HISTORY OF AFRICA

Some strains of wild barley were cultivated in Egypt and Nubia by 10,000 B.C. - perhaps as early as 15,000 years ago. Millet and sorghum were harvested by 6000 B.C. in the Khartoum area of the Upper Nile. Between 5000 and 4000 B.C., farming communities could control the flooding of the river and build irrigation systems. King Narmer - or Menes - unified the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt establishing the first dynasty around 3100 B.C. The 3000 year long civilization of Egypt became the most enduring in Africa-- and all human history. The "pharaoh," divine kings with great powers, ruled over a period of 3100 B.C. to 332. B.C. grouped into thirty dynasties. Some were weak -- others were strong. The pharaohs relied on a large bureaucracy to govern and obtained resources from peasants to support their lifestyles. The basis of the economy was farming. Egypt's contributions include hieroglyphics, mathematics, and astronomy, architecture, art, medicine and religion. Egypt exported grain and gold and imported ebony, ivory, timber, chariot horses, ostrich feathers, precious stones, metals, and incense.

Ancient Egypt declined after 1100 B.C. Attacks came from the north and from across the desert to the west. By 1050 B.C., Nubia and other subjects freed themselves. Invaders to Egypt included Assyrians, Nubians, Persians and Romans. Egypt permanently lost independence about 32 B.C.

The newly formed kingdom of Kush - gaining independence form Egypt around 1000 B.C. - invaded Egypt in 730 B.C. and governed for at least sixty years. After withdrawing, they developed a distinctive culture -- shedding Egyptian practices and developing their own language and script. In A.D. 300, Meroe, their cultural center, declined and the kingdom cam to an end as a result of an Axumite invasion in about A.D. 350. Axum, a civilization in the Horn of Africa, had converted to Christianity as a result of Greco-Roman influences. Several Nubian successor states had also adopted it as their state religion. Alexandria had become one of the most important centers of Christian theology. By A.D. 640, Islam was expanding rapidly from the Arabian Peninsula. Arab invaders conquered most of northern Africa by A.D. 711.

Additional notes on West Africa:

Archaeology has shown that there was a steady desiccation of the Sahara between 5000 and 2000 B.C. forcing populations of cultivators and herdsmen to flee. Some migrated to the Sudanic grasslands of Western Africa. New cultural centers developed. Pastoral societies with some grain agriculture flourished as early as the first millennium B.C. at Daima in Northern Nigeria. At Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania, there is evidence of an earlier food producing society living in stone villages. After reaching their peak by 800 B.C., they were eventually forced to migrate further south three centuries later. Evidence indicates that some sort of state system existed in these large stone towns. As agriculture technology develops and production increases, farmers produce more food than their families can consume. The surplus enables some to become in non-food-producing activities -- becoming artisans, traders, or involved in religious, political or military activities. This is what occurred in the Sudanic regions. The roots of political centralization in sub-Saharan Africa extend at least into the first millennium B.C. Movements of people southward form the expanding desert continued as well. Some accounts of West African oral traditions verify migrations of certain clans from places to the north. As the food producing revolution spread, two groups became the leading cultivators, the Mande-speakers of the Upper Niger and the Kanuric-speakers driven south by the desiccation north and west of Lake Chad. These groups transmitted ideas and techniques, urbanization and the beginnings of centralized government throughout the region. There was also incoming Saharan pastoralists looking for grazing land and water.

The introduction of iron technology was also important to the development of the Sudanic communities. The blacksmith of Nok in central Nigeria were smelting and working with metal by the third century B.C. -- and within a few centuries the technology became widespread. Another stimulus was the strong economy based on trans-Saharan trade. By the end of the first millennium A.D., huge camel caravans were carrying cargoes of salt, collected in the north, across the Sahara to be exchanged for gold mined in West Africa. Before that time, Nok and other societies utilized their technology to improve hunting and farming -- and increase their populations, forming large political units. The first Sudanic state of Ghana was formed by 500 A.D. Archaeology and oral traditions are collaborated with written accounts of visitors from North Africa beginning in the ninth century A.D. Ghana formed a powerful kingdom allowing its rulers to dominate the trans-Saharan trade of salt, gold, ivory, copper, and slaves. They gained a profit from taxing the network of short and middle distance trade routes over Western Africa. The Ghanaian king established large armies which maintained law throughout the territory. In the eleventh century. Ghana declined and was captured by the Soso, followed by the influential kingdom of Mali. An account of the rise of Mali is recorded in my report -- Mali: a study of the people through art.

