Early Communities In West Africa
The first communities in West Africa were made up of extended families. An extended family included you parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. These groups may be as many as 20-25 people and usually the group was lead by a male elder.
As time went on the groups found that there were times where they needed more people to accomplish something. They may have needed to do some large scale farming, fend off an attack, or stop a flood. They would in these cases combine with other extended families to accomplish this.
Eventually people realized it made more sense to live in larger groups because people didn't all need to be farmers, people could specialize in what they did best and trade for their needs. Permanent villages, towns, and cities sprung up in areas where there was lots of resources or trade routes. Sometimes these areas were able to conquer their neighbors due to their wealth and ability to hire soldiers. These areas then turned into the first kingdoms of West Africa such as Mali, Ghana, and Songhai.
The first communities in West Africa were made up of extended families. An extended family included you parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. These groups may be as many as 20-25 people and usually the group was lead by a male elder.
As time went on the groups found that there were times where they needed more people to accomplish something. They may have needed to do some large scale farming, fend off an attack, or stop a flood. They would in these cases combine with other extended families to accomplish this.
Eventually people realized it made more sense to live in larger groups because people didn't all need to be farmers, people could specialize in what they did best and trade for their needs. Permanent villages, towns, and cities sprung up in areas where there was lots of resources or trade routes. Sometimes these areas were able to conquer their neighbors due to their wealth and ability to hire soldiers. These areas then turned into the first kingdoms of West Africa such as Mali, Ghana, and Songhai.
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