class laid claim to the production of others. No market econ-
omy drove the demand for and supply of food. Th e demand
was persistent but the supply sometimes less so.
THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM
As populations spread throughout Africa and agriculture
emerged as a primary way of life, the economic system had to
change. Nomadic hunter-gatherers lived in a world in which
no one possessed property rights to land or territory, though
it is likely that groups defended territory against outsiders.
Th e land existed as a resource for all to exploit. Systems of
agriculture, in contrast, require the allocation of land. Which
land is used, who uses it and for what, and when the land is
used became primary considerations.
Making these considerations more important was that
the amount of arable land was limited. Much of sub-Saha-
ran Africa was covered by either dense forests or deserts, and
while the Sahara was largely grassland until about 3000 b.c.e.,
climatic changes caused expansion of the desert, reducing the
amount of land suitable for agriculture. Th us, agricultural
communities, including both farmers and herders, had to set-
tle on land that provided good soil, moderate temperatures,
pasturage for livestock, and, in particular, an abundance of
water. Complicating the situation was that water was in many
cases available only seasonally. Th at is, fl oodplains became
inundated with water during portions of the year and then
dried out. All of these considerations made questions of land
use and allocation important ones.
Good examples are provided by the fl oodplains of the Ni-
ger and Senegal River valleys, though other river valleys would
have dealt with similar conditions. Along any river there
were probably three areas whose use had to be allocated. One
was the uplands, the areas farthest away from the river and
its fl ooding. Here is where herds were usually pastured and
people lived in permanent dwellings. Around these dwellings
were gardens where women tended patches of vegetables. Th e
primary source of water was not the river but rainfall. At lower
elevations and closer to the river were fl oodplains, which were
covered with water during annual fl ooding and then used for
crops aft er the waters receded, in a type of agriculture referred
to as recession agriculture; that is, crops were planted aft er the
recession, or receding, of the fl oodwaters. Finally, the lowest
elevations, closest to the rivers, were the fl ood basins. Th ese
areas tended to remain wet and boggy during longer portions
of the year, in eff ect storing water. Th is was also the area ex-
ploited by fi shermen and others who gathered foodstuff s such
as crabs, snails, and shellfi sh in river shallows and lagoons.
Th e end result was that land was allocated for use in parallel
strips that followed the course of the river.
Decisions had to be made about how these units of land
were used and when. Th us, for example, certain crops such
as rice were suited to the fl ood basins, sometimes putting
rice growers in confl ict with fi shermen. Others, including
staple crops such as grains, were more suited to the fl ood-
plains, and still others were suited to the uplands. Further,
as herds of livestock ate grasses on the uplands, they had to
be moved to lower elevations for pasturage, but this had to
occur at times when they would not trample growing crops.
Th us, for example, a crop of sorghum might have been grown
in the fl oodplain, but aft er the sorghum was harvested, live-
stock were herded in to graze aft er they had eaten down the
upland grasses. Th is movement of the herd had two primary
benefi ts. First, the livestock ate away the stubble left behind
aft er the harvesting of the crop, at the same time churning up
the ground with their hooves, making the next planting eas-
ier; second, the livestock fertilized the soil with their manure.
Modern farmers use manure and fertilizer spreaders; the ear-
liest manure spreaders were also the manure producers.
An additional consideration was that crops were planted
in rotation, depending on rainfall and temperature condi-
tions. All of these activities had to be scheduled. Complicating
matters was that one of several clan lineages engaged primar-
ily in one of these various activities. Th us, one lineage herded
livestock, another fi shed, still another grew certain crops,
and so forth, though fi shermen tended to farm as well. Th e
foundation of the system was the consultation of headmen of
the various lineages, who made decisions based largely on the
most effi cient and productive use of the land; each headman
would probably have defended the interests and privileges of
his clan. One way that confl icts were avoided was through clan
intermarriages; the headman of, say, a herding clan would, in
general, be reluctant to encroach on the land-use rights of a
farmer if that farmer was his son-in-law or brother-in-law.
In contrast to modern life, where social and economic
relationships tend to be separated, these relationships in an-
cient Africa were oft en one and the same. Th us, property and
goods exchanged hands through such institutions as inheri-
tance, bride-prices, and dowries. In the absence of currencies,
a bride-price paid by a groom’s family to the bride’s family to
compensate them for the loss of her services or a dowry paid
by the bride’s family to the groom took tangible forms, such as
cattle. Among Stone Age peoples, value existed in the things
that provided a livelihood, so these things became the medium
of exchange. Acquiring a small herd of livestock by marrying
a woman whose father had surplus livestock enabled a young
man to gain a toehold in the area’s economic system.
Complementing this method of property exchange was
a system of barter. Barter as a form of economic exchange is
diffi cult in modern life except in isolated circumstances; a ru-
ral landowner might trade a load of fi rewood to a local farmer
in exchange for a load of hay. But this type of exchange as-
sumes that a person who has fi rewood and wants hay can fi nd
another person who has hay and wants fi rewood; diffi culties
increase if one or both of the goods is perishable or the parties
live at a distance from one another. But economic needs dur-
ing the late Stone Age were simpler, consisting of food, live-
stock, tools, textiles, pottery, and a limited number of other
goods necessary to survival. Since most of these goods were
available in the local economy, it was not hard for people to
barter them in informal, day-to-day exchanges.economy: Africa 343