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.
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 Buganda, 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, Laborers 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 neighbors. 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. Africans 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 (name 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.
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 did not 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 8th– 16thC. 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 interaction 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 ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF 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 foodstuffs, 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 work force. 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.
THE COMING OF THE NGONI
Who were the Ngoni?
The Ngoni were Bantu-Nguni speaking people of Northern Zululand in South East Africa. They were originally Ndwandwe people under Zwide’s leadership. But when Shaka defeated Zwide, one part of his group in 1840s moved to East Africa into two groups of the Maseko and Tuta under Zwangendaba. They moved to Tanzania from Natal and Swaziland between 1840s due to “Mfecane” (time of trouble). They are currently settled in southwest Tanzania around Songea town.
MOVEMENT AND SETTLEMENT OF THE NGONI TO EAST AFRICA
They began their movement from South-East Africa in Northern Zulu land under the leadership of Zwangendaba in 1820. The Ngoni migration took place in the 19th century, and was the last major movement of Bantu people into East Africa
There were three groups of the Ngoni in East Africa as:-
(i) The Ngoni Tuta (ii) The Ngoni Ngwangara (iii) The Ngoni Maseko
They then crossed river Zambezi and river Limpopo and moved northwards in search of new land. Later in 1835, they divided into two groups. The one group under the leadership of Zwangendaba passed west of Lake Malawi and settled at Ufipa in 1840. They were attracted to this area here because of the many herds of cattle around.
Zwangendaba led the biggest Ngoni group that entered in East Africa. They crossed the Zambezi River, moved through Malawi and Zambia until they reached the fipa plateau in around 1840’s. Zwangendaba died here in around 1845, and his followers splint up into five sections.
Three sections returned south to Zambia and Malawi while the other two such as Tuta and Gwangara sections remained at ufipa. Another group under the leadership of Induna Maputo (Maseko Ngoni) passed East of Lake Malawi and settled at Songea. When Zwangendaba died around 1845, the Ufipa Ngoni disagreed and split into five groups. Whereby the two groups remained in East Africa such as Tuta and Gwangara Ngoni, three groups moved out of East Africa that is to say, one group moved to Malawi and the two moved back to Zambia.
The Tuta Ngoni, the smallest group left in Ufipa, moved northwards fighting and crashing with the Holoholo near Lake Tanganyika, they disrupted the trade route between Tabora and Ujiji. In the1850s, they invaded the Nyamwezi capturing many and incorporating them in their ranks. They finally settled at Kahama South of Lake Victoria. The Gwangara Ngoni under the leadership of Zulugama moved eastwards to Songea where they met the Maseko Ngoni. The two groups fought and the Maseko Ngoni were defeated and pushed out of Songea in 1860’s.
Some Maseko moved back to Mozambique while others moved to Kilombero valley where they became known as the Mbunga. Another splinter group moved to Newala, Masasi and Tunduru. From Songea the Ngoni raided widely, finally settling southern Tanzania among the Bena, Hehe and Sangu. The Ngoni migration, which started around 1820s, had ended by the year 1860s.
CAUSES OF THE NGONI MIGRATIONS.
1.The mfecane war. This was the period of political instability and upheavals in South Africa, which led to the creation of political alliances among the displaced communities. It covered the period 1820 – 1834 which referred as war of crushing the people.
The war was narrated by the Ngoni as Ufuaru that meant the crushing and it was named as Difaune. As a result of this contradiction wide warrior divided into two groups one was Under shoshangane created Gaza Empire in Mozambique and Zwangendaba migrated northern wards through central Africa into present day Tanzania.- One group under MputaMaseko crossed Zambezi River and passed to Eastern side of Lake Malawi (Nyasa) finally settled in present day Songea district.
