UNIT FIVE

PEOPLES AND STATES OF AFRICA TO 1500

5.1 Languages and Peoples of Africa
 Describe languages and peoples of Africa.
 What is a native language?
 Africa is a vast continent inhabited by people who speak various languages.
 Linguists have stated that over 1000 diverse and interrelated languages are currently
spoken all over the continent. Languages that belong to the same group share certain
vocabulary or words. Linguists describe the degree of the relationships among these languages.
 Linguists classify the peoples of Africa into the speakers of four super-families of
languages. These are Niger- Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan.
A. Niger Congo Super family
 Based on rough estimates, the Niger-Congo super-family has the most significant number of
speakers, followed by the Afro Asiatic Super family. This super-family has two main
branches: Niger-Congo and Kordofanian. Niger-Congo covers much of West Africa and
all of Bantu Africa. Bantu speakers live across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
 There are over 450 languages that are grouped in the Bantu family. Kiswahili, one of the
most widely spoken African languages and a mixture of African and Arab cultures,
belongs to the Bantu language group.
 Kordofanian languages are spoken in a small area in the Nuba hills, south of the Republic
of Sudan.
B. Afro Asiatic Super family
 The speakers of the Afro-Asiatic super-family live in northern Africa, the Sahara, and the
Horn of Africa and around Lake Chad.
 This super-family is divided into six sub-groups: Berber, Chadic, Coptic (Ancient
Egyptian), Cushitic, Omotic and Semitic.
 The Semitic language sub-group is spoken mainly in the Horn of Africa.
 The Omotic sub-family is spoken only in Ethiopia.
 The Cushitic branch extends from the Red Sea coast, through the Horn of Africa, and into
central Kenya and Tanzania.

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C. Nilo- Saharan Super-Family
 The third majority in terms of the number of speakers.
 Divided into six subgroups: Chari-Nile, Songhay, Saharan, Meban, Koman and Fur.
D. Khoisan Super-Family
 Have two subgroups: the Khoi khoi and the San.
 The speakers of these languages live in and around the Kalahari Desert of northern South
Africa, Southwestern Botswana and Namibia.
 Not all languages spoken in Africa are native to the continent. For instance, many people in
northern Africa speak the Arabic language. Arabic language was brought to Africa by the
Muslim Arabs between the 7th and 8th centuries. Afterwards, the European colonial powers
brought their languages to their respective colonies of Africa.
 The Horn of Africa is inhabited by peoples who speak various languages. Above all, living
along the border allows people to interact with other people of diverse cultures and languages.
5.2 States in North Africa
A. Mamluk of Egypt (1250-1517)
 The Fatimid rulers used soldiers called Mamluks and declared Egyptian independence
from the rule of Baghdad in 969 AD. Fatmid dynasty ruled Egypt from 969-1250 AD
 The Mamluks were of Turkish origin.
 They gradually became military commanders and took power militarily.
 They founded their dynasty that ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1517. After that, they expanded
into Palestine, Syria, Europe and Asia. Besides, Egypt, under the Mamluk, witnessed
critical economic developments.
 During the rule of the Mamluks, Ethio- Egyptian relations was full of conflicts. However,
the Ethiopian ruler, Zera Yacob (r. 1434 - 1468), tried to create smooth relations. But their
relation short-lived.
 The Mamluk power started to decline because of corruption, the decline in agricultural
productivity, cattle plague and drought.
 Firearms helped the Ottoman Turks to defeat the Mamluk force in Palestine, and they
occupied Egypt in 1517.

