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

Diaspora

A dispersion of people from their homeland

interdisciplinary studies

Academic approaches that combine traditionally separate disciplines, such as biology and history.

complex socities

societies with large settled populations, an extensive division of labor, monumental architecture, and occupational specialization

Atlantic Slave Trade

Lasted from 16th century until the 19th century. Trade of African peoples from Western Africa to the Americas. One part of a three-part economical system known as the Middle Passage of the Triangular Trade.

Sahara

A huge desert stretching across most of North Africa

Sahel

Belt south of the Sahara where it transitions into savanna across central Africa. Semi-arid region of agriculturally fertile land. It means literally 'coastland' in Arabic.

Savanna

An area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes

Niger River

the longest river in West Africa, and a kind of trading highway in early times

Congo River

A river in Central Africa that flows into the Atlantic Ocean from the Congo Rainforest

Nile River

The world's longest river, which flows northward through East Africa into the Mediterranean Sea. River around which Egyptian and Nubian empires developed

Bantu

Collective name of a large group of sub-Saharan African languages and of the peoples speaking these languages.

Bantu Migration

The spread of Bantu-speaking peoples from their homeland in what is now southern Nigeria or Cameroon to most of Africa, in a process that started ca. 3000 B.C.E. and continued for several millennia.

Egypt

This early empire has its home along Africa's longest river, with a detailed form of writing. Political organization around Pharaohs and Dynasties. Participated in long distance trade with Europe and 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

Aksum

A kingdom in northwestern Ethiopia that was a sizable trading state and the center of Christian culture.

Nok

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

Gold-Salt Trade

Gold and salt made up trade and wealth in the African kingdoms because the Europeans wanted gold, and the Africans needed salt

Trans-Saharan Trade

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

Great Zimbabwe

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

Swahili Coast

East African city-states that emerged in the 8th century CE from a blending of Bantu, Islamic, and other Indian Ocean trade elements

Indian Ocean Trade Route

linked East Asia with Arabian Peninsula and Africa; traded gold, spices, and slaves; spread Islam and Buddhism; sea trade

Enslaved people

people who were forced to perform labor, who were captured, bought, and sold into enslavement. Some people, especially in the Americas, were born into enslavement based on the condition of their mother.

Enslavers

People who bought and "owned" other human beings.

Kinship

A social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption

Sovereignty

Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

Black Campus Movement

a movement during the 1960s and 1970sw to increase education about Black History, Africana Studies, Diaspora Studies, etc. to campuses across the US