Sub-Saharan Africa: APHistory

Where has it been illustrated on the Advanced Placement Examination

• 2002 CCOT Global trading patterns 1750-Present• 2003 CCOT role of Islam 800-1750 COMP roles of women

1750-1914• 2004 CCOT Labor systems• 2005 DBQ Muslim leaders, CCOT social and economic

transformations 1492-1750, COMP Islamic states• 2007 CCOT Nationalist identities post WWI to present• 2010 DBQ African reaction to imperialism, CCOT cultural

beliefs 1450 –present• 2011 CCOT long distance migration 1700-1900 COMP Sudanic

with Mongol or Aztec

The Bantu originally came from around

A. the Swahili areaB. modern day NigeriaC. far southern AfricaD. EgyptE. modern day Algeria

Movements of people

Modern Day Nigeria

• West Africa but brought agricultural and iron smelting technology as they moved in a South/SouthEast settlement pattern because of the population drain on food. They will become the Sudanic Kingdoms, Swahili city-states, rainforest kingdoms etc.

What is considered Africa?

In which of the following societies did women enjoy the most freedom and opportunity?

A. MesopotamiaB. Egypt C. HebrewsD. AssyriaE. India

Yes, folks…

• Egypt is considered both Africa as well as the Middle East. Women were regents, could hold property and a few were pharaohs (Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Cleopatra)

Trade-travelers-Triumph

Which of the following lists three places Ibn Battuta, the fourteenth-century Muslim traveler, visited?

a) The Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Japanb) The Arabian Peninsula, France, and Indiac) India, Mali, and Persiad) India, Persia, and Polande) England, Iraq, and Mali

Dar al Islam-the abode of Islam

• C, India, Mali and Persia: This prolific writer provides a quadi’s guide to the over 75,00 miles in Dar al Islam. He marvels as women in Mali involved in conversations with men who are not their husbands (scandalous), take land and sea routes to the Delhi Sultanate, and provides a geography of all 14th century territories

Hey ladies!!!!!

In the period between 600 and 1450, which of the following were two occupations pursued by large numbers of African and European women?

a) Midwife and healerb) Military leader and farmerc) Scribe and tax collectord) Long-distance trader and merchante) Metalworker and textile manufacturer

Domestic traditions

• A a midwife (serving the birthing mother) and healer (domestic health practitioner) were the traditional roles of a mother and thus extended to a vocational (job) role of post classical women. It should be noted, however, that women in traditional Africa societies had more importance stressed through matrilineal and bride wealth as cattle raisers)

Religion in Africa

After the expansion of Islam into Africa, an organized Christian presence remained in:

a) Egypt and Ethiopiab) Moroccoc) Mauritania and Tunisiad) The areas along the Silk Roade) Algeria

Coptic Christianity

• A. Ethiopia and Egypt are still Coptic today stemming from the classical empire of Axum.

• Islam and Christianity still battle it out in areas like Nigeria, the Sudan and Egypt just to name a few

A Post-Classical Comparison

• Western Europe and Sub-Saharan African civilizations resembled each other during the post-classical period in that both

• (A) Remained polytheistic and largely untouched by the expanding monotheistic faiths

• (B) Were isolated from Arab merchant activity• (C) Were politically ruled by strong centralized

monarchies• (D) Were loosely organized and politically divided

D. Loosely organized and politically divided

• Feudalism and stateless societies illustrate the loose organizaton and various kingdoms (Holy Roman Empire, Kongo, Caliphate of Cordova, Mali) indicate division

Sub-Saharan Africa

• What was typical of the African societies not affected by either Islam or Christianity?

• (A) Absence of trade• (B) Lack of city-state forms of government• (C) Lack of iron tools• (D) Lack of systems of writing•

D Oral tradition

• The griots were oral historians in Africa maintaining the records of entire villages and performing this skill in song, folk tales or poetry

Skill building

• A historian researching the timeline of the spread of iron metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa would find which of the following sources most useful?

• (A) Bantu-language oral histories transmitted through generations

• (B) Archaeological evidence of early forges and smelting operations

• (C) European travelers’ accounts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries describing African industrial practices

• (D) North African Muslim merchants’ account books detailing purchases of iron tools

B archaeological evidence

• This primary source, carbon tested method would provided historians an accurate account of smelting methods and dates to determine metalurgic skill and migration (spread of skill)

Islam and the “West” as a recurring theme

Ghana in the 900s and France in the 1600s had which of the following characteristics in common?

a) Parliamentary government.b) Divine monarchy.c) Matrilineal descent.d) Islam.e) Trade based on gold and manufactured goods

Divine right

• Both France (Bourbon monarchy) in the 16th century and Ghana (Sudanic Kingdom) in the 10th century utilized kingships on divine right. Ghana has served in a capacity of animistic kingships which controlled safe passage across the Sahara while France used Catholicism to illustrate Louis XIV “Sun King” status.

