“A Moorish Captain"

Virginia Mason Vaughan

"thick lips"

SUNJATA:

West African Epic of Mande Peoples

Mandinka People

Epic of Sundiata Sundiata Keita (1217-1255)

Founder of the Mali Empire

Mansa Musa (1280-1337)

Hamlet

MMW 13 Lecture 6, April 19

Unknown-1.jpeg

This week’s lecture Today

Europe

Sub-Saharan Africa

Thursday:

Asia: China, India, Japan

Europe In 1200 Europe, as an economically, politically, and

religious/cultural landmass, has little coherence

Class Noble (aristocracy; clergymen, dukes, knights

Servants

Artisans & Guilds

Peasantry

Boroughs (self-governing walled town)

rising middle class 1050-1300

Medieval Guilds:Guilds were able to transform the labor system on

the estates of members of the nobility.

Labor Unions

Annual Fairs at public

squares

Champagne Fairs

Lex mercatoria Largely administrated by the merchants

Merchant justice system: codes, laws and customs

practiced throughout Europe

1. Property rights

2. Contractual formalities

3. A common language for commerce

* Formation of GOOD PRACTICES

Specialization of labor and

production

Professionalization & the Separation of

Work and Domestic Space

Gender Artisan (ex. Spinning by hand), peasant

Bankers or tailors

Private domain: embroidery, needlepoint, sewing,

spinning, and weaving

Most populated city in

Medieval Europe?

Paris

Venice

Afro-Eurasia

Sub-Saharan Africa

States and Societies

Bantu peoples 600 ethnic groups

2500-3000: millennia-long migration from west to east,

central and south Africa

Established major states from the 14th

century

Commerce and Urbanization Trade with Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean basin

Development of new commodities desired by

consumers throughout the eastern hemisphere.

Urbanization and organization of large states

Kingdoms

11th to 15th centuries Swahili cities.

12th to 16th centuries Christian Kingdom of Axum

13th to 15th centuries Mali Empire

Kingdom of Kongo 14th to 17th

century

Societies: Kinship Groups

Kin-based Societies: members related based on marriage or descent.

“Stateless society” or “segmentary society”

Political structure: governed themselves through family and kinship groups.

1) Village chiefs ruled but through concessions and negotiations.

Bantu kingdoms: appoint officials on the local level.

2) Ruling elites, military nobles, business entrepreneurs (male heads of the families).

3) Villages consisted of several extended families.

4) Common people, peasants and slaves.

Code of Ethics

.

Descent: Unilineal lineages can be matrilineal or

patrilineal.

Not biological linkage but a moral one.

Confucian filial piety.

Unlike Eurasia and North Africa

No institution of privately owned property (sub-Saharan

Africa).

Communities claimed ownership based on rights to land and

used it in common.

Status group: iron working, highly prestigious.

Sub-Saharan societies.

Agricultural economy and iron-working skills.

King groups.

Coastal Trade.

African traditions and Islam: The emergence of productive and

powerful societies in Africa.

Kingdom of Kongo

1200 small states near the Congo River form an alliance.

Kingdom of Kongo: a Congolese states that did trade from the

Atlantic Ocean.

Centralized government: king, officials and six provinces

administrated by governors.

Villages ruled by chiefs.

Effective organization of society.

Islam & sub-Saharan Africa

Kingdom of Ghana: regional state and a commercial site for trade in gold (Senegal river and Nigeria) in exchange of horses, cloth, small manufactured wares and salt (a major commodity in the tropics).

Introduction of Islam: Caravan (from north Africa and Mediterranean basis) and Indian basin.

10th century, Ghana converted to Islam.

TAXES & TRADE

Trade played a major role in the emergence of cities and

states in sub-Saharan Africa.

1) Taxes levied on trade provided finances for large armies.

2) Armies protected the sources and trade of gold.

3) Security

4) Maintained tributary states and defended Ghana against

nomadic incursions from the Sahara.

The lion prince Sundiata (1230-1255)

Founder of the Mali empire.

1235 consolidated his power on

the Mali empire, which included

Ghana, Senegal and Niger rivers.

● Naini: capital city

● very hospitable to Muslim merchants.

● Mali taxed all trade passing

through west Africa.

The lion prince Sundiata (1230-1255)

Founder of the Mali empire.

1235 consolidated his power on

the Mali empire, which included

Ghana, Senegal and Niger rivers.

● Naini: capital city

● very hospitable to Muslim merchants.

● Mali taxed all trade passing

through west Africa.

Mansa Musa (1312-1337)

Grand-nephew of Sundiata.

Muslim ruler.

Pilgrimage to Mecca (1324-1325)

Expanded Islam throughout

west Africa.

● Trade and Islam: More

Muslim merchants.

● Established a tradition of

centralized government and

expansion of Islam in the region.

What role did Islam play in

Africa?

Source of Legitimacy for rulers.

Cooperation between states

Alliances.

Expansion of commerce:

Appealed to merchants and ruling elites and a cultural

foundation for business relations with north African traders.

Non-Islamic Religions

Monotheism: A single divine force as the generator of life and

order.

Moralistic: promoted proper moral behavior and set ethnical

standards for members of the community.

Ancestor cults: rituals to regain their goodwill

Diviners: mediators between the spiritual and mundane worlds,

consulting oracles, identified the causes of the trouble, gave

medicine or assigned sacrificial performances to heal.

Christianity

4th century:

Kingdom of Axum

Merchants and missionaries.

Ethiopia: highlands

Magical Christianity: amulets or charms for protection.

Rocks shrines & Church:

11 massive churches.

13th century: Ethiopia’s Dynasty claimed descent from

the Israelite Kings David and Solomon.