Unit 4, Lesson 19
Central and South Africa
Essential Questions
Keywords
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What similarities and differences emerged among the kingdoms of central and southern Africa?
cowry
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What social and gender structures emerged in African kingdoms, empires, and city-states?
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How did Christianity and Islam reach Africa?
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What African religious developments took place among the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa?
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How did the rise of Islam serve as a unifying cultural force in sub- Saharan Africa?
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What were the similarities and differences between European and sub-Saharan contacts with the Islamic world?
manikongo
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Unit 4, Lesson 19
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Set the Stage The elaborate medieval structures throughout sub-Saharan Africa testify of the wealth, power, and organization that many African states wielded at one time. Many of the distinctive beaten clay mosques of the Mali Empire, such as the mosque in Jenne, remain in use today. In Ethiopia, Christian churches still stand that were carved out of solid volcanic rock. Among the ruins of Swahili city-states such as Kilwa stand coral stone mosques with dramatic columns and arches. The ruins of the capital city of Great Zimbabwe in the interior of the continent reveal an extensive network of stone palaces and mosques within the city walls. These religious structures reveal the integration of Islam and Christianity into African culture. They also stand as reminders of the particular way that sub-Saharan converts took these foreign faiths and blended them into traditional African religious beliefs. The Mali rulers brought Muslim architects to design mosques, but these new mosques did not mimic those in the rest of the Islamic world. Instead, a unique style of mosque made of beaten clay emerged in the empire. The carved Christian churches in Ethiopia were derived directly from the traditional African practice of worshipping at rock shrines. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, converts took their new religion and wove it into their existing belief system.
Kingdoms of Central and South Africa In the savanna and plains of central Africa, rivers such as the Kwango and Zambezi cut through the geography. Several powerful city-states formed, such as the Kongo and Zimbabwe kingdoms. Bantu migrations reached the Zambezi River by the fifth century. By about 1200 C.E., Bantu migrations had established settlements across central and southern Africa. These interior settlements were mostly untouched by Islam, which remained concentrated in the trading centers of the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trade routes. After 1000 C.E., many of the central and southern African settlements began to form larger states. Across sub-Saharan Africa, communities were built on kinship networks. Kinship networks relied on a seniority system in which a council of male heads of families led the community, and the head of the most prominent family was chief of the community. The chief dealt with any matters that arose with neighboring communities. In larger states, this kinship system gave way to kingships as the ruling authority. Kingships ruled by maintaining control of their territory, and rituals emerged to underscore the ruler’s power. In Katanga, for example, the ruler and his family were believed to hold fertility powers for people and crops. As a result, ruling power was secured within one family, as the special power was passed only through bloodlines. In modern Angola, both Kongo and Ndongo emerged as large kingdoms by about 1400. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many Bantu kingdoms formed in the present-day nations of Zaire, Uganda, Zambia, and Angola. These
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central African kingdoms included Luba and Lunda, which were based along the upper Congo basin and conducted trade on both Africa’s west and east coasts. In Katanga in the southern part of Zaire, the kingdom of Kazembe had an agricultural economy and did not encounter difficulty until the mid nineteenth century. With its art, music, and dancing, the kingdom of Kazembe added considerably to African culture. In the eastern region of central Africa, the kingdoms of Buganda, Rwanda, and Burundi grew up in the highlands around Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika. Kingdom of Kongo Among the most centralized of the Bantu kingdoms was the kingdom of Kongo, which began near 1375 C.E., when the rulers of the kingdoms of Mpemba Kasi and Mbata made a political alliance to join together. The rulers joined their heir lines to create a new line of succession that claimed both ruling families as ancestors. Lukeni lua Nimi rose as the ruler in this newly joined ruling line. Around 1400, Lukeni lua Nimi founded the kingdom of Kongo when he conquered the kingdom of Mwene Kabunga, which further expanded the new kingdom’s realm. The kingdom of Kongo thrived by the late 1400s, encompassing much of modern Angola and Republic of Congo. Kongo relied primarily on agriculture, but as the kingdom prospered, weavers, potters, carvers, and blacksmiths made additional goods for the economy. Men cleared land, hunted, made palm oil and wine, built structures, and conducted long-distance trade. Women cultivated