Topic 1.5, state building in Africa. So we're continuing on to our next region of Unit 1. And so for today, the central question is, to what extent was the state building in Africa kingdoms and empires similar to during the period of 1200 to 1450 CE? So I'm not asking to compare it to other regions, just to the civilizations and kingdoms that we are talking about within Africa today. So look for those similarities and differences, and then think about to what extent to a high extent they're similar to a low extent to me extent whatever so think about that as we go along so the context for today by 1000 sub-saharan africa had essentially adopted agriculture and means that they had like ability to create surplus and they were tapped into a lot of these trade networks um including the indian ocean trade network which we'll talk about a little bit as well as these trans-saharan trade networks too um islam which comes around in mid-7th century, is going to spread into Africa, North Africa to start with, but also find its ways into West Africa and even along the East African coast too. So Islam is being introduced into this continent where Christianity already had some influence in some areas in Africa, but by and large, the majority of the religious beliefs prior to the introduction of Islam were...
Mostly, how do I put this, animal veneration, animism, and shamanism, the kind of the major religions, ethnic religions that are in Africa. So the kin-based networks were very common in Africa during this time. This is where families governed themselves, right?
So you don't have these large-scale empires, and you do, you will see some when we talk about today. But much of Africa has kind of adopted this kin-based network system and so forth. And the families govern themselves and kind of take care of their own in that sense, right? There's usually a male chief who handles conflicts within the family. The groups of villagers become districts as a result of that.
And then villagers could conflict over resources from time to time. altogether. But this represents a decentralized government for the most part.
And we're going to look at some examples that counter the decentralized government that you'll find in Africa and a lot of places. And there are some pretty advanced civilizations that do pop up in Africa during this time period. Okay, so the language of the curriculum in Africa, as in Eurasia and the Americas, state systems to demonstrate continuity, innovation, diversity, and expanded in scope. and reach.
So let's break it down to some specific examples. Okay. So the first one is the Hausa Kingdom. The Hausa Kingdoms were made up of, is it basically an ethnic group that's made up of seven different states that are found mostly in modern day Nigeria.
And using that kin based network, they've kind of created these kingdoms amongst themselves. So it's extremely decentralized governments. Even though they are culturally and language-wise very connected to each other, politically they are not. They are kingdoms that sometimes will compete over resources and also over trade, too. Control of trade or access to trade in the South.
So they are going to benefit a lot from the Trans-Saharan trade networks that you will see on this map here. These networks are able to... go across the Saharan desert.
We'll talk more about the Trans-Saharan deserts and Trans-Saharan trade network in a later unit, but just know that they're highly connected to these regions that connect to the Mediterranean and so forth. So they do get access to some goods and so some of the things that are found in Sub-Saharan Africa such as gold, ivory, salt make their way northward. Islam is going to be introduced into these kingdoms roughly around the 14th century. And that does change things and you'll start to see some empires that build up around these regions, not entirely, but they'll include parts of the Hausa kingdoms. So the next thing we're going to talk about is the political structures of West and East Africa.
They do increase as the exchange of goods brings more wealth and thus more power to wealthy families. And also increases cultural diversity because we see the movement of people. as well as ideas that get introduced into West Africa, then that goes both ways, right?
Islam. It basically spreads to this part and then to make it more attractive to the people, a lot of the Islamic beliefs kind of blend with a lot of the animism and Christianity that sometimes existed there already. And so we do see a more unique version of Islam, a unique practice of Islam in these parts of the world comparatively to where you find Islam in say the Abbasid Caliphate. So that's something that is worth noting as well.
So there were four major kingdoms. We're going to talk about each one, Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia that existed in Africa during this time. So let's start with Ghana. So Ghana is pretty much in West Africa. It's founded around the 5th century, but it really peaks somewhere between the 8th and 11th century.
And the rulers of Ghana had extremely a large amount of resources that they could trade that were highly demanded in other parts of the world, in particular gold, ivory, and then to a lesser extent, copper clothes and tools that they can get. So the salt, I can't tell you how much salt is an importance. commodity it was highly desired think about what salt is used for i mean it's essential element to the human body number one but it also helps preserve meats and and other things so salt was a really highly demanded commodity that you could find here in west africa um the capital city of uh ghana was uh kumbay sali um and then the uh considering we were talking about a lot of africa where this kinship uh or kin-based system This is a very decentralized government and where there's clear leaders and bureaucracy that, you know, organized to help for the benefit of trade, but also to help expand territory and protect territory. And their military was pretty well advanced for the region as they were using iron weapons that they had built themselves. Right now, over time, you know, empires fall and.
here comes a new one that kind of replaces Ghana and that Mali empire, which kind of comes around by the 12th century. And the, just like Ghana, they were a very powerful trading society. They thrive on that gold trade.
