1. Early Civilizations in Africa8
Early Civilizations in Africa
The continent where the earliest humans developed and the home of Egypt’s most remarkable Civilization, experienced climatic changes such as the drying of the Sahara between 2500 and 2300 BCE. People within Africa began domestication animals and engaging in systematic agriculture 8500 BCE. Foreign influences such as the introduction of the Horse around 1000 BCE and of iron around 500 BCE set into motion a series of cultural changes. The migration of Bantu speaking peoples from west africa across the continent often was accompanied by the introduction of iron and agriculture. Kingdoms such as Axum in Ethiopia and Ghana in the western Sudan represented the growth of African Civilizations.
Climatic change altered the appearance of the continenet that set a series of historical processes in motion. The changes centers on the Sahara which between 6000 – 500 BCE received times as much rain as it does today years ago conditions changes as temperatures rose and rainfall became erratic. By 3000 BCE much of area was desert – process continues today. Populations moved north toward the Miediterranean coast and south into the area of the dry Sahel, or fringe, and expecially onto the grassy savannas suitable for agriculture and grazing that stretch across africa to senegal river to the west, Lake Chad and the Upper Nile Valley. This region called the Sudan became the center for cultural development after 300 BCE.

2. The Big questions How & why did the first civilizations arise?
What role did cross-cultural contacts play in their developments?
What was the nature of the relationship between these permanent settlements and nonagricultural peoples living elsewhere in the world?
What brought the demise of these early civilizations, and what legacy did they leave for their successors in the region?

3. Questions:
What is your knowledge of Africa or perceptions of African civilizations?
How much have you learned about Africa in the course of your educational careers?
How did the first people develop in Africa and to what civilizations did the neolithic or agricultural revolutions give rise?

4. Questions:
What are the several possible reasons that might explain Islam's success in Africa prior to 1500 C.E.? What do the career and accomplishments of Mansa Musa reveal about African society during the fourteenth century C.E.?

5. Identifications Nubia Kush Zanj/Azania Ghana and Saleh Axum mansa
Coptic Christianity
Ethiopia
"fleets of the desert"
Meroë
Nok culture
Bantu
Swahili
Berbers
al-Maghrib
Zanj/Azania
Ghana and Saleh
mansa
Mansa Musa
Timbuktu
"noncentralized societies"
Great Zimbabwe
lineage group
matrilinear
African slavery

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7. Nubians 9000 BCE Agriculture Cattle, Sheep, Goats Pottery
By 5000 BCE Cotton textile manufacture
MAP 8.1 Ancient Africa. Modern human beings, the primate species known as Homo sapiens, first evolved on the continent of Africa. Some key sites of early human settlement are shown on this map.
More recent archaeological evidence has found that agriculture and domestication of animals began with Nubians rather than Egyptians. They are also the first to mastered ceramic and cotton textile manufacture.
Figure 8-1 p215

