Talk:Iron metallurgy in Africa

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Lead with what is known about iron use in Africa, and more info on where it was practiced

The article leaps right into a debate on priority - who invented things first and how they diffused. It should instead lead with a broad overview of what is known, and then note that it is also proposed, and debated, exactly where iron use was invented. The term "Africa" is also perhaps too broad, given its size and diversity. What regions were mainly involved, how did it spread internally as well as externally, etc. ★NealMcB★ (talk) 17:04, 27 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The whole tone at the beginning is incoherent. It first says they were using iron metallurgy 3000 BCE - 2000 BCE, then continue to lower the date as if that is NEW news. Its so obviously racist in its attempt to infer or imply on a reader that it was probably later...tsk tsk. Its odious and transparently odious. Coldcall (talk) 11:53, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is anyone really supposed to believe that sub-Saharan Africa entered the Iron Age before any civilization that developed Bronze earlier than them? 2601:140:9600:1830:3193:E211:CE0F:B118 (talk) 23:35, 26 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

How is it racist? 5.53.249.34 (talk) 15:16, 9 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Also "they" is a bit broad for an entire continent isn't it? Given the range of cultures in sub-Saharan Africa it wouldn't be at all surprising for there to be a range of adoption dates... 82.1.7.156 (talk) 11:40, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have rewritten the introduction in a way that conforms to WP:NPOV and provides a more coherent introduction. Considering that academic debate surrounding the origins of iron metallurgy in Africa remains unsettled, I think it's important that neither perspective be presented here as a consensus view. EngComposMentis (talk) 17:52, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Topic

If this article is titled "Iron metallurgy in Africa", it should cover, well, metallurgy in Africa. I've opted to edit the topic sentence as a result and recommend additional information about North Africa be added. Otherwise, this article should be renamed "Iron metallurgy in Sub Saharan Africa" in order to accurately reflect its contents.

I have added a snippet regarding North Africa in the introduction. I would also like to see more information on North Africa added to the article, if only to contextualize concurrent developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. EngComposMentis (talk) 17:43, 2 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]