Agriculture in Africa Before 1500 Like...
By: Priscila, Katelyn, Kenny, and Sarah

Trade Routes:

• Slowly agriculture took a different route when Mediterranean countries linked Africa with Europe and Asia and created new commercial trades as well as a different Agricultural system. (William).

William, Sydney Australia. "Pre-colonial Africa." Pre-colonial Africa, Africa before European colonisation, Indigenous peoples colonisation & contact: Africa, History Year 8, NSW | Online Education Home Schooling Skwirk Australia. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.

Economy:

• New trade routes also meant that agriculture was not just a way of civilizations to feed themselves but also serve as way to enrich their civilizations. Although selling goods and exporting them was an option an even earlier option was to trade goods between groups of people.

Labor:

• Africa during this time is ruled by great Kings and rulers. Those that are were not borned in the royalty had other jobs such as hunting, salesmen, constructors, and of course farmers. Farmers played a big part in the economy of the continent.

"Africa before Transatlantic Enslavement." Understanding Slavery Initiative(n.d.): n. pag. Web.

Kingdoms:

• Post Iron Age Africa had many prosperous kingdoms. These kingdoms flourished because they were built around agricultural trade and had connections to peoples and nations near and far. Traders would often go (or come from) places as far as India. Places that had these kingdoms include: Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Mali. (Africa).

"Africa by 1500." Mads. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.

Religion:

• Africans have been practicing many different religions for many years. Before 1500 Christianity and Islam were already very popular and had many followers. It was also popular to practice traditional oral religions that revolved around community and sometimes ancestor worship. (African). (Ekua-Hammond).

"African Traditional Religion." Anonymous. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2017.

Ekua-Hammond, Nana. "Christianity's African Roots." EBONY. N.p., 27 Mar. 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2017.

Slavery Forms:

• Forced Labor – The Slavery that is most known. Is a type of slavery where slaves are forced to do manual labor at a Master's command
• Bondage or Debt Labor – Slavery where a person will work off their debt through labor
• Share Cropping – A group of landowners can own slaves and rotate farms while sharing crops with all other neighbors
• Indentured Slavery – Slavery where people work in exchange for food and shelter
• War Captives – Some war captives can be used for labor while captured
• Human Trafficking – This is a forced slavery where girls and boys are forced into the slavery of sexual favors
• Serfdom – A forced labor where a tenant was required to live his life on a landlords farm completing labor and selling goods, etc
• Chattel – Like forced labor, but also required to perform labor and sexual favors by command

Africa has mainly experienced (4):

• Chattel Slavery (Much like forced slavery, Africa experienced this form before and through European involvement)
• Debt Bondage (African would use slaves to settle debts between families)
• Forced Labor (Africa has experienced this through the Slave Trade, but also experience this before European involvement)
• Serfdom (Usually European, but was used before the European involvement)

ALL (not just most important) Indigenous Crops:

• African Eggplant – Fruit or “mock tomato” originating in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Bambara Bean – Bean full of protein that originates from tropical regions and is said to have originated in Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.
• Baobab – This is a tree that provides water, shelter, and food through fruit and nuts. It originates from the arid climates of sub-Saharan Africa.
• Cowpea – This is known as a black eyed pea in the Americas. The legume originates from the Sahel Desert.
• Dika – This fruit resembles small yellow and green mangos found hanging from trees. Inside the fruit are the seeds which are small walnuts used to eat raw or roasted. This is indigenous to West Africa.  
• Egusi – This fruit is not very delicious, but its seeds are a good source of protein and oils. This is indigenous to many climate regions including tropical highlands and dry savannahs.
• Enset – This is usually confused for a banana, but actually grows from an underground stem. This fruit is used for the pulp of its stem rather than the fruit as a whole, and originates from Ethiopia.
• Finger Millet – This food is high in starch and is more highly regarded than wheat since it is easier to digest. This can be found in many climates, but originates from East Africa.
• Fonio – Fonio is said to be one of the most nutritional grains ever grown. It is mainly used in cereal. This is indigenous to West Africa.
• Lablab – Lablab is usually a decorative flower sold in the Americas, but is actually used as a food source that originates from West Africa. This legume grows in all sorts of climate conditions making it an ideal staple.
• Locust Bean – The locust bean is not actually a bean, but a tree. It originates from the Savannah, and the fruit it produces is what is used to season foods and soups.
• Pigeonpea – From the Nile valley to East Africa, this legume has provided protein to local people.
• Potato – The potato, in fact, is not an actual potato we know here. This plant is actually a part of the mint family and is used for herbs and spices. It originates from two places: North and South Africa producing the North and South verities.
• Safou – From the tropical forests of West and Central Africa is a butter fruit called the Safou. It loves humid climate, and is used as a good source of nutritional value.
• Sorghum – This is one of the more widely known crops of Africa. Sorghum is a type of sugar cane that can be used to cook different types of food, and the plant is even used to make fences. Sorghum comes from Egypt.
• Teff – Teff is indigenous to Ethiopia, and is a type of wheat used in a wide variety of ways. It is often not bothered by pests or climate changes.

