Writers 
The development of iron technology marked a major achievement in the cultural history of Africa. It would be noted that iron has some considerable advantages over other metals for the manufacture of tools and weapons. This is because iron is tougher and more durable than bronze or copper.
It has been argued that iron technology diffused from Meroe to sub-Saharan Africa. After its massive destruction, refugees from there drifted along the sahel strip south of the desert, bringing with them a knowledge of metallurgy. While Meroe was undoubtedly an important centre for iron-smelting, recent studies have suggested that this view may no longer be tenable.
It has been discovered that the Phoenicians had begun to trade with North Africa and established colonies there as early as 1000 B.C. The most important Phoenician settlement, Carthage, was established about 700 B.C. The Phoenicians were related to the Hittites of Anatolia who were believed to be the earliest to smelt iron. Iron technology was not introduced to Egypt until several centuries later. It spread down the Nile to Meroe where iron production became a major industry. Meroe would have been a logical source for the African knowledge of iron, but the Nile producers were very secretive. It is therefore quite likely that iron-working was introduced to Sub-Saharan Africa from the North African city of Carthage.
Besides, the Carthaginians had established a flourishing gold trade with West Africa at this early time. There was quite a great deal of cultural interaction between the Carthaginians and the inhabitants of West Africa during the period. The iron foundries in the Savannah and the forest areas of West Africa are strikingly similar to that of the Greco-Roman times in North Africa. Evidence abound for a knowledge of iron in West Africa by the third century B.C. and perhaps earlier in the Nok culture, named after a village in Northern Nigeria. Some of the iron mining sites excavated at Faruga in Central Nigeria also dated from 400 B.C. to 200 B.C. The distinctive feature of this iron age culture was the production of terra-cotta (baked clay) figures and figurines of a marvellous artistic style and beauty. Further excavation in the Niger Valley area suggested that knowledge of iron technology in West Africa predated that of Meroe, but it possibly diffused from North Africa.
In Central Africa, some early Iron Age village sites have been discovered and the remains of pottery, animal bones, clay furnace and occasional fragments of iron implements, all testify to the way of life of the people of those times.
Iron was first introduced to East Africa about 250 B.C. in the region of the Great Lakes. It has been argued that the spread of iron technology into the area was generally associated with the Bantu immigration earlier mentioned in this chapter.
Undoubtedly, the use of iron had some far-reaching implications for the African communities. The metal encouraged the expansion of existing civilisations and the rise of new ones. The knowledge of its technology was a well guarded secret within some well-defined lineages, preferably of those who introduced it. Hence, the belief that it had some magical attributes.
Iron technology and its inherent magical attributes became important factors in the establishment of some of the indigenous kingdoms in East and Southern Africa.
