Africa

Geography• Second Largest continent

• 1/5 of the earth’s land surface

• Coastline

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Major Land Areas

• Desert

– 40 % of continent

– Sahara

– Sahel

• The coastline of the Sahara Desert

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• Rainforest

– 5% of land

Major Land Areas

• Savanna– Grassy plain

– Where largest number of Africans live • 40% of population

– Concern about Desertification

• Great Rift Valley– Deep Gash in Earth’s crust

• Runs from Red Sea across East Africa

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• Agriculture

– Likely result of contact with Near East

• Livestock-

– cattle, goats, sheep, horse and camels from Asia

• Iron making

– Asia or some say Phoenicians

– First known makers of Iron were

– Africa unusual because it appears that they skip the bronze age.

• Migrations of Bantu people help the spread of iron making across the African continent

People

• Earliest People

•

• Pastoralist

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Family

• Central to African societies

• Organize into groups called lineage

• Lineages included

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Tracing Family Descent

• Way the society traces lineage decides

– Inheritances rights and what group individual belongs to

• Patrilineal

• Matrilineal

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Common Elements in African Societies

• Language

• Thought

• Religion– Animistic

• Power of natural forces personified

• Ritual and worship

• Witchcraft

Bantu

• Bantu

– Lived south of Sahara- Nigeria

– Spoke over

– Important in History of Africa because:

Important in History of Africa because

– Spread of language

• Swahili- mixture of Bantu and Arab– Result of interaction between

– Result is over 60 million Africans speak one of the Bantu languages

• Helps experts trace movement of people

Bantu Migration• Around 1500 BCE start to

migrate to the south and east

– Generally believe that migrations caused by

• Climatic changes

• Increase population– Adoption of agriculture-

– Using

Why do people migrate?

• List 3 Reasons:

Bantu

• Stateless societies– Organized around kinship groups or other forms of

obligation

– Control by

– Lack the concentration of political power and authority

• Age Set– Center of Bantu society

– Cohort group that included tribal members of the same age

• Early Bantu did not have written language

– Oral traditions preserved by storytellers called

– Excellent advisors to kings because

African Economies

• African economies were extremely diversified

• North Africa will be fully involved with

• Sub-Saharan regions had varying

• International trade increase in regions

Drawbacks to African Trade

• Trade will be handed by professional merchants

• Africa will exchange raw materials for

• Will fail to develop the industrial technology to use their own raw materials to make manufactured products

Trade in West Africa

• Infrequent and irregular because of

• Change in 3rd Century when Berbers used camels

• Trade routes developed and trade increased20

• West Africa was rich in gold but lack salt

– Arabs and Berbers will trade

– African trade routes will shift to the east several times as

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East Africa

• Zanj

– Arabic term for East African coast

• Active trade in towns

– from Persian Gulf to Egypt

• Urbanized trading ports had the common cultural trait of