Читать книгу Igbo History Hebrew Exiles of Eri - Omabala Aguleri - Страница 18

About 3, 000 B.C. the Sahara began to dry up, the rivers and pastures began to disappear. Then began a steady movement of Saharan people into more favourable lands. Some moved northward and merged with the mixed population of the African Mediterranean. The Saharans who migrated eastward towards the Nile came up against Egyptian resistance which gradually diminished with the weakening position of the Egyptians Kingdoms. The other movement was southward into the heart of the continent. These Saharans mingled with those they found and new ways of life emerged in various places.

On the Ethiopian Plateau and in East Africa, for example, stock-raising cultures emerged. In the south-western Sahara, on the western Sudanese fringe, a Neolithic way of life based on local experiment and inventors emerge, new crops such as sorghum and rice were grown; and in the West Africa Savanna, new crops such as yam and melons were grown.

In Africa south of the Sahara, the appearance of iron-work, and its attendant job creation and population growth, occurred at different times in different regions. In the Nile Valley, the use of iron at Kush was common around 500 B.C. By 200 B.C, it was at Meroe and around 440 B.C. it was also used at Nok in southern Zaria (Nigeria). The Nok culture has proved to be clear evidence of a traditional stage between a Stone age food-collecting culture and one that grew food. The metal age of Africa emerged independent of Europe, and developed its distinctive features independent of Northern Africa. Iron helped the final conquest of the equatorial forest which was started in the late Stone Age. With the spread of iron, people also spread. Gradually, in the early Metal Age of Africa, the Savannah people came in contact with the forest people as typified in the Bantu migration, the Eri and Oduduwa migrations. Eri moved down the Anambra to begin the Anambra civilization, which finally gave rise to the Nri civilization. Great social and cultural transformation overwhelmed Africa and prepared her for another phase. These movements introduced metal work deep into the fringes of the forest zones of Nigeria. In the cultural theatre of Eastern Nigeria, Metal Age culture flourished in Nsukka area and diffused t Udi, Awka and Ikwerre. It reached its apogee in the Igbo-Ukwu culture through Nri activities which spread into the Western Igbo to dovetail with the Edo Metal Age culture – Onwuejeogwu (1970)