Chapter 8 Early Civilizations in Africa

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8
Early Civilizations in
Africa
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
The Continent of Africa
The Emergence of Civilization
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The Land
 5,000 miles long
 Sahara is the great divide
Kush
 Agriculture may have first appeared in Nubia rather
than the lower Nile valley
 Perhaps the site of the first true African kingdom
 Nubia became an Egyptian tributary
 Disintegration of the Egyptian New Kingdom (end of
second millennium B.C.E.) resulted in the independent
state of Kush
• Kush became a major trading state
• Little known about the society of Kush
• Seems to have been widespread material prosperity
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Ancient Ethiopia and Nubia
Axum, Son of Saba
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Conquered Kush in first millennium C.E.
Axum founded as a colony of the kingdom of Saba (Sheba)
in first millennium B.C.E.
 Saba a trading state, goods from South Asia to the
Mediterranean
Axum continued the trade after Saba declined
 Location on trade routes responsible for prosperity
 Competed for control of ivory trade
Followed Egyptian Christianity (Coptic)
 Would be renamed Ethiopia
 Called the “hermit kingdom” by Europeans
The Sahara and Its Environs
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From 8000 to 4000 B.C.E. a warm, humid climate that
created lakes, ponds, grasslands, and game
Desiccation began in 6th and 5th millennium B.C.E.
After 3000 B.C.E. and farming spread to the savannas to
the south; Berbers were intermediaries
Carthage became focal point of trans-Saharan trade
Ironworking by the people along the Niger River in the
middle of the first millennium B.C.E., Nok culture
East and Southern Africa
 Bantu
language group
 Introduced cultivation of crops and ironworking
 The Bantu settled into rural communities
 Commercial trade
 Egyptians may have arrived looking for trade
goods
 Rhapta a commercial metropolis
 Trade across the Indian Ocean
 Khoisan language group
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Ancient Africa
The Coming of Islam
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African Religious Beliefs before Islam
 Common beliefs
• Single creator god
• Sometimes accompanied by a pantheon of lesser
gods
• Most believed in an afterlife in which ancestral souls
floated in the atmosphere through eternity
• Closely connected to importance of ancestors and
lineage
• Rituals very important
 Challenge by Islam but not always replaced;
synthesized
The Coming of Islam (cont.’d)
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North Africa
 Arab forces seized the Nile delta of Egypt in 641
 New capital at Cairo
 Arabs welcome due to high taxes and periodic persecution of
Coptic Christians by Byzantines
 Arabs seize Carthage in 690, called Al Maghrib
 Berbers resisted for many years
The Kingdom of Ethiopia: A Christian Island in a Muslim Sea
 Axum began to decline
 Shift in trade routes and overexploited agriculture
 Muslim trading states on the African coast of the Red Sea
transforming Axum into an isolated agricultural society
• Source of ivory, resins, and slaves
 Attacked by Muslim state of Adal in early 14th century
 Became a Christian state in mid-twelfth century
East Africa: The Land of Zanj
 Legend
says a Persian and his six sons founded
the trading centers on the coast of East Africa
 Self-governing city-states
 Trade with the interior
 Trade with the Indian Ocean, China, and along
the coast
 Mixed African-Arab culture
 Mixed culture and language called Swahili
 Conversion to Islam grows
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
The Emergence of States in
Africa
The States of West Africa
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Expansion of Islam has impact on political system
Introduction of Arabic for a writing system
Ghana
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Majority of people were farmers
Primary reason for Ghana’s growth was gold
Trans-Saharan trade with Ghana becomes very important
Divine right monarchy assisted by hereditary aristocracy
Kings did not convert to Islam, but many of their subjects did
Mali
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Ruinous wars by the twelfth century in Ghana
• New states of Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and Hausa states
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Greatest state was Mali
• Gold trade
• Farming in the savanna region
• Mansa Musa (1312-1337), king, encouraged Islam
• Timbuktu becomes center of trade, religion and learning
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
States and Stateless Societies in
Southern Africa
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From the basin of the Congo River to the Cape of Good
Hope
Stateless society
Progress made with regional trade
Zimbabwe (sacred house)
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Capital known as Great Zimbabwe
Benefited from trade between interior and coast
Evidence of great wealth, but Great Zimbabwe abandoned
The Khoi and the San (Bushman) people
African Society
 African
Society
Urban life
 Village Life
 Role of women
 Slavery
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African Culture
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Painting and Sculpture
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Music and Dance
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Often served religious purposes
Wide variety of instruments
Integration of voice and instrument
Music produced for social rituals and educational purposes
Architecture
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Rock paintings, wood carving, pottery, metalwork
Pyramid
Stone pillars
Stone buildings
Sometimes reflected Moorish styles
Literature
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Written works did not exist in the early traditional period
Professional storytellers, bards
Importance of women in passing down oral traditions
Discussion Questions
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How is Axum a “bridge” between East African society and
the culture of Southern Arabia?
What is the history of the geography and climate of the
Sahara?
How is the Sahara both a barrier and a highway in the
development of Sub-Saharan Africa?
How are the East African states and the West African
states alike? How are they different?
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