Unit 3: Sub-Saharan Africa
• Traders from faraway Europe, Asia, and the Middle East journeyed to the ancient trading empires of Africa seeking gold, ivory, and other exotic goods. (you already know this.)
Chapter 5 West Africa
Chapter 5, Lesson 1: The Roots of Mighty Empires
(pp. 108-111)• THINKING FOCUS• What are some of the ways the early West
Africans developed prosperous cities in landscape with such varying climate?
• KEY TERMS• savanna• Sahel• Delta• SALT (really important)
Chapter 5 The Roots of Mighty Empires
A Land of Many Climates
• Dried-up riverbeds as well as cave paintings indicate that in 5000 B.C., the Sahara was indeed a land of flowing rivers, lush green pastures, and forests.
• As the Sahara's climate changed, people who lived there migrated south to settle in more fertile areas -- the savannas and rain forests.
Grass is gone…
• Some of those who migrated to West Africa settled on oases located along a strip of grasslands, or savanna, on the Sahara's southern border.
• This region is known as the sahel, or "shore of the desert."
A New Technology
• In West Africa, the Nok people were the first to begin working iron, around 450 B.C., and were also skilled potters.
• Archaeologists have found iron tools near the city of Nok in present-day Nigeria.
• The Nok people shared their knowledge of iron making and pottery with the people they met.
Cooking Rocks
• To make iron, the Nok placed rocks rich in iron ore in a clay furnace with charcoal.
• They then heated the mixture to a high enough temperature to liquefy it.
• After the wastes were poured off, a chunk of molten iron remained. A Nok iron maker would then shape that soft, red-hot iron into a tool or weapon.
• This iron-making process is still used today in some parts of West Africa.
Nok sculpture… terracotta circa 500 BC
Seated Dignitary, c. 250 B.C.Nok People, Africa, Eastern Nigeria, Nok Plateau
Fired Clay; H. 36 1/4 x W. 10 7/8 x D.14 in.
Area of Nigeria where terracotta heads were first
discovered
An Ancient Trade Center
• In 1977, the remains of an ancient city were discovered on the inland delta of the Niger River. A delta is a triangular-shaped landform made by mud and silt deposited at a river's mouth.
• The iron and clay artifacts found among the remains of the city closely resembled the articles made by Nok
• The ancient trading city, Jenne-jeno, on the Niger River, was inhabited from 250 B.C. to A.D. 1400.
• Think about the timelines that we have been doing, this lasted longer than any of the empires that we have studied so far.
Jenne’- jeno
Jenne’ today
Jenne’- jeno
• The Inland Niger Delta is located between the Bani and Niger rivers in present-day southwestern Mali.
• These waterways have provided the region with a fertile floodplain and a natural thoroughfare for trade, both of which helped secure the area's central position in the economic, social, and urban histories of the western Sudan.
Female Statue48 cm tall
Age: 900 to 1,500 years
more• Jenne-jeno ("Old Jenne"; Djenne-jeno), site
of the oldest known city of sub-Saharan Africa, was populated as early as 250 B.C. and expanded to become a major urban center by 850 A.D.
• Archaeologists have determined from slag deposits that the original inhabitants of Jenne-jeno worked iron from the earliest days of the site's occupation.
• This iron industry is among the earliest known in sub-Saharan Africa, antedated only by that of the Nok culture.
Nok rider and horse53 cm tall
Age: 1,400 to 2,000 years
Trade… always important
• Traveling by river or by camel caravan, people brought food, metal, minerals, and a variety of wares to trade in the city.
• People carried rice, fish, baskets, and pottery to river cities in the north and brought back salt, copper, and stone. Traders went south on the river to bring back gold.
• Jenne - jeno was completely abandoned by 1400. (WHY?)
Well…
• Archaeologists do not know why this happened. However, at about this time, the nearby city of Jenne was founded.
• I am guessing this is what happened.
Lesson 2: The Empire of Ghana (pp. 112-117)
THINKING FOCUS• What effect did trade have on the
people of Ghana?KEY TERMS• Matrilineal• Patrilineal• (Mom & Pop)
A New Trade Center
• Between the 700s and 1500s, large trading empires flourished in West Africa.
• Ghana was an ancient agricultural kingdom of the Soninke people.
• Berber tribes from North Africa raised horses and camels.
More trade
• Rich in gold and centrally-located, Ghana became the first of the African trading empires, lasting from around A.D. 300 to 1235.
• From the south came kola nuts, palm oil, copper, and gold. From the north, came imported items like ceramics, glass and oil lamps--and, of course, salt.
• Taxes collected on goods passing through Ghana allowed the empire to grow wealthy.
