1. Early African Societies and the Bantu Migrations
Chapter 3

2. Early Agricultural Society in Africa
c. 10,000 BCE: N. Africa was grassy steppe, with lakes and rivers
Domesticated cattle, farming, permanent settlements, small scale states (Sudanic culture)
c. 5,000 BCE: became hotter and drier (Sahara Desert)
People moved south, east

3. Egypt and Nubia: “Gifts of the Nile”
Nile River Valley – fertile floodplain
High productivity -> big pop. -> irrigation
Needed organization -> small kingdoms
3100 BCE: unified by Menes = centralized state with pharaoh (early = gods, later = sons of Amon)

4. Old Kingdom and Nubia Pharaohs built pyramids for burial
Close connections with Nubia (trade, wars)
Est’d Kingdom of Kush (less powerful, but wealthy)
Egypt declined as areas ignored pharaoh

5. Middle Kingdoms Pharaohs stabilized Egypt
Hyksos invaded (horse-riding nomads with bronze weapons and chariots)
Egyptians copied their technology and pushed them out => New Kingdom

6. New Kingdom
Army, bureaucracy, population supported surplus – built temples, palaces
Tuthmosis III expanded into E. Med., Nubia, N. Afr.
Decline -> loss of new land and invasions by Kushite and Assyrian armies

7. Formation of Complex Societies and Sophisticated Cultural Traditions
Not many big cities
Wealth -> social distinctions and hierarchies
Pharaoh, prof. mil. forces and bureaucracy, commoners, slaves
Patriarchal (but women could be
regents, priestesses, and scribes)

8. Economic Specialization and Trade
Metallurgy: bronze (from Hyksos), iron (indep.)
Transportation: sailing ships, wheeled carts
Trade Networks: Long-distance – for natural resources and Regional – for ivory, ebony, etc.

9. Early Writing in the Nile Valley
By 3200 BCE, pictographs (from Mesopot??)
Added symbols -> hieroglyphics, plus simpler version (Hieratic)
buildings and papyrus
Nubia: used hieroglyphics, later developed own

10. The Development of Organized Religious Tradition
Amon-Re, but polytheistic
Akhenaten tried to make religion monotheistic (Aten)
Life after death -> mummification, grave goods, retainers (cult of Osiris)

11. Bantu Migrations West Africa: Sudanic agriculture
Clan-based villages with chiefs
Interacted with hunter/gatherers
Migrations began c BCE: south and east, prob. due to pop. pressure
Absorbed peoples, some settled, language differentiated
Increased c BCE with iron tools and weapons

12. Early Agricultural Societies of Sub-Saharan Africa
Distinctive societies and cultural traditions
Chiefs, age grades, gender roles
Monotheistic – impersonal divine force, source of good and evil, plus ancestor and territorial spirits