Early civilizations emerged across Africa beginning around 4600 years ago. Nomadic groups migrated across the continent, spreading agriculture and ironworking. States developed in West Africa along trade routes for gold and salt, including the empires of Ghana and Mali. In East Africa, coastal city-states engaged in Indian Ocean trade, developing Swahili culture. Further south, stateless societies organized along family and clan lines, building monumental structures like Great Zimbabwe. Across the continent, African cultures developed rich artistic, musical, architectural and oral traditions.

1. Early Civilizations in
Africa

2. Africa’s Size
5
0
0
0
M
I
L
E
S
# Second largest continent
# 10% of the world’s population
4600
MILES

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The Continent of Africa

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

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Ancient Africa
Bantu
migration
spread use of
iron across
continent

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

7. Stele, Ezana’s Royal Tomb, Aksum (4c)

8. Christian Church, Lalibela

9. Christian Church, Lalibela
Coptic Christian Priest

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

11. Gold-Salt Trade
SALT
GOLD
Berbers

12. Ghana Empire [4c-11c]
Gold “Money”, Ghana/Ivory Coast

13. Salt

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.

15. Mali Empire [13c-15c]
SALT
GOLD

16. Timbuktu-”Heavenly Clay”

17. Timbuktu Rooftop, Mosque

18. Great Mosque at Djenne, Mali

19. Mansa Musa [r. 1312-1337]

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

21. Swahili-Speaking Areas of E. Africa
SWAHILI [“the coast’] = Bantu + some Arabic

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

23. Great Zimbabwe [1200-1450]

24. Great Zimbabwe Street

25. Great Enclosure, Zimbabwe

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