Zwangedaba lead another groups reached and settled in Ufipa, and in the areas of Lake Nyasa in 1840.Hence Zwangedaba died in 1845.The Ndebele under mzirikazi found their settlement in present day Zimbabwe. The Kololo under Swebatwane migrated north and built Lozi kingdom a centralized state. The Ngoni people were predominantly agriculturalists and pastoralists; in order to protect their traditional way of life they decided to move northwards to central and Eastern Africa.
2.Boer expansion. Since the Ngoni’s economy depend much on land they wanted to expand southwards but due to presence of Boers it become difficult to them as they could not extend to west because Kens rub mountain or to East because of Indian Ocean hence they involved north wards.
3.Dictatorial rule of Shaka: The Zulu ruler was cruel in nature as he severely tortured people and those who failed to respond to his order were killed. Due to this, some people decided to seek refuge by migrating to other areas.
4.Overpopulation: This was caused by the fertility of soils and the reliability of rainfall between Drakensberg Mountains and the Indian Ocean.
5.Pastoralism reason: Some Ngoni people owned large herds of cattle and northwards looking for pasture and water for their animals. Therefore, they wanted to look for more fertile land for their cattle. They also experienced famine and drought that led to lack of food and water.
6.The influence of their leaders: Men like Zwangendaba, Maputo and Zulugama provided good leadership. This encouraged them to move onwards.
7.Overstocking: It could also have been due to overstocking of their animals as they were having spirit of cattle rustling, i.e. they had great desire to steal -other people’s cattle. For example, they went on driving away and confiscating other people’s cattle duri--ng their conquest and expansionist wars.
8.Increased knowledge of military tactics by the age regiments: These were powerful military forces and dedicated to professional war, which was their livelihood. They believed that they could have other territories through migration.
EFFECTS OF NGONI INVASION OR MIGRATION IN EAST AFRICA POSITIVE EFFECTS
1.Ngoni migration accelerated state formation in East Africa. The invasion gave rise to the formation of bigger political units for defensive purposes. Some societies re-organized themselves after the Ngoni invasion, forming strong armies reforms to strengthen their societies so as to resist their invasion. For example, Hehe and the Segu.
2.The Ngoni invasion led to the rise on outstanding leaders to prominence. These included Mirambo, NyunguyaMawe and Mkwawa, who used the Ngoni military tactics to build their states.
3.Introduction of new culture. However, there was spread of Ngoni customs and culture. They enriched the cultures of the people of Southern Tanzania, for example, people copied Ngoni traditional dances and annual festivities.
4.It led to the introduction of new weapons e.g. assegai, cowhides and shields.
5.It led intermarriages between the Ngoni and the natives. There were intermarriages between Ngoni and Nyamwezi, which subsequently led to improved relationships between the invaders and indigenous people and an increased population.
NEGATIVE EFFECTS
1.It led the loss of lives; this leading to depopulation in some areas where they got warriors this was especially in southern Tanzania. This was due to the killing of people in the expansionist wars e.g. the Mariti remnants of Rugarugas killed so many people.
2.It led to displacement of some tribes from their original homeland. That means the natives of the areas where Ngoni settled like the Yao were forced to settle in unfavorable areas.
3.It intensified slave trade in East Africa. Firstly, they themselves engaged in capturing people and selling as slaves. Again, people running away from the Ngoni invaders were once captured by Arab slave traders and sold off as slaves.
4.It led the destruction the of the east African people economy. In this case, the long distance trade and even agriculture was disrupted. For example, since people were running away from the invaders, they disrupted the normal farming, leading to famine. Then they grabbed the natives’ cattle. Furthermore, the caravan routes from Bagamoyo to Ujiji and through Tabora were insecure.
5.It led the destruction of property and villages. Ngoni were moving in large groups destroying crops and other properties wherever they crossed. Villages that tried to resist were in most cases burnt down.
6.It led famine and hunger. There was widespread famine due to the scotched-earth policy of fighting circumstances, crop could neither be planted nor harvested, and people were forced to abandon farming.
7.It led to increased warfare among the African societies, including those areas that had been peaceful before