2nd largest continent

Surrounded by 2 oceans & 2 seas

How would Africa’s geography:

1) affect food production?

2) affect trading patterns?

Savanna

Rain Forest

Mild

HumpOf Africa

Sahara

Horn of Africa

1. What is this?

2. What connection is there between the mask and elephants?

• Ivory Tribal Mask

• Ivory has been used for 1000s of years 1400s-1650s –

Portuguese merchants hired ivory sculptors

3. Why is ivory unavailable today?

Kush

• 1000 B.C.E. – 150 C.E.

• Upper Nile Valley (Sudan)

• Capital City = Meroe

• Built great temples, brick mansions, flat-topped pyramids, and reservoirs

• Written language still undeciphered

• Traded gold, ivory, ebony, wood, and slaves

• produced iron wares

Axum

• 100 – 1400 C.E.

• Founded by Arab traders

• Traded ivory, slaves, & spices

• King Ezana

-- converted to Christianity 324 C.E.

-- conquered the Kush

-- built monuments = obelisks

Christian: Nubia & Ethiopia

• Reached Africa before Rome’s conversion• Coptic (Egypt & Nubia) translated the gospels

into their language & were tolerated• Ethiopia—Remained isolated and independent

King Lalibela—11 churches carved from stoneLater Dynasty—traced lineage back to Solomon & Sheba

Bet Giorgis, a 12th century Rock-Hewn Church in Ethiopia

• Founded about 750-1200 C.E.

• Between the Senegal and Niger Rivers

• Vast resources (iron, animal products, & gold)

• Produced iron swords, spears, and lances

• Traded gold for salt from the Saharan salt mines

• Ghanian kings taxed all passing trade

• Invaded by Muslims in 1076 and broken into small kingdoms

Berbers -nomadic camel caravans-”fleets of the desert”- Gold-salt-slave trade- Picked up large blocks up salt on their journey and exchanged it for gold- Islam, Christianity was spread also- carried goods 300 miles across the Sahara

• 1240-1400

• Brought both gold & salt under their direct control

• Rulers converted to Islam

• Majority of the people remained faithful to the traditional animistic faiths

c. 1210-1260

• Powerful warrior

• Created the Kingdom of Mali

• “Father of Mali”

Sundiata, Lion Prince of Malias told by griots (story tellers)

Ruled from 1312 – 1337

Very $

Doubled the size of Mali

Created 5 provinces

Appointed governors

• Devout Muslim

• Made the Hajj

• Took 1000s with him

Impressed 1000s along the way with lavish gifts

Gold value along the rt.

Returned with scholars & architects

Timbuktu became a major

• Encouraged new buildings

• Built mosques, libraries,

• New palace

• Center of universities

• Scholarship flourished

Sunni Ali captured Timbuktu & Jenne

Brought Upper Niger under his control

Largest of West Africa’s trading kingdoms

Elaborate tax and communication system

Traded gold, salt, slaves

Controlled the West African trade

1591, defeated by Morocco

Ended the great West African kingdoms

1464 – 1600 C.E.

• Migrated into Eastern Africa from the west

• Subsistence farmers

• Major trading posts:

• Mogadishu

• Mombasa

• Kilwa

• Spoke

1000 different languages; 1000+ different tribes

Unifying aspect

Bantu-speaking peoples provided a

linguistic base across Africa

• Wealthy “stateless society”

• Independent villages ruled by clan leader

• Prospered from the gold trade

• Walled villages = center of government

• Markets contained goods from around the world

• Lineage group = sense of identity• Many matrilineal societies• Women could inherit• Community education and initiation

• Pre-European Slave Trade

• Existed since ancient times

• Between 650-1000 CE, 4.5 million Africans transported to Southwest Asia (SWA)

• 1st major development occurred in 7th Century

• Berbers raided villages

• Islamic traders traded goods for Africans

• Transported them to SWA

• Many were captured in war, debtors, criminals

• Manual labor

• In Muslim & African societies, slaves had legal rights and opportunities for social mobility

• In Muslim countries, many earned their freedom

1. Most were monotheistic

2. Islam & Christianity spread slowly to Africa because many many Islamic beliefs conflicted with traditional African beliefs and customs.

3. Diviners = predict the future

Traditional African ReligionANIMISM

1. Belief in one remote Supreme Being.

3. Ancestor veneration.

4. Belief in magic, charms, and fetishes.

5. Diviner mediator between the tribe and God.

2. A world of spirits (good & bad) in all things.

Art reflected religious themes

Griot = oral storyteller

The trade in ___?____ across the Sahara was probably next in importance to the gold trade for the western Sudan, but not for the central Sudan. There, because there was no gold, ___?____ were the mainstay of the export commerce.

-- William D. Phillips, 1985

This excerpt is from a description of Islamic trade from the seventh century to the fifteenth century. Which word correctly completes the excerpt?A camelsB datesC weaponsD slaves