Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Societies and Empires of Africa - Coggle Diagram
Societies and Empires of Africa
A Land of Geographic Contrasts
What problems might the expansion of the Sahara Cause?
Answer: Problems that the expansion of the Sahara Cause is that people aren't suited to live in the Sahara Desert. And that the desert each year takes over the semiarid region at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.
Why might the rain forest be called “Nature’s Greenhouse”?
Answer: The rain forest produces mahogany and teak trees up to 150 feet tall. Their leaves and branches form a dense canopy that keeps sunlight from reaching the forest floor.
Another very different-but also uninhabitable-African environment is the rain forest.
The tsestse fly is found in the rain forest. Its presence prevented Africans from using cattle, donkeys, and horses to farm near the rain forests.
This deadly insect also prevented invaders-especially Europeans-from colonizing fly-infested territories.
Tsestse Fly
Most people live in the savannas or the grasslands.
Climate
Dry seasons alternate with rainy seasons - often two of each a year.
The northern coast and southern tip of Africa have welcoming Mediterranean-type climates and fertile soil.
Because the these coastal areas are so fertile, they are densely populated with farmers and herders.
Africa's savannas are not just endless plains. They include mountainous highlands and swampy tropical stretches.
Covered with tall grasses and dotted with trees, the savannas cover over 40% of the continent.
In most years, however, the savannas support abundant agricultural production.
West African Iron Age
Culture
Archaeologists' main source of information about early West African cultures has been from artifacts such as pottery, charcoal, and slag. A waste product in iron smelting.
Dating these artifacts, scientists can piece together a picture of life in West Africa as early as 500 BC.
Unlike cultures to the north, people of Africa south of the Sahara seem to have skipped the Copper and Bronze Ages and moved directly into the Iron Age
Evidence of iron production dating around 500 BC has been found in the area just north of the Niger and Benue Rivers
The ability to smelt iron was a major technological achievement of the ancient Nok of sub- Saharan Africa
Question: How do artifacts provide a picture of daily life? Answer: The tools reveal how people worked and helped them identify their daily tasks
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/iron/hd_iron.htm#:~:text=Iron%20smelting%20and%20forging%20technologies,of%20significant%20centralized%20kingdoms%20in
Civilization
West Africa's earliest known culture was that of the Nok people.
They lived in what is now Nigeria between 500 BC and AD 200
Their name came from the village where the first artifacts from their culture were discovered. Nok artifacts have been found in an area stretching for 300 miles between the Niger and Benue Rivers
First West African people known to smelt iron
Iron was fashioned into tools for farming and weapons for hunting. Some tools and weapons made their way into overland trade routes
Question: What major changes affected societies during Africa’s Iron Age?
Answer: When Iron was developed in Africa, societies could then start creating more effective weapons and tools.
https://www.britannica.com/place/central-Africa/The-Iron-Age
Origins
In the region south of the Sahel, most Africans lived in small villages. Cities began to develop sometime between 600 BC and 200 BC. Usually in areas along rivers or at an oasis. One of these cities was Djenné-Djeno
Ancient Djenné was uncovered by archaeologists in 1977
It's located on a tributary of the Niger River in West Africa. Scientists s=discovered hundreds of thousands of artifacts
Objects included pottery, copper hair ornaments, clay toys, glass beads, stone bracelets, and iron knives
Oldest objects found there dated from 250 BC, making Djenné-Djeno the oldest known city in Africa sound of the Sahara. City was abandoned sometime after AD 1400
Question: What are some possible reasons that Djenne-Djeno was abandoned?
Answer: The drought could cause famine and war
This place had some 50,000 residents. They lived in round reed huts plastered with mud. Later built enclosed houses made of mud bricks
Finished in the Niger River, herded cattle, and raised rice on river's fertile floodplains
1 more item...
By third century BC, they had learned how to smelt iron. Exchanged their rice, fish, and pottery for copper, gold, and salt from other peoples who lived along the river
https://www.britannica.com/place/Djenne-Jeno
Stateless Societies
All Human cultures have common elements. For the societies of the Sahara they all shared the importance of a basic social unit or family. Usually called lineages.
Culture
:!!:
These lineages are made up of people who believe are descendants of a common ancestor.
These lineages include past members and future generations.
South of the Sahara, the developed systems of government based on the lineage groups.
These stateless societies, did not have a centralized system of power. The authority in a stateless society was balanced among lineages of equal power so that no one family had too much control.
