Handicrafts,Industries and Mining in Pre-Colonial Africa

Handcrafts can be defined as the art of using your skills and hand to designs and fashion things, or it's an activity done with on's hands requiring artistic skills. Such goods may include tools, baskets, and cloth to mention but a few. In pre-colonial Africa different hand crafts industries emerged as man specialized on to other activities apart from agriculture. These included iron making industries, basketry, spinning and weaving cloth making, carving, canoe making and many more.

The Meaning of Handcrafts, Industries, and Mining

Explain the meaning of handcrafts, industries, and mining

Mining industries:

Are industries which involve the process of extracting underground minerals such as copper, gold, tin and salt mining industries.

An industry is a place where transformation of raw materials into finished goods is carried out. The natural resources that existed in a given society determined the nature of industries to be found in a given area.

The Types of Industries and Their Advantages in Pre-Africa

Differentiate the types of industries and their advantages in pre-Africa

Types of industries

• Iron industries
• Salt making
• Copper industry
• Handcrafts industries

Iron industries.

The discovery of iron resulted in drastic socio-political and economic changes. The people who were dealing in iron were called blacksmiths a person whose job is to make and repair things made with iron, learns how to identify rocks containing iron ore.

In the way of trying to maintain monopoly over the knowledge of iron making it was kept as a secret and in many societies it was even ritualised (made a religious thing). Different society had different beliefs as many believed that the women were not allowed to furnace as it was presumed that the iron would be spoilt.

Methods of obtaining and processing iron:

Blacksmiths identified the rocks that were bore iron ore collecting them and smelting the iron found in the trenches or clay furnaces. They had to use charcoal fuel and maintained the high temperatures in the furnaces by fanning the live charcoal with bellows. The smelted iron was then shaped into different forms and tools like spear heads, knives, axes, panga and wire. The places where the iron industries were found included the Venda people of Northern Transvaal, the Mashona people of Zimbabwe, the Iteso of Eastern Uganda, along Kilambo falls, Futa Djalon, Meroe and many others.

Salt making industries

Salt is not only a food ingredient but was also used to preserve food. The increased use of salt resulted into the development of trade and agriculture as salt led to more food production, the use of salt was found in almost all communities as it was important in different communities.

Methods of obtaining and processing salt:

There are four methods of obtaining and processing salt in different communities, these included:

Traditional method

Under the tradition method salt was obtained from the reeds growing in marshy areas, gathered, dried and burnt to ashes. The ashes were then collected, filtered and the liquid was boiled to evaporate, the residue was used as salt. The Manganja people settled along Lake Nyasa commonly used this method.

Mining of salt bearing rocks

Rocks contained salt was dug out and the crystals were used. In here the rocks that contain salt are identified and are dug out, it is probably the most commonly used method of obtaining and processing salt. Place were it is used include Kasese, Bilma, Taghaza, Katwe and many others.

Boiling and evaporation

Under this method as the spring waters boil underneath the earth's surface, they do evaporate and spill over the land surface where they cool to form salt crystals which crystals are used as salt. This was commonly practiced in Uvinza, Shinyanga and also among the Venda people.

Developed among the coastal regions

Along the coastal regions salty waters were trapped into pans and left to evaporate the heat of the sun. The crystals that did remain behind after the evaporation of salty waters were then used as salt.

Gold industries

Gold is one of the most precious minerals and it was not found in every area as other minerals which makes it precious and valuable. The communities that mined gold showed drastic social, political and economic developments.

Methods of obtaining and processing gold

Panning method

This method was commonly carried out along the river beds where alluvial gold was extracted. It was somehow tiresome as people had to try several times in order to obtain the mineral. This method was common among the Sabi people living along river Zambezi

Shaft method

This method was commonly used in the areas with gold veins. Here the gold was dug out by using wooden, stone and iron hammers, then collected in wooden baskets and taken to furnaces were it was turned into different ornaments such as bangles, earrings plus many more.

Copper industries

The copper industry is believed to be the oldest industry that existed in almost all pre colonial African societies. Different societies did participate to the industries due to the fact that the copper existed in their communities.

Methods used in obtaining and processing copper

Identification of a copper belt

The copper was dug out and then taken to the furnaces where it was smelted. The smelted copper was turned into different tools which were relatively important to the society for example wire traps, knives axes etc. the areas that carried out this included places where the copper belt were found for example the Katanga copper belt and Kasese.

Handcrafts industries

Cloth making industries (weaving and spinning):

These industries were concerned with making clothes and developed in areas where cloth making materials were available. Spinning and wearing, making of bark –cloth developed in areas with cotton and appropriate tree barks.

Famous spinning and weaving societies in Africa include Yoruba people of West Africa, Sumbawanga in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique as well as the people found in Lake Rukwa valley in Tanzania as for bark cloth areas North of Lake Victoria, interlacustrine societies for example in Buganda they used the Mvule tree to make (Olubugo) bark cloth which was very expensive and it was only the rich and the nobles who could afford it

Basketry and carpentry

Closely associated with agrarian societies whose style of life was more complex and sophisticated and in places that were privileged with palm and special reeds holding vessels specialised in the making of baskets and mats plus special leather work was needed for making leather clothes, sandals, bags, and beddings from animal skins and hides. It‟s associated with pastoralists such as Tuareg, Beja, Ajar, and Somali who made tents.

Canoe making

The art of making canoes developed in areas bordering lakes, rivers and oceans. Different societies who carried this had their major economic activity as fishing which in many cases supplemented agriculture.

This therefore means that nature of resources available in a given society determined the nature of handcrafts industry present in that society.

Trade in pre colonial Africa

Trade refers to the exchange of goods or services with money or other goods or is the buying and selling of goods

The development of agriculture brought important economic changes as people were now able to produce surplus food which is more than needed to feed their own immediate family thus the surplus could be traded between neighboring settlement in exchange for raw materials luxuries and other items not produced within the community

It is clear that societies are not fully self sufficient. Therefore, interactions say between pastoralists with cultivators and agriculturalists with craftsmen in order to exchange goods are required. The major means of distributions from one hand to another were through gifts, tributes and taxation.

The exchanges carried out were not aimed at getting profit but it was after the use value of commodities and also strengthening relations. For example a person who exchanged his cattle with millet was not in search of profit.

Before the emergence of groups of people who specialised in trade the exchange system was barter this involved the exchange of goods for goods.

As societies developed trade development was also inevitable basing on the fact that some societies were not having specific resources which could only be obtained through the exchange. Increase in surplus production supplemented with the development of industries, the presence of safe routes and the regional specialisation not forgetting the love for adventure cemented the development and expansion of trading activities in pre colonial Africa.

The expansion of trading activities resulted into two major types of trade emerging in pre colonial Africa.

1. The local trade (internal exchange relations). This developed within given community.
2. Regional trade (long distance trade). Where there emerged groups of people who specialized and could buy goods from producers in order to sell them later at a profit.

The Uses of Different Types of Minerals in Pre-Colonial Africa

Explain the uses of different types of minerals in pre-colonial Africa

All in all the handcrafts and mining industries had far reaching effects to the communities and societies of pre colonial Africa. Increased food production was evident as tool of production was improved up on through the technological development, trade was also increased as the volume of food traded and the demand increased this in turn acted as a source of income to many societies which later rose socially, politically and economically more settled populations and communities new political system and organizations, the blacksmith became recognized, influential and famous people in the society, the iron tools could dig and cut faster and deeper than the stone tools and many others.

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