Africa Notes
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Transcript Africa Notes
Africa
Geographic Regions
North Africa
Along the coast
Mild and rainy
South
Desert (Sahara)
Sub-Saharan Africa (South
of Sahara)
Sahel = central plateau
covered by savannas
Rift Valley
Nubia & Kush
CHAPTER 4
Nubia
3000B.C.
Located Upper Nile River (Sudan)
First kingdom in Sub-Saharan Africa
Close ties w/ Egypt
Kush
2000B.C.
Nubian Kingdom
Controlled Egypt but pushed out by Assyrians
Established new Kingdom at Meroe
Developed profitable iron trade
Weapons
tools
Axum or Aksum
Located on the Red Sea, Ethiopian Highlands, & Nile
Rivers
Trading power because of its location on the Red Sea
330 AD Became Christian – remain Christian (Still
are in Ethiopia)
350AD conquered Kush
600s AD lose control of trade to Muslims from
Arabia
West Africa
CHAPTER 8
Bantu (language group) Migration
People called the Nok lived in Niger and Benue River
Valleys
Skilled farmers = population growth
Eventually not enough arable land
What does arable mean?
Farmable land
People moved in search of more land migrate
central, E, & S. Africa
Religion and Oral Traditions
Kinship & clan was important
Matrilineal (mother)
Patrilineal (father)
Religion
One Supreme creator god (sky or heaven)
Nature spirits, Ancestor worship & Magic
Oral traditions
how knowledge, history, morals, and values were passed on.)
Use of songs, proverbs, fables
Ghana
700-1076 AD
Ghana (means king)
Location: W Africa, Upper Niger River
Controlled trade trans-Saharan trade
salt (N) & gold (S)
Salt needed in South for food (preservation & flavor)
Islam introduced through trade
AD 1000 attacked by Almoravids – parts of kingdom
began breaking away
Mali
1235-1400AD
Location: West Africa, Atlantic Coast along Niger
River
Restored trans-Saharan trade routes
protected them w/ a standing army
Capital Timbuktu -- Mansa Musa
Took a pilgrimage to Makkah
Returned w/ scholars, architects, and legal experts
built mosques in major cities
Built a university at Timbuktu, became a center of learning
Islamic government (many people were not)
Songhai
1400s-1590 AD
Location: West Africa, along most of Niger River
Ruler: Askia Muhammad
Ruled at height AD 1493-1528
Instituted Islamic Law
Divided land into 5 provinces @ with a governor, tax collector,
court, & trade inspector
Timbuktu became a trade center (again) (Europe &
Asia, gold, salt, slaves)
East And Southern Africa
CHAPTER 15
East African Trading Centers
By AD 1300 trading centers in East Africa were
multicultural (Muslim, Persian, African, & Indian)
Controlled by Arab and Persian Merchants
Swahili – blending of Arabic and Bantu languages
Southern Africa= Great Zimbabwe
AD 1000-1500
Location: Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers & Indian
Ocean
City of “Great Zimbabwe” as capital of prosperous
empire
Architecture: huge oval enclosures w/ 30 foot walls,
using no mortar
Built on trade between gold in the interior and the
sea.
Decline b/c of civil war and European intrusion
Summary
Axum
Location relative to the
Ethiopian Highlands and the
Nile River
Christian kingdom
Zimbabwe
Location relative to the
Zambezi and Limpopo rivers
and the Indian Ocean coast
City of “Great Zimbabwe” as
capital of a prosperous
empire
Swahili – blending of Arabic
and Bantu languages
West African kingdoms
Location of Ghana, Mali, and
Songhai empires relative to
Niger River and the Sahara
Importance of gold and salt
to trans-Saharan trade
City of Timbuktu as center of
trade and learning
Roles of animism and Islam