Chapter 3: Medieval Africa
3-1: The Rise of African Civilizations
 The northern part of Africa contains the Saharan Desert: the world’s largest desert
o Swirling winds
o Shifting sand dunes
o Surviving meant finding desert oases
 Africa is the world’s second largest continent
o The U.S. fits into it three times
 The Equator slices through the middle of the continent
o Rain forests are around this area, but they cover only 10% of Africa
 Most Africans live in the tropics (dry, sweeping grasslands)
o Most of these grasslands are savannas
 Wide open
 Raising herds of animals
 Savanna people were hunters and herders
 North and south of the savannas are deserts
o The Sahara is in the north
o The Kalahari desert is in the south
 Places good for growing crops were in northwest Africa (close to the Mediterranean sea) and in
the south
 Almost all of Africa is on a plateau
o A plateau is a raised area of high, flat land
o This happened millions of years ago when the earth cracked the continent
 This cracking made the Great Rift Valley
 The Great Rift Valley is where some of the earth’s earliest fossils were found
 Africa’s rivers
o Nile River in Egypt
o Niger River in West Africa
o Congo River in the southwest
 African trade
o 3,000 B.C. fishing groups and wanderers along the Benue River formed
 They were called Bantu – this means “the people”
 They travelled down the Congo through the rain forests and settled in the
grasslands
 Skills included pottery making, mining, and ironworking
 Spread their language
o This was called a migration – movement of a large number of people
 People share ideas and traditions because their movement spread out their
culture
 The Bantu believed in one supreme spirit, or creator
o North Africa was isolated from the rest of the continent because the Sahara desert
separated it
 In 400 B.C. North African people known as the Berbers moved goods on horses
and donkeys
 The Romans conquered North Africa and introduced camels to them
 Camels changed trade because:
o Broad feet did not sink in sand
o
o
o
o
o
o Humps stored fat for food
o They could travel days without water
Traders travelled in groups of hundred with camels – these are called caravans
 Traded salt and cloth from North Africa for gold and ivory from West Africa
 Rulers of trade cities eventually formed empires
 The first African empire was Ghana
Ghana
 Rose to power in 400s AD
 Located where many trade routes came together (in West Africa)
 Ghana charged a fee for people to come in and trade
 Why would they pay the fee?
o 1. Ghana had iron weapons
o 2. Ghana controlled people who owned gold mines
o 3. Ghana built a huge army to enforce the payments
o 4. People wanted the trade items at almost any price (salt was
needed to flavor and preserve food, and Berber merchants wanted
gold to buy items from Europe)
 How did Ghana lose power?
 1. Gold was discovered in other places, so people went there and did not
pay Ghana’s fee
 2. Heavy farming hurt the soil and made it harder to grow crops
 3. Warfare was always going on and hurt Ghana
 4. Ghana was Muslim but lost to North Africans
Mali
 In the 1200s A.D. the kingdom of Mali conquered what was left of Ghana
 Griots (storytellers) tell of Mali’s first great ruler: Sundiata Keita
 Sundiata Keita
 “Lion Prince”
 Ruled from 1230-1255 A.D.
 Won control of the area of Timbuktu
 Controlled gold-mines
 Rebuilt the salt and gold trade
 Mansa Musa was the last strong king of Mali, he died in 1337 A.D.
 Berber invaders conquered Timbuktu and ended Mali
Songhai
 Sunni Ali, Songhai’s ruler, defeated those Berbers and took Timbuktu
 Songhai was located along the Niger River
 He was a warrior-king: constantly defeating enemies
 Sunni Ali built the largest empire in West Africa
 His empire lasted 100 years until…
 Arab kingdom from Morocco defeated the Songhai with
o Guns
o Spears
o Swords
o Bows
Rain Forest Kingdoms
 The Benin and Kongo were names of two rain forest kingdoms
Farmers had an advantage in the rain forest because they had good soil and plenty
of rain
 They produced surplus (extra food)
 Bananas, yams, rice
 Kongo weavers: fabric that looked like velvet
 Benin artists: sculpting and carving metal, wood, and ivory
 Most famous rain forest King?
 King Ewuare
 Founded Benin
 Griots tell stories of him
 Captured 201 towns and villages – made them pay tribute (gifts/trade)
o East Africa
 Ethiopian peoples trace their history back to 1005 BC
 Queen Makeda’s empire was the Sheba
 She travelled with King Solomon, the leader of the Israelites
o We know this information from Glory of Kings – this is Ethiopia’s
oldest written history
 She introduced eastern Africa to the Hebrews’ religion (Judaism)
 East Africa would be exposed to:
o Judaism
o Christianity
o Islam
 Axum: this is the city state of the Ethiopians (known back then as Abyssinia)
 Located along the Red Sea
 Axum became a major trading center
 Axum, led by King Ezana, defeated the kingdom of Kush
 Ezana helped bring Christianity to Africa and made it Axum’s official
religion
Coastal City-States
o Arab traders invented a wind-catching, triangular sail so they could travel to Africa
 The sails powered sailboats called dhows
o In these eastern city-states, Arab Muslims exchanged goods and ideas with Africans
o Trading ports were located on the eastern coast of Africa
 Mogadishu
 Kilwa
All were important for the
 Mombasa
Indian Ocean trading
 Zanzibar
network
Great Zimbabwe
o Zimbabwe is located in southeastern Africa
o Traded gold, copper, and ivory to the East
o Mutota and Matope made Zimbabwe a large empire
o 300 huge stone buildings remain there today from Great Zimbabwe
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Summary of Sundiata: The Hungering Lion
 A griot tells the story about Mali’s ruler marrying Sogolon  they give birth to Sundiata

