INTERACTION

Interaction is a state in which people from one community got into contact with one another. This links and contacts were established by Africans since the late Stone Age and Iron Age up to the middle of the 19 century when Africans was not yet colonized by Europeans. However the interaction continued to exist in the manner which favored the white men during the colonial period. After 1960 the Africans still interacted in order to help themselves achieve development in the new period of independence. In pre-colonial African societies existed two types of interaction. Social interaction were contacts in which various group of people with similar language characteristics moved from their cradle land and settled in other regions occupied by indigenous people known as the huntergatherers or Bushmen. Economic interaction were contacts which were based on commerce between the people of Africa. Different African groups crossed their boundaries together with commodities which were exchanged in other African societies. For more SOCIAL INTERACTION: Social interaction took place through migration, religion, war, music, medicine and marriage. 1. MIGRATION East Africa belongs to four main language groups namely the Khoisan, the Cushites, the Nilotes and the Bantu. Historical evidences show that the earliest inhabitants of East Africa were of Khoisan origin. Their speech is described as had “click” sound. It was similar to the language of present day KhoiKhoi and San of South Africa. They were nomadic hunters and gathers. These early large groups interacted with the larger Cushites, Bantu and the Nilotes communities that began settling in East Africa from the first century A.D. The remnants of them include Sandawe and Hadzabe of Tanzania and the Okiek (Dorobo) of Kenya. The origin home kind of the Nilotes was in the Nile valley in Sudan. Some Bantu communities of East Africa included Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Chagga and Pare of Tanzania, kikuyu, Kamba. Luhya of Kenya and Baganda, Basoga and Banyoro of Uganda. Through interaction of one community practiced medicine interacted with another led to some changes such as introduction of iron technology in East Africa. 2. RELIGION Religion played a crucial role in all African societies. Religious beliefs were taken seriously and affected every phase of life. There was a variety of religious activities in pre-colonial Africa. These included burial rites purifications, rituals naming of ceremonies and prayers to bless soldiers before they went to war. Religious activities took place at different levels such as family level, clan level and community level e.g. The Bushmen of Congo held prayers before going to hunt as they believed that God was the source of all food. Among the Asante people of West Africa the king of Asante (Asantehene) based his right to office on the possession of the Royal or Golden stool, Asantehene was regarded as the chief priest. Natural cults also existed in many parts of Africa. Their main aim was to please the spirits and legendary heroes e.g. the juju practiced in Western Africa the Shona held a cult called Mwani. The king of Shona (Mwanamtapa) was regarded as decline. 3. WARS African communities engaged in war from time to time; they fought with various reasons such as to increase the number of the herds of livestock, to get fertile land for agriculture purposes and expansion of the kingdom e.g. Buganda conquered Buddu, Karagwe and Busoga to expand their kingdom by 1839. Egyptian army had established their base at Gondokora the area located around Southern Khartoum and by 1869, Egyptian had raided and destroyed the Lango and Ancholi religion in the modern day Uganda. 4. MUSIC AND DANCES African music and dances brought people together; communities’ rites and ceremonies were accompanied by songs and dances. Every African society developed songs for work, Labourers sang while clearing fields, sowing and harvesting goods example of dances were Mdundiko among the Zaramo and Sindimba of Makonde. The Yomba of West Africa performed Orik music where by other songs praised or condemned certain characteristics including leadership and relation with neighbours. Dance were also performed for different purposes; some dance were open to everyone while others restricted to a certain secret society professional and artisans example Chagga men and women performed a dance called Rring during wedding ceremonies and Luguru led their dance called Gubi. 5. MEDICINE African’s had medicine men and women who played important role both spiritually and medically. Those who practice medicine interacted with many members of the society as patient visited some of the well known medicine men and women. Some medicine men and women were also political advisors and leaders example Kinjekitile Ngwale of Southern Tanzania most of the medicine were extracted from plant roots, barks and leaves e.g. The (neem tree) Mwarobaini is mostly used by various medicine in Matebele. 6. MARRIAGE Marriage occupies a position of great importance in African communities. Every member of the society jugs to build their own family. In Buganda the Kabaka married from different clans in order to enhance political unity in the kingdom. Therefore social interactions strengthened through marriage. At the same time marriage led to emergence of new culture examples Swahili culture as the result of mixture of Bantu and Arab culture To interact is to spend time with one another in a way that you have an effect on each other. For example, you interact with the teacher in the classroom. You listern and take notes as the teacher teaches. You ask question were you do not understand and the teacher answers them. Through this interaction, you learn new things and the teacher get to know how to help you understand the lesson better. Social interaction is estate in which people from one community got into contact with one another. This links and contacts were established by Africans since the late Stone Age and Iron Age up to the middle of the 19 century when Africans was not yet colonized by the Europeans. However the interaction continued to exist in the manner which favoured the white men during the time of colonial period. After 1960 the Africans still interacted in order to help themselves achieve development in the new period of independence. There are many social, factors which made several groups with common language shift from homeland to new areas which were occupied by Bushmen as the indigenous people of African regions. These factors are; Over population-was an increase of people in one area. The Bantu increased in number while they were still in the Niger region of Western Africa. They interacted other people to look for land to settle surplus population. Internal conflict over resources such as land for farming and water led to the movement in which several groups reached the Bushmen and absorbed the in their groups. Natural disaster such as earthquakes, epidemics like smallpox, and sleeping sickness forced many Bantu, Nilotes, and Cushties to interact with Bushmen. The desire for land to carryout economic activities such as farming by the Bantu and pastoralism by plain Nilotes led to the movement and Interaction with other people outside their land of origin. They interact and moved due to the desire to exploit and realize new areas in other parts. They wanted agriculture and grazing land. The discovery of the knowledge of iron working and invention of iron tools. This made the clearing of land for cultivation faster and easier which led to the interaction among the Bantu with other peoples in other regions of the continent. Invasion in their land made many groups to migrate to establish settlement in other areas. For example the coming of the Arabs in West Africa put pressure on the Bantu to shift to new areas. Clan struggle and succession conflicts between several groups of Africans forced them to move to another areas. Eventually, they moved and physically interacted with other peoples outside to establish separate clan organization. IMPACT OF INTERACTION In the process of migration people moved from their origin place to various destination. This caused people to lose their originality. In the places where they settled the natives of those areas interacted with them and formed new social groups. Those group probably differed from the original groups in terms of their values, beliefs and customs. It led to emergency of new language; as people of different languages like Bantu, Nilotes, Cushites and Khoisan met with other groups. For example Kiswahili language developed in East Africa having most of the Bantu vocabularies It caused intermarriages; when people moved from their original land and established new settlement they got married with natives and established new social relations. Intermarriage strength relationship among the people. It avoided social conflicts, since people were united together It causes population increase; the places which were attractive for people’s settlement became highly populated. In those regions immigration was common than emigration. Those areas also offered a conducive environment for natural population increase. For instance, the interlacustrine region, where land was very fertile and provided highly yield, became very attractive for the people to settle. It also attracted population growth due to large supply of food stuff