TOPIC 1.1 What is African American Studies

African American studies

1. an interdisciplinary field that combines the rigors of scholarly inquiry with a community-centered approach to analyzing the history, culture, and politics of people of African descent in the U.S. and throughout the African diaspora. 

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

2. Perceptions of Africa have shifted over time, ranging from misleading notions of a primitive continent with no history to recognition of Africa as the homeland of powerful societies and leaders that made enduring contributions to humanity.

3. Interdisciplinary analysis in African American studies dispels notions of Africa as a place with an undocumented or unknowable history, 

   • Africa is a diverse continent with complex societies that were globally connected well before the onset of the Atlantic slave trade

4. African American Studies emerged from Black artistic, intellectual, and political endeavors that predate its formalization as a field of study. The discipline offers a lens for understanding contemporary Black freedom struggles within and beyond the academy

5. Africa- birthplace of humanity and the ancestral home of African Americans. African American Studies examines developments in early African societies in fields including the arts, architecture, technology, politics, religion, and music. The long history of these innovations informs African Americans’ experiences and identities.

6. Paleoanthropologists believe human origins come from African savanna

   • 5-10 million years ago- humans and apes descend from common ancestor

   • 4.5 million- earlest upright hominds

   • 3.5 million- began using tools

   • 2.5 million- Homo habilis: fire, shelter, hunter-gatherer societies

   • Spread of homo habilis: Caucusus (SE Europe)

   • Homo erectus- Asia (crossed water, spoke)

   • Homo sapien- 200,000 years ago

   • Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis- Single African woman birth of mankind

Black Campus movement (1965-1972),

4. hundreds of thousands of Black students and Latino, Asian, and white collaborators led protests at over 1000 colleges nationwide, demanding culturally relevant learning opportunities and greater support for Black students, teachers, and administrators.

5. At the end of the civil rights movement and in the midst of the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s, Black students entered colleges in large numbers for the first time in American history. Black students called for greater opportunities to study the history and experiences of Black people and greater support for underrepresented students, faculty, and administrators.

TOPIC 1.2 The African Continent: A Varied Landscape:

Climate Zones

1. As the second-largest continent in the world, Africa is geographically diverse with five primary climate zones:

2. Africa is bordered by seas and oceans

   • Red Sea (East)

   • Indian Ocean (East)

   • Atlantic Ocean (West)

   • Climate zones (five):

   • Desert: Sahara (North), Kalahari (South)

   • Semiarid (Central) Sahel

   • Savanna (Central, South) grasslands

   • Rainforest (West, Central)

   • Mediterranean (North)

   • 2nd largest continent (only to Asia)

3. five major rivers (Niger River, Congo River, Zambezi River, Orange River, and Nile River) connecting regions throughout the interior of the continent. 

2. The proximity of the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean to the African continent supported the emergence of early societies and fostered early global connections beyond the continent.

Desert, Savanna/Rainforest, Population Centers,

2. Desert

   • Mediterranean Coast- fertile strip

   • Sahara Desert- nearly uninhabitable, takes up Northern 1/3 of African continent

   • Nile River Valley- agriculturally rich

   • Limited contact w/ sub-Saharan Africa for thousands of years

   • Sahel- semiarid land, perfect for raising camels, connected desert w/ savanna

   • Commerce- trade of livestock

   • Kalahari Desert- Southern Africa between savanna and coastal strip

4. savanna/rainforest

   • Major water routes (oceans, rivers) helped people, goods move throghout

   • Fertile land supported agriculture/ animal domestication

   • Bilad es Sudan- "land of the black people"

   • Most of the habitable part of Africa

   • Rainforest- from Atlantic coast to Central

   • Diversity of climate led to trade opportunity

   • Savanna- grasslands stretching from Ethiopia to Atlantic Ocean

5. Population centers emerged in the Sahel and the savannah grasslands of Africa for three important reasons

   • Fertile land supported the expansion of agriculture and the domestication of animals.

   • The Sahel and savannah grasslands connected trade between communities in the Sahara to the north and in the tropical regions to the south. 

   • Major water routes facilitated the movement of people and goods through trade.

6. Variations in climate facilitated diverse opportunities for trade in Africa.

   • In the Sahel, people traded livestock.