Mali, a Mandinka kingdom south of the desert periphery, built a strong economy on commerce and farming. The story legendary hero, Sundiata, is one of the most popular tale of the griots (jelis). Mali used Islam to create social cohesion and transform its government. After Mansa Musa took a pilgrimage to Mecca, Mali became known internationally. Mali was able to expand during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries but fell in the early fifteenth century when it was attacked by Songhai. The Songhai empire remained dominant until the European sea routes took over the trade. Most of the Songhai empire was destroyed by the Moroccan invasion in 1591.

The region around Lake Chad in central Sudan was the Kanem-Bornu empire - the most enduring of all West African states, the largest of which boasted populations in excess of 10 million people. Smaller states, the Mossi kingdom. The Tukolor state and the Hausa city-states also existed.

The Sudanic states, large and small, had similar political institutions. Rulers were admired and entrusted with religious functions. They kept magnificent courts and appointed high officials of state. Hereditary office did not exist outside the royal clan. Avoiding factionalism prevalent in Europe. Taxes and tributes served as sources of income for the royal courts -- often being redistributed by the kings of maintaining the loyalty of their followers. Most of them only maintain loose imperical structures (as noted in my report) -- vassal states were allowed autonomy. As long as they paid tribute taxes , they were allowed to follow their own customs, speak their own languages, and practice their own religions. This loose-knit organization also contributed to their demise. The population was divided into distinct strata --each had large urban centers. Apart from these townspeople were large rural populations involved in agriculture. It was largely the urban dwellers who converted to Islam while the rural areas maintained traditional religions working the soils of their ancestors. After the fall of Ghana, other Sudanic civilizations adopted Islam as the state religion. The cities of Djenne and Timbuktu in Mali became important centers of Islamic culture-- each boasting Islamic universities by the sixteenth century. The farmers in the rural areas were isolated from Islam and outside forces, maintaining traditional beliefs , thus enabling survival of shifting political structures. In other West African states along the coast, powerful kings controlled trade and gathered taxes. Partnerships were established with the Sudanic states. Artists working in bronze, wood, ivory, clay, and stone produced art showing the endurance of cultural traditions.

Additional notes on Central, Eastern and Southern Africa

In the region of Bantu Africa, as it is called, the great majority of Africans speak one or another of closely related Bantu languages. Bantu refers to a conglomerate of over 450 languages in a family that traces its decent to proto-Bantu speech, in which the word ntu means person. From their cradle-land is the region of Nigeria and Cameroon, they pressed on into the great equatorial region forest of West Central Africa by the second millennium B.C. Bantu expansions were not military conquests, but were culture intrusions and integration. Social, economic institutions and languages were assimilated. By early sixth century B.C. ironworkers associated with the "Urewe Ware" pottery had penetrated an area of East Africa, perhaps up the Nile from the iron making center at Meroe. These Bantu agriculturists carried the ironworking knowledge with them as they ventured deeper into various parts of the southern subcontinent during the first millennium A.D. By the fifth century A.D., Bantu settlements were dotted across much of Africa south of the equator. They tended to be located in wetter areas of the savannas. New crops include yams and bananas from Southeast Asia introduced by Malay-Polynesian sailors who settled on the island of Madagascar. The drier lands between the better ecological zones were at first left vacant. Once introduced to dry-grain agriculture, they began to establish themselves in the lass favored regions. A new and more sophisticated technological dawned in much of Bantu Africa by the beginning of the second millennium.

Bantu migrations were carried out very slowly and over short distances. Usually a small group or kin would undertake a move. There was not any definite pattern or given direction to the movement. A community whose economy was based on cultivation may be forced to expand into new agricultural lands as the soil of their old area became leached of nutrients -- or as population pressures developed. Young herdsmen driving animals into grazing lands beyond the community effected short distance migration. Other factors included family quarrels, diseases, droughts, succession and inheritance disputes, feuds - or even to seek an adventure. There was considerable interaction between Bantu-speakers and other African peoples-- mostly peaceful. Assimilation rather the extermination was the rule. Bantu speech usually prevailed except in southern Africa where distinctive click sounds of San-speaking hunters were incorporated into several Bantu languages. In some instances Bantu-speakers were responsible for introducing new political, economic, and technological concepts to non-Bantu-speakers -- the reverse is also true. While the Bantu traditionally have a matrilineal kinship system, many Bantu-speaking societies adopted patrilineal kinship organizations of various neighbors and in some parts of East Africa, took over political organizations based on age-grade systems of Cushitic- and Nilotic-speakers. Adaptability can be found among the divers societies of Bantu Africa. Bantu speech was dominant in subequatorial Africa. The Bantu usually lived in more compact settlements than did their more widely dispersed neighbors. Interactions between pastoralists form drier savannas with sedentary agriculturists of more fertile regions stimulated the formation of many kingdoms.

