Chapter 8
Early Civilizations in Africa
The Continent of Africa
1. Africa covers twenty percent of the earth's land surface. There are five climatic zones to the continent. In the north along the Mediterranean are
fertile lands rimmed by mountains. Though unpredictable, there is sufficient rainfall for agriculture in these areas. Similar fertile lands are found on
the southwestern Cape of Good Hope. South of the northern mountains is the great Sahara Desert stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red
Sea, covering 3.5 million square miles. Bracketing this and other deserts of Africa is the sahel, a dry, treeless semi-arid grass-covered plain. The
Sahara gives way to savannahs and then to tropical rain forests along the coast in the area of the Niger River. These forests extend into the interior
of central Africa until met by the mountains, upland plateaus, and lakes of eastern Africa. In the East African Rift Valley of modern Kenya, hominids
made their appearance. Further to the south are the dense jungles of equatorial Africa watered by the Congo (Zaire) River. These lands give way to
the hills, plateaus, savannahs, and deserts of the south.
2. While evidence suggests that agriculture was pursued in the lower Nile valley around 5000 B.C.E., there may have been even earlier activity in the
area of Nubia at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. Here farmers may have cultivated sorghum and millet on the upper Nile as early as the
eleventh millennium B.C.E. By at least 3000 B.C.E. farming had spread throughout the savannas and between 1500 and 1000 B.C.E. settled
agriculture had reached south into the Rift Valley. From the Nile valley, agriculture also moved west to the central and western Sudan. By the first
century B.C.E. settled agriculture was in West Africa from where it spread to the forests.
3. By the third millennium B.C.E. the upper and lower Nile trade of Nubia included ivory, ebony, frankincense, gold, oils, cotton, and slaves. Meroe
was strategically located at the intersection of the northern African trade routes and the Nile. It was here that iron working was perhaps developed
(either introduced indigenously or brought by the Phoenicians to Egypt). From the Nile, iron smelting spread west and was present in West Africa by
250 B.C.E. and sub-Saharan Africa by 600 C.E. Some evidence, however, suggests iron smelting took place as early as 500 B.C.E. in the regions of
the Niger River.
4.
One of the most important areas of West Africa was Ghana with its capital at Saleh, a city of 15,000-20,000 by the twelfth century.
Emerging in the fifth century C.E. north of the Senegal and Niger Rivers, it was located near one of the richest gold producing areas in Africa. The
gold was procured from neighboring people and transported to Marrakech and Morocco where it was distributed to the northern world. Ghana also
exported to the Mediterranean ivory, ostrich feathers, hides, leather goods, and ultimately slaves. In 992 Ghana captured the Berber town of
Awdaghast which controlled the southern portion of the major trans-Saharan trade routes. By the thirteenth century, Ghana was destroyed and in its
place grew several states including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and the Hausa. Mali extended from the Atlantic coast to the Niger River.
Timbuktu was not only a main trading center for the gold that was used to build the power of Mali but also by the fifteenth century it had developed
into a center of scholarship and learning. Songhai, at the eastern end of the Niger, was under Mali's control until 1375. By the late fifteenth century
Songhai dominated the entire upper Niger and had captured Timbuktu. Under Songhai trans-Saharan trade reached its height focusing on gold,
slaves, and ivory. At the end of the sixteenth century Songhai collapsed. The fourth significant state was Kanem-Bornu near Lake Chad. Kanem
from 1100 to 1500 controlled the trade routes north to the Mediterranean and east to the Nile. In the fifteenth century power shifted to Bornu.
Question:
1.How did geography shape the development of ancient Africa?
The Continent of Africa
Ancient Africa
 The Land
 Civilization
 Kush
 Meroë
 Trade
 Writing
Ancient Ethiopia and Nubia
1. The origins of agriculture in Egypt may have been in the area called Nubia at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile. It would appear that
crops such as sorghum and millet were being cultivated as early as the eleventh millennium B.C.E. By the third millennium B.C.E. the upper and
lower Nile trade of Nubia included such goods as ivory, ebony, frankincense, gold, oils, cotton, and slaves.
