Central Africa - Agriculture, Revolution, Subsistence

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Hunters who had roamed the savanna settled beside the rivers and perfected their skills as fishermen. 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data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa">Central Africa</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/place/central-Africa">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref40633"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Early-society-and-economy">Early society and economy</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40634"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Early-society-and-economy#ref40634">Early toolmakers</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40635"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/The-agricultural-revolution">The agricultural revolution</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40636"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/The-Iron-Age">The Iron Age</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40637"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Growth-of-trade">Growth of trade</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref40638"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Growth-of-trade#ref40638">Central Africa and the outer world</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40639"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Development-of-the-slave-trade">Development of the slave trade</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40640"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Exploitation-of-ivory">Exploitation of ivory</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref40641"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Colonialism">Colonialism</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40642"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Colonialism#ref40642">Establishment of European colonies</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref40643"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/Economic-organization">Economic organization</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref225766"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/place/central-Africa/The-end-of-the-colonial-period">The end of the colonial period</a></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/central-Africa">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/images-videos">Images</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/81/7181-050-7ED6E076/dam-Inga-Falls-Congo-River-Matadi-Democratic.jpg" data-href="/media/1/102127/851" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/81/7181-004-AC3371AE/dam-Inga-Falls-Congo-River-Matadi-Democratic.jpg" alt="Congo River: hydroelectric dam at Inga Falls" height="50" /> </a> <a 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Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). </div> <div class="type-menu"> <label for="feedback-type" class="label mb-10">Feedback Type</label> <select id="feedback-type" class="form-select mb-30" name="feedbackTypeId" required> <option value="" selected="selected">Select a type (Required)</option> <option value="1">Factual Correction</option> <option value="2">Spelling/Grammar Correction</option> <option value="3">Link Correction</option> <option value="4">Additional Information</option> <option value="5">Other</option> </select> </div> <label for="feedback" class="label mb-10">Your Feedback</label> <textarea id="feedback" class="form-control mb-30" name="feedback" maxlength="3000" rows="7" required></textarea> <button class="btn btn-blue" type="submit">Submit Feedback</button> </form> <div class="success-messaging d-none mt-30"> <div class="title">Thank you for your feedback</div> <p>Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-websites-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom font-weight-bold"> External Websites </div> <div class="pb-20"> <ul class="list-unstyled mt-20 lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.fao.org/3/Y1997e/y1997e0k.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Central Africa</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://slcc.pressbooks.pub/worldgeography/chapter/5-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Salt Lake Community College - Introduction to World Regional Geography - Central Africa</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Geography_(Human)/Book%3A_World_Regional_Geography_-_People_Places_and_Globalization/07%3A_Subsaharan_Africa/7.04%3A_Central_Africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Social Sci LibreTexts - Central Africa</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="toc-header-marker"></div> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 js-header-ai-ask-button d-none btn-sm btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 mr-0 mr-lg-10 ml-5 ml-sm-10 ml-lg-0 p-10"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> <div class="md-byline module-spacing "> <div class="font-serif font-12"> <span class="written-by text-gray-700"> Written by </span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/David-Birmingham/285" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">David Birmingham</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black"> Professor of Modern History, University of Kent at Canterbury, England. Author of <i>Trade and Conflict in Angola </i>and others.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> David Birmingham</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-11-19T00:00:00CST" >Nov 19, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="bg-gray-50 p-15 rounded module-spacing recent-news d-flex flex-column float-false"> <div> <h2 class="font-weight-bold font-14 m-0 d-inline"> News <span class="text-gray-600">•</span> </h2> <div class="recent-news-item first-recent-news-item d-inline"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/africa/article/2001504002/un-says-over-5mln-people-in-west-central-africa-impacted-by-floods" rel="nofollow">UN says over 5mln people in West, Central Africa impacted by floods</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 17, 2024, 2:18 AM ET (The Standard) <button class="btn btn-link d-inline p-0 font-12 js-toggle-recent-news"> <span class="text-gray-500">...