Pre-colonial Tropical Africa did not know writing. Therefore, of the two types of historical thinking - historical writing and historical speaking, the second was inherent in them. In a non-literate society, as D.P. Ursu notes, oral tradition was simultaneously a form of existence of historical knowledge, collective social memory and self-awareness of traditional society; a mechanism for transmitting, preserving and accumulating information, a means of ethno-social cohesion based on preserving historical memory in a similar way (historical tradition played an especially important role among peoples who had statehood - for them, the court epic served as a strengthening of the central government and socio-political structures).

So, the role of history in traditional African society was played by oral tradition - however, ignoring its role and contrasting two types of historical thinking led Europeans at one time to the erroneous conclusion about Africa as a “continent without history,” which begins there only with the beginning of European expansion. Historical speaking, professionally passed on from generation to generation, has a number of significant shortcomings as a source: - it combines both fact and its interpretation, truth and fiction. As a result, history is mythologized; - oral history is predominantly political and personalized (for example, it gives us the names of 74 rulers of Ghana before the 3rd century AD), but can give little insight into socio-economic processes; - it lacks a calendar and absolute chronology (oral tradition conveys the movement of time, but has a specific system of counting it according to natural-ecological cycles and eras of government). Therefore, the “search for time” is one of the main problems of pre-colonial African history.

The prerequisite for the formation of African historiography in Africa was initially the struggle to restore the dignity of the black man and the Negroid race of its individual representatives at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The first educated African Americans used historical reasoning, both reliable and unreliable, to achieve their goals. This is M. Garvey, the ideologist of the “back to Africa” movement (“black Zionism”); Sylvester Williams, lawyer from Trinidad; W. Dubois, author of the book “The Soul of a Black Man” and others. When encountering manifestations of white racism, they allowed exaggerations and overlaps in their argumentation in the spirit of “anti-racist racism.” Thus, W. Dubois even classified Aesop and Andromeda as black. In his interpretation of human history, “Africa observed the heavenly bodies, Asia observed the human soul, and Europe saw and sees only the human body, which it cares for and cherishes, and it has become fat, rude and cruel.”

The need to maintain social harmony after decolonization has led to the desire of African historians and politicians to use the historical past in the appropriate interpretation as a “main lever” (Ki Zerbo). In the spirit of this trend, S. A. Diop agreed to statements about the “civilizational-cultural priority” of Africa in literally all spheres (Egyptian civilization was created by Negroids; Negro-Egyptians civilized the whole world...) Up until the 70s, the approach of African historians to The continent's past was distinguished by its ideologization and politicization, exaggeration of the thesis about the "ancestral home of humanity", statements about the absence of class stratification and exploitation in pre-colonial African society. European researchers who sympathized with the struggle of its peoples for political and spiritual decolonization also showed an uncritical approach and a tendency to idealize the past of Tropical Africa. Thus, B. Davidson put forward the thesis about a certain “complete harmony” of African culture with social relations (it is not clear, however, what then gave rise to the slowness of development and all-round stagnation of traditional African society).

Europeans have always known little about Tropical Africa. After the Arab conquest of North Africa, European contacts with the regions south of the Sahara completely ceased, and minimal historical and geographical knowledge about them was lost (Europeans seriously believed, for example, that “the Nile flows directly from paradise”). There were no racist prejudices about the “inferiority” of the Negroid race in pre-colonial Europe: when the first “black lady with sensual lips” came to Scotland in 1460, a knightly tournament was organized “for the sparkle of the eyes and the caress of the lips of the treacherous.”

With the beginning of colonial conquests and the development of the slave trade, the attitude towards Africans became established as “savages whom history had passed over,” non-historical peoples at the level of wild animals. At the stage of the territorial division of the continent, the results of the works of travelers and missionaries, regardless of their subjective honesty, were interpreted by colonial circles in their own way. Hegel, based on the fact that Africans do not have a written history, characterized Africa as “a closed, childish country, which, being outside the day of independent history, is clothed in the black veil of night,” and came to the conclusion that “it is not a historical part of the world: there is no movement or development in it."

The colonial activities of European countries undoubtedly had a great influence on traditional African culture. Nevertheless, Africa also made a huge contribution to many European cultures.

For the vast African continent, it is quite natural that there is a large gap in the level of social progress of its various regions. The periphery of the continent had more opportunities and, earlier than other inland areas, followed the path of development and progress. For all the uniqueness of African cultures, many of their most important elements are borrowed from other and sometimes very remote non-African areas. The average level of socio-economic development of African societies decreased from North to South and partly from East to West (this is partly due to the landscape zonation of the continent). Proof of this thesis can be the specific division of labor between the above regions within the framework of the Trans-Saharan trade, which provided the south with finished goods.

African civilizations and cultures were less connected with each other than with the Islamic world as the main mediator in relations between them and between Africa and the rest of the world (later Europe would take on similar functions).

The use of the term "civilization" with different meanings attached to it requires clarification in the case of Tropical Africa. Until the advent of Europeans, there were no full-fledged civilizations in this region. There was a complex of primitive cultures and “focal civilizations” with an incomplete set of civilizational signs or weakly expressed signs of civilization. What they have in common with pre-civilizations is the lack of writing, cities, monumental construction, and developed religious systems; what they have in common with civilizations is the presence of an early class society and political structures - to call such societies civilizations would be redundant, to call them pre-civilizations is not enough. Therefore, the term “protocivilization” is most suitable here. The most famous among the proto-civilizations are Zimbabwe, Cuba, Congo, Ngola. If pre-civilizations are not very susceptible to external cultural influences (they can destroy them), then proto-civilizations even need such influence for their own strengthening and development.

