PRE-COLONIAL AFRICA
Generally, the Western and
Northeastern regions of Africa have experienced a longer history of indigenous
influences while the Eastern and Southern parts have had a more recent history.
The history of Africa’s indigenous heritage can be classified into the
following:
1.
Africa
as the cradle of man
2.
The
Era of Ancient Civilizations
3.
Migratory
patterns
4.
Medieval
period, and
5.
Era
of modern Kingdoms
A: Africa as the cradle of
Man
Generally, it is accepted
that Africa was the cradle of mankind and Egypt the cradle of civilization. The
work of Leakey in the discovery of Zinjanthropos in the Olduvai Gorge and the
recent discovery of Lucy in Ethiopia are strong indications that the African
Rift Valley System was the first home of man. The earliest Africans lived in
small bands of hunters and gatherers. About 10,000 years ago the hunters and
gatherers began to settle. The first Ancient Civilizations were stateless, but
associations based on kinship and lineage were common. Controversy exists
whether the Ancient Egyptians were Africans but many African writers led by
Diop of Senegal believe they were Africans.
B: The Era of Ancient
Civilization
The earliest civilizations
to emerge in the highlands of present-day Ethiopia were the KUSH with its capital Meroe (around
2,000 BC to 300 AD)., AXUM (200 BC
to 700 AD). The history of the Kush is closely linked with that of Egypt. The
Kushites once ruled Egypt between 700 AD to 500 BC. Kush eventually declined and was succeeded by Nubia 500 to 700 AD
which was a Christian civilization. Muslims eventually conquered the Christian
Nubian Empire. The NOK civilization also emerged along the Niger-Benue
confluence in West Africa. The Nok were noted for its iron-smelting technology
and its trade links with Carthage and Cairo. Although these ancient societies
have not been researched as extensively as Egypt, they were civilizations in
their own right. They were all characterized by permanent settlements and
cities, domestication of plants and animals, iron smelting and trade. The Bush
for instance was noted for impressive architecture, irrigation systems, scripts
(writing alphabets) and large iron industry.
C: Iron, Islam and Medieval
Civilizations
During the Medieval period,
empires with complex political structures and social orders emerged in
Sub-Saharan Africa. In West Africa, 3 of such empires evolved in the Savanna
and Sahel zones. The Sudanic empires, namely, GHANA, (AD 700-1070), MALI, (AD
1230-1430), and SONGHAI (AD 1460-1590) overlapped each other. There were common
characteristics:
i.
Islam
was an important organizing philosophy, Ghana which was not an Islamic empire
was conquered by Muslims.
ii.
These
Sudanic empires mined gold with iron implements
iii.
They
traded extensively (Caravan Trade) gold, salt and slaves.
Around AD 1000, KARANGA
evolved into what is present day Zimbabwe. Karanga was engaged in extensive
gold mining for international trade. Its capital was Zimbabwe.
Several empires existed in
Africa for thousands of years before the arrival of Arabs and Europeans
· The Assyrians conquered
Egypt in 665 BC.
· The Persians led by Cambyses
also conquered Egypt and Cyrenaica in about 525 BC. Under King Darius, the
first Suez Canal was constructed to open a sea trading route from Egypt to
Persia via the Red Sea
· Before the arrival of the
Persians, the Phoenicians had circumnavigated Africa. The Greeks also
established trading posts on the North Coast as far as to Cyrene in Libya.
· Alexandria was established
by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C
· The Roman conquered the
Greeks and subsequently brought the whole of North Africa into the Roman
Empire. Before the Romans could take over North Africa, they had to defeat
Carthage led by Hannibal.
· Around 30 BC, the Romans took
Egypt and ruled North Africa for 400 years before Rome fell.
· Egypt remained part of the
East Roman empire rule from Constantinople. Egypt later became a Christian
empire
· The New Religion (Islam) was
imposed as the Arabs conquered Egypt. By AD 705, the Arabs had conquered as far
west as Morocco. Southward expansion of Islam was delayed by the Christian
Nubians in the Nile valley, and Christian Abyssinia
· Meanwhile In Africa south of
the Sahara, large scale long distance immigration had taken place with the
Bantu speaking people moving from wet Africa to south Africa
· Several empires such as
Ghana, Mali and Songhai empires whose economies were based on trans Sahara
trade had been established. The arrival of Europeans at the coast disrupted and
finally eclipsed this important trade between wet Africa and the nations in the
North
· Other small but significant
states such as Ashanti, Benin, Oyo and Ibadan in west Africa; Zimbabwe , Zulu,
Swazi, Ndebele and Basuto in southern Africa; and Buganda, Katanga, Toro, Ankole
in Eastern/central Africa all came into prominence.