How is lineage important to stateless societies?
Lineage was important to stateless societies because it was the only form of government they had. Any problem in their society had to be solved by the lineages otherwise there were no rules or regulations to follow to see who was right in the disagreement.
*Government Systems
:!!:*
Balance
:!!:
*Interdependence
:!!:*
Tracing Family Decent
In African societies, the way a society traces lineage determines how possessions and property are passed on and what groups individuals belong to.
In patrilineal society trace their ancestors through their fathers. Inheritance passes from father to son and when a son marries, he, his wife, and their children remain part of his father’s extended family.
In a matrilineal society, children trace their ancestors through their mothers. Young men from a matrilineal culture and inherit land and wealth from their mother’s family.
Even in a matrilineal society, men usually hold the positions of authority.
Identity
:!!:
Age Set System
Young people form close ties to individuals outside their lineage through the age-set system.
An age set consists of young people within a region who are born during a certain time period. Each age set passes together through clearly identified life stages, such as warrior or elder.
Ceremonies mark the passage to each new stage.
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/african-ceremonies-passages-african-ceremonies/QQJgfgg2?hl=en
Local Religions
African people developed beliefs systems to help them organize and understand their world.
Many of these local religions were polytheistic, involving belief in one divine creator or supreme god
African religions generally also included elements of animism, a belief system in which spirits play an important role in regulating daily life. Animists believe that spirits are present in animals, plants, and other natural forces.
Most religions believed that the supreme god did not involve himself in human's lives but the nature spirits and the spirits of ancestors that caused life events.
Africans did not separate religion from other areas of life. Instead, spiritual beliefs and practices were integral to all areas of life.
What were some religious beliefs of many early Africans?
They believed in 1 supreme god and nature and animal spirits as well as spirits of ancestors that controlled their life events.
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/african-traditional-religion
Religion
:!!:
Keeping A History
Few African societies had written languages. Instead, storytellers shared orally the history and literature of a culture.
The story tellers were called Griots
Recent discoveries in West Africa have proved how old and extensive the history of this part of Africa is. Discoveries in the areas of modern Mali and Nigeria reveal that West Africans developed advanced societies and cities long before outsiders came to the continent.
Why were oral traditions important in early Africa?
Oral traditions were important in early Africa because they didn't have a written language so they had to share all of the stories and teachings orally.
Early Humans Adapt To Their Environments
To what might the Efe attribute their long success as a hunter-gather society?
Why would complex settlements require more government than smaller communities?
Answer: Some governments consisted of a village chief and a council of the leaders of individual family groups.
What happened to the pastoralists of the Sahara 8,000 years ago?
Answer: Sahara began to dry up again. To survive, many early farmers moved east into the Nile Valley and south into West Africa.
Why did this happen?
Answer: Some settled on the savannas, which had the best agricultural land. Grain grew well in the savannas. In addition to growing grain, Africans began to raise cattle.
Answer: The Efe collect few possessions and move to new camps as they use up the resources in the surrounding area.
Hunter-Gathering
The first humans appeared in the Great Rift Valley, a deep gash in Earth’s crust that runs through the floor of the Red Sea and across eastern Africa.
Settlements expanded because reliable food supplies led to longer, healthier lives and an increased birthrate. The increased food supply also freed some members of the community to practice activities such as working metal, making pottery, and crafting jewelry.
As strong groups moved to extend their land and conquered weaker settlements, they centralized their power and their governments.
Stateless Societies
They developed technologies and social systems that helped them survive in—and then alter—their surroundings.
Agriculture drastically changed the way Africans lived. Growing their own food enabled them to build permanent shelters in one location.
In many African societies, families are organized in groups called lineages.
Besides its living members, a lineage includes past generations (spirits of ancestors) and future generations (children not yet born).
Religion
They also developed belief systems that helped them understand and organize information about their world.
Many of these local religions were polytheistic, involving belief in one divine creator or supreme god in addition to several secondary gods or semidivine spirits.
1 more item...
Age
In many African societies, young people form close ties to individuals outside their lineage through the age-set system.
Each age set passes together through clearly identified life stages, such as warrior or elder. Ceremonies mark the passage to each new stage.
Men and women have different life stages, and each stage has its own duties and importance.
Societies like the Igbo use the age-set system to teach discipline, community service, and leadership skills to their young.
