Transcript WHICh8Sec 1-Geo_Early Africa-2015

• Most scientists believe that human life
began in Africa.
• The earliest hominid fossils have been found
in Africa.
• The first great civilization in Africa was in
Egypt.
• This civilization arose there over 5000 years
ago.
• Hieroglyphic writing invented there about
3000BC.
• The Sahara desert
lies in northern
Africa.
• It takes up about
¼ of the continent
• The part of Africa
south of the
Sahara is called
Sub-Saharan
Africa.
Ch8, Sec 1-Early Africa
• Long ago, the region that is
now the Sahara was not a
desert. Over the last 20,000
years, it has fluctuated
between a desert and a lush
grassland.
• Over the last several
thousand years, it has
become increasingly dry.
This process is called
desertification
• Much of Sub-Saharan Africa is a plateau.
• Africa has the highest average altitude of any
continent.
• The southern edge of
the Sahara is called the
Sahel.
• Sahel comes from the
Arabic word meaning
“shore”
• This region has a
“steppe” climate.
• Rainfall is sparse and the
area often has harsh
droughts that may last
for years.
• The people who lived in
this region generally
lived by herding
animals.
• Between the Sahel and the
rainforest, is the savanna
• Savanna is a grassland,
which is dotted with a few
trees.
• Farming techniques in the
savanna began to spread
about 3000BC.
• Important crops: sorghum
and millet.
• The climate zone in
west central Africa is
rainforest.
• It receives more than
100 inches of rain per
year.
• There is a canopy of
trees that shades the
forest floor.
• Farmers in this climate
zone grew root crops
such as yams.
• In parts of the
rainforest and
savanna there have
been, and still are,
deadly diseases:
– Malaria & Yellow
fever, carried by
mosquitoes
– Sleeping sickness,
carried by the tsetse
fly.
• One of the most
remarkable features
of the geography of
Africa is the Great
Rift Valley.
• It was formed when
two of the earth’s
tectonic plates
pulled apart.
• It runs north-south
through east Africa.
• Humans developed societies in Sub-Saharan
Africa long before they developed writing.
• To understand African history before the
development of writing, scholars use many
methods:
– Linguistic analysis
– Oral tradition
– Study of music, plants, etc, for evidence of cultural
exchange.
– Study of artifacts by archeologists
• Bantu is a family of closely related
African languages
• Linguists have compared words in
modern African languages, to develop
a theory about the spread of Bantu.
• The original speakers of Bantu, called
the Bantu people, started in West
central Africa, around Cameroon.
• They migrated east and south, about
1000BC continuing for about 1000
years.
• They spread the Bantu language,
knowledge of advanced farming
techniques, and use of iron.
Oral tradition
• Much of what we know about the
history and cultural development
of Africa also comes from oral
tradition
• Oral tradition: poems, songs and
stories passed by word of mouth.
• Griots: (West Africa) Highly trained
speakers and entertainers, who
memorized the oral traditions,
events and genealogy of people in
their village.
Cultural Exchange
• Scholars have discovered that the design and
tuning of xylophones in East Africa are
remarkably like those in Indonesia.
• This suggested contact between these two
societies at an early date.
• The language Malagasy (language of
Madagascar) has many words spoken by
people in Indonesia.
• This suggests contact between Madagascar &
Indonesia at an early period
• Scientist know that the banana is native to
Asia. However, it is common in Africa.
• This shows contact between Africa and Asia at
an early time.
Early farming in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Wheat and barley did not grow well south of the
Sahara.
• Crops such millet and sorghum did, however, and
they became staple crops.
• When areas became drier, they people migrated
or shifted to herding.
Patterns of life
• Most early Africans
lived in small,
independent
farming, herding,
or fishing villages.
• Ties of kinship and
age bound the
society together.
Role of women
• Women in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa were
the primary farmers. Men herded animals or
hunted. (In Europe and Asia, men became the
primary farmers).
• This made the role of women crucial in these
African societies, and they had a higher status
than women in many parts of Europe and Asia.
• Many African societies were matrilineal—they
traced their ancestry through their mothers.
Religion
• Most African societies had animistic religions
(animism). This means that they believed that
many spirits inhabited the world, and lived in
plants, animals, and inanimate objects.
• Most African religions also included a supreme
creator god, and other gods linked to aspects
of nature.
Authority
• Village elders had authority over daily life and
work. Their position was respected and
unquestioned.