Transcript Chapter 8 Early Civilizations in Africa

Early Civilizations in
Africa
Africa’s Size
4600 MILES
5
0
0
0
M
I
L
E
S


Second largest continent
10% of the world’s population
The Continent of Africa




Very different environments
Dessert & rainforests
unihabitable
Insect diseases: tsetse fly &
mosquito
Most people live in savannas
The Emergence of Civilization


The Land
 Sahara is the great divide
Nomadic—herders
 Migration: Bantu peoples
• Farming and ironworking



Family=basic social unit
 Extended families/clans
Animism: spiritual religion/ancestor
worship
Griots: specialized storytellers, pass
and preserve history orally
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Bantu Migration
Bantu
migration
spread use of
iron, language
across
continent
North Africa: Axum




Rich trading state
Followed Coptic Christianity
 King Ezana converts
 Mixes Christian beliefs and African traditions
Fell to Islamic invaders
Now Ethiopia
Stele, Ezana’s Royal Tomb, Aksum (4c)
Christian Church, Lalibela
Christian Church, Lalibela
Coptic Christian Priest
The States of West Africa




Expansion of Islam
 Arabic becomes main language
Ghana
 Gold-Salt Trade
 Very wealthy: “Land of Gold”
 Kings did not convert to Islam, but the people did
Mali
 Wealth come from Gold trade
• Eventually conquer Ghana
 Mansa Musa, encouraged Islam, built university in Timbuktu (yes, it’s
a real city)
Songhai
 Sunni Ali builds vast military state: expands empire
 Ruled 1000 years
 Lacked modern weapons: falls in 1591 to Morocco
Gold-Salt Trade
SALT
GOLD
Berbers
Ghana Empire [4c-11c]
Gold “Money”, Ghana/Ivory Coast
Salt
King of Ghana
"The King . . .(wears). . . necklaces round his neck and bracelets on
his forearms and he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and
wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. He (meets people) in a domed
pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with goldembroidered materials…and on his right, are the sons of the
(lesser) kings of his country, wearing splendid garments and their
hair plaited with gold.
At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree. Round
their necks they wear collars of gold and silver, studded with a
number of balls of the same metals."
10th century geographer Al-Bakri, quoted in Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West
African History.
Mali Empire [13c-15c]
SALT
GOLD
Timbuktu-”Heavenly Clay”
Timbuktu Rooftop, Mosque
Great Mosque at Djenne, Mali
Mansa Musa [r. 1312-1337]
East Africa
 Self-governing
city-states
 Trade with the interior, Indian Ocean, China,
and along the coast
 Influenced by Arab traders
 Ex: Zanzibar
 Often traded slaves
 Mixed African-Arab culture
 Mixed culture and language called Swahili
Swahili-Speaking Areas of E. Africa
SWAHILI [“the coast’] = Bantu + some Arabic
Stateless Societies of South Africa
 From
the basin of the Congo River to the Cape of
Good Hope
 Stateless society: power is not in a government
 Progress made with regional trade
 Zimbabwe (Sacred House, Great Stone House)



Capital known as Great Zimbabwe
Benefited from trade between interior and coast
Evidence of great wealth, but Great Zimbabwe
abandoned
Great Zimbabwe [1200-1450]
Great Zimbabwe Street
Great Enclosure, Zimbabwe