There has been little biological change in Homo sapiens over the past 40 000 years. But the amount of cultural change has been extraordinary, particularly the domestication of plants and animals. The growth of farming and care of herd animals (pastoralism) began one of the most remarkable changes in Earth’s ecology. The transition to agriculture, starting around 10 000 years ago, took place in several regions of the world but not initially in Africa. By this time, the cool ice-age landscapes had retreated in the face of warmer, damper environments. People adapted to these changes by making more intensive use of the landscape. At the outset they took advantage of a broad range of plants and animals within each region, but later focused on particular wild plants and animals.
By painstakingly collecting plants and controlling wild herd animals, people could select sought-after characteristics. This process of controlled breeding eventually created new forms of animals and new species of wheat, corn and other plants and useful byproducts. Food production started much later in sub-Saharan Africa (as opposed to Eurasia) because of a number of reasons.
Jared Diamond argues that to domesticate wild animals they must be docile, cheap to feed, grow quickly and breed in captivity: ‘Eurasia’s native cows, sheep, goats, horses and pigs were among the world’s few large wild animals to pass all those tests. Their African equivalents – such as the African buffalo, zebra, bush pig, rhino, and hippopotamus – have never been domesticated, not even in modern times.’
Similarly, even though the Sahel and Ethiopia, for example, did produce indigenous crops, there was a much more limited variety of wild ‘starting material’ suitable for domestication. Diamond further argues that Africa is only about half the size of Eurasia and, moreover, Africa’s major axis is north-south, which means widely differing zones of climate, rainfall, day length and plant and animal pathogens (unlike in Eurasia’s eastwest axis, with the same latitude and similar climates and day lengths). Diamond reasons that this impeded the spread of food production and cultural exchange as ‘crops and animals domesticated or acquired in one part of Africa had great difficulty in moving to other parts’. Thus, he concludes, ‘The different historical trajectories of Africa and Europe stem ulitmately from differences in real estate.’
