Direct iron smelting in Africa

According to some scholars it was in Africa (perhaps in Niger or Nigeria) that bloomery iron smelting was first invented, and the technology diffused from here to the rest of the world. The broad consensus of scholars seems to be that this is quite possible, but cannot be accepted without much more solid proof than has so far been given (Bocoum 2004; Alpern 2005).

Be that as it may, bloomery iron smelting continued in use in Africa longer than elsewhere. There are excellent accounts of African iron smelting by ethnographers and colonial officers from the 19th and 20th centuries, and in addition there are still people alive who remember how it was done. So we turn naturally to Africa to learn how the furnaces that archaeologists excavate were used. The bewildering variety of furnace types seen in Africa might perhaps be one piece of evidence for the antiquity of iron smelting in Africa: there has been time enough for the development of many different designs in different places to fit local conditions and traditions.

Walter Cline published a remarkable book in 1937 in which he collected and reported in detail the information in numerous ethnographic accounts of African metallurgy from the 19th and early 20th century. The illustrations on the right are taken from this book. They show a few of the types of bloomery furnace that have been used in Africa.

Modern ethnographers have sought out men who remember the old techniques and asked them to do demonstration smelts. This work has produced many technical descriptions and some very good films. Many of the films are available on Youtube and on Baidu. I have downloaded some of these to use here.

Burkina Faso

A film of an iron-smelting demonstration in Burkina Faso shows the whole process of making charcoal, digging ore, building a furnace, smelting the ore, and making a hoe-head of the resulting iron.

Christopher D. Roy, ‘From iron ore to iron hoe: Smelting iron in Africa’ (从铁矿到铁锄•非洲炼铁技术), 1 hour 45 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuCnZClWwpQ.
A version with Chinese subtitles is here.

A curious feature of the process used here is that a flux (probably limestone) is used to make the slag flow more freely. According to most experts, fluxes are not used in bloomery smelting, and would not in any case have a useful effect (Pleiner 2000: 136, but note pp. 51, 58, 82). Clearly something is wrong here: either the experts are wrong or the ethnographer is wrong. Neither of these possibilities would surprise me.

I urge students to see this entire film, but I have prepared a nine-minute abridgement:

Cameroon - the ironmaster Dokwaza

This film shows a very unusual type of bloomery. One of the great experts on bloomery smelting, Radomír Pleiner (2000: 212), said it was ‘bizarre’. It has a tuyere leading down into the furnace rather than from the side, and it produces both wrought iron and cast iron. This cast iron is not used for casting, but is converted to high-carbon steel in a separate process.

Nicholas David, ‘Dokwaza, last of the African ironmasters’, 48 minutes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yxdUwDe1JM.
A version with English subtitles is here.

A technical description of the process is given by Nicholas David et al. (1989).

I have prepared an 11-minute appetizer, but as usual, I urge readers to see the whole film:

René Gardi observed iron production here in the 1950’s, when it was a living tradition rather than a remembrance of the past. His photographs provide a valuable addition to what we can see in the film. Gardi’s book has captions in German, French, and English.

Other films of African iron smelting

Another film from Burkina Faso documents a smelting demonstration near the one shown above:

Megan D. Roy, Christopher D. Roy, and Abdoulaye Bamogo, ‘Iron village: The Mossi Village of Dablo in Burkina Faso’, 56 minutes. https://youtu.be/uUDzWEwlF2c.

Another film from Cameroon documents a technique which is similar to Dokwaza’s:

Nicholas David, ‘Black Hephaistos: Exploring culture and science in African iron working’, 1995, 48 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i4zHAEn7y4.
A version with English subtitles is here.

The commercial firm Documentary Educational Resources

has three DVDs for sale about African iron smelting. These are quite expensive, and I have not seen them, but the firm provides free previews:

Carlyn Saltman, ‘The Blooms Of Banjeli: Technology a;nd Gender in African Ironmaking’, 29 minutes, 1986. store.der.org/the-blooms-of-banjeli-p225.aspx.
Preview, 5 minutes, www.youtube.com/watch?v=D25MsjBXLjs.
Study guide, ‘The blooms of Banjeli’, der.org/resources/study-guides/blooms-of-banjeli-study-guide.pdf.
Traditional smelting in Togo.

Peter O'Neill and Frank Muhly, Jr., ‘Tree of iron’, 57 minutes, 1998. www.der.org/films/tree-of-iron.htmlstore.der.org/the-tree-of-iron-p318.aspx.
Preview, 8 minutes, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=8zQEGLObYN8
Traditional smelting in Tanzania. The technology here has been documented in great detail in a book by Peter R. Schmidt (1997).

Eric Huysecom and Bernard Augustoni, ‘Inagina: The last house of iron’, 52 minutes, 1997. store.der.org/inagina-p746.aspx.
Preview, 11 minutes, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zozKgGbaaxQ.
Traditional smelting in Mali.



References

Alpern, Stanley B. 2005. ‘Did they or didn’t they invent it? Iron in sub-Saharan Africa’. History in Africa 32: 41–94.

Bocoum, Hamady, ed. 2004. The Origins of Iron Metallurgy in Africa. New light on its antiquity: West and Central Africa (Memory of peoples). Barcelona: UNESCO Publishing. Free download, publishing.unesco.org/details.aspx?Code_Livre=4193 

Cline, Walter. 1937. Mining and metallurgy in Negro Africa. (General series in anthropology 5). Menasha, Wisconsin: George Banta Publishing Company. Free download, archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.57373

David, Nicholas, Robert Heimann, David Killick, and Michael Wayman. 1989. ‘Between Bloomery and Blast Furnace: Mafa Iron-Smelting Technology in North Cameroon’. The African Archaeological Review 7: 183–208. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25130515

Gardi, René. 1995. Momente der Alltags : Fotodokumente aus Nordkamerun, 1950-1985. Basel: Museum für Völkerkunde.

Pleiner, Radomír. 2000. Iron in archaeology: The European bloomery smelters. Praha: Archeologický Ústav Avčr. www.academia.edu/16271280

Schmidt, Peter R. 1997. Iron technology in East Africa: Symbolism, science, and archaeology. Bloomington / Indianapolis / Oxford: Indiana University Press and James Currey.

Last edited by DBW, 5 July 2024