8. Axum & Meroe Center of trade Iron based economy Religion of Saba
writing
4CE Coptic
MAP 8.2 Ancient Ethiopia and Nubia. The first civilizations to appear on the African continent emerged in the Nile River valley. Early in the first century C.E., the state of Axum emerged in what is today the state of Ethiopia.
To the South of Egypt in Nubia, the Kingdom of Kush had emerged as a major trading state by 2000 BCE. Kushites became skilled in the use of iron and had access to Africa ore and fuel, the use of iron tools extended the area that could be cultivated. Kushites developed a form of writing derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics that has not yet been fully deciphered. Politically they were organized much like egypt, the economic influence extended widely in sub-saharan africa. They traded extensively with people to the west and through this trade may have spread knoweldge of iron making to the rest of africa.
The Emergence of Civilization - Kush
Agriculture may have first appeared in Nubia rather than the lower Nile valley
Perhaps here 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
The Kingdom of Kush, is the first known African state other than Egypt. By 1000 BCE it developed as an independent political unit, strongly influenced by egyptian forms by 730 BCE as Egypt declined Kush was strong enough to conquer and rule it for several centuries. The Assyrian invasion from the middle east pushed Kushite rule further south a new capital was establisbhed at Meroe in the 6th century
By the mid 1000 BCE Kush declined and was replaced by a new state with the capital of Meroe. Located near iron ore deposits, iron manufacture became the basis for the regions wealth and developed into a major trade center. The City of Axum in Ethiopia competed with Meroe as a center of trade on the route between Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Axum exported Ivory, frankincense, myrrh and slaves and imported textiles, metal goods, wine and olive oil. The greatest period of the Kingdom of Meroe: became the channel for African hoods into the middle east and Mediterranean. Axum and Meroe competed for control of the ivory trade and in the 4th BCE the Axumite ruler launched an invasion of Meroe, conquered it and created an empire rivaled Rome and Persia.
The Rulers of Axum originally claimed descent from king Solomon through the visit of Queen of Sheba to Israel in biblical times and followed the religion of Saba. In the 4th CE rulers adopted Egyptian Christianity, or Coptic.
The Kingdom of Axum in the Ethiopian Highlands defeated Kush at Menroe in 300 CE, The prosperity and extensive political and economic activity did not end in this region but extended into the formation of a kingdom in present day Ethiopia. The Kings of Meroe ruled as Pharaohs of Egypt from BCE. The Kingdom of Axum eventually surpasses Meroe in importance around 1 CE. Axum was influenced from people of the Arabian Peninsula m Eritrea and the highlands, it developed writing based on south Arabian script and the language of the people was Ge’ez while its rulers spoke Greek, the language of trade. It was a powerful state controlling several ports such as Adulis along the red sea coast and it participated in commerce of the Indian Ocean where its ivory, salt and slaves were in great demand. It traded with Alexandrian Egypt, Rome, Byzantium and India. By 350 C.E. Ezana, the king converted to Christianity and the religion spread among its peoples over several centuries.
Axum, Son of Saba
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
Traded Ivory, Salt and Slaves
Alexandrian Egypt, Rome, Byzantium, India
King Ezana 350 CE converted to Christianity
Built Monasteries and churches
Bible translated
Literature developed linking Queen of Sheba, wife of biblical King Solomon to Axum
Christianity increased ties to Greeks
Figure 8-2 p216

9. COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION The Stele
COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION The Stele. A stele is a stone slab or pillar, usually decorated or inscribed and placed upright. Stelae were often used to commemorate the accomplishments of a ruler or significant figure. Shown at the left is the tallest of the Axum stelae still standing, in present-day Ethiopia. The stone stelae in Axum in the fourth century B.C.E. marked the location of royal tombs with inscriptions commemorating the glories of the kings.
An earlier famous stele, seen in the center, is the obelisk at Luxor in southern Egypt.
A similar kind of stone pillar, shown at the right, was erected in India during the reign of Ashoka in the third century B.C.E. (see Chapter 2) to commemorate events in the life of the Buddha. Archaeologists have also found stelae in ancient China, Greece, and Mexico.
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10. Pastoral people of N. Africa
Berbers
Pastoral people of N. Africa
Intermediaries of technological & Cultural Exchange
Carthage Center of Trade
Meroe and Axum were part of the ancient trading network that predates historical knowledge of the area. During 1000BCE the commercial center of Carthage on the Mediterranean was a major center of trade on the route. The Berbers, a pastoral people of North Africa served as intermediaries of this vast trade network. They traded salt, gold, copper and various agricultural products for manufactured products. This exchange contributed to cultural exchange and perhaps the spread of ironworking through Africa.
From 8000 to 4000 B.C.E. a warm, humid climate that created lakes, ponds, grasslands, and game
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

