Notes on African Slavery and Early African States

African Slavery

Slavery has ancient roots in Africa, predating European contact.
Ancient Egyptians enslaved various groups.
Sub-Saharan Africa had diverse forms of slavery, ranging from chattel slavery to serfdom.
Slave status could change during a person's lifetime.

Slavery in the Muslim World

Slavery in the four centuries before European contact resembled that in the Muslim world.
Slaves were viewed as temporarily excluded legally but possessing equal spiritual value.
Muslim slaves had rights: marriage, family, income, and the ability to purchase freedom.
This view prevailed from the 8th century as Islam penetrated Sub-Saharan Africa.

Slavery and Coerced Labor in Europe

Unfree status existed beyond Africa and people of color.
European communities practiced coerced labor, including chattel slavery, before and during the medieval period (15th century CE).
Slavs from Eastern Europe were a primary source of slaves, hence the origin of the word "slave."
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 led Europe to seek slaves from Africa.

Slavery in Medieval England

David Peltier's research shows the prevalence of slaves of European descent in early medieval England.
Slave status resulted from birth, war captivity, and punishment.
Slaves constituted over 10% of England's population in 1086.
Slavery declined in the 18th century and ended in the late 12th century.
In 16th century England, vagrants and the poor were often forced into labor.

Slavery in Medieval Iberia

Slavery persisted in medieval Spain and Portugal.
Slaves were primarily Muslims from Iberia or Orthodox Christians from Eastern Europe, with some Black Africans entering via the Saharan route.
Black slaves arrived in Italy through North African merchants involved in the Sahara trade.
Urban and domestic slavery existed in Mediterranean port cities in the 15th century.
Debra Blumenthal's study of Valencia found a diverse slave population in the early 1400s.

Serfdom

Serfdom, another form of forced labor, has a long history in Eastern Europe and Japan.
Serfs were considered persons with rights, unlike chattel slaves.
They were bound to land, supporting themselves and paying tribute.
Treatment was harsh, but Russian serfs were emancipated in 1861, shortly before US slaves.

Slavery in Africa

African rulers used slaves as attendants, administrators, soldiers, agricultural workers, and laborers.
African merchants used slaves to transport goods.
Slaves sometimes came from the same ethnic group (debtors, those unable to pay fines, the poor seeking protection).
Military and political dissidents could also be enslaved.
Slaves often came from different ethnic groups, especially conquered rivals.
Warfare escalated with European trade relations, fueling the internal slave trade.

Gender and Slavery

Most slaves in the indigenous African trade were women, used as wives, concubines, household servants, and agricultural laborers.
Male slaves were used as miners, herders, craftsmen, soldiers, and traders.
The internal and Trans-Saharan trades favored women over men (2:1 ratio).
The Atlantic slave trade had the opposite gender ratio.

Assimilation and Valuation of Women

Internal African slavery preferred women and children for easier assimilation into kinship groups.
Women performed most agricultural labor, leading to a high valuation of their labor.
African bridewealth (compensation for the loss of a daughter's labor) contrasts with the European dowry (compensation to the man for taking on a dependent).
Bridewealth is common where women's labor is valued for agriculture and childbearing.
Polygamy was widespread, especially among powerful men whose wealth increased with more wives.

Land Ownership and Status

Slave ownership validated status and prosperity in Africa, unlike Europe where wealth was tied to private land ownership.
Land ownership in Africa was collective, not private.
Farmers could not sell or rent land; they could only sell the products of the land.
Land was controlled by the state or kinship group, descendants of the land's ancestral settler.
Slaves could have considerable control over their lives and even enjoy wealth and influence.

Freedom and Social Relations

Some scholars view unfree status as a continuum rather than opposing personal freedom to slavery.
Freedom was equated with belonging to a group, and subservient positions within a household could be viewed positively.
In ancient Near Eastern societies, sociologist Orlando Patterson notes freedom wasn't always valued if it meant loss of status and power.
Slavery meant slaves could be bought, sold, or given away as property.

Economic Importance of Slaves

The importance of slaves varied across African states.
Rulers in the Kingdom of Congo and Del Ongo used slaves in administrative posts and to collect tribute.
Wolof slavery had a spectrum of statuses, from privileged military slaves to low-status agricultural workers.
Wolof field slaves worked in gang labor, accompanied by music.
The prevalence of slaves in various roles and the existence of internal and trans-Saharan slave trades set the stage for European involvement.

