SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

By Raiyah Nafee, Kah Soon Yap, Karan Sheth, Haider Nazir, Christopher Yuan, Weichao Zheng

● Sub-Saharan Africa refers to the area

below the Sahara Desert

● Above the Sahara Desert is North Africa

● The Sahara Desert acts a natural barrier

blocking the sub-Sahara from North

Africa

● Geographic term rather than political

Sub-Saharan Region

Sub-Saharan Africa in green

● The Bantu people is a large language-based group that originated from the Niger River Basin

● Bantu Expansion: around 1000 BCE the Bantu people began migrating eastward and displaced and/or assimilated with the people already living there.

● They populated sub-Saharan Africa with many different ethnic groups, languages, and cultures. An example of the effects of the migration is the Swahili language which has both Arabic and Bantu influences in it.

● Many groups were organized into stateless societies● As the Bantu people moved around sub-Saharan Africa, they

introduced ironworking into the areas and is believed to have introduced agriculture as well

Bantu Migrations

● Stateless societies had no centralization of power; power was balanced between families

● Disputes would be settled by the elders of the families● Many stateless societies were matrilineal meaning that

heritage would be traced through the mother’s side of the family and men would marry into the wife's household. However, men usually were dominant and held authority

Stateless Societies

● Prior to the third century CE, trans-Saharan trade was very difficult because of the Saharan Desert. It was hard to get through the desert and little people tried to trade across the Sahara.

● Around 300 CE the Berber people in North Africa began to use camels to travel across the desert.

● Camels could cover 60 miles a day while most other pack animals, such as horses, oxen, and donkeys, couldn’t travel very far in the desert without rest or water

● African trade resides around gold, salt, ivory, animal hides, and slaves.

Trans-Saharan Trade Begins

● Sub-Saharan Africa had a lot of gold● Until the 1350s two-thirds of the world’s supply of gold came from sub-

Saharan Africa● People would either mine for gold or sift for gold in streams● Gold wasn’t as valuable to sub-Saharans as it was to other peoples ● Gold went north and salt and other goods from the Mediterranean went

south through the trans-Saharan trade● Gold was brought to the east coast for the Indian Ocean Trade Network● The gold-salt system remained the same in sub-Saharan Africa except for

the time period between the fall of the Ghana Empire and the rise of the Mali Empire

Gold-Salt Trade

● As trade increased, many rulers saw this as a chance to grow rich and powerful.

● Rulers taxed the trade in their cities and kingdoms. As a result, kingdoms grew very quickly and became powerful.

● Some kingdoms grew to become empires such as the Ghana empire and the Mali Empire.

● Trade not only brought goods and wealth, but ideas as well. Islam had become popular in North Africa and traders brought Islam south into sub-Saharan Africa.

Impact of Trans-Saharan Trade

● The Soninke people were agricultural and called their ruler ghana, or war chief.

● Muslim traders often passed through the region the Soninke people lived and began to use the word ghana to refer to that region.

● Ghana became known as Land of Gold● By the 700s, Ghana had become a kingdom and the rulers grew rich from

taxing the goods traders brought into their territory● By 800 CE Ghana had become an empire. It had a large army and

controlled trade in the region so it could demand taxes and tributes from surrounding lands.

● The ruler of Ghana was the military commander, religious leader, and chief judge.

Ghana

● Ghana participated in the gold-salt trade because gold was bountiful in Ghana and it lacked salt, copper, and iron. Salt, copper, and iron were more useful than gold to the people of Ghana so they traded gold for them.

● Royal officials made sure trade within the empire was trade and abided by the laws. They also taxed the goods making the empire wealthy.

● Royal guards protected merchants from bandits.● The king prevented gold from inflating by keeping gold nuggets in the

royal palace. No one was allowed to have gold nuggets other than the king, but gold dust was free to circulate. This limited the supply of gold and kept the price of gold from falling.

Ghana (cont.)