11. Berbers – Fleets of the Desert
In 1000 CE the camel was introduced stimulating the trans-Saharan trade. The camel Caravans of the Berbers became knows as the “fleets of the Desert.
Fleets of the Desert. Since the dawn of history, caravans have transported food and various manufactured articles southward across the Sahara in exchange for salt, gold, copper, skins, and slaves. Once carried on by donkey carts, the trade expanded dramatically with the introduction of the one-humped camel into the region from the Arabian peninsula. Unlike most draft animals, the camel can go great distances without water, a scarce item in the desert.
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12. N. Nigeria Nok Culture 500BCE Metallurgy Terra Cotta
People of the Niger were smelting it years earlier. The Nok Culture in Northern Nigeria developed into one of the most active iron working societies in Africa producing copious metal and terra cotta figures and farming implements dating to 500BCE
Nok Pottery Head. The Nok peoples of the Niger River are the oldest known culture in West Africa to have created sculpture. This is a typical terra-cotta head of the Nok culture produced between 500 B.C.E. and 200 C.E. Discovered by accident in the twentieth century by tin miners, these heads feature perforated eyes set in triangles or circles, stylized eyebrows, open thick lips, broad noses with wide nostrils, and large ears. Perhaps the large facial openings permitted the hot air to escape as the heads were fired. Although the function of these statues is not known for certain, they were likely connected with religious rituals or devotion to ancestors.
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13. The Tellem Tombs. Sometime in the eleventh century C. E
The Tellem Tombs. Sometime in the eleventh century C.E., the Tellem peoples moved into an area just south of the Niger River called the Bandiagara Escarpment, where they built mud dwellings and burial tombs into the side of a vast cliff overlooking a
verdant valley. To support themselves, the Tellem planted dry crops such as millet and sorghum in the savanna plateau above the cliff face. They were eventually supplanted in the area by the Dogon peoples, who continue to use their predecessors’ structures for housing and granaries today. The site is highly reminiscent of Mesa Verde, the Ancient Pueblo settlement mentioned in Chapter 6.
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14. East and Southern Africa
Bantu “The People” Migrations
Introduced agriculture & iron metallurgy 3000BCE
Engaged in trade with Egypt 2000 BCE
Port of Rhapta – trade hub by 1CE
Swahili – trade language – lingua Franca
Beginning in 3000BCE Bantu speaking people introduced Agriculture and later Iron metallurgy. The people or Bantu were originally from eastern Nigeria and west Africa. Their migration may have been set in motion by an increase in population caused by a movement into their homelands of peoples fleeing the drying of the Sahara. They spoke proto-Bantu which is the parent of 90% of languages spoken from Benin in the west coast to Somalia on the east coast. It is the Bantu that may also be the parent culture of systematic agriculture and metallurgy. By 2000BCE Egypt engaged in trade with the Bantu and by 1CE the Port of Rhapta had become a major center of trade from which the Swahili language developed as a trade language or lingua Franca. Trade across the Indian Ocean and down the coast of East Africa and around the Cape of Guardafui became one of the most lucrative sources of commercial profit in the ancient and medieval worlds.
Migrations moved to central Sudan, then the forests of west and central Africa. By the 12th century Bantu speakers migrated to modern Zimbabwe and eventually into south Africa.
Non- Bantu
Pygmies of central Africa
Khoi-Khoi & San peoples of Africa
Ethiopian influence in east Africa
In a thousand years the Bantu speaking people expanded over much of the continent, spreading their languages and cultures among the existing populations, cross cultural exchange and absorption
The Bantu
Introduced cultivation of crops and ironworking
The Bantu settled into rural communities
Original culture: agriculture, fishing, husbandry
Village, kinship based society organized around a council of elders
Incorporated Earth Based Societies
Theories of incorporation range from peaceful, conquering, or simply rapid demographic growth of Bantu people
Yoruba Wisdom. Nigeria
A child is like a rare bird
A child is like precious coral
A child is precious like brass
You cannot buy a child on the market
Not for all the money in the world
The child you can buy for money is a slave…
A child is the beginning and the end of happiness.
One must not rejoice too soon over a child.
Only the one who is buried by his child,
Is the one who had truly born a child 7

