Types of Agriculture in Pre Colonial Africa
AGRICULTURE
Is the cultivation of crops and raring of livestock. It started about 6,000 years ago in the late stone age and expanded in the iron age.
Relationship between agriculture, environment and technology
Agriculture didn’t develop uniformly through the African continent, it began in few societies and later on expanded to other societies. Areas found in interlacustrine regions which had fertile soil and heavy rainfall are the ones that mostly practiced crop cultivation. Examples of such areas are: Ghana, Mali, Dahomey, Songhai, Ife, Benin and Oyo.
Areas which had arid climate normally lived by doing pastoralism. These areas receive little or no rainfall throughout the year. These areas are: Northern Tanganyika (Maasai), Southern Kenya, Western Africa (Fulani), Southern Africa (Khoikhoi), Northern Africa (Berbers – Maghrob Region).
Some of the earliest crops to be domesticated in East Africa were Sorghum and Millet. The first animal to be tamed by man was a dog.
Types of agricultural practices in Africa
Crop cultivation
Is the practice of growing crops on land. early crop production took one of the following forms:
1.Permanent crop cultivation
2. Mixed farming
3. Shifting cultivation
4. Irrigation farming
1. Permanent crop cultivation
It is also called settled farming. It involves growing crops in one area for a long period of time. This farming method was popular in interlacustrine region. The famous societies which practiced this agricultural system were: Haya, Karagwe, Ha in north western Tanzania, Chagga and Meru in north Eastern Tanzania. Egypt in North Eastern Africa.
In Uganda it was practiced in Buganda, Nyoro, Toro, Kikuyu in central province of Kenya and Luzi in Zambia.
Crops grown in this area were banana, maize, yams, beans, potatoes. Other regions which had fertile soil and good climate for permanent were Sudanic zones and Congo basin in central Africa.
2. Shifting cultivation
Is a form of agriculture in which an area of ground is cleared and cultivated for a few years and then abandoned for a new area until its fertility has been naturally restored. Crops that were planted in such areas were millet, sorghum, cassava and maize, animals kept included cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys. Some examples of the shifting farmers in East Africa include the Gogo, Iramba, Rangi, Nyamwezi and the Sukuma of Shinyanga.
3. Mixed farming
Is an agricultural system which involves both growing or crops and rearing of animals. It involved area which supported both pastoralism and crop cultivation. It was practiced in those areas which experienced less and unreliable rainfall. Savannah woodland and wooded steppe regions such as central part of Tanzania practice this system of agriculture.
By 1700 AD it was practiced in grasslands with the seasonal rainfall, woodland savanna and wooded steppe. It was practiced by the Hutu, Buganda, Ankole, and Kimbu. They grew cereal and kept livestock. The long horned Ankole type of cattle were kept in interlacustrine area.
4. Pastoralism
Pastoralism is the practice of keeping domestic animals for use as a source of milk, security or provision of labour. It developed in semi – arid areas that received only little rainfall that was not sufficient to support crop cultivation.
Examples of pastoral societies in east Africa included: the Maasai of Kenya and northern Tanzania, Barbaig of Kondoa and Nyaturu of Singida Tanzania. Others were the Pokot of western Kenya and Karamojong and Teso of northern Uganda. In West Africa the Fulani (Fulbe), Berbers, Hausa and the wolof were the pastoral societies.
Pastoral societies were featured much by Age Set System, as a form of social and political organization.
