Africa Before 1800 Midterm

25^th dynasty

• dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs that originated in the Nubian kindgom of Kush

• Inaugurated by King Piye of Kush, this dynasty was governed by Nubian rulers over Egypt from 728 to 657 BCE. This was known as the dynasty of the Nubian pharaohs (also referred to as the Black pharaohs). During this period, the Nubian pharaohs ordered renovations and constructions of temples and introduced elements of Nubian culture into royal art.

Gift of the Nile

• Refers to the acient Egyptian’s civilization’s great river

• Its water and annual flooding supported agriculture and settlement in an otherwise arid environment, helping to sustain Egyptian civilization. It had rich and fertile soil, provided water for irrigation, and was a connector between cities and kingdoms for trade.

Narmer/Menes

• Ruler in Egypt and regarded as Egypt’d first pharaoh

• King Narmer created an Egyptian state by uniting the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) in 2950 BCE through unification, this state would last for over 2,600 years. This led to stability in the region and help with the agricultural success and wealth of the Nile Delta under a single divine ruler.

‘Aryan Model’

• Model that Martin Bernal argued minimized Egyptian and Phoenician contributions to Greek civilization

• Developed during the first half of the nineteenth century, this model attributes Greek culture to northern invasions and dismisses Near Eastern or African influence due to racial and romantic ideologies. Classical Greek civilization was a "Greek miracle" largely isolated from African or Asian influence, posits that Indo-European speakers ("Aryans") from the north conquered the native, less-developed pre-Hellenic population , forming the basis of European heritage.

Right of ax

• The Right of Ax was a customary right in some precolonial African societies to clear and cultivate land without owning it. Along with the Right of Fire, it was a form of usufruct—the right to use and benefit from land.

• Its significance is that land was often understood as belonging to ancestral spirits, with access governed by customary authority, labor, and community relationships rather than simple buying and selling.

622

• Year associated with the hijra, Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina

• The Hijra marks a foundational turning point in the early Muslim community and provides the starting point for the Islamic calendar. Muhammad traveled with his companion, Abu Bakr, to seek refuge from persecution by the Quraysh

Dhimmy

• Status given to certain protected non-Muslim subjects under Islamic rule

• The legal and social framework governing non-Muslim subjects living under Islamic rule across North and Northeast Africa. This status reflects a legal and political relationship between Muslim rulers and certain non-Muslim communities, including recognized protections and obligations. The state guaranteed non-Muslims specific concessions in exchange for their submission to Muslim sovereignty: security, exemptions, judicial autonomy. However, they had to pay jiyza (mandatory annual poll tax levied on all free adult non-Muslim men).

Sankore

• Center of learning associated with Timbuktu

• Built in 1327, Sankore Madrassa in Timbuktu is generally accorded the status of a full-fledged Islamic university. It is associated with Islamic scholarship and illustrates the importance of educational and scholarly institutions in West African Muslim societies.

• A major Islamic university and mosque in Timbuktu that reached its intellectual peak under the Songhay Empire, holding vast collections of manuscripts and producing a renowned class of African Islamic scholars (ulama).

Taharqa

• One of the most notable pharaohs during the 25th dynasty

• Taharqa was a ruler of the 25th Dynasty who confronted Assyrian expansion. His reign illustrates Kushite power. As a leader, he promoted a renaissance of classical Egyptian art, religion, and literature, preserving ancient tradition and capitalized on abundant Nile floods and strong administrative organization to fund massive civic and religious works.

Polygenesis theory

• It proposed separate origins for human groups (different human races originated from separate ancestral groups)

• It became significant later in debates about race and human difference.

• was significant in Africa before 1800, as it provided a framework for justifying racial hierarchies and discrimination.

Bantu

• Most significant movement of population in African history and the single largest sub-family of languages in Africa

• Dispersals began around 3000 BCE with migrations happening at the level of villages and districts initially. Sedentary farming gave Bantu an advantage over other communities. The Bantu Expansion was significant for technological diffusion (e.g. iron metallurgy), its transformativ power of political and cultural innovations (e.g. matriarchy, chiefdom), polygamy, and age sets. Additionally, Bantu refers to a large family of related languages. The spread of Bantu languages involved complex migrations and interactions, not the expansion of one single political entity.

Kiswahili

• East African coastal language

• The dominance language of the Swahili civilization. Because the Swahili civilization was at the center of Indian Ocean and coastal trade, Kiswahili was widely spoken on these trade routes.

Mansa Musa

• Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire. His hajj to Mecca—reputedly accompanied by 60,000 free people, 12,000 enslaved people, and camels carrying gold—displayed Mali’s wealth; his generous gold spending in Egypt reportedly affected its value for years.