15. Syncretism of Islam & original systems of belief
Pantheism
Lineage Group
Syncretism of Islam & original systems of belief
After 7 CE Muslim Arab armies swept into Africa incorporating much of the North into the Arab Empire and isolating Axum as a Christian state to the south. The religion was transferred to or adopted by people of east and west Africa south of the Sahara
Prior to Islam, most African society had long developed earth based spiritual and religious systems that shared some Charateristics. They were pantheistic – people believed in a single creator from whom all things came. Some were accompanied by a Pantheon of lesser deities. There was the belief in an afterlife that was connected to the importance of the ancestors in a lineage group or clan. Each lineage group could trace itself back to the founding ancestor or group of ancestors. Rituals ensured the souls survival of past kin and were an avenue to gain strength and power to influence contemporary lives.
Rock Paintings of the Sahara. Even before the Egyptians built their pyramids at Giza, other peoples far to the west in the vast wastes of the Sahara were creating their own art forms. These rock paintings, some of which date back to the fourth millennium B.C.E. and are reminiscent of similar examples from Europe, Asia, and Australia, provide a valuable record of a society that supported itself by a combination of farming, hunting, and herding animals. After the introduction of the horse from Arabia around 1200 B.C.E., subsequent rock paintings depicted chariots and horseback riding. Eventually, camels began to appear in the paintings, a consequence of the increasing desiccation of the Sahara.
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16. The Spread of Islam Al-Maghrib Egypt 641 CE Carthage 690 CE
The Spread of Islam in Africa
In 641 Arab Forces seized Egypt ending 200 years of Byzantine Rule. They moved the capital from Alexandria to Cairo and began consolidating control over North Africa. Under the Byzantine, Alexandria had prospered as a commercial center but at the expense of the population. Tax rates were high, perceiving Coptic’s as heretics, they were often persecuted. Under Islam, tax rates dropped and converts were exempt.
Arab Rule continued to spread down the East coast. When the Romans had conquered Carthage in 146 BCE they had called the new province Africa, introducing the name that would eventually identify the continent. After the fall of Rome, the Berbers regained a lot of control. Byzantines had captured Carthage in mid 6th C CE and in 690 was seized by the Arabs. They referred to the area over which they expanded as al-Maghrib. Once they defeated the Berbers Arabs were poised to cross the strait of Gibraltar and expand into southern Europe.
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17. Ethiopia
Zagwe Dynasty – consolidated control of the region, incorporated Axum
Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia 12th C
King Lalibela (1221 CE) 11 Great Churches
Muslim State of Adel, 14-16th C
The defeated leaders of Meroe moved westward into the Sudan to reestablish themselves at Darfur and Kordofan in the 4th CE. Christian converts had been made in Egypt and Ethiopia before conversion of the Roman Empire in the 4 CE. In addition to the Christian Kingdom of Axum, Christian communities thrived in Egypt and Nubia, the Christians of Egypt, the Copts, developed a rich tradition in contact with Byzantium , translating the gospels and other religious literature from Greek to Coptic, based on the language of ancient Egypt. When Islam spread through Egypt, the Copts maintained their faith and tradition. Muslim rulers recognized them as followers of a revealed religion and thus entitled to a certain tolerance.
The Zaqwe Dynasty consolidated control of what would become Ethiopia, including the state of Axum in the 12th C. King Lalibela (1221 CE) sponsered a building project in which 11 great churches were sculpted from rock that bore his name: the 13th Century churches of Lalibela represented the power of early Christianity in Ethiopia.
The Muslim State of Adal began to expand and challenge Ethiopia in the early 14th and through the 15th C and continued for over a century.
The struggle between the Christian state and the Muslim peoples of Somali and on the red sea coast shaped the history of the region and continues to this day
Axum continued the trade after Saba declined
Location on trade routes responsible for prosperity
Competed for control of ivory trade
Followed Egyptian Christianity (Coptic)
King Lalibela 1221 CE
11 Churches power of Christian Ethiopia
Would be renamed Ethiopia
Called the “hermit kingdom” by Europeans

18. Swahili Coast of East Africa: Zanj
Cosmopolitan independent states
Revenue – commerce tax
Swahili “coast” culture
Fusion of Bantu & Arabic language and culture
The Greeks called this area Azania and the Arab’s called it Zanj, or “burnt Skin” referring to the people of the area. During the 7th and 8th Centuries CE people from the Arabian Peninsula began to settle at ports along the coast. Multi-ethnic, Arab and African settlements developed into commercial centers including Mombasa, Pemba, Zanzibar and Kilwa. (Islamicized African ports tied to the trade across the Indian ocean dotted the east coast, African and Bantu Swahili language and culture fused)
The coastal states were self governing and government revenue was generated from taxes imposed on commerce. Some coastal merchants traded to obtain goods from the interior while the state of Mombasa are known to have gained goods by force. By the 12 and 13th Centuries the cosmopolitan culture had emerged referred to as Swahili, drawn from the Arabic world Sahel for coast.

