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Butlerian HistoFuturist

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Yoruba History+Language+Religion
by Korede Adérélé
69 blocks • 4 days ago
OLD OWU - ORIGINAL HOMELAND OF THE EGBA PEOPLE
OLD OWU - ORIGINAL HOMELAND OF THE EGBA…
African Legacy - Recording Africas Visible Archaeology
African Legacy - Recording Africas Visi…
Old Oyo
Old Oyo
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Historiography
by Korede Adérélé
76 blocks • 11 days ago
Carl Haag - Wikipedia
Carl Haag - Wikipedia
Kisra legend - Wikipedia
Kisra legend - Wikipedia
David F. Noble - Wikipedia
David F. Noble - Wikipedia
Ibn Khaldun - Wikipedia
Ibn Khaldun - Wikipedia
Francisco Félix de Sousa - Wikipedia
Francisco Félix de Sousa - Wikipedia
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African Empires+States
by Korede Adérélé
79 blocks • 22 days ago
Kingdom of Butua - Wikipedia
Kingdom of Butua - Wikipedia
Ndebele People, their history :::: Bulawayo1872.com :::: Bulawayo1872.com
Ndebele People, their history :::: Bula…
Architecture of Africa - Wikipedia
Architecture of Africa - Wikipedia
OLD OWU - ORIGINAL HOMELAND OF THE EGBA PEOPLE
OLD OWU - ORIGINAL HOMELAND OF THE EGBA…
Pg 44-45, Ch 3 THE PEOPLES OF WEST AFRICA AROUND A.D. 1000, A THOUSAND YEARS OF WEST AFRICAN HISTORY with an administrative and territorial system of government established till some time after A.D. 1000. Whatever its size, the local community of the forest zone was virtually autonomous, with its own machinery for upholding discipline and maintaining law and order. In this respect the age; sex, character, wealth and general social standing of individuals played an important part; so also did status associations, age-grades and cult organisations. At the same time each community had external contacts with similar neighbouring groups. Such inter. tuese was fostered by friendship and marriage, alliance and trade, 28 Well 's by community of interest in religion and in outlook on lil generally. Thus was it possible to promote widespread similar. life of language, custom and social life over a fairy large area; beliefs, skills and innovations could also spread fast and far from group to group; and on the whole a sense of cultural unity wat maintained among a considerable number of communitics. THE SAVANNAH With respect to the savannah peoples, Islam reached the region in the eighth century A.D., the date from which the written history of West Africa begins. The writings of Arab Muslim chroniclers about West Africa appeared in the wake of the religion of the Prophet: Ibn Munnabch wrote in A.D, 738, followed later by Al. Masudi in A.D. 947. But the rocords of these chroniclers, together with more recent ethnographic evidence, indicate that naturally the subsistence patterns of the savannah peoples, like their ideas and belief and customs, for long persisted everywhere in varying degrees, Generally the grassland dwellers cultivated grain, but their scope and efficiency differed widely from place to place. There were, for instance, some people of what we now call Northern Nigeria who grew mainly one type of small grain; and some peoples of present-day Northern Ghana who cultivated varieties of millet, using light hoes which did not penetrate deep into the soil. There were, on the other hand, the Hausa of Northern Nigeria and the Bambara and Mandingo of Mali who dug deep into the ground and raised ridges for their millet, while at the same time irrigating the fields for cotton and other special crops. The impact of Islam was not responsible for the first develop- ment of agriculture in the Western and Central Sudan'. As a matter of fact one recent writer, G.P. Murdock, has even put forward the bold hypothesis that agriculture was genuinely invented and food plants independently domesticated in the Mandingo country in the upper Niger basin. Murdock has how- ever been seriously criticised for this; but whether his thesis will stand the test of criticism or not, he has attempted to represent West Africa as an active participant, rather than a passive recipient, in the skilled processes of development of agricultural techniques and domestication of food plants. At all events, there has been a long tradition of successful cultivation of specialised crops in the Western and Central Sudan, a tradition dating from much earlier than the period of this discussion. The savannah peoples, furthermore, were skilled in tending animals. Livestock was reared by people like the Wolof and Serer of Senegal, or later by the almost ubiquitous Fulani who often arranged a mode of living with the settled peoples in whose fields They roamed and grazed their herds and flocks. Of the varied live. stock kept, the beasts of burden camels, horses and donkeys- demand especial mention. Although this is a subject of controversy among scholars, it is generally believed that the camel was intro. duced from the East into North Africa before the Christian era, and thence into the Sudan early in the first millennium A.D. In addition to its high carrying capacity and its singular ability to travel for many days without water, the camel-particularly the riding camel (mehari) bred for speed--can move much faster than the bullock, for instance. The horse is also of extra-African origin. It served not only as a pack-animal but also as a military and political instrument whereby military force could be concentrated at short notice and communication maintained between capital and province. The donkey, as is now generally accepted, was on the other hand domesticated in north-eastern Africa. It was, to the ordinary savannah inhabitant, the beast of burden par excellence, not requiring large capital investment but able to convey heavy loads of grain, raw material and craft products from field and village to granary and town. Attention might also be called to cattle. The domestication of these animals has been claimed for Western Asia but, though he has been criticised by his countrymen, a French writer has suggested that they were brought into human society in the Sahara where, as you may recall, there are ancient rock painting:
Pg 44-45, Ch 3 THE PEOPLES OF WEST AFRI…
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