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 B. The Funj Sultanate
 Established in 1504 by cattle keeping nomads in northeast Africa- in the present-day
Republic of Sudan.
 The Funj established their Sultanate in 1504 with its capital at Sennar.
 Like Mamluks, the Funj sultanate fought against the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia due
to rivalry over trade routes. As a result, the army of King Susenyos destroyed them in
about 1620. However, the Funj Sultanate continued to exist until Mohammed Ali of Egypt
conquered it in the 1820s.
5.3 Spread of Islam and its impact in West Africa
 Recognize the role of Islam in the expansion of the various empires in West Africa to develop
the respect of the religions in the society.
 After the birth of Islam early in the 7th century, the Muslim Arabs conquered Egypt in
642AD. Later in the century, they went on from Egypt to the rest of North Africa. By the
end of the 7th century, the Arab empire had reached Morocco and even conquered
southern Spain.
 After politico-religious rivalries in the 11th century, there was a revival of Islam in North
Africa, accompanied by a further wave of Arab immigration. This was also followed by
the expansion of the West African Empires.
 Islam promoted trade between West Africa and the Mediterranean. The religion developed
and widened the trans-Saharan Caravan trade. The work enriched the West African and the
Muslim traders. Muslims from North Africa came and settled in the commercial centers.
 Islam in Africa has also linked together diverse peoples through better cultural understanding
and a spirit of cooperation and commonwealth.
 The historical impact of Islam upon trade, particularly in West Africa, significantly
increased the wealth of African people and helped the rise of great African empires.
 The coming of Islam to Africa facilitated the rise of political empires that encouraged
trade and wealth.
 Islam was also more attractive to kings because of its concept of the caliph's combined political
power with religious authority.

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5.4. States in Western Africa
 Recognize the role of Islam in the expansion of the various empires in West Africa to develop
the respect of the religions in the society.
 Many states and kingdoms were flourished in western Africa.
 More than ten modern African nations, including Mali, Guinea, and Senegal, have a
geographical connection to the three medieval African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay.
A. Ghana
 The Ancient Ghana Empire was located in parts of what are now called Mauritania, Mali
and Senegal.
 It was founded by the Soninke people in the 4 th c AD and reached the height of its power at
about 1000AD.
 Ghana relied on Trans-the Saharan trade, and its rulers were able to build a vast empire.
 However, the rise of Islam was the main factor for the greatness and decline of Ghana.
 Ancient Ghana came to an end in 1076 when the Islamic Empire of Almoravids invaded
and captured its capital, Kumbi Saleh.
B. Mali
 Mali emerged after the fall of Ghana.
 Sundiata Keita founded the Mali Empire of the Mandinka people.
 The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa that allowed the spread
of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River.
 The greatest king of Mali was Mansa Musa (1312-1337), who made a pilgrimage to Mecca.
During his time, Islam expanded in the Empire vastly.
 Mali was famous for its Islamic studies.
 Timbuktu, the capital of Mali, became one of the most important Islamic learning and
culture centers. After Mansa Musa, there was no king as powerful as he was.
 The great kingdom of Mali weakened due to inefficient leadership and attacks from the
neighboring peoples, such as Tuareg.
C. Songhai
 The Songhai people established the Empire named after their name, with its capital at
Gao.
 The Songhai people had been subject to Ghana and then to Mali at various times.
However, towards the end of the 14th century, they threw off the over-lordship of Mali.

