Sub-Saharan Africa: Migrations and Agriculture

• Sub-Saharan Africa saw the establishment of stated and societies
• Bantu migrations and the spread of Islam were key factors

Effects of Early African Migrations

• By 1000 CE, Bantu people settled south of the equator
• Kushite, Sudanese, and Mande people also established communities far from their origins
• African people undertook small-scale migrations into the 19th century
• By 1000, most migrations were complete
• Societies built upon the Bantu and other migrations' foundations

Agriculture and Population Growth

• Bantu migrations spread agriculture and herding, excluding deserts and rainforests
• As agricultural societies formed, cultivators and herders displaced hunter-gatherers and absorbed them
• By 500 BCE, Bantu mastered iron metallurgy, making axes, adzes, and hoes for land clearing and agriculture
• Cultivation and herding spread to southern Africa by the early centuries CE with yams, sorghum, and millet
• The indigenous Khoi people adopted cattle raising
• Developments led to increased agricultural production, rising population, and migration

Population Growth

• Sub-Saharan Africa's population history reflects the significance of iron metallurgy and bananas
• 400 BCE: population was 3.5 million
• Turn of the millennium: over 11 million
• 800 CE: 17 million after bananas cultivation
• 1000: 22 million due to Bantu migrations and iron metallurgy introduction

Bantu and Forest People

• Bantu migrations, population expansion, and new communities changed Bantu relationships with forest dwellers
• Bantu once saw forest people as useful guides
• Oral traditions suggest that foragers had expert knowledge of the environment.
• Bantu populations surged, hindering foragers' flourish
• Some forest people joined cultivators and integrated into Bantu society
• Others retreated into forests, sustaining small-scale societies by providing forest products for iron tools from the Bantu

Political Organization

• In 1000 CE, Bantu expansion reached its limits as agricultural peoples occupied much of the continent
• Migrating to new territories and forming new settlements became more difficult than in previous centuries
• Sub-Saharan African people developed complex governments to organize societies efficiently

Kin-Based Societies

• Stateless/segmentary societies = social organization in Africa during/after Bantu migrations
• Early Bantu societies lacked hierarchies or bureaucracies and people governed themselves through family and kinship groups
• Bantu settled in villages of ~100 people with male family heads forming a ruling council which decided public affairs
• Prominent family heads presided as village chiefs, representing settlements when dealing with neighboring peoples
• A group of villages formed a district, the main focus of ethnic loyalties
• Village chiefs negotiated on matters concerning multiple villages and kinships disciplined members within villages
• Kin-based societies grew to large proportions with networks of villages and districts
• e.g., the Tiv people of Nigeria, numbering almost one million, conducted their affairs in a kin-based society in the 19th century

Early Cities: Jenne-jeno

• Bantu-speaking people established an urban society in the Niger River's middle stretches
• Using iron tools, settlers arrived in the region during the late centuries BCE
• By 400 CE, Jenne-jeno ("Ancient Jenne" in Mali) emerged as an iron production/trade center
• Merchants traded iron products, rice, fish, domesticated animals (cattle, sheep, goats)
• An extensive trade network that reached from north Africa and the Mediterranean to central African savannas/forests
• By the 8th century CE, Jenne-jeno = principal commercial crossroads of west Africa
• Although the city declined as west African kingdoms/empires arose, it inspired Timbuktu and other cities
• Legend: a terra-cotta head represents an ambitious warrior who usurped power in the small state of Ife after 1000 CE

Chiefdoms

• After 1000 CE, kin-based societies faced challenges due to strained resources and limited land
• Conflicts between villages and districts increased
• Increased conflict led Bantu communities to organize military forces, encouraging formal government structures
• Districts fell under the lead of powerful chiefs, who overrode kinship networks and their own authority
• Some chiefs conquered neighbors and formed small kingdoms
• Local kingdoms emerged in sub-Saharan Africa after 1000 CE with the kingdoms of Ife and Benin arising in west African forested regions
• Both were city-states where the court and urban residents controlled the countryside via family relationships and political alliances
• Both produced sculptures and local kingdoms appeared in southern/central Africa

