Notes
Africa's geography and early societies
- Africa is the world's second-largest continent, with diverse environments: the Sahara, the Sahel, savannas, rainforests and coasts. Bantu migrations spread farming, ironworking and Bantu languages across central and southern Africa.
- The African diaspora means the spread of people of African descent around the world, by both forced and voluntary movement.
Empires and states
- Ancient kingdoms: Egypt, Nubia (Kush), and Aksum (Ethiopia), an early Christian kingdom and trading power.
- West African empires: Ghana, Mali and Songhai grew rich from trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt. Mansa Musa of Mali (1300s) made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca. Timbuktu was a center of Islamic scholarship.
- Great Zimbabwe in southern Africa built stone cities and traded gold across the Indian Ocean.
- The Kingdom of Kongo in Central Africa converted to Christianity after contact with Portugal (King Afonso I) and later suffered from the slave trade.
- Benin was known for its bronze art.
- Swahili city-states on the East African coast traded across the Indian Ocean.
Culture, gender and family
- Griots preserved history through oral tradition (the Epic of Sundiata).
- Women held important roles, including as rulers like Queen Idia of Benin and Queen Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba, who resisted Portuguese colonization.
- Diverse religions, including traditional faiths, Islam and Christianity.
The beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade
- Portuguese traders began buying enslaved Africans in the 1400s. Atlantic demand for plantation labor (sugar, later tobacco and cotton) grew enormously.
- Africans who were enslaved came from many societies and brought knowledge, skills, languages and beliefs that shaped the Americas.
Practice
They were among the largest migrations in human history.
Mali controlled key trade routes and gold fields.
It's in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea.
They kept genealogies and epics like Sundiata.
She used diplomacy and warfare against the Portuguese.
Its stone enclosures are famous.
He tried to limit slave raiding in his kingdom.
It includes both forced and voluntary movement.
Free response
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Free-response question
Answer (a), (b) and (c).
(a) Describe ONE way West African empires like Mali gained wealth and power.
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They controlled trans-Saharan trade routes, taxing the trade in gold and salt.
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(b) Explain ONE way Islam influenced West African societies like Mali.
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Rulers like Mansa Musa adopted Islam, built mosques, and made Timbuktu a center of Islamic learning, which strengthened ties with North Africa and the Middle East.
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(c) Explain ONE way African women held power in African societies before 1600.
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Queen mothers like Queen Idia of Benin advised kings and held political and military influence.
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