1) Several major empires rose and fell in pre-colonial Africa, including Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in West Africa known for trans-Saharan trade of gold and salt.
2) In East Africa, the Aksum and Zimbabwe empires grew wealthy through trade of ivory and gold along Indian Ocean trade routes.
3) Trade brought economic growth as well as spread of Islam and Christianity throughout Africa, with Timbuktu becoming a center of learning under Mali rule.
3. • Strength of Empires depended on trade
networks.
• History accounts come from oral
accounts/stories and writing of African
scholars and Islamic Traders.
• Trade Exchange: Mined Gold was traded
for salt from the desert.
• Large amounts of Gold were traded until
1500CE. Then ivory and even slaves were
traded for textiles.
4. African Civilizations
• West African Kingdoms
– Location of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai
empires relative to Niger River and the
Sahara
– Importance of gold and salt to trans-Saharan
trade
– City of Timbuktu as center of trade and
learning
– Role of Animism and Islam
5. • Ghana earliest kingdom (NW of present day
Ghana) Profit from Gold-Salt exchange
• Reached peak around 1050CE
• 1235CE neighboring people overthrew Ghana
and established the Empire of Mali
• Mali Takes over area that was Ghana and
spreads over large areas to the North and West
along the upper Niger River
• Mali’s power reached its peak under leader
Mansa Musa
• Mansa Musa supporter education, arts, built
buildings, and JUSTICE.
• Timbuktu became a leading center of learning.
• Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca. (Muslim – 5
Pillars)
10. • Songhai 1468CE rebel leader Sonni’Ali
captures Timbuktu and builds up the
kingdom of Songhai
• City of Gao became one of Africa's
busiest commercial centers on the Niger
River.
• Songhai becomes the biggest of the
African Kingdoms and uses warships to
patrol the Niger River. Governors are
used to control provinces.
• 1591 the Moroccan army with guns
defeats the Songhai troops.
12. • East Africa – Nubians(Kush)/Axum
• Bantu- language that spread across Africa with
migrating people
• African languages today have similarities to
Bantu
• Women- were primary farmers. Many historians
believe the societies to be matrilineal. (mom in
charge) – People traced their ancestors and
inherited property through the mothers
• Religion – spirits in everything animism
– Spirits of ancestry, with a supreme creator
god
13. • 710bc the Nubians(Kush) conquered upper
Egypt and ruled for 50 years
• 671bce Assyrians invade and weaken kingdom
• Taken over by Aksum (Axum) in the
Ethiopian Highlands (plateau)
• Successful ivory trade for gold, rhinoceros
horns, ivory, incense, decorative obsidian stones
with the Mediterranean.
• Imported glass, metal ornaments, pottery, wine,
and olive oil
• Only Africa Kingdom that becomes Christian.
(Others =Islam)
18. • African culture Swahili developed in East
Africa. Swahili is from the Bantu language.
• Cultures connected by trade to South
Africa.
• Mogadishu on Indian Ocean Trading
Center
• Ibn Battuta was a famous Islamic traveler
wrote about his journeys
20. • Great Zimbabwe
– Location relative to the Zambezi and
Limpopo rivers and the Indian Ocean
Coast
– City of “Great Zimbabwe” as capital of a
prosperous empire
– Gold traded for salt, tools, cloth
– Great fortification (maze of walls)
– Unknown reason for decline. 1400s
21. Great Zimbabwe [1200-1450]
“Zimbabwe” = “stone enclosure”
22. • States and empires flourished in Africa
during the medieval period, including
Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in West Africa,
Axum in east Africa, and Zimbabwe in
southern Africa.
• Trade brought important economic,
cultural, and religious influences to African
civilizations from other parts of the Eastern
Hemisphere.
