Origins of the African Diaspora Flashcards

Flashcards about the Origins of the African Diaspora.

What characterizes African American Studies?

It combines an interdisciplinary approach with scholarly inquiry to analyze the history, culture, and contributions of people of African descent in the United States and throughout the African diaspora.

What is the origin of African American Studies?

It emerged from Black artistic, intellectual, and political endeavors that predate its formalization as a field of study.

What area of study does African American Studies examine in relation to Africa?

It examines the development of ideas about Africa’s history and the continent’s ongoing relationship to communities of the African diaspora.

What movement paved the way for the incorporation of African American Studies in colleges?

The Civil Rights movement and the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

What did the Black Campus movement (1965–1972) demand?

Greater opportunities to study the history and experiences of Black people and greater support for Black students, faculty, and administrators.

What is the birthplace of humanity and the ancestral home of African Americans?

Africa

How does African American Studies enrich the study of early Africa?

It examines developments in early African societies, dispels misconceptions of early Africa, and documents early Africa as a diverse continent with complex societies.

What are the five primary climate zones in Africa?

Desert, semiarid, savannah grasslands, tropical rainforests, and the Mediterranean zone.

Name the major rivers in Africa.

Niger River, Congo River, Zambezi River, Orange River, and Nile River

What geographic features supported the emergence of early societies and fostered early global connections in Africa?

The proximity of the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean.

Name three reasons why population centers emerged in the Sahel and the savannah grasslands of Africa.

Major water routes facilitated trade, fertile land supported agriculture, and the Sahel and savannah grasslands connected trade between the Sahara and the tropical regions.

How did variations in climate impact trade in Africa?

They facilitated diverse opportunities for trade (e.g., herders trading salt in desert areas, people trading livestock in the Sahel, people cultivating grain crops in savannah grasslands, and people growing kola trees and yams and trading gold in tropical rainforests).

What contributed to the population growth of West and Central African peoples?

Technological innovations (e.g., the development of tools) and agricultural innovations (e.g., the cultivation of bananas, yams, and grains).

What is the Bantu expansion?

A series of migrations of people who spoke Bantu languages throughout the continent from 1500 BCE to 500 CE.

What are some modern languages of the Bantu linguistic family?

Xhosa, Swahili, Kikongo, and Zulu

What societies emerged along the Nile River around 3000 BCE?

Egypt and Nubia (also known as Kush/Cush).

What was the Aksumite Empire known for?

Developing its own currency and script (Ge’ez) and connecting to major maritime trade networks.

What is the Nok society best known for?

Their pottery, naturalistic terracotta sculptures, and stone instruments.

What was the significance of Aksum becoming the first African society to adopt Christianity under King Ezana?

It exemplifies African societies that adopted Christianity on their own terms, beyond the influence of colonialism or the later transatlantic slave trade.

How did African American writers use examples from ancient Africa?

To counter racist stereotypes that characterized African societies as without government or culture.

What are the Sudanic empires?

Ghana, Mali, and Songhai (also known as the Sahelian empires).

What made ancient Ghana, Mali, and Songhai renowned?

Their gold mines and strategic location at the nexus of multiple trade routes.

What religion spread throughout West Africa due to trans-Saharan commerce?

Islam

Why did Songhai's wealth diminish?

Trade routes shifted from trans-Saharan to Atlantic trade, following Portuguese exploration along the western coast of Africa.

What made Mali a center for trade, learning, and cultural exchange in the fourteenth century?

The rule of Mansa Musa.

What regions did the Sudanic empires in West Africa stretch from?

Senegambia to present-day Côte d’Ivoire, including regions of Nigeria.

Where did a book trade, university, and learning community flourish in Mali?

Timbuktu

Who were Griots?

Prestigious historians, storytellers, and musicians who maintained and shared a community’s history, traditions, and cultural practices.

What is the Epic of Sundiata?

An oral tradition passed down by Mande griots that recounts the early life of Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire.

What resulted from the adoption of Islam (e.g., in Mali and Songhai) or of Christianity (e.g., in Kongo) by leaders of some African societies?

Their subjects blending aspects of these introduced faiths with Indigenous spiritual beliefs and cosmologies.

Where can spiritual practices traced to West and West Central Africa, such as veneration of the ancestors, be found?

In African diasporic religions, such as Louisiana Voodoo.

Which kingdom flourished in Southern Africa from the twelfth to the fifteenth century?

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe.

What is Great Zimbabwe known for?

Its large stone architecture, which offered military defense and served as a hub for long-distance trade.

What united the Swahili Coast city-states between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries?

Their shared language (Swahili) and shared religion (Islam).

What caused the Swahili Coast trading states to garner the attention of the Portuguese?

Their strength

When did King Nzinga a Nkuwu (João I) and his son Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I) convert the Kingdom of Kongo to Roman Catholicism?

1491

What strengthened the Kingdom of Kongo's relationship with Portugal?

Kongo’s conversion to Christianity

What did the King of Portugal demand in exchange for military assistance?

Access to the trade of enslaved people.

Where did the Kingdom of Kongo rank in the transatlantic slave trade

The largest source of enslaved people.

What was the impact of the Kingdom of Kongo's Christian culture on early African Americans?

Christian names among early African Americans have African origins and exemplify ways that ideas and practices around kinship and lineage endured across the Atlantic.

What often formed the basis for political alliances in many early West and Central African societies?

Extended kinship ties.

What roles did women play in West and Central African societies?

Spiritual leaders, political advisors, market traders, educators, and agriculturalists.

What is Queen Idia known for?

Serving as a political advisor to her son, the king, in the Kingdom of Benin.

What is Queen Njinga known for?

Becoming queen of the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba and engaging in 30 years of guerilla warfare against the Portuguese.

When did an ivory mask of Queen Idia's face become an iconic symbol of Black women’s leadership?

1977 (adopted as the symbol for FESTAC).

How did African kingdoms increase their wealth and power in the late fifteenth century?

Through slave trading, which was a common feature of hierarchical West African societies.

Why did African elites travel to Mediterranean port cities?

For diplomatic, educational, and religious reasons.

Why were Africans brought to Portuguese-colonized Atlantic islands like Cabo Verde and São Tomé?

To work on cotton, indigo, and sugar plantations.