Sub-Saharan Africa Research Paper

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Pages: 7

Africa. Over 50 countries yet oftentimes is misrepresented due to the lack of education on the subject or consuming the wrong assumptions. According to an Oxford historian, Hugh Trevor, he once argued that “there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is largely darkness.. and darkness is not a subject for history”. The problem with this statement however is that Africa is filled with history that is rich and unique that doesn’t always revolve around the slave trade or the “dark” period. More importantly, Sub-Saharan Africa has history that predates European exploration and conquest that can best be exemplified through the Aksum Kingdom, the inland Niger Delta and Ukara by using John Reader’s book “A biography of the continent …show more content…
To begin, the kingdom is located in East Africa, in now Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea. First, the Aksumites developed Africa’s only indigenous written script known as Ge’ez from which the written form of the languages spoken in modern Ethiopia has evolved which is still spoken today. All of their development for literature was developed from within and if they wanted any type of external influence for development it more of their choice instead of what is commonly heard which is conquest and colonization. Moreover, they were also the first to be able to finance their operations with gold, silver and copper coinage known in Sub-Saharan Africa until the tenth century (Reader 208). Already the Aksumite kingdom is unique because it was able to develop their own literacy along with utilizing coinage which also proves that there is history before any type of European contact. No other region of Africa fostered the development of an indigenous literate civilization that lasted for more than 2,000 years (Reader, 210). More importantly, another way that the Aksum Kingdom was able to cultivate their civilization through the eyes of an mechanic lens is ploughing. Ploughing was key factor when it came to the formation of there states and it helped extended the areas of cultivable land along with enabling agricultural communities to produce a surplus …show more content…
For instance, in Jenne-Jo which is a town on the island of the Niger delta there was many specialized crafts skills that revealed that it’s been there from the earliest time. Pottery from the lowest level was delicately patterned which would mean that highly skilled potters (Reader, 226). As time progresses so does the spelications in art specifically for crafts begin to expand. Aristans begin to join along with potters and smiths where many stone beads and hundreds of sandstone grinders of uniform size and shape were found which shows how the sophicastion that crafts would get. (Reader, 226). On the ecological side of the inland Niger Delta also proves how there was history before the contact of Europeans. This abdunacy of the delta gave the people the opportunity to the people to make several ways of living such as the domestication of West African rice which later on evidently made farming and pastoralism the predominant food production strategies (Reader 228). Therefore, showing that the people had several options to get food prior to receiving any eurocentric influence. Also, along with the ecological side West Africa has years of history with boats such as the dugout canoe