crops, tended to the domestic animals, and were in charge of domestic work and child rearing. In the coastal regions of Kongo, women also made salt from seawater and collected cowries, which were the Indian Ocean seashells used as the kingdom’s currency. Kongo was ruled by a king, called a manikongo, along with other officials who directed military, legal, and economic affairs. By the early sixteenth century, the area around the capital city of Mbanza Kongo had a population of between 60,000 and 100,000 people. Outside of this region, the kingdom was made up of small villages of extended families, which were still led by chiefs. The king’s authority was hereditary, while the chiefs’ power was not. Within the kingdom were six provinces, and the king appointed a governor to lead each province. Each of these provinces was made up of several districts, and the governors were in charge of the local authorities that oversaw the districts. The extensive kingdom of Kongo was highly organized with centralized power, which was unusual for Bantu kingdoms of the era. The Portuguese arrived by sea to the coast of West Africa in 1471 and opened up a new avenue for trade for West and central African kingdoms. Portuguese traders established relationships with the kingdoms of Benin and Kongo, bringing copper, brass, fine cloth, glass beads, and horses in exchange for pepper, ivory, and slaves. The leaders of Benin and Kongo allowed Portuguese Christian missionaries as well as allied Portuguese soldiers in their kingdoms. The manikongo of Kongo sent representatives to Portugal in 1485 and created a royal monopoly on trade with Portuguese merchants. Christian missionaries converted Kongo’s ruler and others to their faith, and the manikongo made Catholicism the official religion of the kingdom of Kongo. Continued divisions between Christians and those who practiced traditional African religions strained the kingdom.
cowry a kind of shell from the Indian Ocean that was used as currency in the kingdom of Kongo manikongo title of the head ruler in the kingdom of Kongo; sometimes written as “Mwene Kongo”
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The Christian manikongo Alfonso I (r. 1506–1542 or 43) tried to persuade the people of Kongo to adopt both Christianity and European culture. The Portuguese who came to Kongo, though, were in Kongo mostly for financial gain, particularly in the slave trade. Kongo’s participation in the slave trade proved to weaken both the kingdom’s political structure and its social structure. Kongo did not have access to the pepper and ivory that Benin had, and thus relied on trading slaves to acquire goods from Portuguese merchants. The royal monopoly on trade broke down when others in the kingdom were eager to engage in trade with Portugal. In 1526, Alfonso I wrote to the king of Portugal to intervene becuase Kongolese were slave raiding from within the kingdom, selling anyone they could get their hands on. Alfonso I wanted Portugal to honor his royal monopoly on trade, but the Portuguese were now focused on building up trade along the Indian Ocean sea route, and he did not hear back from the king of Portugal. The unauthorized slave trade disrupted the authority of Kongo’s central government, and rebellions erupted within the kingdom. After Alfonso I’s death, Kongo fell into civil wars. The relocation of the foreign slave trade away from Kongo to the more southern kingdom of Ndongo further disabled the manikongo’s hold on the kingdom. Later Kongo rulers cut off trade with Portugal, though an invasion by the Jagas in 1568 prompted the manikongo to seek the help of Portugal to fight the attack. Over the years, the kingdom of Kongo both fought for and against Portuguese forces and became a formal colony of Portugal in 1885. Zimbabwe The Bantu settlements of the Shona tribes in the land between the Zambesi and Limpopo rivers were the basis of the kingdom of Zimbabwe in south-central Africa. The Shona began as farmers and herders, but became skilled at mining and iron smelting over the centuries. The Shona provided gold for the Indian Ocean trade network, and the prosperous market brought wealth into East and central Africa. Powerful kingdoms such as Zimbabwe emerged inland. The word zimbabwe means a “chief’s dwelling.” With the numerous Bantu settlements across East Africa, wooden chief dwellings appeared across present-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique as early as the fifth century C.E. By the ninth century, enough wealth had reached the region to facilitate the building of stone zimbabwe, reflecting a new level of organization and political power. Sometime around 1200 C.E., the enormous project of building the capital city of Great Zimbabwe began. Located near the town of Nyanda in modern Zimbabwe, Great Zimbabwe was a massive complex of stone buildings surrounded by walls 16 feet (5 meters) thick and 32 feet (10 meters) tall. Inside the walls, the city of Great Zimbabwe had palaces, towers, and other stone buildings for rulers, priests, and the wealthy. These stone edifices were built of cut stone, assembled without the use of mortar. The buildings and walls were of such a scale that nineteenthcentury explorers who came upon the ruins of Great Zimbabwe did not believe that native Africans could have built such a city and wrongly attributed its construction to Arabs or Phoenicians. In addition to its political importance as the capital city, Great Zimbabwe carried religious importance. The bird of God was a symbol that appeared frequently
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Self-check Who oversaw the provinces of the kingdom of Kongo?