In Tropical Africa during the era of the decomposition of the patriarchal system, slavery and other softer forms of dependence appeared simultaneously, and slavery was not dominant and decisive in a complex multi-structured society, either as a form of unfreedom or as a form of exploitation.

The defining feature of the development of the multi-structured society of Tropical Africa was the formation of feudal relations. The components of this process were: the formation of “bonds of dependence” of vassals and overlords within the feudal hierarchy; transfer of land to vassals “for use” for merits, especially military ones; the rise of the professional warrior class; dispersal of political power and the constant threat of political instability. It was an early feudal (and feudalized) society, burdened with many patriarchal components and remnants, and developing at an extremely slow pace - this is how the Europeans found it.

The life of African society in all its manifestations is permeated with religious ideas and religious rituals. This contributed to the development of the stability of African society into stagnation (religion lags behind the development of society and holds back progress in all spheres), the preservation of tribal relations and prejudices (for example, the cannibalistic custom of eating the most respected enemies, interpreted as eating the enemy’s strength).

European culture gradually spread into the wild areas of Africa, and the first empires arose along trade routes linking already fairly civilized neighboring areas.

After the end of the First World War, in which detachments of colonial troops of African origin took part, the habitually disdainful manner of Europeans began to change to an ever-growing curiosity and interest in so-called “primitive” cultures. Interest in African heritage developed with such speed that already between the two world wars, the first international exhibitions in New York, Antwerp and Paris drew attention to the artistic merits of these monuments. During this period, it became fashionable to collect objects of African art, and this allowed them to expand beyond the circle to which they were originally limited and gain greater fame among the cultural and social elite of the Western world. Until the 1980s It was quite rare to have exhibitions that concentrated on just one category of objects or around the artistic production of one tribe. Their purpose was encyclopedic, since they united monuments originating from very different areas. Only recently have private institutions, such as the Musee Dapper in Paris, begun to open exhibitions dedicated to a particular Fang or Dogon tribe, or to a specific topic, such as body ornaments.

Collectors in Western Europe and North America refer to the art of Africa in connection with artistic movements such as cubism and abstract art. Indeed, it allowed European and American artists to free themselves from stereotypes associated with the traditional view of the composition and color scheme of canvases. Before talking about African art, its specifics and main types, it is necessary to agree on the content of the very concept of “monument of African art.” Taken literally, this term would unite all objects created by African craftsmen. These statements prove not only the influence, but also the mutual influence of European and African cultures.

The extraordinary diversity of African languages ​​also speaks to the influence of European colonization. Portuguese, Spanish, English and French are the most popular languages, along with indigenous African languages.

The study of the historical past of these states and peoples was dictated not only by purely scientific interests, but also by the practical needs of cooperation with them, including to increase the effectiveness of the policy of neocolonialism.

This had a beneficial effect on the development of West African studies. Soviet researchers of ancient Africa also made a great contribution to the strengthening of this new historical discipline. Assessing the knowledge of the African Middle Ages as a whole, we can state the following: - the greatest knowledge of external, rather than internal aspects and patterns of African history; - primary knowledge of ethnographic and political aspects of life in African society; - lack of unity of opinions, major generalizing works and dominant concepts on the patterns and periodization of African history.

History of Africa since ancient times Büttner Tea

Chapter I IS AFRICA THE CRADLE OF HUMANITY? DEVELOPMENT TRENDS IN ANCIENT AND ANCIENT HISTORY

Chapter I

IS AFRICA THE CRADLE OF HUMANITY?

DEVELOPMENT TRENDS IN ANCIENT AND ANCIENT HISTORY

Apparently, the first people on earth appeared on the African continent, so it occupies a very special place in the study of the entire history of mankind, and the history of the most ancient and ancient periods of our civilization in particular. Discoveries of recent years in South and South-East Africa (Sterkfontein Taung, Broken Hill, Florisbad, Cape Flats, etc.), in the Sahara, especially in East Africa, have shown that the past of mankind is estimated at millions of years. In 1924, R. A. Dart found the remains of australopithecines (man-apes) in South Africa, whose age is approximately a million years old. But prof. L. Leakey, subsequently his son and wife after lengthy and difficult excavations in Kenya and Tanzania - in the Olduvai Gorge south of Lake Victoria, and in the Koobi Fora and Ileret areas (1968), as well as the burial of Laetvlil in the Serengeti (1976) - found bone remains, the age of which is estimated to be from 1.8 to 2.6 million, and in Laetvlila - even 3.7 million years.

It has been established that only on the African continent bone remains have been discovered, representing all stages of human development, which obviously confirms, on the basis of the latest anthropological and paleontological data, the evolutionary teaching of Darwin, who considered Africa the “ancestral home of mankind.” At Olduvai Gorge in East Africa we find remains of representatives of all stages of evolution that preceded the emergence of Homo sapiens. They evolved (partly in parallel and not always receiving further development) from Australopithecus to Homo habilis, and then to the last link in the evolutionary chain - Neoanthropus. The example of East Africa proves that the formation of Homo sapiens could have occurred in a variety of ways and that not all of them have been studied.

Climatic changes that occurred during the Quaternary period and lasted more than a million years, especially the three great pluvial (wet) periods, had a major impact on Africa and turned areas that are now deserts into savannas, where prehistoric people successfully hunted. Pluvial-related displacements and changes in water levels can be used, among other methods, to date primitive finds. Already among the archaeological materials dating back to the first pluvial periods, along with the bone remains of the primordial man, the first stone, or rather pebble, tools were found. In Europe, similar products appeared much later - only during interglacial periods.

