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Population history of West Africa

Round Head rock art figures and zoomorphic figures, including a Barbary sheep[1]

The population history of West Africa is composed of West African populations that were considerably mobile and interacted with one another throughout the history of West Africa.[2] Acheulean tool-using archaic humans may have dwelled throughout West Africa since at least between 780,000 BP and 126,000 BP (Middle Pleistocene).[3] During the Pleistocene, Middle Stone Age peoples (e.g., Iwo Eleru people,[4] possibly Aterians), who dwelled throughout West Africa between MIS 4 (71,000 BP) and MIS 2 (29,000 BP, Last Glacial Maximum),[5] were gradually replaced by incoming Late Stone Age peoples, who migrated into West Africa[6] as an increase in humid conditions resulted in the subsequent expansion of the West African forest.[7] West African hunter-gatherers occupied western Central Africa (e.g., Shum Laka) earlier than 32,000 BP,[4] dwelled throughout coastal West Africa by 12,000 BP,[8] and migrated northward between 12,000 BP and 8000 BP as far as Mali, Burkina Faso,[8] and Mauritania.[9]

During the Holocene, Niger-Congo speakers independently created pottery in Ounjougou, Mali[10][11][12] – the earliest pottery in Africa[13] – by at least 9400 BCE,[10] and along with their pottery,[13] as well as wielding independently invented bows and arrows,[14][15] migrated into the Central Sahara,[13] which became their primary region of residence by 10,000 BP.[14] The emergence and expansion of ceramics in the Sahara may be linked with the origin of Round Head and Kel Essuf rock art, which occupy rockshelters in the same regions (e.g., Djado, Acacus, Tadrart).[16] Hunters in the Central Sahara farmed, stored, and cooked undomesticated central Saharan flora,[17] underwent domestication of antelope,[18] and domesticated and shepherded Barbary sheep.[17] After the Kel Essuf Period and Round Head Period of the Central Sahara, the Pastoral Period followed.[19] Some of the hunter-gatherers who created the Round Head rock art may have adopted pastoral culture, and others may have not.[20] As a result of increasing aridification of the Green Sahara, Central Saharan hunter-gatherers and cattle herders may have used seasonal waterways as the migratory route taken to the Niger River and Chad Basin of West Africa.[21] In 2000 BCE, "Thiaroye Woman",[22] also known as the "Venus of Thiaroye,"[23][22] may have been the earliest statuette created in Sub-Saharan West Africa; it may have particularly been a fertility statuette, created in the region of Senegambia,[23] and may be associated with the emergence of complexly organized pastoral societies in West Africa between 4000 BCE and 1000 BCE.[24] Though possibly developed as early as 5000 BCE,[25] Nsibidi may have also developed in 2000 BCE,[26][25] as evidenced by depictions of the West African script on Ikom monoliths at Ikom, in Nigeria.[25] Migration of Saharan peoples south of the Sahelian region resulted in seasonal interaction with and gradual absorption of West African hunter-gatherers, who primarily dwelt in the savannas and forests of West Africa.[8] In West Africa, which may have been a major regional cradle in Africa for the domestication of crops and animals,[27][28] Niger-Congo speakers domesticated the helmeted guineafowl[29] between 5500 BP and 1300 BP;[27] domestication of field crops occurred throughout various locations in West Africa, such as yams (d. praehensilis) in the Niger River basin between eastern Ghana and western Nigeria (northern Benin), rice (oryza glaberrima) in the Inner Niger Delta region of Mali, pearl millet (cenchrus americanus) in northern Mali and Mauritania, and cowpeas in northern Ghana.[28] After having persisted as late as 1000 BP,[8] or some period of time after 1500 CE,[30] remaining West African hunter-gatherers, many of whom dwelt in the forest-savanna region, were ultimately acculturated and admixed into the larger groups of West African agriculturalists, akin to the migratory Bantu-speaking agriculturalists and their encounters with Central African hunter-gatherers.[8]

With the emergence of the West African Iron Age, iron metallurgy developed in ancient West African civilizations, such as Tichitt culture and Nok culture.[31][32] Following the flourishing of Iron Age West African civilizations, periods of mass enslavement, such as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, contributed to the depopulation of West Africa.[33] At least 6,284,092 West Africans are estimated to have been enslaved and taken captive during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade; along with Africans enslaved and taken captive in other embarking regions of Africa, such as Central Africa and Southern Africa,[34] as well as between at least 12% and 13% of enslaved Africans taken captive estimated to have died during the Middle Passage,[35] the overall number of Africans enslaved and taken captive during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is estimated to have been at least 12,521,335.[34] During the modern period, the population of West Africa is estimated to have increased from 69,564,958 in 1950 CE to 413,340,896 in 2021 CE.[36]

  1. ^ Soukopova 2013, p. 45–55.
  2. ^ Haour, Anne (Jul 25, 2013). "Wealth-in-people". Outsiders and Strangers: An Archaeology of Liminality in West Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 38. doi:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199697748.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-969774-8. OCLC 855890703. S2CID 127485241.
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  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MacDonald V was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Niang, Khady; et al. (2020). "The Middle Stone Age occupations of Tiémassas, coastal West Africa, between 62 and 25 thousand years ago". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 34: 102658. Bibcode:2020JArSR..34j2658N. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102658. ISSN 2352-409X. OCLC 8709222767. S2CID 228826414.
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  7. ^ Scerri, Eleanor M. L. (2021). "Continuity of the Middle Stone Age into the Holocene". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 70. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-79418-4. OCLC 8878081728. PMC 7801626. PMID 33431997. S2CID 231583475.
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  10. ^ a b Ness, Immanuel (Nov 10, 2014). "Sub-Saharan Africa: Linguistics". The Global Prehistory of Human Migration. Wiley Blackwell. p. 100. ISBN 9781118970591. OCLC 890071926. S2CID 160957067.
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  13. ^ a b c Huysecom, Eric (30 July 2020). "The First Emergence of Ceramic Production in Africa". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.66. ISBN 9780190854584. OCLC 1312757953. S2CID 225392406.
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  15. ^ Roy, Kaushik (Sep 15, 2021). "Military Convergence And The Bronze Age Civilisations of Eurasia". A Global History of Pre-Modern Warfare: Before the Rise of the West, 10,000 BCE–1500 CE. Routledge. p. Unnumbered. ISBN 9781000432121. OCLC 1261367188.
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  22. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Holl II was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Thiam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ LaGamma, Alisa (2020). "Pre-Islamic Artistic Patronage". Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-1588396877.
  25. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Akpan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hales was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ a b Shen, Quan-Kuan; et al. (1 May 2021). "Genomic analyses unveil helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) domestication in West Africa". Genome Biology and Evolution. 13 (evab090). doi:10.1093/gbe/evab090. OCLC 9123485061. PMC 8214406. PMID 34009300. S2CID 234783117.
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  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference Champion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ^ Cite error: The named reference Richardson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  34. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Slave Voyages Consortium was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  35. ^ Cite error: The named reference Eltis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  36. ^ Cite error: The named reference United Nations was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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