So basically the west African sahel & Savannah kingdoms like Mali, Oyo, Fulani & Kanem-Bornu had to keep importing horses from North Africa, especially the Savannah kingdoms that bordered heavily forested areas due to trypanosoma disease carried by the tse-tse fly which renders the regions south of the Sahara deadly for animal husbandry. A little web search, I came across one horse species the Kirdi pony (http://www.second-opinion-doc.com/kirdi-pony-africa-horse.html) that has resistance to the disease.
Ponies aren't necessarily the best horses for combat (though it appears that they were used for combat in W/Africa), but if we had a horse species more suitable for combat that developed early in W/Africa's history say in the era of the Nok Culture (1000BC - 300AD, so say 1 AD), or the Ghana (700 AD - 1200 AD)
how would this affect the consolidation of polities/political entities in the region?
Would we see larger political entities earlier?
Trade & information exchange? Would more extensive trade networks develop? Hugging the forests as opposed to the camel dominated Saharan trade routes? Say a trade route hugging the forest to Ethiopia for salt (Khemisset, Morocco is still the closest source of salt overall)?
Less need to exchange goods for horses with North African and Arab traders, what other good would we expect to see take up that demand in West Africa? Could we see earlier adoption of firearms & gunpowder?
Assuming this somehow spreads to other animals like pigs, could we see greater population sizes with new alternative protein sources?
Other readings I came across
https://www.historytoday.com/do-morgan/horse-west-african-history (not really expansive)
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/domestic-horses-of-africa/ (more expansive)
Danakil desert (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danakil_Desert?wprov=sfla1)
Ponies aren't necessarily the best horses for combat (though it appears that they were used for combat in W/Africa), but if we had a horse species more suitable for combat that developed early in W/Africa's history say in the era of the Nok Culture (1000BC - 300AD, so say 1 AD), or the Ghana (700 AD - 1200 AD)
how would this affect the consolidation of polities/political entities in the region?
Would we see larger political entities earlier?
Trade & information exchange? Would more extensive trade networks develop? Hugging the forests as opposed to the camel dominated Saharan trade routes? Say a trade route hugging the forest to Ethiopia for salt (Khemisset, Morocco is still the closest source of salt overall)?
Less need to exchange goods for horses with North African and Arab traders, what other good would we expect to see take up that demand in West Africa? Could we see earlier adoption of firearms & gunpowder?
Assuming this somehow spreads to other animals like pigs, could we see greater population sizes with new alternative protein sources?
Other readings I came across
https://www.historytoday.com/do-morgan/horse-west-african-history (not really expansive)
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/domestic-horses-of-africa/ (more expansive)
Danakil desert (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danakil_Desert?wprov=sfla1)