● Ghana rulers converted to Islam and Ghana became a Muslim state by the 11th century. Muslim advisers gained official positions and helped run the empire.

● Literacy was encouraged among the upper class Muslims so that they could study the Qur’an

● Food production couldn’t keep up with the growing population and weakened Ghana for the Muslim conquest.

● In 1076, the Muslim Almoravids of North Africa conquered Ghana. The Almoravids eventually left, but it had disrupted the gold-salt trade in Ghana and it never recovered.

● By 1100, Ghana was no longer a military or commercial power and it broke up into many tribal groups. Some of these groups would later come together to create the Mali Empire.

Ghana (cont.)

● Islam spread to the land of the bilad alsudan (land of the blacks.)● The spread of Islam was gradual and peaceful.● Takrur becomes the first state to adopt Islam. ● Expands under King Sunmanguru. Around 1230, Sundiata, leader of the

Malinke people, defeats Sunmanguru. Despite the fact that both leaders professed Islam, legends tell of magical powers. However, Sundiata does establish the Mali Empire.

● Empire depends on an agricultural base and control of trade routes.● Controlled area from the Upper Niger River heading southwest.● Control gold and copper trades.

Mali

● Mansa Musa helps Mali’s reputation grow.● However, sometimes spread wealth too much. After his trip to Mecca, the

value of gold in Cairo was lowered for many years. ● Built new mosques and opened Quranic schools.● Mansa Suleiman also continued to follow Islamic views.● However, around the 1430s, the rulers could not prevent rebellions from

breaking out. The Tuareg people take back the city of Timbuktu in 1433 and by 1500, the Mali rule over a small portion of land.

Mali (cont.)

● Derives its name from the Arabic name sawahil al-sudan (shores of the blacks.)

● Kilwa was the most important commercial center● Ibn Battuta- “one of the most beautiful and well-constructed towns in the

world”● Praised for traditional Muslim values of humility and generosity

Swahili Coast

● Located on a plateau south of the Zambezi River● Farming and cattle herding provide economic growth ● Trade was usually regional, but gold trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth

century brought Great Zimbabwe to its peak● However, historians believe that an ecological crisis led to the fall of

Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe

● Islam did not influence the sub-Saharan as much as North Africa which almost became completely Muslim

● Many who did convert to Islam incorporated their animist beliefs.● Because Islam allowed slavery, slave trade became popular in sub-

Saharan Africa. Many Arab slavers forced the indigenous people into slavery.

● Islam also undermined women and many societies stopped being matrilineal

● Many rulers who converted to Islam had Muslims in high government positions to help them run the state.

Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (1450 CE - 1750 CE)

-Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal sowed the seeds of tremendous change of Africa in the early to mid-1400s.

-He and his men cautiously explored farther and farther south along Africa’s West Coast

-Following their conquest of the Moroccan city of Ceuta in 1450, the Portuguese became intensely curious to discover the origins of the gold and slaves were brought to North Africa via established trade routes from the continent’s sub-Saharan interior

-They also sought to spread Christianity to any lands they might discover, and counteract the expansion of the rising Ottoman Empire.

First European Contacts

-These economic, religious, and political motives combined with European advances in maritime technology during the 15th century to spur the Portuguese to reach the southern tip of Africa before the century’s end.

-Along the way, they found many West Africans who were experienced in trade and ready for new contacts that would expand their volume of exports and imports.

European Contacts (cont.)

-In 1482, the African king Caramansa allowed the Portuguese to open a trading post on what the Europeans would call the Gold Coast of West Africa, where vast amounts of African gold were soon traded for goods from Europe, Asia, and other parts of Africa that arrived on Portuguese ships.

-Soon after, monarchs such as the oba of Benin and the manikongo of Kongo sent delegates to Portugal to gather information on the homeland of these foreign men.

-Satisfied with what they had learned, the traders of Benin continued to provide the Portuguese with pepper, ivory, and textiles.

-Africa would be forever transformed, and the effects of the of the European slave trade would be felt in nearly every corner of the world.