Great Empires

Historian Michael Gomez details the rise and fall of urban-based civilizations and kingdoms in West Africa in his study of West African imperial state formation from the 7th to the 15th century CE.
These empires were contemporaneous with civilizations like the Han Dynasty in China and the Mayan civilization in Central America.

Gael

African oral traditions, Arabic writings, ruler lists, and archaeological discoveries attest to early towns in the Middle Niger region of West Africa.
By the ninth century CE, places like Gael, Mema, Daya, Sastayaha, and Geno had trade networks across the Sahara, Savannah, and Sahel.
The earliest evidence of Gael dates back to 2000 BCE.
Arabic texts from the late 9th to 12th centuries CE describe Gael as a wealthy kingdom.
Gael was a commercial region linking the hinterland and the Trans-Sahara, facilitating commerce across the desert.
It consisted of the royal city of Old Gael, inhabited by the Serco people (indigenous Africans), and the commercial city of Gael Sani, populated by indigenous and likely Arab Africans.
Archaeological findings confirm that the Gael region was a vibrant commercial center for centuries.
Excavations have unearthed pottery, copper, beads, hippopotamus tusks, and funnery objects dating from the early twelfth century.
Funerary remains suggest that Islam was practiced in both sites.
Gael remained politically and economically influential, even as other West African empires rose and declined.

Ghana

While Gael represents the birthplace of West African polity, Ghana represents the first of the great imperial powers.
Historical records of the Kingdom of Ghana, which lay about 500 miles northwest of its modern name Sake, begin in the 7th century.
Known by its capital, Kundi Saleh, Ghana first appears as a confederacy of settlements along the grasslands of the Sengo and the Upper Niger Rivers.
Most public offices were hereditary, and its social order was stratified.
The people of Ghana enjoyed some prosperity as farmers until continuous draughts turned their land into desert.
Gardens and date groves dotted the countryside, and there was an abundance of sheep and cattle in the outlying areas.
They were also a trading people, and the town of Kumbai Saleh was an important commercial center during the ninth century.
By the beginning of the tenth century, Kumbai Saleh had a native and Arab section and the people were gradually adopting Islam.
In the eleventh century, Ghana had a large army and a lucrative trade across the Sahara Desert.
The Arab writer Al Bakri, having gained his knowledge of The Sudan through written and oral narratives, noted at the time that the king of Ghana, when he calls up his army, can put 200,000 men into the field and more than 40,000 of them archers.
From the Muslim countries comes salt, wheat, fruit, and sugar.
Herrimans laden with textiles, brass, pearls, and salt crossed the Sahara Desert to Ghana, where these imports were exchanged for ivory, slaves, gold.
Ghana's King, recognizing the value of the trade, taxed imports and exports and appointed a collector to look after his interests.
At the height of its power, the Sonneke Empire of Ghana extended as far north as Tishit in present Mariuntania and south of the gold mines of the valley of the Felimi River and the Bambuk Mountains in present day Mali and Sengo.
The veil from these mines supplied the coffers of the Sonneki rulers, which also traded the gold for other luxury goods brought by caravan across the Sahara.
In faraway Kerala and Baghdad, Tanke Manon, the ruler of Ghana, was a subject of discussion among commercial and religious groups.
In October, he ascended to the throne, having succeeded his maternal uncle.

Tunkemenin's Reign

Tunkemenin reigned over a vast empire, imposing taxes and tributes that were collected by provincial rulers.
Al Bakri described Tunkhameen as a ruler who led a praiseworthy life on account of his love and justice and friendship for the Muslims.
The king, however, did not practice Islam.
Tunkhameen is described as living in a castle surrounded by round shaped huts, the entire area fortified by a fence wall.
His palace displayed sculptures, pictures, and windows decorated by royal artists.
The grounds also contained temples in which native gods were worshipped, a prison in which political enemies were incarcerated, and the tombs of preceding kings.
In the late eleventh century, Ghana suffered economic decline brought on by a series of droughts that dried up the important Wagadu and Bagana districts.
Under such trying circumstances, Ghana fell easy prey to waves and conquerors in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Oral tradition maintains the Susu people, once under the rule of Ghana, vanquished Ghana and extended the dominion over the area in the twelfth century.

Mali

As Ghana declined, the Kingdom of Mali began to emerge as a power in December.
Although the nucleus of its political organization can be traced to the beginning of the seventh century until the eleventh century.
Mali was relatively insignificant, and its mansas or kings had little prestige or influence.

