Deep African History Class 2 PDF

Class 2: Deep African history Prof. Dr. Gillian Mathys About time and temporalities When do we start to tell a story, and why does it matter? Temporalities are not ‘innocent’ (also think back to the “denial of coevalness” in Class 1 – see slides) Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “The idea of pre...

Class 2: Deep African history Prof. Dr. Gillian Mathys About time and temporalities When do we start to tell a story, and why does it matter? Temporalities are not ‘innocent’ (also think back to the “denial of coevalness” in Class 1 – see slides) Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “The idea of precolonial Africa is vacuous and wrong” Of course, the ‘pre’ in ‘precolonial’ supposedly designates ‘a time before’ colonialism appeared on the continent. But how do we deign to describe a period from the beginning of time to the moment when the European, modernity-inflected colonial phenomenon showed up? It accords more of a mythological than a historical status to the arrival of modern European colonialism in Africa and its long and deep history. The ‘precolonial’ designation, in practice, even excludes two earlier European- inspired colonialisms in Africa. After all, for those of us who know our history, Roman and Byzantine/Ottoman colonial presences on the African continent were not without legacies on the continent, too. Richard Reid on “presentism” The central argument of this article is that the relative demise of precolonial scholarship should be a matter of profound concern, for it has involved the detachment of Africa’s turbulent present–and its recent past – from deeper patterns of both change and continuity. In some of the scholarship discussed later, the notion of the longue durée – by which is meant that particular environmental, social, political, and economic processes, both shifting and constant, can only be fully understood over the long term within defined areas – has proven invaluable in linking the deep past with contemporary conditions. In other work, the link between past and present is less explicit, with the focus squarely on a more enclosed patch of precolonial time; but such scholarship, whether consciously or otherwise, still facilitates a sharper appreciation of more recent events. In both cases, the study of the precolonial is often deeply insightful, and the diminished significance attached to such research over the past thirty years – and the parallel rise of colonial studies – is a worrisome development. African history has been foreshortened to the point where ‘presentism’ – the compression of supposedly ‘relevant’ events and processes into a few decades since the beginning of the twentieth century–drives much scholarly output, whether consciously or otherwise. [Own emphasis] Reid, Richard. "Past and presentism: The ‘precolonial’and the foreshortening of African history." The Journal of African History 52, no. 2 (2011): 135-155. In this class: deep time approaches to African history 1. Out of Africa 2. Bantu expansion ***Very different timescales!!!***  Before Common Era (BCE) Very different sources than for later periods The closer to the present moment, the more diverse and the more abundant they become For earlier periods: Deduction on the basis of limited materials Lots of debates, insights and knowledge developing rapidly Most history is inherently ‘revisionist’, but for these earlier periods, knowledge can shift rapidly REVISIONIST CHARACTER OF HISTORY Insights develop over time and in dialogue with the work of other historians, as new sources and approaches are being adopted. However, these revisions are grounded in sound methodological approaches. *not to be confused with revisionist history such as holocaust denial* Section 1: Out of Africa II Africans have been and are the frontiersmen who have Out of Africa I: Hominin (not colonised an especially hostile region of the world on ‘humans’ migrated out of Africa behalf of the entire human race. That has been their chief contribution to history. It is why they deserve admiration, support, and careful study. The central  Timescale of millions of years ago – themes of African history are the peopling of the not covered in this course continent, the achievement of human coexistence with nature, the building up of enduring societies, and their defence against aggression from more favoured Out of Africa 2: Ancestors of modern regions. As a Malawian proverb says, ‘It is people who humans (homo sapiens) emerged in make the world; the bush has wounds and scars.’ At the heart of the African past, therefore, has been a unique Africa, and migrating from Africa, population history that links the earliest human beings to their living descendants in a single story. peopling the world  Timescale of hundreds of thousand Iliffe, John. Africans: The history of a continent. Vol. 137. Cambridge University Press, 2017. years ago Out of Africa 2? Homo sapiens originated in Africa, between 200 000 and 300 000 years ago, populating the world and replacing Neanderthals and Denisovans Multiple dispersal events: homo sapiens migrated out of Africa, in different waves, using different routes, and involving different groups Homo sapiens might have mixed with other groups (Neanderthals and Denisovans) in Eurasia Coastal as well as inland migration routes  For example: until recently ‘Out of Africa thesis’ posited there was only one dispersal event, 60 000 years ago Rapid advances in archeological and genetic data (but…) Importance of ecology and climate: climate Knowledge changes, changes in sea level and vegetation constantly might have influenced timing and routes of human dispersals evolving and Debate: rather than one group of ancestors: mosaics of several groups? updated Discussion about where exactly in Africa they departed from? Have we found Eve?  