Findings of the oldest pebble and stone tools of the Olduvai and Stellenbosch cultures, as well as numerous remains of thick and thin processed cores and axes with handles dating back to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic (about 50 thousand years ago), now discovered in many regions of the Maghreb (ater, capsian), The Sahara, South Africa (Faursmith), East Africa and the Congo Basin (Zaire), testify to the development and success of Early and Late Paleolithic people on African soil.

The huge number of improved stone tools and rock art dating back to the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) suggests significant population growth and a high level of prehistoric culture in certain areas of Africa from the 10th millennium BC. e. The Lupembe and Chitole cultures of the Congo Basin, as well as the Mesolithic centers in northeastern Angola, parts of Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the northern coast of the Gulf of Guinea, represent an important stage in the further progress of the culture. The people of the Lupemba culture were able to make chisels and hollow objects, broken-backed points and stone leaf-shaped points for spears and dagger-type tools that stand comparison with the best stone points found in Europe.

The Capsian culture on the territory of Kenya (approximately the 5th millennium BC) is characterized by high technology for processing incisors, the use of ceramics and elegant vessels made of well-processed stone. At the same time, isolated ceramic items appeared in certain areas of Zimbabwe, South-West Africa and the Cape Province (Wilton culture). The bearers of this civilization continued to engage in hunting and targeted gathering, but at the same time, for the first time in history, fishing became an important sector of the economy, which led to an increase in the settled population, especially in some coastal areas. Already during the Mesolithic period, rock art in the form of reliefs and paintings on hunting themes reached a high level of development. In many areas of Africa - in the Maghreb, the Sahara, the Nile Valley, Nubia, in Eastern Sudan, Ethiopia, East Africa, in the central Congo Basin (Zaire) and in South Africa - beautiful images have been preserved, which most often show wild animals of the steppes and savannas, as well as people hunting, dancing and performing religious ceremonies. With the onset of the Neolithic, rock art continued to develop, and some of its traditions survived into modern times.

Now historians and archaeologists already have a clearer idea of ​​the immediate prehistoric period of African history (Neolithic). During this time, new branches of the economy arose - agriculture and cattle breeding. Thanks to the use of more advanced techniques, such as grinding, Neolithic people could more skillfully shape stone into the desired shape. As a result, many stone products appeared that were previously unknown or known only in rudimentary form. The bow and arrows were improved, making hunting easier. The appearance of drilled and polished products, the invention and improvement of pottery, the wider distribution of ceramics - all these achievements sharply separate the Neolithic from previous periods, when man lived mainly by hunting. Now the basis of its existence is agriculture and cattle breeding. Naturally, from this period came the first signs that a sedentary lifestyle had become widespread. People were already building huts for themselves; several huts made up settlements.

The transition from hunting, gathering plants and occasional fishing as the only sources of food to farming and raising livestock was a major step forward. The general rise of productive forces during the Neolithic period was the basis for the development of new forms of social structure. The essence of the changes was that the structure of the clan community and the connections between individual groups of this type were strengthened. Tribes arose everywhere, representing the highest level of organization of clan society, which took shape in the depths of the Late Paleolithic on the basis of consanguineous ties. The production and appropriation of its products continued to be of a public nature, and public ownership of the most important means of production was preserved. Individual appropriation and personal ownership of tools had a very limited distribution.

In some areas of Africa, the use of millstones and ceramics, closely associated with the transition of former hunters to a sedentary lifestyle, began earlier than in Europe.

Of course, development was not a uniform process and gave rise to many transitional forms. Some tribes, even during the mature Neolithic period, continued to lead the life of hunters and fishermen. These tribes lived in more or less unfavorable conditions, which made it difficult to transition to new forms of economic activity. At the same time, particularly favorable conditions developed in the Nile Valley, in the Schott regions of North Africa, such as Tunisia and Algeria, as well as in the Sahara of that era. It is the difference in natural conditions that explains the huge chronological gap in the dating of the Neolithic.

As will be clear from the description of the most important finds, a pronounced Neolithic culture and agricultural settlements were inherent in Egypt already in the 5th millennium BC. e., North Africa - in the 4th century, and to the south of the Sahara, typical Neolithic finds date back to the 1st millennium BC. e., and by the 1st millennium AD. e. In this region, the development of various Neolithic farming and herding cultures continued over several millennia, and they partly absorbed and partly destroyed or displaced older hunter-gatherer cultures. In some areas south of the Sahara, stone processing techniques developed at the end of the Hamblian (XII-X millennium BC) were preserved, and the decisive step towards the Neolithic was never taken. For many areas of South Africa, the example of boskopoid Bushmen is typical. These are hunters and gatherers, descended in a direct line from primitive man and not beyond the Mesolithic stage. Their historical development has reached a dead end and partially stopped. The Bushmen became famous for the tens of thousands of rock carvings they owned, testifying to a highly developed hunting culture. On the contrary, in other areas of Africa, as a result of an exceptionally favorable combination of circumstances, including good natural conditions, accelerated development is observed.

The Neolithic cultures of Egypt have been especially thoroughly studied. Periodic floods and subsequent deposition of silt made the Nile Valley extremely fertile. During excavations in Central Egypt, in particular in Deir Tasa, along with bone remains, rich archaeological material was found, from which it can be concluded that the population of Egypt during the Neolithic period, in some places even from the 6th millennium BC. e., in addition to hunting and fishing, he was engaged in farming or, at least, collecting wild cereals. Polished axes, small bone harpoons, and many primitive pottery items were found. Using a fairly reliable radiocarbon method, it was possible to accurately date finds from the shores of Lake Fayum and a large depression in Northern Egypt (4500–4000 BC). The inhabitants of Fayum were engaged in hunting, fishing, farming and cattle breeding. They sowed einkorn wheat, barley and flax, and knew primitive irrigation. Wooden sickles with flint inserts were found here. When hunting and in war, residents used bows and arrows and battle maces. They knew pottery and weaving. They made clothes from fabrics and skins. Many other settlements of the Neolithic period have been discovered in Egypt (El-Omari, Amrat and Badari cultures).

