AKS 35:
Early African Civilizations
Chapters 8 & 15
35a - identify the Bantu migration patterns
and contribution to settled agriculture
• WARM-UP:
Causes of Migration
• Push-Pull Factors
• Push Factors
–Environmental
•Climate changes; exhausted resources;
earthquakes; volcanoes; drought; famine
–Economic
•Unemployment; slavery
–Political
•Religious, ethnic, or political persecution;
war
Causes of Migration
• Pull Factors
–Environmental
•Abundant land; new resources; good
climate
–Economic
•Employment opportunities
–Political
•Political and/or religious freedom
Effects of Migration
• Brings diverse cultures into
contact
• Changes life in the new land
How Do We Trace
Migration?
• One way is to
study how
language is
spread
–Africa has
many complex
language
families
Case-Study:
Bantu Migrations
• Originally lived in savanna
south of Sahara
• Bantu means “the people”
Case-Study:
Bantu Migrations
• Started migrating south
& east around 3,000 B.C.
• Lived by slash-and-burn
farming & nomadic
herding
– Slash-and-burn farming
causes soil to lose its
fertility quickly, forcing
them to look for new
locations every few years
• Shared skills, learned
new customs, adapted to
environment
Causes of Bantu
Migrations
• Bantu speakers moved to find
farmland
–As agriculture developed, this led to
specialization and permanent villages
in many areas
• To flee the growing Sahara Desert
• Needed iron ore resources &
hardwood forests for iron smelting
–Within 1500 years, they reached the
southern tip of Africa
Effects of Bantu
Migrations
• Bantu speakers drove out some
inhabitants, intermixed with others
– Bantu migrations produced a great variety of
cultures
– Language helped unify the continent
• Technology of ironworking
– Forged tools & weapons from bronze, copper &
iron
• Ideas about social & political
organization
35b – describe the development and decline
of the Sudanese kingdoms (Ghana, Mali,
Songhai) including the roles of Sundiata, and
the pilgrimage of Mansa Musa to Mecca
• WARM-UP:
Background:
African Societies (800-1500)
• Hunter-Gatherers
– Semi-nomadic; lived by
gathering wild foods &
hunting animals
– The Efe were huntergatherers who traded
with farming villages
– The San (aka Bushmen)
lived in southern Africa
and part of East Africa
Background:
African Societies (800-1500)
• Stateless Societies
–No centralized power
•Power balanced among lineage groups,
usually within villages
–Tiv had no formal gov’t
–Igbo resolved disputes by having
elders from different lineages
meet
–Nuer organized over 250,000
people without an official ruler
Background:
African Societies (800-1500)
• Muslim States
–Two Groups:
•Almoravid Empire
– In 11th century, they controlled Mauritania,
Morocco, Algeria, and part of Spain
•Almohad Empire
– Beginning in the mid-1100s, they controlled
Morocco, much of Maghrib, and part of
Spain
Key to Trade:
• CAMELS
–Causes:
•Berbers began using camels because they
could cover greater distances than pack
animals (60 miles per day)
•Could travel more than 10 days without
water (twice as long as most pack animals)
–Effects:
•Using camels, Berber nomads created new
routes across the Sahara – trade increased
West Africa:
Ghana
• Grew from Kumba tribe around
A.D. 200
• Used iron weapons to conquer
neighbors
• Very wealthy due to surplus of
gold and from taxing goods
traders carried through their
territory
– Ghana’s king was able to keep the
price of gold high by limiting its
supply
• Traded gold for salt (for meat
preservation)
• Islam brought by traders;
attacked by Muslim Almoravids in
1076
– This disrupted the gold-salt trade
that Ghana had controlled.
Ghana never regained power.
West Africa:
Mali
• Reached its peak from
1230-1337
– How?
• Gold was discovered
farther east, causing a
shift eastward in trade
routes
• The people of Mali, who
lived in the region of the
new trade routes, were
able to seize power.
• Larger & richer than
Ghana
• Capital: Timbuktu
• Mali = “where the king
lives”
West Africa:
Mali
• Sundiata Keita
–1st great leader of Mali
–Took title of “mansa” – emperor
•Took over Ghana & a few trading cities –
period of peace & prosperity followed
–Accomplishments:
•Put able administrators in charge of Mali’s
finances, defense, & foreign affairs
•Promoted agriculture
•Re-established the gold-salt trade
–Died in 1255
West Africa:
Mali
• Mansa Musa (1312-1332)
– Grandnephew of Sundiata, became a Muslim
– Expanded size of the empire
• Divided it into provinces & appointed governors
– Built mosques in Timbuktu & Gao
– Went on a pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca in 1324
• Gave away gold and jewels along the way to show
Mali’s strength and wealth
West Africa:
Songhai
• Began to grow as Mali
declined
– Mali declined because:
• most of Mansa Musa’s
successors did not
govern well
• New gold deposits were
developed and trade
shifted eastward again
– Took over the trade
routes from the Atlantic
Ocean to Gao (capital)
West Africa:
Songhai
• Sunni Ali
– Became leader of Songhai in
1464
– Ruled for 30 years
– Expanded empire through his
skill as a military commander
and his aggressive leadership
– Conquered Timbuktu in 1468
– Died in 1492
West Africa:
Songhai
• Askia Muhammad
–Led revolt against the son of Sunni
Ali and took over
–Ruled for 37 years
–Set up tax system and an efficient
government
–He was overthrown in 1591 by the
army from Morocco who had
advanced technology (Guns and
cannons)
35c – describe the trading networks by
examining trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt,
and slaves including the Swahili trading
cities
• WARM-UP:
–Define:
•Swahili
Trade:
Gold, Salt, & Slaves
• Gold-Salt Trade
– Gold  from West
African forest region
south of savanna
between Niger &
Senegal rivers
– Salt  from Sahara
desert
– Merchants brought
each back and forth
between trading cities
where they exchanged
the goods
Trade:
Gold, Salt, & Slaves
• Swahili Trading Cities
–Role of Monsoons:
•Traders took advantage of the
monsoons to sail across Indian Ocean
to East Africa
–Kilwa:
•This city was as far south as a ship
from India could sail and still sail
home during the same monsoon season
•Trade goods from the south had to
funnel into Kilwa so Asian merchants
could buy them – allowed Kilwa to
become very wealthy
Trade:
Gold, Salt, & Slaves
• Slave Trade
– Arab Muslim traders
exported enslaved
persons from East
African coast to places
like India, China, Iraq,
Persia, & Arabia
– Numbers traded
remained small (perhaps
1,000 a year)
• Did not increase
dramatically until 1700s
when Europeans started
to buy captured Africans
for their colonial
plantations
An Arab slave market
in Yemen, A.D. 1237
35d – analyze the process of religious
syncretism as a blending of traditional
African beliefs (animism) with new ideas from
Islam and Christianity
• WARM-UP:
What is religious
syncretism?
• The blending of old beliefs with
new ones
–Example:
•Blending Animism (traditional African
belief) with Islam and Christianity
How did religious
syncretism occur?
• Trade
– traders introduced Islam & Christianity 
the growth of commerce caused the
religions to spread
• How?
– As wealthy merchants & rulers did business with
traders, they shared their religion as well
– Some held on to some of their traditional
religious beliefs, but mixed their beliefs
with aspects of Islam or Christianity that
they liked
Map on Next
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Chart
on Next
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MAJOR TRADE NETWORKS