The Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa

A History of Mankind (127)

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Far from the reach of historians and scribes in literate societies, the slow expansion of iron metallurgy along the margins of Eurasia and south of the Saharan desert drove a veritable demographic explosion in many areas.

Iron implements, sturdier and more durable than bronze, were used since perhaps the early First Millennium by the inhabitants of the so-called “cliffs” (“dhar”) north of the Senegal River in modern Mauritania and Mali, a well-watered area for much of the prior period but one that underwent a quick desertification later.

The Tichitt Culture there built iron furnaces that quickly allowed for the relatively easy production of iron tools. The technology spread southwards and allowed the inhabitants of the deep tropical forests of Western Africa and the lands south of the shrinking Lake Chad to clear ever larger swatches of land for cultivation, and steadily increase food availability beyond unreliable bush hunting. Ogun, the spirit-god of war and metalwork, became the most important, oft-cited deity in much of West Africa¹.

The Sao culture of Central Africa, developing from the Sixth Century BC along the basin of the Chari River – the main water source for the Lake Chad, flowing between modern Cameroon, Central African Republic and Chad – is perhaps the clearest example of a new iron-driven society, and the difficulties these faced to evolve into larger nations like those thriving in Eurasia.