Download chapter 2 - peoples of west africa (beginnings to 1591)

CHAPTER 2 - PEOPLES OF WEST AFRICA (BEGINNINGS TO 1591)
I.
Ancient Africa
A. The Birth of Humanity
1. 4 million years ago homonids evolved in East Africa
2. The continent of Africa is very large (all of the continental U.S. would fit within
the Sahara Desert. China, India, New Zealand, Argentina, and Europe would fit in
the remaining portion of Africa.
3. Africa, the center of Pangea, remained stationary for last several hundred million
years, belted by the equator (providing a tropical climate band that was the hothouse
of evolution.)
4. 1.5 million years ago humans began to migrate from Africa to Asia, Europe, etc.
5. Most early humans lived on the “Savanna” (grassy plains) with a temperate (mild)
abundant wildlife, and nutritious plant food.
6. 5,000 – 6,000 years ago part of Savanna began to dry up, becoming the world’s
largest desert (Sahara.)
7. People who had be living there began to move to the Nile Valley, North Africa,
and West Africa.
B. Kingdoms of the Nile – those who went east out of the Sahara, settled in the Nile Valley.
1. Nubia (covered territory from present-day northern Sudan to southern Egypt.)
a. The first culture of the Nile Valley began in Nubia around 6,000 BCE.
b. By 750 BCE the Nubians had established their strongest and longest
lasting kingdom, the Kush kingdom. Between 712 and 664 BCE the
Kush were so powerful they were even able to conquer and rule Egypt.
c. Senkamenisken ruled in Nubia in the 600’s BCE.
d. The Kush had capital cities at Meroe and Napata (Merotic texts
probably pre-date the oldest Egyptian texts.)
e. The Kush were able to become so powerful, and able to grow and
expand because they were good at trade.
i. Their special skill was iron working (a skill that for a while, no
one else had.
ii. The Kush were also successful trading ebony, ivory, gold, ostrich
feathers—traveling as far as Arabia, India, and China.
f. By the year 1 CE, the Kush kingdom was in decline due to:
i. the skill of iron-working had spread (no more monopoly)
ii. a rival empire, located in Aksum (also Axum) had begun raiding
Kush trade routes successfully.
iii. Aksum invaded and destroyed the Kush in 350 CE.
2. Ancient Egypt (the Ancient Egyptians called their land “Kemet”—meaning “the
land of the blacks.”
a. North of Nubia, Egypt built the greatest civilization of the ancient
world.
b. The issue of the color and the ethnicity of ancient Egyptians is
currently a matter of a hot debate, known as the Afro-centric debate:
Some scholars argue that Egyptian culture (which so importantly
influenced the Greeks) was the result of a mixture of European and
African peoples. The most extreme version of this viewpoint claims
that Egypt had so little to do with the rest of Africa, that they can
hardly be thought of as “Africans” at all. The contrasting view is that
Egyptian culture came from Nubia or some place further south in
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II.
Africa, and that Egypt was a black African civilization. It will take
years to sort the issue out. Meanwhile, it is true that Egypt is pretty
much the only ancient civilization in Africa that is known and valued
by westerners.
c. By 3100 BCE Lower and Upper Egypt had been unified under one
ruler (Pharaoh.)
d. The Egyptians built their empire not through trade, but by conquest of
other peoples.
e. The Egyptians contributed many gifts to the world: mathematics,
record keeping, writing, pyramids (Pyramid of Giza built 4,500 years
ago), medical knowledge, religion, & were the first to organize and
entire country under a single government.
f. The Greek historian, Herodotus called Egypt “the gift of the Nile”.
g. By 2,000 BCE the Sahara had spread (process of desertification) to
Egypt.
C. Africa South of the Sahara (Sub-Saharan Africa)
1. Demographic detail: By 1000 BCE the whole population of Africa was 6.5 million
People, ½ of them living in Egypt.
2. 2,000 years later in 1000 CE, the population of Africa had multiplied—there were
33 million people, and roughly 70% of them lived South of the Sahara desert.
3. The reason for the shift in where most of the population lived is two-fold.
a. People who moved south due to desertification began to use their newly
learned skills of wheat growing, and their crops thrived. Successful crops
gave them a stable food supply which allowed for continuous population
growth.
b. The spread of iron-working skills also led to better/stronger tools, which
led to more effective farming, and better weapons, which led to longer
lives.