On categorization: Homini vs. homo sapiens Denisovans Fairly recent discovery (Siberia) DNA different from Homo s. and Neanderthal Spread in Asia Hominin Neanderthal 19th century discovery (Germany) Eurasia Disappear of the record around 40 000 BCE Jebel Irhoud, Morocco:oldest known Homo sapiens RECENT CORRECTIONS From suspected Neanderthal to Homo sapiens Geological age: from 40 000 years old to 300 000 years old Other sites with Homo sapiens in Africa Omo Kibish (Ethiopia) Florisbad (South Africa) Other sources Genetics More than 10 000 years ago, so no linguistic evidence, but… that seems to be changing  Readings on some recent research https://www.sciencealert.com/the-first-humans-out- of-africa-werent-quite-who-we-thought https://www.nature.com/scitable/content/out-of- africa-versus-the-multiregional-hypothesis-6391/ https://www.livescience.com/mitochondrial-eve-first- human-homeland.html https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment- 57586315 https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/human- evolution-east-africa/ Section 2: Bantu expansion WHAT IS IT? (in short) WHY SHOULD WE CARE? Initial spread of Bantu languages “one of the most dramatic AND the communities speaking it demographic events in human From current-day Cameroon to 23 history” contemporary countries Migration and identities Starting around 4000-5000 years Impact of ecological change on ago migration patterns Influence of climate change !!!There is no such thing as ‘Bantu’ as a people!!! 19th century myths In the nineteenth century, it was thought ‘Bantu expansion’ was rapid, and a brief conquest Not classic military conquest Conflict must have existed, but processes of absorption and subordination Not because of technologically ‘more advanced’  One in three Africans speaks at least one Bantu language Bantu-languages are Africa’s biggest language phylum (group of related languages bigger than a family) From local evolution to continental reach First phase: Split off from Niger-Congo language phylum in borderland of South- Eastern Nigeria and Western Cameroon (Grasslands) 4 000-5 000 years ago  Slow fragmentation and expansion, e.g. 1000 of years for 200 kms Second phase: rapid expansion from these areas to Congo Basin, West Central Africa and Great Lakes, around 2 500 years  Beginning of Common Era: already in South Africa !!! In less than two millennia 4 000 kms!!! The late split: Through the Equatorial Forest Western Bantu language group more diverse than eastern counterpart Around 2 500 Equatorial forest undergoes ecological changes (Congo Basin)  Split between western and eastern Bantu languages happens after this southward expansion through the rainforest Bantu expansion: Not just language spread Enormous capacity for adaptation to new ecologies and habitats, especially rainforest in Congo Basin (north-south, as well as east-west) Yet: ecological change around 4 000-2 500 years ago Iron metallurgy arriving in Central Africa coincides with rapid inland Bantu expansion around 2800 years ago Only little later: first archeological evidence for food production and domestication  From hunter-gatherers to agriculture? Complex process: slow evolution over time Domestication of food does not seem to have propelled start of expansion, but might have had an influence in later stages Interpreting Bantu expansion as farming dispersal does not correspond with available evidence! However, tools in stone and iron do suggest changes in subsistence strategies (maybe used for tending) WHO ARE HUNTER-GATHERERS? No domestication of food Hunting and gathering Probably more egalitarian societies (class as well as gender) Tending: manipulate the environment Violence? See Gilbert and Reynolds, 26-30  Linguistic data What kind of Archeological data evidence do Genetic data we have? Historical research  Rather constant habitation Archeology: Shum Different genetic make-up Laka Tools that suggest some form of ‘tending’ North-west Cameroon Archeology: Urewe (pottery) 5th BCE-4th ACE Lake Victoria-Lake Kivu Important metalworking activity Connected to eastern Bantu speakers Linguistic data It relies on the idea that closely related languages will share more words in common than more distantly related ones, assuming they descended from a common ancestor. When closely related languages have drastically different words for something, it suggests that the ancestral language lacked a term for that concept. But this oversimplification does not account for language borrowing and influences between languages, which can complicate matters. E.g. linguistic data suggesting early Eastern Bantu speakers adopted cereal agriculture through speakers of Nilo-Saharan language Difficulties with linguïstics The present-day geographic distribution of Bantu languages does not necessarily reflect the original migration of Bantu speech communities More recent developments Some Bantu-speaking communities might have taken languages from non-Bantu speaking people Language death Genetic data Is migration main dynamic of language spread? Genetic research suggests yes Not just through cultural contact: actually people settling elsewhere Women from local non-Bantu– speaking groups had more offspring with men from Bantu speech communities than the other way around Has changed understanding of this expansion drastically Genetic data Biological contact with indigenous groups in both Central and Southern Africa is easily detectable, since they are genetically very distinct from Bantu speakers who are West African in origin. Study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is “a very small [... ] circular molecule that is present in hundreds to thousands of copies inside each cell” that is only passed on from mothers to their offspring.  