One of the earliest states to develop in Bantu Africa was Zimbabwe located near modern Zimbabwe. At the site of Great Zimbabwe are stone ruins indicating technological expertise. The people of the area were skilled metalworkers, smelting iron and extracting gold from mines as early as fourth century A.D. "Written accounts of traders at the Swahili ports of East Africa refer to a thriving inland kingdom existing in the Zimbabwe area by the tenth century" (p. 90). The existence of the ports depended on the flow of gold from the region and they vied with one another for control its export to the Indian Ocean world. The commercial empires of Zimbabwe and later , in the 15th century, Monomotapa were transformed into powerful empires as a result of the long distance trade.

Other kingdoms of Kongo, Luba, and the Lozi developed in parts of Central Africa as well as smaller chiefdoms. These states grew isolated form one another but over time, developed networks of regional trade of salt, copper, iron or livestock. Kings and chiefs derived incomes from taxes and tributes. In overall development, they were similar politically to the West African counterparts. Large politically centralized states developed later in southern Africa. Ecological conditions were not as conducive to buildups in population as in the more fertile Central African grasslands. By the beginning of the 19th century, population pressures began to grow. There was also another migration from the south: the land hungry trekboers descendants of the seventeenth century Dutch settlers at Africa’s southern tip began to push into the region. The Nguni-speaking Zulu sought a radical solution. Under the leadership of Shaka, one of Africa’s military geniuses and innovators, the Zulu transformed themselves into a powerful military empire. They crushed, assimilated, or displaced vast numbers of other people. Repercussions were felt as far north as Tanzania.

In much of East Africa, political organizations tended to be decentralized or in the form of small chiefdoms. Only in more fertile regions did large centralized states develop. East Africa experienced the spread of Bantu-speaking people and other people from the north. The earliest inhabitants of East Africa were several different groups of food-gatherers, including those who spoke Khoisan languages. Immigrants form the north entered the region as early as the third millennium B.C. Southern Cushitic-speakers from Ethiopia settled in the Rift Valley and in parts of present day Kenya and Tanzania. In the next millennium Eastern Cushites came from the same area and Central Sudanic speakers came into Uganda, west of the Rift Cushites. Southern Nilotic-speakers with a strong pastoral tradition also came into the region. Considerable intermingling took place. The Eastern Nilotics -- ancestors of the Maasai -- came into the area in the early centuries A.D. All of these groups became oriented to nomadic pastoralism as they pushed south. By this time, Bantu-speaking people were also pushing into parts of East Africa. Most Cushitic-speakers and hunter-gatherers were absorbed. In some communities the non-Bantu culture endured. For the most part, this migration was conducted peacefully. When conflicts did arise, it was mostly between groups of the same linguistic affiliation. Agriculturists and pastoral groups coexisted-- farmers taking the wetter highlands and herders ranging the plains below. Introduction of Asian food crops -- especially bananas -- helps communities survive. The largest state to develop in East Africa was Kitara, located in southern present day Uganda. The oral traditions of the Bantu-speakers associated with an early dynasty of god-kings, called the Abatembuzi. By the 14th century A.D. the Abatembuzi. were supplanted by a new dynasty, the Abachwezi, pastoralists from the north. This group is represented by the Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi. The Abachwezi constructed massive earthwork enclosures. The Nilotic-speakers from the north, the Lwoo, pushed into the Uganda area around 1450, supplanting the Abachwezi with the Lwoo Babito dynasty. The Babito kings abandoned their Nilotic languages in favor of the Bantu speech. A number of new highly centralized kingdoms developed, such as Bunyoro and Buganda. Elsewhere, the Lwoo established smaller states where there was close interaction with their neighbors. Migration was a gradual process of cultural, political, economic and linguistic interaction. Migrations were still going on when the forces of European colonialism appeared in the late 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the Maasai engaged in a conflict known as the :Maasai Civil Wars."

