<P> The most famous crop domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands is coffee . In addition, khat, ensete, noog, teff and finger millet were also domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands . Crops domesticated in the Sahel region include sorghum and pearl millet . The kola nut was first domesticated in West Africa . Other crops domesticated in West Africa include African rice, yams and the oil palm . </P> <P> Agriculture spread to Central and Southern Africa in the Bantu expansion during the 1st millennium BC to 1st millennium AD . </P> <P> Maize (corn), beans and squash were among the earliest crops domesticated in Mesoamerica, with maize beginning about 4000 BC, squash as early as 6000 BC, and beans by no later than 4000 BC . Potatoes and manioc were domesticated in South America . In what is now the eastern United States, Native Americans domesticated sunflower, sumpweed and goosefoot around 2500 BC . Sedentary village life based on farming did not develop until the second millennium BC, referred to as the formative period . </P> <P> Evidence of drainage ditches at Kuk Swamp on the borders of the Western and Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea shows evidence of the cultivation of taro and a variety of other crops, dating back to 11,000 BP . Two potentially significant economic species, taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea sp .), have been identified dating at least to 10,200 calibrated years before present (cal BP). Further evidence of bananas and sugarcane dates to 6,950 to 6,440 BP . This was at the altitudinal limits of these crops, and it has been suggested that cultivation in more favourable ranges in the lowlands may have been even earlier . CSIRO has found evidence that taro was introduced into the Solomon Islands for human use, from 28,000 years ago, making taro cultivation the earliest crop in the world . It seems to have resulted in the spread of the Trans--New Guinea languages from New Guinea east into the Solomon Islands and west into Timor and adjacent areas of Indonesia . This seems to confirm the theories of Carl Sauer who, in "Agricultural Origins and Dispersals", suggested as early as 1952 that this region was a centre of early agriculture . </P>

What plant or animal was domesticated in sub saharan africa