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Before 1930 African was Known to the European scholars as a continent without history. They called Africa the "dark continent", because they saw Africa as a mysterious continent which was supposedly full of savages and wild beasts.

Africa, a continent without history

Some European scholars argued that Africans did not have history and that they did not contribute anything to the history of the world.
This view was due to their narrow definition of history, which recognized only written records as sources of historical knowledge.

In this lesson we are going to talk about the pre-history of Africa, that is the period of man's development before written history. The pre-istory of Africa is divided into three(3):

• The Early Stone Age
• The Middle Stone Age
• The late Stone Age

THE LATE STONE AGE

This period witnessed the change over from hunting to the rearing of animals and from food gathering to food production. The changeover encouraged man to build houses and live sedentary lives. The early man in Africa also did fishing in the rivers at his disposal.

It also afforded man leisure time to develop craft industries like pottery, cloth-weaving and boat building. Again, man used the the changeover to engage in trade by exchanging surplus products. The trading activities led to community formation subsequently, politica development(laws and government), religion, and social development(customs and festivals began to develop).

The evidence of agricultural activities in Africa is extracted from Fayumin Egypt which dates back to 4500 B.C.,Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, the Maghreb and Cyrenaica in Eastern Libya also witnessed agricultural activities. Agriculture began to develop in Sub-Sahara Africa in around 3000 B.C. Around 1500 B.C., Kintampo and Ntereso in Ghana also saw the development of agriculture. Crops like cereals, yam, oil palm, cowpeas and cola were cultivated.

The late Stone Age man also undertook activities in animal husbandry. Archeological excavations at sites in Tassil(Algeria), Egypt, Kenya, and Ethiopia have proved that cattle were reared before 2000 B.C. The Stone Age man, apart from his original ass, cat and guinea fowl,had access to non-African animals like cattle, sheep, goats and pigs from outside.