Iron helps
• Under the Soninke kings, Ghana became a wealthy trading empire. The Soninke easily conquered neighboring peoples because their iron weapons were far superior to the stone ones of their opponents.
• (How will they stand up against guns!)
A Divided Capital
• In Koumbi, Ghana's capital, the gold and salt trade created the wealthiest marketplace in West Africa.
• Koumbi's market people also bought and sold cattle, honey, dates, cloth, ivory, and ebony.
• In other shops at the market, local farmers sold their produce and craftspeople sold their wares.
More…
• The city of Koumbi, like many Ghana trading cities, was divided into two sections -- one to house the Muslim traders, the other to house local people.
• A six-mile-long boulevard linked the two sections of Koumbi.
A Tale of Two Cities
• The Muslim side had 12 mosques and the homes of Muslim traders.
• Many of the buildings there were constructed of stone, and some had two stories.
• This section was also home to the huge Koumbi market.
• The Soninke section of the capital looked very different. It was a walled city, and most of its one-story houses were made of wood or clay, with straw roofs.
• The king lived in this section in a large wood and stone palace.
The former capital of the Ghana Empire. It
lies in what is now south east Mauritania.
New Religion
• Arab merchants trading in West Africa brought not only valuable goods, but also new ideas about writing, numbers, and religion.
• Arab traders brought the first system of writing and numbers to West Africa.
• Many West Africans converted to Islam, and some who did still did not give up all of their traditional beliefs and practices.
Conversion to Islam
• Among the first of the converts to Islam were the Mandinke people from the southern Sahara, who served as middlemen in trade between Arab caravans and Wangara gold miners.
• The Mandinke formed small trade companies that made contact with many different people.
• They spread Islamic ideas throughout West Africa.
Mosque in Timbuktu
Traditions…
• Other Islamic practices were harder for the Ghanaians to accept. Muslims, for example, had their own idea about the succession of kings. In Ghana when a king died, he was not succeeded by his own son but by the son of his sister. This system of tracing succession through the females of the family is known as matrilineal succession. Muslims, on the other hand, practiced patrilineal succession, in which the throne passes from father to son.
Grand Mosque in Mali
A Fallen Empire
• Along the northernmost coast of Africa, Berber peoples ruled the region called the Maghreb.
• In the mid-1000s, invaders made war for control of Ghana.
• Eventually, the neighboring kingdom of Mali overthrew the Soninke king and became the major power in West Africa.
More…
• King Sumanguru, who wanted to rebuild Ghana's empire, ruled one of these kingdoms.
• In 1203, he overthrew the Soninke king and took over Koumbi. Meanwhile, a new kingdom to the east called Mali, ruled by the Mandinke, was steadily gaining power.
• In 1235, the king of Mali defeated Sumanguru and Mali replaced Ghana as the major power in West Africa.
Lesson 3: The Empires of Mali and Songhai
(pp. 118-122) THINKING FOCUS
• What events led to the great trade empires of Mali and Songhai?
KEY TERM
• griot
Mali Develops a Prosperous Trade
• In 1235, King Sundiata of Mali defeated King Sumanguru of Ghana and established his capital at Niani, on the Niger River.
GOLD & SALT
• Sundiata improved agriculture and restored the region's gold and salt trade, making Mali the most powerful kingdom in Africa.
The Book Map
Mandinke griot, or storyteller.
• Example…• The vanquished Sumanguru looked up
towards the sun. A great black bird flew over above the fray...."The bird of Kirina," [the king] muttered. Sumanguru let out a great cry and, turning his horse's head, he took to flight.
Mali Develops a Prosperous Trade
• Sundiata became king of the new empire of Mali, which had once been a part of Ghana.
• Sundiata first concentrated on improving agriculture. His soldiers cleared land for farming, and they planted rice, yams, onions, beans, grains, and cotton.
• In a few years, Mali became a productive farming region.
Camels are still important
• Sundiata and his successors expanded Mali's trade routes north and east across the Sahara to Cairo, Egypt, and to Tunis in Tunisia.
• Less than 100 years after the victory at Kirina, Mali had become the most powerful kingdom in Africa. By the late 1300s, Mali was three times as large as Ghana had ever been.
The Desert of Mali today
Mansa Musa Enriches the Empire
• Mali's greatest ruler, Mansa Musa, expanded trade, encouraged Islam, and enlarged the empire.
• Under Mansa Musa, rich trading cities such as Timbuktu and Niani became centers of culture and learning.
Mansa Musa(1312-1337)
Mansu Musa was a Muslim
• in accordance with Islamic teachings, some of Mali's rulers made pilgrimages to the holy city of Mecca in the Middle East. Mansa Musa made the 3,500-mile journey in 1324.
