States and Societies of SubSaharan Africa

1
States and Societies of Sub-Saharan Africa

• Chapter 19

2
Bantu migrations

• Bantus migrated from central Africa southern
  Africa by 1000 CE.

3
Bantu Economic Growth

• Developed iron metallurgy for agricultural tools
• Herded cattle
• Cultivated yams, sorghum, and millet

4
BANTU ECONOMIC GROWTH

• Bananas, Asian yams, taro, chickens and southeast
  Asian cultural traditions were introduced from
  Indian Ocean trade between the 300s and 500s CE

5
Population growth

• Introduction of agriculture by the Bantu
  increased population from 3.5 million in 400 BCE
  to 11 million by 500 CE.
• With the introduction of the banana to the
  African diet in sub-Sahara Africa, the population
  climbed to 17 million after 800 CE.
• By 1000 CE the population in sub-Saharan Africa
  reached over 22 million.

6
Bantu political organization

• Government dependent on family and kinship
  groups.
• Villages run by ruling councils made up of family
  heads.
• Most prominent family head in a village ruled as
  chief.
• Villages organized into districts. Village chiefs
  negotiated disputes between two or more villages.

7
Bantu political organization

• As populations grew, kin-based societies faced
  difficult challenges.
• Military organizations were deemed necessary to
  quell conflicts.
• Powerful chiefs conquered and solidified
  kingdoms.
• Between 1000 to 1300 CE powerful Bantu kingdoms
  arose in Ife, Benin, and the Kongo.

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Bantu Kingdoms
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Bantu social structure

• Society divided into age sets or grades.
• Members of age sets did tasks to their levels of
  strength, energy, maturity, and experience.
• Elaborate initiation rites into adult society
  (circumcision for boys, first menstruation for
  girls)
• Men tended fields, did military service, iron
  working, and tanning.
• Women did domestic chores, rearing of children,
  traded in the markets, made pottery vessels and
  helped men with planting and harvesting.
• Women were influential in politics and were kept
  in high esteem.
• Old age sets became community leaders and
  military officers.

10
Bantu Religious beliefs

• Belief in a single divine force that is the
  source of good and evil.
• Creator god considered distant and not concerned
  with human affairs.
• The god Nyamba associated with goodness. This god
  gives Bantu religion a personal and moral
  dimension.
• Worship of ancestor, territorial, and nature
  spirits.
• Rituals were performed to placate the spirits to
  ensure good fortune.
• Diviners consulted oracles and prescribed rituals
  or medicine to ward off harm.
• Had high moral standards which ensured order and
  stability.

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BANTU SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• Slaves were captives in war, debtors, suspected
  witches and criminals.
• Slave raiding started in the 9th century onward
  to meet the demand of Muslim merchants who sold
  them in the Mediterranean region, the Middle East
  and in Asia.

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Bantu art samples
13
Islamic Kingdoms and empires
14
Kingdom of Ghana

• Economic center of West Africa.
• Traded gold, ivory and slaves for horses, cloth,
  small manufactured goods and salt from
  Mediterranean and Middle East.
• Dependent on camel caravans that travelled across
  the Sahara.

15
KINGDOM OF GHANA

• By tenth century the kings of Ghana converted to
  Islam although common people were not forced to
  convert.
• Taxes on trade supported a large army to protect
  sources of gold.
• Ghanas expansion led to raids by nomadic people
  which led to its downfall by the 13th century.

16
Mali empire

• Founded by Sundiata in 13th century.
• Empire covered Kingdom of Ghana and the kingdoms
  surrounding the Senegal and Niger rivers.
• Controlled empire with a large army dominated by
  cavalry.

17
MALI empire

• Taxed all trade from trans-Saharan trade network.
• Economy based on gold and salt trade.
• Embraced Islamic religion.
• Height of Mali Empire was during the reign of
  Mansa Musa.

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MALI EMPIRE

• After Mansa Musa, Mali went into decline.
• Causes factions in the government, provinces
  seceded, invasions by nomadic peoples.

19
East African states

• East African states dependent on Indian Ocean
  trade network.
• Swahili city-states dominated East Africa.
• Mogadishu
• Lamu
• Malindi
• Mombasa
• Zanizbar
• Kilwa
• Mozambique
• Sofala

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East African states

• Swahili city-states traded gold, slaves, ivory,
  tortoise shells, and leopard skins for pottery,
  glass, and textiles from Muslim merchants.
• East African peoples converted to Islam. Built
  impressive mosques in their prosperous cities.
• East African city-states declined after the
  Portuguese plundered them in the 1500s.

21
East African states

• The Great Zimbabwe was a kingdom that controlled
  trade between the coast and the interior or
  Africa in 1400s.

22
East African states

• The kings of Zimbabwe controlled trade in gold,
  ivory, slaves and local markets.
• The ruling elites converted to Islam.

23
THE KINGDOM OF AXUM

• The Kingdom of Axum is located in modern day
  Ethiopia.

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The Kingdom of Axum

• Christianity was introduced into Axum by the 4th
  century.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Church had its roots in
  the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt.
• Ethiopian Christians share similar
  characteristics of other orthodox and Catholic
  churches (7 sacraments, Old New Testaments, a
  hierarchy of bishops, priests and deacons, a
  monastic tradition, etc.)
• Ethiopian Christians believe that Jesus is one
  person with only one nature that is human and
  divine (miaphysitism). (The Nicene Creed teaches
  that Jesus is one person with two natures.)

25
The kingdom of axum

• One of the famous architecture wonders are the
  11 massive churches cut into solid rock. These
  were built from the 12th to 16th centuries.

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Early African Art Architecture
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Early African art architecture
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Early African art architecture