Islam unified the tribes of Northern Africa and led to civilizations, society, power, science, and technology. For centuries, there were many schools and libraries across North Africa where advances in learning occurred. Islam then slowly began to spread to Central and Southern Africa. Today, religion in Africa has been a major influence, with most followers being Christian, Muslim, or practitioners of tribal religions and animism, though religious beliefs are sometimes blended with traditional practices.

1. STATION #1: NorthAfrica BeforeIslam
Most of NorthernAfrica was disorganized and
underdeveloped before Islam came. Islam unified the
tribes of Northern Africa leading to civilizations, society,
power, science, and technology. For centuries, there were
manyschools andlibraries across North Africa and many
advances in learning. As a power, they were able to
conquer andcontrol a great portion of Spain for many
centuries as well. During morerecent centuries, they were
a pain for Europeans travelling the open waters in the
Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
Now that Islam was the dominant religion in North Africa, it
slowly began to spread to Central andSouthern Africa
(called sub-SaharranAfrica). There are manysub-
SaharranAfrican cities still today with significant Muslim
populations.
Answer this question on your poster:
In what ways did the organization of North Africa help the
people?

2. STATION #2: Islam in Africa
As Islam spread across the Southwest Asia andlater
across North Africa and the Middle East, it caused the
peoples to grouptogether. The tribal people of these
areas hadbeen nomadic tribes for a verylong time. They
were polytheistic, meaningthey worshipped more than
one god. Remember, although tribes or regions may share
the same groupof gods, they tend to place importance on
different individual gods. Consequently, the belief in many
gods lends itself very readily to conflicting loyalties and
competition in politics. That means that the tribes often
went to war because of religious differences. This caused
the small tribes to never unifywith other tribes into one
large tribe. As tribes began to follow Islam, they were able
to work together andunify.
Answer this question on your poster:
As Islam began to spread andtribes began to unifyinto
onelarge tribe, how would this haveimpacted the
governmentsof North Africa?

3. STATION #3: TradeRoutes & Islam
Many people wonder how Islam traveled from Southwest
Asia into Africa. The main reason for this was traveling
traders andcaravans that traveled from Southwest Asia to
Africa trading goods andtelling Africans about their
religion, Islam. Unlike early Christianity, Muslims were not
reluctant to engage in trade andprofit; Muhammad
himself was a merchant. As Southwest Asians traded with
Africans, Islam provided merchantswith a safe context for
trade. Infact, Islam has a set of rules called “Sharia law”
that protects trade and imposes stiff punishments for theft
anddishonesty. Merchants were protected by being a
follower of Islam andnow had a court of law to make
complaints andhave them resolved in a consistent
way. Trade andtravel were not as risky or dangerous as
before. Islam allowed both Southwest Asians and Africans
to have successfultrade.
Answer this question on your poster:

4. How did Islam positively affect theeconomy in North
Africa?
STATION #4: Shift in African Societies
While there are manytribal African religions, there are
manysimilarities foundamongfromone tribe to another.
For the most part, all tribes believe in a single god or
creator who lives in the heavens.Eventhough in some
instances there is a collection of gods (polytheism), there
is usually one supreme god who has domain over all. Other
spiritual beings that are worshipped include nature spirits
such as the weather, plants, andtrees andeven a worship
of deceased ancestors. This is called Animism. Many of the
animistic andtribal religious groups in various parts of
the continent are on the decline.
The largest religious influence in Africa has been Islam,
which came first to North Africa. Islam spread early on
along the Mediterranean shores from Egypt to Morocco.
Islamization of African was well advanced by the ninth
century;Muslim dynasties were established in West Africa
as early as the eleventh centuryin Takrur andKanem.

5. Answer this question on your poster:
Write a paragraph thatsummarizeswhy manyAfricans
oncefollowed tribal animistic religions andnow follow
Islam.
STATION #5: A WrittenLanguage
Islam hada wide ranging anddiverse effect on ancient
African societies. The most profound was literacy. Before
Islam, most African societies did not havea written
language. This is true especially of West Africa. These
West African peoples created great urbancivilizations, the
most famous example being the peoples of Mali. They
were a major civilization before Mohammed ever even
founded Islam. However the peoples of Mali never
developed a written language of their own.
Islam was able to offer manyAfrican people a chance to
demonstrate and exercise their love of learning. The most
surprising result of which was Timbuktu--an ancient
Malian town, home of Sankore Mosque and University,
which was veryprestigious. At one point in time it housed
28,000 students within its mudwalls. Andit was not simply

6. a case of Africans learning to speak andwrite Arabic; they
also used the Arabic script to write in their own language.
A good example is the 18th century is when the Malian
people translated the Koranin their native language,
Pullar.
Answer this question on your poster:
How did Islam changeeducation in North Africa?
STATION#6:CulturalDiffusion
Today, religion in Northern andWestern Africa has been a
major influence on the people andculture. The continents
various populations andindividuals are mostly followers
of Christianity, Islam, andto a lesser extent African Tribal
religions and animism. Animism is the belief that natural
objects such as plants, water, andtrees have souls. In
Christian or Islamic communities, religious beliefs are
also sometimes characterized with the beliefs and
practices of traditional tribal religions. As the religions
combined, Islam took on a new form as a blended African
version of Islam with animistic African characteristics
emerged.

7. Answerthis questiononyourposter:
Whatis Africa like today in termsof religion?