Beginnings of the Slave Trade

-The leaders of Benin chose to restrict contact with the Portuguese by the 1530s. But by then, the king of Kongo had made Catholicism the official faith of his lands and provided the Portuguese with more and more slaves.

-The Kongolese slave trade soon got out of control, however, with unauthorized traders resorting to kidnapping to meet the growing demand for slaves.

-The king’s plea for help from the Portuguese met with no response; the Portuguese had already begun to turn their attention to finding the route with the Indian Ocean trade.

-The Manikongo faced rebellion, and by the 1540s, the center of the slave trade moved farther south, to what was dubbed the Slave Coast.

Slave Trade(cont.)

• Meanwhile, by the end of the 15th century, the Swahili coast of East Africa featured a number of prosperous Muslim-ruled trading states.

• In 1505, nearly all of them were attacked and plundered by the Portuguese, who rounded the southern tip of Africa in their continuing quest for sea routes to India.

• By the mid-1500s, Portuguese attention shifted to India and colonial conquests in the New World.

• European involvement in Africa would level off temporarily but as the 17th century unfolded, the seeds of change planted by Henry the Navigator would begin to burst forth with dramatic consequences.

Portuguese Involvement

• At first, Portugal led the way to change slave trade for Africa and the Americas. Initially Portuguese planters relied on Amerindian slaves to produce crops.

• However, old world diseases ravaged the indigenous American population, African slaves were taken across the Atlantic in increasing numbers by the Portuguese, Spanish, British, and other European colonists.

• By the 17th century, European ships transported large numbers of young African adults(more males than females) to a life of slavery in the Americas.

• European manufactured goods(guns), Indian textiles, African gold, timber, and other products found their way into the expanding global network.

• The European fervor for African slaves fueled the growth of a number of a number of West African kingdoms.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

● For the most part, outright European colonization would not take place until well after 1750.

● Both the Portuguese and the Dutch established African colonies after 1500, however.

● The Dutch East India Company created their Cape Colony, located at the far southern tip of Africa. It still played a minor role in African affairs, as big companies such as this started to focus more on Indian Ocean trade than African commercial ventures.

● Slave trade was still going on as the Cape’s slaves were imported from South Asia and the East Indies.

European Colonization

● While the 15th century marked the beginnings of significant European contact with Africa, the Islamic world continued to develop strong ties with the continent. Muslim beliefs and practices spread from the North to the South via overland trade.

● The Islamic world would maintain a much stronger influence than Europeans over African culture and politics throughout the period of 1450-1750.

● Nearly all of North Africa was taken over by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, but the kingdoms and states of sub-Saharan Africa remained independent from the Middle East and Europe as a result of geography and skills of military leaders. However, everything changed when, later, imperialist Europeans attacked.

Africa and Islam

● Also known as Ndongo, it was a small Portuguese trading post to the south of the Kongo.

● First European colony established.● It grew into a powerful state from the slave trade, so when

the Portuguese attempted to further exert control, they met resistance from Queen Nzinga.

● She studied European military tactics and made alliances with Dutch rivals, fighting the Portuguese for 40 years.

● In the end she was unable to overcome the superior weaponry of the Portuguese.

Angola

● The Songhai Empire succeeded the Ghana and Mali Empires● The Songhai Empire was an Islamic state, connected to the Muslim world

through the trans-Saharan trade.● Sunni Ali consolidated the empire in the Niger River Valley and

centralized power. He also created an imperial navy and developed the city of Timbuktu into a major Islamic center.

● When the Songhai expanded its border into the Sahara, the kingdom of Morocco successfully crossed the Sahara (losing half of its military force) and defeated the Songhai army in 1591 in response. However, Morocco was not able to annex Sudan to the west.

● As a result Hausa trading cities in Sudan attracted caravans crossing the Sahara, which brought textiles, hardware, and weapons. In return they sent gold, textiles, leather goods, and slaves.