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in the city’s structures and throughout the region under Great Zimbabwe’s control. The bird of God was an eagle that linked this world to spirits. In the kingdom of Zimbabwe, traditional African religion focused on the creator god, Mwali, who brought rain and ensured fertility. Mwali was both male and female. The male part of Mwali was evident in lightning, and the female part in the earth’s water. Mwali shrines were built across the land, often in caves and near pools of water. Shrines were built for rain, healing, and even for war to empower rulers in their conquests. Priests and priestesses tended the shrines and welcomed pilgrims who arrived to worship. Priestesses could be possessed with divine powers and speak in the voice of Mwali, while priests translated these words into commandments for the attending congregation. Worshippers transcended kinship networks, political states, and language groups. By the nineteenth century, the once-numerous shrines were reduced to regions mostly in the mountains of the southwest part of the kingdom. As in many other African societies, in Zimbabwe the original ancestors of a clan or community figured prominently in traditional religious beliefs. Among the people in the kingdom of Zimbabwe, many believed that ancestors’ spirits returned as lions and could possess the living. The original ancestors claimed ownership of the land and its resources. Many original ancestors had been conquerors, and as such they granted power to soldiers and also provided tactical guidance in times of war. The belief in the power of ancestor spirits was most concentrated in the northeast part of Zimbabwe. The economy of the kingdom of Zimbabwe was built on agriculture and herding, but as the trade market in East Africa grew, the kingdom capitalized on trade to build its wealth. Initially, the kingdom traded copper, salt, and other goods with neighboring interior communities. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Zimbabwe profited handsomely by exporting mostly gold, along with ivory and slaves, to port markets. The population of the city of Great Zimbabwe grew so much over these centuries that the depletion of local forests and herd overgrazing apparently triggered an ecological devastation that contributed to the kingdom’s decline. Kings of Zimbabwe controlled the trade between the coastal city-states and interior regions of East and central Africa. Zimbabwe organized and taxed the lucrative gold, ivory, and slave trades in East Africa. Zimbabwean kings built alliances with other leaders to facilitate the continued flow of immense profits from the trade market. Evidence of goods such as gold, glass beads, copper ornaments, soapstone figures, iron tools, Persian artworks, and Chinese porcelain among the ruins of Great Zimbabwe reveals an extensive trade network. In the fifteenth century, the kingdom of Zimbabwe expanded considerably under the rule of King Mutota and the subsequent rule of his son Matope by conquering lands to the north and the east. At its height during the late fifteenth century, the kingdom of Zimbabwe covered much of south-central Africa and reached just outside the coastal city of Sofala in East Africa. King Mutota moved the capital from Great Zimbabwe to the north and assumed the title “Mwana Mutapa.” The Portuguese pronounced this title “Monomotapa,” and this became the European name for the kingdom.
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Unit 4, Lesson 19
After King Matope died sometime around 1490, civil wars tore the kingdom apart, and two separate kingdoms emerged. The Rozvis ruled the southern portion from Great Zimbabwe. The Mwana Mutapa ruled the northern kingdom. As late as the nineteenth century, the kingdom of Mwana Mutapa stood, but it encompassed a much smaller area of rule than the great kingdom of Zimbabwe had at its peak.
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Self-check What was Zimbabwe’s economy based on?
