africa common african elements: stateless societies up to about 200 ce kinship based, council...

Africa• Common African elements:

– Stateless societies up to about 200 CE– Kinship based, council families might rule– Bantu language– Animism- led to priests to protect from evil– Ironwork– VERY diverse economies of trade– Larger more extensive than states– No need to tax

• No need for armies and bureaucrats• Disputes handled in community• Camels and Islam (700 CE) influence rise of stat through TRADE and control

over routes

• Christian Kingdoms– Egypt –Coptic– Ethiopia- based on marriage between Solomon and Sheba – Nubia– Axum (trade, tariffs, most important)

• Islam in Africa 640-700– North was part of Classical World

• Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthage, Romans, Byzantines– Islam starts in Tunisia – Spread through Trade- peaceful – Berber tribes across Sahara

• Led to Abbasid Empire- 711 into Spain– 11th century rise of Almoravids

• Radical jihad by Arabs and Berbers• Spread to Spain and sub Saharan

– Kings embraced umma – Now equal with Arabs

• Grasslands-Ghana– Peaceful trade from Sahel (grassland below desert)

into savannahs– Trade route camels/grassland– Exchange of forest gold for Saharan salt and dates• States emerge as trade centers

• Between CE 1000 and 1500 Sudanic states Ghana, Mali, and Songhay– Villages consolidated-larger units, formed powerful and centralized

states– An influx of grassland-dwelling people from the Sudan

• Driven south by harsh climactic conditions• Brought new forms of government- hereditary monarchy

– Sudantic states had:• Patriarchal councils• Charged taxes, subdued others• Formed for protection of wealth from trade-• Empowered elite- Islam creates religious leaders 10th Cen

• Mali- Niger River Valley– Between Senegal and Niger Rivers– 13th Cen. Malinke people broke from Ghana– Islam unites- mosques for worship and support of kings– Economy – agriculture and gold merchants (juula) formed

partnerships of trade– Leadership- Sudiata (Lion Prince), oral history from griots– Handicapped and exiled

Asylum in Mema, king favored his tenacity to walk• 1235 Grew and raised an army to defeat Mali warlords and Soso king• Became first emperor of Mali

• Mansa Kankan Musa 1280-1337– Throne through deputy appointment (king disappeared during

Atlantic exploration)– 1324 pilgrimage Mecca

• 60K people, 12 K slaves each with 4 bars gold 80 camels with 300 lbs gold dust each

• Gave to each city • Built a mosque every Friday • Returned with Arabic scholar Ishak –al-Shahili from Spain to build Sankore

Madrasah (university)• Urbanization• Timbuktu intellectual capital of Africa and Middle East• Agriculture difficult, polygamy rises

• The Songhai Empire – Islam main connector but not continentally universalizing– 1370 independent from Mali-dominant power of West Africa – Expansion under Sunni Ali after 1464, seized Timbuktu– Elaborate administrative apparatus– Powerful army, and imperial navy – Muslim, syncretic (blend of religions to form another) culture- Sunni

followed animism and Islam – Prosperous land– Engaged in trans-Saharan trade

• Fall of Songhai – Moroccan army invaded in 1591 – defeated with muskets – Subject peoples revolted – Regional kingdoms

• Political Life in Sudanic States• Village community, to large family states

– Ruled by emirs or caliphs yet blended with kingship– Administration through Muslim scholars– Varying ethnic groups

• Islam universalizes yet syncretic with animism– Traditional practice embraced– Matrilineal – women define lineage

• No sharia• Slavery was a stage in Islamic conversion and also part of caravan trade,

women and children. – Children of slave mothers freed but perpetuated slavery

• Oyo, Asante, Dahomey – Derived immense wealth from the slave trade; Europeans

dealt with these states– Developed new forms of government: divine right

monarchies; councils; bureaucracies– Developed extensive traditions in arts and crafts; arts and

craft guilds arose

• Swahili Coast – Developed through Arabic, Persian, Indian and Chinese (1400s-Ming)

trade. Monsoon (storm wind) routes• Indian Ocean trade since 2nd Cen. BCE

– Bantu migration on land• Arabs trade for iron• Islamic influence spread to Africa and then over to India • Constructed mosques in ports from 1200s on • Family elites claim Persian lineage, commoners remain traditional

– China ends ship trade in 1431 (Eunuch advice) Arabs dominate

– 30 port towns along East Africa mostly moving goods from interior• Ivory, gold and slaves for silk

• No forced religion– Matrilineal and patriarchal hybridization- property

owned by both – Port towns commoners mud huts, traditional beliefs

surrounded by coral/stone home Muslim elites• Swahili traversed the coast

• Swahili city-states in East Africa – Vasco da Gama forced the ruler of Kilwa to pay tribute,

1502 • Portuguese naval fleet subdued all the Swahili cities,

1505• Portuguese built forts and controlled trade out of Africa • Europeans establish sugar colonies –Mixed race soldiers took control of area

