apaas

African American Studies features an interdisciplinary approach of scholarly analysis of history, culture, and contributions that reframes misconceptions about Early Africa and its relationship to people of the African Diaspora

Africa is a large, immense, and diverse continent that incorporates varying climate zones and a varied landscape that has impacted patterns of settlement and trade between diverse cultural regions

The Bantu Expansion across the African continent spread technology, language, and cultural practices that triggered a population growth trend that influenced ethnicity and language for most of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The complex societies that emerged in East and West Africa include large-scale civilizations like Egypt, Nubia, and Aksum in East Africa as well as the Nok civilization in West Africa that featured monumental architecture, trade, art, stratified societies, varied cultural practices, and interaction with Eurasian societies via long-distance trade. 

The Gold-Salt Trade had a massive impact on the development and longevity of the West African Sudanic Empires politically, economically, and religiously. Additionally, many of the descendants of the slave trade come from West Africa. Mali’s wealth and power allowed the empire to expand its influence to other African societies and across the Mediterranean. This was due, in part, to Mansa Musa’s hajj to Mecca and the vast wealth he displayed along the way.

West African educational practices were both institutional and community-based. They featured Timbuktu as a learning center as well as the role of oral history and the Griots who preserved knowledge of births, deaths, marriages, and healing practices. 

Syncretic religious practices in West African societies, primarily of indigenous beliefs and cosmologies with Islam and Christianity,  developed and carried forward to African-descended communities in the Americas. 

The Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe was a flourishing society in Southern Africa that created great stone architecture and participated in long-distance trade. The East African coast was primarily home to a group of cities and states often referred to as the Swahili Coast that was linked geographically, politically, culturally, and linguistically and participated in Indian Ocean Trade with Arab, Persian, Indian, and Chinese communities. 

The Kingdom of the Kongo was a society in Southern Africa on the Atlantic coast that converted to Christianity following its interactions with the Portuguese explorers which led to its participation in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Kinship played a large role in the organization and political leadership of many African societies. It featured the matrilineal practices of female-based kinship, including the monarchies of Benin and Ndongo-Matamba.

There were extensive connections between West African societies and Europe in the 15th century due to long-distance trade, educational opportunities, and the beginnings of the slave trade which shaped enslaved-based economies in the Americas.