AboutClaes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. Expertise I have a long and intense interest in European and World History. This also includes Military History - especially as I have been a military physician-surgeon for 15 years. I`m also interested in the history of Science, Technology-Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics.
Experience A life long intense interest. But I'm not a professional historian - though the next best thing, an educated VERY interested amateur!
Education/Credentials I'm a Doctor of Medicine, specialist in Medical Oncology, Radiation Therapy and Radiation Protection. But that has no connection to this.
However I do answer such questions too here on AllExperts.com and have done so for a long time. For such questions click on the appropriate link:
Oncology (General Cancer),
Military History,
Brain Tumors,
Breast Cancer,
Colon Cancer
Question QUESTION: My question is about black Africa. Did black Africans ever invent anything ? Any irrigation sistem ? Any more developed agriculture ? Did they use anything more developed than simple tools ? I know that in West Africa there was a powerful empire - Ghana, Mali, Songhai etc. was there anything invented in this empire ? Were there any goods of civilisation used ?
ANSWER: The human origin was in Africa. That is true regardless of if you check our mitochondrial DNA or nuclear DNA (including the DNA of our X- & Y-chromosomes). So regardless of if you are a pale northern European (for example a Scandinavian/Swede/Finn like me) or a slant eyed Chinese our original ancestors were all (probably black or at least dark skinned, dark haired and brown eyed) Africans. In my own case I know that the ancestry of my Y-chromosome - and thereby of all my paternal ancestors - (after a genome test by National Geographic) goes back to East Africa close to the sources of the Nile River around 60000 years ago or so. It can then be traced up through the Middle East and Iran up through Central Asia into Siberia east of the Ural Mountains and then it goes in a straight line westwards over the Urals through Russia to Finland. And we already knew that my family came to Sweden from eastern Finland between 400 and 500 years ago. So it all fits! Modern humans came to be (from earlier human ancestors) in Africa around 200000 to 100000 years ago. The earlier human ancestors there had already tamed fire (around 500000 years ago or more) and developed the earliest stone tools (more than a million years ago). Modern Man (in Africa) developed the first sophisticated stone, bone, horn and wooden tools and weapons and the first artistic expressions. So the first basic inventions all came from there! Even more important, a REAL language probably developed there as well! Those were the things that truly made us HUMANS! Forms of agriculture (for example of durra) and animal husbandry later also developed in "black" Africa though it is uncertain if that was done independently or due to influence from for example Egypt. That technological progress later was slow in Africa compared to Europe and Asia (less so compared to America) is probably due to the fact that different societies were more isolated there and like in America there was less space in the east-west direction than in the north-south direction that complicated things by a multitude of climate zones. The climate in some (and rather large) areas was/is tough too and not exactly healthy! I do hope this explains it!
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QUESTION: Climate can't explain inferiority of black African civilisation. Arabs lived in more harsh climate and they did develop civilisations equal to European and Asian. The same is about North Africans. And the climate in black Africa is very good in many regions. This continent could be a breadbasket for the whole Earth. And ofcourse there is gold, diamonds and other minerals.
Answer You interpret climate far too narrowly! I hope I just have to remind you of the mosquito born infections yellow fever and above all malaria and the tsetse fly born infection "sleeping sickness" to give you some idea of what kind of green house for infectious diseases Africa is! That has crippled its progress all through history. Yes malaria does and did exist elsewhere too BUT not to the same extent and degree! That is still true today! Yes North Africa is different as is South Africa but historically neither is quite part of "black" Africa. North Africa is part of the Mediterranean area and South Africa's black population reached it roughly at the same time as the European settlers arrived. Before that the native population there was mainly bushmen (San) now mainly found only in the Kalahari area. The mineral wealth of Africa is only of interest if you have already reached at least a certain minimum technological level. European style farming is only possible in (some areas of) North Africa and South Africa. The only other exceptions are the highlands of Kenya and Ethiopia. Due to these facts the Europeans themselves were unable to colonize most of Africa until they themselves had reached a rather high technological and scientific level in the 19'th century! Before that they only had some foot holds along the coast - and with difficulty. When the Europeans conquered America they brought invisible allies along in the form of infectious diseases unknown to the Amerindians. In Africa it was the opposite. There the local infections defended the continent against conquest but still also to a considerable degree crippled the locals in spite of the fact that they were used to it AND still do to this day! And that is a still observable fact!
