Africa in the Middle Ages
Published on Nov 19, 2015
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Africa in the Middle Ages
by Abigail Hope Ng, Dameire Fitch, and Alice Constantine
Trade
From 750-1500 AD, the Sahara Desert was filled with thriving civilizations. Muslim kings ruled cities, and Obas ruled rainforest civilizations. Swahili people became rich through trade.
Traders in North Africa crossed the desert in caravans, with as many as 10,000 camels with goods. At the southern edge, goods were moved to donkeys and human porters to be carried south. Some goods were gold, ivory, ebony, and slaves from the West African Kingdoms such as Ghana, Mali, Songhai were sold in North Africa and the Middle East for salt and copper, mined in the Sahara. Later, European traders came for gold, ebony, and slaves.
Timbuktu
Timbuktu (located in central Mali) was an important city, by the edge of the Sahara. When scholars brought Islam to the region, at around 900, Timbuktu became a learning center of Muslim learning, with schools, a university and a special market where books could be sold. Many pilgrims traveled to Timbuktu to honor the city’s 333 resident saints. These were celebrated Muslim scholars and teachers who taught their faith to people in the surrounding lands. Many beautiful mosques were also built in Timbuktu. Like Gao and Jenne, Timbuktu was also on the banks of the Niger River. These cities were inland ports. Merchants from the south sent boatloads of gold, ivory, cotton, dried fish, and kola nuts upriver to them, to be sold to people living there, or to be carried to lands farther north. Timbuktu became a terminus (end point) for one of the main trading routes crossing the Sahara.
Obas
The political and religious leaders
From 1250-1800, kingdoms in what is now southwest Nigeria, were ruled by Obas. These were political and religious leaders, who ruled over farmers, and built city-states surrounded by walls of earth. People from the kingdoms of Benin were experts in metalworking, and would create portrait heads of their obas, as well as decorative pieces and ceremonial objects out of brass and bronze. These were used for ancestor worship, or to decorate the rulers’ palaces. The power of the obas and other African rulers was weakened by the arrival of Europeans. Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders took back news to their countries of the riches of Africa. Explorers were encouraged to travel there and, by 1900, almost all of Africa was ruled by European powers.
Major African Kingdoms
Axum Empire
100-940 AD
The Axum empire was an important military power as well as a trading nation in what is now Ethiopia. It lasted from around 100-940 AD. At its peak, it was one of four major international superpowers of its day with Persia, Rome and China. It controlled northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, northern Sudan, southern Egypt, Djibouti, Western Yemen, and southern Saudi Arabia, a total 1.25 million square kilometers, almost half the size of India. Axum traded as far as China and India.
Kingdom of Ghana
750-1078 AD
Found in Senegal and Mauritania, Ghana dominated West Africa from 750-1078 AD. Known as the “Land of Gold” to North Africans, Ghana possessed sophisticated methods of administration and taxation, armies and had control over gold mines. Good relations with Muslim traders were founded. Ghana gained power and wealth from gold and the use of camels to transport of good. Ghana was also a great military power. According to one narrative, the king had at his command 200,000 warriors and an additional 40,000 archers.
The Mali Kingdom
1230 - 1600 AD
After the fall of Ghana, the Mali empire, located on the Niger River in what is now Niger and Mali, rose to dominate West Africa and hit it’s peak in the 1350s. Founded by Mansa Sundiata Keita, it was renowned for the wealth of it’s rulers, including Mansa Musa. In his reign, he doubled the land area of Mali, and was the larger than any european kingdom at it’s time. It’s cities were important trade centers for West Africa, and centers of wealth and learning. Timbuktu was part of it’s empire. Libraries and universities of religion were built, and were meeting places for poets, scholars and artists.
The Songhai Empire
1375-1591 AD
The Songhai Empire was the largest state in the history of Africa, and was the most powerful of the medieval west African states. The kingdom expanded rapidly around 1460-1500 AD, and stretched from Cameroon to the Maghred. At its peak, the Songhai city of Timbuktu became a thriving cultural and commercial center. Arab, Italian and Jewish merchants all gathered for trade. By 1500, the Songhai Empire covered over 1.4 million square kilometers.
The Ethiopian Empire
1137-1975 AD
