African Kingdom Project
Kingdom of Ghana
The Rise
• By 400 (some say
800) rulers had united
farming villages to
create the kingdom of
Ghana. Senegal and
Niger rivers
Bustling Trade
• Ghana profited from the gold and salt
trade across the Sahara
• Flow of gold was high, because it met
in the middle of the Arab traders and
the West African Gold rich lands of the
Maninka
• Capital: Kumbi Saleh
• two separate walled towns,
• royal palace, and domed
buildings
• The King was a semi-divine
figure, who presided over
justice and order
“Ghana”=Arabic word meaning “ruler”
Click on Ghana to learn more!
• Islamic faith was brought to Ghana by Islamic
traders.
• The King employed Muslims as counselors and
officials => written language, coins, business
methods, architecture.
• But Ghanains mostly they followed their own
beliefs=> Soninke
They did not adopt Islam as the official religion
• 1050 CE the Almoravids- the pious
Muslims of north Africa had launched a
campaign to spread Islam.
• Look up pious…….fun word
• Ghana was swallowed up into Mali…..
Empire of Mali
• Mali is an Arab version of the Mandinka
word meaning “where the king dwells”
• After the fall of Ghana, the Mandinke
people suffered defeat from a rival
leader
• The king and all his sons, except one
(Sundiata) were executed
• Click on Picture to see video
Gold and salt trade
Malian Trade Routes
Mansa Musa: the great king of
Mali- comes to the thrown in 1312 CE
”Mansa” means “King”
Click on Mansa Musa to learn more about Mali!
Expansion and the Hadj
• 25 year reign-expanded Mali’s borderrs
toward the Atlantic ocean
• Ibn Battuta
• Converted to Islam and based the
system of Justice on the Quran-did not
adopt all of the customs of Islam
ex.women Mansa
• 1324 CE- Hadj (pilgrimage to Mecca)
• The hadj takes 1 year
• Forged new ties with other muslim
states
• Movement of wealth, people and ideas
increased Mali’s fame• Timbuktu is at its height
Decline
• In the 1400s, disputes of succession
weakened Mali• Subject peoples broke away, and the
empire shriveled
• By 1450 a new wealthy trading city had
emerged in Gao =>
The Songhai Empire!
• The conde (Conday) mask of the
Maninka empire
Songhai (Songhay)
• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultur
al/oldworld/africa/songhai.html
History of Songhay
• Claim ancestore were orginal residents of middle
Niger
• Accepeted Islam as a religion
• First Dia king, Kossi, put Songhay on the map
• Sunni Ali, Future Kings takes Timbuktu- used Roman
philosophy of taking ideas from captured territories
and making it his own (used his War Canoes)
• 1492 Sunni Ali drowned in a river after being thrown
from a horse- Arab Muslims were thankful
Fall
• Started in 1590
• 1670 Captured by Tuareg
Zimbabwe
• www.africanet.com/africanet/country/zi
mbabwe/history.htm
Plateau
and Drought
Portuguese and Malaria
Kongo
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_o
f_Kongo
• http://www.answers.com/topic/kingdo
m-of-kongo
• http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/pe
ople/kongo.html
• http://countrystudies.us/angola/5.htm
• Nzambi was the supreme god for
all in the Kongo Kingdom, and the
intermediary representations
included land and sky spirits and
ancestor spirits, all of whom were
represented in nkisi objects. When
an individual encountered
hardship and feared that a spirit
had been offended, it would be
necessary to consult a diviner
(nganga), who would often
instruct the afflicted to add
medicines to certain nkisi in order
to achieve well-being. Although
the Portuguese attempted to
• Christianize the Kongo peoples as
early as 1485, for the most part
people either resisted entirely or
incorporated Christian ideas into
their own religions.
Kongo Religion
Kongo Kings
• The term "Manikongo" probably derives from
mwene Kongo a term that means essentially
ruler, or one who exercises judgement in
Kikongo. The term wene, from which mwene
derived is also used to mean kingdom, and is
attested with this meaning in the catechism
of 1624 with reference to the Kingdom of
Heaven. Mwene is created by adding the
personal prefix (Class 1) Mu- to this stem,
making it "a person who performs the
functions of the kingdom".
Kings
• In 1482, Diogo Cão, a
Portuguese explorer, visited the
kingdom, and the reigning
manikongo, Nzinga Nkuwu, was
favorably impressed with
Portuguese culture. In 1491,
Portuguese missionaries,
soldiers, and artisans were
welcomed at Mbanza, the
capital of the kingdom. The
missionaries soon gained
converts, including Nzinga
Nkuwu (who took the name
João I), and the soldiers helped
the manikongo defeat an
internal rebellion.
Kings
• The next manikongo, Afonso I (reigned 1505–43),
was raised as a Christian and attempted to convert
the kingdom to Christianity and European ways.
However, the Portuguese residents in Kongo were
primarily interested in increasing their private
fortunes (especially through capturing Africans and
selling them into slavery), and, despite the attempts
of King Manuel I of Portugal to channel the efforts of
his subjects into constructive projects, the continued
rapaciousness of the Portuguese played a major part
in weakening the kingdom and reducing the hold of
the capital (renamed São Salvador) over the
provinces.
Economy
• In its prime, the Kingdom exacted taxes, forced labor, and
collected fines from its citizens in order to prosper. At times,
enslaved peoples, ivory, and copper were traded to the
Europeans on the coast. The important harbors were Sonyo and
Pinda. In addition to the six provinces, the Kongo kingdom also
established a sphere of influence in a number of outlying areas
from which it was able to extract tribute. The kingdom was also
at the center of an extensive Central African trade network in
which it traded and produced large quantities of ivory, as well
as manufacturing copperware, raffia cloth, and pottery, along
with other natural resources (The eastern region of the Congo
[such as the province of Katanga] is particularly rich in mineral
resources, especially diamonds). These trade goods would also
form, in addition to slaves, the backbone of the Kongo's trade
with Europeans(primarily the Portuguese), upon their arrival.
Kongo
Downfall
• After the death of Afonso, Kongo declined rapidly and
suffered major civil wars. The Portuguese shifted
their interest southward to the kingdom of Ndongo
and helped Ndongo defeat Kongo in 1556. However,
in 1569 the Portuguese aided Kongo by helping to
repel an invasion from the east by a Lunda ethnic
group. The slave trade, which undermined the social
structure of Kongo, continued to weaken the
authority of the manikongo.
• In 1641, Manikongo Garcia II allied himself with the
Dutch in an attempt to control Portuguese slave
traders, but in 1665 a Portuguese force decisively
defeated the army of Kongo and from that time
onward the manikongo was little more than a vassal
of Portugal. The kingdom disintegrated into a number
of small states, all controlled to varying degrees by
the Portuguese.