Social and Gender Structures in Africa As the Bantu migrated and established settlements across sub-Saharan Africa for more than 2,000 years, community organization most often emerged as a stateless society. While there was still territory available in Africa, stateless societies flourished. Social or political conflicts that arose within a community could be resolved by sending dissidents out of the community to settle somewhere else. Stateless societies worked well in small communities, but as communities prospered and their populations grew, the system struggled. These stateless societies did not have a head of political power whose primary occupation was to rule. Instead, the societies relied on kinship networks to govern themselves. Bantu communities tended to include about 100 people, and discipline generally took place within a family group. A council of male heads of families led the community, and the head of the most prominent family was chief of the community. The chief dealt with any matters that arose with neighboring communities. Familial ties characterized the organization of stateless societies in Africa. Collective approaches to working the land were taken as these stateless societies viewed property as communal rather than private. Many groups believed that the community’s original ancestors held ownership of the land and its resources as its first settlers. These ancestors had the power to grant fertility to people, crops, herds, and game. For some communities, the land carried religious import, and living and working on the land held religious meaning. In these communities, the land provided more than economic needs. The land was also full of religious and historic importance. The male heads of families who formed the community’s council determined the work of their given family. These heads also assigned which sections of the land their family would work and oversaw the distribution of food among the community. The organization in these communities was wholly centered on family networks. Some forest peoples of West Africa formed secret societies in which men and women limited the authority of rulers. Kinship networks often had bitter rivalries, and some secret societies transcended these kinship networks. Rather than staying loyal to their kinship network, members would maintain loyalty to their secret society. These secret societies managed to resolve conflicts within and between communities and presented an alternative to the established authority of chiefs or other rulers. In the Bantu communities, gender roles were well-defined. Men dominated public affairs within their local communities Specialized work such as leather tanning and blacksmithing were strictly reserved for men. In agricultural arenas, men prepared the soil for planting while both men and women participated in sewing and reaping the harvest. Women’s roles often revolved around domestic spheres and child rearing. In some cases, women influenced and formally participated in public affairs.
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Across sub-Saharan Africa, women often had more public involvement than women in other parts of the world. Female merchants engaged in trade, both with local merchants and with those from distant locations. Female merchants were also permitted to trade at markets, frequently trading agricultural goods, pottery, and other crafts. Some women even served in all-female military units. While the introduction of Islam drastically changed women’s standing across Arabia and southwest Asia, in sub-Saharan Africa the spread of Islam did little to women’s standing. The first converts in the region were rulers and merchants who dealt directly with Arab merchants coming through on the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trade routes. Islam grew slowly in sub-Saharan Africa, and as the religion took root, African converts kept their traditional beliefs and customs alongside Islam. As a result, Islam took on a different cast in sub-Saharan Africa than in Arabia, southwest Asia, and North Africa. Most Muslim women south of the Sahara did not wear veils or limit their social contact with men in the community. Sub-Saharan Muslim women also continued their public work in the community. When the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta (1304–1368) visited Mali, he was shocked that no Muslim women wore veils, and that women openly conversed with unrelated men in public. The conversion to Islam in sub-Saharan Africa did not alter women’s status or involvement in the community as it did in other parts of the Muslim world.
The Arrival of Christianity and Islam in Africa Christianity was introduced to Egypt and North Africa during the first century C.E., within decades after the religion’s emergence, at the same time or even before the religion reached northern Europe. Tradition holds that the apostle Mark brought Christianity to Egypt in 60 C.E. In Egypt, the city of Alexandria became an important center of Christian thought. Egyptian Christians, known as Copts, maintained contact with the Byzantine Christians and translated religious texts from Greek to Coptic. Saint Augustine and other early Christian leaders lived in north Africa. The spread of Christianity across North Africa was slow, moving west from Alexandria to the rest of North Africa and east to Ethiopia. Christianity was an opposing force to the Roman Empire in the region until Constantine made Christianity the Roman Empire’s official religion in 312 C.E. Even with a flourishing Christian population in North African communities in Egypt and Nubia, Christianitytook hundreds of years to gain traction in sub-Saharan Africa. During the fourth century, Christianity spread within the kingdom of Axum, in present day Ethiopia. The first sub-Saharan converts were probably merchants who traded with Christians at the Red Sea port of Adulis. The rulers of Axum also converted to the religion. The first rulers to convert to Christianity in Axum were among the first royal converts anywhere because they converted not long after the Roman emperor Constantine. Christian missionaries in Axum established monasteries and translated the Bible into the local tongue. Islam also reached Africa by way of North Africa. Christianity had taken root along the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa by the end of the Roman Empire. However, subsequent warring between the Vandals and the Byzantines disrupted
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Unit 4, Lesson 19
the region, and between 640 C.E. and 700 C.E. Muslim forces invaded North Africa, capturing Tunisia in 670 and crossing the Mediterranean to enter Spain by 711. The advance of Muslim conquerors throughout the Mediterranean was stopped in 732 in France. With Muslim strongholds in North Africa and under the rule of the Muslim Abbasid dynasty, much of North Africa converted to Islam. The Muslim presence across North Africa was a critical element to the introduction of Islam to sub-Saharan Africa. Muslim merchants coming across the trans-Saharan caravan routes, and later on Indian Ocean sea routes in East Africa, brought Islam to the rest of the continent. Rulers and merchants in trading centers were among the first sub-Saharan converts.
