Chapter 15: Societies and Empires of Africa 800-1500

C. Wiggins

1.Hunter-Gathering Societies

The hunter-gathering societies are groups of people scattered throughout Africa, who speak their own languages and often use distinctive hunting techniques. These groups consist of the Efe, who make their own home in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They have been around for many centuries and date back to prehistoric times. They were some of the founding people of hunting and gathering.

2. Stateless Societies

Lineages were the people who started the stateless societies. Stateless societies were people who had no centralized system of power, but authority in a stateless society was balanced among lineages of equal power so that one family had too much control. Stateless societies existed in Africa, during the 9th century until today. The first stateless society appeared in Africa.

N.Brown

3. Muslim States

After the death of Muhammad in 632 Muslims swept across the northwest part of the continent. By 670, Muslims ruled Egypt and had entered the Magrib. Some Africans rulers converted to Islam as it spreaded. These African Muslims rulers then based their government upon Islamic. Because Muslims believed that God’s law is a higher authority than any human law the Muslim rulers often relied on religious scholars as government advisers.

4. Ghana: Land of Gold

Ghana is a West African kingdom that grew rich from taxing and controlling trade and that established an empire in the 9th – 11th centuries A.D. The trade routes that were used crossed the savanna through the region farmed by the Soninke. The Soninke people called their ruler Ghana, or war chief. By the 700s, Soninke rulers of the kingdom were growing rich from taxing the goods that traders carried through their territory.

The two most important trade items were gold and salt. Gold came from a forest region south of the savanna between the Niger and Sengal River. Some sources estimate that until about 1350, at least two-thirds of the worlds supply of gold came from West Africa.

5. Empire of Mali

By 1235 the kingdom of Mali had emerged. It’s founders were Mande-speaking people, who lived south of Ghana. Mali’s first great leader, Sundiata, came to power by crushing a cruel, unpopular leader. From his new capital at Niani, he promoted agriculture and reestablished the gold-salt trade. People began to call Sunindiate’s empire Mali, meaning "where the king lives.’

H.Wade

6. Empire Of Songhai

Songhai was under the control of Mali until it's decline in the 1400s. the Songhai extended their territory to the Niger River near Gao and gained control of the trade routes. Gao was the capital of their empire.The Songhai had two extraordinary rulers. Sunni Ali's rule began in 1464 and lasted almost 30 years. He built an army that had a fleet of war canoes and fighters on horseback. In 1468 he captured the city of Timbuktu. Five years later, he took Djenne, having besieged the city for seven years. It fell in 1473 and he sealed the takeover by marrying the city's queen. Sunni Ali died in 1492 and his son took over, but faced a violent revolt from Muslims who were angry that he didnt practice Islam faithfully. The leader of the revolt, Askia Muhammad, drove him from power and replaced him. He ruled for 35 years, setting up an efficient tax system and choosing able officials. Adding to the centralized gov't Sunni Ali had set up, appointed ministers of the treasury, army, navy, and agriculture. The gov't thrived. Despite its wealth and learning, the Songhai lacked modern weapons. In 1591 Moroccan troops defeated Songhai warriors, ending the thousand year period in which empires and kingdoms ruled central West Africa.

7. Others of West Africa

The Hausa were named after the language they spoke. Their city-states first emerged between 1000 and 1200 in the savanna areas east of Mali and Songhai(presnt-day Nigeria). In some city-states, the local rulers built walled cities for their captitals. From there, Hausa rulers governed the villages outside the walls. Each ruler depended on the farmer's crops and thriving trade. The Hausa city-states had similar forms of gov't, constant fighting prevented the city-states from building a Hausa empire. Yoruba people originally belonged to small city-states in the forests on the southern edge of the savanna in present day Benin and southwestern Nigeria and the majority were farmers. Over time, some of the smaller communties joined together under strong leaders which led to the formation of several localized kingdoms. The kings were considered divine and were the most important religious and political leaders in their kingdoms. Every king could trace their descent from the first ruler of Ife.The kingdom of Benin made their homes in forests near the delta of the Niger river. The first kings of Benin date from the 1300s. The oba(ruler) of Benin based his right to rule on claims of descent rom Ife. In the 1400s, the oba named Euware made Benin into a major West African state by building a powerful army. he used it to control an area stretching from the Niger River delta in the east to present-day Lagos, Nigeria. He also built walls around Benin City. In the 1480s the Portuguese began to trade with Benin merchants beginning several centuries of European interference in Africa.

L Thomas

East Coast Trade Cities

Bantu- speaking people are peoples of a related group of languages who, beginning about 2,000 years ago, migrated from West Africa into most of the southern half of Africa.These people established farming and fishing villages. By 1300, more than 35 trading cities dotted the coast from Mogadishu in the north to Kilwa and Sofala in the South. By 1100, waves of bantu- speaking people had migrated across central Africa to the East Coast. In 1331, Ibn Battuta visited Kilwa. In addition, in the late 1200s Kilwa had seized the port of Sofala, whisch was a trading center for gold mined inland. In 1488, the first Portuguese ships rounded the southern tip of Africa and sailed north, looking for a sea route to India.Pesian traders moved south from the Horn of Africa--a triangular peninsula near Arabia. They brought back manufactured goods to Africa and African raw materials to Asia. In the coastal markets, Arab traders sold porcelain bowls from China and jewels and cotton cloth from India. They brought African ivory, gold, tortoiseshell, ambergris, leopard skins, and rhinoceros horns to carry to Arabia.

Islamic Influences

Muslim traders’ were people who introduced Islam to the East African coast, and the growth of commerce caused it to spread. Muslim traders exported enslaved persons to do burdensome domestic tasks. In 1331, Ibn Battuta visited the Eats African city of Mogadishu. Perhaps around the 1,000 a year or in the ninth century traders had been enslaving East Africans and selling them overseas. The trade-enslaved persons did not increase dramatically until the 1700s. Trade was very influencial to the Islamic religion.

Great Zimbabwe

The Great Zimbabwe was a city established by the Shona