INTERACTIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA

Social and Economic Factors for Interactions

Interaction can be defined as the way in which people from a given community came into contact with another community. As humans cannot fully live alone due to the progressing day to day needs; interaction is inevitable among people because through interaction we was able to access different requirements. However, aspects of socio-economic development further strengthened the need for interaction.

The Social Factors which gave Rise to Interactions among the People of Africa

Explain the social factors which gave rise to interactions among the people of Africa

Political and social factors

·         War: Some interactions were brutal and hostile as some strong communities attacked the weaker ones in order to control them. Some societies succeeded in their struggle while others failed. For example, from 1820s Egypt was in constant attacks to control the North-east and East Africa.

·         Migration: As communities grew in number this lead to a scarcity of resources, which forced others to migrate in search of resources that were and meeting other people with whom they created new social relations for example the Bantu migration and the Ngoni migration.

·         Intermarriage: This occurs when two people of different groups married and can be seen in the broader context of mixing of different groups in marriage, cohabitation or sexual relations. Therefore, this made African people interact and begin new communities.

·         Religion:Africans had their traditional African religions which acted as a symbol of unity and togetherness. Their religions brought them together.

·         Music and games:African societies had a rich history of music and games, as people from different communities interacted on different occasions sharing their experiences; this was mainly for entertainment and recreational purposes. 

The Economic Factors that gave Rise to the Interactions among the People of Africa

Explain the economic factors that gave Rise to the interactions among the people of Africa

Economic factors

·         Trade: Different societies had to move in search of commodities which led to interaction. For example, people of Zambia, Mozambique and Rwanda had trade links with people of East Africa and in North Africa people interacted with West Africans through Trans-Saharan trade.

·         Search for new land: Areas that were not conducive for human settlement and production activities were left behind and those that with conducive conditions like fertile soil and good climate did attract many people. For example agricultural community did shift from areas that were infertile to those areas with reliable rainfall and fertile soil.

The Impact of the Economic Interactions

Explain the impact of the economic interactions

The economic impacts of the interaction can be grouped into two as positive and negative impacts as elaborated below:

Positive economic impacts

·         Development of technical skills and new ideas: Interaction led people of Africa from different communities to share their skills and ideas for economic growth.

·         Growth of new towns and cities:Interaction among African people led to the development of new towns as most of the populated areas grew economically due to the population increase and production activities such as trade and agricultural activities.

·         Foundation for future economic development:The foundation was made through improvement of infrastructures and social services which aimed to meet the socio-economic demands of the growing population.

·         Intensification of agricultural production to meet the demand on the market: Following the market demands for agricultural products as they were highly demanded then intensification of agricultural production was inevitable.

Negative economic impacts

·         Overexploitation of African resources: Interaction among African people resulted in overexploitation of African resources through trade which was unequal in nature.

·         Emergence of classes among the Africans: Classes emerged dividing poor Africans from rich Africans who accumulated wealth from different economic, social and political activities.

·         Exposure of Africa to the outside world:African country and its resources came to be exposed to the outside world due to interaction.Decrease of productive manpower due to slave trade; through interaction the outsiders started to take slaves from Africa to their mother countries as labor power.

Impacts of social interaction

·         Population increase: Areas that attracted large numbers of people became highly populated, especially productive areas. The increased population resulted into socio-economic development in the given areas which facilitated immigration.

Emergence of new languages: As different people interacted new languages emerged. For example, the Swahili language emerged due to interaction between Arabs, Africans and Europeans

Update:

INTERACTION AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA

Interaction was the way in which people from a given community came into contact with another community.   or interaction was a state in which people from one community got into contact with one another. The contacts among African people resulted from their various struggles to meet their daily requirements and further social and economic development. Before colonialism, African communities had social and economic interactions.

A) SOCIAL INTERACTION:

Social interaction took place through migration, religion, war, music, medicine and marriage.