   • In the savannah grasslands, people cultivated grain crops

   • In the tropical rainforests, people grew kola trees and yams, and traded gold.

   • In desert and semiarid areas, herders were often nomadic, moving in search of food and water, with some trading salt.  

TOPIC 1.3 Population Growth and Ethnolinguistic Diversity

Technological Innovations

1. Technological innovations (e.g., the development of tools*) and agricultural innovations (e.g., the cultivation of bananas, yams, and grains) contributed to the population growth of West and Central African peoples. 

   • Cattle herding in North Africa

   • Mostly isolated from one another until Bantu migration as early as 2000 BCE

   • Culture can spread through tech./ ideas, language spreads w/ people moving

Culture

1. This population growth triggered a series of migrations of people who spoke Bantu languages throughout the continent from 1500 BCE to 500 CE, called the Bantu expansion.

   • Migration Theory- W. African Bantu moved, using tech. to claim territory

   • Diffusion Theory- W. African Bantu families moved alongside new people

   • Adoption Theory- Bantu language/ tech. moved, people stayed put

3. Bantu-speaking peoples’ linguistic influences spread throughout the continent. Today, the Bantu linguistic family contains hundreds of languages that are spoken throughout West, Central, and Southern Africa (e.g., Xhosa, Swahili, Kikongo, and Zulu). 

   • Majority of genetic ancestry of African Americans derives from Bantu speakers

   • This movement of languages and culture led to complex, large-scale societies throughout Africa

4. Africa is the home of thousands of ethnic groups and languages. A large portion of the genetic ancestry of African Americans derives from communities in West and Central Africa that speak languages belonging to the Bantu linguistic family.

TOPIC 1.4 Africa’s Ancient Societies

Egyptian Society

• Egypt and Nubia emerged along the Nile River around 3000 BCE. Nubia was the source of Egypt’s gold and luxury trade items, which created conflict between the two societies.

  • Egypt

    • Nile River- annual flooding irrigated banks (allowed growing wheat/ barley, herding sheep/ cattle, etc.)

    • Pharaohs (1550-1100 BCE)- presided over growing empire across N. Africa/ SW Asia

    • Invasions (1100 BCE)- Alexander the Great (Greece) led to long decline up to 30 BCE (Roman conquering)

    • Hierarchical society- classes of warriors, priests, merchants, artisans, peasants

    • Patrilineal/ patriarchal- male-ruled society, women did achieve much (Pharaohs, owned property, etc)

    • Polytheism- many gods, Re (Sun), Osiris (Nile); pyramids tombs for Pharaohs

Nubia/kush

• Nubia (3000 BCE)- south of Epypt (modern day Sudan), possibly passed on grain production/ monarchy ideas

• Egypt (2000 BCE) larger population colonized Nubia for copper/ gold, ivory/ pelts, took slaves

• Kush (750 BCE)- Nubian King Piankhy added lower (north) after already controlling Upper (south) Egypt (25th Dynasty of Black Pharaohs) until Assyria

• Meroe- capital built into industrial center from iron smelting (trade made powerful until fall of Rome)

• Axum- 1st Christian sub-Saharan African state in modern Ethiopia

• Nubia emerged in present-day Egypt and Sudan. Meroë developed its own system of writing. 

• Around 750 BCE, Nubia defeated Egypt and established the twenty-fifth dynasty of the Black Pharaohs, who ruled Egypt for a century

  • Afrocentrists- Egypt influenced later African civilizations AND Greece/ Rome

The Aksumite Empire and Nok Society

• Akusumite Empire- present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia) emerged in eastern Africa around 100 BCE.

• The Red Sea connected the empire to major maritime trade networks from the Mediterranean and the Roman Empire to India, and its strategic location contributed to its rise and expansion.

• Aksum developed its own currency and script (Ge’ez). 

4. The Nok society- Present-day Nigeria had an ironworking society in West Africa around 500 BCE. Skilled in pottery, they created terracotta sculptures of animals and people with intricate hairstyles and jewelry, along with stone instruments. These artifacts are the oldest evidence of a complex society in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Archaeological research in the 1940s revealed the history of the Nok society. Nok sculptures bear resemblance to Ife Yoruba and Benin terracotta works, indicating a possible ancestral connection.

