4. The Emergence of Civilization
The Land
5,000 miles long
Sahara is the great divide
Nomadic—herders
Migration: Bantu peoples
• cultivation of crops and
ironworking
Family=basic social unit
Extended families/clans
Animism: spiritual religion/ancestor
worship
Griots: specialized storytellers, pass
history
6. Axum
Axum
trading state, goods from South Asia to the
Mediterranean
Prosperous
Control of ivory trade
Had written language
Followed Coptic Christianity
Mixes Christian beliefs and African traditions
Would be renamed Ethiopia
10. The States of West Africa
Expansion of Islam
Ghana
Arabic
Gold-Salt Trade
Very wealthy
Kings did not convert to Islam, people did
Mali
Gold trade
Mansa Musa (1312-1337), encouraged Islam, built
university in Timbuktu
14. King of Ghana
"The King . . .(wears). . . necklaces round his neck and bracelets on
his forearms and he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and
wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. He (meets people) in a domed
pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with goldembroidered materials…and on his right, are the sons of the
(lesser) kings of his country, wearing splendid garments and their
hair plaited with gold.
At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree. Round
their necks they wear collars of gold and silver, studded with a
number of balls of the same metals."
10th century geographer Al-Bakri, quoted in Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West
African History.
20. East Africa
Self-governing city-states
Trade with the interior, Indian Ocean, China,
and along the coast
Ex: Zanzibar
Mixed African-Arab culture
Mixed culture and language called Swahili
22. Stateless Societies in Southern Africa
From the basin of the Congo River to the Cape of
Good Hope
Stateless society: power is not in a government
Progress made with regional trade
Zimbabwe (Sacred House, Great Stone House)
Capital known as Great Zimbabwe
Benefited from trade between interior and coast
Evidence of great wealth, but Great Zimbabwe
abandoned
26. African Culture
Painting and Sculpture
Music and Dance
Often served religious purposes
Wide variety of instruments
Integration of voice and instrument
Music produced for social rituals and educational purposes
Architecture
Rock paintings, wood carving, pottery, metalwork
Pyramid
Stone pillars
Stone buildings
Sometimes reflected Moorish styles
Literature
Written works did not exist in the early traditional period
Professional storytellers, bards
Importance of women in passing down oral traditions
