1. Early Civilizations in Africa

2. Africa’s Size Second largest continent 10% of the world’s population
M I L E S
M I L E S
Second largest continent
10% of the world’s population

3. The Continent of Africa
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4. The Emergence of Civilization
The Land
5,000 miles long
Sahara is the great divide
Nomadic—herders
Migration: Bantu peoples
cultivation of crops and ironworking
Family=basic social unit
Extended families/clans
Animism: spiritual religion/ancestor worship
Griots: specialized storytellers, pass history

5. Ancient Africa Bantu migration spread use of iron across continent
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Bantu migration spread use of iron across continent

6. Axum Axum trading state, goods from South Asia to the Mediterranean
Prosperous
Control of ivory trade
Had written language
Followed Coptic Christianity
Mixes Christian beliefs and African traditions
Would be renamed Ethiopia

7. Stele, Ezana’s Royal Tomb, Aksum (4c)

8. Christian Church, Lalibela

9. Christian Church, Lalibela
Coptic Christian Priest

10. The States of West Africa
Expansion of Islam
Arabic
Ghana
Gold-Salt Trade
Very wealthy
Kings did not convert to Islam, people did
Mali
Gold trade
Mansa Musa ( ), encouraged Islam, built university in Timbuktu

11. Gold-Salt Trade
Berbers
SALT
GOLD

12. Gold “Money”, Ghana/Ivory Coast
Ghana Empire [4c-11c]
Gold “Money”, Ghana/Ivory Coast

13. Salt

14. King of Ghana
"The King . . .(wears). . . necklaces round his neck and bracelets on his forearms and he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. He (meets people) in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials…and on his right, are the sons of the (lesser) kings of his country, wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold. At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree. Round their necks they wear collars of gold and silver, studded with a number of balls of the same metals."
10th century geographer Al-Bakri, quoted in Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History.

15. Mali Empire [13c-15c]
SALT
GOLD

16. Timbuktu-”Heavenly Clay”

17. Timbuktu Rooftop, Mosque

18. Great Mosque at Djenne, Mali

19. Mansa Musa [r ]

20. East Africa Self-governing city-states
Trade with the interior, Indian Ocean, China, and along the coast
Ex: Zanzibar
Mixed African-Arab culture
Mixed culture and language called Swahili

21. Swahili-Speaking Areas of E. Africa
SWAHILI [“the coast’] = Bantu + some Arabic

22. Stateless Societies in Southern Africa
From the basin of the Congo River to the Cape of Good Hope
Stateless society: power is not in a government
Progress made with regional trade
Zimbabwe (Sacred House, Great Stone House)
Capital known as Great Zimbabwe
Benefited from trade between interior and coast
Evidence of great wealth, but Great Zimbabwe abandoned

23. Great Zimbabwe [ ]

24. Great Zimbabwe Street

25. Great Enclosure, Zimbabwe

26. African Culture Painting and Sculpture Music and Dance Architecture
Rock paintings, wood carving, pottery, metalwork
Music and Dance
Often served religious purposes
Wide variety of instruments
Integration of voice and instrument
Music produced for social rituals and educational purposes
Architecture
Pyramid
Stone pillars
Stone buildings
Sometimes reflected Moorish styles
Literature
Written works did not exist in the early traditional period
Professional storytellers, bards
Importance of women in passing down oral traditions