UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

West Africa before the seventh century
Palaeontological, botanical, ecological, ethnographic and archaeological
data, all combined, suggest that at the general level the food-producing
complexes first adopted were farming (crop cultivation), pastoralism and
mixed farming (i.e. a combination of animal rearing and plant cultivation).
At the specific level, these food-producing complexes varied according to
the kinds of crops cultivated, the animals kept and the ways in which these
were cropped or reared and the settlement and social systems adopted.
Indeed, archaeological and ethnographic data suggest the existence in
West Africa of (i) early cattle herding in the northern and eastern Sahara;
(ii) early seed-crop complexes, possibly practising permanent field systems,
on the slopes and scarps of the central Saharan highlands; (iii) seedcropping
complexes in parts of the Sahel and northern savannah regions,
with influences impinging on these from both north and south (in this
connection, it appears that the inland delta of the Niger, the edge of the
Futa Jallon hills in the upper basin of the Senegal, Niger and Gambia
rivers, and the Sudanic environments in general, may have been nuclear
areas for crops like rice (Oryza glaberrima), millets (Digitaria), guinea corn
and bulrush millets); (iv) mixed farming and cattle herding in the central
and eastern Sahel regions and parts of the northern savannah regions, where
the desiccation of the Sahara may have played an important role; and
(v) root and tree crop complexes in the forest fringe regions to the far south
(Alexander and Coursey, 1969). s
These early 'Neolithic' complexes were characterized by distinctly
different artefact complexes, as well as (largely inferred) different settlement
and social patterns and land use methods. In some areas, however
(e.g. Tiemassas, Senegal and Paratoumbian, Mauretania), two or more
traditions met and overlapped.
Generally, the hunting and pastoralist complexes in the north have stone
industries based on blades, and contain geometrical microliths, projectile
points, very few or no heavy tools, engravings on stone or ostrich-egg shells,
and a limited range of rather plain pottery types. On the other hand, the
seed-cropping complexes of central parts of the Sahara and the northern
grasslands have rich polished and ground stone tools, a variety of flaked
tools, a varied range of morphologically distinctive pottery, but few or
no microliths or projectile points. The vegetable (root) crop complexes
to the south also contain polished and ground tools, but are characterized
principally by flake-based industries containing heavy flaked biface tools
and choppers. Such technological specificity is apparent also at the present
day in the use of the hoe or the digging-stick for cultivation, as well as
in the ways farms are tilled (deep or shallow tillage) and prepared, taking
full account of the type of crop, the nature of the soil and the water supply
available.
5. J. Alexander and D. G. Coursey, pp. 123-9.
597