The last Neolithic culture that preceded the historical era of Egypt was the Gerzean (Negada II, north of Thebes) with its characteristic more advanced forms of household utensils, tools, and ceramics. Here in Upper Egypt, the best examples are preserved in a huge necropolis containing more than 3 thousand burials. The stone tools still in use at that time - hoes, sickles, millstones - were distinguished by their high quality of processing and retained their former appearance in the historical period. Flint processing has reached true perfection. Along with flint axes, copper products appeared in Upper Egypt (though for the first time and most likely as a by-product), but stone tools still formed the basis of the equipment of Egyptian farmers. The entire material culture developed rapidly and achieved an exceptional wealth of forms. The exchange of labor products has intensified. This entailed differentiation of society, and between 3500 and 3000. BC e. Ancient Egyptian despotism arose, based on the first state formations. Image signs (hieroglyphs) appeared - the first form of writing.

The need and possibility of constructing irrigation structures in the Nile Valley and regulating their operation has accelerated; the process of uniting individual nomes (regions) of Egypt and the use of state means of coercion. True, we do not have direct data on the organization of irrigation work during this period of the emerging ancient Egyptian state, but there is no doubt that the highest leadership was concentrated in the hands of the head of state - the king, who was revered as a god.

It is not surprising that Egypt crossed the Neolithic threshold relatively quickly. The wider use of metals, the appropriation by the narrow elite of the clan aristocracy and priests led by the nomarch's family of an ever-increasing share of the surplus product, the emergence of relations of exploitation and dependence of one person on another - all this accelerated the economic and social differentiation and division of society into classes. Subsequently, in the eventful history of Egypt, an early class society, so typical of the ancient East, developed in a specific form.

Using the radiocarbon method, it was possible to date numerous Neolithic settlements to the 3rd–2nd millennium BC. e., discovered in the now inaccessible or completely uninhabited desert. The Berliet expedition, which worked from 1959 to 1961 east of Air in the Tenere region (Niger Republic), excavated settlements of people who lived on the shores of large lakes and, like the predynastic Egyptians, earned their living by hunting, fishing and partly by farming. One of the expedition members wrote: “In the depths of the erg (sandy desert), in Tenere, I discovered traces of ancient fishermen’s camps: large piles of fish bones (they occupied several two-wheeled carts), skeletons of hippopotamuses and elephants, stone tools. Five hundred kilometers to the south, on the border of the Sahara and Sudan, I found a good dozen more sites. There were heaps of fish bones, turtle shells, mollusk shells, bones of hippopotamuses, giraffes and antelopes, among which lay human skeletons.”

In recent years, very valuable archaeological materials have been discovered on the territory of the Republic of Sudan, where ancient Nubia was once located. The discovery of the earliest of them is associated with the name of E. J. Arkell. During excavations near Khartoum, he discovered traces of Neolithic settlements. Drilled flint axes reminiscent of finds from Tenere and Fayum, bone tools, and remains of wicker baskets with traces of cereals were found. When dating, these villages were attributed to the first half of the 4th millennium BC. e. In the same layers, parts of the bones and skulls of people of a clearly Negroid type were discovered - another proof that already in such a distant period the main anthropological types were formed on the soil of Africa. Further finds on the territory of Nubia were divided into cultures A, B, C and dated. During the C culture period (2400–1600 BC), the population of Nubia repelled the attacks of the Egyptians. Finds dating back to this time—stone weapons, rich pottery, copper and bronze jewelry, and valuable stone axes—show that the first metalworking centers arose in Nubia, as in Egypt.

The Neolithic is also widely represented throughout North Africa and the Sahara. The cultural layers uncovered here contained polished stone axes, maces, grain grinders and remains of clay vessels. Tools and entire settlements of the Neolithic period have been discovered in the Atlas zone, where people lived in caves. Interesting drawings remained on their walls, for example in the Oran region (Algeria). The tools recovered from the surface of the earth allow us to conclude that tribes of pastoralists and farmers settled in North Africa already in ancient times.

Between the 8th and 3rd millennia, the Sahara had an exceptionally good climate. Heavy rainfall created favorable conditions for cattle breeding, hunting and, to some extent, agriculture. The Saharan savannas and areas around lakes and rivers attracted numerous peoples who were at the Paleolithic or Mesolithic stage from the marshlands of Sudan, the Lake Chad region and the Maghreb mountains. Thus, in many parts of the Sahara, the Neolithic developed, the bearers of which were hunters, shepherds, fishermen and farmers. From them came the particularly beautiful rock paintings and frescoes, from which we draw important information about the way of life of the population of this area during the Mesolithic period.

The discoveries of the French researcher A. Lot in the Tassili (Ahaggar) mountains in Southern Algeria and the Italian F. Mori in Fezzan (Libya) became world famous. These and other scientists discovered tens of thousands of drawings on the now almost waterless hills of the Central Sahara and in the Atlas Mountains, which are not only important evidence of the past, but also amaze with their high artistic merits. Paintings, frescoes, and reliefs carved on rocks are creations of developed realistic art . The later ones are somewhat stylized. The oldest images of animals - elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, giraffes, lions and other predators - date back to approximately the 10th–8th millennia. Images of people, often with animal heads (later, numerous figures are barely outlined in thin lines or even strokes), combined with scenes of hunting or the performance of cult ceremonies, reflect the highly developed activity of Mesolithic hunters. This is to some extent influenced by the traditions of the North African Capsian culture.