"There were two basic kinds of traditional political organizations: centralized states, with political authority vested in the hands of hereditary rulers, and more egalitarian decentralized communities, where political power was regulated by interactions between kinship groups, such as clans or lineage , or was maintained by...elders...in an age-set system" (p.94)

Centralized kingdoms tended to be large, well populated, economically diversified and highly socially stratified. Leadership was by a select few based on hereditary claims. Competition and conflicts for the throne existed. Judicial systems were well established. In decentralized societies, the lineage of clan formed the political units. Heads of lineages exercised authority in such a way that elders could cooperated and arrive at consensus. Judicial and religious authority was with certain people. The Maasai of East Africa were an example of a decentralized society. In all societies, women played dynamic and varied roles. Some centralized states had women rulers and the "Queen Mother" was an import person. Women were essential in religious and economic affairs. Women were healer, diviners, and priestesses in some areas. Women dominated areas of the economy -- controlling facets of agricultural production, flow of commerce, a wide variety of industries and crafts. Women milled flour, preserved food, built houses, manufactured clothing and ornaments, brewed beer, established markets -- and composed songs, poetry and stories. They controlled income derived from the sale of their surplus production. "Trade, warfare, diplomatic relations, migrations, and marriage constituted some of the basic elements of intergroup relations" (p. 95) There were no fixed boundaries -- cultural frontiers existed allowing profitable contact. Interactions on the regional level, with Arabs in trans-Saharan trade and with Europeans enabled goods, languages, religions, skills and ideas to spread.

"Islam is a religion with origins in the oasis of seventh-century Arabia" (p. 97.)

Estimates today suggest that one in three Africans are Muslim. The Arab conquest of North Africa encouraged conversion to Islam and the adoption of the Arabic language. South of the Sahara, merchants spread the faith through peaceful means, converting many but allowing the people to retain their own languages and many of their customs. (Students study the beginnings of Islam in the sixth grade curriculum so I will not go into it in detail here)

In the northern region of Africa, Arabs established themselves as a ruling elite. In sub-Saharan Africa, Muslim traders introduced Islam and resided in commercial enclaves. Arab policies benefited Muslims -- within four centuries, mass conversions had produced Muslim majorities in northern Africa. Initial converts south of the Sahara were local merchants involved in long-distance trade/ In many cases, African rulers converted to Islam, but kept many of the traditional culture. African Muslims had the opportunity to make Islam relevant to their walks of life. Islamic centers have been documented in history -- some gaining international acclaim (these are discussed in my report)

Notes on Pre-Colonial Era and Colonial Era

Oral traditions:

Histories were kept in the memories of the griots - the state historians. These histories were either fixed or free texts. Dates were not given in oral histories Historians have found ways to date such historians by using genealogies. The history of the people was more important than "when" something happened -- events were "in the past." They often referred to important people if they were chiefs, important traders, or important ancestors. The focus was on what the group did. Oral traditional were often idealized or romanticized. The conflicts were not passed on.

Slavery was not new to African societies. This was a practice in Africa before the fifteenth century -- conquests of war, to pay off a debt. Local systems of stratification, systems of dependency, fed into slavery. People were considered as wealth. "Pawning" was a practice in which people were given in exchange for goods. They could get the people back. And they provided the same services for other communities. They referred to the pawn as "avasha" or "avangoli" seized. Slaves were used as a commodity -- people were sold in exchange for weapons and cloth. A "triangle" of trade was established. Slaves were "taken" (as oral traditions indicated) to the New World because of their resistance to malaria the African were "Tougher" than the Native Americans. Slaves were first taken to the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations. The practice a slavery spread on into Southern states to the tobacco and cotton plantations. Using guns as currency in trade for slaves - Africa enhanced industrialization of the West. Cotton was cultivated, and sent to Europe to make textiles -- the textiles were traded and sold in Africa. As a result of the slave trade, new crops were introduced to Africa -- producing more food -- providing more people to be sold into slavery. It is estimated that 12 million people were sold into slavery to the "New World."

David Livingston, a British explorer, led the movement to abolish slavery in Europe. His last trip to Africa ended in Africa. Supposedly, his heart is buried in Zambia.

