East Central Africa

South of the equatorial rainforest stretches a vast region of woodlands and savanna that includes parts of northern Angola and Zambia and the Shaba region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Central African savanna is bounded in the east by Lake Tanganyika, on the west by the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and in the south by the lower tributaries of the Zambezi River. The territory is interlaced with rivers and streams that feed the southern branches of the Congo and the upper reaches of the Zambezi. This immense, often inhospitable region is home to several of the most remarkable states in the history of Africa.

The early history of the Central African savanna emerges with greater clarity after the immigration into the region by Bantu-speaking farmers from West Africa, their dispersal into small isolated communities, and the reintegration of these communities under new political institutions after 1400. Isolation was the inevitable result of the environmental challenges farmers confronted on the central savanna. The soils are generally poor in nutrients and not conducive to cereal agriculture. In the northern zone, which lies just south of the equator, the annual rainfall is dependable but steadily declines as one moves southeastward, and in the far south, years of drought are frequent. The valleys of the tributaries to the Congo and Zambezi are lush and heavily wooded, but the uplands between the rivers consist of lightly forested, sandy grasslands ill suited for agriculture. Thus the early farmers descended into the valleys, lakes, and floodplains where the soils were more fertile and water more dependable. Disease also limited the size and productivity of agricultural communities in Central Africa. Malaria and sleeping sickness remain two of the most prevalent endemic diseases, the widespread presence of the tsetse fly carrying sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) to domestic animals, known as nagana, prevented the raising of cattle and horses, depriving the inhabitants of meat, milk, and transport. The environment and disease conspired to inhibit the concentration of people into larger communities, leaving the farmers to disperse into small and scattered rural settlements.