Independent and Interdependent. The circumstances that affected the state of science, technology, and health before and during the period 500 to 1590 C.E. in West Africa include both independent and interdependent developments of technical and scientific achievements and encounters with related technological or scientific obstacles. Discoveries do not happen in a vacuum, and since the kingdoms of West Africa were communal rather than individualistic societies, the word independent refers more to those skills and technologies that seemed to arise in the region separately from significant influences originating outside the area. Similarly, interdependent refers to those scientific and technological achievements and losses that were significantly affected by contact with other cultures.

Encoding Knowledge. Science in this period in West Africa was often based on practical, functional, need-based tasks, observation, and problem solving, in addition to serendipitous discovery. Trial and error with oral, performance, and material encoding of successful practices without...