2. Neolithic groups were migrating east from the Sahara Desert by at least 2200 B.C.E. and around 1500 B.C.E. these dark skinned people had
created their own kingdom of Kush.
3. About 750 B.C.E. the Kushites took advantage of Egyptian decay and conquered Thebes, the capital of Lower Egypt. The Kushites, however,
soon withdrew back to their homeland as the Assyrians burst into Egypt in 670 B.C.E. Their rule centered on the important trading center of Meroe
from which the Kushites served as the conduit for goods from Central and East Africa as well as the Red Sea to Rome and its tributaries. The zenith
of Kush was from 250 B.C.E to 200 C.E.
4. Axum was located in the northern highlands of Ethiopia. It was colonized about 500 B.C.E. by the kingdom of Saba (Sheba) across the Red Sea
on the southern tip of the Arab Peninsula (Yemen). When Saba declined, Axum became independent. Its prosperity was based upon trade moving
between India and the Mediterranean. Key was the Red Sea port of Adulis. Among the items exported were ivory, frankincense, myrrh, and slaves
while imports included textile, metal goods, wine, and olive oil. In about 330 C.E. Kush was eliminated as a rival when it was conquered.
5. The zenith of Axum was from about 200 to 400 C.E. In the sixth and seventh centuries the kingdom was Christianized and the church became
Monophysite in doctrine (the single, unitary nature of Jesus). Christianity became the tool for unifying the various chieftains of Axum into the
kingdom of Ethiopia. By the tenth century the Axumite Kingdom had disappeared, replaced by Christian Ethiopia. In relative seclusion due to
mountainous and almost inaccessible highlands, a stable monarchy and distinctive Christian culture were created.
Questions:
1. How was Kush an important link to the Mediterranean civilizations?
2. What was the role of geography and location in the rise of Axum and its successor Ethiopia?
Ancient Ethiopia and Nubia
 Axum
 Ethiopia
 Kingdom of Saba (Sheba)
 Trade
 Religion
 Sahara
 Climate, Desiccation, c. 5000 B.C.E.
 Agriculture, c. 7000 B.C.E.
 Trade
 East Africa, Land of Zanj
 Bantu language group
 Rhapta
 South Africa
 Khoisan language group
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
1. One of the keys to the trans-Saharan trade was Carthage, established about 813 B.C.E. in North Africa by Phoenicia. Carthage did not directly
carry out the African trade but used the nomadic Berbers as intermediaries. Utilizing camels that were domesticated sometime at the beginning of
the Christian era, the traders could move about 500 pounds for each animal and travel around twenty-five miles a day. Merchants usually walked and
guided the animals. Travel, which could last three months, was predominantly at night since the desert day temperatures reached well over a
hundred degrees while the low at night would be in the twenties. One caravan in the fourteenth century reportedly contained 12,000 camels. After
about the fifth century the Berbers adapted the saddle for the camel thereby giving them powerful political and military advantage, especially in
controlling the trade routes.
2. Ancient trade routes included trans-Saharan links between North Africa and the Nile River. There was also an ancient route connecting the Nile
and Niger Rivers. Since at least 130 B.C.E West Africa shipped north and east gold, precious stones, cola nuts, slaves, and wild animals. In turn,
horses, cattle, millet, leather, cloth, and weapons came from the north.
3. One of the most important areas of West Africa was Ghana with its capital at Saleh, a city of 15,000-20,000 by the twelfth century. Emerging in
the fifth century C.E. north of the Senegal and Niger Rivers, it was located near one of the richest gold producing areas in Africa. The gold was
procured from neighboring people and transported to Marrakech and Morocco where it was distributed to the northern world. Ghana also exported
to the Mediterranean ivory, ostrich feathers, hides, leather goods, and ultimately slaves. In 992 Ghana captured the Berber town of Awdaghast
which gave it control of the southern portion of the major trans-Saharan trade routes. By the thirteenth century, Ghana was destroyed and in its
place grew several states including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and the Hausa. Mali extended from the Atlantic coast to the Niger River.
Timbuktu was not only one of the main trading centers from which gold was traded to build the power of wealth of Mali but also by the fifteenth
century had developed into a great center of scholarship and learning. Songhai, at the eastern end of the Niger, was under Mali's control until 1375.
