History Poster: Niger Congo — Food & Agriculture, 9500 BCE to 3500 BCE
9500 BCE: Early Agriculture and Ceramics in West Africa
Around 9500 BCE, in what is now Mali, communities began intensively collecting wild grains like fonio. This marked a local and independent shift toward agriculture.
Alongside this transition, the Ounjougou culture developed some of the world's earliest ceramic technologies. People began using ceramic pots to boil whole grains, a food preparation method likely invented by women, as both cooking and pottery were traditionally women’s roles in African societies.
Artifact: Potsherd from Ounjougou, Mali (pre-9400 BCE)
Geography and Vegetation of Ancient Africa
A visual outline of the African continent depicts dry, mountainous regions in the north; green, lush vegetation zones in Central Africa; and flatter southern regions with mountains along the coast. The island of Madagascar is shown as a dry, uniform landscape.
6000–5000 BCE: Yam Farming and Agricultural Innovation
By the sixth or fifth millennium BCE, the proto-Benue-Kwa society transitioned from grain cultivation to yam farming. Yams became their dietary staple, complemented by oil palms.
They invented polished and ground stone tools that enabled them to clear forests and expand into high-rainfall woodland savannas and rainforests. Unlike seed crops, yams were propagated using shoots, establishing what became known as “West African planting agriculture.”
This innovation allowed these communities to adapt successfully to new environments, ensuring yams had the sunlight they needed to thrive.
Artifact: Polished stone farming axes from the era
Link to doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BTqoh3iHNl2e2ZFd1lkY4ymghrEgxRir75zmYlH5S58/edit?tab=t.0
