Chapter 8: Africa

§        There were more civilizations in Africa than just Egypt.

§        Some were interested in trade and others were interested in war.

Section 1: Ancient African Kingdoms

Kush

§        Located S. of Egypt (EG) on the Nile River in present day Sudan.

§        Conquered by EG during New Kingdom.

§        Learned many things from EG including: writing, religion, & metalwork.

§        By 1160 BC after 500 years of EG rule they broke away from EG and regained independence.

§        Started as cattle herders then became traded gold, ivory, ebony, and other good to EG.

§        ~750 BC Kushite Kings started taking over EG territory & eventually all of EG.

§        Ruled EG for 70 years but were pushed out by Assyrians.

§        Learned to smelt iron from Assyrians and traded with far away nation.

§        Moved capital from Napata to Meroe since it was easy to trade up and down the Nile

§        Large temple and many big buildings including pyramids

§        Started to decline and Askum destroyed Meroe

Askum

§        Located on Red Sea in area that is modern Ethiopia.

§        Exported gold, ivory, and slaves.

§        Greeks probably brought Christianity to Askum.

§        Emperor Ezana converted to Christianity in 324 AD.

§        Had writing system, farmed, made gold coins and built tall stone structures.

§        When Arabs came to N. Africa this led to a decline in Askum and people fled.

Section 2: The Middle Kingdoms

§        West Africa also had civilizations that started a little later.

§        Iron smelting helped these cultures.

Ghana

§        Ghana (GH) was trading kingdom which took over W. African trade routes.

§        Traded gold and salt using caravans.

§        Silent barter was the system that was used to exchange goods.

§        Person would place good at an assigned location and give signal and leave.

§        People buying goods would come and leave an amount of gold dust and leave.

§        If was enough gold dust then the sellers would take dust and leave, if not would signal they wanted more.

§        Gold dust was used by merchants, but all gold nuggets were property of the king.

§        Lost to Arabs in 1042 AD.

§        Eventually got independence but not strong enough to survive.

Mali

§        By 1240 GH had been taken over by Mali.

§        2^nd large trading empire in W. Africa.

§        Led by Sundiata Keita, King of Mali.

§        Wanted to make things better than under Arabs.

§        He focused on trade, divide territory into provinces, and organized an army.

§        Mansa Musa was later king of Mali was Muslim.

§        Brought gold to Arabia & became famous in Europe for wealth.

§        Established important university at Timbuktu.

§        Kingdom fell soon after Mansa Musa’s death.

Songhai

§        Songhai replaced Mali in W. Africa.

§        By late 1400’s controlled most of Mali land with large army.

§        Divided into provinces.

§        Was well organized with same laws and measures.

§        Moroccan leader sent army to capture gold mines in 1591.

§        Moroccans won since they had guns and this led to downfall of Songhai.

Section 3: East African Civilizations

§        East Africa also had trading civilizations and large city-states.

Zimbabwe

§        One of largest kingdoms.

§        People spoke Bantu and their ancestors moved for some reason from W. Africa to E. Africa.

§        This was possibly due to a population explosion.

§        Built stone towns that had temples and palaces.

§        Chief viewed as god-king who was supposed to be strong.

§        Traded with people from the interior of Africa and far away countries.

Kilwa

§        Another big trading city-state on coast of E. Africa.

§        Taxed people on trade and became wealthy.

§        Developed Swahili culture.

§        Mix of African and Arabic cultures.

§        This includes the Swahili language (combination of Bantu and Arabic).