Agriculture: Why wasn’t Africa first?

Africa is where the human species began. We evolved there over the course of 3.5 million years. We evolved there over the course of 3.5 million years. Homo erectus, Homo habilis, and Australopithecus are just three of our human ancestors. We are Homo sapiens, which means “wise man.” We arose about 250,000 to 300,000 years ago.

That the human journey began in Africa is clear. From there, we spread out around much of the world. It raises a question, though: Why did the first farming societies begin elsewhere? Our ancestors had roamed Africa for hundreds of thousands of years, after all.

The Fertile Crescent is in the Middle East. It includes part of Egypt. Agriculture began there about 11,000 years ago. China and New Guinea followed about 4,000 years later. For thousands of years, Egypt was the only part of Africa where people farmed. The Sahara, in northern Africa, is the largest desert in the world. All of Africa south of it is known as sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africans continued hunting and gathering until about 3000 BCE.

African “fine tuning”

Scientists have wondered why farming took so long to take root in Africa. They think one reason is that it was harder to domesticate animals. Turning wild animals into farm animals is how farming began. It is an important first step. In Africa, though, animals had adapted to humans. Animals there were harder for people to catch and tame. This helps explain why Africa still has large mammals. Places like Australia and the Americas are different. There, humans came later. Not all animals could adapt to the human threat. Many large species were wiped out.

Humans needed time to adapt to their environment, as well. In Africa, they evolved as foragers (hunters and gatherers). Across millions of years earlier human species became part of Africa’s ecosystem. They knew how to get the food they needed. They had no need to farm.

“Gardens of Eden” and the “trap of sedentism”

Life as an early farmer was hard. Humans only stopped foraging when they got stuck in one place. This process is sometimes called the “trap of sedentism.”

Farming required a lot of work. Research suggests a farmer needed to work 9.5 hours a day. A forager? Only 6 hours a day. Early farming led to more work and worse health. Farms also faced threats from weather and natural disasters. Nomadic foragers could simply move to a new place to find food. People did what gave them the best chance to survive. For instance, we know there were foraging communities in Southwest Africa. They knew about farming. However, they did not adopt it. Foraging must have been easier and healthier for them.

Africa also lacked “Gardens of Eden.” These are places with so many food resources that people do not have to move. Foragers would settle in “Gardens of Eden.” Populations there grew. Eventually, people would use up the area’s wild food supplies. They would then learn to farm so they did not have to move. In this way, “Gardens of Eden” forced foragers to farm. In Africa, there were few such places. So humans kept moving from place to place in search of food. The places they left then had a chance to regrow.

Africa is a beautiful continent. It has many different kinds of environments. At the same time, it is a challenging place. There are thick forests. Its deserts are huge. The Sahara Desert also cut off sub-Saharan Africa from networks of communication with other societies. For this reason, sub-Saharan Africans had to develop farming for themselves. Unlike other places, they did not learn it from another culture.

Farming there probably began in West Africa about 5,000 years ago. Is it possible there was a “Garden of Eden” there? A rich place that “trapped” people into farming? It’s not certain.

The independent origin of African agriculture

Farming spread across West Africa from 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE. People began by domesticating cattle. Eventually, West Africans began to settle and farm. These early farmers grew grains and food for livestock. Later, they planted a kind of rice that is native to Africa. They grew root vegetables and oil palms. They also tended fruits and melons. The crops they raised were native to Africa. They did not learn about them from somewhere else. In other words, West African farmers learned to farm on their own.

The Spread of Agriculture in Sub- Saharan Africa, 1000 BCE to 500 CE

The practice of farming did not spread quickly in sub- Saharan Africa. It wasn’t until 1000 BCE to 500 CE that it became common. Why? Maybe one reason is that communities didn’t need to farm. People could live well by foraging and moving from place to place.

Agriculture, though, is necessary for feeding and creating larger societies. Farming means not everyone needs to forage for food. Some people can spend time and energy on other work. They can invent new technologies. Many African societies later suffered when they met European and Islamic outsiders. Those people had built strong agricultural systems. They had deadlier weapons and trained soldiers. Communities in sub-Saharan Africa could rarely compete.