Transcript Africa from Kush to 15th Century

Africa from Kush to the 15th Century
SSWH6
Time and Geography
African Geography and Climates
• Many parts of Africa are isolated from other
centers of human activity by geography
• Continent divided into climatic and vegetative
zones
– Mediterranean, extreme southern coasts
– Deserts
– Rain forest
– Savanna
ECONOMIC
Early Movements of
Ideas and People
African pygmies and
a European explorer
• Diversity
– Egyptians, Berbers, Arabs
– Abyssinians, Nubians, Somalis
– Bantu-speaking ethnic groups
– Khoisan or “Bushmen”
– Pygmies
• Mixed farming – pastoralism and farming
– Hunting often subsidiary
– Women performed most of daily drudgery
Early Centuries of
Food-producing Revolution
• Most suitable land in Nile Valley, south of
Sahara
• Sahara – largely cattle pastoralism
• As area got drier, people moved north and
south
• 4000-2500 BCE, agriculture in Nile and Niger
river valleys
• Agriculture in rain forest depended on root
crops, bananas
Bantu Expansion into
Sub-equatorial Africa
• Use of iron tools spread agriculture
• Learned to breed livestock and grow grain by
1000
• Established series of small kingdoms, some of
these existed when Portuguese arrived in
1500s
Iron age tools
SOCIAL/ RELIGIOUS
Social Organization
BaKongo masks from
the Kongo Central region
Societal Unit
• Clan or lineage, either patrilineal or matrilineal
• Lived together, some specializing in crafts, most
farming/herding
Religion:
• Animism was universal
Social Organization
Women:
• As a rule, women were subordinate to men in public life
• Some women had positions of power as queen mothers or rulers
• Managed family, farming, marketing, economies of communities
• Equal rights to access and inheritance of land and livestock
• Rights changed when Africa came under Islam
Men:
• Male polygamy universal: wealth and social
status
• Way to extend his kinship network
African women
throughout history
have participated in
social change
POLITICAL
State Formation
• Early European explorer/traders
– Described “stateless” societies based on erroneous
assumptions from European experience
• Rules were there
– Conflict and dispute resolution
– Social rules and norms
– Duties and privileges
“Savage”
stereotypes
stem from
Eurocentric
views
• Recognizable states organized on principle of divine
kingship
THE KINGDOMS OF THE NILE
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Trade throughout the history of Africa
Agriculture and livestock breeding cornerstones
Exported few manufactures internationally
Production and export of gold, ivory, animal hides,
dyes, gums, and aromatics
THE KINGDOMS OF THE NILE
• Traffic in human beings
• Political power rested on control over imports: salt,
dates, weapons, Chinese porcelain, textiles, and
beads
Figure (ushabti) of the slave from a
tomb of the Old Kingdom period,
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)
THE KINGDOMS OF THE NILE
• Africa had links to the world through international
trade and commercial networks:
– First with Nile Valley and western Mediterranean
world, then Sudanic states, the coastal Swahili,
and Great Zimbabwe
– Wider Islamic commercial nexus: eastern
Mediterranean, Indian Ocean community, and
Asia
Early States
• Kush
– Maritime trading partner and rival of Egypt
– Closely associated with Egypt, influenced by their culture,
religion
– Meroe was major industrial center, principal product was
iron
– Red Sea trade in gold, slaves, exotic luxury goods
Location of
Kush
Early States
The main Obelisk of
Axum is supposedly
1,700 years old.
• Axum
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Challenged Kush for control of Red Sea trade in 300s
Their rise coincided with conversion to Christianity
Prosperity depended on Indian Ocean/Red Sea trade
Arab Muslims dominated sea trade from 8th century
TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE AND KINGDOMS
OF THE SUDAN
• Sudanese kingdoms: states formed 400 CE below Sahara Desert
• Agriculture advanced with iron tools, good soils, and transport on
Niger River
• Population grew and first cities established
• Gold was discovered in the Senegal River region
• Trans-Saharan trade routes: western Sudan with north Africa
Course of the "River of Gold" (Senegal-Niger) in the
1413 portolan chart of Mecia de Viladestes.
TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE AND KINGDOMS
OF THE SUDAN
• Late 7th C Islam established in North Africa, western Sudan
• Muslim Berber and Arab merchants brought Sudan into
international commercial system spanned southern Europe, Africa,
and Asia
• Trade supported state formation
• Three kingdoms:
– Ghana, Mali, Songhay
POLITICAL/ RELIGIOUS
Ghana
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Established monopoly on gold trade
Term “ghana” referred to divine king
Muslims were influential
Conversion to Islam brought advantages
Muslims introduced concepts of law and
administration
Larabanga
Mosque, built in
the 15th century.
Taken in March
2006.
Sudanese Kingdoms
• Mali
– Product of strategic trading position on southern fringe of
Sahara
– Relied heavily on taxes from Saharan traders of gold, salt,
slaves
– Expanded militarily until it dominated much of West Africa
Sudanese Kingdoms
Size of Mali at its peak.
Sudanese Kingdoms
• Songhai
– Eventually became greatest of Sudanic states
– Strongly Muslim state
Location of
Songhai
Swahili City-States
• Had large hand in commercial development of
continent
• Entire Indian Ocean became “Islamic lake”
• Swahili: local Bantu-speaking traders
Swahili Arabic script
on a one-pysar coin
from Zanzibar circa
1299 AH (1882 AD)
Swahili City-States
• Built seaworthy ships to
sail to southern Arabia,
India
• Islam was binding thread
of African and nonAfrican peoples
• Kilwa dominated coastal
gold trade
Swahili Arabic script on a carved wooden door
(open) at Lamu in Kenya
Great Zimbabwe
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Chief center of early settled life in southern Africa
We know nothing about it from written sources
Flourished as political, religious, trading center
Declined in 15th century
– Internal dynastic disputes
– Gold supply petered out
– Natural environmental imbalances
AESTHETIC
African Arts
• Visual and plastic, no writing
• Benin bronzes
• Wood sculptures of central
Sudan
• Ivory, gold of Swahili city-states
• Earthenware heads of Nigeria
Wood sculptures of
central Sudan
SOCIAL
European Impressions
• Explorer/traders saw kingdoms as
subservient and backward
• Slavery
– Main reason Europeans thought Africans
backward: uncivilized
– Christian missionizing took back seat to
business interests
– Europeans rationalized slavery on biblical
basis, local prejudice
– Became basis of European and American
racial prejudice
The inspection and sale of a
slave
Discussion Questions
1.Geography played a significant role in the
development of African cultures over time. What
other examples have you studied in other parts of
the world where geography was so important?
2. Many African cultures developed around allimportant trade, a factor that we have seen
repeatedly throughout history. Why is trade so
important; what does it offer? Besides the obvious
exchange of goods, what other articles, ideas, etc.
are exchanged in a trading system?