The Songhai Empire

● In the Islamic slave trade, male African slaves were soldiers and servants, in contrast to the plantation slavery in the Americas.

● The majority of African slaves were women who served as concubines, servants, and entertainers.

● The Central Sudanese kingdom of Kanem-Bornu(800-1893):o Powerful Islamic state that was important to both the trans-Saharan

trade and the spread of Islam. They traded captives accumulated from wars in return for firearms and horses.

o One Bornu king, Mai Ali, displayed the Bornu’s new wealth and power during four pilgrimages to Mecca, bringing a rumored entourage of 15,000 slaves with him.

● In comparison to the Atlantic slave trade, the Islamic slave trade took more women and children, and slaves were altogether treated better.

● The Islamic slave trade continued after the Atlantic slave trade ended.

Islamic Slave Trade

● Scholars and merchants learned Arabic to communicate with North Africans and to read the Quran.

● Islamic beliefs and practices as well as legal and administrative systems were used in African trading cities on the southern edge of the Sahara and the Swahili Coast. By 1750, Islam was still mainly an urban religion.

● European influence was more limited in Africa. Only Angola had a significant number of Christians in the 1700s.

● However, during the period of the Atlantic trade, about 8 million Africans were sent to the Americas in comparison to the 2 million sent to North Africa and the Middle East.

How did this affect Africa?● Sub-Saharan Africa’s overall population remained very large even at the peak of the

slave trade in the 1700s.● Africa was very selective in what they received in exchange for slaves: as a result,

the limited amount of manufactured goods couldn’t compete with established African weavers, metalworkers, and other producers.

Cultural Influences

Zulu Kingdom - Southern Africa● In 1818, Zulu Kingdom was created by Shaka Zulu through military conquest. ● Expanded by raiding neighboring states. Took their cattle and kidnapped women

and children.● Because of this, people around the Zulu Kingdom banded together to protect

themselves. Created new states like Swaziland and Lesotho. Sokoto Caliphate (1806 - 1906) - West Africa ● Largest state in West Africa since the 16th century. ● Created by Muslim reformers in the Hausa states. They did not believe their rulers

were true believers of Islam. ● Consisted of conquered Hausa states along with neighboring territories.

Sub-Saharan Africa (1750 - 1914)

● Great Britain and the U.S outlawed the import of slaves from Africa in 1807. Many other countries followed their lead by 1850.

● The ban drove the price of slaves up and encouraged African rulers to help smuggle slaves past British naval patrol ships.

● Cuba, Brazil, and some other countries continued with the slave trade.● Transatlantic slave trade finally ended in 1867.● Legitimate trade was expanded after the end of the slave trade to

compensate for the decrease of exports.● Most successful new export was palm oil, which was used to make soap

and candles.

End of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

● The “scramble” for Africa is a term used to describe the sudden colonization of Africa by European powers in the late 19th century.

France and West Africa● The French built railroads extending from the Senegal River all the way to

upper Niger. This allowed the area to be more accessible by merchants and led the military conquest of western Sudan.

Conflict over the Congo● The Congo Basin had a very large natural supply of rubber. ● A journalist that explored the Congo named Henry Morton Stanley convinced

King Leopold II of Belgium to invest his money to open the area up to trade. ● A French military man, Savorgnan de Brazza got a treaty from an African

ruler. placing the area under the protection of France.● Led to conflict between France and Belgium.

Scramble for Africa

Berlin Conference● Chancellor of Germany, Otto von

Bismarck called the conference to resolve any conflicts over control of areas in Africa and to decide how to divide the continent.

● Belgium gained control of the Congo, named the Congo Free State.

● West Africa was occupied by Germany, France, and Britain.

● Portugal and France got the rest of equatorial Africa besides the Congo.