• According to some accounts, which may have become exaggerated over time, Mansa Musa was accompanied on this journey by as many as 50,000 people--friends, family members, doctors, advisers, and 500 slaves carrying golden staffs. In addition, 80 to 100 camels, each loaded with 100 pounds of gold dust, are said to have traveled with him to Mecca. Hundreds of other camels carried the other supplies.
• Even Mali's borders expanded under Mansa Musa's rule. New land was acquired both peacefully and as the result of war. Most of Mali was divided into states, which were under Musa's control.
• Other religions had to pay taxes… (not religious freedom)
Power Shifts to Songhai
• After Mansa Musa died in 1332, Mali was ruled by a series of kings who were unable to protect its vast territory.
• Mali gradually weakened and eventually was taken over by neighboring Songhai, a former province of Mali.
• The Songhai were a mixture of farmers, traders, fishermen, and warriors who lived along the Niger near the city of Gao.
Daily Life Here in Songhai
Songhai grows
• Under Muslim kings, Songhai became the greatest trade empire of West Africa by the late 1500s.
• A new Songhai empire thus grew out of a region that had once been part of Mali, just as Mali had grown out of a state in the empire of Ghana.
But then… Songhai Collapses
• Eventually, Songhai was weakened Songhai by the local people's resentment of the Muslim ruling class.
• Morocco's military campaign to capture Songhai's salt and gold mines also contributed to Songhai's collapse.
• Pasha (Moroccan) arrived in Songhai with only 1,000 men. But his soldiers carried something new to the region, something they had acquired in the Middle East--guns.
• Songhai's soldiers outnumbered Pasha's by at least 25,000 men.
End of the Empire
• But swords and arrows were no match for guns.
• Pasha destroyed the Gold producing system.
• What had once been a peaceful, well-organized empire became a series of military camps.
• Songhai was the last great trading empire of West Africa.
Ewe Proverbs, Ghana
The blacksmith in one village becomes a blacksmith's apprentice in another.
If a Whiteman wants to give you a hat, look at the one he is wearing before you accept it.
You do not become a chief simply by sitting on a big stool.
A stump that stays in a river for a hundred years does not become a crocodile.
Lesson 4: Village Society in West Africa (pp. 124-127)
• THINKING FOCUS• How did the people in the rural
villages of West Africa survive in their often unpredictable environment?
• KEY TERMS• diviner• ancestor worship• kinship
Farming: A Way of Life
• The most important activity in every village was raising food.
• People who fished the Niger River also cultivated gardens.
• Skilled iron makers and blacksmiths also raised crops, chickens, and goats.
• Even cattle-raising nomads grew a wheat-like grain called millet.
• In the dry regions of the Sahel, farmers grew millet and sorghum. Rice in the river delta.
Farming & Trade
• Most farmers grew a small surplus of crops to trade for food they could not produce in their region.
• Surplus is what they had left over… This has a different meaning in Economics.
Religion, Dance, and Music
• African villagers believed in pleasing their gods with ritual, music, and dance.
• African villagers believed in worshipping their ancestors. They believed that the spirit of their ancestors would influence the gods.
• Priests and diviners, they believed, helped people interact with the gods. Diviners communicated with the spirit world and had healing powers. Diviners also knew how to please the gods through rituals and dancing.
Keeping in touch with the past
• The people of the villages also believed in honoring their relatives through ancestor worship.
• ancestors lived on after death and could influence the gods in their favor--or punish the living with bad luck, sickness, or even death.
Village Life
• Kinship, or family relationship, was the basis of village government.
• Kinship, or family relationship, was the basis of government. The male head of each clan became one of the village chiefs and often one of the religious leaders.
Slavery
• Under extreme hardship, if a clan was in debt or had promised to provide workers, members could be loaned out to fulfill the family's obligations.
• When the debt was paid, the worker was returned.
• If the debt was not paid off, however, the status of temporary "slave" became permanent. Even then, individuals were still people, never property.
Slavery in West Africa
Not Property
• Slavery was a way of paying off debts between clans. Captives of war also became slaves.
• While today we find slavery unthinkable, historians remind us that for ancient peoples around the world, slavery was an improvement over death after capture.
Europeans come in
Until…
• Some African states exported slaves.• Between 1200 and 1500, about 2.5
million Africans were taken across the Sahara or the Red Sea bound for slavery.
• It was not just the labor of the slaves that made them valuable but their skills and talents.
Chapter Review• REVIEWING KEY TERMS• For each key term, turn to the indicated page in
Across the Centuries.• ancestor worship (p. 126)• delta (p. 110)• diviner (p. 126)• griot (p. 118)• kinship (p. 127)• matrilineal (p. 117)• patrilineal (p. 117)• sahel (p. 109)• savanna (p. 109)
