The domestication of animals and the planting and
cultivating of crops had begun in the Near East, but the practice
shortly spread to the Nile Valley in Northeast Africa. At the
same time, farming communities sprang up throughout the Sahara
which, at that time, was going through one of its wet phases. This
made it well-suited to early agriculture. Farming permitted men to
live together in communities and to pursue a more sedentary way of
life. Actually, some Africans had already adopted a sedentary
community life before the arrival of farming. Making hooks from
bones led to the development of a few fishing communities near
present-day Kenya.
As the communities along the Nile grew in size and number,
society began to develop a complex urban civilization. By 3,200
B.C. the communities along the Nile had become politically
united under the first of a line of great pharaohs. These early
Egyptians undoubtedly were comprised of a racial mixture. The
ancient Greeks viewed the Egyptians as being dark in complexion,
and it has been estimated that the Egyptian population at the
beginning was at least one-third Negro.
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