Early African societies were often stateless, with kinship and religion playing central roles. West Africa saw the development of ironworking, agriculture, and Bantu migrations. Some early states included Kush/Nubia, Ghana, and various Christian kingdoms. The arrival of Islam in North Africa in the 7th century spread south, influencing states like Mali, Songhai, and Swahili city-states along trade routes. Urban centers developed in West and Southeast Africa focused on trade of gold, salt, and other goods.

2. Some General Elements of Early Africa
 Stateless Societies
 somewhat common
 kinship fundamental
 little concentrated power, no taxes,
armies, or bureaucrats
 Religion
 animism
 cosmology
 ethical codes
 ancestor worship
 West Africa before Urbanization
 iron smelting, terra cotta sculpture, settled agriculture
 jump from stone to iron--few examples of bronze artifacts
 Bantu migrations carry knowledge of iron working and settled agriculture

3. The Bantu migration
c. 2000 BCE-c. 500 CE

4. Language
Families of
Africa

5. Early African
States

6. Meroe
Kush (Nubia)
• from 1000 BCE
• linked to Egypt, but autonomous
• conquers Egypt, c. 750 BCE

7. Sub-Saharan Africa
• extension of agriculture along the Sahel (“coast”)
• followed by establishment of West African kingdoms
o Ghana--first great sub-Saharan state, c.400-c.1100 CE
The Sahel ⟼

8. The Camel: Courier of the Desert
♘ evolves in North America: one branch across Bering Strait, other to
South America ⇒ the llama and alpaca
♘ dromedary (one hump, Middle East and Africa)
and bactrian (two humps, Asia)
♘ carries twice the load of an ox at double the speed
♘ can drink 30 gallons of water in 10 minutes, then none for 10 days in
hot weather, for months in mild weather
♘ can withstand huge temperature variations
♘ urine is like syrup, feces super-dry
♘ can live off fat (in humps) without using proteins ⇒ retains muscle mass
♘ not efficient at coitus, and a 13-month gestation ⇒ camel shortage!!!!

9. Islam Arrives
 Arabs sweep through N. Africa and into Spain by 711
 conservative Muslim reformers arrive in N. Africa later
 (Berber) Almoravids (c.1050-1150)
 (Berber) Almohads succeed Almoravids (c.1120-1270)

10. Copts
Christian Kingdoms
 Egyptian Christians, established by 2nd
cent. AD
 centered in Alexandria
 Christ is one person from, not in, two
natures (miaphysitism)
o Copts remain out of communion
with most other Christians
 tolerated by Muslims after conquest of
Egypt in 641
o but many convert to Islam
o significant persecution in Egypt
today
 spread south to Kush (Nubia)
The Copts have been always focused
on Egypt; it’s our identity, it’s our
nation, it’s our land, it’s our
language, it’s our culture...If you
come to a Coptic person and tell him
that he’s an Arab, that’s offensive.
We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians.
I am very happy to be an Egyptian
and I would not accept being "Arab"
because ethnically I am not. I speak
Arabic. Politically now...I belong to
an Arabic country, but that doesn’t
make a person Arab.
--Bishop Thomas of Cusae and Meir,
2008
a Coptic
monk

11. Christian Kingdoms (cont’d)
Axum
 defeats Kush, c. 300 BCE.
 converts to Christianity c. 350 CE
 falls by c. 1000 (mysteriously)
 more or less becomes Ethiopia
The Obelisk of Axum
The Chapel of the Tablet

12. Christian Kingdoms (cont’d)
Ethiopia
 established by 11th cent., heir to (Christian) Axum
 uses two languages: Amharic (for speech) and Ge’ez (for religion)
 Ge’ez script is only indigenous script in Africa
 King Lalibela (late 12th cent.)
o creates eleven churches hewn entirely from bedrock
 country today is about 2/3 Christian, 1/3 Muslim
 Ethiopian Orthodox Church is among those in communion with Copts
Bet Giorgis
(Church of
St. George)

13. Ge’ez Script

14. Jenné-jeno (Djenné-djenno)
 probably first city in sub-Saharan Africa, on Niger R. floodplain
 develops c.300 CE, peaks c.900 (pop. c. 27, 000)
 central area: walled city containing about eighty acres
 iron (imported), rice, mud-brick construction, terracotta
 may have been a cooperative society--relative equality rather than
competition, dominance, and coercion
 in decline by 1200 C.E.

15. Sudanic States
 states in the Sahel—”Sudanic” refers to a language family, not today’s Sudan
 two branches roughly equivalent to Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo A
 gold is the source of wealth and power
 Mediterranean world (Rome, Carthage, Greece, etc.) fuels demand
 gold of little interest to locals—value iron and copper above all
 gold trade spurred by Muslim Arabs
 trans-Saharan trade made possible with domestication of camels
 three great states: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai
 Islam serves as a universalistic faith
o fuses with traditional practices and beliefs
o slavery becomes more widespread
• seen also as a step toward conversion
o c.750-1450, Muslims virtually only external influence on sub-Saharan
Africa

17. Sudanic States: Ghana
 no relation to modern-day Ghana
 flourishes c. 400-1100
 major trading center at Kumbi-Saleh
 vast reserves of gold and salt
It is said that beyond the source of
the Nile there is darkness and
beyond the darkness are waters that
make the gold grow...to the town of
Ghana is a three-months’ journey
through deserts. In the country of
Ghana gold grows in the sand as
carrots do, and it is plucked at
sunrise.
--Ibn al-Faqih, Iranian scholar, c.900

18. Sudanic States: Mali
 founded 13th cent.; Malinke peoples from Ghana
 agriculture, gold, salt
 Sundiata (d.1260)
o Mansa (ruler)
o expands the state
 Mansa Kankan Musa
o pilgrimage to Mecca, 1324
o brings back architect from Muslim Spain
• beaten-clay architecture
 Timbuktu
o center for books, scholarship
Mansa Musa

19. caravan to Timbuktu
Salt
Photographic essay: Mali
mine at Taudenni salt at market in Mopti

20. Sudanic States: Songhai
(Songhay)
 middle of Niger valley
 independent by 700
 Muslim by 1010
 Capital at Gao
 Sonni Ali (1464-1492)
 expands territory
 successors are called askia
 heavily Islamic
 defeated by Morocco, 1591
 Hausa states develop, northern
Nigeria
o keep Songhai’s political and
religious traditions alive

21. Swahili
States
 centered in modern-day
Somalia, Kenya,
Tanzania
 Swahili (“coastal”; cf.
Sahel) is blend of
Bantu, Arabian,
European languages
 growth begins
c.1000
 extensive contacts
with Arabia,
Indonesia, India,
even China
 monsoon winds
o India to Africa in
winter
o Africa to India in
summer

22. West Africa: Beyond the Sahel
 Nok, c.1000 BC - 300 CE
o modern-day Nigeria
o terracotta, iron
o discovered by tin miners in 1928
 Benin, 14th-19th cents.
o southern coast of West Africa
o remarkable work in bronze and ivory
o heavy involvement in the Atlantic slave trade Nok
Benin bronzes

23. Southeast Africa: Great Zimbabwe
 Bantu confederation of Shona speakers
 Zimbabwe (stone courts)—impressive stonework
 flourishes 14th – 16th cents.
 Great Zimbabwe the greatest of 300 zimbabwe
 ruler called Mwene Mutapa (“Lord of the Conquered Land”)
 control of gold sources in the interior
 trade with Arabs

24. Trade Routes of Post-Islamic Africa