Kingdom of Kongo

• One of the most active areas of political development, the Congo River basin had brisk economic development and supported the formation of large and small kingdoms
• After 1000 CE, population pressures and military challenges encouraged kin-based societies to form small states embracing a few villages
• By 1200, conflict led to the organization of larger regional principalities
• One of the more prosperous Congolese states was the kingdom of Kongo
• Kongo actively participated in trade networks involving copper, raffia cloth, and nzimbu shells from the Atlantic Ocean.
• In the 14th century, the kingdom of Kongo included much of the modern-day Republic of the Congo and Angola
• The central government of Kongo included the king and officials who oversaw military, judicial, and financial affairs
• There were six provinces administered by governors, each of whom supervised several districts administered by subordinate officials and villages ruled by chiefs providing local government within the districts
• Kongo was perhaps the most tightly centralized of the early Bantu kingdoms
• The king/central administrators could appoint/replace officials at will
• The central government maintained a royal currency system based on cowries, seashells from the Indian Ocean.
• The Kingdom of Kongo provided effective organization from the 14th to mid-17th century before Portuguese slave traders undermined the kings/central government's authority
• Kin-based societies survived into the 19th century in much of sub-Saharan Africa
• Regional states and large kingdoms became increasingly prominent during the centuries after 1000 CE

Islamic Kingdoms and Empires

• While Bantu people organized societies based on African traditions, merchants from north Africa and southwest Asia introduced Islam to sub-Saharan Africa
• Islam arrived overland by trans-Saharan camel caravans and by sea lanes of the Indian Ocean in merchant-mariners' vessels
• After the 8th century CE, Islam influenced the political, social, and economic development of Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa

Trans-Saharan Trade and Islamic States in West Africa

• The Sahara desert was not an absolute barrier to communication and small numbers of nomadic peoples have lived in the desert itself since its desiccation beginning around 5000 BCE
• Those nomads migrated around the desert, having dealings with people settled on its fringes
• Even in ancient/classical times, merchants organized commercial expeditions across the desert although the value/volume of trade in the Mediterranean basin greatly exceeded that crossing the Sahara

Camels

• Camels quickened the pace of communication and transportation across the Sahara
• Camels came to north Africa from Arabia via Egypt and the Sudan sometime in the first millennium BCE
• During the late centuries BCE, a camel saddle that took advantage of their physical structure was used
• Caravans could cross the Sahara in seventy to ninety days
• Because camels could travel long distances before needing water, they proved to be useful beasts of burden in an arid region
• After about 300 CE, camels increasingly replaced horses and donkeys as preferred transport animals throughout the Sahara and central Asia
• When Arab conquerors introduced Islam into north Africa during the 7th-8th centuries, they integrated the region into a rapidly expanding zone of commerce/communication
• Muslims in north Africa explored the potential of trade across the Sahara
• By the late 8th century, Islamic merchants trekked across the desert and established commercial relations with sub-Saharan West African societies
• They found long-established trading centers such as Gao, a terminus of caravan routes across the Sahara that offered access to the Niger River valley, and was a market for copper, ironware, cotton textiles, salt, grains, and carnelian beads

Kingdom of Ghana

• The principal state of west Africa at the time of the Muslims' arrival was the kingdom of Ghana (not related to the modern state of Ghana)
• It was situated between the Senegal and Niger rivers, placed on a region straddling the border between the modern states of Mali and Mauritania
• Ghana emerged as a kingdom at an uncertain but early date
• Legands said that twenty-two kings ruled in Ghana before Muhammad and his companions embarked on the hijra
• Ghana likely developed as a state in the 4th/5th century CE: settled, and agricultural peoples sought to protect their societies from raids of camel-riding nomads
• Arriving Muslims saw the kingdom of Ghana as a regional state like others emerging in sub-Saharan Africa

The Diffusion of Technologies

• Camels had been used for centuries by traders in Arabia and North Africa: thanks to the camel saddle invented in about 200 CE
• Muslim traders went across the Sahara to West Africa in the 7th & 8th centuries; camels were a technology as they helped humans adapt to the natural environment, to reliably traverse the Sahara desert
• Camels affected trade, urban growth, the accumulation of wealth, and the slave trade in sub-Saharan Africa

Gold Trade

• Ghana had dramatic transformation as trade and traffic across the desert increased
• It became the most important commercial site in west Africa because the center for trade in gold, a high demand item
• Muslim merchants traveled across the Sahara in camel caravans to Ghana in search of gold for consumers in the Mediterranean basin/Islamic world
• Ghana did not produce gold, but the kings procured nuggets from lands to the south
• They were from the Niger, Gambia, and Senegal rivers, which enjoyed world's largest gold supply
• Kings both enriched and strengthened their realm by controlling and taxing trade in the precious metal
• Ghana provided ivory and slaves for traders from north Africa
• They received horses, cloth, small manufactured wares, and salt (crucial commodity in the tropics) in exchange

