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Health: The African
example (IX)
By 3500 bc the favorable wet phase was coming to an end and the Saharan
steppe again gave way to full desert. As the desert expanded, herders and
cultivators concentrated in areas of perennial water sources, notably the
Nile Valley. In what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt, the
north-flowing Nile forms a great S-shaped curve and passes through six
cataracts (rapids or waterfalls), which are numbered from north to south. In
this area, known as Nubia, the concentration of settlements between the
first and fourth cataracts prompted the clearing of riverside vegetation and
exposure of the fertile floodplain. Large-scale projects such as this
required communal labor and, consequently, the development of political and
religious authority capable of commanding large workforces. Clan chiefs
became kings, with each king acting as the guardian of his kingdom’s god.
Ancient Egypt
Nubian concepts of kingship and religion spread northward to the Nile Delta
region (known as Lower Egypt) as the desert encroached ever closer to the
river. The navigability of the river from the delta to the first cataract
allowed for easy communication and the expansion of political authority.
Kingdoms along the Egyptian Nile merged until there were only two: Upper
Egypt and Lower Egypt. In about 3100 bc the two kingdoms were united by
Narmer, king of Upper Egypt, who thus founded the earliest dynasty of
Ancient Egypt. The old Nubian gods of the individual kingdoms became
regional deities in a new polytheistic religion, and the creation of this
regionally diverse religion helped cement the unification.
Egyptian unity prevailed for about 900 years. The first centuries saw a
strengthening of central authority until, by the time of the Third Dynasty
(about 2649 to 2575 bc), the king himself was recognized as a god. Egypt
then entered the era referred to as the Old Kingdom (about 2575 to 2134 bc).
Around the dawn of the Old Kingdom, Egyptians began constructing great
burial pyramids for their kings. The Great Pyramid of Giza was built in
about 2500 bc as a tomb for Khufu, the second king of the Fourth Dynasty
(about 2575 to 2467 bc), and is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the
World that survives intact today. Its construction required the mobilization
of a huge, rotating labor force. The scope of manpower involved may have
been the reason why the pyramids of Khufu’s successors were never quite as
big. Grand pyramid building ceased by the end of the Sixth Dynasty (about
2323 to 2151 bc).
Farm labor by peasants, who made up the vast majority of the Egyptian
population, formed the economic basis of Ancient Egypt. The annual flooding
of the Nile renewed the soils of the valley with fertile silts carried down
from the far-off Ethiopian Highlands. As the annual flood receded, the
farmers moved back onto the floodplain, digging irrigation canals and
planting their crops in the rejuvenated soil. They grew wheat, barley, flax,
vegetables, and fruit. Peasants also herded cattle and goats, fished for
Nile perch, and hunted wild birds in the marshes.
Every aspect of the peasants’ labor was overseen by government scribes and
tax collectors, who developed hieroglyphs, possibly the earliest form of
writing in the world. All agricultural surplus went to the state to support
the king in luxury and to feed and clothe his huge army of government
servants, artists, artisans, builders of pyramids and temples, priests, and
guardians of religious shrines.
During most of the Old Kingdom, trade remained a monopoly of the state.
During the Sixth Dynasty, however, wealth became more widespread among
regional princes, merchants, and priests. Around 2200 bc northeast Africa
experienced several decades of cooler, drier climate. The Nile failed to
flood and Egypt suffered a devastating famine. Central authority collapsed
and regional princes asserted their independence.
In about 2040 bc the kings of Thebes in Upper Egypt reestablished Egyptian
unity and Egypt entered what is known as the Middle Kingdom (about 2040 to
1640 bc). In this period, Egyptian trade expanded down the Red Sea coast of
Africa. This time, however, the trade was run by professional merchants, and
the central government taxed the trade instead of running it as a royal
monopoly. Middle Kingdom kings revived pyramid building, though on a much
smaller scale.