Empires of West Africa (the laws of supply and demand play a role in the rise of 3 Empires)
A. Ghana (modern Ghana is east and south of the old empire and is connected by name only. It
actually evolved from the Ashanti Empire of the 17-1800s, which European countries later
colonized and called the “Gold Coast.” The colony gained its independence in 1957, and took
the name “Ghana.”)
1. Ghana began to rise as a power after 300 CE.
2. It was created by the Sonike people on the southern edge of the Sahara.
3. Ghana dominated West Africa for 300 years, reaching its peak of power in the early
1000s CE.
4. Like the Kush, Ghana gained much of its strength from trade.
a. traders from North Africa would bring salt from mines in the Sahara desert.
The salt was need as a dietary supplement.
b. Ghana supplied gold to N. Africa and Europe for hundreds of years.
c. They enjoyed a monopoly on the Gold/Salt trade:
 all traders had to pay high taxes to Ghana when buying or selling
salt in the empire---a practice that brought Ghana enormous wealth.
 The income from the gold/salt trade financed the Empire’s army
and government.
5. Ghana also traded in: ivory, skins, kola nuts, honey, cotton, and slaves.
B. The Spread of Islam
1. During the time of Ghana’s greatness, the religion of Islam was spreading into
Africa.
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a. Islam was founded in the 600s CE in Arabia by Prophet Muhammad
b. Followers of Islam are called “Muslims.”
c. Muslims believe that Jesus and the Hebrew Prophets were all
messengers of God and that Muhammad was the last and greatest
“messenger of God” ( or ‘prophet.’) “Islam” is the Arabic word for
submission (meaning to submit--or give yourself over to--God or
Allah’s will.)
d. Islam was brought westward from Arabia across N. Africa to the
Atlantic coast of Africa first, then it began to spread south around 1000
CE because of Muslim traders crossing the Sahara.
e. The Islamic Religion:
 The revelations that came to Muhammad from God are written
down in the Qur’an.
 The Five Pillars of Islam are:
1. Faith - Shahadah
2. Obligatory Prayer – Salat (5times/day & noon prayer on
Friday at a Mosque where an Imam preaches a sermon
3. Alms Giving – Zakat (care for the poor and needy)
4. Fasting – Sawm (during the 9th month of the Islamic
calendar – Ramadan – calendar is based on moon cycles
instead of the solar year—the sick, old, and traveling are
excused from fasting.)
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca – Hajj (at least once in a lifetime.)
 Important stories of deeds and sayings are called the Hadith.
 A minority of Muslims, called Shi’ites proclaimed that only the
prophet’s male descendants should lead the Islamic community.
 The majority of Muslims are Sunni Muslims, who accepted the
Umayyad Dynasty that ruled from Damascus.
 Islam also developed sophisticated traditions of philosophy, and
Schools of mysticism known as Sufism.
2. The reasons that Islam spread successfully:
a. Ghana’s Empire welcomed the wealthy Muslim traders from Islamic
Empires in N. Africa.
b. Ghana allowed a Muslim mosque to be built in Ghana’s capital so that
traders could worship there.
c. The people of Ghana (and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa were slower
to accept the Islamic religion, but eventually many did.)
C. Slavery
1. With the spread of Islam, the slave trade increased.
a. Slavery had been in Africa for a long time (centuries.)
b. People got enslaved for: debt, or were sold into slavery for food
during times of famine, or were captured in war, or kidnapped for
the money. Criminals were sometimes placed into slavery.
c. Slaves had rights: Slave children were often not sold away from their
parents, or were freed. Slaves could own property, marry, and freely
worship their own religion. Some slaves even became officials in the
government of the West African Empires.
d. Thousands of people were taken as slaves yearly from sub-Saharan
Africa to Persia, Arabia, India, China, etc.
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D. Fall of Ghana
1. In 1076 CE, an Army of Muslims from N. West Africa conquered Ghana and its
capital, Kumbi.
2. Ghana lost power and lost hold on its’ lands.
3. Small kingdoms took advantage of this, getting stronger.
4. By the end of the 1200s CE Ghana’s Empire no longer existed.
E. Mali
1. The Mandinka people finally put an end to Ghana (they had built a small state called
Mali on the Upper Niger River in the 600s CE which grew, so that 6 centuries later,
Mali’s Muslim leader, Sundiata defeated Ghana and turned Mali into an empire in
the region.