19. A ‘‘Lost City’’ in Africa
A ‘‘Lost City’’ in Africa. Gedi (GEH-dee) was founded in the early thirteenth century and abandoned three hundred years later. Its romantic ruins suggest the grandeur of the Swahili civilization that once flourished along the eastern coast of Africa. Located 60 miles north of Mombasa, in present-day Kenya, Gedi once had several thousand residents but was eventually abandoned after it was attacked by nomadic peoples from the north. Today the ruins of the town, surrounded by a 9-foot wall, are dwarfed by towering baobab trees populated only by chattering monkeys. Shown here is the entrance to the palace, which probably served as the residence of the chief official in the town. Neighboring houses, constructed of coral stone, contain sumptuous rooms, with separate women’s quarters and enclosed lavatories with urinal channels and double-sink washing benches. Artifacts found at the site came from as far away as Venice and China.
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20. The Emergence of States in Africa
Gao & Ghana
Intermediaries of the
Trans-Sahara Trade
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
The peoples of the Savanna took advantage of their location to serve as intermediaries between the southern gold producing forest zone in the region of the Niger and Senegal River valleys and the markets of North Africa. Trading salt for gold to the people s of the forest and then sending the gold north along established caravan routes that crossed the Sahara, several states, like Ghana and Gao took form before the 8th CE as intermediaries in the trans-Sahara Trade.
Islam expanded into these regions through Muslim merchants of the Maghrib. The Royal family of Gao converted followed by most of the populations in the grasslands south of the Sahara 500 years later. Arabic language was introduced in the process and Islamic law codes, administrative practices and writing system expanded as well. The Sahara had been developing as a major center of trade and Islam and its influences increased authority and efficiency of the governments.
States usually had a patriarch and council of elders; they were conquest states/empires in which dominate people who extended their influence over subordinate lineages and villages drew taxes, tribute and military support. (Ghana, Mali and Songhoy). Rulers were sacred, Conversion of Islam after 10th CE fused Islamic and indigenous African cultures within the context of trade and military expansion 9

21. Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
MAP 8.3 Trans-Saharan Trade Routes. Trade across the Sahara began during the first millennium B.C.E. With the arrival of the camel from the Middle East, trade expanded dramatically.
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
Figure 8-3 p225

22. A Great Gate at Marrakech
A Great Gate at Marrakech. The Moroccan city of Marrakech (mar-uh- KESH), founded in the ninth century C.E., was a major northern terminus of the trans- Saharan trade and one of the chief commercial centers in pre-modern Africa. Widely praised by such famous travelers as Ibn Battuta, the city was an architectural marvel in that all its major public buildings were constructed of red sandstone. Shown here is the Great Gate to the city, through which camel caravans passed en route to and from the
vast desert. In the Berber language, Marrakech means ‘‘pass without making a noise,’’ a necessity for caravan traders who had to be alert to the danger of thieves in the vicinity.
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23. Ghana Land of Gold Soninke People Commercial economy Today’s Mali
Gold & Salt
20 Kings pre-dated Muhammad
Today’s Mali
MAP 8.4 The Emergence of States in Africa. By the end of the first millennium C.E., organized states had begun to appear in various parts of Africa. The extensive empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai emerged at different times and did not exist
simultaneously.
Commerce was the basis for the growth of the empire of Ghana that emerged in 5CE in the Upper Niger Valley among the Soninke people. Money was generated from taxes imposed by gold and salt and the King commanded a military of 200,000 men. The king ruled by divine right and was assisted by a hereditary aristocracy who served as district chiefs. Leaders of prominent clans they maintained law and collected taxes. Trade across the desert was conducted by Berbers while Ghanian merchants were intermediaries, trading in bananas, kola nuts, and palm oil. By 8 and 9 century Muslim merchants carried on this trade.
Early Arab Chroniclers wrote that Ghana had 20 kings before the time of Muhammad. Sudanic states were already well established kingdoms by the time Islam began to spread its influences. In 985 Gao converted among the Elite to Islam, The Ancient Kingdom of Ghana lay mostly within the boundaries of present day Republic of Mali. It traded for salt, cloth and manufactured goods from north Africa and the Mediterranean in return for gold. In 1067 CE, al-Bakri a scholar form Muslim Spain described Ghana’s splendor The court of appeals is held in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold and on his right are the sons of vassal kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold.
At the time, the capital of Ghana, Kumbi Saleh, was divided into 2 cities, one was occupied by the king, his court, the peoples dwellings and places of worship and the other citiy 6 miles away lived Muslim traders, religious leaders, and scholars. Its mosques and houses were built in the style of mud-walled architecture of north Africa Toge
Tax revenues from gold and salt trades increased the kindom’s wealth, their army was 200,000 strong (Normans who invaded England at this time had less than 5000)
The King and royalty did not convert to Islam but welcomed Muslim merchants and did not discourage conversion to the new faith
Figure 8-4 p227