Sunjata

The credit for consolidating and strengthening the Kingdom of Mali goes to Sunjata.
It was Sunjata who led the Manika, also called Malinke, people, a subject group of the Susu, in a successful revolt against the Susu king Sumoro in the early thirteenth century, thereby freeing his people and extending Mali's rule over the land once dominated by ancient Ghana.
Sun Jada's success in warfare was due in part to his weaponry and use of horse cavalries.
Documents from the seventh through tenth centuries identify the high demand for Arabic, also called barberry, horses imported into West Africa via the Trans Saharan trade.
Seemed primarily as symbols of prestige and wealth, the North African horses suffered high mortality rates because of their susceptibility to the T. Stae fly, the carrier of Trypan o somiasis.
By the time of Sunjata's rise in the thirteenth century, however, Mali was known for successfully crossbreeding the stronger, taller North African horses with the small, but disease resistant indigenous horses.
Maui's large herds of horses of new and hardier stock facilitated Sunjata's victory. Under his reign, Maui rose in economic and military power.
Preserved and mythologized in oral tradition and ritual performance, the epic of Sunjata has been passed down over the centuries by communal storytellers known as Griyads and is celebrated in the nation of Mali and by Mande peoples and other African nations to this very day.

Mansa Musa

In the fourteenth century, a descendant of Sanjada, once in Musa, carried imperial Mali to even greater heights.
From thirteen twelve-thirteen thirty seven, this remarkable member of the Kida dynasty ruled an empire comprising much of what is now francophone Africa.
People of Mali were predominantly agricultural, but a substantial number were engaged in various crafts of mining.
The fabulously rich mines of beer were now at the disposal and served to increase the royal coffers.
Mansa Musa, an ardent and pious convert to Islam, embarked upon his Hajj or religious pilgrimage to Mecca with spectacular fanfare in 1324. His motivations were also political.
Ransom Musa first visited various parts of his kingdom to show his subjects and vessels his tremendous wealth and to demonstrate his benevolence benevolence. He then proceeded to Tuat in the land of the Berbers and from the cross desert Carole and finally went to the holy places of Mecca and Medina, all along the way displaying his kingdom's wealth and power to the Muslim world.
Carole's El Amari described the historic pilgrimage as composed of an interge of thousands of people, a large portion of which constituted a military escort. Gifts were leveraged in the populace and the Roscos were built where they were needed. Mansa Musa brought the Granny of West Africa to international attention, specifically to the nose of Egypt, Arabia, and Europe.
By the time Mansa and his camels approached Mecca, their burden had become considerably lighter than it had been when they departed for the East. It was said that he gave away such large amounts of gold that he causes devaluation in Egypt. He returned by way of Gadames in Tripoli, where he received many honors and from which point he was accompanied to his kingdom by Al Mu'mar, a descendant of the founder of the dynasty of the Al Mahaz.
Another famous visitor to return with Matsumunu was Abu Ishaq Ibrahim El Sahali, a distinguished poet and architect from the Granada family whom Mensamune engaged to supervise the building of elaborate mosques at Timbuktu, Djenne, Gael, and elsewhere. Mensamune's fame spread from North Africa to Europe.
At the time of his death in 1337, Malik had boast of a powerful and well organized political state.
Traveling in the area a few years later, Ibn Battuta reported being greatly impressed by the discipline of his officials and providential governors.
*The excellent condition of the public finance and the luxury and the rigorous and complicated ceremony of the royal receptions in the respect accorded to the decisions of justice and to the authority of the sovereign.
In the middle of the fourteenth century, Europe was just beginning to feel the effects of its commercial revolution, and European states had not yet achieved anything resembling national unity, but Mali under Mansa Musa and his successor Soleiman enjoyed a flourishing economy from the Atlantic to Lake Chad.
With Soleiman's death, however, civil war followed and by the beginning of the fifteenth century, Mali began to lose most of its important provinces and showed signs of disintegration in the face of attacks from the Songhe and the Mossy states.
Barefoot of its former glory, Mali continued to exist for many years as a small semi independent state.