In about 1640 bc Middle Kingdom unity was destroyed by an invasion of the
Nile Delta region by invaders from the Middle East known as Hyksos. These
foreigners, who introduced horses to Egypt, established a rival dynasty in
the delta. In about 1550 bc Ahmose I, king of Upper Egypt, defeated the
Hyksos and founded the 18th Dynasty (about 1550 to 1307 bc). In doing so, he
reestablished Egyptian unity and Egypt entered an era called the New Kingdom
(about 1550 to 1070 bc). For the first time, Egyptian kings maintained a
standing army, and military conquest was used to build an Egyptian empire
from Palestine and Syria in the north to the fourth cataract of the Nile,
the heart of Nubia, in the south. Pyramid building was not revived, but
massive statues and temples were built. Kings, now known as pharaohs, were
buried in elaborately decorated tombs cut into solid rock in the Valley of
the Kings across the river from the royal capital of Thebes.
Egypt’s power declined during the 20th Dynasty (about 1196 to 1070 bc). The
New Kingdom empire broke apart as Palestine and Nubia reclaimed their
independence. There followed a succession of foreign invasions and
rebellions by Libyan mercenaries. From this point on, native Egyptian
dynasties were interspersed by Nubian, Assyrian, and Persian ones, until the
last Egyptian dynasty fell to Greece in 332 bc.
Nubian Kingdoms
By the time of the unification of Egypt in 3100 bc, several Nubian kingdoms
had already been established along the middle Nile between the first and
fourth cataracts. After an Egyptian invasion of Nubia as far as the second
cataract in about 1900 bc, the Nubian kingdoms formed a loose unity,
centered on the city of Kerma, just south of the third cataract. Little is
known about this kingdom until it was brought within the Egyptian New
Kingdom empire about 1500 bc.
As Egyptian control weakened after 1100 bc, Nubia reasserted its
independence and became known as Kush. A new capital and religious center
was established at Napata, near the fourth cataract, and Kushite culture
flourished. Kush’s agricultural economy was based on cattle herding and
cultivation of sorghum and millet. Through payments from subject provinces
and trade in ivory, skins, and ebony from the south, the kings of Kush grew
wealthy and powerful. In about 770 bc they invaded Egypt and established
what is known as the 25th Dynasty (about 770 to 657 bc) at Thebes.
The Kushites were ousted from Egypt in the 7th century bc by an Assyrian
invasion from the Middle East. The Assyrians wielded weapons of iron, a
metal until that time unknown in North Africa. The Kushites withdrew to
Napata, and again farther south to Meroë, following an Egyptian invasion in
593 bc (although Napata would remain the Kushite capital until 300 bc). At
Meroë, between the fifth and sixth cataracts, the Nubians would found a new
kingdom based in large part upon the new technology of ironworking (see the
Meroë section of this article).
Dawn of the Iron Age
The first metal worked in Africa was copper, smelted and forged in Egypt
before its unification in 3100 bc. Copper and stone remained the main
tool-making materials in Egypt until the 17th century bc, when the Hyksos
invasion from the Middle East brought bronze, a harder alloy, to North
Africa. During Egypt’s New Kingdom, gold was forged into jewelry and
elaborate furniture to decorate the pharaohs’ palaces and tombs. Far to the
west of Egypt, in the Aïr Mountains of what is now Niger, copper working was
independently invented some time after 3000 bc. These early metalworkers
probably spoke a Nilo-Saharan language, perhaps ancestral to modern Songhai.
By 1500 bc their copper-working techniques and furnaces were well developed
and the technology had spread to other copper-bearing areas of the southern
Sahara.
Iron is a much harder metal to smelt than copper, requiring larger
quantities of charcoal and much higher temperatures. Its invention,
therefore, required considerable expertise in furnace building. While the
knowledge of ironworking was first brought to northeast Africa from the
Middle East after 670 bc, the techniques had been independently invented in
sub-Saharan Africa some 300 years earlier. Presumably building upon furnace
techniques developed for the smelting of copper, metalworkers were smelting
iron in Chad and the Great Lakes region (an area in East Africa between and
around Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika) by 1000 bc. From these centers of
development, ironworking spread among the agricultural peoples of West,
Central, and East Africa, reaching southern Africa in the early centuries
ad.