• Plantations arose on Zanzibar, Pemba islands

• Forest Kingdoms– The Yoruba – First to expand through military incursions (attacks), non

Bantu – Terra cotta art, iron work– Ile Ife holy city– Highly urbanized, lived in towns, farmed outside– King not absolute, princes in city states ruled their own– Decentralized– Set up tribute monarchies throughout Niger area.– Civil and supernatural power

– Among these tribute monarchies were Oyo and Benin

– Benin in southern Nigeria • Loose village system changed by Ewuare the Great (1440-1473)• Hereditary and centralized monarchy that ruled through a royal court• Benin expanded into an empire in the Nigerian region • Highly urbanized

– People in cities formed rudimentary class system with craft and art guilds Between CE 1500 and1800• Kingdoms incorporated into European mercantile, capitalist activities• Began wars to capture slaves for export to Portuguese• High degree of political instability• Fragmented the African civilizations that participated in this commerce

• Bantu spread south into savannahs• Leadership move from village headmen to

divine kings– Created bureaucracy of bloodline

• Kingdoms of South Africa • Kongo– Powerful kingdom of central Africa after 14th cen. – Kingship hereditary, local chiefs were not– Confederation (collective) of smaller states under

Manikongo (king)• Mani means metal- iron work established spiritual

leaders– Women cultivated land, sea salt, shells as currency– Established diplomatic/commercial relations with

Portugal, 1482- Slave trade – Kings of Kongo converted to Christianity sixteenth century– King Afonso communicated with the pope

AFRICA c. 1500 AT THE START OF THE SLAVE TRADE

• Great Zimbabwe 11th Cen.• Site of kings, birth of God

– Called Mutupas • Architecture- use of mortar and brick• Brick exemplifies state organized building • Civilization was African accomplishment• Ruled region by 14th Cen stretched to Indian Ocean• Textile trade with India• Cattle established wealth, glass bead trade, gold fields

• Interior of East Africa– Bantu intermixed, move southeast , language, peaceful migration

• Farmers of bananas• Herders of cattle• Transporters of ivory, materials to coast• Arose around lakes of the Rift Valley• Generally not effected by wider world, Europeans

• Slavery common in traditional Africa

– War captives, criminals, outcasts – Most slaves worked as cultivators– Some used as administrators, soldiers – Measure of power, wealth – Assimilated (blend into) into masters' kinship groups– Could earn freedom– Children of slaves were free

• Islamic slave trade well established throughout Africa – North African to S. W. Asia Route– Indian Ocean Route to S. W. Asia, Persian Gulf

• Europeans used these existing networks– Redirected the slaves to the coast (Atlantic Route)– Expanded slave trade through increased demand, high prices, ultimately sugar

cultivation/processing in Americas

• Portuguese explore Africa– Established factories, trading stations

• Portuguese not powerful enough to control trade• Diseases kept Europeans from penetrating interior• Had to work cooperatively with local rulers• Mulattos penetrated interior for Portugal

– Exchanges • Portuguese obtained ivory, pepper, skins, gold• Africans obtained manufactured goods• Portuguese successful because their goods sold

– Portuguese dominated shipment, demand out of Africa• How Portugal dealt with Africans

– Missionary efforts, Catholicism spread; Ambassadors – Portugal begins to see Africans as savages, heathens, pagans– Began with Portuguese attitude towards African Muslims– Slavery introduced as Africans seen only as a commodity

• As slaves became a primary trade commodity,

• American Plantation System• Cash crops

– Introduced to fertile lands of Caribbean: early fifteenth century – Important cash crops

• Caribbean Coast: Sugar, cocoa, coffee• Southern States of US: Tobacco, rice, indigo, cotton

– Plantations dependent on slave labor• Plantations racially divided

– 100 or more slaves with a few white supervisors• Whites on top of social pyramid• Free people of color• Creole blacks

– Born in Americas of mixed parentage– House slaves

• Saltwater slaves – Directly from Africa– Field slaves, mines

– High death rates in the Caribbean and Brazil• Led to continued importation of slaves• Led to an expansion of the slave trade to Africa• Led to an internal slave trade in some states

– Most slaves to Caribbean (Haiti) and Brazil– Only about 5 percent of slaves to North America

• Less than 1% to the US• Slave families more common

• Africans brought their traditions, cultures with them– Often retained only their traditions– Most Africans in Americas came from same region in Africa– Hybrid traditions arose blending with Western traditions

• African and Creole languages – Slaves from many tribes; lacked a common language – Developed creole languages

• Blending several African languages • With the language of the slaveholder

• Religions also combined different cultures – African Christianity was a distinctive syncretic practice – African rituals and beliefs

• Ritual drumming, singing• Pentecostal like behaviors• Animal sacrifice, magic, and sorcery

• Other cultural traditions– Hybrid cuisine– Weaving, pottery