By: Danielle Burnett & Madeline Rivera
• Iinguists,
Bautu, Oral
traditions
• Developed
subsaran
Africa before
writing
Patterns of Life
Africa’s Past
Physical Setting
• Plateau,
Savannas,
Tropical Rain
Forests
• Jungle,
Deserts,
Mountains
Grasslands
• Most early
African’s lived
in small
independent
villages
• Women were
the primary
farmers in
Africa
* Humans developed societies in sub-Saharan Africa long
before they developed writing.
* Linguists have shown how Bantu (a family of
closely related African languages) spread. Their study
suggests to anthropologists and historians that for
centuries people have migrated through out sub-Saharan
Africa.
* Most early Africans lived in small independent farming,
herding or fishing villages.
* Unlike Europe and Asia, in Africa, women were the
primary farmers.
* The hot, wet climate of the rain forests provides
breeding grounds for insects.
* Some of them carry deadly diseases.
* Among the diseases are malaria and yellow fever is
carried by mosquitoes, and sleeping sickness is carried
by tsetse flies.
* savannas: Dry grasslands south of the Sahara Desert
in Africa.
* tropical rain forests: Vast forests that have a great
amount of rainfall and vegetation.
*
jungle: Thick growth of plants found in a tropical rain
forest.
* linguists: Scholars who study languages.
* oral traditions: Poems, songs, and stories passed by
word of mouth from one generation to another.
*
matrilineal: Describes a society in which people trace
their ancestors and inherited property through their
mothers rather than through their fathers.
* Bantu: Family of closely related African languages.
1. What geographic features of Africa affected human
cultures?
In sub-Saharan Africa most of the important
cultures developed there. It was located south of the
desert. The physical geography of Sub-Saharan Africa
strongly influenced the growth of human societies
there. Much of Sub-Saharan Africa is a plateau. This
highland is dimpled by river basins and valleys. Like a
great upside-down bowl.
2. How did historians learn about the migrations of
early peoples?
They learned that over the years, the climate in
the Sahel became increasingly drier and that people
either migrated south or shifted more to herding.
3.
What were the predominant patterns of life in many
early African societies?
3. What were the predominant patterns of life in many
early African societies?
Many
people believe that most early Africans lived in small,
independent farming, herding, or fishing villages.
Women in particular played a crucial role in both the
African family and economy. Unlike Europe and Asia,
in Africa women were the primary farmers. Historians
believe that societies in many parts of Sub-Saharan
Africa were matrilineal. In other words, people traced
their ancestors and inherited property through their
mothers rather than fathers.
* The kingdoms of Kush and Aksum dominated much
of Sub-Saharan Africa.
* Kush was a important trading Kingdome.
* They traded gold, ivory, and ebony.
* They transported ostrich feathers through Nubia.
* Nubia transported goods on caravans from the Red
Sea to barges on the Nile.
* In about 1600 B.C.E. a Nubian trading center on the
Nile called Karmah emerged.
* Recent archaeological discoveries reveal a rich
cultural exchange between Karmah and Egypt.
* Kush may have traced its roots to the city of Karmah.
* At first Kush maintained close economic and cultural
ties with Egypt.
*
In about 1520 B.C.E., however, the rulers of Egypt's
New Kingdom brought Nubia and Kush under their
control.
* For the next 500 years, Kush was governed by the
pharaohs. During this time, however, the Nubian
kingdom appears to have grown increasingly isolated
from Egyptian rule.
* In 671 B.C.E. the Assyrians, armed with iron weapons,
invaded Kush, greatly weakening the kingdom.
Evidence suggests that about 80 years later, Napata
was captured by an Egyptian force.
* Kush was located across trade routes between the
Red Sea and the Nile. Caravans brought cultural
influences as well as goods from other people.
Ghanian kings were powerful and wealthy from the gold trade. They were
able to build large armies to conquer new territory. One of the most
powerful Ghanian rulers was Tunka Manin, who ruled in about A.D. 1067.
Tunka Manin commanded an army of 200,000 warriors.
