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Explore the history of powerful African kingdoms including Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Zimbabwe, and Kongo. Discover their rise to prominence, flourishing trade, cultural influences, and ultimate decline.
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The Rise • By 400 (some say 800) rulers had united farming villages to create the kingdom of Ghana. Senegal and Niger rivers
Bustling Trade • Ghana profited from the gold and salt trade across the Sahara • Flow of gold was high, because it met in the middle of the Arab traders and the West African Gold rich lands of the Maninka
Capital: Kumbi Saleh • two separate walled towns, • royal palace, and domed buildings • The King was a semi-divine figure, who presided over justice and order Dinga Cisse
“Ghana”=Arabic word meaning “ruler”Click on Ghana to learn more! • Islamic faith was brought to Ghana by Islamic traders. • The King employed Muslims as counselors and officials => written language, coins, business methods, architecture. • But Ghanains mostly they followed their own beliefs=> Soninke • Additional Information • More They did not adopt Islam as the official religion
1050 CE the Almoravids- the pious Muslims of north Africa had launched a campaign to spread Islam. • Ghana was swallowed up into Mali…..
Empire of Mali • Mali is an Arab version of the Mandinka word meaning “where the king dwells”
After the fall of Ghana, the Mandinke people suffered defeat from a rival leader • The king and all his sons, except one (Sundiata) were executed
Gold and salt tradehttp://www.fcps.edu/KingsParkES/technology/mali/malires.htm
Mansa Musa: the great king of Mali- comes to the thrown in 1312 CE ”Mansa” means “King” Click on Mansa Musa to learn more about Mali!
Expansion and the Hadj • 25 year reign-expanded Mali’s borderrs toward the Atlantic ocean • Ibn Battuta • Converted to Islam and based the system of Justice on the Quran-did not adopt all of the customs of Islam ex.women Mansa
1324 CE- Hadj (pilgrimage to Mecca) • The hadj takes 1 year • Forged new ties with other muslim states • Movement of wealth, people and ideas increased Mali’s fame • Timbuktu is at its height
Decline • In the 1400s, disputes of succession weakened Mali- • Subject peoples broke away, and the empire shriveled • By 1450 a new wealthy trading city had emerged in Gao => The Songhai Empire!
Songhai (Songhay) • http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/oldworld/africa/songhai.html
History of Songhay • Claim ancestor were original residents of middle Niger • Accepted Islam as a religion • First Dia king, Kossi, put Songhay on the map • Sunni Ali, Future Kings takes Timbuktu- used Roman philosophy of taking ideas from captured territories and making it his own (used his War Canoes) • 1492 Sunni Ali drowned in a river after being thrown from a horse- Arab Muslims were thankful • http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/songhai-african-empire-15-16th-century
Fall • Started in 1590 • 1670 Captured by Tuareg
Zimbabwe • www.africanet.com/africanet/country/zimbabwe/history.htm
Kongo • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Kongo • http://www.answers.com/topic/kingdom-of-kongo • http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/kongo.html • http://countrystudies.us/angola/5.htm
Kongo Religion • Nzambi was the supreme god for all in the Kongo Kingdom, and the intermediary representations included land and sky spirits and ancestor spirits, all of whom were represented in nkisi objects. When an individual encountered hardship and feared that a spirit had been offended, it would be necessary to consult a diviner (nganga), who would often instruct the afflicted to add medicines to certain nkisi in order to achieve well-being. Although the Portuguese attempted to • Christianize the Kongo peoples as early as 1485, for the most part people either resisted entirely or incorporated Christian ideas into their own religions.
Kongo Kings • The term "Manikongo" probably derives from mwene Kongo a term that means essentially ruler, or one who exercises judgement in Kikongo. The term wene, from which mwene derived is also used to mean kingdom, and is attested with this meaning in the catechism of 1624 with reference to the Kingdom of Heaven. Mwene is created by adding the personal prefix (Class 1) Mu- to this stem, making it "a person who performs the functions of the kingdom".
Kings • In 1482, Diogo Cão, a Portuguese explorer, visited the kingdom, and the reigning manikongo, Nzinga Nkuwu, was favorably impressed with Portuguese culture. In 1491, Portuguese missionaries, soldiers, and artisans were welcomed at Mbanza, the capital of the kingdom. The missionaries soon gained converts, including Nzinga Nkuwu (who took the name João I), and the soldiers helped the manikongo defeat an internal rebellion.
Kings • The next manikongo, Afonso I (reigned 1505–43), was raised as a Christian and attempted to convert the kingdom to Christianity and European ways. However, the Portuguese residents in Kongo were primarily interested in increasing their private fortunes (especially through capturing Africans and selling them into slavery), and, despite the attempts of King Manuel I of Portugal to channel the efforts of his subjects into constructive projects, the continued rapaciousness of the Portuguese played a major part in weakening the kingdom and reducing the hold of the capital (renamed São Salvador) over the provinces.
Economy • In its prime, the Kingdom exacted taxes, forced labor, and collected fines from its citizens in order to prosper. At times, enslaved peoples, ivory, and copper were traded to the Europeans on the coast. The important harbors were Sonyo and Pinda. In addition to the six provinces, the Kongo kingdom also established a sphere of influence in a number of outlying areas from which it was able to extract tribute. The kingdom was also at the center of an extensive Central African trade network in which it traded and produced large quantities of ivory, as well as manufacturing copperware, raffia cloth, and pottery, along with other natural resources (The eastern region of the Congo [such as the province of Katanga] is particularly rich in mineral resources, especially diamonds). These trade goods would also form, in addition to slaves, the backbone of the Kongo's trade with Europeans(primarily the Portuguese), upon their arrival.
Downfall • After the death of Afonso, Kongo declined rapidly and suffered major civil wars. The Portuguese shifted their interest southward to the kingdom of Ndongo and helped Ndongo defeat Kongo in 1556. However, in 1569 the Portuguese aided Kongo by helping to repel an invasion from the east by a Lunda ethnic group. The slave trade, which undermined the social structure of Kongo, continued to weaken the authority of the manikongo. • In 1641, Manikongo Garcia II allied himself with the Dutch in an attempt to control Portuguese slave traders, but in 1665 a Portuguese force decisively defeated the army of Kongo and from that time onward the manikongo was little more than a vassal of Portugal. The kingdom disintegrated into a number of small states, all controlled to varying degrees by the Portuguese.
