AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONSSSWH6: The student will describe the diverse characteristics of early African societies before 1800 CE.

ELEMENTS OF THE STANDARD SSWH6a: Identify the Bantu migration

patterns and contribution to settled agriculture.

SSWH6d: Analyze the process of religious syncretism as a blending of traditional African beliefs with new ideas from Islam and Christianity.

SSWH6e: Analyze the role of geography and the distribution of resources played in the development of trans-Saharan trading networks.

LET’S PREVIEW THE CHAPTER…This chapter will stress that geographical

movement interacts with the spread of ideas. For example, the chapter will point out that African trading practices and migrations led to the spread of Christianity and ironworking.

The chapter will link environment to migration and trading patterns.

Students will be led to think about these connections as they read and learn.

PREVIEWING MAIN IDEAS…… Interaction with environment The varied climates and natural

resources of Africa offered opportunities for developing different lifestyles. By 500 BC, the Nok people of West Africa had pioneered irion-making.

Look at the location of ironworking sites on the map. What might explain why ironworking took place at these sites?

Ans: Raw materials necessary for producing iron were available.

PREVIEWING MAIN IDEAS…… Cultural Interaction Massive migrations of Bantu Speaking

people changed the culture of eastern and southern Africa. The migrating people brought new skills and ideas about society to people in the south and east.

Study the time line and the map. Where did ironworking spread from Nok, and which group probably brought the skills?

Ans: Ironworking spread east and south, probably by the Bantu migrations.

PREVIEWING MAIN IDEAS……. Power and authority The kingdom of Aksum became a major

trading center for Indian Ocean and Arabian trade. It also became the center of Christianity in East Africa.

Why was Aksum better suited for trade than Nok or Djenne-Djeno?

Ans: Aksum’s coastal location gave it access to Indian Ocean, Egyptian, and Arabian trade. Djenne-Djenno and Nok lacked access to these routes.

TIMELINE REVIEW The earliest Africans lived as hunter-

gatherers. How many years did this lifestyle continue before Pianki established the Kushite empire?

Ans: At least 750. About when did the Nok first learn to

work iron for tools? Ans: 500 BC What was happening elsewhere in the

world at about this time? Ans: The Age of Pericles in Greece.

TIMELINE REVIEW….. Look at the map. Djenne-Djeno was a

city of nearly 50,000. How might its location have helped support these people?

Ans: It’s on a river, offering both water and transportation.

Notice the Bantu migrations are described as “under way” in the AD 100’s. What can you conclude about their duration from this term?

Ans: They lasted a long time.

TIMELINE REVIEW ……. What was happening elsewhere in the

world during the Bantu migration? Ans: Chinese invent paper.

EXPLAIN THE GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA. Africa is the second largest continent in

the world. It stretches 4,600 miles from east to west and 3,000 miles from north to south.

The total land mass is 11,700 square miles and occupies 1/5 of Earth’s land surface.

It contained narrow coastlines lie on either side of the central plateau.

Waterfalls and rapids form rivers. Africa’s coastline has few harbors, ports,

or inlets.

WHAT TYPE OF ENVIRONMENTS IN AFRICA WERE CHALLENGES? The deserts are largely unsuitable for

human life and also hamper people’s movement to more welcoming climates. The Sahara Desert is the largest in northern Africa and the Kalahari Desert in south.

Another uninhabitable African environment is the Sahel which is a rain forest. This area is sometimes called the “greenhouse”. This area is most often canopied by tall trees and leaves which shelter the sun from the forest floor. This region is also home to a deadly insect called the tse-tse fly.

WHAT TYPE OF ENVIRONMENTS IN AFRICA WERE CHALLENGES? Although there are challenging

environments in Africa that cause difficult living conditions for humans, there are areas that are pleasant to live. These areas are called savannas or grassy plains.

WHAT TYPE OF ENVIRONMENTS DID EARLY AFRICANS ADAPT TO IN THEIR LIFESTYLES?

One lifestyle that they adapted to was a nomadic lifestyle. Most early Africans were hunter-gatherers. Some people of the Kalahari Desert and the BaMbuti rain forests are still hunter-gatherers.

Other Africans learned to domesticate and raise a variety of animals for food. They were herders or pastoralists and kept goats, cattle, or sheep.

