This seems a bit odd. The Atlantic Congo and Mende speakers in Sengambia, Mali, Burkina Faso had centuries of exposure to trade with cetral and north Africa, and Arabic literacy. They also lived in some of the most organized large scale states in African history. This was specifically lesld by Mende and then Fulani speakers. That produced no cognitive load or selection pressure? Somehow though Nigeria, far more isolated environment did in much less time?
Is it something to do with farming vs herding? Population density?
Indeed, the difference is in the length of time, but not as you may think.
North African traders first became established in the northern Sahel in the ninth and tenth centuries. They didn't enter the southern Sahel and northern savanna until the eleventh century. Timbuktu didn't become a permanent settlement until the twelfth century.
In contrast, pre-Islamic trade along the Niger goes much farther back. Settlements by iron-using peoples were already being made along the Niger, in Mali, from around 900 BC. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djenn%C3%A9-Djenno ). In south-central Nigeria, by the 9th century AD, "the Igbo-Ukwu people had established a complex religious system and an economy based on agriculture and trade with other African peoples as far as the Nile valley" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo-Ukwu )
In the case of the Mende, their territory was inhabited by hunter-gatherers as late as the sixteenth century:
"In their oral tradition, the Mende describe themselves as being a mixture of two peoples: their original members were hunters and fishers who sparsely populated the area in small peaceful settlements, and their leaders came later, in a recent historical period, bringing with them the arts of war, and also building larger, more permanent villages. This is supported by analyses of their language and culture, which show signs of a layering of two different forms; they have both matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance, for instance.[4] These leaders described in oral histories were almost certainly Mane people who descended into the coastal lowlands from the area near Moussadou, Guinea in the 16th century. They conquered and mixed with the native Bullom people to form the Mende." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mende_people
This seems a bit odd. The Atlantic Congo and Mende speakers in Sengambia, Mali, Burkina Faso had centuries of exposure to trade with cetral and north Africa, and Arabic literacy. They also lived in some of the most organized large scale states in African history. This was specifically lesld by Mende and then Fulani speakers. That produced no cognitive load or selection pressure? Somehow though Nigeria, far more isolated environment did in much less time?
Is it something to do with farming vs herding? Population density?
Indeed, the difference is in the length of time, but not as you may think.
North African traders first became established in the northern Sahel in the ninth and tenth centuries. They didn't enter the southern Sahel and northern savanna until the eleventh century. Timbuktu didn't become a permanent settlement until the twelfth century.
In contrast, pre-Islamic trade along the Niger goes much farther back. Settlements by iron-using peoples were already being made along the Niger, in Mali, from around 900 BC. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djenn%C3%A9-Djenno ). In south-central Nigeria, by the 9th century AD, "the Igbo-Ukwu people had established a complex religious system and an economy based on agriculture and trade with other African peoples as far as the Nile valley" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo-Ukwu )
In the case of the Mende, their territory was inhabited by hunter-gatherers as late as the sixteenth century:
"In their oral tradition, the Mende describe themselves as being a mixture of two peoples: their original members were hunters and fishers who sparsely populated the area in small peaceful settlements, and their leaders came later, in a recent historical period, bringing with them the arts of war, and also building larger, more permanent villages. This is supported by analyses of their language and culture, which show signs of a layering of two different forms; they have both matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance, for instance.[4] These leaders described in oral histories were almost certainly Mane people who descended into the coastal lowlands from the area near Moussadou, Guinea in the 16th century. They conquered and mixed with the native Bullom people to form the Mende." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mende_people
That's fascinating. I will look more into this.
It stands to reason that people living near a river would have a more advanced society through greater contact with different groups.
Regarding the Igbo, it's estimated that 60% of Black Americans have Igbo ancestry, making it the most common component.