Realistic painting, which at first was dominated by contour images, over time became increasingly stylized and abstract and acquired features characteristic of plastic art. The content of the paintings suggests that since the 4th millennium, in these mountainous regions, as well as in the vast expanses of the Sahara, the basis of the economy was the breeding of livestock with long and short horns. In beautiful colored frescoes we see bulls with curled horns. However, hunting for wild animals, which were found in abundance here, has not lost its importance. Rock art complements our understanding of the various periods and stages of Neolithic development in the densely populated Sahara, where fishermen and farmers living in the savannah, near numerous lakes and rivers, played no less a role than pastoralists who roamed with their herds in areas suitable for grazing. A. Lot counted about 80 prehistoric settlements in the south of Ahaggar, at the foot of the In-Gezzam plateau.

But first of all, the grandiose rock paintings convince us that at this time (IV–I millennium BC) the main anthropological types of the African population were basically formed, and it was on the soil of Africa itself. These researcher data decisively refute the legends, especially energetically spread by apologists of colonialism, that all the most important cultural achievements that determine social development were brought to Africa from the outside. Scientifically unfounded racist theories of the penetration of foreign cultures served as a breeding ground for the creation of entire systems dividing Africans into “superior” and “inferior” groups. Meanwhile, from the preserved human bone remains it can be established that already in the Mesolithic period there were serious differences in anthropological forms. Bone remains of the Neolithic period are easy to classify according to various anthropological characteristics. By this time, along with the formation of the main anthropological types, a pronounced racial differentiation had occurred. Most likely, many of the modern language families began to take shape from the Neolithic era. Rock painting, with all the power of realistic art, convinces us that during the humid period in the Sahara, all anthropological types of the population, which subsequently prevailed on the African continent, were more or less widely represented. Their distinctive features partly reflect differences in the way they obtain food.

Already in the early ancient Egyptian monuments of the 3rd millennium BC. e., as in the rock paintings discovered by Mori in Fezzan, tall, light-skinned people appear. These pastoralists, who roamed the Sahara and North Africa, became speakers of the Berber-Libyan dialects, which, along with Egyptian and Coptic, belong to the Semitic-Hamitic family of languages.

Both in their anthropological type and in their language, they were the ancestors of numerous Berber and Libyan tribes of the Mediterranean, the Tuaregs living in the central highlands of the Sahara (Tassili, Ahaggar, Adrar, Air) and the Fulani of Western Sudan. In the savannas and plateaus of Northeastern Africa, in the upper reaches of the Blue Nile up to the Neolithic zone with the Capsian tradition of Kenya, tribes and clans of hunters lived, partly sedentary, but mainly pastoral, which should be attributed to the Ethiopian-Caucasian anthropological type. They were spread over vast areas of East Africa and spoke Cushitic languages. Very closely related to them in terms of anthropological characteristics and partly in language were many tribes of pastoralists who later inhabited Somalia, Ethiopia and the East African coast.

However, at the same time - at the beginning of the Neolithic - both the Sahara and the territory of Sudan were inhabited by settled farmers of the Negroid type. A. Lot reports mask paintings in the Tassili Mountains that have an undeniable resemblance to the Senufo paintings of the Ivory Coast dating back to a later period. Of course, the formation of the main anthropological types and linguistic groups in the regions of the Sahara and Sudan, as well as in other Neolithic centers in Tropical Africa, provides exceptionally much material for important historical conclusions, if we ignore bourgeois apologetic theories about racial superiority.

The geological process of drying out the Sahara, which began in the 3rd–2nd millennia BC. e., put an end to the wet period of the Neolithic and, naturally, entailed a number of serious changes. True, numerous contacts continued to take place across the Sahara, and at the end of the 1st millennium AD. e. trade ties between North Africa and the states of Western and Central Sudan were even re-established. But the formation of a largely uninhabited desert belt, where nomadic pastoralists occasionally drove their herds only in the outlying areas, led to the fact that the economic, cultural and political development of the peoples of North Africa, on the one hand, and the population of Tropical Africa, on the other, henceforth took place in various directions. In the 2nd millennium BC. e. The Sahara was at least partially inhabited, but large population movements occurred in the 1st millennium. Light-skinned nomadic pastoralists advanced to the northern and eastern regions or found pastures for their herds in the savannahs in the south, and the agricultural, Negroid population retreated to the territory of Western Sudan. Only a small part of it still lived in the oases of the Sahara.

At this time, the migrations of the Bantu peoples began, which gave rise to many conflicting assumptions, which in one way or another penetrated science. It is now impossible to accurately establish the detailed routes of numerous tribes and the reasons that caused these migrations. Much still needs to be clarified. It is indisputable, however, that since the Neolithic period and the use of metals, the population of some centers increased sharply and gradually spread throughout the continent. Some researchers consider the reason for such movements to have occurred since the 1st millennium BC. e. until the late Middle Ages, usually in the direction from north to south, the relative overpopulation of certain areas, which invariably pushed the search for new areas for agriculture, cattle breeding, fishing and hunting. For tropical Africa, another circumstance is of great importance: there was an abundance of land suitable for cultivation, so there was often no incentive to introduce intensive farming methods and other methods of obtaining food, which in Egypt, the Middle East and India forced the population to crowd into the valleys rivers and irrigation systems.

Perhaps the migrations of the peoples of Tropical Africa were caused by a strong influx of Negroid inhabitants of the Sahara, who were at the Neolithic stage, into the zone of Western Sudan, where they mixed with local residents. Large human flows also moved from the centers of Neolithic culture that developed in Northern Nigeria, Cameroon, in the area of ​​Lake Chad, the present-day republics of Congo and Zaire, and eventually the entire continent began to move, which led to the spread of the most important food plants over large areas, such as millet and a variety of rice, to the introduction of new farming methods, increased mining of iron ore and increased use of metals.

