AP African American Studies Unit 1

African American Studies

The interdisciplinary approach to the study of people of African descent, largely in the
U.S. It emerges
in the late 1960s as a response to the lack of
university courses on
African Americans.
Disciplines include History, Anthropology, Economics, Biology, Music, Literature, and Psychology

Thelma Johnson Streat

Artist who painted Medicine and Transportation, 1942 to commemorate African American contributions in the fields of medicine and transportation

Claude McKay (1889-1948)

Jamaican born leader of the Harlem Renaissance; known for his socialist politics. Different from the others because he adhered to old forms to write his protest poetry. The Lynching, Harlem Dancer, America, Outcast, Africa and If We Must Die are all sonnets. Also wrote the book Home to Harlem.

Sahara

largest desert in the world, covering almost all of North Africa

Sahel

Belt south of the Sahara where it transitions into savanna across central Africa. It means literally 'coastland' in Arabic.

Ethnolinguistics

A branch of linguistics that studies the relationships between language and culture and how they mutually influence and inform each other.

Bantu

A major African language family. Collective name of a large group of sub-Saharan African languages and of the peoples speaking these languages. Famous for migrations throughout central and southern Africa.

Bantu Linguistic Family

the speakers of a related group of about 600 languages that are spoken by Bantu peoples of Central, Southern, Eastern, and Southeast Asia

Nubia

A civilization to the south of Egypt in the Nile Valley, noted for development of an alphabetic writing system and a major iron working industry by 500 BCE

Aksumite Empire

Isolated Christian state in Africa// northern Ethiopia// Port city--good for trade in the Indian Ocean basin.

Nok Society

West Africa's earliest known culture; lived in what is now Nigeria; between 500 B.C. and A.D. 200; first people known to smelt iron; fashioned iron into tools for farming and weapons for hunting

King Ezana

Aksumite king who destroyed Meroe and took over the kingdom of Kush

Sudanic Kingdoms

large grassland region in africa that serves as the transition zone between the sahara desert in the north and the rain forests of central africa, Included Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

Ghana

First known kingdom in sub-Saharan West Africa between the sixth and thirteenth centuries C.E. Also the modern West African country once known as the Gold Coast. gold and salt trade.

Trans-Saharan trade network

route across the sahara desert. Major trade route that traded for gold and salt, created caravan routes, economic benefit for controlling dessert, camels played a huge role in the trading

Mansa Musa

Ruler of Mali (r. 1312-1337). His extravagant pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324-1325 established the empire's reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world.

Hajj

A pilgrimage to Mecca, performed as a duty by Muslims

Catalan Atlas

a medieval map created in 1375 in modern-day Spain; one panel shows the King of Mali, Mansa Musa, who reigned between 1312 and 1327

Timbuktu

City on the Niger River in the modern country of Mali. It was founded by the Tuareg as a seasonal camp sometime after 1000. As part of the Mali empire, became a major major terminus of the trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning.

Griots

Professional oral historians who served as keepers of traditions and advisors to kings within the Mali Empire

Syncrestism

a blending of beliefs and practices from different religions into one faith

Indigenous Cosmology

Archaic, integrated worldviews conceived by the ancient and pro to historic peoples of the Americas prior to substantive contact with European peoples in the 17th century

Voodoo

Haitian version of traditional African religious beliefs that are blended with elements of Christianity.

Regal de Ochalfa

Famous religious artifact also known as the triple crucifix

Swahili Coast

East African shores of the Indian Ocean between the Horn of Africa and the Zambezi River; from the Arabic sawahil, meaning 'shores.'

Indian Ocean trading network

The world's largest sea-based system of communication and exchange before 1500 C.E., commerce stretched from southern China to eastern Africa and included not only the exchange of luxury and bulk goods but also the exchange of ideas and crops.

Nzinga Mbemba

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.

Kingdom of Kongo

Basin of the Congo (Zaire) river, conglomeration of several village alliances, participated actively in trade networks, most centralized rule of the early Bantu kingdoms, royal currency: cowries, ruled 14th-17th century until undermined by Portuguese slave traders

African Catholicism

More conservative on gender and sexuality, more liberal on economy and pacifism. Huge growth. More ecumenicism w/ Protestants, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Jews before and after VII. During colonial era lots of women in religious orders and importance of Catechists.

Queen Idia of Benin

Queen of the Edo people from -504-1550. Played a role in the Idah war, which was a great Benin victory

Lisbon

Capital of Portugal first center of import/export in the slave trade

Sao Tome and Principe

Island off West Africa controlled by Portugal which contained many sugar plantations worked by African Slaves

Chafariz d'el Rey

Painting with over 150 figures creating a busy scene in Lisbon

African Diaspora

The separation and spreading of Africans from their homeland through centuries of forced removal to serve as enslaved persons in the Americas and elsewhere.

Black studies national conference

First annual conference held at UNC in 1975 for the formalization of African World experience

Savanna Grassland

found mainly in central Africa, southern India, northern Australia and central South America. Long grasses and a few scattered trees are found in these hot and dry conditions.

Egypt

This early empire has its home along Africa's longest river, with a detailed form of writing.

Mail Empire

Empire in West Africa that began in 1235 and thrived due to large gold deposits on its land. Home empire of Amanda Musa

Epic of Sundiata

An epic poem of the Malinke people and tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire

Great Zimbabwe

A stone-walled enclosure found in Southeast Africa. Have been associated with trade, farming, and mining.

Great Enclosure

the largest of the three main sections of the Shona settlement of Great Zimbabwe - likely a royal residence

kinship ties

social ties that generate family relationships through blood, adoption, and marriage

Queen Njinga of Ndongo

Supplied Dutch with slaves and they helped her defeat the Portuguese in the region. made her the most powerful rulers in region, changed her name to Donna Ana (felt double crossed by Dutch) and welcome Portuguese teachers back into her kingdom