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Diverse Societies in Africa - Coggle Diagram
Diverse Societies in Africa
Stateless Societies
Government systems
Family was a basic social unit. They were organized in groups called
lineages
. Lineage members are loyal to one another.
Lineages believe they have common ancestors. Besides living members it includes past generations and future generations
South of the Sahara groups developed governing systems based on lineages. Some groups even took out rulers in general. These societies were called stateless societies due to them not having a centralized power.
The Igbo or Ibo people were in a
stateless society
. If a dispute were to happen, elders from different lineages took care of it.
Stateless
societies
How is lineage important to stateless societies?
It gave people some sort of structure in their lives and a sense of organization because they didn't have a central power of governing
Religion
Local religions
Belief systems allowed African people to understand their world. Many of these religions were polytheistic.
African religions included animism elements, where spirits play an important role in daily life
Animists believe spirits are present in animals, plants, natural forces, and they also honor the spirits of their ancestors.
In these religions the supreme god is not involved in human lives, but they are the cause of life's events (illness, good harvest)
African people asked the spirits for good health, fertility, and wealth. They also asked to be protected from bad spirits
What were some religious beliefs of many early Africans?
They believed that there is a supreme being and they worship spirits of their ancestors.
Culture
Tracing Family Descent
African societies trace back ancestry to see which individual belongs to which group.
Members of
patrilineal
societies trace ancestry through fathers. Inheritance is passed from father to son. When that son marries, his wife and their children stay in his fathers extended family.
In
matrilineal
societies children trace ancestry through their mothers. Young men inherit land and wealth through their mothers family. In these societies, men hold the authority
More about
matrilineal
Age-set system
Young children form ties with other kids outside of their lineage through the age set system.
Age sets consist of people born in the same region around a certain period of time. Each set goes through life stages together (elder/warrior)
Ceremonies mark passages into these new life stages. Each stage has their own duties and focus on certain skills.
Keeping a History
Few societies had written language. They shared history and literature orally.
In west Africa storytellers were called griots. They passed stories from parent to child and kept history alive
People of the north moved west due to desertification in search of better farmland
Present day Mali and Nigeria have shown that west Africans developed societies before outside people came
Why were oral traditions important in early Africa?
They weren't able to write things down and learn things that way so they learned through telling stories to each other. They wouldn't have been able to keep their history going
Early Humans Adapt To Their Environments
Environment
First humans appeared in the Great Rift Valley. Witch is a deep gash in Earth’s crust that runs through the floor of the Red Sea and across eastern Africa.
People moved outward.
They developed technologies and social systems.
Change
Nomadic hunting-gathering societies began in Africa.
Hunting-gathering societies formed an extremely small percentage.
These groups speak their own languages and use their own hunting techniques.
Scholars learn clues about how hunter-gatherers may have lived in the past.
Establishing long-term settlements impractical,
(
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/hunter-gatherer-culture/
)
Culture
The Efe
One of several hunting-gathering societies in Africa.
They live in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The modern-day Efe live in small groups of between 10 and 100 members, all of whom are related.
Each family occupies its own grass-and-brush shelter within a camp.
They are somewhat nomadic.
The Efe collect few possessions and move to new camps as they use up the resources in the surrounding area.
In the Efe society, women are the gatherers.
They search the forest for roots, yams, mushrooms, and wild seeds.
Efe men and older boys do all the hunting.
Men gather in groups to hunt small antelope called duikers. At other times, hunters go solo and use poison-tipped arrows to kill mammals such as monkeys.
Trade
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To what might the Efe attribute their long success as a hunter-gatherer society?
They solved problems by discussion.
(
https://quizlet.com/74869657/ch-15-african-societies-flash-cards/
)
Africans learned to domesticate and raise animals for food. Called herders, or pastoralists.
Kept cattle, goats, or sheep.
They were nomads who drove their animals to find water and good pastures for grazing.
Masai of Tanzania and southern Kenya, still measure their wealth by the size of their herds.
The Masai diet consists mostly of meat, blood, and milk.
The Masai live in small bands that traditionally included up to 12 households.
As among the Efe, each Masai family within a band makes its own decisions and is free to come and go.
