This area stretches along the continent from the extreme south to the great lakes and beyond,in South-Western Angola.The cattle complex ,which combines elements of social and economic structures,political positions and rituals, with its focus on cattle,gives the culture area,its most distinctiveness and its name.though the cattle are found in many other parts of the Continent,they rarely hold the place they do in the cattle complex area.As among the Nguni, Cattle were everywhere reported as giving security,pleasure and emotional satisfaction.this culture area dwells on dual economy that derives from the functional distinction between subsistence and prestige system,the former being based primarily on agriculture and the latteron herding had overshadowed the former.
Because there was no pressure of population,land was a free good certainly insofar as the individual was concerned when it came to selecting a plot for a field.The land was in most instances continued to be held by the group as a whole being vested in the king or herdsmen,where there was one as trustee.
once allotted to an individual or a family to be worked on ,it could not be taken back as long as it was being used ,while tree fruit continued to be owned by the individual who had planted them.even after he leased to work his plot.The hoe is the prime agricultural implemen, while spear and bow and arrow were, and in some measure have continued to be instrument of the hunt.
Basketry was highly developed but pottery,where it existed,was of no high quality, weaving was at best a minor craft in all parts of the land.
Domesticated and wild animals furs or skins were used for clothing and container.There was little specialization of labour,iron workers being almost the only specialists. Division of labour was based on sex.
