Medieval East Africa

Axum The Aksumites were a people formed from the mix of Kushitic speaking people in Ethiopia and Semitic speaking people in southern Arabia who settled the territory across the Red Sea around 500 BC. They lived in the Ethiopian highlands near the Red Sea.

Axum: Trade Axum controlled one of the most important trade routes in the world Axum benefitted from its trade with not only Nubia and Roman Egypt, but also with the Middle East, Arabia, East Africa and the subcontinent via the Indian Ocean. Axum exported ivory, tortoise shells, gold and emeralds, and imported silk and spices.

Axum Converts to Christianity By the 300’s Christianity had reached this region Around 400 king Ezana made Axum one of the worlds first Christian kingdoms In the 600’s Islam began spreading across North Africa. As other places picked up Islam Christian Axum became isolated and its power weakened. Lack of trade slowly cause the civilization to fall

Medieval Ethiopia The Ethiopian culture we know today may be said to date from between the ninth and eleventh centuries, coinciding with Axum's political decline. Islam grew to be a powerful force around Ethiopia. However, Ethiopia would remain the only Christian stronghold in Medieval Africa. (Axum) By the 1400’s Christian kings of Ethiopia had even established diplomatic ties with European Monarchs.

Trade Routes of East Africa By 1000 A.D., port cities in Africa were thriving from trade across the Indian ocean. West Africans traded ivory, rhinoceros horn, hides, and gold. Some immediate affects from the trading were that there was thriving commerce in Mogadishu, and Sofala. There was an emergence of a slave trade with the introduction of crops and animals from the Middle East and Asia.

Great Zimbabwe To the south and inland from the coastal city-states, massive stone ruins sprawl across rocky hilltops near the great bend in the Limpopo River. These ruins are known as “Great Zimbabwe.” The builders of Great Zimbabwe were a group of Bantu-speaking people who settled in the region between 900 and 1500. The newcomers brought improved farming methods. They produced enough food to support a growing population.

Economy and Government Zimbabwe reached its height in about 1300. By then, it tapped nearby gold resources and created profitable commercial links with coastal cities like Sofala. Much of Zimbabwe’s history is a mystery because they lacked a written language. Scholars still debate what happened to the cultured which ended around 1500.