5. Aksum became the first African society to adopt Christianity under the leadership of King Ezana. Ge’ez, its script, is still used as the main liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. 

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

6. From the late eighteenth century onward, African American writers emphasized the significance of ancient Africa in their sacred and secular texts.

• Examples from ancient Africa countered racist stereotypes that characterized African societies as without government or culture. These texts formed part of the early canon of African American Studies.

7. In the mid-twentieth century, research demonstrating the complexity and contributions of Africa’s ancient societies underpinned Africans’ political claims for self-rule and independence from European colonialism.

TOPIC 1.5 The Sudanic Empires: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai:

Sudanic Empires

1. The Sudanic empires, also known as the Sahelian empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, emerged and flourished from the seventh to the sixteenth century. Each reached their height at a different time and expanded from the decline of the previous empire: Ghana flourished in the seventh to thirteenth centuries; Mali flourished in the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries; and Songhai flourished in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. 

2. Ancient Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were renowned for their gold mines and strategic location at the nexus of multiple trade routes, connecting trade from the Sahara (toward Europe) to sub-Saharan Africa.

3. Trans-Saharan commerce brought North African traders, scholars, and administrators who introduced Islam to the region and facilitated its spread throughout West Africa.

4. Songhai- last and the largest of the Sudanic empires. Following Portuguese exploration along the western coast of Africa, trade routes shifted from trans-Saharan to Atlantic trade, diminishing Songhai’s wealth.

   • Songhai (1375)- seceded from Mali, built largest W. African Empire under Muslim Sunni Ali

   •  Sunni Ali- believed to have magical powers, allowed conquered people to run affairs if tribute paid

   • Askia Muhammad Toure (1492)- expanded into Mali/ Sahara, expanded Islam, recruited Muslims to mosque at Timbuktu (95% though were peasants who practiced indigenous religion)

5. Askia Daud (1549-82)- failed to adapt to European influence, firearms, Songhai falls

6. Mali empire: In the fourteenth century, the Mali Empire was ruled by the wealthy and influential Mansa Musa, who established the empire as a center for trade, learning, and cultural exchange.

   • Mansa Musa (r. 1312-37)- wealthiest ruler in world history

   • Expanded Mali's wealth and land during his reign

   • Mali was home to more than half of the world's salt and gold

   • Hajj to Mecca (1324)- entourage of 60,000, 100 elephants, handed out gold to anyone he met

   • Mali’s wealth and Mansa Musa’s hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) in 1324 attracted the interest of merchants and cartographers across the eastern Mediterranean to southern Europe, prompting plans to trade manufactured goods for gold. 

   • Mali’s wealth and access to trans-Saharan trade routes enabled its leaders to crossbreed powerful North African horses and purchase steel weapons, which contributed to the empire’s ability to extend power over neighboring groups. 

     • Administering the vast empire- rulers relied on family ties w local chiefs

     • Commerce, scholarship held 1500 mile empire together

     • Timbuktu (13th century)- hub of trade in gold, salt, slaves

     • Cosmopolitan- center of Islamic learning (150 schools), hub for Mediterranean merchants, law school, book dealers

     • Irony- enslaved war captives/ traded slaves but "abhorred injustice"

   • The title “Mansa” refers to a ruler or king among Mande speakers. 

   • The Catalan Atlas details the wealth and influence of the ruler Mansa Musa and the Mali Empire based on the perspective of a cartographer from Spain. Mansa Musa is adorned with a gold crown and orb. The Catalan Atlas conveys the influence of Islam on West African societies and the function of Mali as a center for trade and

   • Trade (including gold)- among themselves/ Sahara Desert led to interaction w/ sub-Saharan/ Islamic people

Western Africa and Forest Regions

• Ancient Ghana was located in present-day Mauritania and Mali, not in the territory of the present-day Republic of Ghana, which embraced the name of the ancient empire when it achieved independence from colonial rule in 1957. 

  • Cultural exchange.

