ABSTRACT
From the previous chapter it is apparent that early farmers produced food in a variety of ways, using different plants and animals. This was particularly the case in North-East and East Africa, where introduced species were exploited along with others that were specific to parts of the region and in some cases unknown elsewhere. Consequently, there was a wide range of adaptations across a large section of the continent, comprising the modern countries of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Uganda, along with parts of the Sudan and Tanzania. The situation was further complicated by the persistence in more southerly areas of hunter-gatherers and the often heavy reliance of early farmers on a continuation of hunting. In addition, the amount of archaeological research that has been carried out into the development of food-production in these areas varies greatly. This makes it difficult to get a general picture of what was happening and sometimes leads to doubt about the interpretation of the evidence that is available. Nevertheless, it appears that domesticated animals and plants spread into the region from the north and west before 6000 years ago, consisting mainly of cattle, sheep and goats, and wheat and barley. The latter cereals were supplemented on the Ethiopian Plateau by teff, a locally domesticated cereal, and further south replaced by finger millet and sorghum because of the different environment. However, pastoralism appears to have become the prevailing economy in much of southern East Africa, although its extent was limited by the tsetse fly, which initially prevented its spread south of northern Tanzania.
