African Civilizations

African Civilizations

Unit 2 - African American Studies 2023

Axum/Aksum

Mali

Kush

Ghana

Bantu

Great Zimbabwe

Swahili Coast

Nok

Songhai

Mali

Largest kingdom of west africa

Aksum

Sub-saharan empire with vast reach and power

Ghana

"Land of gold"

Kush

ancient kingdom in nubia

Bantu/Bantu Migration

Diffusion of culture

Songhai

Great Trading state of west africa

Swahili Coast

Independent city states

Great zimbabwe

The Great enclosure

Nok

one of the earliest known societies of west africa

Sundiata - The Lion King

For generations, Mandinka griots (storytellers) have told the story of Sundiata. It was prophesied that if King Naré Maghann Konaté took on an ugly wife, she would give birth to a son who would become a mighty and magnificent king. Accordingly, Konaté married Sogolon Kédjou, “the buffalo woman,” as his second wife. She gave birth to Sundiata, but he was born crippled and unable to walk. Though the king favored him, both Sogolon and Sundiata were mercilessly mocked for his disability. One day, Sundiata had enough. He was determined to walk and, miraculously, he did. Sundiata then became strong and recognized as a leader among his people, sparking resentment from paternal half brother Dankaran Tourman and his mother, Sassouma Bereté. Tourman wanted the throne for himself. When the king died, many suspected foul play. Fearful of an attack on their lives, Sogolon took Sundiata and the rest of her children and fled into exile, leaving a kingdom in disarray. The Mandinka people were taken over by the cruel and oppressive King Soumaoro Kante of the Sosso. In need of their true leader, the people sent word for Sundiata to return and take his rightful place as the king. In exile, Sundiata built alliances with the king of Mema and other local rulers. He gathered an army to liberate the Mandinka people and overthrow the Sosso king. Upon his victorious return, he adopted a new title for himself, “Mansa,” which means king or emperor in Mandinka.

Push and Pull Factors

What's the difference?

LThe Push and PUll factors of migration are those factors with either forciply push people to migrate or which draw them to a certain area. They tend to be political, economic, and environmental on both sides.

• In the case of the Bantu, historians speculate that their population grew to such a degree that the land of West Africa could no longer support them. With the Sahara advancing from the north, the Bantu migrated south and east across the continent in search of more farm land.

Al-Bakri's Account of Ghana

The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on a plain. One of these towns, which is inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques, in which they assemble for the Friday prayer. There are salaried imams and muezzins, as well as jurists and scholars. In the environs are wells with sweet water, from which they drink and with which they grow vegetables. The king’s town is six miles distant from this one… Between these two towns are continuous habitations. …In the king’s town, and not far from his court of justice, is a mosque where the Muslims who arrive at his court pray. Around the king’s town are domed buildings and groves and thickets where the sorcerers of these people, men in charge of the religious cult, live. In them too are their idols and the tombs of their kings. These woods are guarded and none may enter them and know what is there…. The king’s interpreters, the official in charge of his treasury and the majority of his ministers are Muslims. Among the people who follow the king’s religion only he and his heir apparent (who is the son of his sister) may wear sewn clothes. All other people wear robes of cotton, silk, or brocade, according o their means. All of them shave their beards, and women shave their heads. The king adorns himself like a woman (wearing 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 sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the (vassel) kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold. The governor of the city sits on the ground before the king and around him are ministers seated likewise. At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree who hardly ever leave the place where the king is, guarding him. Round their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the same metals. The audience is announced by the beating of a drum which they call duba made from a long hollow log. When the people who profess the same religion as the king approach him they fall on their knees and sprinkle dust on their head, for this is their way of greeting him. As for the Muslims, they greet him only by clapping their hands…. Their religion is paganism and the worship of idols…. On every donkey-load of salt when it is brought into the country their king levies one golden dinar and two dinars when it is sent out. … The best gold is found in his land comes from the town of Ghiyaru, which is eighteen days’ traveling distance from the king’s town over a country inhabited by tribes of the Sudan whose dwellings are continuous… The king of Ghana when he calls up his army, can put 200,000 men into the field, more than 40,000 of them archers.

Along the Nile River, in what is now northern Sudan, lay the ancient civilization of Kush. Though they were once conquered by a powerful neighbor, the kings and queens of Kush would go on to successfully challenge two of the most dominant empires in history: the Egyptians and the Romans. So what happened to this African kingdom? Geoff Emberling details the rise and fall of the Kush empire.

• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, according to the 2019 Forbes billionaires' list released this week. With an estimated fortune of $131bn (£99bn) he is the wealthiest man in modern history. But he is by no means the richest man of all time. That title is believed to belong to Mansa Musa, the 14th Century West African ruler who was so rich his generous handouts wrecked an entire country's economy. In 2012, US website Celebrity Net Worth estimated his wealth at $400bn, but economic historians agree that his wealth is impossible to pin down to a number.

• Under his rule, the kingdom of Mali grew significantly. He annexed 24 cities, including Timbuktu. The kingdom stretched for about 2,000 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to modern-day Niger, taking in parts of what are now Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ivory Coast. During his reign, the empire of Mali accounted for almost half of the Old World’s gold.

• The empire of Mali was not particularly well known until Mansa Musa, a devout Muslim, decided to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan of 60,000 mean including his entire royal court and officials, soldiers, griots (entertainers), merchants, cam drivers, and 12,0000 slaves. With him were a hundred tamels carrying hudnreds of pounds of pure gold. When he arrived in Cairo, he spent and gave away so much gold that the overall value of gold decreased in Egypt for the next 12 years.