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.