• He expanded Mali’s power to include Gao, Timbuktu, and Taghaza, and supported Islamic scholarship in Timbuktu by building madrassas and inviting scholars from Egypt, Arabia, and Spain.

• His Turkic enslaved bodyguards also reflected the international connections of his court.

• His significance: he helped make Mali influential across Africa and the wider Muslim world, while establishing Timbuktu as a center of Islamic learning.

Griot

• Griots are storytellers located in West Africa and tell stories orally.

• They play an important political role because they are seen as the mouth of the king. They play a role in documenting history, communicating wiith groups, and being the center of cultural inheritance. They are known for passing cultural stories orally from generation to generation; they are central figures in cultural communities. They recall important stories and epics and preserve these stories, such as the epic of Sundiata.

Fasa

• Fasa is a praise-song or song-narrative performed by a griot, celebrating Sundiata and recounting his deeds. Its significance is that it preserves history and cultural values through performance: the griot uses speech, recitation, and song to present Sundiata as a model leader and hero.

Mummification

• Mummification was the process of preserving a body after death in Ancient Egypt. Because Egyptians believed in an afterlife, they thought preserving the body would help the deceased live on; it was part of burial rites, alongside placing grave goods in the tomb.

• Its significance was that it prepared the deceased for life after death.

Herodotus

• Greek historian whose account is an important source for ancient Egypt

• His account is a valuable ancient source that noted Egypt as a "Gift of the Nile" and noted physical observations of Egyptians as having dark skin and woolly hair. However, Herodotus as a person has his own biases who is impacted by oral history limitations from guides he spoke to, and modern racial debates as racial categories as we know them today did not exist then.

Ibn Batutta

• 14th-century Muslim traveler and writer

• Ibn Battuta is known for providing the most comprehensive 14th-century eye-witness written accounts of medieval Africa. His account, Rihla, serves as one of the few surviving first person accounts of inner West Africa and the Swahili Coast during this era. He traveled across the Sahara to the court of King Mansa Sulayman, recording the empire's immense gold wealth, administration, security, and strict Quranic education

Kilwa

• Important Swahili coastal trading city

• This city was a large, wealthy town built from coral stone. During the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, Kilwa controlled towns south of Zanzibar. The earliest ruins of mosques on the Swahili Coast date back to the 700s, the most notable being the Great Mosque of Kilwa established sometime in the 900s. Portuguese forces sacked and burned the medieval Swahili city-state of Kilwa in 1505.

Homo erectus

• Prehistoric human species

• It is an extinct human species important to the study of human evolution. It was the first human ancestor to possess modern human-like body proportions, pioneer the handaxe, and launch the first major global migrations out of Africa. First species with long legs and short arms, built for walking and running long distances on the ground. Braincases expanded significantly compared to earlier Australopithecus and Homo habilis.

Sahel

• Region of Africa that is a semiarid zone south of the Sahara Desert

• Comes from the Arabic term for "shore" or "coast". Three significant West African civilizations (Mali, Songhai, Ghana) are located in the Sahel. This zone connected ecological and commercial regions through its role in trans-Saharan exchanges. 

Savanna

• Bioclimatic zone that makes up 50% of Africa’s total land mass

• The savanna is a grassland environment often characterized by scattered trees. Its ecology influenced settlement, agriculture, pastoralism, and movement in ways that varied by region.

• A tropical grassland ecosystem with distinct wet and dry seasons surrounding the equatorial rainforests, supporting rain-fed grain farming (millet, sorghum), livestock herding, and large population centers for empires like Old Mali.

Ile Ife

• Major Yoruba-associated historical center

• In Yoruba creation myths, Ile-Ife was a famous city located in modern day Nigeria. It is regarded as the cradle of human creation and a holy city, as Olodumare (the supreme deity) gave Obatala (Yoruba orisha) the task of creating the first human beings out of clay here.

Sundiata

• Founded the Mali empire in West Africa in the 13th century and his life has been chronicled and preserved for over 800 years

• Sundiata was a real king who ruled the empire of Mali and founded the second major kingdom created by the local rulers to profit from the desert trade with north Africans. The Sundiata Epic blends history and myth, framing Sundiata's rise from a mocked, paralyzed child to a powerful king as a classic hero's journey. Today, Sundiata remains a symbol of past greatness when Mali extended from the Atlantic to Timbuktu. He is a national hero whose exploits are still sung about in poetry by griots to music played in public performances.

Kola nuts

• Plant product in commercial networks in Africa as early as the 13th century

• These were an important item of trade, as it was a stimulant and promoted social good (promoted because caffeine is supposed to have people stray away from alcohol since alcohol is prohibited in Islam). Furthermore, functioned as a form of currency or high value trade currency in various regions. They played a central role in ceremonies, community meetings, peace treaties, weddings, child-naming, funerals, and resolving legal or interpersonal disputes.