Sundiata does not walk or speak for 7 years
o First speaks when he receives his father’s gift: a griot named Balla Fasseke

The ruler dies, but his first sun (not Sundiata) takes the throne
o This is the sun of the ruler and a woman named Sassouma

Sundiata begins to walk, and goes with his mom Sogolon to Mema

A leader named Sumanguru (a rival king) invades Mali
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Sundiata leads an army to defeat him
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Sundiata returns to Mali and becomes emperor of the kingdom of Mali
Human
heroes are
based on
real people
•Sundiata
•Sumanguru
Storytellers
embellish
legends
•Griot (narrator)
named Balla
Fasseke
•Sundiata "shoots
arrow like a hawk"
•Sumanguru "turns
to stone"
3-2: Africa’s Religion and Government
Religion in Africa Today
Christian
Muslim
Traditional African
Religions
Other Religions
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Most Africans believed in one supreme god
o The Igbo believed in one creator
There still were different African beliefs in different places
Still, African religion:
o Provided rules for living
o Helped people stay in touch with history
When relatives died, Africans believed:
o The spirit of the dead stayed with the community
o Spirits could talk to the one supreme god
o Spirits could have the god solve problems
As a result of their beliefs in the dead:
o Africans honored their ancestors
Ibn Battuta’s travels to West Africa gives us a lot of information about the area
o Battuta was a Arab lawyer from Morocco
o He wrote about:
 Islam was in West Africa
 Not all people in West Africa accepted Islam
 Islam was most popular in cities (why? Because rulers and traders accepted it OR
it helped them trade better)
 Women did NOT cover their faces with a veil
 West Africans studied the Quran – they tried to learn it by heart
 Mansa Musa allowed different religions (he was still devoted to Islam, though)
 Mansa Musa set up libraries in Timbuktu
Sundiata Keita and Sunni Ali (rulers from this area, West Africa) were focused on stopping
rebellions
o As a result: more people were not accepting Islam
Mali and Mansa Musa
o Mansa Musa made Mali famous because of his travel to Mecca
 Caravan had thousands of people
 100 camels
 Carrying gold
 Convinced Islamic architects, teachers, and writers to go with him to Mali
o He was so important because he made Mali well-known this way
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Songhai and Askia Muhammad
o Askia Muhammad built the largest empire in medieval West Africa: Songhai
o He made Timbuktu even more famous:
 Center of Islamic culture
 University known throughout the world
 Set up 150 schools to teach the Quran
o In 1591 Moroccan invaders defeated Songhai
 How? They had guns.
Islam’s Impact on Africa
o #1: Islam helped to create Swahili
 What is Swahili? A culture and language that blends African and Muslim elements
o #2: Islam advanced learning
 How? Arabic language was introduced to Africans. This language became
important for culture, history, government, and education
o #3: Islam influenced African art and buildings
 How? Muslim architects built mosques and palaces in Timbuktu and other cities
Government and Society
o Power rested in the hands of a king or queen
 They settled arguments, managed trade, and protected the empire
o Kings and merchants benefitted from each other
 Merchants received favors from the king
 Kings received taxes from the merchants
o Things to remember about Ghana’s government:
 1: Kings had help from a council
 2: Kings divided the empire into provinces
 3: Kings let conquered rulers govern provinces
 4: The King controlled trade
 5: Nobody could own gold except the king. Why? If so many people had it, gold
would not be valuable
 6: The kingdom was only inherited by the son of the king’s sister
o Things to remember about Mali’s government:
 1: Mali was bigger than Ghana
 2: Officials looked over fishing, forests, farming, and money
 3: Generals were in charge of provinces, not conquered rulers. They protected the
people
 4: Citizens were rewarded with gold, land, and horses to keep them loyal
o Things to remember about Songhai’s government:
 1: Divided empire into provinces, just like Ghana and Mali
 2: The Muslim religion affected Songhai more than Ghana and Mali
3-2: African Society and Culture
 The family was the basis of African society
 Villages were matrilineal
o Traced their history through mothers, not fathers
 A woman marries and joins her husband’s tribe
o The husband’s family pays tribute to the mother’s family to make up for the loss
 Education
o The family provided the education
o Griots helped in schooling and passed down stories by word of mouth (oral tradition)
 Women were mostly wives and mothers…but there were some exceptions
o Queen Dahia al-Kahina: in Mauritania fought off the Muslim invaders
o Queen Nzinga: fought Portuguese slave traders for 40 years to stop them from enslaving
her people
 Slavery: criminals and enemies became slaves traded within Africa, to Arabia, or to Europe
o Planters used Africans because it was cheaper than paying workers
o Slaves grew grapes, cotton, sugarcane  grew these on plantations (large farms)
o American slaves: tobacco, rice, and cotton
o Most African slaves were taken from West Africa
 African Culture
o Artists, weavers, dancers, musicians, poets, woodcarvers, and metalworkers
o African Diaspora: the spreading of African people and culture around the world
o Earliest form of African art? Cave paintings showing hunting, dancing, and religion
o Kente Cloth: colorful woven cloth that means “basket” that used to worn by tribal chiefs
 Two friends saw a spider creating designs on a web and they used this skill to
make kente cloth
o Storytelling was important because it carried on family and cultural traditions, while
keeping history alive