</span><span>(Show more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </div> <div class="rest-of-recent-news-items"> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.dw.com/en/equatorial-guinea-sex-scandal-sparks-debate-on-consent/a-70757531" rel="nofollow">Equatorial Guinea: Sex scandal sparks debate on consent</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 11, 2024, 9:10 PM ET (Deutsche Welle) </span> </div> <button class="js-toggle-recent-news d-flex btn btn-unstyled font-14 pr-10 rounded-sm mt-10" aria-label="Toggle additional news items"> Show less <em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_less"></em> </button> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="2" id="ref40635">  <span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">About 10,000 years ago Central Africa began to undergo an economic <span id="ref467553"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Neolithic-Revolution" class="md-crosslink ">revolution</a>. It started in the north, where a new dry phase in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Earth" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Earth’s</a> history forced people to make better use of a more limited part of their <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="environment" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/environment" data-type="MW">environment</a> as the desert spread southward once more. Hunters who had roamed the savanna settled beside the rivers and perfected their skills as fishermen. Gatherers who had harvested wild grain on the plains settled beside lakes, where they could sow some of their gleanings as seed in the moist and fertile soils left by the waters that withdrew at the end of each wet season. The northern border of Central Africa became one of the cradles of the world’s food-producing revolution.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The first features of the new way of life in northern Central Africa were vegeculture and <span id="ref754701"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/agriculture" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">agriculture</a>. Vegeculture enabled people to collect wild plants on a more <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="systematic" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/systematic" data-type="EB">systematic</a> basis and to protect the regions where wild tubers grew most plentifully. The regular harvesting of wild roots led to the perfection of specialized digging tools. Stone hoes were ground to a finer polish than the chipped cutting tools of an earlier age. Gradually women and men learned how to clear plots of fertile land and deliberately plant a piece of each root or tuber they ate to allow it to regenerate. They began to select the plant types that most readily lent themselves to domestication, to the ennoblement of regular crops, and to the development of agriculture. The white Guinea <span id="ref754702"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/yam" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">yam</a>, <em>Dioscorea rotundata</em>, was the basis of the new root farming, which enabled the population to grow in the northern savanna from about 5000 <span class="text-smallcaps">bc</span>.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The second phase of the local <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/agricultural-revolution" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">agricultural revolution</a> was even more important and had an impact over a wide area of the tropical world. A type of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/cereal-farming" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">cereal farming</a> based on wild seed of the <span id="ref754703"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/millet-plant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">millet</a> and <span id="ref754704"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/sorghum-grain" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sorghum</a> families was first developed in the northern savanna. Millet farming became particularly successful in the tropics because, unlike wheat and barley, it did not require the long daylight hours of summer that occur in the temperate climes. Tropical cereals spread from Central Africa not only into <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/western-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">West Africa</a> but also eastward to India and eventually southward to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Southern-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Southern Africa</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The third phase of the food-producing revolution brought an increase in the scale of food production and in its quality. The tending of trees and the gathering of fruit were probably as old as any other form of vegeculture. One of the most valuable of the tree crops was the oil palm, <em><span id="ref467554"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/oil-palm" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Elaeis guineensis</a></em>. The preparation of palm fruits to make cooking oil <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="enhanced" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enhanced" data-type="MW">enhanced</a> the nutritional quality of the diet with both proteins and vitamins, further <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="enhancing" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enhancing" data-type="MW">enhancing</a> health and leading to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/population-growth" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">population growth</a> and the search for new land to be colonized and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cultivated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultivated" data-type="MW">cultivated</a>. The tending of trees also enhanced the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/quality-of-life" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">quality of life</a> in another dimension: some palm trees could be tapped for their sap, and the juice became the basis of a widespread wine industry, adding a festivity to communal life.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">A fourth and last aspect of early farming in Central Africa was the arrival of a new family of plants. This was the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/banana-plant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">banana</a> family (<span id="ref467555"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/plant/Musaceae" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Musaceae</a>), originally domesticated in the islands of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Southeast-Asia" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Southeast Asia</a>. Banana plants, like yam tubers, were <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="propagated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propagated" data-type="MW">propagated</a> by cuttings and roots rather than by seeds, but they gradually spread from neighbour to neighbour until the crop had become a dominant one in many parts of Central Africa. Banana plants supplied edible roots and textile fibres, but the two fundamental contributions were vegetable bananas (plantains) for cooking and sweet bananas for brewing. The banana flourished particularly well in the wetter areas—in the forests, along the rivers, and in the mountains—and in many societies it became the essential crop. Steamed, baked, fried, or boiled, the banana became the staple carbohydrate of many Central African peoples, and they washed it down with a banana beer rich in nutrients.