· Thus before the arrival of
Europeans, Africa had its own civilization, history and rhythm. We cannot
understand the present geography and political conflicts unless we understand
Africa's past.
Islam existed in Su-Sahara
since AD 700. Today, the Islamic religion has a major influence on the
cultural, economic and political systems of regions in Africa, especially in
the Savana and Sahel zones. The forested regions of Africa were hardly touched
by Islam because it was not suitable for the Caravan trade through by which the
Islamic religion spread over most of the African Savana.
Although groups such as the
Arabs once controlled some parts of Africa, for the purpose of this discussion,
colonization of Africa will be limited to Modern European colonization of the
continent. With the possible exception of Liberia that was colonized
initially by freed slaves of African origin from USA, all the other countries
were colonized by European powers. Although trading activities of Europeans
were carried out from the 1400s when Europeans first arrived at the coast,
formal colonization did not take place until the Berlin Conference of 1844-5.
Despite the relatively short time between colonization and the 1950s-1960s when
most African countries gained their independence, the imprints of colonialism
were deep.
The cultural, social and
political imprints cannot be easily removed by any amount of cultural self-consciousness
and nationalist activities. Colonial impact is seen in every aspect of life on
the continent today, but more so in language. With the exception of North
Africa where Arabic is the official language (even then French is widely spoken
in Algeria and English in Morocco) and Ethiopia where Amharic is the lingua
franca, English and French dominate as the official languages of most African
countries (Tanzania adopted Kiswahili in the 1960s). In South Africa English is
widely spoken but Afrikaans (a language evolving from Dutch) spoken by the
white minority is the official language. This will definitely change now that
black people rule the country.
Colonization of Africa was
mainly by sea. Consequently, European nations with strong maritime experience
at the time led the way:
· The Portuguese were the
first to arrive on the coasts of Africa. Their main purpose was to by pass the
Arab traders and have direct access to gold sources along the West African
coast.
· The Spanish also arrived
about the same time as the Portuguese.
· The Iberians (i.e Portuguese
and Spanish) were followed by he English, Dutch, French, Danes, Swedes and
Germans.
· At the initial stages of
contact, the Europeans purchased gold and other natural products such as
pepper, spices and ivory that were in great demand in Europe
· Later on, European traders
attention turned to human cargo – slaves.
· In no other part of the
continent was the competition among the Europeans to control part of the
territory as intense and as brutal as it was in was in West Africa.
· Except for the Italians
whose activities were restricted to North and East Africa, each of the European
powers sought for territories between the Senegal River and the Congo in West
and Central Africa
· When the final partition
took place, West Africa was divided into very small territories more than any
other major region in Africa
· By the time of the partition
of Africa, less powerful European powers such as Denmark, Holland and Sweden
had either withdrawn voluntarily or been forced out of the race for African
territories by the major powers, namely France, England, Germany and Portugal
· Within West Africa, the area
that attracted most attention and which therefore experienced the most intense
rivalry among European powers was a stretch of coast known as the Gold Coast
where the Portuguese first built a fort at Elmina in 1482.
Why European Colonizing Activities were more intense in West Africa
than East Africa?
1.
Abundance
of minerals and other natural resources in West Africa (Gold, Ivory etc)
2.
West
Africa's close proximity to Europe and America.
3.
Dense
virile population in West Africa made the region a great source of slaves
4.
The
direction and seasonal disposition of the prevailing winds as well as the ocean
currents within the region and its adjoining seas made the movement of sailing
ships easier
The advantages offered by
West Africa notwithstanding, Europeans could not establish permanent
settlements in the region in the same way as they did in East Africa due to the
following reasons:
· Very hot and humid climate
intensified by the absence of high mountains
· Presence of dangerous
tropical diseases, especially malaria. The malaria was caused by mosquitoes and
it claimed so many European lives such that West Africa became known as the
"whiteman's grave"
· The relatively strong
kingdoms in West Africa (i.e., Asante, Yoruba, etc empires) intensely resisted
European colonization.
At the beginning, European activities were confined to the coast
and concentrated around the forts and castles that they built on the shores.
The only place where the Europeans attempted to penetrate inland was the
Senegal-Gambia area where the French traveled 300 miles inland. With the sparse
population and fewer resources, the French gained nothing in terms of trade.
Attempts made at establishing plantations in the 15th and 16th centuries
failed.
Review
Questions:
1.
Assess
the impact that the arbitrary division of Africa among European powers at the Berlin
Conference in 1844 had, and continue to exert Africa’s development. Cite
specific examples to support your answer.
2.
Africa
has generally remained an “unknown continent” even though the continent
probably produced the earliest human and has produced spectacular empires of
complex human organization in the past. Explain some of the reasons why
Africa’s glorious past and the progressive events currently occurring on the
continent are unknown to the outside world.