When trying to explain these phenomena, one should decisively abandon the search for the ancestral home of the “proto-Bantu”, which is rooted in bourgeois literature, often used as a dues ex machina for the entire social development of the African continent south of the Sahara. These theories do not take into account that "Bantu" is a purely linguistic term for a relative community, suggesting close kinship among the approximately 350 Bantu languages ​​and dialects in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. Transferring this linguistic concept to anthropological and cultural characteristics is unacceptable and unscientific. The tribes and peoples of this language family have quite significant anthropological differences, are at different stages of social and cultural development and have characteristics that reflect the processes of fusion as a result of the migration of peoples.

After long, often intersecting movements in the 1st millennium AD. e. the regions of Cameroon, the Ubangi and Shari basins, Northern and Central Katanga, the territory of the future state of Congo and the East African coast to the Zambezi (Zambia, Mozambique) stood out as regional centers of the Bantu-speaking population.

This is evidenced by excavations of burials on the shores of Lake Kisale in Katanga, dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries. n. e. Arab travelers left reliable reports that Bantu-speaking tribes in the 7th and 8th centuries. n. e. reached the eastern shores of the great East African lakes and in subsequent centuries advanced into the territory of Southern Rhodesia. The tribes and peoples who inhabited vast territories here, under pressure from aliens, rolled back to Central and Southern Africa and displaced the inhabitants of these areas, mainly hunters and gatherers, who were still at the Late Paleolithic stage. The ancestors of modern pygmies lived in the virgin forests of Central Africa and on the banks of the Congo. Throughout South Africa lived hunters and gatherers of the “bushboskopoid” type, descendants of the Boskopian fossil man of antiquity. As recent studies show, it is possible that they even inhabited some areas of East Africa and here they came into contact with nomadic pastoralists of the Ethiopian-Caucasian type. True, many of these tribes, the ancestors of the Bushmen and Hottentots, who spoke Khoisan languages ​​at the time of their independence, were ultimately assimilated or displaced.

Another very ancient center of intensive settlement was the region of Nigeria. On the high plateau of Central Nigeria, near Jos, on the territory of the Bauchi plateau, to the southern border of the middle reaches of the Benue River, Paleolithic tools were found, made, according to B. Fagg, about 40 thousand years ago. Judging by some features, individual layers may indicate human presence in this area from the Paleolithic to the Middle and Late Neolithic. Near the village of Nok in the vicinity of Zaria, traces of a highly developed Neolithic were discovered. During the re-commissioning of the Jos tin mines, English mining engineers, and after them archaeologists, found the remains of a Neolithic settlement of sedentary farmers who knew pottery well. They left behind images of great artistic value. The finds were dominated by terracotta figurines depicting Negroid people, heads of elephants, and squatting monkeys. What attracted most attention were the uniquely stylized heads and life-size terracotta busts. The same English archaeologist B. Fagg excavated a large number of such figurines of the Nok culture in the adjacent area, where they were scattered over a radius of about 45 kilometers. They were probably originally distributed far beyond Central Nigeria.

Of greatest importance was the discovery that the partially stylized naturalistic terracotta figurines had much in common with the later art of Ife (14th-16th centuries) in Southern Nigeria and they were the forerunners not only of this movement, which experts consider “classical” in African art, but also of later African sculpture. B. Fagg notes that terracotta figurines from Ife are not much different from works of the Nok culture - only in the triangular shape of the eyes and “long-eared” heads. In other respects, both in techniques and in forms, there is a surprisingly large similarity. These findings helped to refute many apologetic theories that claimed that the Negroid population did not create their own traditional anthropomorphic sculpture. As well as the sensational discoveries of A. Lot in the Sahara, where the indigenous African population of the Ethpopian-Caucasian and Negroid types already in the 4th millennium BC. e. skillfully created beautiful realistic images of men and women, clay heads and figurines found in Central Nigeria from the 1st millennium BC. e. were of great importance for the criticism of non-scientific theories. They served as a springboard for the rediscovery of Africa's historical past, which is now being undertaken by the progressive historiography of young nation-states, despite the theories and opposition of colonialists and neo-colonialists. Using radiocarbon dating, it was established that the oldest layers of the Neolithic center, from which the Nok figurines came, date back to approximately 900 BC. e., and the upper limit is 200 AD. e.

It is also interesting that the figurines were found in tin mines. Along with figurines and terracotta vessels, iron picks, remains of smelting furnaces and bellows, and iron slag were found here. Thus, the mines, probably founded as early as the 1st millennium BC. e., they say that in the last centuries BC in Tropical Africa they knew how to mine and process iron. In Central Nigeria, the most common ore is laterite, which is easily mined and melts at an exceptionally low temperature. Although the inhabitants of these areas learned to process bronze quite early, they mined iron even earlier. Basil Davidson rightly points out in this regard that the Nok culture was transitional from the late Stone Age to the Metal Age and that its peak occurred in the last two or three centuries BC.

But for a long time, stone and metal tools were used in parallel, anticipating the centuries-long process of transition to the use of iron and other metals, and, consequently, the formation of states based on an early class society.

Centers of Neolithic civilization were discovered along with Central Nigeria primarily in the Congo basin, in Zambia and Zimbabwe, in various areas of West Africa, in southern Mauritania, in Guinea, in the Senegal basin, as well as on the shores of Lake Chad. The population of these areas switched to agriculture and used stone and iron tools, which since the 1st millennium AD. e. gradually led to the formation of prosperous states in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although in recent years the study of the ancient and ancient history of Africa has achieved undoubted success, the study of the interaction of Neolithic cultures in time and space is only taking its first steps, and so far we have a very incomplete, inaccurate picture of their distribution.

