Indigenous African Metallurgy: Nature and Culture

Oxford Research Encyclopedia, 2018

This is an abstract of a more important paper in preparation. It addresses the emergence of iron metallurgy in Africa, a hotly debated topic

The development of metallurgy was a turning point in human history in West Africa. The use of metal tools allowed humans to have some control over their environment, and enabled them to transform their settlement patterns, political organizations, and modes of economic production and warfare. Researchers have often speculated that metallurgy techniques were developed earlier in other parts of Africa and the Mediterranean and then introduced through processes of diffusion from outside influences into the cultures of West Africa. West African skills of metal working – and particularly iron working -- were later transferred to locations in the Americas as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In this article, I provide evidence of early metallurgy developments within West Africa itself, as seen through a focus on the practice of metallurgy by the Nok culture of central Nigeria. Finally, as to better understand the importance of metallurgy, I discuss the potential discourse between West African archaeologists and those that study African diasporas.

Journal of World Prehistory, 2009

The debate on West African metallurgies cannot be properly understood without reference to the colonial template that featured Africa as the receiving partner in all crucial social, economic, and technological development. The interesting debate that took place in West Africa during the Colonial Period was more meta-theoretical than factual. These conflicting glosses, despite their lack of empirical foundations, have constrained the nature of archaeological research and oversimplified the dynamics of the many facets of technological innovation. The relative boom in archaeological research that took place from the 1960s onwards resulted in an exponential growth of factual information. Challenging evidence has emerged from Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Togo, and Senegal. The picture that emerges from this survey calls for more sophisticated explanations for the origins of West African metallurgies away from the single non-African source hypothesis.

Early Metallurgy in Nigeria, 2020

This is an extract from the book "Early Metallurgy in Nigeria and presents evidence of Early African Iron and Copper/Bronze Cultures, contrary to information in published archaeological literature

Over the course of the last 50 years, the field of archaeometallurgy has grown dramatically, becoming firmly established within the realm of archaeological science. The archaeology and ethnography of African metallurgy have made a major contribution to this field, providing valuable information on the impressive range of raw materials and techniques that past metal producers and metalworkers used, as well as providing important insights into the socio-cultural settings within which these technologies operated. This paper summarises the role that Azania has played in communicating some of this research, and charts the development of African archaeometallurgy through Azania's pages.

African Archaeological Review, 1993

This paper examines the history of African metallurgy in the era of Atlantic trade. It reports on excavations at the John Reeder foundry site in St Thomas, Jamaica. The transfer of African technologies to the Caribbean reveals the plantation economy's dependence on African technical expertise, not merely slave labour. The comprehensive focus on the Atlantic world also informs archaeological investigations of African-European interaction in West Central Africa. The complexity of Atlantic technological history is characterized by a diverse range of dynamic interactions, rather than the inevitable decline of Africanderived systems. Only by identifying processes as well as products of African technological interaction will it be possible fully to reconstruct the forging of the African past. Cet article examine l'histoire de la métallurgie africaine à l'ère du commerce atlantique. Il rend compte des excavations au site de la fonderie John Reeder, à St Thomas, en Jamaïque. Le transfert des technologies africaines aux Antilles révèle à quel point l'économie de plantation dépendait de l'expertise technique africaine, et pas seulement de l'esclavage. L'accent placé sur le monde atlantique inspire aussi les recherches archéologiques sur l'interaction afro-européenne à l'ouest de l'Afrique centrale. La complexité de l'histoire technologique atlantique est caractérisée par une gamme diverse d'interactions dynamiques, plutôt que par l'inévitable déclin des systèmes africains dérivés. Ce n'est qu'en identifiant les processus aussi bien que les produits de l'interaction technologique africaine qu'il sera possible de reconstruire complètement l'élaboration du passé africain.

2015

One of the challenges of obtaining authentic information on the historical foundation of metal technology in Africa is lack of data. This is also the case in establishing the great role played by the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria in establishing an indigenous metal industry that could have ushered in the much celebrated industrial revolution at least in this part of the planet. This dearth of authentic written information has given to two schools of thoughts,one that claims an independence of origin and the other that proffers the theory of diffusion. This dichotomy necessitates further investigation. This ‘work’ tries to establish more facts on this by digging some unknown areas in African historical archive. The area of Igboland discovered is Okpogho Community in Igboland of Eastern Nigeria. The available evidence reversed the old conception of the cradle of metal technology in Igboland and by extension, Africa. The result shows an independence of origin in African metallurgical evolut...

The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America, 2015