African Contributions to Science, Technology and Development
Scientific discovery and the application of technology to the natural environment have been essential to the history of Africa and in the development of the African diaspora throughout the world, and especially in the Americas. When Africans migrated, whether under conditions of slavery or as voluntary travelers, they took with them knowledge of agricultural techniques and skills in exploiting the nature environment that were necessary for development. As people have done elsewhere in the world as well, Africans depended for their survival upon the ability to adapt successfully to specific ecological settings and to apply acquired knowledge in a manner that increased production and otherwise enhanced the quality of life.
The African contribution to science and technology can be appreciated with respect to the impact on the development of the Americas, which suffered severe population destruction through disease and European conquest after 1492. Spain, Portugal and then other western European countries took advantage of military superiority and the demographic catastrophe in the Americas to confiscate vast tracts of land, which only needed labor and transferred technology for its development. Europeans empires and the generation of enormous wealth depended upon the combination of these ingredients – virtually free and very fertile land, labor and technology, largely from Africa, and the ability to garner huge profits through the reliance on slavery, in which workers were not paid for their labor or their technology.
It is crucial to note that none of the major plantation crops in the Americas and only a few of the foodstuffs consumed by people in the Americas came from western Europe, while virtually all of the newly introduced crops originally came from Africa or were grown there before their introduction to the Americas. Sugar cane was first grown in the Mediterranean and in southern Morocco before spreading to other offshore islands and then to the Americas.
Cotton was grown and made into textiles in the western Sudan and in the interior of the Bight of Benin for centuries before being introduced to the Americas, along with weaving, indigo dyeing, and the decorative arts associated with textiles. Rice, indigenous to West Africa, was introduced into the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia, as well as the Mississippi valley, Maranhão in northeastern Brazil, and elsewhere, while numerous foodstuffs and stimulants were transferred from Africa as well.
As Judith A. Carney and Richard Nicholas Rosomoff have established that Africans established “botanical gardens of the dispossessed,” in which they cultivated many familiar foods, including millet, sorghum, coffee, okra, watermelon, and the "Asian" long bean, for example, all of which were native to Africa. Archaeological records, oral histories, and even documentary evidence of European slave owners and merchants demonstrate that Africans in diaspora planted many of the same crops that were grown in Africa for their own subsistence, and in the course of doing so African farms and gardens became the incubators of African survival in the Americas and Africanized the ways of nourishing the plantation societies of the Americas.
The construction of ancient monuments, palaces and temples in the Nile valley demonstrates an architectural tradition that was continued in the construction of mosques in West Africa and along the East African coast, as well as churches in Ethiopia. The knowledge of mathematics and engineering is ancient and was closely tied to the availability of building materials. In the Americas, architectural contributions can be seen in the construction of forts and churches, especially in Cuba and mainland Latin America, where Africans and people of African descent were involved in both construction and maintenance. Many of the palaces, mosques, temples, churches, and fortifications have been designated UNESCO Heritage sites from medieval times onward.
The construction of ancient monuments, palaces and temples in the Nile valley demonstrates an architectural tradition that was continued in the construction of mosques in West Africa and along the East African coast, as well as churches in Ethiopia. The knowledge of mathematics and engineering is ancient and was closely tied to the availability of building materials. In the Americas, architectural contributions can be seen in the construction of forts and churches, especially in Cuba and mainland Latin America, where Africans and people of African descent were involved in both construction and maintenance. Many of the palaces, mosques, temples, churches, and fortifications have been designated UNESCO Heritage sites from medieval times onward.
The ancient pyramids of the Nile valley demonstrate that the issue of what was “African” and what was not is a question of definition. Certainly the pyramids are unique and as much a part of the history of African contributions to technology and development. Also to be highlighted will be Zimbabwe, the Ethiopian Coptic churches, the Islamic architecture of the East African coast. The spread of adobe mosque and palace construction associated with the tradition of al-Sahili can be highlighted. In addition, African skills in architecture and construction spread to the diaspora. Some of the cathedrals of Hispanic America, dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, as well as fortifications, were built by architects who were of African descent. Similarly, Africans, many from what is now Ghana, constructed all the buildings in the colonial town of Newport, Rhode Island, as they did in Kingston, Jamaica, and elsewhere.
The Domestication of Agriculture
It is clear that African contributions to agriculture have underpinned the development of the African continent and to a great extent the Americas as well. This can be seen with respect to several agricultural innovations, including the domestication of millet/sorghum, rice, yams, kola, and coffee. The base line for understanding the contribution of Africans to agricultural development, both in Africa and then in the Americas, is the emergence of civilizations that are reflected in the sculpture of the Nok complex in Nigeria and the enclosures of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. Agriculture, including animal husbandry, evolved independently in Africa, which in a real sense was not only the origin of all people but also the cradle of food production, crop specialization, and experimentation in systems of agriculture and transhumance livestock
management.
African Contributions to Science and Technology
This exploration of technological innovation demonstrates the dimensions of African contributions to scientific discovery. A full historical analysis must await further research. The extensive writings of West African scholars at Timbuktu and other places in the Sahel and savanna undoubtedly contain important information of past discoveries, especially in
mathematics. Moreover, the achievements of the Dogon in astronomy and the contributions to navigation in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, and Atlantic are further examples, just as the knowledge of the chemistry of salt, iron, copper, tin and gold were well understood in Africa, long before any direct trade with Europe.
It has been argued by some that the transfer of rice technology to the Americas had little
if anything to do with African production of rice or the knowledge of labor organization required to produce rice in varying ecological and environmental conditions. In fact, rice production in West Africa was extensively developed, and ranged in production techniques based on a gendered division of labor to the exploitation of plantation slaves along the Gambia River. The technology employed to create conditions for maximal rice production had involved extensive experimentation in drainage, construction of polders, desalination, and irrigation that was copied and amplified in the Americas. Even the initial variety of rice cultivated in the Americas was the black rice of West Africa.
The Domestication of Agriculture
It is clear that African contributions to agriculture have underpinned the development of the African continent and to a great extent the Americas as well. This can be seen with respect to several agricultural innovations, including the domestication of millet/sorghum, rice, yams, kola, and coffee. The base line for understanding the contribution of Africans to agricultural development, both in Africa and then in the Americas, is the emergence of civilizations that are reflected in the sculpture of the Nok complex in Nigeria and the enclosures of Zimbabwe in southern Africa. Agriculture, including animal husbandry, evolved independently in Africa, which in a real sense was not only the origin of all people but also the cradle of food production, crop specialization, and experimentation in systems of agriculture and transhumance livestock
management.
African Contributions to Science and Technology
This exploration of technological innovation demonstrates the dimensions of African contributions to scientific discovery. A full historical analysis must await further research. The extensive writings of West African scholars at Timbuktu and other places in the Sahel and savanna undoubtedly contain important information of past discoveries, especially in
mathematics. Moreover, the achievements of the Dogon in astronomy and the contributions to navigation in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, and Atlantic are further examples, just as the knowledge of the chemistry of salt, iron, copper, tin and gold were well understood in Africa, long before any direct trade with Europe.
It has been argued by some that the transfer of rice technology to the Americas had little
if anything to do with African production of rice or the knowledge of labor organization required to produce rice in varying ecological and environmental conditions. In fact, rice production in West Africa was extensively developed, and ranged in production techniques based on a gendered division of labor to the exploitation of plantation slaves along the Gambia River. The technology employed to create conditions for maximal rice production had involved extensive experimentation in drainage, construction of polders, desalination, and irrigation that was copied and amplified in the Americas. Even the initial variety of rice cultivated in the Americas was the black rice of West Africa.