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The agricultural revolution in Central Africa was paralleled by another nutritional change as people became more skilled at <span id="ref754705"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/fishing-food-production" class="md-crosslink ">catching fish</a>. Fishermen—like farmers but unlike hunters—could settle in more permanent village <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="communities" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communities" data-type="MW">communities</a>. Their diet was richer and more varied. They could own more possessions than simply the weapons and clothes they carried with them. They could make rafts and canoes to transport people and goods on the numerous rivers and lakes. The most important technical <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="innovation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation" data-type="MW">innovation</a> was the use of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/clay-mineral" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">clay</a> for making pots for cooking, brewing, and storing food or drink. A whole “fish-stew revolution” occurred when cooking could be done in earthenware vessels. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/pottery" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Pottery</a> also gives the earliest clues about the artistic styles of Central Africa; dotted and waved patterns were drawn on pot rims.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The growth of settled communities of hamlets and villages to which food was taken by carriers and canoes led to changes in architecture, social organization, land law and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/property-law" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">property rights</a>, and warfare and the defense of territory. Although most families probably remained <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="self-sufficient" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/self-sufficient" data-type="EB">self-sufficient</a> and did their own building, thatching, net making, and pot throwing, some skills may have been concentrated in the hands of a few people of authority or experience. Little evidence survives of <span id="ref754706"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Neolithic" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Neolithic</a> religion and ritual, but societies surely would have had priests to mediate between the gods and the mortals and to assist with the search for security in an age when the natural forces of fire or flood, plague or famine, were subject only to the most limited human control.</p><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">One important change that entered into the Neolithic world of Central Africa in the last millennium <span class="text-smallcaps">bc</span> was the spread of new languages. These were spoken in the relatively prosperous and thickly peopled savanna and plateau regions of the Cameroon-Nigeria borderland and came to be known as the <span id="ref467556"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Bantu-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Bantu languages</a>, meaning simply the languages of the people, the <em>bantu</em>. Languages spread along lines of communication: they followed trade as specialists offered their finest pots or their best axes for sale to their neighbours. They became the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="vernacular" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vernacular" data-type="MW">vernacular</a> of the clustered villages. They were picked up by country folk who came to market. They were carried into new frontier lands by pioneers seeking less-crowded spaces. Within 1,000 to 2,000 years the eastern Bantu languages had spread across the northern border of Central Africa to reach the highlands of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/eastern-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">East Africa</a>. Meanwhile, the speakers of the western Bantu languages had found new <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="niches" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/niches" data-type="MW">niches</a> in the great forest and established <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="rapport" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rapport" data-type="MW">rapport</a> with the old hunting and foraging communities of both the coast and the river basins.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Not all the peoples of Central Africa were converted to Bantu speech and to the economic way of life of their new neighbours in the first flush of contact. Some hunting societies, commonly known as <span id="ref754707"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twa" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Twa</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pygmy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">(Pygmies)</a>, retained much of their own <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW">culture</a> and lifestyle for another 2,000 years. Some intermarriage occurred with the Bantu speakers of the new villages, and the exchange of hunted meat for grown produce fostered a fairly close symbiotic relationship. Eventually even the Twa groups spoke the language of the new majority, which came to outnumber them in nearly all parts of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/region-geography" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">region</a>. In the deepest forest, however, the hunting societies were able to protect traditional values to a marked degree. Even the great social and political upheavals that accompanied the advent of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Iron-Age" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Iron Age</a> did not unduly disturb their long-standing and highly specialized relationship with the tropical environment.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":3,"pagesTotal":10,"pageId":102127,"pageLength":1252,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":3,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Central Africa - Agriculture, Revolution, Subsistence | Britannica