Dhow

• Maritime vessel associated with Indian Ocean trade

• These vessels supported maritime commerce and movement along East African ports and other Indian Ocean routes. Dhows were traditional wooden sailing vessel with triangular lateen sails used along the Swahili coast, Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean -- transported gold, ivory, spices, timber, and people and was the backbone of trade

Spirit medium

• Spirit mediums are usually women believed to communicate with ancestors and the unseen world.

• They are significant because communities consult them during misfortune, sickness, death, or calamity; using divination methods such as cowry shells, palm nuts, water, or sand, they communicate the ancestors’ will and explain events affecting the community.

Coptic Christianity

• Early branch of Christianity in Africa

• Christianity arrived in Egypt in the 1st century CE brought by St. Mark (author of the second Gospel). The origins of Coptic Christianity shows that is deeply indigenous to North and Northeast Africa long before European colonialism. The religion pioneered global monasticism and sustained sovereign Christian kingdoms in Nubia and Ethiopia. Most commonly associated with Ethiopian identity.

1-What would you list as Nubia's most important contributions to ancient Egyptian civilization, both at its beginning and during the various phases of dynastic Egyptian history?

- Shared cultural and biological roots (e.g. archaeological evidence of Egyptian crania from 4000-3100 BCE)

- Nubia's trade goods of ebony wood, ivory, leopard skins, myrrh, incense, aromatic woods, gold, semiprecious stones

- Nubian archers and their integration into the Egyptian military (e.g. King Mentuhotep II's reliance on Nubian archer to unify Egypt and establish the Eleventh Dynasty)

- Cultural exchange with the cult of the Theban god Amun, which created a synthesized religious framework to empower Nubian rulers

- Nubia unifying the entire Egyptian state from the Mediterranean to the sixth cataract as the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty

2-What does Martin Bernal mean by “Ancient model” and “Aryan model”? In your view, does he make a plausible case for an Egyptian and Phoenician origin of Greek civilization? What are the strengths and limitations of his argument and evidence?

• Bernal uses the Ancient Model for the view that Greek civilization began partly through Egyptian and Phoenician colonization around 1500 BC, which helped “civilize” the native population. In this model, Greeks continued to borrow from Near Eastern cultures. Bernal proposes a revised version: ancient stories of Egyptian and Phoenician settlement may preserve a historical basis, though the model need not be accepted in every detail.

• The Aryan Model, in Bernal’s account, developed in the nineteenth century and explained Greek civilization mainly through northern Indo-European invasions. It presented Greek culture as a largely independent “Greek miracle” and minimized Egyptian, Phoenician, and other Near Eastern or African influences. Bernal argues that this account was shaped partly by racial and romantic ideas that helped portray Greece as the origin of a distinct European heritage.

• Bernal makes a plausible case that Greek civilization was not isolated and that Egyptian and Phoenician cultures influenced it. A strength of his argument is that it challenges a model that may have dismissed outside influence for ideological reasons and takes ancient traditions seriously. A limitation is that stories of colonization and cultural similarities do not, by themselves, prove large-scale settlement or establish exactly how particular ideas traveled. So his argument is persuasive as a call to reconsider Greek connections with Africa and the Near East, but the stronger claim of colonization requires careful evidence.

3-Explain and discuss Mary Lefkovitz’s major arguments for disputing the afrocentrist interpretation of the history of Ancient Egypt and its relations with sub-Saharan Africa and classical Greece.

• Lefkowitz thinks that using myth is not a valid source → her read of sources and what counts as a source is different

• Thinks sources have been misinterpreted or misread → trying to impose modern framework/standards on ancient stories

• Afrocentrist writers assume that those of North Africa were Black, but they are known to come from the Mediterranean

• Thesis statement: Lefkowitz thinks that the Afrocentrists have misinterpreted evidence and placed too much emphasis on certain pieces of evidence

4-Compare and contrast the process of diffusion of Islam in North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara before the 18^th century CE.

5-Discuss the significance of textiles in pre-colonial African trade

The most important manufactured good in West Africa stimulated by the arrival of Islam. Long-distance trade routes --including trans-Saharan networks and regional markets -- linked domestic textile producers to distant buyers. Twelfth century cotton fabric made in Africa sold in Europe and known as "bouracan" or "bougran". In sixteenth century, Timbuktu had 26 master tailors, many of whom employed between 50 and 100 apprentices. Because cloth strips were durable, portable, and possessed intrinsic utility, traders used them to pay taxes, settle debts, and purchase high-value items like livestock, copper, and salt.