West Africa in the Ancient World

Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: Africa south of the Sahara from Senegal to Cameroon

West Africa in the Ancient World

The area of West Africa lies in the continental area west of longitude 20 degrees east between 5 and 20 degrees north latitude. About one-third of West Africa is part of a vast continental platform with an average elevation of about 1,300 feet (400 meters). The major rivers are the Niger, Senegal, Gambia, and Volta. The climate is tropical with a rainy and dry season. The shifting weather patterns have changed the ecology of West Africa, causing the Sahara to dry up and often reducing rainfall in the Sahel and savanna areas south of the Sahara.

West Africa contains deserts, savannas, and rain forests. During ancient times, the varied economies of the region were based on agriculture in the coastal and part of the savanna areas. Cattle herding was rare in the coastal areas because of the tsetse fly but was carried out in the savanna areas, where the tsetse fly was absent. The population was concentrated in villages, towns, and cities surrounded by farming areas. Political structures varied from powerful rulers or powerful secret societies to groups in which individuals play a greater part in decision making. Religion was concerned with the control of spiritual forces, and in most West African cultures, the ancestor was an important link with the spirit world. Masks and figures were used as a means to make contact with the spiritual forces. The use of masks can be traced back to about 6000 b.c.e., as shown on rock paintings. Masks were often controlled by secret societies and used to bring fertility, protection, and other benefits to the community. These secret societies often functioned as the social control element in cultures without powerful rulers. In these cases, masks and sometimes figures were used in police and judgment functions.

Early history

Archaeological excavations in Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal dated about 8000 b.c.e. yielded arrow points, barbs, and knives with blades slotted into shafts. These microliths aided in hunting efforts. During this period, the economy of West Africa was based on hunting and gathering.

Between 8000 and 3000 b.c.e., the Sahara was fertile and supported lush vegetation and animals. Around 8000 b.c.e., engravings of the hippopotamus, buffalo, giraffe, elephant, antelope, and other large animals indicate the people’s interest in hunting. By 6000 b.c.e., the ecology was changing, and cattle herding became the way of life. Along with paintings of their herds, the artists depicted ritual dances and the use of masks that are similar to those still used in the West African cultures south of the Sahara. By 2000 b.c.e., the Sahara could no longer support herds of animals, and the people began to move south into the area of West Africa. People in the savanna areas just south of the Sahara continued to be cattle herders.

Many West African peoples have traditions telling of their movement from the north, west, or east into the area they now occupy. The Dogon people in Mali say that there were little red men in the area from which they came. The study of various human remains from sub-Saharan West Africa gives evidence of this migration.

Stone axes are found throughout West Africa. Excavations in forested areas of southeast Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria indicate that ground and polished stone axes were being used at about 5000-4000 b.c.e. This indicates a use of these tools for cutting and clearing forested areas and the possible beginnings of agriculture. Pottery was also found in these excavations.

There is indication that the people living on the plains near the bend of the Niger River began to cultivate red-skin rice, millet, and sorghum from indigenous food plants by 4000 b.c.e. The use of stone axes shows that agriculture was being practiced just as early in the rain forest areas. Millet and sorghum do not grow well in rain forest areas, but the early domestication of a local wild species of yam and the use of oil-palm nuts provided the basic crops. Red-skin rice was brought down and cultivated in the southwest coast areas sometime after 3000 b.c.e.

Northeast of the bend of the Niger River in Mali’s Tilemsi Valley, excavations have revealed settlements dated between 2010 and 1670 b.c.e. that produced pottery decorated with roulette and dragged-comb designs. These sites also had anthropomorphic and zoomorphic terra-cotta (fired-clay) figures and clay cylinders.

Later settlements

In the late second millennium b.c.e., the Western Mande, living west of the Joliba River, were in contact with Mediterranean Bronze Age cultures. Around 1000 b.c.e., the Northwestern Mande acquired horses and began state building, which led to the conquest of lands and people. By 500 b.c.e., they had begun to work iron, and the people in the Guinea forest area fled from their southward movement. About 300 c.e., the Soninke established the empire of Ghana (Wagadu) and began to run into conflict with the Berbers in the north. By the third century b.c.e., there is archaeological evidence of the working of iron by the Nok culture in northern Nigeria.

The Nok culture created terra-cotta figures of people and animals in a highly developed technique of hollowed forms with holes for the escape of gases as the pieces were being heated. The creation of large-scale sculptural forms by the Nok culture indicates a highly developed social and religious structure in settled communities by 800 b.c.e. Nok figures have proportions of head to body of one to three and one to four. The enlarged head in relation to the size of the body can be seen in more recent figure sculpture from West Africa, indicating a continuation of stylized proportions over the centuries.

The Nok figures were probably placed in shrines that were destroyed in various floods over a period of time and washed down the river to the tin-mining site where they were discovered. This would account for the fact that many of the pieces are fragments, with the spherical or cylindrical heads being in the best condition after rolling in the river. The tradition of creating terra-cotta sculptures continued until about 875 c.e. Dates ranging from the sixth millenium b.c.e. from Nok sites indicate an early and continuous occupation going back far earlier in time.

A related group of terra-cotta sculptures was discovered at Sokoto, a site not far from Nok. They are primarily head forms with features similar to the Nok pieces and have been dated between 200 b.c.e. and 200 c.e. by thermoluminescence. A third group of pieces, from Katsina in northern Nigeria dating from the same period, depict figures emerging from the tops of globular vessels with bodies barely modeled and having small limbs.

Just south of Lake Chad and north of the area occupied by the Nok people, excavations have revealed the Sao culture, with pottery dating as early as 550 b.c.e. More highly decorated pottery was produced between 50 and 700 c.e., along with animal and stylized human forms. This indicates a settled community continuing over a long period of time.

Humans were also the subject of art in the southeastern area of Nigeria, where the Bakor clan of the Ejagham were carving stone monuments as symbolic portraits of important clan leaders and other important individuals in the culture.

The stimulus for a stronger political structure was often trade. With a strong leader, trade transactions could be better controlled. The area south of Lake Chad was on an important trade route from east to west south of the Sahara. A little farther to the south of Lake Chad and east of the Nok area is the site that served as the cradle of the Bantu languages between 3000 and 1000 b.c.e. The Bantu languages eventually spread throughout Central Africa.

Bibliography

Church, R. J. Harrison. West Africa: A Study of the Environment and of Man’s Use of It. New York: Longman, 1980.

Clark, Desmond J. The Prehistory of Africa. New York: Praeger, 1970.

Davidson, Basil. A History of West Africa to the Nineteenth Century. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966.

De Grunne, Bernard. The Birth of Art in Black Africa: Nok Statuary on Nigeria. Luxembourg: Banque Générale du Luxembourg, 1998.

Gillon, Werner. A Short History of African Art. New York: Facts On File, 1984.