344 economy: Africa This type of bartering extended to services as well as to goods Throughout much of Africa, patron-client relationships were common This term means that influential and wealthier members of the community became patrons for those less influential or wealthy, their clients The patron provided protection and economic benefits for the client, who in turn performed services for his patron The result of all these social-economic relationships was an integrated economy, with different groups of people such as clans and tribes providing economic benefits not only for themselves but also for one another Stability was ensured by interlocking systems of clan and patron-client relationships, all strengthened by marital alliances In this way, over time, clans united into larger tribes, which in turn united into regional powers Not all floodplains and river valleys were alike The Senegal River valley was narrow, about 12 miles wide In contrast, the Niger River valley was much wider, some 60 miles wide The result was that the various types of land along the Niger were much more widely dispersed; rather than parallel strips, the usable land took the form more of a patchwork Further, this larger region was inhabited by various tribes who often did not maintain good relations with one another and may have spoken different languages Intermarriage under these circumstances was not as common Thus, conflicts over land use arose The result was a far less integrated economy Individual tribes and clans staked out land for their own purposes, resulting in a subsistence economy, with each tribe or clan living largely off its own produce Along the Senegal River, the economy was more integrated, with the various clans sharing their productive capacity with one another in large part simply because they lived in closer proximity, intermarried, and spoke the same language Not all of Africa became sedentary during the Neolithic Revolution Economic developments took place at different speeds in different places In West Africa, for example, hunting and gathering persisted as a way of life far longer than it did in other parts of the continent, primarily because the people had abundant resources and therefore had no incentive to change their way of life Also nomadic pastoralists (herders) continued to move their herds about seasonally in some parts of the continent These pastoralists never developed any kind of sophisticated system of resource allocation or exchange They were the loners, the independent spirits of the African economy They were representative of a way of looking at economic systems in the sub-Sahara While North Africa, including the empire of the ancient Egyptians, relied on a complex governmental system, with bureaucrats, assessors, surveyors, tax collectors, and the like, all controlled by a central authority, the sub-Sahara preferred local control and independence, with economic activity directed by headmen, clans, and lineages MINING, METALLURGY, AND TRADE The kinds of problems faced by the inhabitants of the Niger River valley led to a fundamental change in the economy of that region While the economic organizations of the Senegal River valley fostered generalists, who sustained a mixed economy of farming, herding, and fishing, the patchwork economy of the Niger River valley fostered specialization As populations grew, it became increasingly difficult for people to meet their needs through a single economic activity Accordingly, the Niger River valley turned more to trade and exchange Early in the Neolithic Period, such trade took place between the various tribes that inhabited the region In time, this trade would radiate outward to more far-flung regions By about the beginning of the Common Era, the region was part of a trading belt that extended across the middle of Africa and linked the Sahara and regions to the east to the southern half of the continent With the precedent set for specialization, mining and metallurgy became important parts of the local economy Africa was (and is) rich in iron ore In many places, iron ore did not even have to be dug; it was visible in rock outcroppings Interestingly, while much of the rest of the world passed through stages in which copper and then bronze were the primary metals, Africa seemed to have skipped the Bronze Age and passed directly to iron production Iron, and later steel, changed the makeup of ancient Africa Tools were developed that made agricultural production more efficient With a greater abundance of food and other resources, populations increased For growing numbers of people to meet their needs, they turned to trade with other parts of the world Meanwhile, iron became the mainstay of the African economy in some regions In the Niger River area, the city of Jenne-jeno emerged as an important center of iron production Again, the result was increased specialization of labor Individuals mined ore, transported it, processed it by separating the iron from the ore, and turned it into weapons, plows, and other useful objects Other individuals were responsible for cutting and hauling the enormous amounts of wood needed to stoke the fires, which were kept burning at very high temperatures (This cutting of wood led to extensive deforestation in some areas, forcing people to abandon their settlements.) Archaeologists have found numerous remains of smithing and other iron-producing activities around Jenne-jeno and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa It appears that in Jenne-jeno no social elite or hierarchy of authority directed this economic activity from the top down Rather, the economy was organized horizontally, again with lineages exercising authority over their members The headmen of these lineages created a complex latticework of overlapping agencies and cooperative ventures that directed iron production from mining to finished products Jenne-jeno and communities like it initiated one of the chief features of modern, urban economies: a central hub that drew people in search of economic opportunity and that provided goods and services for outlying areas in exchange for food and other agricultural products One peculiarity of the African iron industry, at least by modern standards, is that it was associated with religious be-