Development of Farming Communities in West Africa
The increasing use of iron tools and weapons helped West Africans clear
woodland for cultivation and improved hunting efficiency. This accelerated
the development and spread of farming communities. In the inland delta of
the Niger River—where the river divides and spreads into a complex pattern
of waterways—clusters of villages formed into larger settlements. Many of
these Mande-speaking villagers specialized in the production of dried fish,
rice, or cotton. Producing far more than they needed for themselves, they
traded their surplus with their neighbors at large central markets. By about
250 bc Djenné, in present-day southern Mali, was perhaps the largest of
these commercial centers.
Rice growing spread to the tidal estuaries of what is now Guinea, Sierra
Leone, and Liberia. In these areas local farmers developed special
water-control techniques that used tidal salt water to clear the land of
weeds and fresh water from rivers to irrigate the rice crop. Centuries
later, slaves taken from this region would introduce similar techniques to
the plantations of South Carolina in what is now the United States.
Throughout the Niger-Congo societies of West Africa, craftspeople
specialized in wood carving, producing dugout canoes and three-legged
stools, as well as masks for use in festivals and religions rituals. A
thriving, ironworking community, referred to as the Nok culture, established
itself on the Jos Plateau of central Nigeria by 500 bc. Nok craftsmen
combined carving and pottery-making skills in the production of finely
sculpted terracotta clay heads.
Bantu Migration
By 2000 bc Bantu-speaking farmers of the Niger-Congo culture had begun to
migrate from what is now Cameroon and eastern Nigeria into the forest
regions of the Congo River Basin. Traveling in dugout canoes along the
region’s numerous waterways, they established riverside settlements and
supplemented yam and oil palm farming with hunting and fishing. By 1000 bc
they had crossed the forests to reach the southern savanna lands of what is
now Angola and reached the Great Lakes region in the east. In the Great
Lakes region they adopted ironworking and learned techniques of cattle
keeping and grain cultivation from their Sudanic- and Cushitic-speaking
neighbors.
Bantu-speaking farmers thus developed a unique and wide-ranging combination
of technological skills: planting yams, sowing grain, herding livestock,
working iron, and making pottery. This adaptable set of skills enabled them
to spread, in a series of small movements, over most of East, Central, and
southern Africa between 300 bc and ad 300. In the process, they interacted
with and absorbed existing, mostly Khoisan, populations. The only region the
Bantu did not penetrate was the far southwestern corner of Africa, which was
too dry for their agricultural practices.
Meroë
By the 3rd century bc the middle Nile Valley had a long history of
agricultural settlement and political kingdoms. The kingdom of Kush formally
moved its capital southward from Napata to Meroë in about 300 bc. In this
island of savanna woodland between the ‘Atbarah and Nile rivers the ruling
elite built a powerful kingdom. The wetter climate of this region allowed
the cultivation of tropical cereals, sorghum, and millet. With plentiful
iron ore and wood for charcoal, the kingdom of Meroë became a major center
for the production of iron. Iron spears and arrows helped the kingdom defend
itself against any threat from Egypt and aided hunting as well. Meroë was
also in an advantageous position for trade. With access to the ivory, ebony,
and animal furs of the Upper Nile, Meroë’s traders were well positioned to
trade with Egypt to the north and with Red Sea ports to the east.
At first, the culture of Meroë was strongly influenced by that of Egypt, but
the kingdom soon evolved its own distinctive culture, language, and writing.
Although their religion retained many of the Egyptian gods, they developed
other gods with different characteristics, notably the lion god, Apedemek.
They also buried their kings in small pyramids, long after pyramid building
had ceased in Egypt.
By ad 300 Meroë was in decline. In feeding a dense population, intensive
farming had worn out the land, while the widespread felling of trees for
charcoal led to soil erosion. Furthermore, Meroë had lost its advantageous
trading position to the rising kingdom of Aksum in the southeast.