Songhai

The Kingdom of Songhai emerged triumphant after the decline of Mali in the fifteenth century.
Its roots go back to the circle people of Prado Songhe group living in the late seventeenth century of Gayo region.
When Sonny Ali began his rule of the Songhe, he found much of West Africa ripe for conquest.
Mali was declining and the lesser states, though ambitious, could boast neither the illusion nor the resources necessary to achieve dominance.
The hour of the Songhe had arrived.
Sunny Ali had used the riverine system to his advantage, deploying his military forces on the Niger itself. They navigated the Great River's waters into the conquest of the lands on both sides.
Also with a cavalry, compromise of slaves and freed persons, horses and camels, Sunny Alley conquered an expansive territory.
Wagening successful campaigns for political control and for taxation for eminent culture and commercial cities.
Sunni Ali captured Timbuktu in 1469, Jena in 1473, and afterward moved to other towns. Under his leadership, Songhai claimed mastery over the entire Middle Niger Valley.

Asgheim Muhammad's Reign

During the reign of Asgheim Muhammad from fourteen ninety three to '15 '20 '9, Songhe became the epitome of imperial statecraft as well as economic and intellectual predominance in the Sahil.
Asgheim Muhammad devoted his energies to solidifying his growing empire, making his people prosperous, and encouraging learning.
He built a professional army of slaves and prisoners of war and left his subjects to engage in farming and commerce.
Local rulers, four viceroys, and Aski's brother Omar as chief lieutenant, administrated the empire.
1494, Omar and the army conquered all of Messina.
In subsequent years, most of Mali, the Hausa, and many other West African kingdoms fell before the power of Sonke's expansionist goals.
The Sonke Empire extended from the Atlantic to Borneo and from the Berber country in the North to the Mossy and Benin states in the South. It became by far the largest and most powerful state in the history of West Africa.
Unlike his ruthless and militaristic predecessor Sunni Ali, Aski Muhammad, according to historian Michael Gomez, exhibit exhibited a cosmetallian sensibility toward international diplomacy, transregional trade, and integration into the larger religious and intellectual Islamic world.
When Aski Muhammad, a Muslim, made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1497, he doubtless believed that the journey would prove profitable in many ways. His retinue was composed primarily of scholars and officers of state, with a military escort number being 1,500 men.
Aski Muhammad was accompanied by an array of leaders of various ethnic communities under his realm, even communities conquered early by Sunny Ali.
By choosing representatives from deserved populations under his control, he sought to win the allegiance of those groups to the larger Songhei government.
Asking Muhammad's pilgrimage can be interpreted as a move to strengthen his country. He and his followers conversed with doctors, mathematicians, scientists, and scholars in Mecca and Kerala. They learn much about how to improve the administration of the government, how to codify the laws of Songhe, how to foster industry and trade, and how to raise the intellectual level of the country.

Reforms of Aski Muhammad

Upon his return, Aski Muhammad instituted many reforms.
He assigned carefully chosen governors, called Ferri, to rule over subdivisions of the empire.
He reorganized the army and appointed chiefs for Noi to administer provinces and large cities.
His Angla and the Quran served as the basis for administrating justice.
In the area of economic life, banking and credit were improved. A uniform system of weights and measures were established and scales were inspected. The people of Songhae were encouraged to trade with other countries.

Songhai as a Center of Learning

Traders from Europe and Asia visited Timbuktu, re as a place of learning in the markets of Gael, the political center of Songhe and home of his royal dynasty.
Aski Muhammad made his most significant reforms in education, not only Timbuktu but also Gael, Wallara and Djenne became intellectual centers for the most learned scholars of West Advocate concentrated.
From the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, Anasenkhali Sudanese literature emerged. Timbuktu's University of Sankhore offered studies in grammar, geography, law, literature, and surgery.
In 1512, Leo African is a Muslim convert to Christianity whose travel accounts for a long time are European's chief source of information about Africa and Islam paid homage to its intellectual climate.
Here in Tsing Buktu, there are great stories of doctors, judges, priests, and learned men. Bountifully maintained at the king's cost and charges, and hither are brought diver diver's manuscripts or written books out of the barberry, are sold for more money than any other merchandise.

