Sub-Saharan Africa: History and Government

1. Sub-Saharan Africa: History and Government

2. First Civilizations • Around 2,000 BC • Thousands of Saharan Africans were forced to migrate south due to a rapid change in climate. • The once mild and wet northern land was becoming dry and hot, inhospitable for living • These people brought with them their knowledge of raising crops and domesticating animals. • Domesticate – to tame • Between 2,000 – 1,000 BC • Egyptians, settled in the fertile Nile Valley, began to press south. • As the Egyptian civilization faded away, kingdoms like the Kingdom of Kush, modern Sudan, rose in power. • Kush flourished until 300 AD, when Axum, a powerful trading empire in northern Ethiopia, attacked its trade routes

4. Empires in the West • Several centuries later, trading empires began to gain strength in West Africa: • Ghana • Formed around 700 AD • Capital city of Kumbi • Traded gold for Saharan Salt • Salt was highly valued for its use as a food preservative • Gold was plentiful in Ghana • Ghana flourished for nearly 500 years • Mali • Succeeded Ghana • Also grew rich from gold-for-salt trade • Larger than Egypt • Capital was the wealthy city of Timbuktu • Songhai • Took over Mali • Prospered until about 1600 when it was overrun by Moroccans from the north

5. Bantu Migration • There are more than 60 million people who speak Bantu as their native language. They live primarily in the regions that straddle the equator and continue southward into southern Africa where it is believed they migrated to. • The migration of the Bantu is still debated by historians, but many believe that the Bantu origins lie in Cameroon, and in about 1000 BC their massive migration began.

6. European Colonization – Slave Trade • Europeans began trading with African as early as the 1200s. • These earlier traders brought gold, ivory, textiles and other African goods back to Europe. • By the 1600s and 1700s the trade had increased, and now included a heavy amount of enslaved workers • African chiefs had for centuries traded enslaved prisoners of war. • The slave trade greatly increased when Europeans needed more labor to work its large plantations in the Americas • Once purchased, slaves faced a terrible, often deadly, trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

7. Atlantic Slave Trade • http://history.howstuffworks.com/29888-assignment-discovery-atlantic-slave-trade-video.htm

8. European Colonization: Europe Divides and Rules • In the 1800s European powers regarded the region as a source of raw materials, needed for its growing industries. • As such, European countries quickly laid claim to African territory. • By 1914, all of Africa (excluding Ethiopia and Liberia) was under European control. • These European invaders brought their religion and culture with them. • Many subsistence farms were replaced by large plantations, growing cash crops like coffee and tea.

9. Freedom in South Africa • Apartheid \ə-ˈpär-ˌtāt, -ˌtīt\ • Aformer social system in South Africa in which black people and people from other racial groups did not have the same political and economic rights as white people and were forced to live separately from white people • Officially began in 1948, as the Afrikaner National Party won the general election under the slogan “apartheid” (literally “separateness”). • Officially fell in 1994 as a new constitution took effect, enfranchising blacks and other racial groups

10. Nelson Mandela • http://www.history.com/topics/apartheid