Several high mountains rise up from the East African plains, most famously Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. From its territories, great civilizations have risen to glory. Unlike in other parts of the world, temples and other religious buildings did not dominate townscapes the exception here being the large mosques of Muslim cities. Craft workers were often dedicated to meeting the needs of the ruler and the elite, their workshops located within the royal compound. Men were usually killed, perhaps as ritual sacrifices. In the 14th and 15th centuries this tradition was transferred to brass. 7th-13th century). The savannah regions of West Africa specialized in millet and fonio, and further south, where rainfall was sufficient, sorghum. Otherwise, large urban settlements were rare: Great Zimbabwe, Mbaza Kongo, and a handful of other towns were exceptional. Options include print, Easel Activities, Google Forms (passages), and Google Slides (Venn diagrams). First, the African languages were solidly rooted: three languages (Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho) are spoken by over two million people each, and the first two are mutually understandable. Some cultures preferred more naturalistic depictions of human faces and other organic forms. Some states were created by rulers of village clusters who, through military prowess, were able to use their manpower to conquer other clusters. They also had a reputation for being independent-minded. Ancient Africa had many different societies, but they can be roughly categorized into four types. Building the dense concentrations of population necessary for the emergence of major civilizations was not an option in most locations. African religious practices were equally common, involving ritual experts, mediums, dances, often with masks and often involving trances, witches, and charms. In many cases, however, craft production was devoted to local, regional or long-distance trade. In terms of history and culture this zone has been part of the European and Middle Eastern regions, and is therefore not covered by this article. The difficulties of transport noted above acted to restrict trade, and thus to the emergence of centers of specialist production. The earliest kingdoms we know of in West Africa, such as Ghana and Mali, were located at strategic points in the trans-Saharan trade network. NjI4MDI2ZmM3ZTBmNTYxODBhNzFhOWVhY2RlY2YxZDc2ODQwYjlkMTdhZjE3 The magnificent sculptures of the West African societies of Ife and Benin, for example, depict human figures in an idealized yet deeply moving way, and possess a serene majesty unsurpassed in human art. Study compare and contrast nonfiction text structure with 6 short passages, questions, and graphic organizers about similar animals. Some cultivators worshipped a supreme god, particularly when seeking rain. As warriors they would cultivate a military ethos and be sent out to military outposts to guard the groups cattle and territory. African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. On Thursday, scientists shared the discovery of a corridor inside the 4,500-year-old structure at an unveiling ceremony held at the Giza Plateau.. Africa has an exceptionally hostile disease environment, West Africa most of all; malaria, leprosy, tsetse fly and smallpox are only a few of the killer diseases of the continent, attacking not only humans but, in the last case, their animals as well. This maximizes opportunities for violent clashes with other groups, and their societies tend to be more militaristic. Nevertheless there were some features which were widespread amongst African religions. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, this often took the form of inter-generational tensions between elder males with multiple wives and younger males with no wives. OTBhNmZkZTE4ZDBjMTQzMTljMWY4NDIyMjYxZmIwY2JkZjc4OTk4ZGE1OWMx The challenge for premodern African societies was to build up numbers to create viable communities. In these, men did the more highly valued work of herding, protecting or raiding cattle, while women did the household chores and cultivated crops a lowly occupation in such societies. In matrilineal societies, in which which descent was traced through mothers, womens status could be particularly favored. - africa's social structure forms political nations that will help people from violence. They were much more likely to have to go and live in their husbands familys village after marriage, which put them in a comparatively powerless position. Even so, until the start of the second millennium they inhabited large areas across the continent, in the wide spaces left vacant by farmers and pastoralists. The shores of these large bodies of water have been suitable for intensive agriculture, allowing some of Africas most notable kingdoms to flourish. This crosses much of the continent from east to west, from the Atlantic coast to the highlands of Ethiopia. In most patrilineal societies womens status tended to be less favorable. NzA0NTc2MTNjMDFjMzQ0ODY3ODRmNjZhMzc0ZGFjNDExMDIzN2VhMGNhNGE4 The land, much of which is hills and plateaux, is covered with grasslands, with some sub-tropical forests on the coast. Ancient West Africa was characterized by rich culture, agriculture, and trade, composed of stateless societies without organized hierarchy or government. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, this often took the form of inter-generational tensions between elder males with multiple wives and younger males with no wives. MDg2MzFiMDZmODM4NDFlY2UyNjFkYzVlM2U3MWExNTI3ODU4YmEyZTM3NWYx Environment and population, Village society Underpopulation meant that disgruntled people could always seek new land beyond the reach of royal authority. One group in African society, which made up probably a tiny proportion of the whole but which had an influence out of all proportion to its size, were the traders. Some European captives came the other way, ending up as slaves in the West African kingdoms of Mali and Songhai. In the rest of Africa towns were few and far between. From the 17th century onwards, indigenous African crops were supplemented by crops introduced from America, especially maize, cassava, beans and sweet potatoes. In that case, though not always, the excluded group has the propensity to oppose the incumbent extractive governance system. Such traders were men, and they ranged from single itinerant traders with perhaps a donkey to carry his goods, to those in charge of caravans of donkeys or, in the desert, of camels. The obstacles to population growth meant that there was always plenty of land available for new settlement. In the savannah and forest regions of West Africa, an international group of traders grew up named the Dyula, who achieved an impressive scale of organization to handle commercial activities over a very wide area. Their inhabitants regulated their affairs by means of commonly-accepted custom, relying on shamans or priests at area shrines for mediation, hierarchies of titled individuals of varying ranks who had moral authority within their communities, and/or in some cases on secret societies. States emerged in the forest regions to the south from the end of the first millennium, while in the equatorial forests and grasslands of central, east and southern Africa the state-building process did not start until the early- to mid-second millennium. This was Islam, which gradually spread throughout the region over a number of centuries. This wilderness was the abode of wild animals, fatal diseases, violent fugitives, evil spirits and other shadowy dangers which posed a constant threat to settled life. All climate zones in sub-Saharan Africa were characterized by a highly uneven settlement pattern. Beside having been balkanized into several countries and branched among myriads of ethnic groups each speaking its own language and having its own cultural heritage, West Africa caste system constitutes yet another layer of its social structure. MTI3NmM1MDdjZmIyOWJjZjVhMzliNGM1MjA4NTAwNjY3YTI4YzRhMWE4NTM4 There were many African societies which have been classified by political historians as stateless or de-centralized. It has been noted that herding peoples had a stronger tendency to believe in a high god, whilst cultivators were more likely to worship many gods. In due course he would probably be accepted back into his community through paying a fine to, or offering to work for, his wifes father. NTlmYTU5OWZlYjIyNzk0NmRkZjAxMGZiMTRhMzBkYWViYTY4ZmNjYjlmNDMz In the Great Lakes region, for example, the Lega people developed a distinctive and lively series of exquisite miniature sculptures. They seem mostly to have been related to the present-day San people of southern Africa. By then, however, a countervailing force was at work on the continent, which would put a stop to any expansion in population for two hundred years. In the West African savannah the earliest kingdoms had appeared by the mid-first millennium CE. In North Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, there is a narrow zone of temperate, Mediterranean climate. Even the Swahili trading ports of East Africa such as Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa and Zanzibar, home to a sophisticated Arab-African culture, were strung out along the coastline with great distances between them. 1. They include the second largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Victoria. In the West African state of Bornu, for example, some royal women controlled extensive territories and were active in the government of the realm. Men who were spared death were set to work as laborers, miners or porters; or, if they had suitable skills, as craftsmen. It has captivated visitors since it was built as a royal burial chamber some 4,500 years ago. This was a form of draughts, and was played in private rather than in public. Firstly there was the King who ruled over everyone and was thought to have divine powers. Click here to be redirected to our dedicated TimeMaps help section. For cultivators in particular, any religious beliefs were underpinned by a deeply-held idea about the world in which they found themselves. Even here, however, there was commonly a belief that a higher or ultimate power lay behind the pantheon of gods who interacted with humans. Social Structure - Ancient Africa - Kingdom of Axum Social Structure There was not very much information on this particular topic, but this is what I did find. A large number of top officials in Hausaland, in West Africa, were eunuchs. In some societies which were sparsely scattered across the land, such a group might form its own hamlet or small village. The limited nature of urbanization greatly restricted transport, trade and industry. Some communities, especially those in rain forests, had a sacred barrier to keep the wilderness at bay. In many regions low or fickle rainfall greatly magnifies this problem. They have few open spaces and are not suitable for herding animals and in any case, in Africa the forests are infested with tsetse fly, which spread a disease deadly to cattle.

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