INTERACTION AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA_TOPIC 1_HISTORY FORM 2
INTERACTION AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA
INTERACTION was the way in which people from a given community came into
contact with another community. or
INTERACTION was a state in which people from one
community got into contact with one another.
The contacts among African
people resulted from their various struggles to meet their daily requirements
and further social and economic development. Before colonialism, African
communities had social and economic interactions.
A) SOCIAL INTERACTION
Social
interaction took place through migration, religion, war, music, medicine and
marriage.
MIGRATION
East Africa belongs to four
main language groups namely the Khoisan, the Cushites, the Nilotes and the
Bantu. Historical evidences show that the earliest inhabitants of East Africa
were of Khoisan origin. Their speech is described as had “click” sound. It was
similar to the language of present day KhoiKhoi and San of South Africa. They
were nomadic hunters and gathers.
These early large groups interacted with the
larger Cushites, Bantu and the Nilotes communities that began settling in East
Africa from the first century A.D. The remnants of them include Sandawe and
Hadzabe of Tanzania and the Okiek (Dorobo) of Kenya. The origin home kind of
the Nilotes was in the Nile valley in Sudan. Some Bantu communities of East Africa
included Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Chagga and Pare of Tanzania, kikuyu, Kamba.
Luhya of
Kenya and Buganda, Basoga and Banyoro of Uganda. Through interaction of one
community practiced medicine interacted with another led to some changes such
as introduction of iron technology in East Africa.
RELIGION
Religion
played a crucial role in all African societies. Religious beliefs were taken
seriously and affected every phase of life. There was a variety of religious
activities in pre-colonial Africa. These included burial rites purifications,
rituals naming of ceremonies and prayers to bless soldiers before they went to
war.
Religious activities took place at different levels such as family level,
clan level and community level e.g. The Bushmen of Congo held prayers before
going to hunt, as they believed that God was the source of all food. Among the
Asante people of West Africa, the king of Asante (Asantehene) based his right
to office on the possession of the Royal or Golden stool, Asantehene was
regarded as the chief priest. Natural cults also existed in many parts of
Africa.
Their main aim was to please the spirits and legendary heroes e.g. the
juju practiced in Western Africa the Shona held a cult called Mwani. The king
of Shona (Mwanamtapa) was regarded as decline.
WARS
African communities engaged in war from time to time;
they fought with various reasons such as to increase the number of the herds of
livestock, to get fertile land for agriculture purposes and expansion of the
kingdom e.g. Buganda conquered Buddu, Karagwe and Busoga to expand their
kingdom by 1839.
Egyptian army had established their base at Gondokora the area
located around Southern Khartoum and by 1869, Egyptian had raided and destroyed
the Lango and Ancholi religion in the modern day Uganda.
MUSIC AND DANCES
African music and dances
brought people together; communities’ rites and ceremonies were accompanied by
songs and dances. Every African society developed songs for work, Laborers sang
while clearing fields, sowing and harvesting goods example of dances were
Mdundiko among the Zaramo and Sindimba of Makonde.
The Yomba of West Africa
performed Orik music where by other songs praised or condemned certain
characteristics including leadership and relation with neighbors. Dance were
also performed for different purposes; some dance were open to everyone while
others restricted to a certain secret society professional and artisans example
Chagga men and women performed a dance called Rring during wedding ceremonies
and Luguru led their dance called Gubi.
MEDICINE
Africans had medicine men and women who played
important role both spiritually and medically. Those who practice medicine
interacted with many members of the society as patient visited some of the
well-known medicine men and women.
Some medicine men and women were also
political advisors and leaders example KinjekitileNgwale of Southern Tanzania
most of the medicine were extracted from plant roots, barks and leaves e.g. The
(name tree) Mwarobaini is mostly used by various medicine in Matebele.
MARRIAGE
Marriage occupies a position
of great importance in African communities. Every member of the society jugs to
build their own family. In Buganda, the Kabaka married from different clans in
order to enhance political unity in the kingdom.
Therefore, social interactions
strengthened through marriage. At the same time, marriage led to emergence of
new culture examples Swahili culture as the result of mixture of Bantu and Arab
culture.
B) ECONOMIC
INTERACTION
Africa communities also
interacted due to economic factors such as crafts, trade, farming and
pastoralism.