  • Diverse environment- savannah and forest- home to variety of cultures/ languages (cultivated crops, domesticated animals

  • Soninke people (4th-8th century) could wage constant warfare with iron weapons

  • Trade- camels could travel long distances w/ little food/ water across Sahara

  • Imports- silk, cotton, glass, horses, SALT; exports- pepper, slaves, gold (which they taxed, mined to the SW of Ghana)

  • Partners- 1st Rome, then Arabs settled in Saleh (impressive capital), many converts

  • Decline- competition for Saharan trade from Islamic Berbers led to conquering

10. Fall of Ghana

    1. Mandinka people (led by Sundiata) forged Empire of Mali in 1235

    2. Similar politically/ economically to Ghana (further South, greater rainfall for crops)

    3. Larger than Ghana (stretched 1500 miles from Atlantic to Niger River)

    4. Sundiata controlled gold mines of Wangara, making Mali wealthier

    5. Population 8 million at its peak

11. Forest region

    • Many were both slave traders and victims of them

    • Senegambia- NW Atlantic, hierarchical farming society (royalty down to slaves)

    • Akan States- used mined gold to purchase slaves to clear forests (later to purchase Eu. guns to expand)

    • Yoruba- traded nuts/ cloth, known for sculptures, women in business (later Atlantic slave trade)

    • Benin (S. Nigeria)- Benin City home to skilled artisans, wealthy elite (prosperity later depended on slave trade)

    • Igbo- stateless W. African society, many enslaved

12. In West Africa stretched from Senegambia to present-day Côte d’Ivoire and included regions of Nigeria. The majority of enslaved Africans transported directly to North America descended from societies in two regions: West Africa and West Central Africa.

    • Migration (1000 CE)- dry W. Sudanese climate caused increase

    • Diversity- many languages, economies, political systems, traditions

    • Agriculture- challenging in thick forest, dominant by 16th century

    • Kings- semidivine, secret, elaborate rituals (never as large as Sudanese, but still powerful)

TOPIC 1.6 Learning Traditions:

Literature

1. West African empires housed centers of learning in their trading cities. In Mali, a book trade, university, and learning community flourished in Tombouctou, which drew astronomers, mathematicians, architects, and jurists to the city. 

2. Literature- passed oral traditions from generation to generation (served kings/ nobles, but told stories of common people

   1. Culture and history passed through Griots, who were prestigious historians, storytellers, and musicians who maintained and shared a community’s history, traditions, and cultural practices.

      • Gender played an important role in the griot tradition. Griots included African women and men who preserved knowledge of a community’s births, deaths, and marriages in their stories

   2. Human characters- subjects ranged from creation, death, success, and love (involved magic/ potions)

      • Animal tales- to entertain/ teach lessons (tricksters struggled against beasts)

      • Heroes- the mouse, spider, hare always outsmart the snake, leopard, hyena (presented in human settings w/ human emotions)

Technology and Tradition

3. Court poets- used memory to recall historical events/ genealogies (remembered births, deaths, marriages)

4. Women- joined men in folk literature, work songs, lullabies (call-and-response)

5. Sculpture- sought to preserve ancestors (terra-cotta, bronze, brass, woodcarvings)

   • Wooden masks- represented ancestral spirits/ gods

   • "Fetishes"- charms, wodden/ terra-cotta figurines having magical powers (used in medicine, funerals, rituals)

   • Bronze sculptures (Benin)- portrayed political figures (kings, nobles)

   • Music- drums, xylophones, bells, flutes

   • Styles- call-and-response, full-throated vocals, sophisticated rhythms

6. West African tech.- iron refining, textile production, architecture, rice cultivation

   • Iron- smelting turned ore into metal, blacksmiths (supernatural status) agriculture tools, weapons (war/ hunting), staffs (helped develop cities/ kingdoms)

   • Architecture- savanna featured Islamic elements, forest more indigenous (stone, mud, wood), mosques could hold 3000 people

   • Textiles- hand looms 1000's years old, eventually cotton/ wool traded w/ Muslims

   • Rice- methods of flooding used in W. Africa later brought to Southern U.S.

TOPIC 1.7 Indigenous Cosmologies and Religious Syncretism

Types of Religious Practices

1. The adoption of Islam or of Christianity (e.g., in Kongo) by leaders of some African societies often resulted in their subjects blending aspects of these introduced faiths with Indigenous spiritual beliefs and cosmologies.

