African States and the Atlantic World: Empires, Trade, and Cultural Encounters

1. Chapter 25 Africa and the Atlantic World .

2. African States, 1500-1650

3. The States of West Africa and East Africa Kingdom of Ghana • Developed over the eighth to the sixteenth centuries • Kingdom of Ghana (9th century to 13th century) • Not related to modern state of Ghana (further north and in the interior, not on the coast) • Tran-Saharan gold and salt trading nation was source of wealth; used camels • Accounts of Arabic-speaking traders describe the kingdom • Becomes fully Muslim by 1100s; declines and become incorporated into the Mali Empire

4. The States of West Africa and East Africa • Mali Empire (13th-16th century) • Grew along the Niger River Valley • Traded gold, salt, copper, and slaves • Military power was based on semi-professional army; relied on archers, some with poisoned arrows • Muslim religion mixed with traditional ancestor worship • Songhay Empire (1464-1591) • Expands in the early 1500s as Mali Empire declines; trading city of Gao is its capital • Sunni Ali (r. 1464-1493) created effective army and navy that patrolled the Niger River; brought other cities like Timbuktu under control • All emperors are Muslim and even create an Islamic university at Timbuktu • Musket-bearing Moroccan army destroys Songhay forces in 1591; a series of regional city-states exert local control in the void left by Songhay decline

5. Swahili Decline in East Africa Portuguese image of Kilwa made some time before 1572 Portuguese Vasco da Gama skirmishes with Africans on eastern coast, 1497-1498, on his way to India. Portuguese fleet returns in 1502, and forces Swahili city-state of Kilwa to pay tribute By 1505, Portuguese gunships dominate the black Muslim, Swahili-speaking ports of the East African coast.

6. Swahili Decline in East Africa East African Cities of the 1500s

7. The Kingdom of Kongo • Relations with Portuguese beginning 1483 • King Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I, r. 1506-1542) converts to Roman Catholicism • Useful connection with Portuguese interests • Viewed Christianity as supporting royal rule • Christian saints align with many traditional Kongolese spirits • A zealous convert, Afonso attempted to convert population at large

8. The King of Kongo and European Ambassadors

9. Slave Raiding in Kongo • Initial Portuguese attempts at slave raiding • Soon discovered it is easier to trade weapons for slaves provided by African traders • Dealt with several authorities besides Kongo • Kongo kings appeal without success to slow, but not eliminate, slave trade (especially in regard to the enslavement of nobles of his family) • Relations deteriorate, Portuguese attack Kongo and decapitate king in 1665 • Improved slave market develops in the south

10. The Kingdom of Ndongo (Angola) • Ndongo gains wealth and independence from Kongo by means of Portuguese slave trade • But Portuguese influence resisted by Queen Nzinga (r. 1623-1663) • Posed as male king, with male concubines in female dress attending her • Nzinga establishes temporary alliance with Dutch in unsuccessful attempt to expel Portuguese • Decline of Ndongo power after her death • Ndongo becomes the Portuguese colony of Angola (they do not withdraw until 1975)

11. The Kingdom of Ndongo (Angola) Queen Nzinga Meeting with Europeans in 1657

12. Regional Kingdoms in South Africa • Chieftains in South develop trade with Swahili city-states of the east coast • Great Zimbabwe: Great walled city-state that dominated gold-producing area of the modern-day state Zimbabwe from roughly 1100 to 1400. • Dutch build Cape Town in 1652, and become increasingly involvement with southern African politics • Encounter Khoikhoi people (often called “Hottentots” by Europeans) • British colonies also develop and eventually compete with Dutch settlments

13. Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa Pre-Islamic paganism involved animism and ancestor worship Islam develops in commercial centers Timbuktu becomes major center of Islamic scholarship by sixteenth century African traditions and beliefs blended into Islam Islam often changed gender relations and standards of female modesty

14. The Fulani Began as a nomadic pastoral people of West Africa who had moved into cities by the 1600s Started a movement to impose strict adherence to Islamic norms Around 1680, the Fulani begin military campaigns to enforce sharia in West Africa Their influence extended to south as well

15. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa • Like African Islam, Christian practice was syncretic with African beliefs • The Antonian movement flourished in the early eighteenth century • Founded by Dona Beatriz, a charismatic Kongolese noblewoman, who claimed she was possessed by the spirit of St. Anthony of Padua (13th-century Franciscan monk and patron saint of Portugal) • She promotes distinctly African Christianity • Jesus was a black man • Kongo was the holy land • Heaven was for Africans • Christian missionaries persuade King Pedro IV of Kongo to burn Dona Beatriz at the stake

16. Social Change in Early Modern Africa • Trade with Europeans brings new goods to Africa • New crops from Americas • South American manioc (cassava) becomes the staple bread flour (must be boiled; raw cassava has considerable amount of cyanide) • New World crops peanuts and maize become important supplements to Sub-Saharan crops of bananas, yams, rice, and millet • Increased food supply boosts overall population growth despite heavy losses via the slave trade

17. Population Growth in Africa

18. Foundations of the Slave Trade • Slavery in Sub-Saharan Africa dates to antiquity, well before Europeans arrive • War captives, criminals, debtors, and people expelled from clans were made into slaves • Distinct from Asian and European slavery • No private property, therefore wealth defined by human labor potential, not land: status in kinship network • Slaves often assimilated into owner’s clan, especially a woman who gave birth to a child for the family

19. The Islamic Slave Trade After eighth century, Muslim traders created a much bigger demand for slaves, bringing them back to the Middle East and Mediterranean for sale African peoples acquired slaves by raiding villages, and then selling them to Arab traders on Swahili coast or at trans-Saharan trading depots Arab traders depend on African infrastructure to maintain supply European demand on west coast caused demand to rise to even greater heights

20. The Early Slave Trade Portuguese raid west African coast in 1441, take twelve men and meet with stiff resistance. Discover it is less risky to buy slaves from African dealers rather than take them by force. 1460: By this time Portuguese traders bought 500 slaves per year and sold them to work as miners, porters, domestic servants in Spain and Portugal 1520: 2,000 per year to work in sugarcane plantations in the Americas

21. Slaves at Work in a New World Mine

22. The Triangular Trade 1) European manufactured goods (especially firearms) sent to Africa 2) African slaves purchased and sent to Americas 3) Cash crops purchased in Americas and returned to Europe Each leg of this voyage was not usually carried out by the same ship. For example, by the late 1700s, slave ships were specialized to carry only human cargo.

23. The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1500-1800

24. The Middle Passage (Africa to Americas) Nineteenth-century drawing of enslaved African war captives being marched African captors force-marched slaves from the interior to holding pens at coast

25. The Middle Passage (Africa to Americas) • Spanish first bring slaves directly from Africa to Caribbean in 1518 (some may have arrived via Portuguese as early as 1501) • Portuguese brought slaves directly from Kongo and Angola to Brazil by the 1530s • Middle passage under horrific conditions: • 4-6 weeks (shortest passage was to Brazil) • Cramped quarters; high rates of disease; extreme temperatures and dampness in ships’ holds; adult males were put in chains; horrible smell • Mortality initially high, often over 50% in the 1500s and 1600s, eventually declined to 5% by late 1700s

26. The Middle Passage (Africa to Americas) • Total slave traffic, 1500s to 1800s: twelve million • Approximately four million die before arrival • Competition between European slave-trading nations: • 1500s: Trade dominated by Portuguese • 1600s: Competition between Portugal, Spain, England France, Netherlands • 1650: Netherlands briefly becomes dominant slave trading nation • 1700s: Trade dominated by the British (Liverpool, Bristol, and London merchants)

27. Average Yearly Volume of African Slave Exports by Century

28. Impact on African Regions Rwanda and Bugunda of the Great Lakes region and the Masai and Turkana herding peoples of the eastern plains escape the effects of the slave trade being far from the west coast slave ports Some societies benefited economically from slave trade: Asante, Dahomey, and Oyo peoples These slave trading states became despised by neighboring peoples

29. Social Effects of Slave Trade • Total African population expands due to importation of American crops • Yet millions of captured Africans removed from society, deplete regional populations • Distorted sex ratios result • Two-thirds of slaves were male, 14-35 years of age • Less males encouraged polygamy and women acting in traditionally male roles

