AKS 35: Early African Civilizations

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AKS 35Early African Civilizations

• Chapters 8 15

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35a - identify the Bantu migration patterns and
contribution to settled agriculture

• WARM-UP

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Causes of Migration

• Push-Pull Factors
• Push Factors
• Environmental
• Climate changes exhausted resources
  earthquakes volcanoes drought famine
• Economic
• Unemployment slavery
• Political
• Religious, ethnic, or political persecution war

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Causes of Migration

• Pull Factors
• Environmental
• Abundant land new resources good climate
• Economic
• Employment opportunities
• Political
• Political and/or religious freedom

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Effects of Migration

• Brings diverse cultures into contact
• Changes life in the new land

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How Do We Trace Migration?

• One way is to study how language is spread
• Africa has many complex language families

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Case-StudyBantu Migrations

• Originally lived in savanna south of Sahara
• Bantu means the people

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Case-StudyBantu Migrations

• Started migrating south east around 3,000 B.C.
• Lived by slash-and-burn farming nomadic herding
• Slash-and-burn farming causes soil to lose its
  fertility quickly, forcing them to look for new
  locations every few years
• Shared skills, learned new customs, adapted to
  environment

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Causes of Bantu Migrations

• Bantu speakers moved to find farmland
• As agriculture developed, this led to
  specialization and permanent villages in many
  areas
• To flee the growing Sahara Desert
• Needed iron ore resources hardwood forests for
  iron smelting
• Within 1500 years, they reached the southern tip
  of Africa

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Effects of Bantu Migrations

• Bantu speakers drove out some inhabitants,
  intermixed with others
• Bantu migrations produced a great variety of
  cultures
• Language helped unify the continent
• Technology of ironworking
• Forged tools weapons from bronze, copper iron
• Ideas about social political organization

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35b describe the development and decline of the
Sudanese kingdoms (Ghana, Mali, Songhai)
including the roles of Sundiata, and the
pilgrimage of Mansa Musa to Mecca

• WARM-UP

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BackgroundAfrican Societies (800-1500)

• Hunter-Gatherers
• Semi-nomadic lived by gathering wild foods
  hunting animals
• The Efe were hunter-gatherers who traded with
  farming villages
• The San (aka Bushmen) lived in southern Africa
  and part of East Africa

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BackgroundAfrican Societies (800-1500)

• Stateless Societies
• No centralized power
• Power balanced among lineage groups, usually
  within villages
• Tiv had no formal govt
• Igbo resolved disputes by having elders from
  different lineages meet
• Nuer organized over 250,000 people without an
  official ruler

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BackgroundAfrican Societies (800-1500)

• Muslim States
• Two Groups
• Almoravid Empire
• In 11th century, they controlled Mauritania,
  Morocco, Algeria, and part of Spain
• Almohad Empire
• Beginning in the mid-1100s, they controlled
  Morocco, much of Maghrib, and part of Spain

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Key to Trade

• CAMELS
• Causes
• Berbers began using camels because they could
  cover greater distances than pack animals (60
  miles per day)
• Could travel more than 10 days without water
  (twice as long as most pack animals)
• Effects
• Using camels, Berber nomads created new routes
  across the Sahara trade increased

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West AfricaGhana

• Grew from Kumba tribe around A.D. 200
• Used iron weapons to conquer neighbors
• Very wealthy due to surplus of gold and from
  taxing goods traders carried through their
  territory
• Ghanas king was able to keep the price of gold
  high by limiting its supply
• Traded gold for salt (for meat preservation)
• Islam brought by traders attacked by Muslim
  Almoravids in 1076
• This disrupted the gold-salt trade that Ghana had
  controlled. Ghana never regained power.

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West AfricaMali

• Reached its peak from 1230-1337
• How?
• Gold was discovered farther east, causing a shift
  eastward in trade routes
• The people of Mali, who lived in the region of
  the new trade routes, were able to seize power.
• Larger richer than Ghana
• Capital Timbuktu
• Mali where the king lives

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West AfricaMali

• Sundiata Keita
• 1st great leader of Mali
• Took title of mansa emperor
• Took over Ghana a few trading cities period
  of peace prosperity followed
• Accomplishments
• Put able administrators in charge of Malis
  finances, defense, foreign affairs
• Promoted agriculture
• Re-established the gold-salt trade
• Died in 1255

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West AfricaMali

• Mansa Musa (1312-1332)
• Grandnephew of Sundiata, became a Muslim
• Expanded size of the empire
• Divided it into provinces appointed governors
• Built mosques in Timbuktu Gao
• Went on a pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca in 1324
• Gave away gold and jewels along the way to show
  Malis strength and wealth

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West AfricaSonghai

• Began to grow as Mali declined
• Mali declined because
• most of Mansa Musas successors did not govern
  well
• New gold deposits were developed and trade
  shifted eastward again
• Took over the trade routes from the Atlantic
  Ocean to Gao (capital)

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West AfricaSonghai

• Sunni Ali
• Became leader of Songhai in 1464
• Ruled for 30 years
• Expanded empire through his skill as a military
  commander and his aggressive leadership
• Conquered Timbuktu in 1468
• Died in 1492

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West AfricaSonghai

• Askia Muhammad
• Led revolt against the son of Sunni Ali and took
  over
• Ruled for 37 years
• Set up tax system and an efficient government
• He was overthrown in 1591 by the army from
  Morocco who had advanced technology (Guns and
  cannons)

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35c describe the trading networks by examining
trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, and slaves
including the Swahili trading cities

• Swahili blend of Bantu Arabic languages (a
  language of trade)

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TradeGold, Salt, Slaves

• Gold-Salt Trade
• Gold ? from West African forest region south of
  savanna between Niger Senegal rivers
• Salt ? from Sahara desert
• Merchants brought each back and forth between
  trading cities where they exchanged the goods

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TradeGold, Salt, Slaves

• Swahili Trading Cities
• Role of Monsoons
• Traders took advantage of the monsoons to sail
  across Indian Ocean to East Africa
• Kilwa
• This city was as far south as a ship from India
  could sail and still sail home during the same
  monsoon season
• Trade goods from the south had to funnel into
  Kilwa so Asian merchants could buy them allowed
  Kilwa to become very wealthy

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TradeGold, Salt, Slaves

• Slave Trade
• Arab Muslim traders exported enslaved persons
  from East African coast to places like India,
  China, Iraq, Persia, Arabia
• Numbers traded remained small (perhaps 1,000 a
  year)
• Did not increase dramatically until 1700s when
  Europeans started to buy captured Africans for
  their colonial plantations

An Arab slave market in Yemen, A.D. 1237
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35d analyze the process of religious syncretism
as a blending of traditional African beliefs
(animism) with new ideas from Islam and
Christianity

• WARM-UP

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What is religious syncretism?

• The blending of old beliefs with new ones
• Example
• Blending Animism (traditional African belief)
  with Islam and Christianity

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How did religious syncretism occur?

• Trade and Conquest
• traders introduced Islam Christianity ? the
  growth of commerce caused the religions to spread
• How?
• As wealthy merchants rulers did business with
  traders, they shared their religion as well
• Some held on to some of their traditional
  religious beliefs, but mixed their beliefs with
  aspects of Islam or Christianity that they liked

Map on Next Slide ?
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Chart on Next Slide ?
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MAJOR TRADE NETWORKS