Native Americans lost many things during conquest.

One of most important their past

–Became frozen in time waiting for modern ‘civilized’ Europeans

Similarly, Africa seen only in terms of slavery and racism

People have failed to give Native Americans and Africans

Agency– i.e. an active role in their own lives and past

Also important to remember that all three worlds – America, Africa, and Europe

neither new or united when they came into contact.

To change this we need to look beyond the thirteen colonies

We have to look at the ‘Atlantic World’

Square miles

Africa 11,717,218 North America 9,351,970 South America 6,882,128Europe 3,827,308

During the colonial period main region of Africa involved western and central Africa

Primarily sub-Saharan Africa

Africa is not a country

It is a continent! Multiple nations

with diverse and varied cultures

3rd millennium BC Change in climate created Sahara Dessert

into what we know today

3,500,000 miles (=USA )

Divided continent into two regions

North Africa–Remained an integral part of “world history”

–In part due to later influence of Islam

Sub-Sarahan Africa–Partially isolated

Due to lack of geological rippling main boundaries in Africa run east to west– East Africa had

volcanic activity Winter rain Desert Savanna rainforest Equator Savanna

Majority of Africans who came/ taken to America from sub-Saharan Africa

Primarily west coastSlavery not only impact on European expansion

Islam also played a role

Following death of Prophet Muhammad – 632

World sees expansion of Arab / Islamic power

Pushing across North Africa Then south and east in to Sub-Sharahan

Africa But also North into Europe Islam and Europe

Conquest & conversion of North Africa allowed Islam to spread to West Africa

Arrival brought West Africa back into broader world

As in Europe it met a pre-existing culture

Archaeological evidence shows

Iron smelting south of Sahara from 7th C BC

Among the people of the Nok culture around Taruga iron work from 4th C

As well as some of earliest sculptures depicting human form

3c BC substantial town in Old Jenne

Artifacts from town show trade items from north and south

Part of independent West African Trade system

Also seen in Igbo Ukwu

S.E. Nigeria

In grave goods of local leader

Bronze works of specific African style

100,000 glass beads from Egypt and Indian

Iron and agriculture allowed internal expansion/ colonialism

Not a regulated, common, or large scale expansion

Environment and political structures dictated small scattered communities

Usually based around Important trade location Access to good land and water

Two factors also played against growth

1) hostile environment 2) Famine

– Locust, heavy rains, excessive warfare Drought 300 -1500 AD low rainfall 1500-1630 good 1639-43 major drought in Niger River

ReligionMany African groups recognized a single creator figure

Often smaller lower level deities were the focus of day to day life

Linkage between humans and deities through ancestors

Christianity was almost entirely unknown

Islam was not –~1030 King of Takur converted

Trans-Saharan trade brought Islam to the region

Combined with African religious practices–Although it did not spread rapidly

until the nineteenth century

North Africa and Europe Islamic presence driven by conquest then conversion

Western Africa driven by tradeResult Islam often confined to the

court and merchants

Extended family was the primary focus for individuals

But these could be and were on occasion spread to Clan and occasionally by force into states or empires

At the time of the first European arrival there were several such powerful states in the region

Eg. Songhai - upper Niger river Mali Benin Kongo

Ghana first mentioned in written sources around 788-93

North of GoldfieldsMade important position on the

linkage between West and North Africa

Trade across SaharaControlled gold trade not

production

Capital was a dual town model

Royal town and trade or merchant town– About 6 miles

apart

King was not a Muslim some advisors were

The king has a palace and a number of domed dwellings all surrounded with an enclosure like a city wall ... The king adorns himself like a woman round his neck and on his forearms, and he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and wrapped in a turban of fine cotton.

He sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the [vassal] kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold

Power in region shifted around 1100

headwaters of the Niger riverMalinke speaking people

–MuslimNon Islamic people attempted

take over region

Sundiata KeitaWarrior/Hunter led

successful resistance

Created kingdom of Mali early 13th Century

Notices

Group and individual book reviews Each assigned group will be assigned

one of the required books They will produce two pieces of work A group book review – max 1000

words – to be made available to whole class

A personal book review – max 750 words to be handed in

Weber Spanish Frontier – 24 Sept. A & F

African states around the time of European contact

SongahiMaliBeninKongo

Songahi On the edge of the desert held authority

over thousands of miles Its primary focus was not the Atlantic but

the Sahara Involved in trans-desert trade

Mali

1324-25 emperor Mansa Musa went on a haji to Mecca

He took a huge amount of gold – possibly 100 camel loads

so much that he devalued the economy in Mecca

Mali, like Songahi, traded across the Sahara– gold for goods from the east

Trading posts– such as Djenni

location of exchange of goods and culture – evidenced by the mud mosque

opposite

Edo, Capital City of Benin Described by a Dutch

visitor as being – “four miles broad”– Thirty straight streets– Each forty yards across– All meeting at right

angles– Lined with fine dwellings

Bennin is and was well known for its sculpture

Late 17th C the ruler of Benin or oba could field an army of 20,000 at a days notice