Early Africans also began to depend on agriculture when they began to settle in the Nile River Valley areas.

WHAT TYPE OF BELIEF SYSTEMS DID EARLY AFRICANS HAVE? They believed in the basic social unit called

family. Their families included parents, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Families shared common ancestors which formed clans.

They also developed belief systems that helped them understand and organize their world. Their religion involved a belief in one creator or god. Their religion often included elements of animism in which spirits play an important role in regulating daily life. Animists believe that spirits are present in animals, plants, and other natural forces and take the form of the souls of their ancestors.

WHAT ARE GRIOTS? These are storytellers who orally share the history and literature of a culture. Few African societies had a written language.

HOW DID ARCHAEOLOGISTS ACQUIRE INFORMATION ABOUT EARLY WEST AFRICAN CULTURES?

Archaeologists acquired this information by way of artifacts such as pottery, charcoal, and slag – a waste product of iron smelting. By dating these artifacts, scientists can piece together a picture of life in West Africa as early as 500 BC.

DESCRIBE WEST AFRICA’S EARLIEST KNOWN CULTURE. West Africa’s earliest known culture was

the Nok people. They lived in Nigeria between 500 BC and AD 200. Their name came from the village where the first artifacts were discovered.

They were the first West African people known to smelt iron. The iron was fashioned into tools for farming and weapons for hunting. Some of the tools and weapons made their way into overland trade routes.

WHY IS DJENNE’-DJENO IMPORTANT? This city was uncovered by archaeologists

in 1977. It is located on the Niger River in West Africa. Hundreds of thousands of artifacts such as pottery, copper hair ornaments, clay toys, glass beads, stone bracelets, and iron knives were discovered.

The city was abandoned around AD 1400. At its height it had about 50,000 residents. They fished in the Niger, herded cattle, and raised rice. It became a bustling trading center linked to older towns not only by the Niger, but also by overland camel routes.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CAUSES OF MIGRATION? Migration is a permanent move from

one country or region to another. The causes of migration fall in three

categories: 1) Environmental 2) Economic 3) Political Environmental factors were most likely

the strongest and later economic and political causes played a greater role.

WHAT ARE PUSH AND PULL FACTORS? These are factors of migration that can

either push people out of an area or pull them into an area.

An example of an environmental pull factor might be abundant land that might attract people.

An example of an environmental push factor might be the depletion of natural resources that cause people to leave an area.

Lack of employment can be a factor of both.

WHAT ARE EFFECTS OF MIGRATION? These effects can be positive or

negative. Some of these are: Redistribution of the population

may change population density. Cultural blending of languages

or ways of life may occur. Ideas and technologies may be

shared.

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF MIGRATION?

People’s quality of life may be improved as result of moving.

Clashes between groups may create unrest, persecution, or even war.

Environmental conditions may change, causing famine or depleted natural resources.

Employment opportunities may dry up, creating unemployment and poverty.

HOW IS MIGRATION TRACED THROUGH LANGUAGE? Experts trace the patterns of

movement of people over time by studying the spread of language. People bring their languages with them when they move to a new place.

One group of the African languages, the Niger-Congo, includes over 900 individual languages. A family of languages in this group developed from a single parent tongue.

WHO ARE THE BANTU-SPEAKING PEOPLE? After migrations had stopped,

descendents populated the southern third of the continent spreading their language and culture.

Historians refer to these people as Bantu-speaking people. The word Bantu means “the people.”

These people originally lived in the savanna south of the Sahara. Bantu speakers were not one people but rather a group of peoples who shared certain cultural characteristics.

WHO ARE THE BANTU-SPEAKING PEOPLE? These people were farmers and nomadic

herders who developed and passed along the skill of ironworking.

Many experts believe they are related to the Nok peoples.

The Bantu speaking people began using the farming technique of slash and burn in which a patch of forest is cut down and burned.

WHAT WAS ONE POPULAR BANTU LANGUAGE? Swahili An estimated 240 million people

in Africa speak one of the Bantu languages as their first language. Of that number, 50 million in central and east Africa speak Swahili.

Swahili means the coast. It is the official language of Kenya and Tanzania.

WHAT WERE THE CAUSES OF THE BANTU-SPEAKERS MIGRATIONS? One cause that was theorized by

anthropologists was that once these people developed agriculture, they were able to produce more food than they needed which caused population of West Africa to increase, so they moved southward.