Religion againWhich of the following best describes the spread of Islam in East

Africa and Christianity in China?

a) Neither religion made inroads in the cities of interiors of either area.

b) Christianity was confined to the cities in China, while Islam made converts in the interior through the Swahili trading network.

c) Islam had a decided impact on the trading centers of East Africa but little impact on the interior, whereas Christianity had little impact on either urban or rural areas in China.

d) Through the trans-Saharan trading network, Islam reached West Africa, but Christianity, with its reliance on priests, did not travel as easily along.

e) The East African trading centers became a blend of African and Islamic society and culture

Trade wins again

• C trade facilitated the spread of Islam along overland and Maritime routes (coastal East Africa). Christianity would have little impact on China due to the stability of post classical governments of the Tang and Song. It would repopularize during the fractured unstable rule of the Qing Dynasty

Trade begins with Europe: but just a lil bit.

Sir, many of our people, keenly desirous of the wares and things of your Kingdom, which are brought here by your people, and in order to satisfy their voracious appetite, seize many of our people, freed and exempt men, and they kidnap even nobles and the sons of nobles, and our relatives, and take them to be sold to the Whites who are in our Kingdoms.”

The quotation above comes from a 1526 letter to a European monarch from a king located:

a) on the eastern coast of Africab) on the western coast of Africac) on the Pacific coast of Central Americad) on the Pacific coast of South Americae) in the Pacific Islands

West Siiiideya!!

• B. Portugal makes inroads in trade establishing trading enclaves but only on the coasts while trading kingdoms like Asante, Dahomey, Benin and the Kongo derive great wealth in firearms through the triangle trade

African diaspora was not just about people

All of the following have been African contributions to cultures in the Americas except:

a) African forms of religious observanceb) African musical instrumentsc) knowledge of how to grow African cropsd) African folkloree) African monetary systems

Currency in Africa was not western market-based capitalism

• E. Monetary systems in Africa consisted in dumb barter, currencies including cowrie shells, salt, and some gold as well as slaves. Markets usually were traditional although East Coast African trade would be tapped into advancements of the Muslim world.

Mercantilism

Triangular trade referred to the network connecting:

a) East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Indiab) The west coast of Africa, North America, and

western Europec) The west and east coasts of Africa and Indiad) India, Southeast Asia, and Chinae) China, the Middle East, and the southern

European coast of the Mediterranean

A Whole New Atlantic Worlds

• B West Africa North America and Europe connecting raw materials, finished products and new markets for Europe. This concept of capitalism would lead to new patterns of wealth accumulation and the rise of the “West”

Columbian Exchange

In spite of the ravages of the slave trade, the population of Africa actually increased in the eighteenth century due to

A) European settlement of Africa B) resettlement of Asian workers in parts of Africa C) the introduction of new staple foods from the

Americas D) improved health and life expectancy E) the cessation of intertribal warfare in Africa

Cassava, Sweet Potato and Yams

• C New staple crops will increase the populations even though 10 11 million Central African will be enslaved and transported across the Atlantic. Don’t forget, Arabs controlled slave trades 800 years before and 500 years afterward. Every time a new foodstuff or agricultural innovation is developed… population grows.

Then … imperialism (scramble for Africa)

Which of the following describes the major impact of the introduction of coffee growing in places like Kenya and El Salvador after 1880?

a) The end of taxes paid to the governmentb) The weakening of the European colonial military and

landowning elitec) Access to cheaper food for Africans and Latin Americansd) Increased control over the land by Africans and Latin

Americanse) Greater dependence on foreign markets by Africans and

Latin Americans

Exploitation of land. Labor and capital

• E. Africa's natural resources and markets were carved by 12 European nations. The Belgian Congo was King Leopold’s person rubber plantation. Africa, however was left out of the equation based on scientific racism, the “white mans burden” and social Darwinism

Decolonization

Which of the following statements about Africa after 1946 is true?

a) Most African colonies gained national independenceb) The Organization of African Unity resolved the issues that

most African states found divisivec) Most African countries joined either NATO or the Warsaw

Pact.d) There was little post-colonial conflict in newly independent

states.e) Colonial patterns of trade disappeared

A promise fulfilled?

• A most African nations will achieve their independence with the help of the United Nations. Many Africans were promised their sovereignty (independence) during the World Wars but had to struggle for independence. The road to decolonization would involve peaceful protests (South Africa, Ghana), violent rebellion (Kenya) or continued struggle (Algeria)