1. African Societies During the Classical Era

2. 500 BCE-500CE 250 million people on the planet – sparsely populated.
Population uneven throughout the 3 major continents
Euroasia – 80%
Africa – 11% (no cultural identity)
The Americas – 5-7% (no pastoral societies)

4. Geography of Africa Deserts (Savanna and Kalahari)
Savanna grasslands (central)
Tropical rain forest (central)
Highlands and mountains (East)
Proximity to Euroasia
Poor, little fertile soil
Disease carrying insects

5. Proximity to Euroasia
N. Africa was incorporated into the Roman Empire.
Christianity thrived in Ethiopia and Egypt.
Domestication of camel

6. Arabian Influence Domesticated camel
created a new way of life for the Berber peoples
Nomadic and pastoral
Made trans-Saharan travel & commerce possible

8. Kingdom of Meroë -Nubia

9. Urban centers = economic specialties:
Governed by an all-powerful and sacred monarch – usually conferred on women.
Rural life = herding and farming
Urban centers = economic specialties:
Merchants, potters, masons, servants
Manufacturing of iron – tools and weapons

10. Women had positions of power
Matrilineal descent – power passed down through the mother’s line
Ruled as monarchs independent of
male authority
Queen Amanishaketo

11. Very wealthy & highly developed
Meroitic script
Extensive trade networks
North/South & East/West
-iron weapons -cotton cloth -other luxury goods ivory, gold, ostrich feathers, tortoise shells

12. Decline of Kingdom of Meroë
Deforestation -Wood needed for charcoal for iron smelting
Erosion from overgrazing
Constant battles with nomads and other Nubian states
New Nubian states emerged and Coptic (Egyptian) Christianity emerged
For almost 1,000 years, Nubia was a Christian civilization even using Greek as a liturgical language.
After 1300 CE, Arab immigration brought Islam to the region.

13. Axum – The Christian Kingdom
New type of civilization
Highly productive agriculture
Plow farming
Wheat, barley, millet, teff
Commerce in Red Sea
and Indian Ocean
Important port city
Adulis
Attracted merchants
Taxes on trade was major source
Of revenue for the Axumite state

14. Language of the courts = Geez, a script derived from South Arabia.
To the Romans, Axum was the third major empire within the world they knew, following their own and the Persian empire.

15. AXUM’S ACHIEVEMENTS Built Stelae Written Language
Controlled NE African
Trade
Written
Language
Terrace
Farming
Spread
Christianity
in No. & E. Africa

17. Christianity in Axum Introduced 4th century CE
King Ezana adopted the new religion about the same time as Constantine in the RE.
The next few centuries marked a decline in the Axumite state
Soil exhaustion, erosion and deforestation
Last coins struck in 7th century

20. Connections
Both Meroe and Axum paralleled Euroasian developments and had direct contact with Mediterranean civilizations.

21. Along the Niger river… Cities without states: Mali and Ghana
Governments begin to appear in W. Africa in the 2nd millennium CE.
Economically specialized settlements
Jenne-jeno – example of one such settlement
Iron smithing
Cotton weavers
Potters
Leather workers
Griots – sang oral traditions
Growing network of indigenous West African commerce – donkey and camel

23. Southern Bantu Africa
The movement of people to the southern section of Africa generated some 400 distinct languages = became known as Bantu.
Brought to Africa south of the equator a measure of cultural and linguistic commonality = unique.

24. African Trade [15c-17c]