24 - African Kingdoms and the African Diaspora (abridged)

African diaspora

peoples descended from sub-Saharan Africans; particularly descendants of West and Central Africans forcibly transported to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade and East Africans transported to Asia via the Islamic slave trade

Islamic slave trade

as many 10 million Bantu peoples the African interior were sold into slavery and sent across the Sahara desert and Indian Ocean to perform menial labor

factories

European trading fortresses and compounds with resident merchants; utilized throughout Portuguese trading empire to assure secure landing places and commerce

Sao Jorge da Mina/Elmina

fortified Portuguese trading factory established in 1482 on the west African coast in modern Ghana; oldest European building south of the Sahara; African slaves were later shipped to the Americas from here

Atlantic slave trade

human trafficking of around 12 million African peoples for forced labor in the Americas from 1526-1859; one part of triangular trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas; aka the Middle Passage

Middle Passage

voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas (16th-18th centuries); generally a traumatic experience for black slaves, although it failed to strip Africans of their culture

asiento

transatlantic slave trade between Africa and the Spanish colonies; Britain held a monopoly on this profitable human trafficking from 1713-1750

Vodun

African religious ideas and practices among descendants of African slaves in Haiti

Creole languages

grammatically simplified blend of European and African languages

quilombo

settlements of escaped slaves, or maroons, in Brazil

Olaudah Equiano

(1745-1797) former African slave; wrote an autobiography depicting the horrors of slavery; inspired British abolition of the transatlantic slave trade

William Wilberforce

British statesman and reformer; leader of abolitionist movement in English parliament that led to end of English slave trade in 1807

Nzinga Mvemba

King of Kongo south of Zaire River from 1507 to 1543; converted to Christianity and took title Alfonso I; under Portuguese influence attempted to Christianize all of kingdom

Luanda

Portuguese factory established in 1520s south of Kongo; became basis for Portuguese colony of Angola

Ndongo

early-modern African state in modern Angola; tributary to the Kingdom of Kongo that won independence; reached its peak during under Queen Nzinga (r. 1623-1663)

Queen Nzinga

ruler of Ndongo; fought Portuguese slave traders in the mid-1600s; skilled diplomat and military tactician

Oyo empire

slave trading state of the Yoruba ethnic group; most politically important state in West Africa c. 1300-1896; had influence over neighboring kingdom of Dahomey

Dahomey

kingdom developed among Fon or Aja peoples in 17th century; center at Abomey 70 miles from coast; under King Agaja expanded to control coastline and port of Whydah by 1727; accepted Western firearms and goods in return for African slaves

Great Trek

movement of Boer settlers in Cape Colony of southern Africa to escape influence of British colonial government in 1834; led to settlement of regions north of Orange River and Natal.

Zulu

Bantu ethnic group of southern Africa united by Shaka in 1818

Shaka

(r. 1816 – 1828) Zulu chief in southern Africa who created a large centralized state; greatly expanded his territory by killing or enslaving those who resisted; failure in battle was a death sentence for his impis warriors