Ancient Africa

Geography and Migration

• Tropical rain forests cover only 5% of land

• Sahara is world’s largest desert

• Desertification?

• Land becomes parched and desert spreads

• Forces migration

• Bantu?

• Root language that has helped trace movement of earliest peoples

The West Africans who migrated south and east spoke Bantu.

As mentioned earlier, one of its most notable geographic features is the vast Sahara Desert.

The variety of climate and geography in Africa influenced its diversity of culture.

• The most populated regions are the savannas.

•Deserts, rain forests, and rivers with cataracts hindered easy movement.

African vegetation regions are wide bands across the continent.

Nubia• What have we learned

already?• Competed with Egypt• 750 BC overtook Egypt

for a century• 500 BC Meroe (mehr

uh wee) was centralized capital, iron ore, river trade

• AD 350 taken over by Axum

Upper Nile

Trade

• Started by having a surplus of food

• Network linked savanna to forest land in south and even to Middle East

• Gold plentiful in (Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal), traded for salt from Sahara

Ghana “Land of Gold”

• Located where Niger and Senegal rivers form “V”. King collected tolls on all goods entering or leaving

• Capital was Kumbi Saleh, two separate walled towns 6 miles apart

• First was mostly royal palace where king was semidivine who kept order

• Second was prosperous Muslim merchants

• Islam never spread far here but culture and design did

• Overtaken by Mali

Kingdom of Mali

• Sundiata, 1235, found empire• Mali is Arab for “where the king dwells”• Mansas?• Kings• Mansa Musa came to throne in 1312 and

expanded borders, ensured peace and order in empire

• Adopted Islam but women had more rights• Timbuktu went from salt center to center of

learning and scholars

Timbuktu

Songhai Kingdom

• Gao, wealthy trading capital 1450• Sonni Ali, soldier-king, brought trade routes and

wealthy cities under his control• Followed traditional religious beliefs• Askia Muhammad set up Muslim dynasty and made

kingdom even larger• Set up bureaucracy with various departments• Civil war erupted in 1586 while Morocco sent armies

south to defeat but could not control• West Africa splintered into many small kingdoms