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 The Empire extended from the central area of today's Nigeria to the Atlantic coast.
 Songhai became powerful by controlling the Trans-Sahara trade.
 The Songhai had trading connections with the Berbers.
 Its kings accepted Islam early in the 11th c.
 Their prosperity grew as gold began to come from the forest region.
 The Empire ended when a Moroccan army defeated Songhai in the battle of Tondibi in 1591.
D. The Kingdoms Kanem-Bornu
 There were many other kingdoms in the grassland region of Africa. One of these was Kanem-
Bornu.
 The ruling family was a Muslim dynasty.
 Trade was important for Kanem's greatness.
 Kanem's army kept the trade routes safe and collected taxes from traders.
 After Bornu became a province of Kanem, the Empire was often called Kanem-Bornu.
 Kanem-Bornu probably began to decline because trade centers shifted from inland routes
to the Atlantic coast of West Africa.
E. The Hausa States
 The Hausa city-states emerged in Nigeria between 1000 and 1200AD.
 The people were both pastoralists and farmers.
 These city-states were Kano, Katsina, Zazzau (Zaria), Gobir, Kebbi, Rano and Zamfara.
 The economy of the Hausa city-states was based on agriculture and the trans-Saharan trade.
 Hausa cities were noted for their leather goods, craft technology and textiles.
 The most famous of them was the walled city of Kano.
 Islam spread to Hausa land from Kanem-Bornu.
Why the West African empires so powerful?
5.5. Equatorial, Central and Eastern Africa
 In eastern Africa, a variety of states and small societies emerged.
 Islam strongly influenced many of them.
 Some became extremely wealthy as a result of trade. Beginning in the 1st millennium BC,
new peoples migrated into eastern Africa from the west.
 Farming peoples who spoke dialects of the Bantu family began to move from the region of
the Niger River into East Africa and the Congo River basin.
 They moved slowly, not as invading hordes but as small communities.

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A. Kongo
 The Kingdom of Congo was located on the lower bank of the Zaire River.
 Bantu people founded it in the late 14th century. The people were hunters and warriors.
 They were also clever smiths. Apart from agriculture, trade played an important role in the
kingdom's economy.
 The explorers reached the Congo in 1482 and 1491.
 Missionaries who were converted to Catholicism arrived having such footsteps.
 The Portuguese colonized the kingdom.
B. Swahili city-states
 About 2000 years ago, Bantu speaking people established small village settlements along
the coast of the Indian Ocean.
 After the rise of Islam, the region received a great impetus from Muslim Arabic speaking
merchants who married into local ruling families. Subsequently, the language and culture were
developed distinctly African but with Islamic and Arabic influences. These mixed Bantu-Arab
stocks their language called Swahili, meaning "coasters" in Arabic. Swahili is now a
common language in East African countries.
 The Swahili civilization is an example of cultural diffusion formed from the interaction
between Arabic, Persian and Bantu traditions.
 There were several important coastal commercial centers called Swahili city-states.
 Among the most important and influential coastal cities or ports were Mogadishu (in
Somalia), Malindi and Mombasa (in Kenya), Zanzibar and Kilwa (in Tanzania), Brava
Pate, Pemba and Sofala.
 The most famous and imposing was Kilwa, situated on a small island. Kilwa became the main
center of the East African gold and ivory trade.
 Wealthy Muslim elites ruled the Swahili cities.
 Evidence suggests that their commercial relations with Arabia, the Persians, Indian and
Chinese existed long before the Portuguese arrival in the area.
 From the very beginning, the Portuguese aimed to destroy the growing power of Muslims
in East Africa. Impressed by east Africa's gold and ivory trade, the Portuguese established
a trading fort at Sofala in 1505.

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5.6 Southern Africa
 In the southern half of the African continent, states were formed more slowly than in the
north. However, independent villages gradually consolidated in some parts of southern Africa,
starting in the 11th century.
A. Zimbabwe
 The founders of Great Zimbabwe were the Bantu speaking people of Shona who began
their rule about 1000 AD.
 They built Great Zimbabwe.
 In the 13th or 14th century, stone houses and walls were built in Great Zimbabwe.
 Great Zimbabwe was a medieval African city known for its large circular wall and tower.
 It was part of a wealthy African trading empire that controlled much of the East African
coast from the 11th to the 15th centuries.
 With an economy based on cattle husbandry, crop cultivation, and the trade of gold on the
coast of the Indian Ocean, Great Zimbabwe was the heart of a thriving trading empire from
the 11th to the 15th centuries.
 Zimbabwe's name is a Shona (Bantu) word meaning "stone houses."
 It maintained trade relations with the Swahili states. Great-Zimbabwe was known for its
gold mines.
 After 1450AD, the Rozwi clan kings of the Shona people established the empire called
Mwene Mutapa. However, later on, the Portuguese conquered Mwene Mutapa in the late
16th c AD.
B. The Khoi - Khoi
 Initially, the Khoi- Khoi people were hunters.
 Since 1000 AD. However, they made a change from the hunting way of life to that of sheep
and cattle breeding.
 Beginning from 1300AD, the Khoi - Khoi expanded from present-day Botswana.
 They were well-established in southern Africa by the 15 th century. However, after the Dutch
settlers landed in South Africa in the mid-17 th, the Khoi-Khoi people were driven out of
their land to the Kalahari Desert.
 Europeans called them Hottentots.

