Kingdoms and Trading States of

Africa

Sankore Mosque, Timbuktu

Manuscript from Timbuktu

Geography

• Second largest

continent

• Differences in climate,

vegetation, terrain act

as barriers and

highways; influence

cultural diversity

• Tropical rain forest,

savannas, deserts,

plateaus, rivers with

cataracts

Early Migration

• About 2500 BC the

Sahara dries out;

desertification

• Forces migration

• West African farmers

and herders migrate

south and east

• These are called the

Bantu

4 000

YBP 2 500

YBP

2 000

YBP ? 1 500

YBP

3 000

YBP

Nubia

• About 2700 BC Egypt was growing along the northern banks of the Nile

• Nubia (Kush) was growing on the fertile land of the upper Nile in today’s Sudan

• Trade and rivalry; 1500 BC Nubia under Egypt’s control

Resources and Trade

• 1100 BC Nubia independent

• By 500 BC Assyrians invade; move the capital to Meroe

• Sets up north-south and east-west trade

• Gold, ivory, skins, slaves, perfumes

• Rich in iron ore and lumber for weapons

Kiosk at Naga, Sixth Cataract, South of

Meroë, showing both Greco-Roman and

Egyptian stylistic influences.

Outside Influences on Africa

• Phoenicians build

Carthage; empire

from 800-146 BC

• Rome rules North

Africa

• Late 600s Islam

spreads into Africa

with Muslim traders

and invaders

Page from a Manuscript of the

Qur’an

Tunisia, early tenth century

Gold and red ink on parchment dyed

blue

Kingdoms of West Africa

• As Sahara dries out, Neolithic people migrate south

• By 100 AD settled farming villages on the savanna

• Surplus leads to trade; network goes from the savanna across the Sahara to the Mediterranean and SW Asia

Trade in the Sahara

• From West Africa;

cloth, nuts, leather

goods, slaves

• From North Africa;

silk, metal, beads,

horses

• Most important? Gold

for salt

• Cities develop; strong

monarchs and

kingdoms

The Great

Mosque of

Dienne,

founded in

800, an

important

trading base,

Modern day salt caravan from Agadez

to Bilma, 1985

The Kingdom of Ghana

• 800 AD

• Not the same as present day Ghana

• Kingdom located at the meeting of the Niger and Senegal rivers

• Controls the gold-salt trade; collects taxes

• ‘The land of gold’ Facsimilie of a map drawn in Spain and

dated to 1375, showing the king of Mali

holding a gold nugget. Image courtesy

of the British Library. The original is held

by the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

Mali

• In 1235 Sundiata founds empire of Mali on the upper Niger

• Mansas control gold mining areas to the south and salt supplies of Taghaza

• Timbuktu is crossroads of that trade

• 1325 Mansa Musa converts to Islam

Djingerayber Mosque, Timbuktu

Songhai

• 1400s Gao becomes the capital of the kingdom of Songhai

• Develops in the same fertile region as the Mali

• Soldier-kings and city-states

• 1492 emperor Askia Muhammad sets up a Muslim dynasty

Benin

• 1300s-south of the savanna, in the rain forest

• Farming villages

• Trade pepper, ivory, and slaves with the savanna

• Art is bronze and brass

• Walled capital city to protect from war and invasion

Detail of relief carving from

the Memorial Tusk

Kingdoms and Trading States of

East Africa

• Axum in modern day

Ethiopia

• By 400 AD triangular

trade connecting

Africa, India, and the

Mediterranean

• 300s Axum converts

to Christianity

• 600s Islam arrives;

isolates Axum

Buried Churches

On the Inside

Judaism in Ethiopia

• In spite of isolation,

Ethiopians keep ties

to Holy Land

• Kings claimed

descent from

Solomon

• They also keep ties

with Christians in

Egypt Page from an Illuminated

Gospel, late 14th–early

15th century

Ethiopia, Amhara region

East African Trading States

• Monsoons carry ships from India to Africa

• Rulers on the East African coast trade with Arabia, Persia, China

• Wealth builds strong, independent city-states

• By the 1000s-cultural diversity

Great Zimbabwe

• South and inland from the great city-states

• Inland capital of trade

• ‘Stone houses’

• 1300 reaches its height

• 1500 in decline

• Population too large; decline in trade; civil war; Portuguese

Societies in Medieval Africa

• Family patterns;

nuclear, extended

• Kinship; matrilineal,

patrilineal; lineage

• Political patterns;

power-sharing, limited

power

• Religious beliefs;

Islam, Christianity,

ancestors, spirits MOSSI HEAD

BURKINA FASO