The rise of a successor kingdom - Mali - followed the fall of Ghana. Mali’s
power reached it’s peak under it’s great ruler Mansa musa. He was a
supporter of education, the arts, and public building.
Songhai - The kingdim of Songhai was centered on the important
trading city of Gao, on the Niger River. The new kingom stretched
fro the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Chad. It covered an area even
larger than Mali.
Goods came from Euroe, India, and China. The growing number
of merchants included Arabs, Jews, Italians, and many others.
* Aksum lay in the rugged Ethiopian Highlands south
of Kush. The kingdom straddled the important trade
routes that stretched from the Red Sea into Egypt and
the interior of Africa. By about the C.E. 100s, the
people of Aksum had developed an independent
kingdom that boasted a thriving ivory trade. As Kush
declined, Aksum increasingly competed with it for
control of trade in eastern Africa. Aksum sent gold,
rhinoceros horns, ivory, incense, and decorative
obsidian stone to Mediterranean countries by way of
Egypt.
* They also made their own coins.
* By about C.E. 300 Aksum was a military power.
* In about C.E. 350 King 'Ezana of Aksum conquered
Kush.
* During his reign 'Ezana converted to Christianity. He
made it the official religion of Aksum.
* King 'Ezana's conversion to Christianity was a key
event in the history of eastern Africa
* Christianity was strong and widespread.
* 'Ezana's conversion, moreover, had an impact on
Christianity in eastern Africa that was similar to the
effect that Constantine's conversion had on
Christianity in the Roman Empire.
* Aksum became a major center of long-distance trade
throughout coastal East Africa. Between the C.E. 300s
and 600s, for example, it dominated the African side of
the Red Sea trade. Its location and dominance brought
great wealth to Aksum.
1. How did Kush develop as an independent kingdom?
Kush thrived as
an important corridor of trade. Gold, ivory, ebony, and
ostrich feathers were transported through Nubia. Here
caravans hauled goods from the Red Sea to barges on
the Nile.
2. How did Aksum develop as an independent
kingdom?
The
kingdom straddled the important trade routes that
stretched from the Red Sea into Egypt and the interior
of Africa. By about the A.D. 100s, the people of Aksum
had developed an independent kingdom that boasted
a thriving ivory trade. As Kush declined, Aksum
increasingly competed with it for control of trade in
eastern Africa. Aksum sent gold, rhinoceros horns,
ivory, incense, and decorative obsidian stone to
Mediterranean countries by way of Egypt.
* There are no kingdoms as large as Kush And Aksum
on the coast of East Africa.
* Several city-states dominated coastal trade in the
Indian Ocean.
* Trade routes linked all shores of the Indian ocean
and Africans exported gold, ivory, hides, tortoise
shells, porcelain, weapons, and slaves.
* The “Dhow” help them trade along the coast.
* Over several generations a unique African culture
called Swahili developed in East Africa.
* The people of this culture spoke Swahili, a Bantu
language with Arabic and Persian influences.
* Swahili speakers were not a single ethnic group.
* They were bound together by both language and
their association with trade.
* Three of the earliest trading states were Mogadishu
(moh guh DEE shoo), Pate, and Mombasa.
* These three trade centers were in the north but
moved to the south.
* By the late C.E. 1200s the city-state of Kilwa had
become a leading port.
* Ibn Battutah, a famous Islamic traveler of the C.E.
1300s, called the city-state of Kilwa one of the most
beautiful, well-built cities in the world.
* They traded gold for salt, tools, and cloth.
* Swahili: African society that emerged in the late
1100s along the East African coast and combined
elements of African, Asian, and Islamic cultures.
* Shona: People who migrated onto the plateau of
what is known today as Zimbabwe.
1. How did trade develop along the East African coast?
Kush
and Aksum developed trade along the East African
coast.
2. How did kingdoms of West Africa become
prosperous and powerful?
The kingdoms were prosperous and powerful
because Several important societies flourished in West
Africa. They lay between Lake Chad and the Atlantic
Ocean and included the kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and
Songhai. The wealth and strength of these kingdoms
depended on control of the trade routes across the
Sahara.