Early

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Early African Civilizations
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(No Transcript)
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Geography
Sahara
How would Africas geography 1) affect food
production? 2) affect trading patterns?
Hump Of Africa
Savanna
Horn of Africa
Rain Forest

• 2nd largest continent
• Surrounded by 2 oceans 2 seas

Mild
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2. What connection is there between the mask and
elephants?
1. What is this?

• Ivory Tribal Mask
• Ivory has been used for 1000s of years

1400s-1650s Portuguese merchants hired ivory
sculptors
3. Why is ivory unavailable today?
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• Kush
• 1000 B.C.E. 150 C.E.
• Upper Nile Valley (Sudan)
• Capital City Meroe
• Built great temples, brick mansions, flat-topped
  pyramids, and reservoirs
• Written language still undeciphered
• Traded gold, ivory, ebony, wood, and slaves
• produced iron wares

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• Axum
• 100 1400 C.E.
• Founded by Arab traders
• Traded ivory, slaves, spices
• King Ezana
• - converted to Christianity 324 C.E.
• - conquered the Kush
• - built monuments obelisks

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Christian Nubia Ethiopia

• Reached Africa before Romes conversion
• Coptic (Egypt Nubia) translated the gospels
  into their language were tolerated
• EthiopiaRemained isolated and independent
• King Lalibela11 churches carved from stone
• Later Dynastytraced lineage back to Solomon
  Sheba

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Bet Giorgis, a 12th century Rock-Hewn Church in
Ethiopia




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Ghana

• Founded about 750-1200 C.E.
• Between the Senegal and Niger Rivers
• Vast resources (iron, animal products, gold)
• Produced iron swords, spears, and lances
• Traded gold for salt from the Saharan salt mines
• Ghanian kings taxed all passing trade
• Invaded by Muslims in 1076 and broken into small
  kingdoms

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• Berbers
• nomadic camel caravans
• fleets of the desert
• Gold-salt-slave trade
• Picked up large blocks up salt on their journey
  and exchanged it for gold
• Islam, Christianity was spread also
• - carried goods 300 miles across the Sahara

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Mali

• 1240-1400
• Brought both gold salt under their direct
  control
• Rulers converted to Islam
• Majority of the people remained faithful to the
  traditional animistic faiths

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Sundiata Keita
c. 1210-1260

• Powerful warrior
• Created the Kingdom of Mali
• Father of Mali

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Sundiata, Lion Prince of Malias told by griots
(story tellers)
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Mansa Musa

• Ruled from 1312 1337
• Very
• Doubled the size of Mali

• Created 5 provinces
• Appointed governors

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• Devout Muslim
• Made the Hajj
• Took 1000s with him

• Impressed 1000s along the way with lavish gifts
• Gold value along the rt.
• Returned with scholars architects

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Cultural Center
Timbuktu became a major

• Encouraged new buildings
• Built mosques, libraries,
• New palace
• Center of universities
• Scholarship flourished

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Songhai
1464 1600 C.E.

• Sunni Ali captured Timbuktu Jenne
• Brought Upper Niger under his control
• Largest of West Africas trading kingdoms
• Elaborate tax and communication system
• Traded gold, salt, slaves
• Controlled the West African trade
• 1591, defeated by Morocco
• Ended the great West African kingdoms

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Bantu Migrations

• Migrated into Eastern Africa from the west
• Subsistence farmers
• Major trading posts
• Mogadishu
• Mombasa
• Kilwa
• Spoke

Swahili
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Unifying aspect Bantu-speaking peoples provided
a linguistic base across Africa
1000 different languages 1000 different tribes
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Zimbabwe

• Wealthy stateless society
• Independent villages ruled by clan leader
• Prospered from the gold trade

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Culture Society

• Walled villages center of government
• Markets contained goods from around the world

• Lineage group sense of identity
• Many matrilineal societies
• Women could inherit
• Community education and initiation

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• Pre-European Slave Trade
• Existed since ancient times
• Between 650-1000 CE, 4.5 million Africans
  transported to Southwest Asia (SWA)
• 1st major development occurred in 7th Century
• Berbers raided villages
• Islamic traders traded goods for Africans
• Transported them to SWA

Slavery
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• Many were captured in war, debtors, criminals
• Manual labor
• In Muslim African societies, slaves had legal
  rights and opportunities for social mobility
• In Muslim countries, many earned their freedom

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Religion

1. Most were monotheistic
2. Diviners predict the future

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Traditional African Religion
ANIMISM
1. Belief in one remote Supreme Being.
2. A world of spirits (good bad) in all
things.
3. Ancestor veneration.
4. Belief in magic, charms, and fetishes.
5. Diviner ? mediator between the tribe
and God.
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Art Culture
Art reflected religious themes
Griot oral storyteller
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The trade in ___?____ across the Sahara was
probably next in importance to the gold trade for
the western Sudan, but not for the central Sudan.
There, because there was no gold, ___?____ were
the mainstay of the export commerce. -- William
D. Phillips, 1985
This excerpt is from a description of Islamic
trade from the seventh century to the fifteenth
century. Which word correctly completes the
excerpt? A camels B dates C weapons D slaves