Decline of Songhai

The great power of Songhaive was not to last.
Gassi Muhammad was dethroned by his oldest son and civil wars, massacres, and unsuccessful military expeditions followed.
Although there were brief years of revival, the Emperor steadily declined.
The Moors viewed the Sudan conviduously authorities who resisted their mandates or acted on the basis of their own imperial ambitions. The diverse between central and local authority, a dichotomy of sovereignty kept the great kings sensitive to the possibility of conflict within their realms. For example, during his pilgrimage in in 1324, Mawi's ruler Mansa Musa shared the story of his difficulty enforcing Islamic beliefs and practices in The States under his dominion. The vital scene might have been Mansa Musa extended greater tolerance toward non believers who were the local authorities of the gold bearing regions since gold seemed to diminish whenever he attempted to impose his In exchange for a more profitable gold trade, Metsamos agreed to respect indigenous religious customs. Few kings of the great empires and kingdoms ever achieved enough power to destroy completely the belief by local rulers that they themselves should hold a degree of sovereignty.

Village States

At the time of European exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, village states flourished throughout Africa.
Such states, individually no larger than 1,500 square kilometres, together accounted for most of the land area and population in Atlantic Africa, especially that between the Gamma and the Niger Delta.
Small and territorial size polities closer to the coast were more densely populated than those inland.
Some small states, however, did merge voluntarily or by force to form small kingdoms. These kingdoms, under favorable circumstances such as able leadership, adequate resources and strong military organisation, could grow into federations or even empires.

Mossi States

In West Africa, densely populated Mossi states, founded in the eleventh century were located South Of the Bend of the Niger River.
For a time, five states constituted the Loos Mosse Confederation. The governors of the five states composed the Council of State and served as its chief ministers and the imperial organization.
The ministers oversaw such departments as the army and finance.
Underneath them, a hierarchy of officials extended down to local functionaries.
Cohesion was greatest in times of emergency and the mossy managed to repel the attacks of the Mali and Songhe and remained more or less independent until succumbing to European colonial rule in Africa in the nineteenth century.

Structure of Mossi States

The strength of the Mossi states lay in their efficient political and military system.
The Emperor was absolute. His subordinates operated with carefully elaborated duties.
Each morning the Emperor received his ministers of state who reported on the affairs of the realm.
In the evening, the ruler dealt with matters concerning public order and criminal justice.
The procedures, hearings, and decisions bore a striking resemblance to trial by jury.
There was no standing army, but the political and social system was so organized as to make it from the briefest notice, to call up for military service every able-bodied man.
The survival of the mossy states in an area dominated by empires such as Mali and Songhei testifies to their efficiency and wise leadership.

Hausa City States

The Haja City States grew from trade relations with other African states and with North Africans across the Sahara.
The best known of the Haja City States are Kano, Katsina, Kebai, and Zaria, which grew also from the military conquest of agricultural villages to the south.
Hasuland, expanding behind its original towns and incorporating families areas that grew millet, rice, pepper, and livestock, attained prominence under Islamic rulers such as Muhammad Uunfa of Kano, who reigned from c fourteen sixty three-fourteen ninety nine, and the legendary Queen Amina of Zaria, who reigned from c fifteen thirty three-sixteen ten. Also occupied roughly the area of present day Northern Nigeria.
Each city retained its identity with Kano in the limelight for a while. Then Kasina and later others, Kano, a walled city at the end of the fourteenth century, engaged in the Trans Saharan trade and also traded with the Korawha people of the Benue River rally to the Southeast.
Horses, which also abounded in and around Kano, were traded for slaves. Kano also became a center of learning, famous for its studies in law and theology. Although Islamic influence was dominant at the state level, priest chiefs and their indigenous religious beliefs continued to hold sway among the masses of the population. Not until the beginning of the nineteenth century did Islam make noticeable inroads into the larger Haskell population.

Kingdom of Benin

The Kingdom of Benin extended westward, eventually gaining control of the Lagos area by deploying its fleet of war cannos on the inland lagoon routes.
Known for its bronze and copper artistry, Benin wielded substantial military might.
Beginning Beginning in the sixteenth century until in the eighteenth century, its dominance was broken by the kingdoms of Dahomey and Oyo.
During their heyday, Benin's Kings controlled the use of copper in all forms so that the metal was primarily employed to adorn the king's palace and to embellish royal red jalia. Art visually enhanced royal authority and power often in the form of commemorative images cast with copper alloys. A guide of casters created images that memorialized a king's victory a forceful opponent for the wealth and power of the royal court that was figurative representation of trade relations.
For example, the copper ally plaque shown here features a majestic warrior accompanied by musicians, a page, and a number of small figures that represent the Portuguese trading partners with Benin at the time. Seventeenth century Dutch observers described plaques such as the one shown here of cast copper which depicts war exploits aligning the galleries of Benin's royal place. Royal, commemorative heads stood on ancestral altars and Benin Art Historian Suzanne Biler Biller Blyer has described how the physical head itself was imbued with symbolism and perceived as a site of attributes connected to royal authority such as royal destiny, wisdom, intelligence, noble character, sound judgment, and strong leadership. These artistic renderings reveal Benin's veneration of both male and female authority.

