Africa

1. Africa

2. North coast mountainous • South of mountains Sahara • Sub-Saharan Africa contains numerous regions • Hump- grasslands in interior and tropical forests along the coast • Horn- Snow capped Mountains, plateaus, and lakes, grassland • Central Africa- Congo basin • Jungles • South Africa • Hills, plateaus, deserts Geography

3. Near the junction of White and Blue Niles • Contact between Kush and Egypt • Egyptian merchants • later ruled by Egypt • disintegration of New Kingdom leads to independence • Kushite culture borrowed from Egypt • Religious beliefs, hieroglyphics, pyramids for kings internment • Economy- agriculture and animal husbandry • trade state • Strategically located near Moroe River • Provided goods from central and east Africa Kush/ Nubia

4. Migrated across Red Sea • Owed wealth to location • On trade routes between India, and the Med • 4th cen. CE invades Kush and conquered • Religion- claimed decent from King Solomon • 4thcen CE converted to Christianity • Called Coptic Axum, Son of Saba

5. Climate originally cooler than today • 3,000 BCE desertification • Migrated east to Nile and south into grasslands • Began exchanging goods across Sahara • Berber people • Pastoral people of N Africa • May have spread ironworking south of the desert Sahara and its environs

6. Northern Nigeria • active iron working societies • Terra-cotta and metal figurines • 1st millennium BCE camels stimulate trans Saharan trade • fleets of the desert Nok

7. Libyan desert • Constructed complex irrigation systems • Traded w/ Rome across Sahara • Declined as a result of fall of Rome and drying of desert Garamantes

8. Along shores of Indian ocean • Mixture of peoples • Spoke Bantu Dialects • Language family moved from Niger River Valley East • subsistence farming • Minimal population, ample land • Small self sufficient political and economic villages • Rhapta- port city • Trade along Indian ocean and down east coast of Africa • Facilitated by monsoon winds • Banana, yams East Africa

9. 5 of the major lang. families • More recent systems of writing • Urban life • Towns began as fortified walled villages • Teeming markets • Symbiotic relationship with merchant class • Prevalence of peace in region African Society

10. Vast majority of inhabitants • Nuclear family and lineage groups • Combined into large kinship communities • Building blocks of society • Authority of leading members substantial • Village consist of single lineage group • Head of village “big man” • Believed to possess supernatural powers Village Life

11. Subordinate to men • Polygony not uncommon • Worked in field while men tended cattle or hunted • Specialized in commercial areas • Lineage matrilineal • Women companionship with men other than husband common Role of Women

12. Practiced in Africa since Ancient times • New Kingdom • Slaving expeditions brought back from upper Nile • Berber tribes regularly raided ag communities south of Sahara • North Africa- as much as 75% of pop. Enslaved • May win freedom • Living conditions practically indistinguishable from individuals in household Slavery

13. Painting and Sculpture • Earliest- rock paintings • Wood carvings and sculpture • Terra cotta and metal figurines • Music • Served religious function • Heavy rhythmic beats • Varied from society to society • Wide variety of instruments • Architecture • Pyramids • stelea • Marked tombs of kings • Some as high as 100’ • Western Africa used dried mud African culture