the prehistory of the maternal half of a population  Some https://www.sajr.co.za/living-with-the-lemba-raises-more- remarks questions-than-answers/ “But the premise is wrong. For example, why do we think that about past migrations only happened in one direction? Why do we assume that the usual state was to be settled in one place, rather than the complex migratory histories that archaeologists, bio- anthropologists, and historians routinely document? Why do we genetic think that where someone is really from tells us who they really are? These are some of the questions that are raised for me when thinking about DNA.” research https://www.theatlantic.com/scienc e/archive/2018/04/23andme- diversity-dna/558575/ Genetic research?  How many people are we talking about? Remaining WHY did they actually migrate across such large distances? questions? Most evidence can describe patterns, but not necessarily explain them Historians: “Words and Things” Combining linguïstic and archeological evidence to formulate hypotheses about social and political organisation of these early Bantu-speaking communities and on economic dynamics E.g. Roland Oliver, Jan Vansina, Christopher Ehret  Bantu South Africa ‘Hamitic hypothesis’ in expansion Great Lakes region Extreme-right replacement theories myths !!! Be very carefull to use the word Bantu, only in the right ideologies contexts!!!  South Africa was ‘empty’ when Boers and white settlers arrived, so they had as much right to these lands as other Africans such as Xhosa South Africa Conquest was justified Underlying Apartheid ‘Bantustans’ The ‘empty land myth’ in South Africa Africans were relatively recent arrivals in what is now South Africa. Some authors suggested that Africans crossed into South Africa from further north around the same time Europeans settled in the Cape during the seventeenth century The theory argued that whoever could forcefully take and maintain ownership of the land had equal rights to it. There was no notion of 'original' inhabitants with an 'original' right to the land; instead, it was seen as a contest between two migrating groups for territorial control (hence legitimizing claims of English and Boers) Social Darwinist thought contributed to stereotypes about the Xhosa people.  These stereotypes linked Xhosa "high fecundity" (sexualization) to a "conquering character," which was believed to lead to violence and anarchy. ”Homelands” (Bantustans) The Apartheid Government used the "empty land" myth as a justification for creating the homelands in South Africa.  housing 70% of the population, only 13% of the total land area. The government argued that the land in the hands of white settlers was historically considered "empty land" with no previous owners, making it ineligible for inclusion in the homelands.  According to them ,the homelands previously occupied by Bantu people, while the rest of the country had no indigenous inhabitants and thus rightfully belonged to white settlers. Fake news: The “empty land” narrative is a myth In the 1980s, revisionist and liberal historians and archaeologists challenged the "empty land" theory They used new archaeological evidence to demonstrate the presence of Bantu- like people in the eastern half of South Africa dating back to around 300 AD. Large Bantu migration occurred around the 12th century AD, not in the 17th century as previously believed. Historians examined how the myth of the vacant land had emerged and pointed out its connection to land conflicts between Bantu people and British and Afrikaner settlers Erasure of Kpoi-San Complete absence of recognition for the KhoiSan (KhoiKhoi and San/Bushman) populations in Southern Africa KhoiSan peoples had inhabited the region for millennia before the arrival of Dutch settlers. Racializing ‘Bantu’ in the Great Lakes: The Hamitic hypothesis ‘Bantus’: made into a ‘historical race’ in the 19th and early 20th century Contrasted with more ‘advanced’ races, such as ’Hamites’ linked to Ethiopia and or Egypt (in colonial minds) Former Belgian Central Africa In a 1925 guide for Territorial Administrators: “Ce qui caractérise d’une façon particulièrement marquée la race bantou et qui dérive de l’etat de somnolence dans lequel son intelligence est restée, c’est, à s’en rapporter aux auteurs les plus qualifiés, le mysticisme”. "What characterises the Bantu race in a particularly marked way, and which derives from the state of somnolence in which its intelligence has remained, is, according to the most qualified authors, mysticism". 'Hamitic hypothesis’: Past and recent consequences Impact on governance in Ruanda and Urundi (under Belgium 1916/24-1962) Belgians considered Hutu as ‘Bantu’ Tutsi as ‘Hamites’ and thus more ‘developed’ Tutsi became to be prioritized as rules Playing important role in genocide against Tutsi in 1994 in Rwanda Complex roles in current conflicts in eastern Congo as well !!! More on this in PART 3 of this course!!!  Dangerous myth ‘The mistake we made in 1959, even though I was a child then, was that we let you leave.’ I asked him if he hadn’t heard the story of the Falashas who returned to their home in Israel from Ethiopia? He said he did not know this story. I said to him: ‘Don’t you know how to listen or read? Let me tell you that your home is in Ethiopia, and that we will send you back along the Nyabarongo river so you get there quickly.’ (Leon Mugesera, 1992) Racist and right-wing replacement theories Questions?