Iron smelting was a major activity for these people and due to the technology of the activity and the need for iron ore resources, Bantu-speakers began to move southward.

WHAT WERE THE EFFECTS OF THE BANTU-SPEAKERS MIGRATIONS? The lands that the Bantu-speakers

occupied were not always unpopulated. This caused them to find ways to get along with the Bantu, get out of their way, or defend their lands and way of life.

As the Bantu-speakers moved into occupied areas, territorial wars often broke out which involved fighting with iron tipped spears.

The Bantu-speaking people intermarried with the people they joined with which created new cultures of people.

DESCRIBE THE AKSUM KINGDOM. The powerful kingdom that rose and

conquered the Kush Kingdom of Egypt. Aksum is located south of Kush on a

rugged plateau on the Red Sea in current day Ethiopia. This area is sometimes called the “Horn of Africa”.

Legend traces the origin of Aksum to the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. This dynasty lasted into the 20th century until the death of the last ruler, Halie Salassie, in 1975.

DESCRIBE THE AKSUM KINGDOM. Under the leadership of Aksum’s first

king and those who followed, Aksum seized areas along the Red Sea and the Blue Nile.

These rulers also crossed the Red Sea and conquered lands on the Southwestern Arabian Peninsula.

WHAT DID THE STRONG RULER EZANA DO FOR THE AKSUM EMPIRE?

The Aksum Empire reached its height between A.D. 325 and 360 under an exceptionally strong ruler Ezana.

He was determined to establish and expand his authority by first conquering part of the Arabian Peninsula that is currently Yemen.

In 330, Ezana conquered the Kushites and burned Meroe.

HOW DID AKSUM DEVELOP AN INTERNATIONAL CULTURE? Aksum had a diverse cultural

heritage from its origin. The blend included traditions of the Arabs who crossed the Red Sea into Africa and the Kushites that they settled among.

As the kingdom expanded and became more powerful trading center, it attracted people from all over the ancient world.

HOW DID ANCIENT AFRICANS OF THE AKSUMITE EMPIRE PRACTICE RELIGION?

The Aksumites, like other ancient Africans, traditionally believed in one god. They called their god Mahrem and believed that their king was directly descended from him.

They were also Animists and worshiped the spirits of nature and honored their dead ancestors.

They also offered sacrifices to those spirits, to Mahrem, and often to the Greek god of war, Ares.

HOW DID AKSUM BECOME A CHRISTIAN NATION? Merchants exchanged more than raw

materials and finished goods in Aksum. They shared ideas as well. One of those

ideas was a new religion, Christianity. Ezana succeeded the Aksum throne as

an infant after the death of his father and his mother ruled in his incapacity. A young Christian man educated Ezana. When he became ruler of Aksum, he converted to Christianity and established it as the kingdom’s official religion.

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE LASTING INNOVATIONS OF THE AKSUM EMPIRE?

Besides Egypt and Meroe, Aksum was the only ancient African kingdom known to have developed a written language.

Aksum was also the first state south of the Sahara to mint its own coins. The coins were made from bronze, silver, and gold and imprinted with the saying “May the country be satisfied.”

In addition to the cultural achievements, the Aksumites adapted creatively to their rugged, hilly environment.

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE LASTING INNOVATIONS OF THE AKSUM EMPIRE?

They created a new method of agriculture, terrace farming. This enabled them to greatly increase the productivity of their land.

Terraces or step like ridges constructed on mountain slopes helped the soil retain water and prevented its being washed downhill in heavy rains.

The also built canals, dams and cisterns to channel and store water.

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE LASTING INNOVATIONS OF THE AKSUM EMPIRE?

WHAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE EVENTUAL FALL OF THE AKSUM EMPIRE?

Aksum’s cultural and technological achievements enabled it to last for 800 years.

However the kingdom finally declined under invaders who practiced the religion of Islam.

Between 632 and 750 Islamic raiders conquered vast territories in the Mediterranean world, spreading their religion as they went.

WHAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE EVENTUAL FALL OF THE AKSUM EMPIRE?

Aksum protected Muhammad’s family and follower during their rise to power and as a result they did not invade Aksum’s territories on the African coast of the Red Sea.