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Originally Posted by 31-05-1961
I obviously agree that Europe was and is more densely densely populated than Africa, but don't you think you are making excuses for black Africans? I mean didn't blacks in Africa feel the need to advance themselves and their societies? I mean the Oriental peoples had it, the Arabs had it. Whites might have 'needed' to explore and colonise, but what about all the myriad of inventions and advances they made. If I were to list them all i would run out of page. And anyway the original settlement of Cape Town was for economic reasons and for profit wasn't it? Not because of 'land pressure'.
Exactly my point too. It didn't require much technology, and yet it wasn't achieved. 'Land pressure' aside, where was their urge to explore their world and colonise other lands? Beyond Southern Africa, i mean?
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I just think that you're putting too much emphasis on ocean travel. The Bantu people migrated from the plains of West Africa, through tropical rain forest, across savannah and down to South Africa. Isn't that adventurous? Their diet and lifestyle would've had to change radically as they crossed the tropics, for instance.
Also, the early Zimbabweans were mining gold long before the shiny stuff made its way to Europe.
Really, the only developmental fault you might be able to find in Bantu society is that they didn't develop writing. In fact, Bantu languages are not advanced, with only around 10,000 pure words in, for instance, Xhosa. Contrast this to English, which has over 1,000,000 words. Still, you can't castigate all indigenous Africans for this, because the Khoi-San had rock art that dates way back. Really, the society just didn't require written language and necessity is the mother invention.
I'd agree that European ocean voyaging wasn't about land pressure entirely, but the financial basis for it did arise out of a more complex society that in turn rose up out of population pressure.
Any time you want to debate South African history, I'll gladly spar with you