Scramble for Africa (Pt. 2)

Africa’s Colonization

South Africa ● This area attracted a lot of European settlers because of its good farmland,

pastures, and the large amount of valuable minerals.● Diamonds were discovered in 1868, which led to the annexation of the

area by Great Britain, which greatly angered the Afrikaners.● Cecil Rhodes, the owner of De Beers Consolidated, a diamond company,

used his influence to help convince the British to push into central Africa.● British defeated the Zulu in a war and exiled their king. The land was

given to white ranchers.

Scramble for Africa (Pt. 3)

Boer Wars (1880 - 1881, 1899 - 1902)● The Boer Wars were wars fought by Britain against two states ruled by Afrikaners,

Orange Free State and Transvaal.● Great Britain wanted to annex these two states because they had very rich natural

deposits of diamond and gold.● In the First Boer War against the Transvaal Republic, the South African settlers

were victorious.● The Second Boer War was fought against both Transvaal and the Orange Free

State. ● The Afrikaners had the upper hand in the beginning, however Britain eventually

sent 450,000 troops to defeat their armies. The previously independent republics became colonies of Great Britain, with relative autonomy.

Scramble for Africa (Pt. 3, cont.)

Sub-Saharan Africa (1914-Present)

● Outside of Algeria, Kenya, and South Africa few Europeans lived in Africa.

● The colonial power built railroads from coastal cities to mines and plantations in the interior to transport raw materials to the industrial world, but few African benefited from these changes.

● Colonial governments took lands from africans and sold or leased them to European companies or white settlers.

● Where land was divided into small farms, some Africans benefited from the boom. Farmers in the Gold Coast (present day Ghana) profited from high price of cocoa, as did palm-oil producers in Nigeria and coffee growers in East Africa.

Colonial Africa: Economic and Social Changes

● In most of Africa women played a major role in retail trades, selling cloth, food, and other items in the markets. Many maintained their economic independence and kept their household finances separate from those of their husbands

● For many Africans, however, economic development meant working in European owned mines and plantations. Colonial governments were eager to develop the resources of the territories under their control but would not pay wages high enough to attract workers. Instead, they used police powers to force Africans to work for little or no pay.

● Often, Europeans soldiers and migrants brought diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and smallpox.

Colonial Africa: Economic and Social Changes

● Christianity was introduced into African Western missionaries. A major attraction to Christianity was their schools. Christian churches associated christian beliefs with radical ideas of racial equality and participation in politics.

● Islam spread across sub-Saharan Africa through trade. Islam emphasizes literacy (mainly Arabic), and was less disruptive of traditional African customs.

Religious and Political Changes

● The contrast between the liberal ideas imparted by Western education was realities of racial discrimination under colonial rule contributed to the rise of nationalism among education Africans.

● In Senegal, Blaise Diagne agitated for African participation in politics and fair treatment in the French army during WWI.

● To defend the interests of Africans, Western-educated lawyers and journalists in South Africa founded the African national Congress.

● World War II brought hardships, such as increased forced labor, inflation, and requisitions of raw metals in sub-Saharan colonies.

● Many Africans served as soldiers and carriers in Burma, North Africa, and Europe, where many became aware of Africa's role in helping the allied effort.

Early Political Movements & Africa in WWII

● Independence was achieved in most of sub-Saharan Africa through negotiation, not revolution. In colonies with significant white settler minorities, however, the path to independence involved violent protests and rebellions.

● For the most part, these were nonviolent movements led by intellectuals and labor activists.

● Major freedom movements began during 1940’s, in South Africa (the African National Congress/Nelson Mandela), Ghana (Kwame Nkrumah), and Kenya (Jomo Kenyatta).

● The nations of sub-Saharan Africa had more of a struggle to create successful independent states.

Independence in Sub-Saharan Africa

● Decolonization in parts of Africa that had been British and French went smoothly. Both Britain and France prepared their colonies for freedom by educating natives, allowing greater native representation in transitional governments, and minimizing the possibility of inter-ethnic conflict.

