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History (Evan Grade 5) > African farmers > Flashcards

African farmers Flashcards

1
Q

When did the first farmers come to South Africa?

A

1700 to 2000 years ago
ie early Iron Age/ late Stone Age

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2
Q

Where did the first farmers settle in South Africa?

A

On the east coast where it has summer rain

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3
Q

Where did the first South African farmers come from?

A

From central and west Africa, from countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon

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4
Q

Describe the first farmers in South Africa

A
  • Kept animals
  • Grew crops
  • Made iron tools
  • lived in kraals / villages
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5
Q

Compare the early African farmers to the Khoi-Khoi and San people

A

Similar
- both kept animals
- all spoke Bantu languages

Different
- spoke different languages
- farmers were less nomadic than San and Khoi
- relied mainly on their farming for food whereas the Khoi mainly on collecting food from the wild (hunted and gathered)
- farmers farmed crops, Khoi did not, they gathered

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6
Q

Why did African farmers move into Southern Africa?

A

Their water sources in Sahara desert were drying up.
Therefore
They were looking for new fields and pastures with more fertile land and better water sources.

South Africa had summer rainfall (good for crops)

Also: possibly conflict with other groups (eg San)

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7
Q

Describe how early farmers and Khoi /San people interacted with each other

A
  • fought over land and food
  • intermarried
  • traded
    -sometimes khoi / San became slaves for farmers
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8
Q

Discuss the early African farmers and cattle

A
  • They kept large herds of cattle
  • cattle was a sign of wealth
  • valued for their milk and hides
  • used as lobola (payment for bride)
  • skins for clothing
  • horns for containers
  • they only use them for meat on special occasions
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9
Q

What kinds of crops did the early farmers grow?

A
  • gourds (similar to pumpkins)
  • legumes (eg beans & cow peas)
  • sorghum
  • millet (bullrush & finger)
  • wild melons
  • vegetables
  • others grains eg maize
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10
Q

What protein did the early farmers eat?

A
  • Game (hunted)
  • goats and sheep (slaughtered)
  • fish & shellfish (if close to the sea)
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11
Q

Describe the houses of the early African farmers

A

Small
Beehive shaped
Made from grass matting and clay

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12
Q

What did early farmers trade with? And what did they trade for?

A

Traded : Cattle and Iron
Traded for: Hunter gathers doing a ceremony to make rain (which would make crops grow)

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13
Q

What did the early farmers make?

A
  • tools from iron
  • pottery
  • gold and copper ornaments
  • huts
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14
Q

Describe early farming communities

A
  • They were made out of homesteads
  • Which had cattle farms in the middle and households around
  • they had chiefs and elders
  • Elders were in charge of homesteads and consulted about major decisions
  • chiefs handed out land
  • an adult knew he belonged to the community because he had land
  • strangers were welcomed and given land
  • herders and hunter gatherers sometimes joined farming communities
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15
Q

What is the Iron Age?

A

The time period when weapons and tools were base from iron

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16
Q

How do archaeologists know that African farmers and hunter gatherers traded?

A

They found in farming sites things that Hunter gatherer and herders made eg
- sea shells
- Reed mats,
- ostrich egg shell ornaments
- Bone arrowheads

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17
Q

Where did the first farmers settle in South Africa?

A

On the east coast

18
Q

How was a person’s wealth measured (among early African farmers)?

A

How much cattle they own

19
Q

What is a homestead?

A

It is a yard with households in it.

There is a cattle kraal in the centre
Huts in a circle around it.

20
Q

What was a household?

A

A place where a wife and her children lived in the village

21
Q

Describe the social structure of a village of early farmers.

A

Households were controlled the wives.
The husbands owned the household and cattle.
Headmen were in charge of homesteads (groups of households).
Headmen reported to the chief.
The chief was the most powerful person in the village, wealthiest and owned largest homestead.

Decisions were taken by the headman together

22
Q

What tool would use to break up the soil?

A

Hoe

23
Q

What tool would use to harvest your crops?

A

Sickle

24
Q

What tool would use to cut up your crops?

A

Knife

25
Q

What tool would use to chop down trees?

A

Axe

26
Q

What jobs did the women do (in early African farming)

A
  • maintain the home
  • rear children
  • collect fire wood and water
  • water the crops
  • tend the crops
  • made pottery
27
Q

What jobs did the men do (in early African farming)

A
  • the men were chiefs and were in charge of making decisions
  • looked after the livestock
  • cleared the land for farming
  • smelted ore to make tools
  • made tools
28
Q

What kind of farming did the early African farmers do? Describe this

A

Subsistence
(They get what they needed to live from)

29
Q

What animals (livestock) did early African farmers keep?

A

Cattle
Sheep
Goats

30
Q

What materials did farmers first make tools out of? Why?

A

Stone, bone and wood
Because
- easy to find
- hard
- durable
- best thing available at the time ( metals hadn’t been discovered yet)
- could use up by-products of their everyday lives)

31
Q

What materials did farmers first make tools out of? Why?

A

Stone, bone and wood
Because
- easy to find
- hard
- durable
- best thing available at the time ( metals hadn’t been discovered yet)
- could use up by-products of their everyday lives)

32
Q

How do we know that some African farmers were also fishermen?

A

There is archaeological evidence of sea shells and fish bones in some kraals in the eastern cape

33
Q

How did a man become the chief?

A

By having a lot of seed, grain and cattle.
He could exchange cattle for a wife. More wives made him more powerful because it meant he could grow and store more crops (because the women & children worked in the fields)

34
Q

In early African farming, what was the children’s role?

A

To help their mom with the crop farming.

35
Q

What is a patriarchal society?

A

men were the leaders (rulers and chief)

36
Q

What is a chiefdom?

A

A group of kraals all with the same chief.

37
Q

What was the territory of a chief called.

A

a chiefdom

38
Q

What was the difference between the San/Khoi and the early African farmers’ social structure.

A

San/Khoi community:
everyone contributed equally
there was no hierachy - decisions were made by the whole group.
Farming community was an autocracy called a chiefdom i.e. the chief would make all the big decisions AND everyone had specific roles.

39
Q

Discuss early African farmers and the permanence of their homes.

A

They were semi-nomadic.
They didn’t stay in the same place permanently,. They moved occasionally - when the soil became less fertile due to over-farming.

40
Q

What is an autocracy

A

A society where the leader (the chief) makes all the big decisions.

41
Q

Describe the leadership in the first famer’s communities

A

The first farmers were an autocratic patriarchal society where there a chief who made all of the big decisions and the men were in charge

42
Q
A

History (Evan Grade 5) (2 decks)

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