The Azanian Civilization of Kenya

Abstract

During the last few years archaeological research has revealed a remarkable, though not altogether unexpected, view of Stone Age man in Kenya; and at the same time it has been realized that there existed at some period between the Stone Age and medieval times a civilization which has left traces over a large part of East Africa. This civilization appears to be quite distinct from the Stone Age cultures, and there is so far no evidence to connect the two, nor is there any similarity between them. For the Stone Age men lived in caves and unbuilt habitations: while the men whose civilization I shall try to describe built substantial enclosures of stone, dug hut-circles and revetted the walls, made properly engineered roads, and possessed the art of irrigation. This civilization I propose to call ‘Azanian’ in order to distinguish it from the Stone Age cultures and from the Islamic ruins found in certain parts of East Africa. It has been claimed that traces of this civilization, in the shape of roads and irrigation works, occur in Abyssinia, Uganda, Tanganyika and North Rhodesia as well as in Kenya. But the stone enclosure and hut-circle, which to my mind are the distinctive features, have so far been reported only from Kenya and Gala-land (South Abyssinia); though for the present we may assume that the Tanganyika remains also belong to it.