● However, not all decolonization processes were non-violent. o The Mau Mau movements in Kenya departed from Kenyatta’s approach and

killed almost 2,000 people in the 1950s. o Violence played a substantial part in the decolonization of Zimbabwe. (Rhodesia),

South Africa, Rwanda, Zaire (Belgian Congo), Angola, and Mozambique.o In Rhodesia, a white-controlled government declared independence from Britain

in 1965. This harshly repressed black natives, who responded with violence. After a savage conflict, Rhodesia gained independence was renamed Zimbabwe.

Decolonization: Road to Freedom

● In 1950s and 1960s world economic expansion and growing support for liberation overcame African worries about potential economic and political problems that might follow independence.

● African nationalists were able to take advantage of other legacies of colonial rule as well.

● Kwame Nkrumah became the prime minister of Ghana, the first British colony in West Africa to gain independence. Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 by a group of army officers.

● Nkrumah joined Kenyan nationalist Jomo Kenyatta, who sought out freedom and equality in Kenya.

● In Kenya, a small movement called Mau Mau, where violent protesters attacked British officials and wealthy villages.

● Kenyatta, after being released from jail in 1961, negotiation with the British to write a constitution for independent Kenya. Kenyatta was elected the first president.

Decolonization: Road to Freedom (cont...)

● Belgium pulled out of Rwanda in 1962, having artificially exacerbated differences between two tribes, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Within these tribes we have seen major differences that have caused warfare and death.

● When the Belgians free the Congo, post independence violence was so pervasive from 1960 to 1964 that the United Nation had to intervene. The prime mover of the Congolese independence was Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated by political rivals.

Decolonization: Road to Freedom

● Decolonization in South Africa was tainted by a clash between white and black citizens. The government that declared freedom from Britain was controlled by the white minority, descended from Dutch Boers called Afrikaners. The Afrikaners practiced the policy of apartheid, a system of extreme racial segregation.

● By the 1980s, internal unrest, economic problems, and international revulsion were placing pressure on South African government to abandon apartheid.

● The Zulu confederation and the African National Congress (ANC) opposed the white government.

● The ANC’s leader, Nelson Mandela, gained the status of sympathetic dissident during his long imprisonment by the white authorities. After gaining their independence, in 1994, free elections resulted in the ANC’s victory with Mandela as their new president.

Decolonization: Road to Freedom

● Mandela was born in South America in 1918. He was first in his family to receive a formal education, Mandela completed his primary studies at a local missionary school.

● Nelson Mandela’s commitment to politics and the ANC grew stronger after the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party, which introduced a formal system of racial classification and segregation—apartheid—that restricted nonwhites’ basic rights and barred them from government while maintaining white minority rule.

● On December 5, 1956, Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and went on trial for treason.● After attaining his freedom, Nelson Mandela led the ANC in its negotiations with the governing

National Party and various other South African political organizations for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government.

● South Africa has seen democratic progress and a steady decline in armed conflicts since 1991. A key change came in South Africa in 1994, when a long-time political prisoner Nelson Mandela and his ANC won the elections in which the African majority could participate equally.

● Mandela died in December, 2013.

Nelson Mandela

● Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced political instability, military coups, civil wars, and conflicts over resources since independence.

● Years before decolonization, different tribes in the regions generated endless tension, and it continued till after independence as well.

● In 1994, the political leaders of Central African nation Rwanda incited Hutu people to massacre their Tutsi neighbors.

● Although the Tutsi constituted for about 10% of the Rwandan population and the Hutu with almost 90%, the Tutsi were given the leadership positions. Once the Belgium’s left, the Hutu gained control of the government, which upset the Tutsi.

● On April 6, 1994, President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda (a Hutu leader) was on a flight back to Rwanda when an air missile shot the plane out of the sky, killing him and everyone else on the flight. This pushed the Hutu’s into an extremist mindset, which began the Rwandan Genocide. In nearly 100 days, the Hutu extremists killed approximately 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children with clubs and guns, and raped over 50,000 women.

● The genocide ended with foreign intervention to stop prevent it from spreading to neighboring countries.

Rwandan Genocide

Rwanda Genocide

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