By the late fifteenth century Songhai dominated the entire upper Niger and had captured Timbuktu. Under Songhai the trans-Saharan trade
reached its height focusing on gold and other commodities of West Africa such as slaves and ivory. At the end of the sixteenth century Songhai
collapsed. The fourth significant state was Kanem-Bornu near Lake Chad. Kanem from 1100 to 1500 controlled the trade routes north to the
Mediterranean and east to the Nile. In the fifteenth century power shifted to Bornu.
Question:
1. What was the relationship between the growth of empire and trade?
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
 Coming of Islam to Africa
 Egypt
 Al Maghrib
 Berbers
 Christian Ethiopia
Axum
 East Africa and Indian Ocean Trade
 Trade
 Swahili
The Emergence of States in Africa
1. In the tenth century the Muslim Umayyads of Spain gained control of Morocco but lost it to the Almoravids in the middle of the eleventh century.
They soon conquered western Algeria and southern Spain. The Almoravids were succeeded in 1140 by the Almohads (Muslim Berbers) from the
Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
2. In 909 a claimant of descendentcy from Fatimah (Muhammad's daughter) seized Algeria and Tunisia. By the second half of the tenth century
Egypt had fallen to the Fatimids who built a new capital at Cairo. Before the empire crumbled in the eleventh century, they controlled southern Syria,
the Hijaz, and Yemen.
3. Ghana built its power in the fifth century on the gold trade coming from the Senegal and Niger Rivers. It also had substantial agricultural land
that supported a population of about 200,000. By the thirteenth century Ghana's empire was destroyed. Nearby Songhai did not get involved in the
gold trade until the fourteenth century. Its orientation was toward the forest trade of the lower Niger and the trans-Saharan trade to eastern Algeria.
Developing between the eighth and ninth centuries, Kanem's formation was as a nomadic federation of black tribes that eventually formed a single
people, the Kanuri. These people took over the sedentary societies of Kanem east of Lake Chad and later Bornu, west of the lake. By the thirteenth
century Kanem-Bornu controlled the southern terminus of the trans-Saharan trade route to the Mediterranean. To the south was Benin on the
southern Niger. Existing at least by the twelfth century, its villages were directed by a powerful king in the fifteenth century.
4. Zimbabwe, south of the Zambezi River, was located in a rocky, savanna-woodland watershed far enough inland never to be influenced by Islam.
It was founded by eleventh century Bantu speakers called the Shona and flourished until the sixteenth century. The area consisted of at least 150
settlements that were apparently involved in the trade of East Africa. Among its products was gold found to the west and north and traded to Sofala
on the coast.
5. Ethiopia, centered at Axum, had commercial ties to Rome, Byzantium, as well as to the east across the Indian Ocean. It also exercised
significant military and political power in eastern Africa but in the eighth century the Muslims cut off Axum's commercial contacts with the Byzantine
Empire. Soon, Ethiopia lost its control of the Red Sea trade routes.
6. Kongo, located near the mouth of the Kongo River, was formed in the fourteenth century by a Bantu prince. Ultimately, six states were brought
under the Mani Kongo ("lord of the Kongo"). By the 1400s, Kongo was a bureaucratic monarchy.
Question:
1.How did the African states differ in their organization?
The Emergence of States in Africa
 State Building in West Africa
 Ghana
Farming
Trade
 Mali
Gold trade
Mansa Musa (1312-1337)
 Government and Kingship
Divine right
Hereditary aristocracy
City-states
 States and Stateless Societies in Southern Africa
 Zaire River to the Cape of Good Hope
 Zimbabwe
 Great Zimbabwe
 Trade
The San (Bushman) people
 African Society
 Urban life
Timbuktu
Merchant class
 Family, village, women
Role of women
 Slavery
 Religious Beliefs
 Single creator god
 Rituals
 Ancestors
 Islam
 African Culture
 Painting and Sculpture
Rock paintings
Wood carving
Nok pottery
Metal work
 Music and Dance
Rituals
 Architecture
Pyramid
Stone pillars
Stone buildings
 Literature
Example of Middle Eastern Islamic ironwork on window