Black Experience | Page 5

of either racial origin or
of racial contact. In fact, they could just as likely be the result of
spontaneous and local variations within a given population grouping. In

contrast, recent anthropological research is putting less emphasis on
bone measurement and shape and, instead, is turning increasingly to
technical analysis particularly through the examination of blood types.
Making and using tools are what differentiate man from animals. The
earliest tools which have survived the wear of time were made of stone.
As man's techniques of handling stone improved, so did his tools. The
hand axe, a large oval of chipped flint varying in size and weight, came
into common usage about half a millon years ago, and it has been found
in much of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This too seems to have had an
African origin. While scholars are not certain about its use, it was
probably used for killing animals and for chopping meat.
The first achievement which radically altered man's condition was the
invention of tools. The second achievement was his learning of
primitive agriculture which transformed the hunter into the farmer. The
domestication of animals and the planting and cultivating of crops had
begun in the Near East, but the practice shortly spread to the Nile
Valley in Northeast Africa. At the same time, farming communities
sprang up throughout the Sahara which, at that time, was going through
one of its wet phases. This made it well-suited to early agriculture.
Farming permitted men to live together in communities and to pursue a
more sedentary way of life. Actually, some Africans had already
adopted a sedentary community life before the arrival of farming.
Making hooks from bones led to the development of a few fishing
communities near present-day Kenya.
As the communities along the Nile grew in size and number, society
began to develop a complex urban civilization. By 3,200 B.C. the
communities along the Nile had become politically united under the
first of a line of great pharaohs. These early Egyptians undoubtedly
were comprised of a racial mixture. The ancient Greeks viewed the
Egyptians as being dark in complexion, and it has been estimated that
the Egyptian population at the beginning was at least one-third Negro.
Herodotus says that it was impossible to tell whether the influence of
the Egyptians on the Ethiopians was stronger than that of the
Ethiopians on the Egyptians.
What Herodotus and the Greeks referred to as Ethiopia was, in fact, the
kingdom of Kush. It was located up the Nile from Egypt. As the
Egyptian empire grew in strength and wealth, it strove to expand its

power over its neighbors. Egypt sent several military expeditions south
along the Nile to try to conquer the black people of Kush. They failed
and the Kushites, in turn, endeavored to extend their power over Egypt.
In 751 B.C., Kush invaded Egypt and, shortly thereafter, conquered it.
This occupation of Egypt lasted for over a hundred years, until both the
Kushites and the Egyptians were defeated by an invading army from
Assyria in 666 B.C. At that point, the Kushites returned to the safety of
their homeland.
The Kushites and the Egyptians had been defeated by a superior
technology. While they were fighting with weapons made of copper
and bronze, the Assyrians fought with iron. Methods of smelting and
working iron had been developed centuries before by the Hittites who
lived in Asia Minor. The use of iron spread across the Near East,
becoming the basis for the Assyrian power. After their defeat in 666
B.C., the Kushites and the Egyptians rapidly adopted the new iron
technology. The coming of the Iron Age to Africa meant the production
of better weapons and tools. Better weapons provided safety from
hostile foes and protection from ferocious beasts. Better axes meant
that man could live in densely forested regions where he had not been
able to live before. Better farm implements meant that more food could
be grown with less work, this again encouraged the development of
denser population centers.
By 300 B.C., Kush had become an important iron-producing center. Its
capital, Meroe located on the upper Nile, developed into a thriving
commercial and industrial city. Archeological diggings have unearthed
the remains of streets, houses, sprawling palaces, and huge piles of slag
left from its iron industry. When scholars are able to decipher the
Kushitic writings much more will be known about the culture and way
of life of this early black empire. In the first century A.D. a Kushite
official, whom the Bible refers to as the Ethiopian eunuch, was
converted to Christianity by the apostle Philip while returning from a
visit to Jerusalem. Shortly, Christianity spread throughout the entire
kingdom. When Kush was defeated by the Axumites, founders of
modern Ethiopia, several smaller Nubian, Christian kingdoms survived.
Not