1. AFRICA AND THE AFRICANS
IN THE AGE OF THE
ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
Chapter 20

2. GOLD WEALTH OF GHANA
 Ghana – “land of gold”
 Soninke people
 Ideal for trade – between Niger and Senegal
rivers
 King taxes all trade
 Capital: Kumbi Saleh
 Comprised of two walled towns

3. ~INFLUENCE OF ISLAM
 Muslim merchants brought the Islamic faith to
Ghana
 Ghana adopted Muslim counselors, government
officials, military technology, ideas about
government, written language, coinage, business
methods, and styles of architecture.
 Most Soninke people continue to support their
traditional customs and beliefs

4. GHANA’S DECLINE
 c. 1050 AD Almoravids – pious Muslims of N.
Africa launch a campaign to spread Islam
 Almoravids overwhelm and take Ghana, but
cannot consistently rule Ghana across the
Sahara
 Kingdom of Mali expands and takes over Ghana
instead

5. THE KINGDOM OF MALI
 Mandinka people
 Mandinka word “Mali” means
“where the king dwells”
 Mansas -- kings expanded their
influence over the gold mining
regions and salt supplies of
Taghaza http://home.intekom.com/southafricanhistoryonline/pages/classroom/pages/projects/grade7/lesso
 Camel Caravan routes caused n5/Images/westafrica.jpg
towns like Timbuktu to
mushroom into great trading
cities.

6. THE MALI EMPIRE FLOURISHED IN THE 13TH CENTURY, WITH THE
CITY OF TIMBUKTU ON THE BANKS OF THE NIGER RIVER AS AN
INTELLECTUAL, ARTISTIC AND RELIGIOUS CENTER. (THE
REPUBLIC OF MALI).

7. SUNDIATA
Ibn Batuta said:
• Brilliant leader  Arab traveler
• Celebrated by the griots
(professional oral historians)  “Of all peoples, the
• He divided up the world (16 Blacks are those who
clans – bear arms and carry
the box and arrow; five clans most hate injustice, and
– devoted to religious duties; their emperor pardons
four clans – specialists like
blacksmiths and griots) none who is guilty of it”
• Even though very diverse,
safety and loyalty were
emphasized
• Crime was severely punished

8. MANSA MUSA

9. IBN BATUTA & MARCO POLO LATE 1200’S EARLY 1300’S
http://www.sangam.org/taraki/articles/2006/images/mpibvoya.jpg

10. MANSA MUSA
 Greatest Emperor of
Mali
 Expanded the empire to
Atlantic Ocean and up to
North Africa
 25 year reign
 Converts to Islam and
based his system of
justice on the Quran

11. MANSA MUSA’S GREATNESS CONT…
• 1324 AD Mansa Musa
fulfilled one of the five
pillars: the Hajj
• Created economic and
diplomatic ties with other
Muslim states along his
journey
• Still did not force women to
veil, women were not
secluded within the home
http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/0100-kingdom-mali.php
• By 1400s Timbuktu becomes
a leading center of learning,
drew Muslim scholars from
all over the world
• Mali falls into decline after
disputes over succession
arise in 1400s
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/1582406-Timbuktu_mosque-Mali.jpg

12. A NEW EMPIRE IN SONGHAI
 1450 –
wealthy
trading city of
Gao emerged
as capital of
West African
kingdom of
Songhai

13. SONNI ALI
 Soldier king who uses
his army to create the
largest state that had
ever existed
 Brought trade routes
and wealthy cities (like
Timbuktu) under his
control
 Chooses not to adopt
Islam and follows
traditional religious
beliefs instead

14. ASKI MUHAMMAD
 Expanded the territory of Songhai
 Improved government beauracracy
 As a Muslim, he made his hajj and met with
different Islamic states along the way to increase
his ties to the Muslim world.
 Built temples and schools to study the Quran
 Scholars and poets flock to Gao

15. INVADERS FROM THE NORTH!
 1586 – succession disputes (surprise, surprise)
lead to civil war
 Ruler of Morocco uses an army armed with
gunpowder weapons to seize gold mines
 Morocco is unable to control Songhai across the
Sahara, the kingdoms of West Africa end up
splintered and fragmented
 1591 – Songhai Empire “falls”

16. PRACTICE
 What would a good thesis be for:
 Analyze the changes and continuities in Western
Africa from the rise of the kingdom of Ghana through
the fall of the Songhay.

17. THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
 Which region is first to really sink their teeth into Africa?
 Which country?
 Portuguese establish forts and trading posts along the W
African coast through the late 1400’s
 Trade includes
 Ivory, pepper, animal skins and gold to Portuguese
 Slaves from other sections of the coast to African rulers
 Work to interconnect and make contacts, can be hit or miss for
the Portuguese
 Missionary efforts to convert Benin, the Kongo, and other
African kingdoms
 Reach Kongo (1484)
 European missionaries very successful
 Nzinga Mvemba (r.1507-1543) converts, entire kingdom becomes Christian
 Portuguese attempt to Europeanize, but eventually the enslavement of his
subjects leads Nzinga Mvemba to try to end the slave trade and limit the
Portuguese
 Only partly successful – Portuguese control the Kongo’s ability to
communicate and trade with the outside world

18. EXTENDING THEIR REACH
 The Portuguese create
forts/posts at Mbundu,
Luanda, and establish the
colony of Angola
 Round the cape and secure
bases in Kilwa, Mombasa,
and Sofala
 Incentives? Commercial
and military (but usually
bring a strong missionary
contingent too)
 What next? 17th century,
the Dutch, English, French
and others follow suit

19.  Portuguese
movement Portuguese Expansion and Major African Kingdoms
down the
coast
becomes a
common
European
pattern
 Trading
stations
 Slave trade
becomes
central

20. BENIN BRONZEWORKS
 Ife artisans (neighboring
kingdom)

21. South of the savanna

BENIN FOREST KINGDOM
 1300s
 “Oba” – king who serves
as a political and
religious leader; spreads
power among other
groups (Queen mother
and hereditary chiefs)
 Benin bronzeworks –
depict warriors armed
for battle, queen
mother’s updo’s, and the
oba himself
 In this 15th c. ivory mask,
the “figures on the top
represent the Portuguese
who had been slaving in
Africa since the mid 15th
century”
 http://abolitionwya.org.uk
/further-info/africa

22. HOW THEY SAW EACH OTHER
 Africans viewed Portuguese as strange but
incorporated them into their world
 Portuguese saw Africans as savages who could be
civilized and converted

23. REFOCUS ON PORTUGAL
 Between 1450-1460, the
number of slaves
entering Portugal per
year goes from 50-500
 Catalyst in the
Americas?
 sugarplantations begin
to develop

24. Trend Toward Expansion
 1450-1850
 12 million Africans sent across Atlantic
Estimated that by 1850
the population of west
 10-11 million survive
and central was about
 18th century half of what it would
 Height of trade
have been without the
 80 percent of total trade occurs during this time slave trade
 Muslim areas (1850 pop = 25 million)
 Trans-Saharan, Red Sea, East Africa
 3 million slaves traded
 Demographic Patterns
 Saharan trade
 Mostly women
 Atlantic trade
 Primarily young men for hard labor

25.  Rates of trade reflect changing economic and political
situation in the New World
 Slave trade with Muslim world continues
3 million transported between 1450 and 1750
 Wars increase in Africa as both cause and effect of slave
trade

26. THE PROGRESSION OF THE ATLANTIC
SLAVE TRADE
Organization of the Trade  Fewer than 10% of the
 Portuguese dominate first, Europeans who were
until ~ 1630 stationed in Africa
 Dutch seize El Mina, 1630 lived through the first
 Begin
year
to rival Portuguese
 English – found the Royal
African Company,
involved in slave trade from
1660s
 French involved as well

27. THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

28. DEMOGRAPHICS
 Trade with Muslim world tended to focus on
women
 Atlantic slave trade tended to focus on men
 African population reduced by half of what it
would have been without slave trade by 1750

29.  Both Africans and Europeans involved in slave trade
 Not any more profitable than any other trade of its time
 Part of Triangular trade
 Drew African economy into world economy
 Resulted in African economies becoming dependent on
trade with Europe

30. AFRICAN SOCIETIES,
SLAVERY, AND THE SLAVE
TRADE
 Slavery had existed in Africa prior to the Atlantic
Slave Trade
 Usually focused on enslavement of women
 Islamic forms of slavery also introduced
 Existence of slavery helped Europeans mobilize
commerce of slaves by tapping into existing
routes