Multiple bands work together.
Why would complex settlements require more government than smaller communities?
No centralized system of power, and balance power among lineages, ceremonies through each life stage.
Culture
Experts believe that agriculture in Africa probably began by 6000 BC. .
What happened to the pastoralists of the Sahara 8,000 years ago?
Between 8000 and 6000 BC, the Sahara received increased rainfall before and turned into a savanna in 6000 BC.
To survive, many early farmers moved east into the Nile Valley and south into West Africa.
Africans began to raise cattle.
In south and east of the rain forests, cattle raising became an important part of agricultural life.
Growing their own food enabled them to build permanent shelters in one location.
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Why did this happen?
Shifts in the world's weather patterns.
(
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161130141053.htm
)
Government systems
Various types of governing bodies developed.
Some governments consisted of a village chief and a council of the leaders of individual family groups.
As strong groups moved to extend their land and conquered weaker settlements, they centralized their power and their governments.
West African Iron Age
Djeené-Djeno
Socials Systems
Most Africans lived in small towns, in the region south of Sahel.
Cities began to develop between 600 BC and 200 BC
One the cities was Djenné-Djeno was uncovered by archaeologists in 1977
Djenné-Djeno is located on a tributary of the Niger River in West Africa.
The scientists discovered hundreds of thousands of artifacts, such as pottery, copper hair pieces, clay toys, glass beads, stone bracelets, and iron knives.
The oldest objects found were dated back to 250 BC.
Djenné-Djeno had around 50,000 residents.
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Culture
Archaeologists' main source of information about early West African cultures has been from artifacts such as pottery, charcoal, and slag.
Slag is a waste product from iron smelting
By dating the artifacts, scientists can piece together a picture of life in West Africa as early as 500 BC
How do artifacts provide a picture of daily life?
They show what they did.
Lives
The people of the Sub-Saharan Africa seem to have skipped the Copper and Bronze Ages and moved on directly to the Iron Age.
Evidence of production of iron dating back to about 500 BC has been found north of the Niger and Benue rivers.
Smelting iron was a major technological achievement of the ancient Nok of that region
The earliest known culture of West Africa was that of the Nok people.
Nok artifacts have been found in an area stretching for 300 miles between the Niger and Benue rivers.
They were the first West African people known to smelt iron. The iron was made into tools for farming and weapons for hunting.
Nok artifacts show evidence of a sophisticated culture.
Their sculptures were made out of terra cotta.
Their sculptures were animals as well as people.
The sculptures had distinctive features such as bulging, eyes flaring nostrils, and protruding lips.
an elongated style, especially for the head.
the hand or chin on the knee in some figures
Hairstyle still common in Nigeria
Refining metal was an important technological advancement.
Iron tools were stronger than copper or bronze tools. Making iron tools valuable
Producing Iron began by mining the iron ore
The iron itself was bound by other minerals in rocks
The trick was separating iron from the unwanted minerals.
That was the function of the furnace.
What major changes affected societies during Africa’s Iron Age?
They were able to use tools for longer because they were stronger.
A Land of Geographic Contrasts
Change
Sahara Desert
What problem's might the expansion of the Sahara cause?
They pushed off the land, they crowd people into smaller livable areas, and they limited the food production.
https://quizlet.com/116067563/world-history-i-practice-tests-and-quizes-africa-flash-cards/
The largest deserts are the Sahara in the north and the Kalahari in the south; stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
Each year the desert takes over more and more of the semiarid region at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert
A small part of the Sahara consists of sand dunes. The rest is mostly flat, gray wasteland of scattered rocks and gravel.
Nature's Greenhouse
Why might the rain forest be called “Nature’s Greenhouse”?
The tree's cover create a shelter for the area underneath, which makes it like a greenhouse.
Their leaves and branches form a dense canopy that keeps sunlight from reaching the forest floor
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/rain-forest/
The rainforest produces mahogany and teak trees up to 150 feet tall
Continuity
Where do most people in Africa live?
Most people in Africa live on the savannas, or grassy plains.
Savannas aren't just endless plains, they also include mountainous highlands and swampy tropical stretches