   1. Islam adapted in Mali and Songhai, brought to West Africa (introduced by Arab traders)

      • More prevalent in savanna (in cities filled w/ merchants & bureaucrats)

      • Brought monotheism, Arabic literacy, Islamic learning, mosque building with it

      • Christianity- adopted in Kongo (blended w/ indigenous spiritual beliefs)

2. Africans who blended local spiritual practices with Christianity and Islam brought their syncretic religious and cultural practices from Africa to the Americas.

   1. About one-quarter of the enslaved Africans who arrived in North America came from Christian societies in Africa, and about one-quarter came from Muslim societies in Africa.

3. Spiritual practices that can be traced to West and West Central Africa,

   1. The Koshe Shango, a ceremonial wand among the Yoruba in Nigeria, is a core element of dances honoring the orisha (deity) Shango. Shango is the orisha of thunder, fire, and lightning, and a deified ancestor—a monarch of the Oyo kingdom. Oshe Shango wands include three features: a handle, two stone axes (characteristic of Shango’s lightning bolts), and a female figure, typically carrying the axes on her head. 

4. Veneration of the ancestors, divination, healing practices, and collective singing and dancing, have survived in African diasporic religions*, such as Louisiana Voodoo.

5. Africans and their descendants who were later enslaved in the Americas often performed spiritual ceremonies of these syncretic faiths to strengthen themselves before leading revolts.

6. Polytheistic- all-knowing creator b/w lesser gods representing forces of nature

7. Animistic- belief that inanimate objects have spiritual atributes (mountains, rivers, trees, rocks)

8. Ancestors- because creator was unapproachable, turned to spirits to influence lives

9. Clergy- rare, most rituals done by family in home

More examples

• Haitian Vodun- loose collection of spirits under creator Bondye, sacrifices made at altars (families or secret societies)

• Cuban Regla de Ocha-Ifa (formerly Santeria)- each human has a diety who influences personality (myths, offerings, animal sacrifice)

• Osain del Monte is an Afro-Cuban performance group whose performances illustrate the syncretism of Afro-Cuban religions. 

• The Black Madonna statue of Our Lady of Regla in Cuba is associated with Yemayá, the Yoruba deity of the sea and motherhood. Our Lady of Regla holds a Christ child and symbolizes the syncretism of African spiritual practices with Christianity in the Americas. 

• “Owner of nature”, a saint of the Yoruba religion.

• These are spiritual songs worshipping the diety “Osain”: “Used in ceremonies of consecration and purification. The songs invoke his presence to purify the herbs used in healings.

•  The painting Oya’s Betrayal depicts African spiritual practices through a visual syncretism that combines Yoruba oral traditions with Renaissance style. It features a war among the orishas Oya, Ogun, and Shango

TOPIC 1.8 Culture and Trade in Southern and East Africa  

Great Zimbabwe

1. The Kingdom of Zimbabwe and its capital city, Great Zimbabwe, flourished in Southern Africa from the twelfth to the fifteenth century.

   1. The kingdom was linked to trade on the Swahili Coast, and its inhabitants, the Shona people,

   2. Became wealthy from its gold, ivory, and cattle resources

   3. Southern Africa (12th-15th century)- flourished, centered around capital Great Zimbabwe

   4. Abandoned in the 15th century- Shona people migrated elsewhere (exhaustion of resources/ overpopulation)

2. Great Zimbabwe is best known for its large stone architecture, which offered military defense and served as a hub for long distance trade.

   • The Great Enclosure was a site for religious and administrative activities, and the conical tower likely served as a granary.

     • (no mortar, had to be perfectly shaped) offered military defense, long distance trade

   • The stone ruins remain an important symbol of the prominence, autonomy, and agricultural advancements of the Shona kings and early African societies such as the kingdom of Zimbabwe.

   • Racism- Europeans assumed these to be Phoenician built (too sophisticated)

   • Hill Complex- structural ruins atop steepest hill (religious site)

   • Valley Ruins- series of houses made of mud-brick (indicates population of 10-20,000 people)

     • Agricultural achievements- conical tower, large population indicate advancement

East:

4. The Swahili Coast (named from sawahil, the Arabic word for coasts) stretches from Somalia to Mozambique.

   • The coastal location of its city-states linked Africa’s interior to Arab, Persian, Indian, and Chinese trading communities. 

