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Africa
Geography• Second Largest continent
• 1/5 of the earth’s land surface
• Coastline
2
Major Land Areas
• Desert
– 40 % of continent
– Sahara
– Sahel
• The coastline of the Sahara Desert
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• Rainforest
– 5% of land
Major Land Areas
• Savanna– Grassy plain
– Where largest number of Africans live • 40% of population
– Concern about Desertification
• Great Rift Valley– Deep Gash in Earth’s crust
• Runs from Red Sea across East Africa
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• Agriculture
– Likely result of contact with Near East
• Livestock-
– cattle, goats, sheep, horse and camels from Asia
• Iron making
– Asia or some say Phoenicians
– First known makers of Iron were
– Africa unusual because it appears that they skip the bronze age.
• Migrations of Bantu people help the spread of iron making across the African continent
People
• Earliest People
•
• Pastoralist
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Family
• Central to African societies
• Organize into groups called lineage
• Lineages included
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Tracing Family Descent
• Way the society traces lineage decides
– Inheritances rights and what group individual belongs to
• Patrilineal
• Matrilineal
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Common Elements in African Societies
• Language
• Thought
• Religion– Animistic
• Power of natural forces personified
• Ritual and worship
• Witchcraft
Bantu
• Bantu
– Lived south of Sahara- Nigeria
– Spoke over
– Important in History of Africa because:
Important in History of Africa because
– Spread of language
• Swahili- mixture of Bantu and Arab– Result of interaction between
– Result is over 60 million Africans speak one of the Bantu languages
• Helps experts trace movement of people
Bantu Migration• Around 1500 BCE start to
migrate to the south and east
– Generally believe that migrations caused by
• Climatic changes
• Increase population– Adoption of agriculture-
– Using
Why do people migrate?
• List 3 Reasons:
Bantu
• Stateless societies– Organized around kinship groups or other forms of
obligation
– Control by
– Lack the concentration of political power and authority
• Age Set– Center of Bantu society
– Cohort group that included tribal members of the same age
• Early Bantu did not have written language
– Oral traditions preserved by storytellers called
– Excellent advisors to kings because
African Economies
• African economies were extremely diversified
• North Africa will be fully involved with
• Sub-Saharan regions had varying
• International trade increase in regions
Drawbacks to African Trade
• Trade will be handed by professional merchants
• Africa will exchange raw materials for
• Will fail to develop the industrial technology to use their own raw materials to make manufactured products
Trade in West Africa
• Infrequent and irregular because of
• Change in 3rd Century when Berbers used camels
• Trade routes developed and trade increased20
• West Africa was rich in gold but lack salt
– Arabs and Berbers will trade
– African trade routes will shift to the east several times as
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East Africa
• Zanj
– Arabic term for East African coast
• Active trade in towns
– from Persian Gulf to Egypt
• Urbanized trading ports had the common cultural trait of
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