24. Ghana’s Decline Arrival of Islam in North Africa weakened Ghana
Conquered by 1076
Berber & Tuareg Tribes of the Sahara converted in 7th Century and by 11th Century
Rise of the Almoravids
Controlled the gold trade
The Arrival of Islam in North Africa. Between the followers of Muhammad swept across North Africa from Suez to Morocco’s Atlantic shore. Arab and Berber armies crossed Spain, conversion took place rapidly within a certain political unity provided by the Abbasid Dynasty. The Berber and Tuareg tribes of the Sahara had converted to Islam in the 7th and by the 11th CE a new movement, began to sweep across the desert. The Almoravids swept in and gained control of the gold trade across the Sahara and began to move towards its sources. They went as far as Morocco and Spain.
By 1076 Ghana was conquered and a new fusion of Sudanic and Saharan peoples took its place. Ghana continued to exist but its power was weakened, and with political instability and fragmentation new states began to rise among the Soninke, Fulbe and Malinke peoples. Eventually Mali would emerge as the heir of power in the region and would include most of the old kingdom of Ghana. Other states included Songhay. Both of which depended on military power and dynastic alliances than ethnic or cultural unity.

25. Empire of Mali & Mansa Sundiata
Mailinke Peoples 13th C broke away from Ghana
Basis of society: Agriculture
Juula or merchants formed partnerships & carried out trade
Expansion : Mansa Sundiata
Organized social & political arrangements of the empire – 16 clans with distinct duties
Griots: professional oral historians
Kept history, tradition, advised the king
The Empire of Mali was centered between the Senegal and Niger Rivers and was the creation of the Malinke peoples who in the 13th Century broke away from the control of Ghana. The basis of society was agriculture combined with an active trade tradition, Malinke merchants or Juula formed small partnerships and groups to carry out trade throughout the area. They spread beyond the borders of the empire beyond much of west africa. The expansion is attributed to Mansa Sundiata, whose accomplishments have been remembered through oral tradition. The Griots are professional oral historians who keep the tradition and history and are advisors to the king.
Mansa Sundiata is remembered as organizing the social and political arrangements of Malian Empire. 16 clans of free people were entitled to bear arms as a symbol of their status, 5 clans were devoted to religious duties and 6 clans were specialists such as Griots and blacksmiths. He created the political institutions of rule that allowed for regional and ethnic differences and stationed garrisons to maintain loyalty and security. Travel was secure and crime severely punished. Ibn Batuta, an arab traveler, reported that “of all peoples, the blacks are those who most hate injustice, and their emperor pardons none who is guilty of it. Sundiata died 1260,

26. Mansa Musa – Haj to Mecca – promoted Islam
Mansa Musa. Mansa Musa, king of the West African state of Mali, was one of the richest and most powerful rulers of his day. During a famous pilgrimage to Mecca, he arrived in Cairo with a hundred camels laden with gold and gave away so much gold that its value depreciated there for several years. To promote the Islamic faith in his country, he bought homes in Cairo and Mecca to house pilgrims en route to the holy shrine, and he brought back to Mali a renowned Arab architect to build mosques in the trading centers of Gao and Timbuktu. His fame spread to Europe as well, evidenced by this Spanish map of 1375, which depicts Mansa Musa seated on his throne in Mali, holding an impressive gold nugget.
Mansa Musa – Haj to Mecca – promoted Islam
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27. Mansa Kankan Musa 1312-1337 CE Hajj to Mecca 1324
So much gold was distributed that there was a general devaluation of currency
Ishak al-Sahili
Poet & architect
Great Mosque of Jenne
Mansa Kankan Musa made hajj to Mecca in 1324 and brought attention of the Muslim world to Mali. A trip caused a sensation across the Sudan and into Egypt where so much gold was distributed that there was a general devaluation of currency. He also brought back poet and architect Ishak al-Sahili who came from Muslim Spain. He directed the building of several important mosques including The Great Mosque of Jenne made of beaten clay on the Niger River.