   • Mogadishu (Somalia), Malindi/ Mombasa (Kenya), Zanzibar/ Kilwa (Tanzania), Mozambique/ Sofala (Mozambique) connected to India, SE Asia, Arabia, Indonesia

5. Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, the Swahili Coast city-states were united by their shared language (Swahili, a Bantu lingua franca) and shared religion (Islam).

   • The strength of the Swahili Coast trading states garnered the attention of the Portuguese, who invaded major city-states and established settlements in the sixteenth century to control Indian Ocean trade.

   • Loanwords- Arabic (15%), Portuguese, English, German dating back to era of Arab slave traders and African Bantu inhabitants

6. Arab traders brought Islam, and converted Bantu people as early as 8th century

   • Permanent residents- led to more detailed historical records (Shirazi- Persian settlers arrived in 12th century)

   • Sultanates (11th-15th centuries)- independent city-states ("stone towns") governed by Islamic traditions

   • Kilwa- stone mosque still remains today

   • Traded across Indian Ocean for pottery, silks, glassware

7. Portuguese- invaded city-states in 16th century to control Indian Ocean trade

   1. Vasco da Gama (1497)- led expedition around Cape of Good Hope up E. African coast

   2. Established naval bases at Sofala, Mombasa, Mozambique Island to brutally control trade

   3. This trade deficit led to decline of most city-states of the Swahili Coast

TOPIC 1.9 West Central Africa: The Kingdom of Kongo

Kongo Nobility

1. In 1491, King Nzinga a Nkuwu (João I) and his son Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I) voluntarily converted the powerful West Central African Kingdom of Kongo to Roman Catholicism

   • To gain access to Portuguese musketeers to put down rebellion 

   • The Kingdom of Kongo’s conversion to Christianity strengthened its trade relationship with Portugal, leading to Kongo’s increased wealth. Ivory, salt, copper, and textiles were the primary goods of trade.

2. The nobility’s voluntary conversion allowed Christianity to gain mass acceptance, as the presence of the Church was not tied to foreign colonial occupation. A distinct form of African Catholicism emerged that incorporated elements of Christianity and local aesthetic and cultural traditions.

3. As a result of the Kingdom of Kongo’s conversion to Christianity and subsequent political ties with Portugal, the King of Portugal demanded access to the trade of enslaved people in exchange for military assistance.

   1. Put too much faith in Portuguese (exempted from most laws), whose priests traded in slaves, and later supported neighboring states

4. Kongo nobles participated in the transatlantic slave trade, but they were unable to limit the number of captives sold to European powers. 

Kongo History

4. Kongo, along with the greater region of West Central Africa, became the largest source of enslaved people in the history of the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas. 

5. About a quarter of enslaved Africans directly transported to what became the United States hailed from West Central Africa. Many West Central Africans were Christians before they arrived in the Americas.

6. In Kongo, the practice of naming children after saints or according to the day of the week on which they were born (“day names”) was common before the rise of the transatlantic slave trade. As a result, Christian names among early African Americans (in Iberian and English versions, such as Juan, João, and John) also have African origins and exemplify ways that ideas and practices around kinship and lineage endured across the Atlantic. 

   • 1/4 of slaves transported to U.S. originated in West Central Africa (many were Christians)

   • Portuguese arrived in Kongo/ Angola chiefly looking for slaves

   • Nzinga Knuwu welcomed intruders more than most African rulers

8. Congo River- fertile valleys, abundant fish allowed for population to sustain

   • Kongo- wealth derived from salt/ iron, trade w/ interior African states

   • Politics- villages of extended families, divided labor by gender, kings semidivine

   • Decline- unrest from Afonso I handing power to Europeans, greed, slave trade undermined royal authority led to breakup of kingdom

TOPIC 1.10 Kinship and Political Leadership  

Matrilineal Society

• social rank/ property passed through female (village chief succeeded by sister's son)

• Many early West and Central African societies were composed of family groups held together by extended kinship ties, and kinship often formed the basis for political alliances.