But this one is a little different because it is founded based off of, you know, Islamic principles and such. And the founder, themselves was a Muslim ruler named Sudanta. And I'm not sure I have that pronunciation correct.
But they used the Islamic connection to help establish trade because the Islamic world is as vast as it was. If you were connected into those trade networks, you know, that's it's quite a benefit. And, you know, the word of mouth spreads and what's there. And so you have merchants come out and of course, merchants bring more commodities, they bring more religion and other things right um so on the cultural landscape of of this region you can still find one of the most impressive like uh buildings in the world um in unique ones and that's the grace the great mosque of jenna um and this is that this mud brick looking building here and this every year um probably more than once a year They redress this and so they bring mud from the river and so forth and then they kind of coat it off again And they just make sure that this stays Preserved for you know all time if they can but this mosque it becomes a cultural center And the of Islam and so much like where we talk about the house of wisdom This one is a big community center that have scholars intellectuals and people of the faith gather together in exchange of ideas.
Mosques themselves are really just cultural centers and gathering community centers and such. Different than what we kind of think of, I mean they're used for prayer as well, but they're different than the way we think of churches in the west, particularly Christian churches. But this building itself is still around and it's protected by the world heritage. World Heritage, I'm forgetting the last part of that thing, but yes.
So one of, and Mali is a pretty powerful empire, but one of the most famous people from Mali was the king Matsamusa. Matsamusa was probably the richest man in history. And I've linked a little video on this Canvas page to give you like a little extra information about him.
But he is going to be the ruler of Mali. And he promoted the building of a learning center in Timbuktu in Africa. You can see here on the map right here. And that becomes another kind of center of Islamic trade and...
exchange of culture and ideas. He himself goes on the Hajj, you know, the pilgrimage that is kind of expected of somebody who's capable as one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith or the Islamic faith. And so on his Hajj, he won in style. And so he basically, you know, gathered all his wealth and resources, all the people who worked for him, and they went on this tour. And it was kind of like the whole Look how wealthy I am to her as I go on Paj.
And he was like, you know, rolling down the streets of Cairo, just throwing gold coins at people. So much so that it actually led to an economic collapse because it created so much inflation because he was just giving out all of this free money. It's an interesting story, but, you know, that's the wealthiest man in history was a king from Africa named Monsa Musa. So the next civilization we're going to talk about is Zimbabwe. And Zimbabwe, the Great Zimbabwe, was established in the 9th century in East Africa.
You can see here on the map, if I can get myself out of the way here, here on the map you see where the Great Zimbabwe is. And it's in relative closeness to the east coast of Africa. And that's essentially important because they're going to be connected into this trade network. They are more in the interior, so it acts as a lot of resources in the interior.
But they would bring them to the coast to where they could trade and then get stuff from the Indian Ocean Trade Network. And then they would bring it back here. Right.
And so you'll find stuff in Great Zimbabwe like porcelain from China. So they very much were connected to these trade networks. So even in like, you know, the interior of Africa, the trade networks. find a way to get the commodities to people and then different parts of the world.
But itself, it's kind of known for this great stone structure that was built in the great Zimbabwe. And it was, you know, this very large stone wall that they built without mortar. Mortar being like the stuff that connects the stones.
The stones just were like perfectly fitted and carved and shaped to fit each other. And it was essentially a kind of a protective place for the people to go to if they were under attack. And so the roughly 20,000 people lived there in the 15th century for Africa of a city that size was pretty impressive.
People were generally more spread out because there was awful lot of land to be able to spread out to. Eventually it gets abandoned because of overgrazing. And so you have environmental determination that, um, that happens as a result, um, of overgrazing, uh, their, their cattle and such. And so it ends up getting abandoned at its height. Here's what, you know, it looked like as far as, uh, our just rendition of it.
And then this like area right here, this hill, this is where the wealthy and the, the, the royal families lived was on this hill. And then this was used kind of as protection. Um, against any attacks, but then you have all these little houses on the outside here.
All right, now we're going to switch over to Ethiopia, and then also it's known as Axum. And Ethiopia, Axum, they were unique compared to a lot of places in Africa. So Christianity, because of their relative closeness to the Middle East and to Europe, Christianity and Christian missionaries spread Christianity down to Exum right around the first century, so not long after the death of Christ, and we're talking about relative terms to history. And so it was a legit Christian civilization as a result, and they have a unique brand of Christianity compared to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, the major branches.