Koumbi-Saleh

• Integration into trans-Saharan trade networks brought enormous wealth and considerable power to Ghana
• The kingdom's capital/principal trading site was at Koumbi-Saleh, a small town that was once a thriving commercial center of 15,000-20,000 people when the kingdom was at its height
• Al-Bakri, a Spanish Muslim traveler, described Koumbi-Saleh as a flourishing site with stone buildings and a dozen Mosques
• Koumbi-Saleh's wealth also supported qadis/Muslim scholars
• From taxes levied on trade, the kings financed a large army that protected the sources of gold, maintained order, kept tributary states in line, and defended Ghana against nomadic incursions from the Sahara

Islam in West Africa

• In the 10th century, the kings of Ghana had converted to Islam which improved relations with Muslim merchants from north Africa/Muslim nomads
• It brought recognition/support from Muslim states in north Africa
• The kings of Ghana did not impose Islam forcibly on their society, but, continued to observe traditional religious customs
• In the absence of efforts to impose Islam on Ghana, the faith gained converts, particularly among those engaged in trade with Muslim merchants from the north
• The kingdom expanded to the north, it became vulnerable to attacks from nomadic peoples from the Sahara who sought wealth
• Raids from the desert weakened the kingdom and it collapsed in the early 13th century
• Several successor states took over portions of Ghana's territory, but political leadership in west Africa fell to the powerful Mali empire

Sundiata

• Sundiata (reigned 1230-1255) built the Mali empire during the 13th century after his return from exile
• He made alliances with local rulers, gained a reputation for courage, and assembled an army dominated by calvary
• By about 1235 he had consolidated his hold on the Mali empire which expanded to include Ghana neighboring kingdoms
• The empire included most of the modern state of Mali and extended into Mauritiania, Senegal, etc.

The Mali Empire and Trade

• Mali benefited from trans-Saharan trade at a larger scale than Ghana
• Mali controlled and taxed almost all trade passing through west Africa from the 13th until the late 15th century
• Enormous caravans with twenty-five thousand camels linked Mali to north Africa
• Niani attracted merchants seeking to enter the gold trade
• Timbuktu, Gao, and Jenne became prosperous centers with brick/stone buildings

Mansa Musa

• The significance of trade and Islam for west Africa became clear during the reign of Mansa Musa (1312-1337) during the highpoint of the empire
• Mansa Musa observed Islamic tradition by making his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324-1325
• His party included thousands of soldiers, attendants, subjects, slaves, and a hundred camels carrying satchels of gold
• Mansa Musa bestowed gifts along the way, and during his three month visit to Cairo, he distributed so much gold that the metal's value declined by 25 percent

Mansa Musa and Islam

• Mansa Musa took his religion more seriously after returning from Mecca
• He built mosques in trading cities frequented by Muslim merchants
• He sent students to study with scholars in north Africa and set up religious schools and brought in teachers to make Islam better known in Mali
• Within a century of Mansa Musa's reign, Mali declined: factions crippled the central government, provinces seceded, military pressures came
• The Songhay empire had overcome Mali by the late 15th century
• Mansa Musa had established a tradition of centralized government and ensured that Islam would have a role in west African society

Indian Ocean Trade and Islamic States in East Africa

• Trans-Saharan caravan traffic linked west Africa to the larger trading but merchant-mariners sailing the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean performed that service coastal east Africa
• Indian/Persian sailors visited coasts after about 500 BCE
• Hellenistic/Roman mariners sailed through the Red Sea
• Malay seafarers ventured into the western Indian Ocean, colonies on Madagascar in the 4th & 5th centuries CE
• Early visitors had limited trade opportunities as east African populations mainly consisted of hunter-gatherers/fishing peoples
• By the 2nd century CE, Bantu people had populated much of east Africa, introducing agriculture, cattle herding, and iron metallurgy
• Complex societies governed by small states were built and as population increased, settlements were founded on the coasts offshore islands where agricultural production was supplemented with ocean fishing/maritime trade, builders of Swahili society

