GEOGRAPHY – LARGEST CONTINENT AFTER ASIA
• Regions – North Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa
• Sub-Saharan – savanna, Rift Valley, rain forest, desert
KUSH – NUBIA DEVELOPED INTO KUSH BY 2000 B.C.
• Assyria – iron weapons; defeated Egyptians & Kushites, 671 B.C.
• Meroe – new capital & center for iron production
AXUM – FOUNDED BY ARABS
• Location on Red Sea – facilitated prosperity as trading power
• Ezana – made Christianity official religion, A.D. 330
GHANA – NAME FOR “KING” & A REGION;1ST GREAT TRADING STATE
• Located between Saharan salt mines & tropical gold mines
• Berbers – nomads; camel caravans – “fleets of the desert”
MALI – “WHERE THE KING RESIDES”
• Sundiata Keita – “lion prince;” brought prosperity in mid-13th century
• Mansa Musa – greatest king of Mali; introduced Islamic culture
• Timbuktu – capital, center of Islamic art & learning
TIMBUKTU
SONGHAI – REGION ALONG THE NIGER RIVER
• Sunni Ali – early ruler who conquered Timbuktu
• Askia Muhammad – “usurper” ruled Songhai Empire at height of glory
• Morocco – defeated the Songhai in A.D. 1589
BANTU KINGDOMS – CENTRAL & SOUTH AFRICA
• Bantu migrations – West Africa to other parts of continent
• Bantu – became language spoken by many groups
• Great Zimbabwe – “stone house;” largest fortress; no mortar
EAST AFRICA – TRADE WITH SOUTH ASIA BEGAN AS EARLY AS 500 B.C.
• Coastal city-states: Kilwa, Mombasa, Mogadishu
• Blending of cultures – adopted Islam & Islamic culture
• Swahili – Bantu-based, Arabic-influenced language
ASPECTS OF SOCIETY – RELIANCE ON ORAL TRADITION
• Lineage groups – claimed descent from common ancestor
• Women – subordinate to men; valued for work & child raising
• Matrilineal – traced descent thru mother
• Patrilineal – traced descent thru father
• Education – boys & girls raised together until age six
• Girls – “house of the women,” home & field work
• Boys – “house of the men,” hunt, fish, grow crops
• Initiation ceremonies at puberty
• Slavery – an ancient practice in Africa
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS – POLYTHEISTIC
• Animism - souls inhabit all or most objects
• Communicated with gods thru ritual
• Diviner – power to foretell events
• Ancestors – important because they were closer to the gods
• Islam – challenged but did not replace religious beliefs
CULTURE – ART WAS MEANT TO EXPRESS RELIGIOUS CONVICTION
• Rock paintings – earliest art form, 4000 B.C.
• Dance – means to communicate with the spirits
• Music – words served to transmit legends & traditions
• Griots – storytellers who kept alive a people’s history