Early African Civilizations
Module 14: Early African Civilizations
In this unit, students will examine some of the earliest cultures that developed, thrived, and even survive today in Africa. Beginning in West Africa and moving throughout the continent, students will focus on the rise and fall of the various cultural groups with an emphasis on the social, political, cultural, and economic developments of these groups. Moreover, students will also examine how the interactions between the cultural groups from Africa, Europe, and Asia have had lasting impacts upon our world today.
Essential
Questions Raised in this Unit
v
Why should you study the social sciences, and how are they applicable to your
daily life?
v
How do social scientists construct and evaluate the stories of the past?
v
How does the environment shape human activity, and how does human activity
shape the environment?
v
How do humans fulfill their needs for goods and services?
v
What causes people to invent and express themselves creatively, and what impact
do new inventions, technologies and forms of artistic expression and
communication have on a society’s economy and overall culture?
v
How and why are people or groups in a society treated differently based on
race, gender, religion, etc.?
v
How and why do civilizations change over time?
v
How does religion affect the lives of people and societies?
v
To what extent can an individual and/or group’s actions determine the course of
a society?
v Can there be a just war? Why or why not?
Enduring
Understandings
Following dramatic
changes in the climate of the Sahara, many people migrated into the sahel of West Africa and the savannahs and rainforests northern Central Africa. The unique
geography of each of these areas gave birth to thriving cultures and
empires. Over time, various factors caused Bantu-speaking people in West Africa to migrate
further south. This migration created a diverse array of new cultures
with many common linguistic and cultural features.
Most early West Africans
lived in farming villages where they worked in agriculture. Some lived near the
edge of the forest and rivers and relied on fishing and hunting while others
lived as nomadic herders. Farmers developed crops and farming methods
suitable to the climate and vegetation of their region. Most farmers grew a
small surplus of crops to trade for food that they could not
produce.
Traditional African
villagers were polytheistic and believed in pleasing their gods and worshipping their
ancestors with ritual, music, and dance. Eventual
contact with Arab traders and, later, with Christian missionaries, convinced
many Africans to convert to Islam and Christianity. However, even Muslim
and Christian converts maintained many of their traditional beliefs and
practices such as tracing lineage through matrilineal descent. In traditional villages, history and
culture were passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition. Call and response story telling and songs emphasized the
importance of community.
Kinship was the basis of village government. The
male heads of clans became village chiefs and religious leaders who
often ruled with the assistance of a council of elders. Some traditional African villages
eventually grew into kingdoms.
Slavery was accepted in
many traditional African societies, but slaves were not mistreated or separated
from their families and could earn their freedom. Often, slavery was a
way of paying off debts between clans. Captives of war also became slaves. When
Portuguese merchants discovered that the buying and selling of slaves was a
profitable business, a very different kind of European-dominated slavery began
to be practiced and led to the eventual destruction of many African
societies.
In West Africa, the salt
and gold trade led to the growth of strong empires. Because of the need to
replenish salt lost through perspiration, gold and salt were considered equal
in value In Ghana, taxes collected on goods passing through the
empire allowed its leaders to grow wealthy. Mali continued this system and became well-known
throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe because of Mansa Musa’s famous pilgrimage to Mecca. Under Mansa Musa,
rich trading cities became centers of culture and learning and many West
Africans converted to Islam. Songhai came to dominate West Africa by separating from
Mali, supporting strong rulers like Askia Muhammad, and following many of
Mali's economic, cultural, religious, and political patterns. Ghana,
Mali, and Songhai were all eventually brought down by a combination of internal
strife and external invasion.
The Swahili culture and language combined aspects of Bantu
and Arabian culture and arose from contact between Africans and Arabian,
Persian, and Indian traders on the eastern coast of Africa. Arab
merchants learned to use seasonal winds to sail between Indian and African ports.
Inland African groups brought gold and other precious goods to trade for
foreign goods with the Swahili in the coastal cities. Many trading
ports eventually grew into wealthy city-states such as Kilwa. Although the Portuguese tried to
overtake the Swahili coast, they were ultimately unsuccessful and the Swahili
culture survived and remains alive today.
The kingdom of Kongo developed during the 1300's
and grew to be economically and politically powerful through farming, making
use of the products of the forest, and serving as a crossroads for trade. The
Kongo people were friendly to the Portuguese who sent traders and Christian
missionaries to Africa. However, the Portuguese began using African slaves to
work their plantations and eventually attempted to control the Kongo. The
friendly relationship between the people of the Kongo and of Portugal changed
over time, as cultural beliefs and values about profit and slavery came into
conflict and the Portuguese resorted to more aggressive and invasive tactics.
Eventually, the Portuguese involvement with the slave trade in Kongo led to the
collapse of the kingdom. Module 14: Early African Civilizations
Module 14: Review
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