Queen Mothers in Benin

The office of Queen Mother believed to have been established in the early sixteenth century by King Esagy in honor of his mother, Edea, was a highly esteemed position in the Kingdom of Benin.
In the sixteenth century, brass heads personified and queen mothers were placed on special altars and displayed at both the primary palace and the queen mother's own home. Although in Benin, the incession of a king had to be validated by two nobles whom he could summarily dismiss afterwards, and other African states, kings were elected by officials. Indeed, when Europeans first encountered African rulers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they noted existing practices of election in such states as Bighaba on the coast of modern Guinea Bissoua in Syria alone, and then regions Ekura on the Gold Coast Modern Ghana, the rite of election. Whether actually or merely ceremonial, along with the power to Czech rulers was granted to representatives of specific lineages, often those considered related to the original settlers of land.

Kingdom of Congo

The Kingdom of Congo in West Central Africa was founded in the fourteenth century. It was unique for its voluntary conversion to Catholicism, which occurred after the Congolese king Nzinga Nizhuku asked Portuguese priest to baptize him in 1491.
He adopted his baptismal name, Jayo I, and established trade and religious relations with Portugal, allowing Portuguese merchants and priests into his kingdom. However, in Congo, Africans and not the Portuguese controlled the church, and thus Catholic worship melded indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Christianity. Christian beliefs introduced by the Portuguese complemented and reinforced local Congo traditions such as the cruciform cross, which already existed as an indigenous symbol of transitional space for communication between the earthly and the divine. Congo Leaders used Christian symbols like the crucifix as vehicles for communicating with deities and ancestors. Bourging the secular and spiritual crucifixes were used to invoke divine favor in matters such as weather, hunting, and fertility, and they were incorporated in legal proceedings and rainmaking rituals.

King Afonso

After King Jael's death in fifteen o six, his son, Afonso, ruled from fifteen o nine to 1543. He consolidated the power of the church in the Kingdom of Congo, beginning with the defeat of his non Christian brother who fought him for succession to the throne. Afonso's rule marked a rapid increase in the amount of trade of Portugal, with a significant part of the trade being the export of slaves. Congo reached its zenith in the mid seventeenth century, and although it endured civil war and lost some of its centralization, it did not lose territory to the Portuguese.

Ndongo Matamba

Another west central African kingdom was Ndongo Matamba in what is now Angola. Like many other African states during the Atlantic slave trade era, Ndongo became more centralized in the later decades of the sixteenth century. However, before the Portuguese initiated slave trading relations, the King of Ndongo did not enjoy hereditary succession and said he was elected and held partially in check by the local authorities from Ndongo's constituent territories. The legitimacy of rulers appears to have become a more continuous issue once the Portuguese introduce the slave trade, and Portugal often allied with one African faction over another, exacerbating over sovereignty. So this crisis became particularly intense in the sixteen hundreds and interestingly involved an African woman ruler when Nyjinga, born in 1582, was first female ruler of Ndongo.

Queen Njinga

She spent much of her reign from 1624 until her death in 1663, justifying her claim to the throne and finding out Portuguese encroachment on her land. Njinga, a convert to Catholicism, like the rulers of neighboring Congo, seized power after her brother's death left only his eight year old son as heir to their kingship. Can yeah. Supported by rural court slaves, Njinga countered the military slaves of her rival, Hari, Akilujun Kilungi, one of Ndonga's Local Territory Authorities. Leading her troops into battle, Njinga fought to retain her power over a more centralized state. Her alliance with the Portuguese collapsed when they supported her enemies. In response, Nginga abandoned Christianity temporarily led her troops, inclusive of a battalion of women, into battle in the 1620s.
It was not unusual for Ndongo for women to serve in the military or hold official positions in the court of the ruler. Nginga's protracted struggle against the Portuguese ended in a mate.