Aksum
The kingdom of Aksum arose on the Red Sea coast of what is now Eritrea. By
500 bc mixed coastal communities of local farmers and immigrant traders from
southeast Arabia had developed their own language and system of writing.
These ports grew in strength, competing with Meroë for control of Red Sea
trade. By the 1st century ad the ports had united and come under the control
of a kingdom with its capital at the inland city of Aksum. As Meroë
declined, Aksum became a prosperous city. It was noted for its monumental
stone architecture, especially its carved, multistoried, solid stone pillars
called stelae.
In the mid-4th century the Aksumite king Ezana converted to Christianity.
The Aksumite church was affiliated with the Egyptian Coptic Church, and was
also influenced by Syrian monasticism. With the spread of Islam in the 7th
century, the Red Sea increasingly came under the control of an expanding
Islamic state and Aksum lost much of its access to Indian Ocean trade. The
kingdom disintegrated in the 10th century, but its unique, monastic church
persisted as the state religion of the subsequent kingdom of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, a Christian kingdom that developed in the Ethiopian Highlands
after 800, was controlled by an aristocracy. The local Agaw peasantry owned
and worked the land in the fertile valleys, but paid a tax from their
produce to their governing aristocracy as well as to their local monastic
church. In about 1150 an Agaw dynasty, known as the Zagwe, took over the
kingship. The Ethiopian Christian Church flourished under Zagwe rule, as
recorded in both manuscripts and architecture. The combination of Agaw
belief in the sacred role of rock caves and the Aksumite tradition of grand
stonework led to the creation of a series of unique churches carved into
solid rock, many of which still survive today. The Solomonid dynasty
succeeded Zagwe in the 13th century and established a monarchy and a
political system that remained intact until the 20th century.
Early North Africa
The Greek conquest of Egypt in 332 bc tied Egypt more closely to the
fortunes of the Mediterranean world. The new ruling class adapted many
aspects of Egyptian culture, but Greek became the language of administration
and trade. A new capital city was built at Alexandria, which, within a few
centuries, became the greatest trading center of the ancient world. The
Greeks founded the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, which persisted
until the Roman Empire conquered Egypt in 31 bc.
Roman Africa
Under Roman rule Egypt became a province of the empire and a major center of
grain production for the citizens of Rome. The rest of Mediterranean North
Africa was incorporated into the Roman Empire between 150 bc and ad 200.
Carthage, on the northeast coast of what is now Tunisia, had been a
Phoenician trading colony since at least 800 bc. By the 5th century bc it
rivaled Rome for control of the western Mediterranean Sea. After the
century-long Punic Wars, Rome conquered Carthage in 146 bc. The Romans named
their new Tunisian province Africa. To the west lay independent Berber
kingdoms of mountain herders and settled coastal farmers. The Romans called
these lands Numidia (modern-day northern Algeria) and Mauretania (now
northern Morocco). Initially, these regions maintained their independence
and entered into trading alliances with the Romans, but by ad 200 they too
had been largely incorporated into the Roman Empire. Roman North Africa
provided the empire with wheat and olives, grown on coastal plantations
worked by Berber slaves.
The Roman Empire split in two in about 400 ad, and Rome declined in power.
Carthage fell to Germanic invaders, known as the Vandals, in 439. After a
period of Vandal rule, North Africa was recaptured by the Byzantine Empire
(the eastern half of the Roman Empire) in 533.
Spread of Christianity
By ad 100 Alexandria had become the most important intellectual center of
the early Christian Church. From Egypt, monastic Christianity spread south
to Nubia and Ethiopia, and west to Berber North Africa. In the latter
region, the Berbers adapted the new religion to fit in with indigenous
beliefs. Subjugated by the Roman Empire by 200, Berber Christians maintained
a strong tradition of religious independence from Rome, even after the
empire had adopted Christianity as the official Roman religion in the 320s.
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER
25 2006