The Swahili

• Swahili is an Arabic term meaning "coasters”
• Swahili dominated the east African coast from Mogadishu to Kilwa (the Comoro Islands, Sofala)
• They spoke Swahili, a Bantu language supplemented with Arabic
• Swahili peoples developed dialects but communicated readily because individuals frequently visited communities: Swahili society underwent similar patterns of development with respect to language, religion, architecture, and technology
• In the 10th century, Swahili society attracted increasing attention from Islamic merchants
• The Swahili obtained gold, slaves, ivory, exotic local products such as tortoise shells/leopard skins traded for pottery, glass, textiles from Persia, India, and China
• The volume/value of trade had large repercussions for Swahili states/societies

The Swahili City-States

• By the 11th-12th centuries, trade had brought tremendous wealth to coastal east Africa
• Chiefs strengthened their authority by controlling and taxing trade and influence
• Trade grew at Mogadishu, Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Mozambique, and Sofala and each site developed into a city-state governed by their king, who oversaw trade and public life
• Villages underwent transformation and the cities had buildings made of wood/dried mud which was the principal material
• Swahili began to construct larger buildings of coral, and by the 15th century the main Swahili towns boasted handsome stone mosques and public buildings
• Elites/wealthy merchants dressed in silk and cotton clothes, with tables set with Chinese porcelain

Kilwa

• Kilwa travelers' reports archaeological discoveries clear light on the development of Kilwa
• Earliest Bantu inhabitants of Kilwa relied mostly on fishing involved in trade between 800 & 1000
• In the next two centuries imported pottery stoneware from other regions, agriculture to support growing numbers
• By the early 13th century, Kilwans erected multistory stone buildings, and copper coins for economic transactions
• Between 1300 and 1505, the city was sacked by a Portuguese mariner with great prosperity
• Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta visited there in 1331 and stated that Muslim Scholars from Arabia and Persia resided and consulted regularly with local ruler
• Long-distance trade led beyond costs to interiors to villagers who have modest lifestyles with Trade underwrote the establishment of large and powerful kingdoms in east and central Africa

Zimbabwe

• The best known of these kingdoms was Zimbabwe
• Chief Dwelling was Zimbabwe-refers to chief As early as fifth sixth centuries-residences like Zimbabwes - featured residences like Zimbabwes Indicating expensive projects near a site in zimbabwe- a great Zimbabwe where that began to rise in near Nyanza near Zimbabwe with stone walls that stood 16 feet tall were large kingdoms located in the Zambesi River Zimbabwe served as the capital during the 15th century where 18,000+ people may have lived The product enables them in turn helps others thrive coast

Islam in East Africa

• East Africa Trade brought political changes like counterparts ruling elites and with your Merchants of East Africa cover the Islam Their tradition also made sure didn’t have to choose gave up anything rather religious and cultural traditions to continue it as they become Islam served the coastal as the coast served Muslim merchants too

African Religion

• Various sub-Saharan Africa religion or religious practices are specific
• Referring to cultural influences Combination of insight to provide
• Creator gods were recognized to be single and they had developed the improved understandings
• Divine force for putting other people in motion

Lesser Deities and Spirits

Deities/spirits were recognized often, or not for long

• Deities brought for the humans the power of other people/ancestors had experienced events as those who behaved/brought misfortune as for those who evil and that's who the ancestors remember Focused rituals deities/spirits/or ancestors' souls to win they would do what they could include ceremonies markings
• Animal sacrifices

Dviners

Power/intervening between being humans/deities Intelligent networks of political that community Individuals/groups consult misfortune causes oracles that trouble prescribe medicines

Arrival of Christianity and Islam

Religions concentrated that are Christianity's world and salvation Foreign peoples/Africa from world for salvation needs people-subsahran their arrival

Early Christianity in North Africa

• Christianity reached Africa centuries-medetria attracted Alexendrium there which north was from St. Augustine many there

Christian Kingdom of Axum

• Century that established with high lands of African communities that traveled port that visit that missionaries converted to the Christianity likely the hope with neighbor the power to make in Egypt that the kingdom

Ethiopian Christianity

• dynasty undertook centralization campaign and enthusiastically promoted as foundations from lands Dynasty claimed descent Solomon in effort with the Bible

Ethiopian Christianity

During Ethiopian's conquest to North Sudan with Africa to Christian countries Evil spirits populated charms

Islam and African Society

Muslim didn’t do that because other things to do to those who are those Sometimes adopted more other trade Sanctions would to rule for what's available