Sub-Saharan Africa: Bantu Peoples and Iron

Iron in Africa:

Sub-Saharan Africans Developed metallurgy at a very early stage. It is thought that they developed the use of iron way before other civilizations.  The Iron Age came very early to Africa around the sixth century BC. They started producing steel in carbon furnaces. Iron technology spread very slowly throughout Africa. They began to extract the metal from its ore, which spread throughout the continent through the Bantu migrations.

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAFRCA/IRONAGE.HTM

Irons Impact on Bantu Peoples:

The Bantu people developed the iron blade, which made cutting and gathering crops much easier. As agriculture grew, so did the Bantu populations. The advantage they had with iron tools, most Bantu’s neighboring peoples merged with or conquered by the Bantu’s. When they merged and conquered their neighboring peoples, they influenced language and culture of almost all sub-Saharan peoples. Because of the iron influence, many Africans speak a Bantu language, or language with Bantu roots.

http://ceoleadershipacd.org/mrweigel/bantu.htm

It is amazing how something so simple to us as iron had such an impact on the ancient Bantu people. It created a spread of culture and language of the Bantu people. They were able to do much more with their crops after they learned how to smelter the iron to produce tools and weapons. Simple objects, such as iron, have had a great impact in history.