1. MIGRATION

East Africa belongs to four main language groups namely the Khoisan, the Cushites, the Nilotes and the Bantu. Historical evidences show that the earliest inhabitants of East Africa were of Khoisan origin. Their speech is described as had “click” sound. It was similar to the language of present day KhoiKhoi and San of South Africa. They were nomadic hunters and gathers. These early large groups interacted with the larger Cushites, Bantu and the Nilotes communities that began settling in East Africa from the first century A.D. The remnants of them include Sandawe and Hadzabe of Tanzania and the Okiek (Dorobo) of Kenya. The origin home kind of the Nilotes was in the Nile valley in Sudan. Some Bantu communities of East Africa included Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Chagga and Pare of Tanzania, kikuyu, Kamba. Luhya of Kenya and Baganda, Basoga and Banyoro of Uganda. Through interaction of one community practiced medicine interacted with another led to some changes such as introduction of iron technology in East Africa.

2. RELIGION

Religion played a crucial role in all African societies. Religious beliefs were taken seriously and affected every phase of life. There was a variety of religious activities in pre-colonial Africa. These included burial rites purifications, rituals naming of ceremonies and prayers to bless soldiers before they went to war. Religious activities took place at different levels such as family level, clan level and community level e.g. The Bushmen of Congo held prayers before going to hunt as they believed that God was the source of all food. Among the Asante people of West Africa the king of Asante (Asantehene) based his right to office on the possession of the Royal or Golden stool, Asantehene was regarded as the chief priest. Natural cults also existed in many parts of Africa. Their main aim was to please the spirits and legendary heroes e.g. the juju practiced in Western Africa the Shona held a cult called Mwani. The king of Shona (Mwanamtapa) was regarded as decline.

3. WARS

African communities engaged in war from time to time; they fought with various reasons such as to increase the number of the herds of livestock, to get fertile land for agriculture purposes and expansion of the kingdom e.g. Buganda conquered Buddu, Karagwe and Busoga to expand their kingdom by 1839. Egyptian army had established their base at Gondokora the area located around Southern Khartoum and by 1869, Egyptian had raided and destroyed the Lango and Ancholi religion in the modern day Uganda.

4. MUSIC AND DANCES

African music and dances brought people together; communities’ rites and ceremonies were accompanied by songs and dances. Every African society developed songs for work, Labourers sang while clearing fields, sowing and harvesting goods example of dances were Mdundiko among the Zaramo and Sindimba of Makonde. The Yomba of West Africa performed Orik music where by other songs praised or condemned certain characteristics including leadership and relation with neighbours. Dance were also performed for different purposes; some dance were open to everyone while others restricted to a certain secret society professional and artisans example Chagga men and women performed a dance called Rring during wedding ceremonies and Luguru led their dance called Gubi.

5. MEDICINE

African’s had medicine men and women who played important role both spiritually and medically. Those who practice medicine interacted with many members of the society as patient visited some of the well known medicine men and women. Some medicine men and women were also political advisors and leaders example Kinjekitile Ngwale of Southern Tanzania most of the medicine were extracted from plant roots, barks and leaves e.g. The (neem tree) Mwarobaini is mostly used by various medicine in Matebele.

6. MARRIAGE

Marriage occupies a position of great importance in African communities. Every member of the society jugs to build their own family. In Buganda the Kabaka married from different clans in order to enhance political unity in the kingdom. Therefore social interactions strengthened through marriage. At the same time marriage led to emergence of new culture examples Swahili culture as the result of mixture of Bantu and Arab culture.

B) ECONOMIC INTERACTION

Africa communities also interacted due to economic factors such as crafts, trade, farming and pastoralism.

1) METAL WORKING

African communities used various kinds of metal to make tools, weapons, utensil and ornaments; some of the widely used metals were iron, Bronze, Gold, Copper and tin. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of early in working beneath important religious shrine in the Great lakes religion dating back over 2,000 years ago.

Egyptians were the first people known to have used copper; Benin the Bronze casters had guild called Igun Eronwon through making various metal tools people interacted due to the need of the commodities through interactions.

