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THE ORIGIN OF
AGRICULTURE IN
AFRICA
First Farmers in the Cradle of Humanity

860L

BY DAVID BAKER, ADAPTED BY NEWSELA

Modern humans came from Africa. However, the

continent started farming much later than other
areas.
AGRICULTURE: WHY WASN’T AFRICA FIRST? the people there? Why didn’t the first farms, the first cities, and the first empires
emerge in sub-Saharan Africa: the land where our ancestors had roamed for hundreds
Before modern humans, our ancestors evolved in Africa for millions of years. Over the
of thousands of years?
past 3.5 million years, there were Homo erectus, Homo habilis, and Australopithecus. We
Homo sapiens have only existed for about 200,000 to 250,000 years. AFRICAN “FINE-TUNING”

Africa is the first home of our species. About 74,000 years ago, there was a huge ca- In fact, Africa developed agriculture a little later because it was the first home of our
tastrophe on Earth. Some scientists think it was the super-eruption of the Mount Toba species. As early humans evolved on the African continent, native animals evolved
volcano in Indonesia. Humans were almost wiped out. There were only a few thousand alongside them.
left. Ten thousand years later, there was a large human migration out of Africa.
Because they had time to adjust to humans, many of the large mammals — megafauna
As a result, humans are a closely related family. Groups of chimpanzees living a few — in Africa still exist today. Large mammals in other places such as Australia and the
hundred miles apart have more diverse genes than the entire human species spread Americas were wiped out when humans arrived. Still, the existence of such large
across the whole planet. Humans spent a long time in Africa. They migrated out of mammals made it difficult for humans in Africa to domesticate many animals because
Africa only “recently.” Why didn’t agriculture begin to evolve there first? they were so good at adjusting to humans. Domesticating, or taming, wild animals is a
key step in farming.
In about 9000 BCE, the Fertile Crescent was the first region in the world to develop
agriculture. On the other side of the world, China and New Guinea followed in 7000 It also works the opposite way. Humans evolved in Africa as foragers. In fact, earlier
BCE. For thousands of years, the only part of Africa to have agriculture was Egypt. It human species foraged for millions of years. For most of human history, foraging was
helped that Egypt interacted closely with Southwest Asia. the best way of life. Over many generations, humans adapted to their environment.
They formed a key part of the ecosystem.
All of Africa below the
Sahara continued hunt- We can say that humankind was born in Africa. In other regions of the world, humans
ing and gathering until suddenly turned up. These migrants faced new environmental challenges. Over long
approximately 3000 periods of evolutionary time, humans had learned to live with Africa and Africa had
BCE. Why did sub-Saha- learned to live with humans.
ran Africa lag behind the
“GARDENS OF EDEN” AND THE “TRAP OF SEDENTISM”
Fertile Crescent by
6,000 years? Humans Early farming was a difficult and inefficient life. It was one that humans tried to avoid
had been in Africa much if they could. It was usually only with a “trap of sedentism” that humans gave up forag-
longer: about 200,000 ing and started to farm. (Sedentism means settling down.)
years. Was there some
At first, farming was a much harder life than foraging. One estimate said it took 9.5
sort of disaster that
hours a day of farming versus 6 hours of foraging to survive. Early farming led to:
wiped out earlier at-
more disease, worse nutrition, worse health, and more vulnerability to climate and
tempts at farming with-
natural disasters.
out a trace? Was there
some sort of “failure” in We know that foraging societies in the Kalahari Desert in Southwest Africa knew
the collective learning of about farming for a long time, but didn’t adopt it. Why would anyone adopt farming? At
the time, it was less healthy and much harder than foraging.
Continent of Africa.

BIG HISTORY PROJECT THE ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA / 860L 2