With high technology, cam more morality. It was Britain that became the leading abolitionists of the Arab Imperial presence in East Africa.. "Save Africa from the Arabs." There was a new Swahili civilization and much intermarriage of races. Arab slavery was mixed races. Children were free if their father was free and in turn, if the children were free, the mother was free.

The Portuguese colonized Angola and Mozambique to control copper and ivory trade. Expeditions were sent out across Africa in the late 1700’s and again in 1830"s in search for gold.

Ali Mazuri, in his video series The Africans (publication for PBS), left us with a pretty dismal picture of Africa during Colonialism. Supposedly, Europe had a double mission in Africa: (1) to develop Africa for Africa’s benefit, and (2) to develop Africa for the benefit of Europe. We know that they we very successful in meeting their second goal. One highly doubts there was any real attempt to meet their first goal. The African landscape will never be the same. Africa remains the richest continent in resources, "Gods treasure chest" -- yet is the poorest continent (financially). Africa's’ imports continue to outweigh its exports. Countries in Africa continue to be specialized in its exports.

Today, the African city is in transition. They are buying goods rather than making them. There is only the illusion of technological know-how. They now have Western consumption, western tastes, but it is just a facade. Westernization without realization. Europe did not develop Africa for Africa. Africa was a trading factory.

Colonialism opened Africa to a new form of terror. King Leopold of Belgium became rich in rubber. Workers in the Congo were mutilated -- hands were cut off when they did not work hard enough. There was senseless killings. The Africans were taxed (head tax) so they had to work to get money to pay the taxes. They lost their land and lost control of labor. Cecil Rhodes came to Africa for one purpose -- wealth to get power. White mercenaries were all about greed and grandeur. The rubber industry re-enslaved Africa. Africa has no industry of its own. Rubber is all exported -- benefiting the parent companies. Tires for African wheels have to be imported. Some concerns following colonization:

The foreigners came, took from Africa, and departed -- using resources for their own development.
Africans developed the art of recycling -- using American waste.
Missionaries came teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Taking traditional religious beliefs, dances and songs -- substituting Christianity and Western ideas.
Liberia "negotiate away it wealth." Liberia exports 15% of the iron ore used today, yet controls only 1% of the production.
Ghana built an aluminum smelting plant which used great amounts of power -- but imported the Bauxite needed for production.
Colonization left travel difficult. Road construction and infrastructures were not coordinated. Communication systems went through the European country then back to Africa. For example, a call from Ivory Coast to Nigeria would follow the path:

Ivory Coast - Paris - England - Nigeria

British Mining Company mined copper in Zambia and Zaire. Natives had to pay a hut tax or head tax. The men went to work the mines for three months to earn money for the tax. Part of the wages went for the tax.

Gold and diamond mines were established in South Africa. Zimbabwe was more agricultural. Kenya was set up as farming land, with the best land going to white settlers. With Colonialism cam racism. Kenya had large permanent settlements of British people. In Nigeria, kings and chiefs were made answerable to England. There were no settlements in Nigeria. In some regions, the British selected one chief to rule causing friction among the other groups. In some areas, there was direct rule established by the parent country. The direct rule was common in French and Portuguese territories. In other areas there was indirect rule through the chiefs.-- common in British territories. A district officer would deliver orders through the chiefs. In some areas there was forced labor, in others wealth was extracted through taxes.

Colonialism had a big impact on World War II. Africans fought as equals, fighting for the "White man." Tanzania - Tangyanika - was taken from the Germans after W.W.II and given to the British as a trust. In 1961, they were granted self government. It became no longer economical to control the regions -- administrative coast were escalating. It was easier to remain control of the industries.

In general, there was a negative effect on the status of women. Women were disadvantaged. It was the men who were selected for leadership roles and recruited to work. The women stayed behind to take care of the village. The women became the preservers of culture, while the men learned new skills. After de-colonization, the men moved into positions of power. Boys were educated and mission school educated the girls. Colonization trained men to become doctor -- women to become nurses. Women were trained in roles traditional to Western culture.

Today there is a "clash of cultures" in Africa.

A clash of religion: Jew --Christian -- Muslim --traditional
A clash of values: Western materialism -- against care for the land
A clash of values: Western ideals of beauty replacing African ideals of beauty

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