30. Political Effects of Slave Trade Introduction of firearms increases violence in pre-existing conflicts More weapons, more slaves; more slaves, more weapons Dahomey people create an entire army dedicated to slave trade

31. African Slaves in Plantation Societies • Most slaves brought to tropical and subtropical regions • First plantation established in Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) in 1516 • Later Mexico, Brazil, Caribbean, and Americas • Sugar was the first major cash crop • Later: tobacco, rice, indigo, cotton, coffee • Plantations heavily dependent on slave labor • Racial division of labor

32. Destinations of African Slavesfrom the 1500s to the 1800s

33. Regional Differences • Caribbean, South America: African population unable to maintain numbers through natural means • Malaria, yellow fever • Brutal working conditions, sanitation, nutrition • Gender imbalance; tiny number of female slaves • Constant importation of slaves • North America: less disease, more balanced sex ratio • Slave families encouraged as prices for slaves rise in eighteenth century

34. Resistance to Slavery • Working slowly for masters • Sabotaging plantation equipment (plows or sugar refining equipment) • Flight to maroon settlements in mountains, swamps, or jungles outside of the reach of colonial authority • New World Slave Revolts (not a complete list!) • Danish West Indies in 1733 • Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739 • Tacky’s War in Jamaica in 1760 • Dutch Guyana in 1763 • St. Domingue in 1791 (Haiti founded in 1804) • Gabriel Prosser’s Revolt in Virginia in 1800 • Denmark Vesey’s Revolt in South Carolina in 1822 • Nat Turner’s Revolt in Virginia in 1831 • Multiple revolts in Cuba across the 1800s

35. Slave Revolts • Only one successful revolt • French-controlled Saint-Domingue (1791-1804) • Renamed Haiti • Elsewhere, revolts outgunned by Euro-American firepower • Vicious suppression of revolts, especially in places like the Caribbean where slaves greatly outnumbered whites

36. African-American Culture • Diversity of African cultures concentrated in slave population; slaves in the same ship often could not even speak to each other. No sense of “African” identity before arrival in the Americas. • African American culture blends many different African cultures • Creole Languages: Gullah (coastal South Carolina) and Geechee (coastal Georgia). African-based languages survived to a greater degree in places that had high slave concentrations and minimal contact with Europeans; otherwise slaves adapted European language adapted with African influences. • Religion: Christianity adapted to incorporate African traditions; religions like Voudou in Haiti, Santeria in Cuba, and Candomblé in Brazil blend Christianity and African beliefs • Music: Much of American popular music blends African rhythms with Anglo-Irish melodies: spirituals, blues, jazz, soul, hip hop, rock, etc. • Foodways: Southern cooking and New Orleans cuisine especially blends African traditions and ingredients with European ones, as in gumbo.

37. The Abolition of Slavery • Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), former slave author’s best-selling autobiography • Humanized the trauma caused by slavery • Some evidence he was born in South Carolina rather than Benin • Economic costs of slavery increase • Military expenses to prevent rebellions • Late Eighteenth Century: Price of sugar falls while the price of slaves rise. • Wage labor becomes perceived as more efficient • Wage-earners can spend income on manufactured goods, while slaves cannot

38. End of the Slave Trade • Abolition of Atlantic Slave Trade • 1803 – Denmark • 1807 – Great Britain • 1808 – United States (20 year period mandated by Constitution expires; internal domestic trade between states still allowed) • 1814 – France • 1817 – Netherlands • 1845 - Spain • Possession of slaves remains legal • Clandestine trade continues to 1867 (some New York City merchants were involved with the trade, even during the Civil War)

39. Toward Emancipation • Abolition of Slavery • 1833 – British Colonies (owners are compensated by the government) • 1848 – French and Danish Colonies (compensated) • 1863 – Netherlands (compensated) • 1865 – United States (with a bloody civil war; no compensation) • 1886 – Cuba (a law in 1880 made slaves indentured servants) • 1888 - Brazil (by royal decree; institution was in decline) • Saudi Arabia and Angola continue slavery as a legal institution until the 1960s • Many experts consider the varieties of human trafficking that still exist modern forms of slavery