming at acquisition of slaves from Non Muslim societies. They also wanted to construct railway line to the Nile valley and control the ivory and slave trade. Through Khedive Ismail Egyptian army destroyed Lango and Acholi in Uganda and come very close to Lake Turkana in Kenya.
Economic factors for the interactions among the people of Africa
(I)Trade; Trade enabled various communities such as pastoralists, crop cultivators and artisans to interact. For example the pastoralists exchanged their animal products for vegetables and grains from crop cultivators. The same like the iron smelters obtained crops in exchange with iron tools. Between 8th and 16th century the Western African societies had interacted with North Western Africa through Trans saharan trade. They exchanged goods from North to those of Western Sudan. Among the most commodities were iron, gold, slave and salt. In central Africa the Yao, Bisa, Chewa Ovimbundu and Imbangala traded with East African societies. By 19th c copper from Katanga were exported to Ujiji in Kigoma. Nyamwezi also obtained ivory and slaves from Congo in exchange with salt, hoes, beads and ornaments from Uvinza in Tanganyika.
(II)The need to search new areas: (Need of land)
The areas with fertile soil and reliable rainfall were highly attractive to the people within the region and those outside the region. They use the land for agriculture and those with less fertile soil were left. For example, the areas of interlocutrine were highly populated. Other areas were Ghana, Mali and Songhay. The areas like Northern Kenya were less populated because they had no fertile soil.
(III)Agriculture; When agricultural societies began to settle in new areas they interacted with inhabitants in all aspects of life e.g. they participated in trade, crop cultivations and pastoralism. The crop cultivators need iron tools from the iron smith and the pastoralists also need crop products. Agriculture ensures constant supply of food and trade items.
(IV) Mining; The areas like Witwatersrand, Kimberley and Katanga were densely populated due to migration of people from different regions. The areas like Nubia, Nok, Meroe and Axum were also highly populated because they have iron tools. The traders use iron implement as a commodity of exchange.
NB: Interlocustrine are the areas between great lakes of East Africa such as Kyoga, Tanganyika, Albert, Edward, Kivu and Victoria.
The economic impact of interactions
(I) Growth of towns and cities; Trading activities stimulated the emergence of urban centres along the trade routes. For example, in Western Sudan the towns like Timbuktu, Gao, Mali, Walata, Kumbisaleh, Taghaza and Kano; In North Africa the towns like Tripoli, Fezz, Alexandria, Sijilmasa etc and in East Africa the towns like Bagamoyo, Ujiji, Tabora, Zanzibar and Kilwa etc.
(II) Exposure of Africa to the external world; The African coast and the interior were opened to the outside world. People were engaged in trade and slowly created trade relation with Europeans and Arabs. Africans produced items which were needed in Europe and Asia. Therefore varieties of goods were collected from Africa and Africa was flooded with Europeans and Asians goods
(III) Intensification of agricultural production; Due to goods manufactured and the better use of iron tools, the demand of foodstuff, cash crops and animal products became very important among the Africans. They managed to produce cola nuts and food crops for traders and the entire community.
(IV) Development of technical skills and new ideas; Trading activities stimulated the emergence of technical skills. Africans were able to process leather, undertake gold mining, cloth making and iron smelting. What was produced was sold to the traders within the region and outside.
(V) Over exploitation of African resource; Trade items such as ivory, gold and animal skins were supplied within the African region and later were exported outside Africa. West Africa and East Africa lost a lot of wealth to North Africa while in turn North Africa supplied a lot of resource to East and West Africa. Later on these goods were highly demanded by the outsiders.
(VI) Decrease of man power; Many people in Western Sudan and East Africa were captured as slaves to meet the demand of slaves by the long distance traders. In the areas where slave were captured man power decreased. The people who remained are the elders, children and disabled group.
(VII) Emergence of rich and poor classes; Due to interaction the classes of rich and poor people emerged. The people who engaged in agriculture and trade became economically powerful.
(VIII) It laid foundation for the future development; The development of trade centers and trade routes created infrastructure. This was improved during the development of modern Africa