East Africa and the Indian Ocean Trade

As early as one thousand CE, East Africa was formally incorporated into a larger international arena surrounding the Indian Ocean. The region had an abundance of coastal city states along the Sahi Coast. Turning from modern Somalia to Mozambique, their wealth and sophistication derived from the connections with both continental interior and the outside world. The implications of this interaction can be seen far inland with the emergence between a hundred and 10 and 14 50 of the powerful state of Great Zimbabwe.

Great Zimbabwe

Located in the South African Limbo Limpopo River Basin, Great Zimbabwe benefited from its control of local gold resources, ivory, and cattle raising. It is most famous for its large stone walls, stone towers, and elliptical building whose architectural wonder was once attributed to the ancient Phoenicians rather than to the indigenous African peoples. Yet archaeological excavations reveal Great Zimbabwe's African and especially pro proto Shona and Shona origins. Great Zimbabwe as well as its precursor, Lupungubwe (one thousand to 12,000 and other smaller states between the thirteenth and fifteenth century have been linked to the Swahili's coastal trade. The excavation of graves dating back to the fifteenth century has unearthed the remains of these societies' rulers and their adornments: jewelry, women clothed of local African providence, and imported glass beads. The last item indicating trade were the coastal areas along the Indian Ocean.

Swahili Coast

For centuries, the Swahili coast was peopled by Arab Persian Indian traders.
As Islam spread through East Africa beginning in the eighth century and accelerating from about the eleventh century onward, the Swahili coast city states blended African and Arab ways. As Swahili Innagaj is a Bantu language in terms of structure with some words borrowed from Arabic and other languages as dictated by commerce and religion. At its height from 1,000 to 1,500, the Swahili coast has such flourishing seaside towns as the Mogadishu, Mlindi, and Kilwa.
In the years when Europeans were fighting in the crusades, Muslim Swahili speaking city states along the Indian Ocean were trading with Arabia, India, and the East Indies In 1498, Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama explored East Africa, and while Portuguese explorers followed in the sixteenth century, leaving accounts of a sea orientated trade already in place in Mobes and Melendi. Historian Patrick Manning has shown that slavery in East Africa in the late eighteenth century, especially in Mozambique, led through the expansion of the slave trade, first in The Middle East and then to The Americas. Slaves were exported from Mozambique well into the nineteenth century because of the weak policy of the slave trade on the Indian Ocean, as opposed to efforts to suppress slave trading on the Atlantic.
The states described in this chapter represent only a sample of many African political units. Burgeoning studies on early Africa continue to refuel long standing racist assumptions. For example, copper working, iron smelting, artistry, commerce, and early state formation are no longer attributed to non African groups, but are instead recognized as emerging from groups and conditions indigenous to some Saharan Africa. Nor can it be disputed that ancient Black African kingdoms flourished well before the common era.

Connections to the African Diaspora

In a variety of ways, all have some connections to the New World experiences of African descended persons or to ideas by and about them. For instance, nineteenth century race histories by African Americans are replete with references to ancient Egypt, Nubia, Kush, and Ethiopia. In the 1900s, archaeologists confirmed the twenty fifth Egyptian dynasty to be Nubian, also called Kushite. The near century dynastic region reigned by a series of Egypt's Black Pharaohs, as titled prominently on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 02/2008, began after the King Pi of Cush, Central Sudan today, successfully invaded Egypt and ruled from about July. The reign ended with Pharaoh Taharqa, who ruled from June to June, a later great Nubian civilization, the city state of Mero, which was situated between the Nile and Barra Rivers, reached its zenith around March. Recognized for its unique written script, Mero was also noted for the distinct style of its pyramids and for powerful queens, Eight recorded kandake or queen mothers who ruled independently.

Ethiopia

Finally, Ethiopia has a recorded history that goes back almost two thousand years. The very mention of Ethiopia in their religious and secular writings and oratory of African Americans symbolized the whole of Africa and inspired a race consciousness of the shared dysphoric identity, heritage, destiny. From the eighteenth century well into the twentieth century, the popular, indeed unbiquitous practice, was to quote from the biblical passage in Psalms 6eight 31, Ethiopia saw stretched from her hands unto God. The more scholarly black literary practice drew from the ancient Greek works of Homer and especially Herodis, who applied the term Aethiopia broadly to regions of African people and kingdoms with darker burnt skin.
Thus, in 1883, the historian George Washington Williams was hardly alone when he laid claim to all of Africa in the opening chapters of his African American history survey by declaring, Africa, the home of the indigenous dark races in a geographic and ethnographic sense, is the most wonderful country in the world.