Eastern and Southern Africa World History/Napp
Eastern and Southern Africa World History/Napp
“By1100, waves of Bantu-speaking people had migrated across central Africa to theeast coast. There they established farming and fishing villages. Slowly, the existingcoastal villages grew into bustling seaports, built on trade between EastAfrican merchants and traders from Arabia, Persia, and India. As trade increased,many Muslim Arab and Persian traders settled in these port cities. Arabic blendedwith the Bantu language to create the Swahili language.
Persian traders moved south from the Horn of Africa, a triangular peninsulanear Arabia. They brought Asian manufactured goods to Africa and African rawmaterials to Asia. In the coastal markets, Arab traders sold porcelain bowls fromChina and jewels and cotton cloth from India. They bought African ivory, gold,tortoiseshell, ambergris, leopard skins, and rhinoceros horns to carry to Arabia. By 1300, more than 35 trading cities dotted the coast from Mogadishu in thenorth to Kilwa and Sofala in the south. Like the empires of West Africa, these seaportsgrew wealthy by controlling all incoming and outgoing trade. Some citiesalso manufactured trade goods for export. For example, weavers in Mogadishuand Sofala made cloth. Workers in Mombasa and Malindi made iron tools.
In 1331, Ibn Battuta visited Kilwa. He admired the waythat its Muslim rulers and merchants lived. Rich families lived in fine houses ofcoral and stone. They slept in beds inlaid with ivory and their meals were servedon porcelain. Wealthy Muslim women wore silk robes and gold andsilver bracelets. Kilwa grew rich because it was as far south on the coast as a ship from Indiacould sail in one monsoon season. Therefore, trade goods from southerly regionshad to funnel into Kilwa, so Asian merchants could buy them.”
~ World History
Questions:
1- Previous Knowledge: What did the Bantu spread during their migration throughout sub-Saharan Africa?
2- Why did the coastal villages of East Africa grow into bustling seaports?
3- When did many Muslim Arab and Persian traders settle in the port cities of East Africa?
4- What happened when the Muslim Arabs and Persian traders settled in the port cities of East Africa?
5- What is Swahili?
6- What did Arab traders sell in the coastal markets of East Africa?
7- What did Arab traders buy in the coastal markets of East Africa?
8- Identify three important trading cities in East Africa.
9- Who visited Kilwa in 1331 and what did he note about Kilwa?
Islam / Great Zimbabwe / Mutapa- Muslim traders introduced Islam to the East African coast, and the growth of commerce caused the religion to spread
- A Muslim sultan, or ruler, governed most cities; in addition, most governmentofficials and wealthy merchants were Muslims
- However, the vast majority ofpeople along the East African coast held on to their traditional religious beliefs
- Muslim traders enslaved East Africans andsold them overseas since about
the ninth century but the number of slaves remained small – perhaps about 1,000 a year / - The gold and ivory that helped the coastal city-states grow rich came from the interior of southern Africa
- In southeastern Africa the Shona people established a citycalled Great Zimbabwe, which grew into an empire built on the gold trade
- By 1000, the Shona people had settled the fertile, well-wateredplateau between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers in modern Zimbabwe
- The areawas well suited to farming and cattle raising
- The city of Great Zimbabwe stood near an important trade route linking thegoldfields with the coastal trading city of Sofala / - According to Shona oral tradition, a man named Mutota leftGreat Zimbabwe about 1420 to find a new source of salt
- Traveling north, he settled in a valley with fertile soil, goodrainfall, and ample wood
- As the state grew, its leader
Mutota used his army to dominate the northern Shona people living in the area
- These conquered people called Mutota andhis successors mwene mutapa, meaning “conqueror” or
“master pillager”
- By the time of Mutota’s
death, the Mutapa Empire had conquered all of what is nowZimbabwe except the eastern portion
Questions:
1- How did Islam enter East Africa?
2- Define sultan.
3- Why were the vast majority of people along the East African coast animists?
4- Identify two significant facts about the Arab Slave Trade in Africa.
5- What empire developed in southeastern Africa?
6- Why was this empire prosperous?
7- How did location benefit the city of Great Zimbabwe?
8- Who was Mutota, what did he do, and why was he called mwene mutapa?
- If the walls were not built for defense, what does this suggestabout the safety and security of Great Zimbabwe?
- If military assault did not account for the fall of Zimbabwe, whatother factors might have played a part?
- Describe the many accomplishments of Africa’s many great civilizations.
The role of Muslim religious leaders in Africa was to- spread the Four Noble Truths
- emphasize the importance of ancestor worship
- promote the caste system
- introduce the teachings of the Qur’an (Koran)
- location on waterways
- abundance of natural resources
- predictable rainfall from the monsoon cycle
- access to mountain passes
Which agricultural technique is described in this passage?
- irrigation
- terrace farming
- slash-and-burn
- crop rotation
- Techniques for herding and cultivating were spread to other peoples.
- More than sixty million people now speak a Bantu language.
- Trading cities developed along the coast of east Africa.
- Population increases put pressure on agriculture.
- imperialism
- ethnocentrism
- cultural diffusion
- self-determination
1. aggressive warriors.
2. hunting and gathering peoples.
3. fishing peoples.
4. agriculturalists.
5. horsemen.
Swahili
1. was an Arabic language.
2. refers to the peoples of the east African coast.
3. refers to the slave traders of Africa.
4. is a dead language.
5. was the language of the Mali Empire.
Great Zimbabwe was
1. a powerful guild of gold merchants.
2. the king of an empire.
3. an anti-Islamic organization of Zimbabwe.
4. a capital city built of stone.
5. None of the answers are correct
The Bantu spread
1. Iron
2. Agriculture
3. Language
4. All of the above
Swahili is
1. a mixture of Arabic and Persian
2. a mixture of Bantu and Persian
3. A mixture of Arabic and Bantu
4. A mixture of Islam and animism