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Self-check What did Ibn Battuta find when he visited the empire of Mali?
African Religious Developments Christianity and Islam were not the first religions in sub-Saharan Africa; native African religious beliefs and traditions had been established across the continent centuries before either religion reached Africa. Traditional African Beliefs On the surface, the communities that dotted sub-Saharan Africa had very different religious traditions. Deities did not share names or stories from one community to the next, nor did religious rituals overlap. However, even in the face of apparently distinct religious traditions, common elements linked the different African religions. Traditional religious beliefs were flexible, so when settlements encountered differing beliefs, aspects of those beliefs were incorporated into their own belief system. At the time of early Bantu agriculture, many groups had monotheistic beliefs. With extensive migration came the sharing of cultures and religions, and earlier monotheistic religions evolved as adherents learned about others’ beliefs. Efforts to understand gods and their interactions in the world’s workings also changed religious beliefs over time. Even with the introduction of new deities, many communities continued to believe in a male god who was the divine force, who created the world and organized its workings. For most, this god was all-knowing, all-powerful, or both. Some communities believed that the creator god continued to intervene in human affairs through lesser gods, spirits, and the community’s original ancestors. These ancestors held ownership of the land and its resources and had the power to grant fertility to people, crops, herds, and game. In the animistic religions of Africa, the lesser gods and spirits were connected to natural forces such as the sun, rain, rivers, and other elements in nature such as trees. While the creator god’s involvement was more distant, the lesser gods held dynamic roles in the world’s everyday events. These gods and spirits had power to bless or curse humans. In many African communities, the religious ties to ancestors included recently deceased ancestors, who could connect the living to the spirit world. These ancestors could also intervene to bless or punish descendants according to the descendants’ behavior and the degree of honor given to ancestors’ memory. With such religious importance placed on ancestors in these communities, family, lineage, and clan were fundamental aspects of the community organization. Ancestors were part of the same religious system as the gods, and these beliefs bound a community’s
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members together through common ancestors and common land. The veneration of ancestors was part of everyday life, and these beliefs continued well after the monotheism of Islam or Christianity permeated the region. Rituals acknowledging and honoring gods, spirits, and ancestors to ensure continued favor or to regain favor were key elements of religious worship for many African communities. Most worship was directed toward ancestors and local spirits, who needed to be kept happy in order to prevent misfortune from befalling individuals or the community. Prayers, animal sacrifices, dancing, and divination all played roles in religious rituals. Religious ceremonies accompanied major life events such as birth, marriage, and death. To help navigate religious practice and protect the community, many communities had diviners: people who could mediate between this world and gods, spirits, and ancestors. Diviners had either natural ability or considerable training to fulfill their roles, which also could include providing protection for a community. Diviners were generally men, and to be effective, they had to grasp the interconnected networks of family, economics, and politics that bound a community together. A diviner was consulted to determine the cause of difficulties such as illness, lack of children, dwindling herds, or barren fields. Diviners used oracles to identify the problem and combated the issue with rituals or other prescriptions needed to resolve the problem. More than anything else, these religions gave their communities a framework for how the universe works and a template for social and moral ethics. Rather than focusing on theological matters, African religions sought to make sense of and
Masks were central to traditional African rituals, and conversion to Christianity or Islam did not preclude sub-Saharan Africans from continuing their participation in these traditional ceremonies.