Kingdom of Kongo States had been situated

around the lower Congo river for many years

The reason for this is a geographical location known as the Pool Malebo

Above pool river navigable for several hundred miles

Below impassable cascade Control of the portage allowed for the

development of a powerful community

Thought to have a population of approximately half a million in 1500

Had control over– collected tribute from

several smaller states

A contemporary snapshot of Africa Al-Hassan ibn-Muhammad al

Wavvan al-Fasi Better known as Leo Africanus raised in Fez (modern Morroco) educated in Islamic law and

worked for the Sultan of Fez went on diplomatic missions twice went to Sub-Saharan

Africa Captured by Christian pirates

and taken to Rome in 1518

Presented as a slave to Pope Leo X converted to Christianity - Given name Giovani Leone (John Leo) In 1526 completed Italian version of History and

Description of Africa became known as Leo Africanus (Leo the African)

Quotes from History and Description of Africa

Mali ‘In this Kingdom there is a large and

ample village containing more than six thousand families’

‘The region itself yields great abundance of wheat meat and cotton’

‘The inhabitants are rich and have plenty of merchandise’

‘Here is a great number of temples, clergymen, and teachers’

Timbuktu ‘Here there are many shops of artisans

and merchants, especially those who weave linen and cotton, and here Barbary merchants bring European cloth.’

‘The inhabitants, and especially resident aliens, are exceedingly rich, since the present King married both of his daughters to rich merchants’

‘The rich king of Timbuktu has many plates and scepters of gold, some of which weigh 1300 pounds, and he keeps a magnificent and well furnished court’

Slavery in Africa West and West central Africans

valued people over land Whereas Europeans “owned” land

and used to increase wealth and power

People were “owned” with the same consequences

But this “ownership” was based in ideas at best mis-undertood by Europeans

Slaves part of a structured and separated society

Made up a social group within societies Land held communally

– Use given in relation to the amount that could be used

Therefore, slaves highly prized Wars were fought not over land but

over slaves and the labor they could offer

Slaves in African society had numerous and specific roles

Roles that their “owners” often did by their side

Slaves could fight in wars and lead campaigns

Women were valued, in part, for their reproductive value

Over time not unusual for slaves to become recognized members of the household

As we shall see this was a different structure to that of American slavery

Africans and the ocean African's did not have ocean going

ships significant coastal trade

“These canoemen, despicable theives think they are more than

just labour”

Africans played an active role in European expansion

The trading ‘forts’ that were planted drew population

Mouri – –Dutch Fort Nassaw 1612

1550 ~2001618 ~1500

Elmina Founded 1482 by Portuguese Dutch takeover 1682 Castle Sao Jorge da Mina and town

Initially allowed for a space of liminality

Development of Creole societiesSocieties “of but not always in the

societies of the Africans who dominated the interior trade and the Europeans who controlled commerce in the Atlantic”

Around Elmina manufactories appear– Boat yards– Foundries

Served the Atlantic trade Operated not by Africans or

Europeans but by both By 1669 time New Amsterdam

– Pop 1500 Was being taken by English Elmira population 8,000

Abee Coffu Jantie Seniees Leading Creole African Merchant Appears in Euro journals as

– Jan Snees– Jacque Senece– Johan Sinsen– Jantee Snees

Indicates his diverse interaction– Danish at Fredriksburg– Dutch at Elmina– English at Cape Coat– Africans in the interior

Not only in Africa Creoles spread

throughout the early Atlantic World

Both to Americas and Europe

Mid 16th Century 10,000

Africans/Creoles in Lisbon Portugal

10% of population

Group and individual book reviews Each assigned group will be assigned

one of the required books They will produce two pieces of work A group book review – max 1000

words – to be made available to whole class

A personal book review – max 750 words to be handed in

Weber Spanish Frontier – 24 Sept. A & F