INTERACTIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA

Social and Economic Factors for Interactions

Interaction can be defined as the way in which people from a given community came into contact with another community. As humans cannot fully live alone due to the progressing day to day needs; interaction is inevitable among people because through interaction we was able to access different requirements. However, aspects of socio-economic development further strengthened the need for interaction.

The Social Factors which gave Rise to Interactions among the People of Africa

Explain the social factors which gave rise to interactions among the people of Africa

Political and social factors

• War: Some interactions were brutal and hostile as some strong communities attacked the weaker ones in order to control them. Some societies succeeded in their struggle while others failed. For example, from 1820s Egypt was in constant attacks to control the North-east and East Africa.
• Migration: As communities grew in number this lead to a scarcity of resources, which forced others to migrate in search of resources that were and meeting other people with whom they created new social relations for example the Bantu migration and the Ngoni migration.
• Intermarriage: This occurs when two people of different groups married and can be seen in the broader context of mixing of different groups in marriage, cohabitation or sexual relations. Therefore, this made African people interact and begin new communities.
• Religion:Africans had their traditional African religions which acted as a symbol of unity and togetherness. Their religions brought them together.
• Music and games:African societies had a rich history of music and games, as people from different communities interacted on different occasions sharing their experiences; this was mainly for entertainment and recreational purposes.

The Economic Factors that gave Rise to the Interactions among the People of Africa

Explain the economic factors that gave Rise to the interactions among the people of Africa

Economic factors

• Trade: Different societies had to move in search of commodities which led to interaction. For example, people of Zambia, Mozambique and Rwanda had trade links with people of East Africa and in North Africa people interacted with West Africans through Trans-Saharan trade.
• Search for new land: Areas that were not conducive for human settlement and production activities were left behind and those that with conducive conditions like fertile soil and good climate did attract many people. For example agricultural community did shift from areas that were infertile to those areas with reliable rainfall and fertile soil.

The Impact of the Economic Interactions

Explain the impact of the economic interactions

The economic impacts of the interaction can be grouped into two as positive and negative impacts as elaborated below:

Positive economic impacts

• Development of technical skills and new ideas: Interaction led people of Africa from different communities to share their skills and ideas for economic growth.
• Growth of new towns and cities:Interaction among African people led to the development of new towns as most of the populated areas grew economically due to the population increase and production activities such as trade and agricultural activities.
• Foundation for future economic development:The foundation was made through improvement of infrastructures and social services which aimed to meet the socio-economic demands of the growing population.
• Intensification of agricultural production to meet the demand on the market: Following the market demands for agricultural products as they were highly demanded then intensification of agricultural production was inevitable.

Negative economic impacts

• Overexploitation of African resources: Interaction among African people resulted in overexploitation of African resources through trade which was unequal in nature.
• Emergence of classes among the Africans: Classes emerged dividing poor Africans from rich Africans who accumulated wealth from different economic, social and political activities.
• Exposure of Africa to the outside world:African country and its resources came to be exposed to the outside world due to interaction.Decrease of productive manpower due to slave trade; through interaction the outsiders started to take slaves from Africa to their mother countries as labor power.

Impacts of social interaction

• Population increase: Areas that attracted large numbers of people became highly populated, especially productive areas. The increased population resulted into socio-economic development in the given areas which facilitated immigration.
• Emergence of new languages: Asdifferent people interacted new languages emerged. For example, the Swahili language emerged due to interaction between Arabs, Africans and Europeans.

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