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control aspects of the human experience. Strict moral codes were required to safeguard order in the world. Disobedience and the resulting disorder and misfortune that came meant that gods, spirits, or ancestors were unhappy. Community rule was also tied to religious practice. Chiefs and kings drew authority from the institution of divine kingship that emerged. The importance of worshipping ancestor spirits helped unify a community within an uncertain world. To maintain order and goodwill with the supernatural world, family networks watched over family members and disciplined those who threatened to summon divine retribution on the individual or the community with their actions. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa Christianity had taken hold in Egypt and Ethiopia before the Muslim conquests throughout North Africa between 640 and 700 C.E. These Muslim conquests left pockets of Christianity in the region. When Egypt was conquered and became Muslim, the Coptic Christians there kept their faith and did not convert to Islam. The Christians in Nubia resisted Muslim penetration in the ninth century and remained independent Christian communities until the thirteenth century. With the Muslim conquest of Egypt and the Red Sea, the Christians in the weakened kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia were cut off from the rest of the Christian world. Christianity in Ethiopia blended with the beliefs and traditions of the local population and Jewish immigrants. In the twelfth century, a new Christian dynasty rose to power by way of conquering and converting peoples in the region. During the first part of the thirteenth century, King Lalibela (r. c. 1180–1220) launched a building project of eleven enormous churches to be carved out of solid volcanic rock in the capital city of Lalibela. Each church commemorated a Christian site in Jerusalem, though the actual practice of carving structures out of rock echoed the traditional African religious practice of rock shrines. A Christian state emerged in Ethiopia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with a dynasty that claimed direct ties to the marriage of King Solomon and Sheba in the Bible. Without the benefit of contact with other Christians, the Christian religion that evolved in Ethiopia departed from the rest of the Christian world. Ethiopian Christianity maintained essential aspects of Christian theology and practices, but also adopted traditional African beliefs. Among
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Self-check What role did the original ancestors play in a community?
Built in 1896, the Saint George cathedral in the capital city of Addis Ababa stands as a testament to Christianity’s continued influence and presence in Ethiopia.
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these traditional beliefs was a belief in evil spirits that populated the world and the use of amulets to protect against these spirits. With Christian Ethiopia surrounded by Muslim states on all sides, battles between Christians and Muslims often flared up in the region. The arrival of Portuguese merchants and explorers to northeast Africa in the sixteenth century reintroduced Christians in Ethiopia to others of their broader faith. When a neighboring Muslim state backed by the Ottomans threatened Ethiopia, Portugal sent forces to support Ethiopia in 1542 and kept Ethiopia from being conquered. Portugal tried to bring Ethiopia into the fold of the Roman Catholic Church, but efforts failed. Though Ethiopia remained Christian, the kingdom also remained independent from other Christians. The Portuguese were more successful with their efforts to convert the kingdom of Kongo to the Roman Catholic faith, giving Christianity another foothold in sub-Saharan Africa. Christianity brought considerable change to sub-Saharan Africa. Christian missionaries brought hope and education to many on the continent and increased literacy rates. Relationships with European Christian colonists and traders brought wealth and opportunities to some Africans, but they also weakened plenty of African kingdoms. Christianity brought colonists interested in financial gain and those interested in converting African peoples. For centuries, these European Christian colonists pushed to subdue or destroy traditional African culture, religious beliefs, and rituals. Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa Developments in North Africa were precursors to the introduction of Islam in subSaharan Africa. The Muslim desert Berbers in North Africa split from North African states ruled by Arabic rulers and formed their own states based in the city of Fez in Morocco and in Sijilimasa, a trading center on the Moroccan side of the transSaharan caravan routes. With the threat of new Muslim invaders encroaching, the desert Berbers launched a puritanical reform movement by the eleventh century. Almoravids, as those in the movement were called, waged a war with non-Muslims and moved south across the Sahara desert into West Africa and Spain. In 1130 a similar group, the Almohads, followed an analogous path. While Islam was primarily introduced to sub-Saharan Africa by North African merchants along trade routes, religious movements such as the Almoravids and Almohads embraced aggressive military action and contributed to the spread of Islam south of the Sahara. Muslim merchants dominated the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trade routes and introduced the religion to sub-Saharan merchants and rulers. Though it was not the only reason for conversion, sharing a common religion did help facilitate trade between cultures. Islam established a common code of morality and law, and increased trust between traders. Across sub-Saharan Africa, Islam took root first in trading cities and ports at the end of the trade routes, and then spread to the interior. The pastoral Fulani peoples of West Africa and the Somali in eastern Africa were among the first rural African peoples to convert to Islam. As rulers of wealthy and powerful kingdoms in sub-Saharan Africa converted to Islam, they launched building projects to add mosques and places of study in their cities. They brought foreign experts in Islamic law to their kingdoms. Great mosques were built with Middle Eastern influence but made of local materials, such
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Unit 4, Lesson 19
as the distinctive beaten-clay mosques in the city of Jenne in the Mali Empire and the coral stone mosques built in Swahili coastal city-states. Christianity in Ethiopia encouraged the study of religious texts, thereby promoting literacy in Ethiopia. In a similar manner, the spread of Islam across sub-Saharan Africa encouraged literacy among Muslim converts. Books were symbols of civilization for Muslims at the time, and expensive books were imported from North Africa. The city of Timbuktu in the Mali Empire became a center for Islamic study. In the sixteenth century, more than 150 schools taught the Qur’an in Timbuktu. Newly converted Muslim rulers in sub-Saharan Africa did not generally impose their religion on their subjects. Also, the conversion to Islam did not mean the end of traditional African beliefs and rituals. African converts continued to practice traditional animist religious rituals alongside Islam, such as rituals to please traditional gods and ancestor spirits. Notably, Muslim women in sub-Saharan Africa did not alter their public behavior or wear a veil, as was customary in most parts of the Islamic world.
