The Axum Empire vs. The Ibo and the Nation of Umoufia

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Harry Sherman

Humanities

March 25, 2010

The Axum Empire vs. The Ibo and the Nation of Umoufia

Although the Axum empire began its downfall in the 6^th century B.C.E, the Axum were considerably more technologically and artistically advanced than the Ibo, a tribe which existed in Nigeria centuries after the great Axum empire crumbled (“Eritrea”). While the Ibo lived in villages constructed from mud and played music on small percussion instruments, the Axumites constructed gargantuan intricately carved stone phalluses, cisterns to obtain water all year round, and buildings built with dry stone (Achebe 7, 55, Davidson 220, Butzer 474) . Furthermore, the Axum were more advanced in methods of agriculture, as they constructed terraces in the hillside to assist in growing crops, and developed a written language, all centuries before the Ibo even existed (Davidson 220, “Literacy”). In Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, a novel which documents pre-colonial life in Nigera, the Ibo live in a village that consists of multiple mud-walled compounds with palm-leaf thatch to help protect from the rains (Achebe 7, 55). While this clearly shows the Ibo had graduated from nomadic tendencies to villages that allowed for intellectual and artistic advancement, the mud buildings lack the structural integrity, size, and architectural advancement that is exists with dry stone building. The difficulty to build with dry stone is extreme and requires technical know-how that the Ibo seem to lack. The Axum not only outperform the Ibo in construction of living space, the Axum also excelled in agriculture. According to Chinua Achebe, the Ibo practice slash-and-burn agriculture; he states that at the time of planting “every man and his family began to clear the bush to make new farms. The cut bush was left to dry and then fire was set to it,” (Achebe 32). Although Ibo agriculture provided enough food for the tribe, slash-and-burn relies entirely on flat, clearable land for agriculture. The Axum created terraced farming facilities that provided a greater area of fertile land for harvesting. Basil Davidson, a renowned scholar of Africa says on the subject of the Axumites agriculture practices, “all the surrounding hills were terraced for cultivation,” and “Hundreds of thousands of acres [in the Axum empire] must have been under the most careful cultivation,” (Davidson 220). The Axum even ousted the Ibo on the collection of water and the creation of art. Masters at stone building as they were, even created giant stone phalluses as art and built a stone cistern to catch water (Butzer 476). The final area in which the Axum empire outshines the Ibo, is in writing. Achebe fails to mention any system of writing in “Things Fall Apart”, and even hints at the Ibo only having an oral history (Achebe 54). By 400 B.C.E, the Axum developed a written language to accompany their superior stonemasonry skills and agriculture methods (“Literacy”). Because of the Axumites advancements in agriculture, art, and language, it is clear that the Axum empire, although the empire fell centuries before the Ibo even existed, were a far more advanced civilization.