31. SLAVING AND AFRICAN POLITICS
 Most states in western and central Africa were
small and unstable
 Increasing frequency of wars led to increasing
need for improved weaponry
 Power shifted due to European coastal presence
 Inland kingdoms gained power by gaining guns
and working as intermediaries to the Europeans
in the slave trade

32. ASANTE
 Gained access to firearms in 1650 and began
expanding
 Became the dominant power on the gold coast up
until 1820

33. DAHOMEY
 Emerged as a power in the 1720
 Used access to firearms to form an autocratic
state
 Primary economic activity relied on the slave
trade
 Growth of absolute rulers paralleled the rise of
absolutism in Europe
 Like in Europe, attempts were made to limit
royal authority

34. STRING OF CITY-STATES
 Commercial cities rise along S. African coast
 Kilwa, Mogadishu, Mombassa, and Sofala
 From ancient times to early modern times, a continual trade area
(Phoenicians, Greek, Roman, Indian)
 Muslim traders set up posts in 600 and 700s
 Kilwa – one of the most beautifully constructed towns in the world
 Blend of cultures – China, India, Arab, Bantu, SE Asia, etc
 Swahili – Bantu base, Arabic words, Arabic script

35. EAST AFRICA AND SUDAN
 Swahili towns continue commerce in gold, ivory,
and slaves with Middle Eastern markets
 Bantu speaking people dominated the region
 18th century saw Islamization

36.  By the 1840, new political units were created
 Attempts were made to stamp out paganism and
illiteracy
 Large numbers of captives from the religious wars were
shipped down the coast to Europeans
 By the 19th century slaves made up to 50% op the
population of this region

37. WHITE SETTLERS AND
AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA

38. SOUTH AFRICA
 By 16th Century, Bantu-speakers occupy southern
East Africa
 Chiefdoms varied in size and power
 Expansion  Competition and conflict

39.  1652- Dutch East India Company
establishes the Cape Colony
 Dutch enslave local Africans
 1760s Dutch cross Orange River
 Dutch gov’t attempts to limit
settlement and slavery, but fails
 Boers move north, “Great Trek” to
avoid gov’t regulations

40.  Slave trade links Africa to World Economy
 Slavery is grueling and deadly
 Middle Passage: passage to Americas
 Slaves worked in Plantations and Mines
 Hierarchy created by Slave owners to prevent uprisings
 People lose local African identity
 Createnew family units
 Growth of communities of runaway
slaves

41. MANY PEOPLES, MANY TRADITIONS
 People and the Environment
 Hunting and Food Gathering
 Khoisan people of the Kalahari desert survive by
gathering roots and herbs, hunt small game
 Herding and Fishing
 Raise herds of cattle in areas not plagued by the teste
fly
 Nomadic b/c resources are limited
 Settled Farming Societies
 Grow grains and root crops (yams) and tree crops
(bananas)
 Slash-and-burn agriculture – clear forest and brush
with iron axes and hoes, burned remains and use ash
as fertilizer

42. FAMILY PATTERNS
 Nuclear Family – whole family works
together as a unit
 Lines of Descent
 Matrilineal
 Patrilineal
 Wider Ties
 Lineage – several families share a common
ancestor
 Trace back to clans

43. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
 Local polytheistic beliefs, based on natural
deities
 Usually have one god or goddess who has elevated
status
 Christianity
 Islam

44. ARTISTIC AND LITERACY
TRADITIONS
 Arts – ivory, wood, bronze
 Wove dyed cloth
 Inscribed bowls
 Bracelets and neck ornaments for beauty
 Very symbolic, often tied to religious
ceremonies
 Literature
 Oral and written literature
 Griots – professional poets who recite ancient
stories

45. WHERE THE AFRICANS ARE
ENSLAVED
 1530 – 1650 Spanish America and Brazil –
majority of slaves
 Spanish America and Brazil
 English and French
 Grow sugar, Caribbean, Jamaica, Barbados,
 1550 – 1850
 Brazil 3.5-5 million
 The Caribbean islands and sugar
 Virginia and the Carolinas in N. Am
*Muslim traders – 3 million from trans-Sahara,
Red Sea, and E African slave trade