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Self-check What country backed Ethiopia’s efforts to keep a neighboring Muslim state from invading?
Islam as a Unifying Cultural Force in Sub-Saharan Africa The adoption of Islam among peoples of sub-Saharan Africa helped draw together disparate cultures. While the religion established a common bond between sub-Saharan rulers and merchants and their North African and Arab counterparts, Islam also united peoples of various cultures living together in sub-Saharan Africa. The spread of Islam was not forced and did not displace traditional African religious beliefs, both factors that could have made Islam a divisive force in sub-Saharan culture. Muslim rulers in sub-Saharan Africa relied on Islam to justify and solidify their rule and to unify their kingdoms. Islam served as a unifying force in areas where diverse ethnic groups lived side-by-side. Islamic beliefs asserted the equality and worth of individuals, which undermined potential discord when a Muslim ruler conquered another Muslim territory. According to Islamic law, converts in sub-Saharan Africa were considered equal to Muslim Berbers and Arabs. In reality, equality was not applied across ethnic groups. In addition, women were not on equal footing with men in certain points of Islamic law. For example, the penalty for killing a man resulted in twice the penalty for killing a woman.
European and Sub-Saharan Contacts with the Islamic World The Islamic world influenced both Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, though in very different ways. Trade brought Muslim merchants to both regions of the world, and with the trade networks that were established, both Europe and sub-Saharan Africa had regular contact with the Islamic world. As the world center of trade, culture, and learning at the time, the Islamic world brought learning to Europe and revived interest in the philosophy, science, and medicine of ancient Greece. As merchants traveled throughout the Islamic world, they introduced new crops across the Mediterranean, in Spain, and the islands of Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, and
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Sardinia. Christianity had already emerged as the dominant religion of Europe, and as a result the spread of Islam there was limited. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, Islam was incorporated alongside existing traditional African religious beliefs, and many African rulers and merchants converted. The African states conducting trade with Muslim merchants were politically organized enough to facilitate the spread of Islam within their borders. The Islamic world heavily influenced sub-Saharan Africa religiously, politically, and socially beginning in the seventh and eighth centuries. The conversion of traders and rulers provided an economic advantage when trade relationships were built up with foreign Muslim merchants who now shared common religious ground. Islam became the prominent religion across much of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in trading centers and ports, when rulers built elaborate mosques, Islamic schools, and welcomed Muslim scholars to their states. In sub-Saharan Africa, conversion to Islam was mostly a peaceful process. People were generally not constrained to convert, and the blending of Islam with traditional African religion made acceptance of the religion common. In Europe, though, Islam brought conflict. Both Christianity and Islam encouraged the spread of their religions through conversion. With Christianity well-established in Europe, any Islamic presence in the region was bound to cause conflict. After the successful Muslim conquest of the Christian Iberian Peninsula, European rivalries between Muslims and Christians intensified. During the Reconquista, Christians succeeded in retaking the region. This success led Pope Urban II to launch the Crusades in 1095. The pope viewed Islam as a direct affront to Christianity and promised crusading Christians salvation. Hoards of Christians went to restore Byzantine territory and to gain Christian control of Jerusalem. Many of these Christians were not soldiers and were unprepared for combat of any sort. With European Christians attacking in the Middle East, Muslims, Turks, and Egyptians joined forces to fight against the invaders. In 1187, these forces successfully pushed Christians out of the east Mediterranean. The Crusades further spread Islamic culture and scientific knowledge. Crusaders returned to Europe with knowledge of Arabic numerals, paper making methods, Muslim developments in science and astronomy, and the ideas of Aristotle revisited by Muslim scholars. In sub-Saharan Africa, Islam came to permeate and define the society and culture in ways that never happened in Europe. Islam attached itself to the political framework of many sub-Saharan states, allowing Islamic states to emerge in the region. In Europe, with well established political states and Christianity’s saturated presence, Islam only succeeded in penetrating the edges of European territory, such as the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean islands.