2) AGRICULTURE:

Many Africans communities practiced agriculture and different types of interaction took place in the process. Apart from few communities such as the pastoral Maasai who never tilled land; other communities cultivated a variety of crops by using different farming methods, tools and crops were passed from one community to another. The Kwari who were purely pastoral community eventually became cultivators as the results they interacted with agricultural societies.

3) FISHING

Was an economic activity that was practiced by communities that lived near water bodies such as lakes, rivers and the seas. The Luo were and still are named fishermen in Pre-colonial East Africa the Ndengereko's fished in the river Rufiji while the Zaramo and other coastal people in the Indian Ocean, such fishing communities interacted with pastoral and agriculturalist so as to acquire animal product and agricultural commodities.

4) TRADE

Trade conducted in pre–colonial period was in barter system, the trade network was based on the need to access what a community didn’t produce; Example pastoralists exchanged their animals’ products for vegetable and grains. The limbo clans among the Luo specialized in occupation such as iron working and pottery. Between 8 th – 16 th C. AD community from the Sudanic belt engaged in trade with the communities from north Africa in the Trans – Sahara trade. Among the most important commodities of exchange were iron, gold, slaves and salts.

5) THE NEED TO SEARCH NEW AREAS

Areas with fertile land and reliable rainfall were very attractive to the people within the regions or those coming from outside the regions. Agricultural societies kept on shifting from the area with infertile soil to areas with fertile soil; examples in the interlacustrine regions were densely populated compared to areas like Central Tanzania and Northern part of Kenya where population was low.

IMPACTS /RESULTS /EFFECTS/CONSEQUENCES/ OUTCOMES OF THE INTERACTIONS.

A: SOCIAL IMPACTS OF INTERACTIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA.

1. Loss of originality: in the process of migrations and trade interactions people moved from one place of their origin to various destinations, through this interactions probably there was interactions of new values, customs and beliefs.

2. Emergence of new language. As people of different languages like Bantu, Nilotes and Khoisan meet with other groups; they developed new languages which were based on those new related groups of Swahili language developed in East Africa having most of the Bantu vocabularies.

3. Inter marriage. When people moved from their original areas and established settlement in new areas they got married with the natures and established new social relations. These involved social conflicts since people were united together.

4. Population increased. The places which were attractive for people’s settlements become highly populated. Those regions immigration was common than emigration.

B): THE IMPACTS OF ECONOMIC INTERACTIONS.

1. Growth of towns and cities. Trading activities stimulated the emergence of urban centers along the trade natures and centers. Areas that produced trade commodities in West, North and East Africa become remarkable urban center; example Taghaza, Timbuktu, Gao, Kumbisaleh in West Africa, Alex and Rial in Tripoli and Cairo in north Africa, Malindi, Mombasa. Bagamoyo, Zanzibar, Tabora and Ujiji in East Africa.

2. Exposure of Africa to the external world. The African coast and interior areas were invalided to the outside world. People were engaged in trading activities and slowly they created trading contacts with the Europeans. African was producing goods that were observed by the outside world.

3. Intensification of agricultural production. Due to good manufacturing and use of better tools and high demands of food stuffs; cash crops and animals products became very important among Africans.

4. Development of technical skills and new areas. Trading activities stimulated the emergency and growth of technical skills. Africans were able to process gold, iron smelting and cloth making.

5. Over exploitation of African resources. Trade items such as ivory, gold, copper and animals skins, supplied within African and later to outside world. Later on those resources were highly demanded by the outside world like Asia and Europe. Therefore traders take them to outside world of large quantities.

6. The decrease of manpower. Many people in the Western Sudan and East Africa interior were captured as slaves to meet the high demands of slaves by long distance and Trans-Saharan trade.

7. Emergence of classes: The interactions of people on Africa resulted into classes of rich and poor; those who engaged in trade and agricultural activities became economically powerful than those who did not engage in these activities.