28. The Mosque at Jenne, Mali
The Mosque at Jenne, Mali. With the opening of the gold fields south of Mali, in present-day Ghana, Jenne (GEN-nay) became an important trading center for gold. Shown here is its distinctive mosque made of unbaked clay without reinforcements. The
projecting timbers offer easy access for repairing the mud exterior, as was regularly required. The mosque was built in the fourteenth century and has since been reconstructed.
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29. The City of Timbuktu. The city of Timbuktu was founded in 1100CE as a seasonal camp for caravan traders on the Niger River, sitting astride one of the major trade routes that passed through the Sahara between the kingdoms of West Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. Caravans transported food and various manufactured articles southward in exchange for salt, gold, copper, skins, agricultural goods, and slaves.
Salt was at such a premium in Timbuktu that a young Moroccan wrote in 1513 that one camel’s load brought 500 miles by caravan sold for 80 gold ducats, while a horse sold for only 40 ducats. Timbuktu became a prosperous city as well as a great center of Islamic scholarship. By 1550, it had three universities connected to its principal mosques and 180 Qur’anic schools. This pen-and-ink sketch was done by the French traveler Rene
Caillie in 1828, when the city was long past its peak of prosperity and renown.
City of Timbuktu
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30. Timbuktu Great sankore mosque Library University
Scholars, Jurists, Theologians
Book symbolized the Islamic world
Book trade, most lucrative
Business in Timbuktu
A cosmopolitan court life developed as merchants and scholars were attracted by the power and protection of Mali. Mandinka traders ranged across the Sudan and exploited their postitions as intermediaries. Port cities flourished such as Jenne and Timbuktu also on the Niger River. With a population of 50,000 by the 14th C, the Great Sankore Mosque contained a library and an associated university where scholars, jurists, and Muslim Theologians studies. The book was the symbol of civilization in the Islamic world, and it was said that the book trade in Timbuktu was the most lucrative business.
For most people life centered on the agricultural cycle and the village (80%)

31. The Songhay Kingdom Decline of Mali
Sunni Ali 1464 – 1492 forged new Empire
Conquered trading cities of Jenne and Timbuktu
Developed system of provincial administration
Mobilized recruits for conquests
Muslim rulers took on military title, Askia
Extended boundaries, by mid 1500’s dominated Central Sudan
As Mali began to decline, the people of Songhay who dominated the areas of the Niger Valley began to rise. Traditionally they were farmers, herders and fisherman. It began to form in the 7th C as an independent kingdom and by 1010 was established at Gao on the Niger River. Rulers were Muslim, but the majority of the population remained pagan. By the 1370s it was thriving as new sources of gold from the west African forests began to pass through the territory. Gao became a large city with a resident foreign merchant community and several mosques. Under a leader, Sunni Ali the empire was forged.
Sunni Ali conquered the trading cities of Jenne and Timbuktu, the middle Niger Valley, he developed as system of provincial administration to mobilize recruits for the army and rule the far flung conquests. A line of Muslim rulers who took the military title Askia succeeded him and they, especially Muhammad the Great, extended the boundaries of the Empire so that by the mid 1500s Songhay dominated central Sudan.