Summary As kinship systems gave way to kingships, large kingdoms emerged throughout central and southern Africa. The kingdom of Kongo was among the most centralized, with a king at the helm of provinces led by governors. Kongo traded slaves with the Portuguese, and Catholicism became the kingdom’s official religion. The prosperous
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Self-check Who launched the Crusades in 1095?
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Unit 4, Lesson 19
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Indian Ocean trade network made the interior kingdom of Zimbabwe wealthy, which brought gold, ivory, and slaves to eastern ports for trade. In small communities, kinship based councils and chiefs continued to direct local matters. Women in sub-Saharan Africa had more public involvement than women in many other parts of the world. While different African religious traditions emerged, many shared common elements, including belief in a creator god, lesser gods, spirits, and ancestors who intervene in the happenings of this world. Christianity was introduced to Egypt and North Africa during the first century C.E. and reached Ethiopia during the fourth century. Muslim forces invaded North Africa between 640 C.E. and 700 C.E. and successfully established Muslim strongholds throughout the region. Muslim merchants on the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trade routes introduced Islam to sub-Saharan Africa. Merchants and rulers were among the first converts there. African converts to Christianity and Islam continued to practice traditional African rituals. Trade brought both Europe and sub-Saharan Africa in contact with the Islamic world. In Africa, Islam took hold and influenced culture and politics. In Europe, since Christianity was already the dominant religion, Islam brought conflict, and the Crusades were launched. Even in this hostile environment, Islamic culture and scientific knowledge returned to Europe with the Crusaders.
Looking Ahead The Portuguese presence in southeast and central Africa began with trade and missionaries but quickly turned more sinister as the Portuguese struggled to gain control of trade networks. By 1515, the port cities of Sofala and Kilwa were destroyed, and the Portuguese moved further inland. They discovered the Zimbabwe and Mwana Mutapa kingdoms and established relations in the 1560s. The Portuguese were interested in converting Africans to Christianity, but the region’s economic potential as a source for gold and other goods was at least as great a factor in their dealings with African kingdoms. Portuguese control increased in the region, extending at times to political control. The emerging colonial dominance proved to be a preview of the various European powers that would invade sub-Saharan Africa in the coming centuries to pursue European economic, political, and missionary interests.
Self-Check Answers 1. The king of Kongo appointed a governor to lead 4. The original ancestors of a community held and oversee each of the kingdom’s six provinces.
2. Zimbabwe’s economy was based on agriculture and herding, but as the trade market in East Africa grew, the kingdom also capitalized on trade of copper, salt, gold, ivory and slaves to build its wealth. 3. Ibn Battuta was shocked to find that no Muslim women wore veils and that women openly conversed with unrelated men in public.
ownership of the land and had the power to grant fertility to people, crops, herds, and game.
5. When a neighboring Muslim state threatened Ethiopia, Portugal sent forces to support Ethiopia in 1542 and kept Ethiopia from being conquered. 6. Pope Urban II launched the Crusades in 1095 because he viewed Islam as a direct affront to Christianity.
Copyright © 2011, K12 Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in whole or in part, including illustrations, without the express prior written consent of K12 Inc.
Unit 4, Lesson 19 All images © K12 Inc. unless otherwise noted. 1, 9 Traditional Congolese mask. © brytta/iStockphoto 10 Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. © Ariadne Van Zandbergen/africanpictures.net/The Image Works
Copyright © 2011, K12 Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced in whole or in part, including illustrations, without the express prior written consent of K12 Inc.
