West Africa from 1400-1800 saw the rise and fall of several major kingdoms and societies, including the Kingdom of Benin, the Songhai Empire, Hausaland, and the Kanem-Bornu Empire. These societies participated extensively in trans-Saharan trade but also engaged in slave trading, first within Africa and later in the transatlantic slave trade. The transatlantic slave trade had a devastating impact on African populations and societies, resulting in over 12 million Africans being taken abroad as slaves and millions more being forced to relocate within Africa. This massive loss of populations disrupted African cultures, development, and economies.

1. Today:
• Africa 1400-1800
• The Slave Trade
• Next Time:
• East Asia 1400-1800
Who is this?

2. West Africa
• Major Societies/Kingdoms
• Senegambian Cultures
• Kingdom of Benin
• The Songhai Empire
• Hausaland
• Kanem-Bornu Empire
• West African Cultural Characteristics
• Trans-Saharan Trade

3. Senegambian Cultures
• Pulaar, Wolof, and Serer languages
were from the same language family
• Serer and Wolof had clearly defined
social classes, including slaves
(acquired through war, debt, or
purchase)
• Had connections with Islam through
trans-Saharan trade
• Later traded with Europeans by sea
• Not quite structured into states as
we think of them today
• Unique for their “age-grade”
systems

4. Benin
• Centralized government
• Oba = King
• Well organized cities, capital at Benin City
• Existed from the 15th Century until the
“Scramble for Africa,” in the late 1800s
(1898)
• European trade begins for gold, then other
goods, and eventually slaves
• Mostly traded with the Portuguese, then the
Dutch and English
• Visitors described cities with well developed
walls, palaces, and gardens, with markets full
of all sorts of goods
• In later periods known for their metalworks

5. Songhai
• Successor to the older Mali Empire (famous because of
Mansa Musa), included Timbuktu (second largest city)
• Elites were Muslim, leaders were Songhai (ethnically),
most people were not Muslim, though
• Sonni Ali (1464-1492) and Muhammad Toure (1493-1528)
expanded territory to include one of the largest empires in
African History
• Leaders often completed the Hajj to Mecca, had extensive
ties to the Islamic world (courts educated in Cairo, etc.)
• Traded with Italians, Byzantines, and had a significant
Jewish population
• Primarily traded salt and slaves (predominantly to
elsewhere in N. Africa, Venice, Genoa, Constantinople and
else where in the Mediterranean world)
• Succession was always an issue, as was the diversity of the
peoples in the empire after Toure’s death the kingdom
began to fall apart, by 1591 they were subdued by
Moroccans who had firearms

6. Hausaland
• From the 15th-18th centuries
• Traded in slaves and kola nuts
• Elite were Muslim, people never fully
embraced Islam
• Major cities of Kano and Katsina attracted
Islamic scholars away from Timbuktu as
neighboring Songhai Empire diminished,
making the cities centers of Muslim
scholarship and learning

7. Kanem-Bornu
• Began in the 8th century as the Kingdom of
Kanem, became the Bornu Empire in the
1300s and lasted until the late 1800s, ended
because of European territorial expansion
• Reached its largest under Mai Idris Alooma
(1571-1603)
• Powerful military leader, traded across the
Sahara for guns, which helped him conquer other
peoples
• Devout Muslim who installed religious court in
place of secular
• Built a feudal society, giving land to trusted and
victorious fighters
• Declined after his death

8. West African Society
• Islam was dominant among the elites, but not with most people
• Polygamy was common, as a larger family meant more help with food
production, etc.
• Agriculturally focused on a local level, but susceptible to famine
• Extended family connections were very important, larger households
showed importance
• Larger trade networks were all trans-Saharan with the Tuareg (a
Berber people), then Arabic Moors and traded salt, gold, and slaves
• Cowrie shells were predominantly used as currency
• Developed some textile industry, but could not compete

9. East and South Africa
• Major Societies/Kingdoms
• Christian Ethiopia
• Adal Sultanate
• Swahili City States
• Trade inland with Kitara and Zimbabwe
• The Arrival of the Portuguese

10. Ethiopia and Adal
• Ethiopia
• Christian kingdom, claiming dynastic connection to King Solomon (from the
Bible)
• Coptic Christianity, a type of orthodoxy created in Egypt
• Inheritor of Axum (Aksum) one of the earliest Christian states
• Surrounded by Muslim areas
• Had extensive trade networks into West and North Africa and the Middle
East/Arabia
• Adal
• Neighboring Muslim state that attacked Ethiopia in 1529
• Occupied most of Ethiopia from 1531-1543
• Adal defeated after Portugal comes to the aid of Ethiopia

11. Ethiopia (cont.) and Swahili City-States
• Ethiopia
• After the defeat of the Adal, new enemies emerge for Ethiopia, but Portugal
did not intervene, after realizing they could not convert the Coptics to
Catholicism
• The Swahili City-States along the East Coast of Africa
• Spoke Bantu languages heavily influenced by Arabic
• Established extensive trade with inland groups such as the Kilara and
Zimbabwe peoples, then traded those goods with Islamic sea traders in the
Indian ocean trade network
• Mogadishu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Lindi, Mozambique, etc.
• After Vasco da Gama in 1498 the Portuguese tried to establish trade contacts
• Most city-states were resistant, and the Portuguese tried to use force and build forts
• Mogadishu and other northern cities resist, Kilwa and southern cities decline
• Portuguese are only able to establish trade holdings in Mozambique (and Angola)

12. Slave Trade in Africa
• Early slavery by Muslim traders was justified by the belief that people
conquered in battle were allowed to be taken as slaves
• African slaves were taken throughout the trans-Saharan trade route
(up to 4.82 million)
• Slaves were brought into sub-Saharan Africa, as well, primarily from
the Balkans and Caucasus
• In 1658 the Dutch East India Company began bringing slaves into the
Cape Colony (where is this?)
• 25% were from elsewhere in Africa, but the majority were from India,
Southeast Asia, and other Dutch trade centers
• Later in the 18th century African slaves were brought to
East Africa to work sugar and clove plantations

13. Slave Trade to Europe and the
Transatlantic Slave Trade
• In 1444 the Portuguese brought slaves to southern Portugal from
Africa, in the 235 slaves there were people of all skin colors
• By the 17th and 18th centuries another 200k Africans were brought to
Europe, many as slaves but some as servants
• The Transatlantic slave trade resulted in the loss of more than 12
million Africans from Africa to the Americas (only about 4% came to
mainland North America - where did the majority go?)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnV_MTFEGIY&list=PLBDA2E52F
B1EF80C9&index=25&t=0s

14. The (partial) Impact of the Slave Trade
• 12 million slaves were brought to the Americas
• 6 million were taken to places in Asia
• 8 million were forced to move within Africa
• *these numbers only include those that survived*
• The disruptive impact on African cultures, societies, development,
and growth will never be truly known
• The massive loss and shift of populations resulted in a lack of labor
force, especially after the slave trade declined and other trade
needed to be developed
• As the slave trade declined, many powerful leaders/governments also
declined, leaving power vacuums and opening the door for further
colonization/imperialism

15. Final Thoughts
• When do you think the slave trade
finally ended in Brazil?
• For next time:
• Read Chapter 21.