Origin of the African ethnicity
In Robert July’s book ‘precolonial Africa, An economic and social History (1975)
we find the following statement concerning the origin of the African ethnicity.
- There is general agreement that the beginning of human evolution were centered
in Africa.
- According to Charles Darwin “it is probable that our early progenitors lived on
the African continent than elsewhere” and subsequent research seems to support
this proposition
- Other findings have established the fact that Eastern Africa was a center of ponged
activity as far back as twenty million years, although early apes were also found
in Europe and Southeast Asia
- It was in Africa that life began for man, but for man in Africa life has often stinted
its gifts.
These are fundamental questions about the origin of the African peoples.
You are advised to research and obtain more solutions that will lead to really answers.
7.3.2 Population size and distribution in Africa
In 1990 Richard White indicated that the biggest problems facing the human kind
towards the 20th century is the population increase in terms of numbers living on our
Earth to-day.
After the 17th century, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, the world population
stood at about 800 million people. Between 1750 and 1900 the same population size had
doubled to about 1600 million (i.e. after only 150 years). After another 64 years the
number again doubled to 3200 million (Richard W. 1990).
By the end of 20th century the world population, as had been projected was likely to
double to 6.5 billion that was described as the world ‘population explosion’
Africa is generally agreed to be the cradle of the human race; genetic testing in recent
years has confirmed archaeological finds. Some 5 million years ago of hominid, a close
evolutionary ancestor of present-day humans, inhabited southern and eastern Africa.
More than 1.5 million years ago this tool making hominid developed into the more Homo
sapiens, dates from more that 200,00 years ago. A hunter-gatherer capable of making
crude stone tools, Homo sapiens banded together with others to form nomadic groups;
eventually these nomadic Khoisan-speaking peoples spread throughout the African
continent. Gradually a growing Bantu-speaking population, which had mastered animal
domestication and agriculture, forced the Khoisan-speaking groups into the less hospitable areas. Today they are found primarily in the Kalahari. In the 1st century AD
the Bantu began a migration that lasted some 2,000 years, settling most of central and
southern Africa. Negroid societies typically depended on subsistence agriculture or, in
the savannahs, pastoral pursuits. Political organization was normally local, although large
kingdoms would later develop in most parts of the continent, and especially western,
central, and southern Africa.
The first great civilization in Africa began in the Nile Valley about 5000 BC. Dependent
on agriculture, these settlements benefited from the Nile’s flooding as a source of
irrigation and new soils. The need to control the Nile floodwaters eventually resulted in a
well-ordered, complex state with elaborate political and religious systems. The kingdom
of Egypt flourished, influencing Mediterranean and, to a lesser extent, African societies
for thousands of years. Iron-making, according to some theories was brought from Egypt
around 800 BC, and spread into tropical Africa; other theories suggest independent
development of Iron Age culture. Ideas of royal kingship and state organization were also
exported, particularly to adjacent areas such as Cush and punt. The east Cushite state,
meroe was supplanted in the 4th century AD By Aksum which later evolved into Ethiopia.
During the period from the late 3rd century BC to the early 1st century AD, Rome had
conquered Egypt, carthage, and other North African areas; these became the granaries of
the Roman Empire. The empire was divided into two parts in the 4th century. All lands
west of modern Libya remained territories of the western Empire, ruled by Rome, and
lands to the east, including Egypt, became part of the eastern of Byzantine Empire, ruled
from Constantinople. By this time the majority of the population had been converted to
Christianity. In the 5th century the vandals, a Germanic tribe, conquered much of North
Africa. Vandal ruled there until the 6th century, when were defeated by Byzntine forces,
and the area was absorbed by the Byzantine Empire.
According to Grove, A.T. (1970), Africa possesses more population, ethnic groups,
cultures, etc than any other continent of the world that affects certain places having
human beings highly congested as mentioned earlier.
Africa covers about 1/5 of the total world land surface, it has only about 12 per cent of its
population. In 2004 the total population of the continent was estimated to be about
875,027,307. Average density, some 29 people per km2 which is over a ½ the world
average. This figure includes large areas, such as the Sahara and Kalahari deserts, which
are virtually uninhabited, and smaller areas, such as the Nile valley, of very high
population density. When the population living on productive land is calculated, the
average density increases to some 139 people per km2. The most densely settled areas of the continent are those along the northern and western coasts; in the Nile, Niger, Congo,
and Senegal River basins and in the eastern African plateau nation in Africa.
The age distribution is weighted heavily towards the young. In most African countries,
about half the population is 15 years of age or younger.
Africa’s population remains predominantly rural, with only about 1/5 of the population
living in towns of more than 20,000 inhabitants. Northern Africa is the most urbanized
region, but there are individual countries with high levels of urbanization, such as Zambia
(50 per cent urbanized), and major cities are located in every part of the continent.
African cities that have populations of more than 1 million include Cairo, Alexandria,
and Giza in Egypt; Algiers, Algeria; Casablanca, morocco, Lagos, Nigeria, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia; Abidjan, Coted’ Ivoire, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and
Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Soweto in South Africa. The urban centers act as
magnates, attracting large numbers of rural migrants who come either as permanent
settlers or as short-term workers. Urban growth has been particularly rapid since the
1950s. A substantial international labour migration has also developed, particularly of
Africans from central Africa to the mines and factories of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and south
Africa, and of North and West Africans to France and Italy, and, more recently, to the
European Union as a whole. Civil wars in a number of countries in recent years notably
Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia Sudan, Liberia, and Rwanda have led to a massive
displacement of population, as have droughts and famines. Africa has the world’s largest
concentration of refugees, including people displaced within their own countries, as well
as people who have fled across borders in search of safety.
Titany answered the question on January 17, 2022 at 13:46