2. Sundiata took over the caravan trade.
3. In the early 1300s CE, a Mali ruler named Abu Bakari II sent a fleet of ships to
explore the world (pre-Columbus by about 200 years!) They sailed down the
Senegal River towards the Atlantic, but were never heard from again.
F. Mansa Musa
1. Mali’s most famous ruler came to power in 1312 CE (named Mansa Musa.)
2. Mali was made into one of the world’s largest empires during his reign.
3. Mali’s city of Timbuktu was world famous for mosques, royal palaces, schools, and
Culture, and centers of Muslim learning.
4. Mansa Musa, like all Muslims, was required to make a pilgrimage to Mecca (the
holy city of Islam in Arabia.)
5. Mansa Musa’s 1324 CE pilgrimage to Mecca made big news because:
 He traveled with a 60,000 person caravan, dressed in Persian silk
 They were followed by 500 slaves
 Each of the slaves carried a five pound staff made of gold.
 There were 100 camels just for Manna Musa’s baggage.
 It was a 3,600 mile journey
 Mansa Musa spent a lot of gold and gave more away along the way
 So much gold entered the market, that in Cairo, the price of gold
dropped, and stayed down for 12 years!
6. When Mansa Musa went back home, he expanded Timbuktu’s relations with
North Africa.
7. Mansa Musa is also known for promoting culture and learning throughout the
empire. He died in 1337 CE.
8. Mali doesn’t begin to decline until after Mansa Musa’s death, when small states
and kingdoms began to break away from the empire and challenge the empire’s
borders. By the late 1400s, Mali was conquered by Songhai who then became
the most powerful state in West Africa.
G. Songhai
1. Just like Mali had been a part of Ghana, and then rose to take power, Songhai
had been a part of Mali before it took over.
2. In 1465 CE Sunni ‘Ali, a Muslim General, led the Songhai people in taking
control of Timbuktu, and then attacking another important trade and learning center
in the city of Djenne (Djenne held out, according to the legend, for 7 years, 7 months
and 7 days before it finally surrendered.)
3. Once Sunni ‘Ali had Djenne, he was able to gain control of all major cities in the
region.
4. Sunni ‘Ali died in 1492, a general named Askia declared himself emperor. Later
known as “Askia the Great,” he ruled from 1493 – 1528 CE.
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5. Askia made the Songhai Empire even larger.
 A devout Muslim, his pilgrimage to Mecca (1495-1497) rivaled
Mansa Musa’s .
 Askia made Timbuktu better known as a Muslim center of culture
and learning.
 People came from all over west and north Africa as well as from
Arabia to study in Timbuktu. They studied law, literature, theology,
grammar, geography, mathematics, surgery, etc.
6. The Songhai empire thrived for 100 years (plus), but by the late 1500s had come
Under attack by outsiders from North Africa who had envied the wealth of West
African empires for centuries (wanting to take over the Gold/Salt trade.)
7. In 1591 CE, North Africans from Morocco invaded and eventually destroyed the
Songhai empire. Although many of these North African Moroccans died in the
Sahara crossing, they had an advantage of fire-arms over the Songhai.
H. Family and Religion in Africa (by the end of the 20th century, only 10% of the African
population was still involved in “traditional religions,” while 50% had become Christian, and
40% Islamic.)
1. Traditional Religions of Africa – although customs and beliefs varied all over
Africa, so that one can’t really correctly speak of only one “African” religion,
nevertheless, there were some things that most traditional African religions shared in
common:
 Kinship – Africans place a great value on the relationships that
come from having common ancestors or kin.
 People from the same kin often lived together.
 The kinship unit is more important than any individual.
2. Family ties are also important, and are commonly part of Africans religious beliefs.
 People looked to the spirit of a dead family member for help.
 Dead ancestors were honored with ceremonies and dances, music
and prayer.
 The eldest male in a family served as the family’s priest and ran the
Religious ceremonies.
3. Drums were widely used for communication in Africa. Famous “talking drums” of
Nigeria’s Yoruba people make tones in a range of more than an octave. Master
drummers evoke sounds based on tonal patterns of local language = drums talk.
4. When Islam began to spread through Africa, sub-Saharans were slow to accept it.
To avoid conflict, many African leaders who were Muslims, combined African and
Muslim practices. Eventually, these sub-Saharan kingdoms of West Africa accepted
Islam because:
 The Islamic world was rich and Africans saw becoming Muslim as
a way to gain status in the world.
