Sheep, goat, and chickens are domestic animals all over Africa, and Von Franzius considers Africa the home of the house cattle and the Negro as the original tamer.  Northeastern Africa especially is noted for agriculture, cattle raising, and fruit culture.  In the eastern Sudan, and among the great Bantu tribes extending from the Sudan down toward the south, cattle are evidences of wealth; one tribe, for instance, having so many oxen that each village had ten or twelve thousand head.  Lenz (1884), Bouet-Williaumez (1848), Hecquard (1854), Bosman (1805), and Baker (1868) all bear witness to this, and Schweinfurth (1878) tells us of great cattle parks with two to three thousand head and of numerous agricultural and cattle-raising tribes.  Von der Decken (1859-61) described the paradise of the dwellers about Kilimanjaro—­the bananas, fruit, beans and peas, cattle raising with stall feed, the fertilizing of the fields, and irrigation.  The Negroid Gallas have seven or eight cattle to each inhabitant.  Livingstone bears witness to the busy cattle raising of the Bantus and Kaffirs.  Hulub (1881) and Chapman (1868) tell of agriculture and fruit raising in South Africa.  Shutt (1884) found the tribes in the southwestern basin of the Congo with sheep, swine, goats, and cattle.  On this agricultural and cattle-raising economic foundation has arisen the organized industry of the artisan, the trader, and the manufacturer.

While the Pygmies, still living in the age of wood, make no iron or stone implements, they seem to know how to make bark cloth and fiber baskets and simple outfits for hunting and fishing.  Among the Bushmen the art of making weapons and working in hides is quite common.  The Hottentots are further advanced in the industrial arts, being well versed in the manufacture of clothing, weapons, and utensils.  In the dressing of skins and furs, as well as in the plaiting of cords and the weaving of mats, we find evidences of their workmanship.  In addition they are good workers in iron and copper, using the sheepskin bellows for this purpose.  The Ashantis of the Gold Coast know how to make “cotton fabrics, turn and glaze earthenware, forge iron, fabricate instruments and arms, embroider rugs and carpets, and set gold and precious stones."[43] Among the people of the banana zone we find rough basket work, coarse pottery, grass cloth, and spoons made of wood and ivory.  The people of the millet zone, because of uncertain agricultural resources, quite generally turn to manufacturing.  Charcoal is prepared by the smiths, iron is smelted, and numerous implements are manufactured.  Among them we find axes, hatchets, hoes, knives, nails, scythes, and other hardware.  Cloaks, shoes, sandals, shields, and water and oil vessels are made from leather which the natives have dressed.  Soap is manufactured in the Bautschi district, glass is made, formed, and colored by the people of Nupeland, and in almost every city cotton is spun and woven and dyed.  Barth tells us that the weaving of cotton was known in the Sudan as early as the eleventh century.  There is also extensive manufacture of wooden ware, tools, implements, and utensils.