When trying to reconstruct the events of these periods, one can rely on the first mentions of Africa, appearing in written sources from the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. and especially valuable information is provided by Egyptian, and later Greek and Roman inscriptions.

The first data of this kind is contained in the victorious reports of the Egyptians. At the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Huge concentrations of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes approached the borders of Egypt. The expansion of the desert gradually deprived them of pastures and fields. Every now and then wars broke out; oases and other fertile irrigated lands were constantly attacked. Ramses II decorated the walls of the temple in Medinet Habu with reliefs and inscriptions of his victories over his enemies, among whom the peoples and tribes of Libya and Fezzan predominated. At this time (c. 1000 BC), when Nubia was still subject to the rule of the Egyptians, Egyptian sources often mention the “land of Punt” - a land of gold and incense. Where it was located has not yet been definitively established, only that it included areas southeast of Nubia, extending to the Red Sea, and paid tribute to Egypt in gold, ivory and myrrh. It is also known that Queen Hatshepsut (c. 1501–1480 BC) sent expeditions to Punt. From there, Egyptian ships reached the eastern coast of Africa.

From the accounts of the Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans about military, trading and exploratory expeditions one can glean much information about the geography of the African continent, but they tell little about the population even of the coastal strip, the most frequently visited, or in general about the interior regions. A map compiled by the great Greek geographer shows that, along with the Mediterranean coast and the Nile Valley, the eastern coast of Africa to Cape Delgado and the western coast to the Gulf of Guinea were more or less known. However, this knowledge was partly based on legends.

In the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. The western part of the coast of North Africa was dotted with settlements and trading posts of the Phoenicians, the center of which was Carthage. There were relatively many of them before Mogador (Morocco), but further on; in the south there were only periodically visited trading posts and small trading posts that conducted exchange transactions with the population of the coastal regions. Herodotus (484–425) and the Greek geographer Pseudo-Scylacus, who lived in the 4th century. BC e., they report the so-called silent, or quiet, trade with the inhabitants of the northern part of the West African coast. In exchange for gold, which figured very early in commercial transactions, the population of West Africa was offered luxury goods such as incense, precious stones from Egypt, pottery from Athens, and other goods.

Reliable sources, including Strabo (Geography, III, 326), report that in the 5th century. BC e. (c. 470) the Carthaginian Hanno passed through the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) and sailed along the northern part of West Africa. He was tasked with replenishing the staff of the Punic trading posts with new people and exploring the possibilities of trade with the southern region of this coast. His journey took him to the coast of Cameroon. The mentioned streams of fire and columns of fire erupting from an unknown volcano seem to indicate Mount Cameroon.

After the few references to Egyptian military campaigns dry up, the sources, especially after the Roman conquest of North Africa, devote considerable attention to the east coast of sub-Saharan Africa and the sources of the Nile. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. Greek sailors knew from experience that it was possible, leaving the Red Sea, to reach the northwestern coast of India. They also sailed along the East African coast and reached the borders of modern Mozambique.

From this time came an extremely interesting guide, a guide for Greek navigators, “Periplus of the Erythraean Sea” by an anonymous author. Most likely, it was compiled by a Greek from Alexandria, who apparently himself sailed off the southern coast of East Africa. He reports on trading stations stretching along the East African coast to the settlement of Rapta (between Dar es Salaam and Tanga). The compiler of the Periplus describes the busy port cities on the coast of “Azania” - now located in Kenya and Tanzania - and provides some information about their inhabitants.

Several centuries before the spread of Islam in Africa, very close economic and political ties existed between the population of its eastern regions and the southern Arabs, and some leaders of the coastal tribes were even directly subordinate to the Himyarite rulers of South Arabia. In the first centuries of our era, Africans sold to foreigners Iron tools and weapons produced in Muse, on the shores of the Red Sea (we will discuss the iron smelting centers in Tropical Africa separately). Ivory, palm oil, tortoiseshells, and slaves were exported from the ports of “Azania.”

To the “Father of History,” the Greek historian Herodotus, who committed in the 5th century. BC e. traveling through the countries of the East, we owe interesting and reliable information about the population of some areas of Western and Central Africa, located in the Sahara further to the south. Herodotus describes the famous Garamantes of Fezzan and their crossings across the Sahara, the “troglodyte Ethiopians” and the Nasamones of Eastern Libya. At that time, “Ethiopians” were people of the Negroid type with curly hair who lived not only in East, but also in West Africa. Starting from the 6th century. BC e. they were often depicted on Greek vases. According to Herodotus, the area stretching from the Egyptian city of Thebes to the Pillars of Hercules was already a waterless desert, where there was no vegetation or wild animals. By the time of Herodotus, the Sahara had largely assumed its current appearance.

Apparently, in the 7th century. BC e. (?) The Nasamon expedition of five people set off from the Aujila oasis to the south. On the way, they met a city and a country, “where all the people were... small, and... black. A large river flows past this city, and it flows from west to east, and crocodiles were visible in it: (II, 32). Most likely, the Nasamons walked through the Fezzan to the southwest to the bend of the Niger (the presence of such paths was suggested on the basis of rock carvings by A. Lot), and reached the regions of Gao and Timbuktu.