 The frequent contact with Muslim traders led to Africans learning
to read and write in Arabic, where as their own language was only a
spoken language. The ability to communicate in writing and to read
brought power.
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
III.
Many aspects of Islam were compatible with traditional African
practices. For example in both traditions it is possible to have more
than one wife.
5. Christianity was introduced to Africa first in Aksum (also Axum) in East Africa, in
The 300s CE. (Remember, these were the people who conquered the Kush of
Nubia.)
6. In the 1500s CE the Portuguese brought Christianity to West Africa. Most Africans
treated Christianity the way they treated Islam at first…they were very slow to
accept it.
Contacts With Europe
A. Arrival of the Portuguese
1. European explorers in the 1400s CE began exploring in search of:
 New trade routes to Asia for gold.
 Ways to spread Christianity.
 Looking for a legendary/mythical Christian Ruler named Prester
John, who was tied to the ancient kingdom of Aksum in East
Africa, which had been Christian very early on.
2. The Portuguese were the first, under Prince Henry, “Prince Henry the Navigator,”
to begin sending ships exploring the north west coast of Africa.
 Prince Henry set up an institute for exploration research at Sagres
Point at the south west tip of Portugal. He hired all the best sailors,
shipbuilders, map-makers, and instrument makers to work there.
 The Sagres Point team developed a new ship, a “caravel” that was
faster, more maneuverable, and more seaworthy than previous
ocean-going ships.
 They also deserve the credit for ensuring that by the mid 1400s CE
all educated Europeans already knew that the world was round.
(The claim that Columbus’s voyages dispelled the idea that it was
square is simply wrong.)
3. By the 1400s, the Portuguese, under Prince Henry, had explored as far as the
.
Senegal River, and had set up a trading post on the West Coast of Africa by 1482
CE.
4. The Portuguese particularly wanted to trade with the West Africans for gold, grain,
ivory, pepper, animal skins, camels, and slaves, because they needed money to
support a spend-thrift nobility (the royalty in power in Portugal was over-spending.)
5. The Portuguese met up with powerful Muslim trader/merchants in West Africa, who
were trying to find a way to monopolize the gold trade themselves.
6. In 1415 CE, the Portuguese conquered Centa in Morocco, and got a toe-hold on the
African continent.
7. Soon, 1,000 slaves/year were being shipped to Spain by the Portuguese. The
descendants of the slaves shipped to Spain, who were born in Spain or Portugal,
were among the very first Africans to go to the Americas—some went as explorers,
some went as soldiers, and some went as slaves.
a. Inferiority: Slaves were not initially regarded as “inferior.” Later, the
Europeans would begin to justify the vast numbers of Africans they were
Taking as slaves by calling them “inferior.”
b. However, when the Portuguese first met the Africans, they were did not
think of them as inferior at all. (Remember: the Portuguese are Europeans,
because Portugal is in Europe.)
c. Initially, the Portuguese were extremely impressed by the wealth and
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power of the African rulers as well as by their extravagant royal courts.
The first African rulers that the Portuguese encountered were taken back
to Portugal as honored guests.
B. Dealing with Newcomers
1. While the new trade relationships benefited both Africa and Portugal, the Portuguese
tried to cash-in on tensions between the Africans internally by pitting rival groups
against each other.
a. Sometimes the Portuguese would not follow through on their
agreements, asking the Africans first for permission to build a storage
facility for Portuguese trade goods, and then using it instead as a fort.
b. Despite these sorts of struggles, Africa was clearly Portugal’s equal in
strength, and defended their own interests fairly well for a significant
period of time.
2. Spain – background: Muslims coming from North Africa had first invaded Spain
in 711 CE, taking over most of the Iberian Peninsula by mid 11th century (1050 CE)
a. Christian armies began fighting to reclaim Spain (and other formerly
Christian regions that had fallen under Muslim rule during the
Crusades. The Crusades in Spain are called the “Reconquista” (the
Spanish word for reconquest—the Spanish were re-conquering their
country.)
b. By 1450 CE only the very tip of Spain still remained under Muslim
Control.
c. In 1469, Ferdinand of Aragon in Spain married Isabella of Castile in
Spain, uniting Spain’s two principal kingdoms and consolidating
Spain’s power. With their newly combined forces, King Ferdinand,
and Queen Isabella were able to defeat Granada, the last Muslim
stronghold, in 1492. This was just before Columbus set sail on behalf
of Spain.
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