  • Lineage- W. African clan in which members claim descent from single ancestor (+ a mythical personage), one per village

  • Women played many roles in West and Central African societies, including as spiritual leaders, political advisors, market traders, educators, and agriculturalists

    • West Africa- men generally dominated (could hold multiple wives, women were their legal property)

    • Rights- some could hold gov't positions/ property (while themselves BEING property)

    • Sexual freedom- much greater than Europe/ Asia (could have male friends)

    • Sande- secret society initiated girls into adulthood, sex education, emphasized female virtue

    • Family- nuclear or polygynous exists in broader family community (husband/ wife separate houses), strict incest taboos

    • Farming (by gender)- men cleared fields, women tended fields, harvested, cared for children, prepared meals

Queen Idia and Queen Njinga

• In the early seventeenth century, when people from the kingdom of Ndongo became the first large group of enslaved Africans to arrive in the American colonies, Queen Njinga became queen of the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba (present-day Angola). 

• Both Queen Idia and Queen Njinga led armies into battle. Queen Idia relied on spiritual power and medicinal knowledge to bring victories to Benin. 

• Queen Njinga engaged in 30 years of guerilla warfare against the Portuguese to maintain sovereignty and control of her kingdom. She participated in the slave trade to amass wealth and political influence, and expanded Matamba’s military by offering sanctuary for those who escaped Portuguese enslavement and joined her forces.

  1. Queen Njinga’s reign solidified her legacy as a skilled political and military leader throughout the African diaspora. The strength of her example led to nearly 100 more years of women rulers in Matamba.

• Queen Idia became an iconic symbol of Black women’s leadership throughout the African diaspora in 1977, when an ivory mask of her face was adopted as the symbol for FESTAC (Second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture).

  The sixteenth-century ivory mask of Queen Idia was designed as a pendant to be worn to inspire Benin’s warriors. It includes features that express the significance of Queen Idia’s leadership. Faces adorn the top of Queen Idia’s head, representing her skill in diplomacy and trade with the Portuguese. Her forehead features scarifications made from iron, which identify her as a warrior. The beads above her face depict Afro-textured hair, valorizing the beauty of her natural features.

• In the late fifteenth century, Queen Idia became the first iyoba (queen mother) in the Kingdom of Benin (present-day Nigeria). She served as a political advisor to her son, the king.

  1. West Africa- most lived in hierarchical societies under monarchs w/ nobles, warriors, bureaucrats, peasants

  Slaves- since ancient times, war captives w/o rights more common in savanna (children had legal protections- could not be sold away from land)

• Islamic regions- masters responsible for slaves' religious well-being (guardian for a ward)

• Royal court- could own property, exercise power over free people

• Slaves of peasant farmer shared standard of living w/ master

• Assimilation- low social status, but children could gain employment/ privileges

Global Africans 

1. 15th century-trade between West African kingdoms and Portugal for gold, goods, and enslaved people grew steadily, bypassing the trans-Saharan trade routes. African kingdoms increased their wealth and power through slave trading, which was a common feature of hierarchical West African societies

   • Slave trade- increased wealth/ power of African kingdoms (common in hierarchical W. African societies)

   • Increased presence of Europeans in W. Africa/ Africans in Lisbon, Portugal/ Seville, Spain

   • Because of the wind and currents, ships often came along Cabo Verde (stopover to store supplies and carry out work on the ships)

2. Portuguese and West African trade-increased the presence of Europeans in West Africa and the population of sub-Saharan Africans in Iberian port cities like Lisbon and Seville. 

3. African elites, including ambassadors and the children of rulers, traveled to Mediterranean port cities for diplomatic, educational, and religious reasons. In these cities, free and enslaved Africans also served in roles ranging from domestic labor to boatmen, guards, entertainers, vendors, and knights.

4. Chafariz d'El Ray- depicts Joao de Sa Panasco, African Portuguese knight w/ two African noblemen (equality between African/European societies pre-slave trade

5. Mid-fifteenth century-  the Portuguese colonized the Atlantic islands of Cabo Verde and São Tomé, where they established cotton, indigo, and sugar plantations using the labor of enslaved Africans. 

   • By 1500, about 50,000 enslaved Africans had been removed from the continent to work on Portuguese-colonized Atlantic islands and in Europe. These plantations became a model for slave labor-based economies in the Americas