32. African Metalwork. The rulers of emerging West African states frequently commissioned royal artifacts to adorn their palaces and promote their temporal grandeur. Elaborate stools, weaponry, shields, and sculpted heads of members of the royal family served to commemorate the ruler’s reign and preserve his memory for later generations. This regal thirteenth-century brass head attests to the technical excellence and sophistication of Ife metalworkers. The small holes along the scalp and the mouth permitted either hair, a veil, or a crown to be attached to the head, which itself was often attached to a wooden mannequin dressed in elaborate robes for display during memorial services.
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33. Decline of Songhay
1591 Muslim army from Morocco defeated larger forces of the Songhay
Signs of weakness stimulated internal revolts against the ruling family
Legacy: political and cultural tradition of Western Sudan
Hausa of Northern Nigeria established cities such as Kano and Katsina
Kano became a center of Muslim Learning
A combo of muslim and pagan traditions rose among the Hausa peoples of Northern Nigeria based on cities such as Kano and Katsina. Under Muslim leadership Kano became a center of Muslim learning.

34. Sudanic States, Political & Social
Islam provided a universalistic faith
Common religion and law provided solidarity
Ruling families used Islamic titles such as Empire & Caliph to reinforce authority
Fusion of Africa and Islam
Many did not convert to Islam
Village communities, clans and various ethnic groups continued to organize many aspects of life in the savanna. The development of unified states provided an overarching structure that allowed the various groups and communities to coexist. The larges states represented political aims and power of a particular group, often a dominant family. Islam provided a universalistic faith that served the interests of many groups. Common religion and law provided solidarity and trust to the merchants. The ruling families used islamic titles such as emir and caliph to reinforce their authroity and they surrounded themselves with literate muslim advisors and scribes who aided in government administration.
Islam fused with existing traditions and beliefs, rulership and authority were still based on the ability to inercede with local spirits. Islam tended to accommodate pagan practice and belief, many segments of the population never converted, those who did maintained old ways also.

35. Fusion evident in role of women
Songhay State – matrilineal societies, recognized role of women in kinship
Women continued to enjoy freedom under Islamic Songhay
Impact of Slavery on women
Slaves
domestics, laborers, soldiers and administrators,
eunuchs and concubines,
Children of slave women were freed and integrated into society but that also meant a constant demand for slaves.
The trade extended over 700 years and is estimated 4.8 – 6 million.
Fusion seen clearly in position of women. Several Sudanic societies were matrilineal and some recognized the role of women within the lines of kinship, In Songhay visitors were shocked by the easy familiarity between men and women and the freedom enjoyed by women. Like elsewhere in the world, Earth based societies valued women equally and women were not all devalued with the rise of city states and empire. In many societies in Africa women continue to be valued equally even if their work is different than men’s
Slavery and the slave trade between Africa and the Islamic world had a huge impact on women and children. Various forms of slavery and dependent labor had existed before Islam, it became a more widely diffused phenomenon and a slave trade in Africans developed on a new scale. Slaves were domestics, laborers, soldiers and administrators, having no local ties and affiliations were considered to be dependent and thus trustworthy. They were also used as eunuchs and concubines, the trade caravans often transported slaves and gold. Children of slave women were freed and integrated into society but that also meant a constant demand for slaves. The trade extended over 700 years and is estimated 4.8 – 6 million.

36. Southern Africa States of Luba & Kongo
Centralized Government
King appointed provincial governors who collected tribute from village chiefs
Agriculture & manufacture
Absorbed mixed farming & pastoral people in area of Modern day Angola
In the southern Half of the African continent remained in non-centralized societies until the 11th C CE. They were autonomous villages organized by clans and ruled by a local chieftain or clan head. Some groups began to consolidate and give rise to the first states. The Congo River valley provided fertile soil and copper and iron deposits allowing people to enjoy regional commerce in crops and ores.

37. Zimbabwe “The Sacred/Stone House”
1000CE
Mixed Economy
12-14th CE
Powerful state
Gold trade
15th C abandoned
The Temple at Great Zimbabwe (sacred house)
Mixed economy: farming, cattle herding and commercial pursuits emerged in 1000CE. Between the 12th and 14th Century it emerged as the most powerful and prosperous state in the region and played a major role in the gold trade with the Swahili. Royal wealth, symbolized by the great temple pictured here, was generated by ownership of cattle and the taxes imposed on the gold that passed through the kingdom.
Zimbabwe was abandoned in the mid 15th Century. Economic power shifted north to the Valley of the Zambezi River.
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38. p238