AFRICA'S OLDEST CANOE

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"Africa's oldest canoe, dating backing to about 8,000 years ago, was found in north Nigeria's Yobe State in Dafuna, a village along the Komadugu Gana River. It is the oldest boat to be discovered in Africa, and the third oldest known worldwide.

Since the Dufuna canoe was discovered by a local Fulani herdsman in 1987 archaeologists have been in a frenzy about the discovery. The canoe which was excavated by a combined team of Nigeria and German archaeologists in 1994 at Dufuna amazed them for the simple reason that it has changed the course of history.

It was dug out from a depth of five meters beneath the earth's surface and measured 8.4 meters in length, 0.5 meters wide and about 5 cm thick varying at certain parts of the surface.

The canoe belongs to the Late Stone Age period (Neolithic Age), when humans ceased to roam the face of the earth hunting to become herdsmen and cultivators and in the process becoming modifier of their environment with complex social structures in response to new problems and ways of dealing with situations.

The discovery of this boat has been described as an important landmark in the history of Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. Besides proving that the Nigerian society was at par (if not earlier) than that of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoa and Phoenicia, the discovery also provides the first concrete evidence that Africans possessed the ability to reason and have been exploring technology to modify their environment to suit their needs.

But more importantly "the canoe has shown that people in the Niger area had a history of advanced technology and that they had mastered the three major items of Palaeolithic culture which were the fashioning, standardization and utilization of tools according to certain set traditions," explains Eluyemi.

But beyond that, the discovery has also revealed that, Nigerians were not static people. "It gives concrete evidence of transportation by seas as well as providing evidence of some form of long distance commercial activities indicative of existing political and economic structures."

One great benefit of the discovery is that it has helped archaeologists draw a relationship between what was happening in Nigeria and else where in the world during that period. Indications are that while Nigerians were making canoes in Dufuna village in 6000 BC, the people of Catol Huyuk in Turkey were making pottery, textiles etc, like the people of Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) were forming urban communities and the Chinese were making painted pottery in the Yang Shao region. But particularly of interest to archaeologists is the prove that some form of advanced civilization existed in the Lake Chad Basin around 6000 BC."

Documentation has showed that based on the minimal available

Maritime Network-NG staff by locally built wooden canoes on Admiralty Way, Lekki, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
technology during this period, the making of the Dufuna canoe must have been a ponderous task which called for mastery, specialization and ingenuity. A lot of work, man hours and skill must also have been put into the production since no iron tools were in existence at the time. The tools used were probably Post Pleistocene ungrounded core axe - like and pick - axe bifacial tools of microlithic appearance. It can be assumed that the canoe must have been made near a river to eliminate the difficulty of transporting it over long distances."

THANKS TO Kenneth Chiazor

[Source: This Day / Wikipedia]