Preview: 1. Take 1 minute and describe what you think Africa was like around 1492.

From the observations of Leo Africanus, a North African diplomat’s nephew, upon his first visit to Timbuktu in 1513. “ Here are many shops of . . . merchants, and especially such as weave linen and cotton cloth. And hither do the Barbary [North African] merchants bring cloth of Europe. . . . Here are great stores of doctors, judges, priests, and other learned men, that are bountifully maintained at the king’s cost and charges, and hither are brought divers manuscripts or written books out of Barbary, which are sold for more money than any other merchandise.” The History and Description of Africa Done into English by John Pory Take 90 seconds to respond to how this either supports or debunks your ideas of Africa around 1492.

West Africa Around 1492 Q: How do you take notes on a Power Point? When you see a title, copy it down Do not write EVERYTHING down verbatim. Use bullet points and abbreviations whenever you can.

The Sahara Highway From before 600 AD traders traveled across the Sahara Desert in order to trade goods and transfer ideas.

The Saharan Epicenter: Songhai Timbuktu (in the Songhai Empire) was the hub of a well-established trading network that connected most of West Africa to the coastal ports of North Africa, and through these to markets in Europe and Asia. Because of this opportune location, Timbuktu became a busy commercial center. The empires that controlled this city (and others like it) and trade routes grew wealthy and powerful.

Question: Why would the governments become powerful by controlling such trade routes? Answer: Because these empires could tax, and thus control, the goods that came through their cities. Taxes create wealth for governments who in turn may choose to spend their money on myriad things. Question: List 2 things that governments may wish to invest in and explain how that would make their empire more powerful.

Possible answers: raise large armies for protecting/ conquering land, build new cities, administer laws, support the arts, and increase education. (ALL of these increase the flow of people to a city= more money, and thus the cycle continues) From about 600 to 1600, a succession of empires first Ghana, then Mali, and beginning in the mid-1400s, Songhai, gained power and wealth by controlling the trans-Sahara trade.

However, it did not control the forest kingdoms. Songhai’s cavalry might easily thunder across the savanna, the region of dry grassland, but it could not penetrate the belt of dense rain forest along the southern coast.

The Western Coastal Forest Kingdom: Benin Although the forests provided protection from conquest, they nevertheless allowed access for trade. Traders carried goods out of the forests or paddled them along the Niger River to the savanna (which ran out of the rain forests in the southern coastal areas through the Songhai Empire). Like with the Songhai, this flourishing trade made the forest kingdom of Benin very rich too.

Benin was specifically known for its highly developed metal-working industries. Goldsmithing, brass-smithing, and bronze artistry from Benin were particularly valued and sought after.

QUESTION BREAK!!! How was trade between West African peoples similar to trade between Native Americans? How was it different? Nice answers!!!! Stay tuned- we’ll discuss this more in our next class together 

Kongo - Within another stretch of rain forest, in West Central Africa, the powerful kingdom of Kongo arose. - In the late 1400s, Kongo consisted of a series of small kingdoms ruled by a single leader, the Manikongo, who could be either a man or a woman. - The Manikongo held kingdoms together by a system of royal marriages, taxes, and, when necessary, by war.

The Bakongo, the people of Kongo, mined iron ore and produced well wrought tools and weapons. They also wove palm leaf threads into fabric that reminded Europeans of velvet. The Portuguese sailors who first reached Kongo in 1483 were struck by the similarities between Kongo and their own world. Its system of government- a collection of provinces centralized under one strong king- resembled that of many European nations at the time.

REVIEW SLIDE: Trade As seen in earlier slides, trade networks were vast and already well-established by 1492. Goods flowed to and from cities in North Africa that were along the Mediterranean Sea (Cairo, Tunis, Algiers). These cities also traded with European cities, and thus the African-European trade network was established well before the slave trade began.

European Relations The Portuguese began traveling to the coastal kingdoms in West Africa around 1400 and set up trading posts on islands off the coast of West Africa, bypassing the traditional trade center of Timbuktu. The Portuguese even exchanged ambassadors with the Benin people in the late 1400s. QUESTION: What are some ways the Portuguese cutting out the “middle man” (Timbuktu) would affect trade in Europe AND West Africa? ANSWER: Other Europeans will want to travel and do same thing; Timbuktu could lose tax revenue and thus power/ strength.

West African Cultural Similarities West African societies had a long history of polytheism West Africans believed that nature was filled with spirits, and that the spirits of ancestors spoke through village elders Many West African cultures also believed in a single creator, so when Islam was introduced by way of the Sahara Highway, it was not difficult to understand the concept of one supreme being…

…however, when Muslims (and later Christians) insisted that these societies give up worshipping spirits, conflict did arise. It should be noted that many West Africans were devout Muslims and did adhere strictly to the idea of one supreme god. QUESTION: How were Native Americans and West Africans similar and different in their religious beliefs?

The Role of Family Most people lived in small villages, where life revolved around family, the community, and tradition (not all of W. Af. could be like Timbuktu!) Some societies, such as the Akan, were matrilineal that is, people traced their lineage through their mother’s family. Societies such as the Ibo also encouraged people to find a mate out side their lineage groups. These customs helped create a complex web of family alliances. The oldest family member controlled and represented the extended family in councils of the larger groups within a village. These larger groups shared a common language and history and often a common territory.

Livelihood West Africans divided tasks by age and by social status. At the top, village leaders/ kings and queens and religious leaders were frequently one and the same, with artisans (people specializing in a skill like metal-smithing) coming next, and then peasants. MOST people supported themselves by farming, herding, hunting, and fishing, and by mining and trading. Almost all groups believed in collective ownership of land. Individuals might farm the land, but it reverted to family or village ownership when not in use (but conquering land from other groups was okay).

Slavery? At the lowest rung in some societies were slaves. However, in Africa, people were not born into slavery, nor did slavery necessarily mean a lifetime of servitude. In Africa, slaves could escape their bondage in a number of ways. Sometimes they were adopted into or they married into the family they served. Slavery WAS NOT Based on race like the slavery that evolved in the Americas.

TIME TO DO SOMETHING WITH ALL OF THIS! We will now compare the 3 societies that would soon merge in North America: Native Americans, West Africans, and Europeans. PREDICTION: Which 2 groups do you think will be the most similar and why? You will now WORK WITH YOUR ELBOW PARTNER to create a comparison matrix! Copy the following chart onto a fresh sheet of paper in your binder- IT SHOULD TAKE UP THE ENTIRE PAGE.

Native Americans West Africans Europeans Exclusive to N.A. Similar because: What they ALL had in common: Exclusive to W. Af. Exclusive to Europeans

Exit slip questions: 1. Now that your matrix is complete, which 2 groups have the most in common? 2. Knowing all that you know, explain why the impending meeting of these 3 cultures might prove tumultuous.