Of even greater interest is Herodotus’ description of the Garamantes’ march to the southwest, into the Niger Valley, from Fezzan itself. The Garamantes of Fezzan already knew highly developed agriculture and cattle breeding. In horse-drawn chariots, they crossed the Sahara and met “cave Ethiopians,” who spoke in a language that sounded like “the squeak of bats.” Although the researchers have not yet come to definitive conclusions and cannot say for sure which country they are talking about, they suggest that the language can be identified with the so-called Sudanese languages, in which pitch changes are known to play an important role. Therefore, it is possible that Herodotus’ story about the Garamantes refers to the inhabitants of the Niger basin or Lake Chad. Archaeological excavations and the remains of primitive man indicate that during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods these areas were early centers of settlement, where, after the accelerated drying of the Sahara and the subsequent movements of peoples, large masses of Africans of the Negroid type settled.

During Roman rule in North Africa, expeditions to the south were again undertaken. Pliny reports military campaigns in this direction. Roman proconsul Cornelius Balbus in 19 BC. e. reached Fezzan, the country of the Garamantes, and, according to A. Lot’s assumption, crossed the Sahara and reached Gao. Pliny also mentions the cave dwellers of the Niger Valley, “troglodytes,” already described by Herodotus. In 70 AD e. the path of the Garamantes was followed again, this time by Septimius Flaccus, who, according to some authors, reached Bilma. Ptolemy reports that in 86 AD. e. Julius Materi, by order of Emperor Domitian, crossed the desert with the Garamantes and reached Agisimba, the region “where rhinoceroses gather.” Agisimba was usually identified with the oasis of Air (Niger Republic). But such an identification is most likely erroneous: it is difficult to reach Air from Fezzan. Bovill believes that the Romans reached the Tibesti highlands, where an ancient route from Fezzan to Central Sudan, already at that time used for trade relations, ran nearby. Tibesti is supported by the report that there were rhinoceroses there. Over the next few centuries, these animals were still found in the area of ​​Lake Chad and surrounding reservoirs up to Tibesti.

In search of the sources of the Nile, and most importantly, in pursuit of gold, expeditions were sent to Eastern Sudan. By order of Emperor Nero in 70, two centuries went up the Nile, passed the state of Meroe (at the 5th cataract) and apparently reached the swampy area on the banks of the White Nile and at Bahr el-Ghazal with “a huge labyrinth of swamps, covered with a quagmire where a boat cannot pass” (Seneca, VI, 8). Thus the border of ancient and ancient Africa was reached. Sub-Saharan Africa was characterized by a transition to the use and processing of metals and the emergence of early class societies.

When at the end of the 15th century. The first Portuguese conquerors and travelers set foot on African soil; a significant part of its population had been able to smelt and use iron for many centuries. The only exceptions were some tribes who lived isolated in remote areas of the tropical virgin forest and South Africa.

Many primitive tribes, like the carriers of Neolithic cultures of the 1st millennium BC. e., in parallel with metal ones, they continued to use tools, weapons and other similar objects made of stone and bone. Such parallelism is observed in the Sao culture of the Lake Chad basin and in the Neolithic Bigo culture in Uganda from the 10th to the 14th centuries. n. e., as well as in the centers of the Nok culture before the beginning of our era.

Since when did the use of metal begin in Tropical Africa, which marks the end of the Stone Age, and therefore of primitive society? This question is of particular importance, because for any nation the emergence of economic and social differentiation and the formation of a class society are associated with its entry into the metal age.

With the exception of Egypt, where bronze working reached its greatest development during the New Kingdom (1262–1085 BC), and parts of North Africa and Mauritania, sub-Saharan Africa did not have a distinct Copper or Bronze Age, although copper and bronze in many places even in ancient times, and in some places for a number of centuries, occupied the main place in everyday life. In West Africa, poor in copper but rich in gold, in the course of trade exchanges across the Sahara, Libyan copper played an important role in ancient times, exchanged for West African gold. These operations began in the 1st millennium BC. e. Garamantes - chariot riders from Fezzan. French archaeologist R. Moni dates the use of copper in the form of axes and spearheads in Mauritania to 1200 BC. e.

Systematic copper mining began relatively late in the sub-Saharan region. Acquaintance with it remained purely regional and limited to a few deposits and junction points along the routes of trade caravans with copper in Western Central Africa and did not have a significant impact on the development of productive forces. On the contrary, copper mining and especially the spread of copper casting presupposed the presence of iron tools and other equipment. Only at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia AD. e. and it was thanks to the use of iron tools that the exploitation of copper deposits on the Zambezi and Katanga, red copper ore in Takedda (Mali) and tin on the Bauchi plateau in Nigeria was intensified. From the descriptions of al-Biruni it is known that in the 13th century. There were copper mines in Katanga. Ibn Battuta reports in the 14th century. about a deposit of red copper ore near Takedda in Mali.

The famous bronze and copper works of art of Ife and Benin date from no earlier than the beginning of the 12th century. Figurines made of copper and bronze, found by J.-P. Lebeuf in the places of settlement of the Sao people on the shores of Lake Chad, date back to the 10th–13th centuries. As archaeological data show, in Tropical Africa, copper and bronze were almost never used for the production of tools, utensils and weapons, but court artisans made works of art and valuable household items from them, as well as from gold, with great perfection. Unlike the countries of the Near East and the Mediterranean, sub-Saharan Africa first learned to smelt and process iron, and only then mastered the art of producing copper. In many areas of Africa, at the end of the Neolithic, iron began to be used immediately after stone. The Bronze Period in the proper sense of the word, characterized by the processing of copper, as well as the Eneolithic (the period of stone and bronze) did not exist here.

The more important was the ability to process iron. It ultimately entailed fundamental changes in the state of the productive forces, and consequently in the socio-economic field, in property relations.

It should be emphasized that Africans independently learned to mine iron and created their own methods of producing and processing it.