Medieval Africa
By: Matthew Cheon and Cade Glover
The Bantu Migrations - Cade Glover
The migration created smaller groups that were left behind and created trade routes and also sea ports.
Early Africa Culture - Matthew Cheon
Animism is spread out throughout the ancient tribes of Africa, South America, Australia and Southern Asia. Animism is one of the oldest religions that exists and remote tribes throughout the African continent still practices their religions as of today. Animism believes in being spiritual beings for they see a certain principle about life. Their belief is based off of polytheism which is a religion that believes in more than one god. Natural objects, universe, and a soul or spirit is believed to be a god in this religion for they believe these are the forces of life and health that keeps it all together. They value highly and respect the powers of nature which are spirit of rain, wind, animal, forest, and nature. They strongly make efforts with harmonizing with nature and everything around for it is one of their core belief.
Scarification:
Tattooing is practiced throughout the world and today for that matter and in a way, tattoos are one type of scars. However in tribes of Africa, for dark ink was not visible in their dark skin tone, they used scarification on their body to show ones linage and personality. These scars are controlled in such a way to create the shapes of different scar tissue with sharp instruments. Long and painful, these often generates respect and honor within the society for it means that they went through the pain to generate such beauty. In girls, these mark often were used to indicate major stages in life such as puberty and marriage. The tribe men considered these scarified women to be attractive and considered them to be able to endure the pain of giving birth to children
Interaction with Asian cultures:
The middle east Asia is technically an asian culture and these civilization affected the African core religion and their way of life. The religion of these massive asian civilization was Islam and spread mainly through trade. Trade played a big factor for it connected the thousands of miles apart asian culture with Africa. Silk road also came near the continent of Africa which affected them in a way as well. In 1405 - 1433, Zheng He from the Ming Dynasty spreader Chinese cultures to distant lands such as Africa and spreader the belief of Confucian ritual and belief, standardized calendars, weights, measures, agricultural methods, manufacturing techniques, construction and carving methods, medicine and numerous new technology at the time.
Timeline of the African Kingdom along the Niger River - Cade Glover
300 A.D. The beginning of Ancient Ghana took place. They took control of the gold and salt trade also known as the Trans-Saharan trade route.
610 A.D. Muslims take rule over the Ancient Ghana.
1076 A.D. The civilization begins to fade away.
1240 A.D. Eventually is attacked and absorbed by the Mali Empire.
The Ghana empire is what set the civilization into the trade of gold and salt. During the rule of the Ghana's empire, the muslims became jealous of all the gold that was mined from this civilization. They attacked and gained control but the Ghana gradually gained and built strong defense system which succeeded them the first time but they could not defend against the Mali empire for they were still recovering from their previous foreign rule.
Mali (1230AD- 1600AD)Through the influence of Mansa Musa I and several large gold mines, Mali was able to rise and grow to a substantial size. Their gold mines allowed them to have a surplus of gold that they could trade for other needed resources, providing them with a stable and prosperous economy. With the death of Mahmud IV, conflict broke out between his three sons to gain power, and no ruler was established. This caused the empire to split into several regions. Through constant war and disunity these regions were constantly weakened until their collapse.
Songhai (1400AD- 1700AD)Songhai grew and rose to power through the spread of their islamic culture through the trans-saharan trade route and the Riger River. This led to a massive cultural and religious influence all throughout Western Africa. Their location served a key role in establishing their dominance at the time and was a catalyst that established the presence of Islam in Northern Africa. After emporer Asokia Daoud died, a civil war broke out in the empire causing disunity in the empire. This left the area vulnerable and an easy target for outside invasion. The Saaid took the oppurtunity and took over Songhai.
Diffusion of Islam - Matthew Cheon
Only decades after the Prophet Muhammad, who was the founder of this religion died, in the mid seventh century AD, the religion of Islam has already spread into norther Africa. the rulers and courtiers of Africa were converted easily for it gave them benefits in trade on sea and land. later in the eleventh century, the Almoravid intervention, strict observers of Islamic law, set these belief in the country. Spread of Islam has gradually paved an acceptable path throughout the history of the existence of Islam.
A camel caravan which is also called a camel train is numerous camels carrying goods and passengers through the harsh conditions of the desert. These camels were used to make long voyages to Africa across the scorching desert of the Arabian peninsula. Camels could go days without water and often served as transporting goods to one place to another.
Trans-Saharan trade route
Trans Saharan trade traveled across the Sahara to reach the north west part of Africa from the north part of African and then on to Europe by sea. The Trans Saharan trade route lasted from 7th to the 14th century. The mediterranean economies were on shortage of gold and the West African countries had gold but not enough salt. therefore these two civilization traded gold for salt and salt for gold. The transportation of these goods across the Sahara desert was mainly by the camels who could sustain life on these harsh desert climate.
City of Timbuktu - Matthew Cheon
Role of Gold and salt in Niger kingdom - Matthew Cheon
Mansa Musa - Matthew Cheon
Swahili Coast - Matthew Cheon
Christianity and Conflict - Cade Glover
The White Mosque of Africa - Matthew Cheon
Works Cited
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