invented agriculture or learned of agriculture from foreign-
ers; archaeologists have not studied African history nearly to
the extent that they have in other parts of the world. Nev-
ertheless, it seems entirely possible that humans could have
independently domesticated crops in the Sahara and Sahel.
Between 5000 and 2000 b.c.e., the Sahara had greater
rainfall than it does now. Parts of it had so much rainfall that
the areas were among the most fertile environments in Af-
rica. Th e Sahel, the grassy area south of the Sahara, extended
farther north and covered the areas that are now the southern
and central parts of the Sahara desert. During the rainy sea-
son these grasslands became marshy in places, and seasonal
lakes appeared. Hunter-gatherers lived on the shores of these
lakes, gathering wild plants, fi shing, and hunting the animals
that came there to drink.
Africans domesticated cattle before they domesticated
plants. Starting around 3000 b.c.e., people in the southwest-
ern Sahara began to herd cattle. Most scholars believe that
these cattle had come from domesticated cattle in the Near
East that had traveled into Africa with herders in search of
pastures. Other historians think that Africans caught and do-
mesticated wild cattle living in the area. In any case, by 2000
b.c.e. numerous people in East Africa lived off their cattle
herds, consuming meat and milk. Th e climate in the Sahara
was starting to get drier around that time, and it was impos-
sible to cultivate grain. Cattle became central to the economy
there. People also herded goats, but cattle were much more
important to them. Th ey lived in villages with several houses
made of mud and sticks, and they made pottery and traded
with neighboring villages.
Around 2000 b.c.e. the Kintampo people of present-day
Ivory Coast and Ghana began herding and trading sheep and
goats in addition to cattle. Th ey started growing pearl mil-
let and extracting oil from oil palms around 1,500 b.c.e. At
about this time agriculture began spreading slowly through-
out central and southern Africa. People in the area had lived
as hunter-gatherers, but they gradually began settling down
and farming instead. Th ese people were of the group called
the Bantu. Bantu people started growing crops in the Lake
Victoria region between 500 and 250 b.c.e.
In the fi rst century of the Common Era people in mod-
ern-day Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique started
cultivating African crops, including pearl millet, fi nger mil-
let, and sorghum, and raising cattle, sheep, chickens, and
goats. During the fi rst fi ve centuries c.e. people living on the
Kenyan coast began trading with people sailing from India
and Southeast Asia. Th ey adopted Southeast Asian crops,
such as bananas, yams, and taro, which grew equally well in
the East African climate. During this period people living
in wet coastal areas began settling in villages, feeding them-
selves with their crops. People in the drier inland regions
continued to live as herders.
Agriculture and domestic animals did not reach the
northern parts of South Africa until the late fi ft h century c.e.
Farmers and herders could not settle farther south, across
South Africa’s Fish River, because their crops could not
grow in South Africa’s Mediterranean-like climate. Agricul-
ture did not reach South Africa until Europeans arrived in
ships in 1652, carrying with them European crops that could
thrive in the local climate. Agriculture’s progress southward
through the continent was quite slow, mainly because Africa
itself presented so many geographical diffi culties. In addi-
tion to the problems of terrain and adapting plants to new
climates, pests such as the tsetse fl y devastated populations
of cattle and herders. Herders stayed north of the Serengeti
Plain from 2000 b.c.e. until 1 c.e., by which time new breeds
of livestock had evolved that could cope with the southern
conditions. Humans had to adapt their trading economies as
well; because travel was so diffi cult, diff erent tribes rarely met
and had to learn how to communicate with one another.
Th e people who adopted agriculture began raising sev-
eral types of crops and animals at once. Th ey grew sorghum,
pearl millet, and fi nger millet, and they raised cattle, sheep,
goats, and chickens. Th ey began to work with iron as well, as
the technology spread through the continent. As agricultur-
ists took over the landscape, groups of hunter-gatherers were
pushed to the margins. Th e Khoisan Bushmen were forced
into the Kalahari Desert and South Africa, where they took
up sheep herding. Th e jungle peoples of the Congo region
continued to hunt and gather wild plants deep in the forests.
Th e Bantu people themselves never formed the large civiliza-
tions that appeared in other parts of the world. Th ey had vil-
lages and trading networks and cultural traditions, but they
did not build cities or develop advanced technologies.NORTH AFRICA
North Africa’s climate and geography are very diff erent from
those of sub-Saharan Africa. Although the desert begins
within a few miles of the sea, the area along the Mediter-
ranean coast is fertile and fl at. Phoenicians traveling from
Lebanon colonized North Africa from Libya to Morocco be-
tween 1000 and 600 b.c.e. People living in the area farmed
Near Eastern crops, such as wheat, for export to other areas.
Carthage became the center of the North African trading
empire in the fi ft h century b.c.e. Rome took over much of
Cathage’s territory aft er the Punic Wars, fought with Rome,
forming a new province in northern Tunisia in 146 b.c.e.
Th is province encompassed some 5,000 square miles of the
most fertile part of North Africa. Th e land there became Ro-
man public land, and the government leased it out to grain
farmers, who grew wheat for export to Rome. North African
estates were vast. Most of the land was in the hands of a few
absentee landowners, although there were also more modest
estates owned by locals. Scholars believe that about half a
million tons of wheat left Carthage annually. Carthage be-
came the second-largest city in the Mediterranean on the
basis of its agricultural exports. By the second century b.c.e.
North Africa was also exporting olive oil, fi gs, grapes, and
beans. North Africa continued to supply grain to Rome un-
til the end of the Roman Empire.18 agriculture: Africa