Boddy-Evans, Alistair. "4 Types of Slavery in Africa." About.com Education. http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/p/SlaveryTypes.htm

Stone, Amanda, et al. "Africa's Indigenous Crops - Worldwatch Institute." Worldwatch Institute (2011): Web. http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/NtP-Africa's-Indigenous-Crops.pdf

Gold:

• Africa is a major producer of gold, producing up to 30% of all of the world’s global gold production.
• Africa has one of the highest (average) production costs in the world. Coupled with labor problems, lowering grades as well as several mines reaching the end of their lives, it is not anticipated that South African production will increase in the future.
• Eastern African cities (especially coastal cities that have overseas connections) traded with gold because of its access to Eastern trade routes were their primary trading partners.
• Numerous gold mines were located just west of Great Zimbabwe. One theory suggests that the rulers of Great Zimbabwe (and other kingdoms) did not actually control or own the gold mines, however these rulers managed the trade of gold, purchasing up huge amounts in traded for cattle.
• Gold was also sought after by people in western and central Sudan, becoming a main commodity of the trans-Saharan trade. This movement of gold was driven by the demand for (and supply of) currency (coinage).

Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. “The Trans-Saharan Gold Trade (Seventh–Fourteenth Centuries).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; October 2000. Web.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gold/hd_gold.htm

"The Mysterious Stone Kingdom of the Great Zimbabwe." Ancient Origins. STELLA NOVUS LIMITED, 11 Oct. 2014. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. Web.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/mysterious-stone-kingdom-great-zimbabwe-002196

Ivory:

• During the course of history, humans yearned for ivory (from elephant tusks).
• It was used in countless products like jewelry, piano keys, religious art, and parts of statuettes.
• The trade of ivory has wreaked havoc on Africa’s elephant population. It is believed that their populations reached around 26 million elephants in 1800 and now it is estimated that there is around one million.
• Since the 1989 (worldwide) ban for selling ivory. A rebound has occurred in elephant population.
• However, Egypt still maintains one of Africa's largest domestic ivory markets. (Note that almost all of the ivory used in this trade is obtained from illegal hunting that is associated with slavers and poachers and mostly from the Sudan area.)
• Ivory is sometimes called “white gold”.
• Ivory was one of the first things that African traders sold.

Carr, Karen Eva, PhD. Assoc. Professor Emerita, History Portland State University. "Early African Economy." Quatr.us. Portland State University, 01 Sept. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. http://quatr.us/africa/economy/

Chaiklin, Martha. "Ivory in World History: Early Modern Trade in Context." Academia.edu (The Author History Compass/Journal Compilation). Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 06 Aug. 2010. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. https://www.academia.edu/810974/Ivory_in_World_History_Early_Modern_Trade_in_Context

Dunn, Jimmy. "Ivory in Ancient Egypt." Tour Egypt. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/ivory.htm

New Tools:

• Africa has a rich diversity of agricultural tools made from stone, iron, and wood.
• People around Southern Africa established a very skillful technique (called as pressure-flaking) for shaping stones to incorporate sharpened edges to create useful everyday tools. These toolmakers would usually initial hit a stone with hammer-like tools to provide the tools primary shape, and then hone the blade's edges and tip (Examples: cutting tools, arrows, spear tips, and hand axes.
• The simplest tool still in use in agriculture is the digging stick. In its most rudimentary form, it is a stick with a pointed end, used for making holes in which seeds can be dropped.
• Numerous types of hoes (made from stone, wood, and iron) from across Africa were established. A wooden hoe will only function in solid that is relatively light and without too many stones or the blade would break extremely quickly. The bound hoes were constructed by simply attaching blade to the handle by a cord. This technique wasn’t very effective since the reped hoes use more iron than the other types but are probably more stable to use.
• In regions where bananas are a staple, a variant of the knife called a banana cutter was used to cut down bunches of bananas. This is a knife had a curved blade attached to a forked stick.
• Iron Axes transpire almost throughout Africa. They have various useful purposes and appeared in many societies for warfare and wood cutting.
• Two types of sickles for harvesting cereals come about transversely across Africa, the curved sickle (iron hooked blade in a cylindrical wooden handle) and a lateral sickle (iron blade with a leather or wooden holder, attached to the handle with the aid of a cord. It allows the harvester to cut off the head of grain with considerable precision).
• Across Africa long-handled spades were used to move earth (especially in flood-plains).
• The yam extractor was a tool used to dig down and pull out yam tubers (made from a stick that had its end split into five parts that were bent outwards to form cradle).
• A pitchfork (a naturally forked wooden stick) were also used as a way to lift straw.
• The plow started to replace digging sticks across the continent. A wooden stick with a handle on it crossways was pushed along the earth to make a groove so someone else could come along and drop seeds into the trenches it created. Afterwards, the seed dropper would take their foot to cover up the seeds again loosely. By attaching oxen to the plow, it was possible to till the land that was previously thought of as being too hard. The plows blade was usually made from one of the following: a hard, wooden stick that’s point was placed into fire, a stone, bronze, or iron point to the stick that would act as a wedge.

Blench, Roger, Chief Research Officer. "African Agricultural Tools: Implications of Synchronic Ethnography for Agrarian History." Academia.edu. Kay Williamson Educational Foundation, 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. https://www.academia.edu/2326505/African_agricultural_tools_implications_of_synchronic_ethnography_for_agrarian_history

Villa, Paola, Et Al. "Early Use of Pressure Flaking." Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 29 Oct. 2010. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. Vol. 330, Issue 6004, pp. 659-662 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6004/659

"What Does It Mean to Be Human: Tools & Food." The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. Ed. Rick Potts. Smithsonian Institution, 25 Mar. 2016. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. http://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics/tools-food