AFRICA
Mr. Mike’s 7th grade Social Studies
AFRICA’S GEOGRAPHY
•
Africa is the world’s second-largest
continent.
•
Most of Africa lies in the tropics. Here dry,
sweeping grasslands, known as
savannas, have high temperatures and
uneven rains.
•
North and south of the savannas are the
deserts—the Sahara to the north and
the Kalahari to the southwest.
•
Africa has many long rivers. You know
about the Nile River and the civilizations
of Egypt and Kush along its banks. In
West Africa, the Niger River is very
important. The rich soil along the Niger
grows many crops and gave rise to
several civilizations in West Africa
AFRICAN TRADING EMPIRES
THE BANTU
•
Many people in Africa share a common
background. This is because much of early
Africa was settled by a people called the Bantu
thousands of years ago.
•
Around 3000 B.C., fishing groups along the
Benue River (BAYN • way) packed belongings in
their canoes and began moving throughout
Africa. The wanderers called themselves Bantu,
meaning “the people.” By A.D. 400, Bantu
peoples had settled most of Africa.
•
Wherever they went, the Bantu took their culture
with them. They spread skills such as pottery
making, mining, and ironworking. They also
spread their language and beliefs. The Bantu, for
example, believed in one supreme creator and
a spirit world where ancestors live. This became
a common belief in many places in Africa.
TRADE CARAVANS BEGIN
THE BERBERS
•
The Bantu people spread across much of Africa but the
Sahara prevented them from moving into North Africa.
About 400 B.C., North African people known as the Berbers
found a way to cross the Sahara to West Africa, and trade
began.
•
For hundreds of years, the Berbers transported goods on
horses and donkeys, which often died in the hot Sahara.
When the Romans conquered North Africa, they introduced
camels from central Asia. Camels revolutionized trade. Their
broad feet did not sink in the sand, and their humps stored
fat for food. In addition, they could travel many days without
water.
•
Traders grouped hundreds of camels together to form
caravans. They traded salt and cloth from North Africa and
the Sahara for gold and ivory from western Africa. This trade
led to the growth of cities in western Africa. Eventually, rulers
of these cities began to build empires. In the Middle Ages,
these African empires were bigger than most European
kingdoms in wealth and size. The first empire to develop was
Ghana (GAH•nuh).
THE KINGDOM OF GHANA
•
Ghana rose to power in the A.D. 400s. It
was located where several trade routes
came together. Trade routes reached
across the Sahara into North Africa and
down the Niger River. For traders to meet,
they had to pass through Ghana. Passage
required a fee—a tax paid to Ghana’s
rulers. These taxes made Ghana rich.
•
Why pay a tax? Ghana knew how to make
iron weapons and it used these weapons
to conquer its neighbors. Second, Ghana
built a huge army. Third, people wanted
the trade items, especially salt and gold, at
almost any price. West Africans needed
salt to flavor and preserve food, and
Berber merchants wanted gold so they
could buy goods from Europe and the
Arabs.
THE KINGDOM OF MALI
•
In the 1200s, the kingdom of Mali
conquered what was left of
Ghana. West African griots, or
storytellers, give credit to a great
warrior-king named Sundiata Keita
— the “Lion Prince.” Sundiata, who
ruled from 1230 to 1255, seized the
capital of Ghana in 1240. He then
won control of lands from the
Atlantic coast to the trading city of
Timbuktu. His conquests put Mali in
control of the goldmining areas,
allowing him to rebuild the gold
and salt trade.
THE KINGDOM OF MALI
Mali began a slow decline
after the death of its last
strong king, Mansa Musa, in
1332. The kings who
followed failed to stop
Berber invaders who soon
conquered Timbuktu.
RELIGION IN AFRICA
•
There are three major religions in
Africa: Islam, Christian, and
Traditional.
•
Traditional religion varied from
place to place but there were
some common beliefs:
Belief in one creator
• Belief in lesser gods and goddesses that
worked for the creator
• Belief that the spirit of dead relatives
stayed in the village to help the living
• Belief in the protective power of juju and
magic (charms or amulets), shrines and
other sacred objects.
•
TRADITIONAL RELIGION
•
Traditional religion varied from
place to place but there were
some common beliefs:
Belief in one creator
• Belief in lesser gods and goddesses that
worked for the creator
• Belief that the spirit of dead relatives
stayed in the village to help the living
• Belief in the protective power of juju and
magic (charms or amulets), shrines and
other sacred objects.
•
TRADITIONAL RELIGION
Two Worlds
Religion in Africa is not a discreet human activity, separate from
other aspects of living. This is in contrast to many branches of
Christianity, where the spiritual is separate from the physical, and
heaven is entirely separate from earth. In African traditional
religion, as in many other ancient belief systems in other parts of
the world, religion, or the spiritual permeates every aspect of life.
TRADITIONAL RELIGION
LANDSCAPE
The landscape is a source of spiritual contemplation and
worship. The Gikuyu of Kenya, for example, pray facing Mount
Kenya. The Shona, of Zimbabwe, have sacred hills and caves.
The Lugbara and Langi, both from Uganda, worship sacred
rocks. The landscape may also be populated by many spirits,
some good some bad.
TRADITIONAL RELIGION
ANCESTORS
The ancestral spirits also mediate
between this world and the spirit
world. They play a large part in most
cultures, are easily accessible, and
generally considered to be kind. They
bless and give advice and warnings to
the people. They are, in many ways,
as real to the people who talk to
them, as the living.
A Chokwe ancestor
mask from Central Africa
TRADITIONAL RELIGION
ILLNESS
Illness is an area where the physical and spiritual
meet. There is no fixed boundary between body
and soul.
In Africa illness may be treated with herbs very
successfully. But often it will also have a spiritual
dimension. It may be seen as a punishment from
God or the deities, or it might be the result of ill will
from an enemy. In this case some form of spiritual
power will be needed to combat it; a medicine
man or woman will then be consulted.
TRADITIONAL RELIGION
ACTS OF CREATIVITY
Every individual has the power to
commune with divine beings through
prayer and sacrifice, but the well being
of each individual is tied up with the
well being of the community. Theatre,
dancing, singing and music are
communal forms of religious
expressions. They may act as a prelude
to war, celebrate a good harvest, mark
a birth, a marriage, or a death.
Mbube, the name of the song, means Lion in Zulu.
This traditional song was used to describe the
feelings of the people after the death of Shacka
the Zulu king known as the lion. So the song is “The
Lion Sleeps Tonight” means he is not dead but
sleeping. The song over time became a traditional
African children’s lullaby telling the child you are
safe because the lion is sleeping (Uyimbube or ooee-muboobe in Zulu).
MUSLIM AFRICA
•
According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with
Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This
was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the
death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command
of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi. It quickly spread
West from Alexandria in North Africa.