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C. The San
 Before they were driven out of their land by the European settlers, the San lived in parts of
present-day Angola and Namibia.
 Europeans called them Bushmen.
 The San lived by hunting and gathering. Men hunted animals with bows and poison-tipped
arrows.
 The Dutch farmers pushed the San to the Kalahari Desert, where they still lived as
hunters.
 The San have yellowish-brown skin and tightly coiled black hair.
 They speak Khoisan languages, which are characterized by clicking sounds.
5.7 Africa’s Intra and Inter-continental Relations
 Intercontinental relation occurs between two or more continents, while intra continental
occurs within a continent.
 People who lived north and south of the Sahara Desert had a long history of irregular
contact before developing the trans-Saharan trade route.
 Trade between these peoples became better organized after the introduction of the camel.
 The trans-Saharan caravan trade began regularly beginning in the 4 th c as an expanded
version of the pre-existing intra- and inter-regional trade among peoples of various
regions in Africa.
 The spread of Islam in tropical Africa further strengthened the relationship with the
peoples of North Africa.
 The Arabs traded with societies in North and East Africa.
 Trade contacts facilitated the exchange of ideas.
 The exploration and subsequent contact with European powers contributed to the ever-
changing Africa.
 The outcome of Afro-European contact during the exploration era was the opening of the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
5.8 Trans-Saharan Trade
 Evaluate the impact of the slave trade on Africa’s development.
 As mentioned earlier, people across the African continent are diverse. Nevertheless, there are
also some things that African peoples share in common. The trans-Saharan trade can be a good
example.

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 We do not know when the trans-Saharan trade exactly began.
 Two important trade routes connected west and west-central Africa with north-central
and north-west Africa. They linked the major ancient and medieval states of West Africa.
 The other route crossed the central Sahara and connected North Africa with the kingdom of
Kanem. A sub-branch linked West Africa and Egypt. The trade routes across the desert also
connected Africa with the outside world.
 The trans-Saharan trade network played a key role in the movement of people, materials
and ideas.
 The important traded items of the trans-Saharan trade were gold from the regions of
West Africa and salt mined in northwest Africa. In addition, enslaved people became
important trade goods after the emergence of the Arabs in the 7th century AD.
 The trans-Saharan trade contributed to developing robust economic and political systems
on both sides of the Sahara. For example, the great West African empires of Ghana, Mali
and Songhai became powerful because they could control the trans-Saharan trade route.
In addition, the trade facilitated the spread of Islam and Islamization in West and West-
Central Africa.
5.9 Early Contacts with the Outside World
 What do you know about Arabs, Spain and Portuguese and their relations with Africa?
 Due to the accessibility of the East African coast, there was wide spread interaction
between it and the people from the outside world.
 The early contacts were mainly with Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Chinese, Indians,
Spain and Portuguese.
What is Europe's perception of Africa?
 Europeans created an image of Africa that was the perverse opposite of Europe's. By
comparison with and in contrast to this image, Europe's general superiority would be self-
evident.
 Since the mid-15th c, the turn of global events brought Africa closer to the rest of the
world. Europeans, especially Portugal and Spain were determined to dominate
international trade. To this end, both countries sponsored navigators.
 The exploration and subsequent contact with European powers enormously contributed to
the ever-changing African economy, culture, language, politics, and environment.

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 The outcome of Afro-European contact during the exploration era was the opening of the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

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