METAL WORKING
African communities used
various kinds of metal to make tools, weapons, utensil and ornaments; some of
the widely used metals were iron, Bronze, Gold, Copper and tin. Archaeologists
have discovered the remains of early in working beneath important religious
shrine in the Great lakes religion dating back over 2,000 years ago.
Egyptians were the first people known
to have used copper; Benin the Bronze casters had guild called IgunEronwon
through making various metal tools people interacted due to the need of the
commodities through interactions.
AGRICULTURE
Many Africans communities
practiced agriculture and different types of interaction took place in the
process. Apart from few communities such as the pastoral Maasai who never
tilled land; other communities cultivated a variety of crops by using different
farming methods, tools and crops were passed from one community to another.
The
Kwari who were purely pastoral community eventually became cultivators as the
results they interacted with agricultural societies.
FISHING
Was an economic activity that was practiced by
communities that lived near water bodies such as lakes, rivers and the seas.
The Luo were and still are named fishermen in Pre-colonial East Africa the
Ndengereko's fished in the river Rufiji while the Zaramo and other coastal
people in the Indian Ocean, such fishing communities interacted with pastoral
and agriculturalist so as to acquire animal product and agricultural
commodities.
TRADE
Trade conducted in pre–colonial period was in barter
system, the trade
network was based on the need to access what a community did
not produce; Example pastoralists exchanged their animals’ products for
vegetable and grains.
The limbo clans among the Luo specialized in occupation
such as iron working and pottery. Between 8th– 16thC. AD
community from the Sudanic belt engaged in trade with the communities from
North Africa in the Trans – Sahara trade. Among the most important commodities
of exchange were iron, gold, slaves and salts.
THE NEED TO SEARCH NEW AREAS
Areas with fertile land and
reliable rainfall were very attractive to the people within the regions or
those coming from outside the regions. Agricultural societies kept on shifting
from the area with infertile soil to areas with fertile soil; examples in the
interlacustrine regions were densely populated compared to areas like Central
Tanzania and Northern part of Kenya where population was low.
IMPACTS /RESULTS
/EFFECTS/CONSEQUENCES/ OUTCOMES OF THE INTERACTIONS
A:
SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INTERACTIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA.
1.
Loss of originality:
in the process of migrations and trade interactions people moved from one place
of their origin to various destinations, through this interaction probably
there was interactions of new values, customs and beliefs.
2.
Emergence of new language.
As people of different languages like Bantu, Nilotes and Khoisan meet with
other groups; they developed new languages, which were based on those new
related groups of Swahili language developed in East Africa having most of the
Bantu vocabularies.
3.
Inter marriage.
When people moved from their original areas and established settlement in new
areas, they got married with the natures and established new social relations.
These involved social conflicts since people were united together.
4.
Population increased.
The places, which were attractive for people’s settlements, become highly
populated. Those regions immigration was common than emigration.
B:
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF INTERACTIONS
1.
Growth of towns and cities.
Trading activities stimulated the emergence of urban centers along the trade
natures and centers. Areas that produced trade commodities in West, North and
East Africa become remarkable urban center; example Taghaza, Timbuktu, Gao,
Kumbisaleh in West Africa, Alex and Rial in Tripoli and Cairo in north Africa,
Malindi, Mombasa. Bagamoyo, Zanzibar, Tabora and Ujiji in East Africa.
2.
Exposure of Africa to the external world. The African coast and interior areas were invalided
to the outside world. People were engaged in trading activities and slowly they
created trading contacts with the Europeans. African was producing goods that
were observed by the outside world.
3.
Intensification of agricultural production. Due to good manufacturing and use of better tools and
high demands of foodstuffs, cash crops and animals products became very
important among Africans.
4.
Development of technical skills and new areas. Trading activities stimulated
the emergency and growth of technical skills. Africans were able to process
gold, iron smelting and cloth making.
5.
Over exploitation of African resources. Trade items such as ivory, gold, copper and animals
skins, supplied within African and later to outside world. Later on those
resources were highly demanded by the outside world like Asia and Europe.
Therefore, traders take them to outside world of large quantities.
6.
The decrease of work force.
Many people in the Western Sudan and East Africa interior were captured as
slaves to meet the high demands of slaves by long distance and Trans-Saharan
trade.
7.
Emergence of classes:
The interactions of people on Africa resulted into classes of rich and poor;
those who engaged in trade and agricultural activities became economically
powerful than those who did not engage in these activities.
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