3000 BCE: (A Separate East African Domestication of Cowpeas by Southern Cushites — A Separate Domestication of Cowpeas by Southern Cushitic-Speaking Peoples …

3000 BCE: (A Separate East African Domestication of Cowpeas by Southern Cushites — A Separate Domestication of Cowpeas by Southern Cushitic-Speaking Peoples in East Africa Appearing to Have Taken Place as Early as the Third Millennium BCE, Distinct from the West African Variety That Spread Far Beyond the Continent, Two Independent Centers of Cowpea Domestication Within Africa Itself): A separate domestication of cowpeas by southern Cushites in East Africa appears to have taken place as early as the third millennium BCE, but it was the West African variety that spread far beyond the continent. Two independent centers of cowpea domestication within Africa — one in West Africa among Niger-Congo speakers, one in East Africa among Cushitic speakers — operating simultaneously in the third millennium BCE, each producing its own cultivated variety. The West African variety became the globally consequential one, spreading to India and beyond, but the East African domestication demonstrates that the impulse toward crop improvement was not confined to a single African region or language family. Agricultural innovation was happening independently across the continent, in multiple ecological zones, among peoples of different linguistic backgrounds, driven by the same universal dynamic of human ingenuity responding to local environmental conditions.