But then... this uh you know christianity is still embraced in the uh in ethiopia today um when uh islam shows up in the 7th century it does kind of weaken the christian influence over that territory but it still very much stays alive and is around today they develop a very independent version of christianity from rome catholicism and eastern orthodox as i mentioned before and a lot of the christianity combines these local traditions that have existed in that part of the world for centuries before the arrival of Christianity. And so again, you know, if you want to create a message of you, I mean, Christianity being a universalizing religion, what do you, the people who already, what do they believe they're already? And what do you have to offer in terms of, you know, what you can teach and help to better their lives through the religion and so forth? And how do you can blend the two to kind of bridge those ideas?
And so you Just like where other places we talked about the blending of cultures. This is another way in which it happens here in Exum and so they kind of combined the animal and ancestral veneration And the belief of its spirits with Christianity and they built a lab 11 massive churches from rocks and such and here's an example Of one here's one one of their churches. This is what it looks like from above.
This is all stone This is like I don't know what kind of stone is but it's all stone But somebody carved, many people probably, carved into the rock here. And they carved this in making one building from this large stone structure into a church. So this is what it looks like below.
So this is the top and this is below. It's a really, really cool artifact or heritage site. But it definitely shows you the amount of influence that Christianity has on Ethiopia. Because who would take this time to... do something of this magnitude if it didn't have an enormous amount of meaning to them.
This is another one of those churches, while its story is, as far as the building goes, not as interesting as this one, what this building represents is pretty fascinating themselves. And so for those of you, I mean, know what the Ark of the Covenant is, and don't know what the Ark of the Covenant is, it is the resting place of the broken tablets of the 10 commandments. And so if you've ever watched Indiana Jones, I think it's the first Indiana Jones and such, they go try to find it.
And, you know, that's just a movie. But in the folklore of Ethiopian Christianity, it is believed that the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant is in this building, and that the man right here in the yellow is the Ark of the Covenant. Is the only one allowed in see this gate right here where there's only Exiting on basically can a divide see on the outside from the end The only person allowed inside this building and a lie inside this gate is this guy in the yellow the caretaker and so he watches over it, but it is believed that By the you know local folklore and such that the Ark of the Covenant is in this building Whether it is or not is not for me to say.
It's just what people believe. So we can't ignore Africa and talk about Africa and ignore the fact that something else that has been going on in practice that has later implications when we talk about the world history curriculum is slavery. And slavery has a long history in Africa. It exists prior to the arrival of the Europeans. But when the Europeans...
get to Africa, they exploit it and expand on it much bigger than what it had been. So oftentimes, you know, slavery was a way for prisoners of war. I mean, they'd be prisoners of war for slavery.
They were used to pay off debts, to voluntarily put you or your family into slavery to pay off debts. It was used for criminals. But the jobs of slaves is mostly for agriculture, you know, they work the land and so forth.
And At that point, you know, that's essentially how the majority of the slaves were used, for those jobs that are very tough and labor-intensive. So many kin-based societies, land can't be owned. It's just, land is land, land is there.
It's for you to use, right? But people could be owned. And that is kind of where we have the beginnings of chattel slavery, where like one person's owned as property.
You own more slaves, the higher your social status is. And so the desire to own more slaves has certainly got an incentive there. And then there were a lot of slaves that were in demand in other parts of the world, particularly the Middle East, where Arab merchants would come and purchase slaves and bring back to the Arabian Peninsula as well as into the Middle East, modern-day Iraq and so forth. And so there was very much an Indian Ocean slave trade that existed prior to when the Europeans started to get into a slave trade as well.
And not to say that there weren't resistance to that slavery and that slave trade at that time. One good example is the Zange Rebellion from 869 to 8083. The Zange Rebellion took place in where is kind of modern day Mesopotamia. And a slave that converted to Islam, Ali bin Muhammad, him and 15,000 followers end up rebelling and taking over an entire city and basically running it themselves for a good long time. It was considered one of the most successful slave revolts in history. There will be others we'll talk about.
But, you know, know that even though slavery. existed beforehand, there was also still resistance to slavery by those who were enslaved. This is a cultural thing to add on.
This is not on the curriculum specifically, but just another something to add as far as knowledge about the cultural influences in Africa. So griots are people who were basically storytellers, songwriters and such, and they were hired to sing at weddings about stories of their past and so forth. Because of their knowledge of what's happened in the past and so forth, kings would ask for their counsel and everything. But they would basically sing songs with instruments about their past and spread a common sense of history amongst the people.
And that's something that helps unite people in all parts of the world is this common sense of history. history and so that's something that occurred in Africa so there it is Africa in a nutshell you know guys like even Batuta we didn't talk about but we will a later time in a later unit and so here we go Africa the basics behind it and state building so once again think about what you just listen to and think about where there's similarities and differences are those similarities more so than there are differences or is it the opposite when you answer your question right? So that's it from here. I hope everyone's at home safe and healthy. I will see you all later.