Title: AKS 35: Early African Civilizations
1AKS 35Early African Civilizations
235a - identify the Bantu migration patterns and
contribution to settled agriculture
3Causes of Migration
- Push-Pull Factors
- Push Factors
- Environmental
- Climate changes exhausted resources
earthquakes volcanoes drought famine - Economic
- Unemployment slavery
- Political
- Religious, ethnic, or political persecution war
4Causes of Migration
- Pull Factors
- Environmental
- Abundant land new resources good climate
- Economic
- Employment opportunities
- Political
- Political and/or religious freedom
5Effects of Migration
- Brings diverse cultures into contact
- Changes life in the new land
6How Do We Trace Migration?
- One way is to study how language is spread
- Africa has many complex language families
7Case-StudyBantu Migrations
- Originally lived in savanna south of Sahara
- Bantu means the people
8Case-StudyBantu Migrations
- Started migrating south east around 3,000 B.C.
- Lived by slash-and-burn farming nomadic herding
- Slash-and-burn farming causes soil to lose its
fertility quickly, forcing them to look for new
locations every few years - Shared skills, learned new customs, adapted to
environment
9Causes of Bantu Migrations
- Bantu speakers moved to find farmland
- As agriculture developed, this led to
specialization and permanent villages in many
areas - To flee the growing Sahara Desert
- Needed iron ore resources hardwood forests for
iron smelting - Within 1500 years, they reached the southern tip
of Africa
10Effects of Bantu Migrations
- Bantu speakers drove out some inhabitants,
intermixed with others - Bantu migrations produced a great variety of
cultures - Language helped unify the continent
- Technology of ironworking
- Forged tools weapons from bronze, copper iron
- Ideas about social political organization
1135b describe the development and decline of the
Sudanese kingdoms (Ghana, Mali, Songhai)
including the roles of Sundiata, and the
pilgrimage of Mansa Musa to Mecca
12BackgroundAfrican Societies (800-1500)
- Hunter-Gatherers
- Semi-nomadic lived by gathering wild foods
hunting animals - The Efe were hunter-gatherers who traded with
farming villages - The San (aka Bushmen) lived in southern Africa
and part of East Africa
13BackgroundAfrican Societies (800-1500)
- Stateless Societies
- No centralized power
- Power balanced among lineage groups, usually
within villages - Tiv had no formal govt
- Igbo resolved disputes by having elders from
different lineages meet - Nuer organized over 250,000 people without an
official ruler
14BackgroundAfrican Societies (800-1500)
- Muslim States
- Two Groups
- Almoravid Empire
- In 11th century, they controlled Mauritania,
Morocco, Algeria, and part of Spain - Almohad Empire
- Beginning in the mid-1100s, they controlled
Morocco, much of Maghrib, and part of Spain
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16Key to Trade
- CAMELS
- Causes
- Berbers began using camels because they could
cover greater distances than pack animals (60
miles per day) - Could travel more than 10 days without water
(twice as long as most pack animals) - Effects
- Using camels, Berber nomads created new routes
across the Sahara trade increased
17West AfricaGhana
- Grew from Kumba tribe around A.D. 200
- Used iron weapons to conquer neighbors
- Very wealthy due to surplus of gold and from
taxing goods traders carried through their
territory - Ghanas king was able to keep the price of gold
high by limiting its supply - Traded gold for salt (for meat preservation)
- Islam brought by traders attacked by Muslim
Almoravids in 1076 - This disrupted the gold-salt trade that Ghana had
controlled. Ghana never regained power.
18West AfricaMali
- Reached its peak from 1230-1337
- How?
- Gold was discovered farther east, causing a shift
eastward in trade routes - The people of Mali, who lived in the region of
the new trade routes, were able to seize power. - Larger richer than Ghana
- Capital Timbuktu
- Mali where the king lives
19West AfricaMali
- Sundiata Keita
- 1st great leader of Mali
- Took title of mansa emperor
- Took over Ghana a few trading cities period
of peace prosperity followed - Accomplishments
- Put able administrators in charge of Malis
finances, defense, foreign affairs - Promoted agriculture
- Re-established the gold-salt trade
- Died in 1255
20West AfricaMali
- Mansa Musa (1312-1332)
- Grandnephew of Sundiata, became a Muslim
- Expanded size of the empire
- Divided it into provinces appointed governors
- Built mosques in Timbuktu Gao
- Went on a pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca in 1324
- Gave away gold and jewels along the way to show
Malis strength and wealth
21West AfricaSonghai
- Began to grow as Mali declined
- Mali declined because
- most of Mansa Musas successors did not govern
well - New gold deposits were developed and trade
shifted eastward again - Took over the trade routes from the Atlantic
Ocean to Gao (capital)
22West AfricaSonghai
- Sunni Ali
- Became leader of Songhai in 1464
- Ruled for 30 years
- Expanded empire through his skill as a military
commander and his aggressive leadership - Conquered Timbuktu in 1468
- Died in 1492
23West AfricaSonghai
- Askia Muhammad
- Led revolt against the son of Sunni Ali and took
over - Ruled for 37 years
- Set up tax system and an efficient government
- He was overthrown in 1591 by the army from
Morocco who had advanced technology (Guns and
cannons)
2435c describe the trading networks by examining
trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, and slaves
including the Swahili trading cities
- Swahili blend of Bantu Arabic languages (a
language of trade)
25TradeGold, Salt, Slaves
- Gold-Salt Trade
- Gold ? from West African forest region south of
savanna between Niger Senegal rivers - Salt ? from Sahara desert
- Merchants brought each back and forth between
trading cities where they exchanged the goods
26TradeGold, Salt, Slaves
- Swahili Trading Cities
- Role of Monsoons
- Traders took advantage of the monsoons to sail
across Indian Ocean to East Africa - Kilwa
- This city was as far south as a ship from India
could sail and still sail home during the same
monsoon season - Trade goods from the south had to funnel into
Kilwa so Asian merchants could buy them allowed
Kilwa to become very wealthy
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28TradeGold, Salt, Slaves
- Slave Trade
- Arab Muslim traders exported enslaved persons
from East African coast to places like India,
China, Iraq, Persia, Arabia - Numbers traded remained small (perhaps 1,000 a
year) - Did not increase dramatically until 1700s when
Europeans started to buy captured Africans for
their colonial plantations
An Arab slave market in Yemen, A.D. 1237
2935d analyze the process of religious syncretism
as a blending of traditional African beliefs
(animism) with new ideas from Islam and
Christianity
30What is religious syncretism?
- The blending of old beliefs with new ones
- Example
- Blending Animism (traditional African belief)
with Islam and Christianity
31How did religious syncretism occur?
- Trade and Conquest
- traders introduced Islam Christianity ? the
growth of commerce caused the religions to spread - How?
- As wealthy merchants rulers did business with
traders, they shared their religion as well - Some held on to some of their traditional
religious beliefs, but mixed their beliefs with
aspects of Islam or Christianity that they liked
Map on Next Slide ?
32Chart on Next Slide ?
33MAJOR TRADE NETWORKS