Africa is a beautiful continent. Still, it contains many challenging environments. The they began growing a special strain
north has the harsh and deadly Sahara. It’s not likely to see farming there. The huge of rice native to Africa. They also
desert also cut off communication with earlier agricultural societies in Eurasia. In fact, grew tubers (root vegetables), yams,
sub-Saharan Africa had to come up with farming independently in West Africa. cowpeas, and oil palms. They also
began growing fruits and melons.
The continent is also home to many dense forests and jungles. These areas would be
very difficult for foragers to clear, settle, and farm. Finally, diseases also had evolved Early West African farming methods
alongside humans in Africa. There were many tropical diseases that made it a good are unique in many ways. They used
idea for humans to keep moving rather than settle down. crops only native to Africa. Scholars
think that farming in West Africa
On other continents, early humans found so-called “Gardens of Eden.” These were
was not copied from Egypt or the
areas so filled with useful plants that foragers would settle there for many years.
Fertile Crescent. It seems West Af-
Eventually, when all the plants had been used up, the foragers would begin growing
rica is another one of those regions
their own crops. This is the “trap of sedentism.” It may have happened with the Natufi-
that mysteriously started farming
ans in the Fertile Crescent.
independently. In fact, West Africa
In Africa, there weren’t many “Gardens of Eden.” Humans roamed from region to re- started farming around the same
gion as foragers for hundreds of thousands of years. They entered one area, feasted time that farming began in the
on the resources, then moved on to another region. Meanwhile the land naturally re- Americas. This was before it began
plenished itself over time. Sub-Saharan Africa simply did not have many of those in many other regions of the world.
tempting “traps” to force humans into early farming.
THE SPREAD OF AFRICAN AGRI-
THE INDEPENDENT ORIGIN OF AFRICAN AGRICULTURE CULTURE (1000 BCE-500 CE)
Bunches of sorghum (bottom) and pearl millet (top
right), annual grasses grown as grain in the Sahel
Farming did eventually emerge independently in West Africa at about 3000 BCE. It Sorghum and millet were the main
Desert, Mali, and West Africa.
first appeared in the fertile plains on the border between present-day Nigeria and crops of West Africans, who still
Cameroon. It is possible there finally was a “Garden of Eden” there to “trap” people herded cattle. This played a role in a great migration of farmers out of West Africa
into early farming. However, many scholars argue that even here, farming began as a starting at approximately 1000 BCE. These migrants were the Bantu people. They
way to feed cattle, not people. spread farming across the rest of the continent. Some of them traveled along the fer-
tile grasslands of the Sahel, a strip of land just below the Sahara. This was a path to
West Africans began to domesticate wild cattle several thousand years before they
East Africa. The Bantu arrived around 1000 BCE, bringing their farming methods with
started to farm. For a group on the move, the advantage of herding cattle is obvious.
them.
You can take your food source with you. If you can breed your food, you’ve got a re-
newable supply of meat. By growing a little food, you can feed your animals. Mean- The East Africans had already domesticated a few plants. One example is enset: a kind
while, you can still forage for better food sources. of banana. Around this time, Africans also began to use iron. They were making useful
weapons and farming tools. There were major iron production sites near Lake Chad,
The first efforts to domesticate plants in West Africa started slowly. Eventually, West
below the Sahara in present-day Chad, and Lake Victoria, in the lush regions of East
Africans began to settle and grow their food full-time. From 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE,
Africa.
the practice of farming spread across West Africa. These early farmers grew millet
and sorghum. These plants were used for grain, and as fodder for cattle to eat. Later, Meanwhile, other Bantu wandered out of West Africa and headed south. By 500 BCE,

BIG HISTORY PROJECT THE ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA / 860L 3

they had reached the Congo region in Central Africa. Finally, the Bantu in East Africa standard of living for many people got worse, it seems.
migrated south all the way to the tip of Africa. They arrived in Natal, the lands of the
The challenge for Africa today is to fully modernize. This challenge concerns the en-
Zulu, by 500 CE. By that time, farming had spread all over the continent. Most foraging
tire world. We are increasingly connected into a single global system.
communities were absorbed by these herding/farming peoples.

Remember the Efik origin story, which you read in Unit 1. It talks about people dis-
obeying the gods and beginning to farm. The story describes them farming in exactly
the region where farming did begin. Also, the Zulu origin story speaks of a long jour-
ney south from the “reed” lands to the north. People did indeed migrate down from
East Africa to the south.

The spread of agriculture across sub-Saharan Africa is reflected in the sudden jump
in population around this time. West Africa remained the most populous, thanks to its
early start. It remains so today. In 500 BCE, sub-Saharan Africa had an estimated
population of only 7 million. It was so low because the population was mostly foragers.
Foragers need a lot of land to support themselves because they stay on the move,
searching for food sources. By 500 CE — just 1,000 years later — the number of peo-
ple had nearly tripled to 20 million.

“LATE” AFRICAN REGIONS, C.1000 BCE-500CE

Sub-Saharan Africa enjoyed the advantages of foraging for a very long time. Even so,
West Africa was one of the first regions of the world to develop agriculture. Only the
Fertile Crescent and East Asia did so sooner.

It took about 2,000 years for farming to spread to the rest of Africa. Most of sub-Sa-
haran Africa didn’t begin farming until 1000 BCE to 500 CE. This is much later than
some of the other regions of the world.

It takes time after the start of agriculture in a region before agrarian civilizations can
rise. It takes time to build up a population and grow enough surplus food to feed cities.

Africa’s journey into the agrarian era is a mixture of pros and cons. On one hand,
some regions of Africa were at a disadvantage when they encountered European and
Islamic cultures in the Common Era. On the other hand, the late start of agriculture in
sub-Saharan Africa was a blessing for many people for thousands of years. They en-
joyed healthier lifestyles and a higher standard of living as foragers.

Agrarian civilizations had their faults: rigid hierarchies, strict leaders, and a wide gap
between rich and poor. By remaining in bands of foragers, large regions of Africa es-
caped these downsides for a long time. In between foraging and modern society, the

BIG HISTORY PROJECT THE ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA / 860L 4

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