Written History of Sub-Saharan Africa

Written languages developed in areas were large communities of people lived together for extended periods of time. On the Tigris and Euphrates river delta in old Persia we found the first signs of a human written language called cuneiform. This delta with its rich soils and regular rainfall supported the congregation of large communities that needed to register their agricultural production, taxes paid to the king and trade with neighboring groups. Similarly in the areas of the Romans and Greeks written language could flourish because the regular climate made it possible to produce food to support cities. In Europe the Christian Church and in the Middle East and North Africa, the Islamic religion introduced and developed the written language. A Chinese written language which looks completely different from the Persian and Middle Eastern languages developed also around 3000 BC in similar conditions of cities in areas supporting the communities with sufficient agricultural production.

It seems as if a written language did not develop in Sub-Saharan Africa because of the harsh climatic conditions making it difficult for supporting cities with sufficient food production over extended periods. Chibuene owes it existence to the fact that the bay of Vilankulo supported the town dwellers with large quantities of seafood and the lake of Nhaucati close buy never ran dry of potable fresh water. Similarly the state of Mapungubwe could develop in the banks of the Limpopo and the community of Great Zimbabwe could support themselves with cattle on the Zimbabwean plateau with excellent grazing and regular rainfall. Nevertheless, for some reason it was not sufficient for the development of a written language.

While African communities were on the rise in terms of organising themselves in states producing vast quantities of cattle and smaller quantities of grain, the sudden appearance of Europeans purchasing and conquering land, brought about an obstacle in the development of African written languages, social differentiation, organizing, technology  and productive skills. The pride of African food production laid for many centuries in their ability to herd cattle and take care of the environment. Diseases in animal husbandry did not appear with the Colonial invasion of Africa, it existed long before and was well manged by African herdsman. They developed the breeding skills and of rotating the grazing areas and staying away from conditions that favored diseases. Unfortunately these technological skills in cattle farming were not documented, but much archaeological evidence exist to show these developments. The colonization of Africa replaced a development of society and technology in African style with new societal organisation and new technology brought from Europe.

The well-known explorers such as Livingstone and Stanley did not discover the lakes, mountains, rivers and grasslands of Southern Africa, they just documented it on paper. For the first time the history of parts of the so called ‘Dark Continent’ was written down. Africa had a history of nations and states long before the Europeans arrived, it was just not written down.