Conditions in much of sub-Saharan Africa make wresting a secure subsistence from the land a major challenge. Whereas the people round about were Berbers, they were of black descent, either descended from captives brought there from further south or the last remnants of Negroid peoples who had lived in the region when it had a wetter climate. In southern Africa the climate becomes temperate and Mediterranean. Much religious activity, however, was in the hands of religious specialists adept at making contact with the spirit world in order to influence the forces of nature. Many studies have been mostly about political centralisation. At an individual and family level, dealing with the challenge to build up numbers manifested itself in the supreme importance attached to the production of children. In southern Africa the kingdom centered on Great Zimbabwe was situated on a gold trade route. Building the dense concentrations of population necessary for the emergence of major civilizations was not an option in most locations. Ancient West Africa was characterized by rich culture, agriculture, and trade, composed of stateless societies without organized hierarchy or government. This article looks at the societies and cultures of sub-Saharan Africa in pre-modern history. Just as there is great cultural diversity so there is diversity in belief systems. Connected with this, feats of memory were a key part of African religious, political and commercial life. First adopted by Western scholars, the notion of caste in West Africa refers to a form of hierarchical social classification of individuals into . Sub-Saharan Africa was therefore never able to develop an original civilization with the material culture on the scale of, say, an ancient Mesopotamia or Egypt. The pastoralists tended to inhabit the desert and Sahel regions, leaving most of the savannah and forest regions to the farmers. Slavery Crafts were usually hereditary, and expertise was often a closely-guarded secret of particular kin-groups. Here are eight of Africa's greatest ancient civilizations. 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.. If they were too old, ill or handicapped to work effectively; or if through misfortune they had no children; or if they had no kinsmen to aid them clear land and tame fields, they were very vulnerable. 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. OGJhZDA5YWFmYzE1NjI3OGEwZTY3MmE2NDFiYjllYjg5MDM2MGFmNmNiZWRm But it was ancestors with whom these people directly interacted, and approaching them with sacrifices of cattle. The sculptural tradition spread to other Yoruba cities in the form of wood carvings, where they continued to reveal an artistry and appreciation of human worth that marks them out as truly great works. African societies never really ceased to be colonizing societies, and this profoundly influenced all aspects of African culture. That said, African oral culture was exceptionally rich, with an enormous store of myths, stories, poems and aphorisms. At their centers were located rulers palaces, usually a complex of buildings housing a large number of people the king, his wives and concubines and children, numerous attendants, often groups of skilled craftsmen such as the sculptures who produced the famous Benin bronzes, and a large body of domestic servants, often slaves. Some owed their rise to the wealth gained from long-distance trade. OGFiY2MzM2UxNTEyOTJjNWUxYWE1ZmEyODEwNDc0MzU5OTRkZmNhNThmOTM0 Throughout Africa the basic unit of society was the lineage-group, or clan. MWMwNGY0OTc1ZDgwNmQ5YzJkMWE3YWIxNDIwMGUwYWNjY2ZhYThkNTc4OWE4 The culture,language and customs of this empire were greatly influenced by the culture of Western African cities and the people were divided into sects or sections based on their social standing. Popular culture. Caste systems in Africa are a form of social stratification found in numerous ethnic groups, found in over fifteen countries, particularly in the Sahel, West Africa, and North Africa. Younger men would set out to seduce or rape the young wives of their elders, and their elders would be determined to prevent this. The most spectacular practitioners of this were kings and chiefs, which gave rulers swarms of sons to contest the succession or fragment the state. In the rest of Africa towns were few and far between. It was structured around a big man who was usually (by myth, at any rate) the man most directly descended from the founding ancestor. Where there is a spring, a lake or a river, however, cultivation is possible, and in some areas, for example in the inner delta of the River Niger (see below), or on the shores of Lake Chad in West Africa, or the Great Lakes of central Africa, intensive cultivation has allowed concentrations of dense population to grow up. They believed in both good and bad spirits. MmYyNjc5MzNiN2Y1ZWY3NWJhMmMyZTBhZGE4YzI0OTI2MjAwZTRmODkwN2M1 Suspects were often the victims of mob violence. OTg3ZTYwNWY1OWRjMGZiYzY3ZjQ0MGEzYTgyOTVhZDY3M2YwZDIyMzFjMzJk In most territorial kingdoms, local rulers who had been defeated were not eliminated, but became vassal rulers. Keywords population phratries gene citizenship metics slavery Type Chapter Information There was intense competition for women, and great inequality in access to them. It began around 3400 BCE. 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. One common social structure among ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa is segmentary lineage organisation. The rain forests are very dense. Also, iron working especially produced goods vital to farmers, hunters and warriors. Some cultivators worshipped a supreme god, particularly when seeking rain. Not a few chiefly dynasties traced their ancestry back to such a figure. Its flora consists of a mix of scrub, grassland and woodland. This came from exactly the same mix of European contact and American agriculture as the new crops; it was the Atlantic Slave Trade. This situation was exacerbated by the extreme competitiveness which members of such societies displayed, in a situation where ones status was not inherited but was down to ones own abilities and cunning. In : General history of Africa, V: Africa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, 5, p. 895-905 Language : English Also available in : Also available in : Franais Also available in : Portugus Year of publication : 1992 Licence type : CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. It has therefore been comparatively isolated from the influences which have cross-fertilized and enriched historical societies elsewhere. The original settlers became the founding ancestors of the new community, and because it was they who had struck the original pact with the spirits of the land, it was they alone who could communicated with them, even (or especially) after death. ZDQwYTliY2VjMzM2YmIyZDM1ODQ4Zjc4NzY2ZWQ4NWU5YTliYzE4N2FhMTQw The ancient kingdom of Ethiopia was named after its capital city, Axum. The greater number of people such a community embraced, the better it meant greater security for all, and more labour for the back-breaking work of keeping the bush at bay and clearing more land. This arrangement had the double benefit of giving the group as a whole more security and leaving the older men at home in more secure possession of their wives. One of the biggest threats to harmony within society was witchcraft. Although they originated in the Indian Ocean, they played no major role in East African trade. M2M4NGNlYzZmM2IzNmFlYTA3OGFjMDcwMWRiZjdmY2UyMzM5ZDg5OTcwNjA1 In North Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, there is a narrow zone of temperate, Mediterranean climate. Sometimes these were royal kinsmen or aristocrats, at other times royal slaves completely dependent upon the king for his authority. MjU3ZDQ3NDE0ZGRiM2NlMTZjMmE3NTQ0ODIxMzVlMzExZDc3ZTk0NDYyNGQ4 In the second millennium CE copper crosses served as a form of currency across much of southern and central Africa. The society of ancient Egypt was strictly divided into a hierarchy with the king at the top and then his vizier, the members of his court, priests and scribes, regional governors (eventually called 'nomarchs'), the generals of the military (after the period of the New Kingdom, c. 1570- c. 1069 BCE), artists and craftspeople, government overseers These transformed many agricultural systems, and probably facilitated population growth. The long-distance trade networks were in the hands of comparatively large and sophisticated commercial organizations. What are Mali traditions? NjI4MDI2ZmM3ZTBmNTYxODBhNzFhOWVhY2RlY2YxZDc2ODQwYjlkMTdhZjE3 In times of external danger such societies could come together to resist attack; however, they were peculiarly vulnerable to slave raiding from predatory states. Funding and operating them required large amounts of capital and large-scale, disciplined organization. Mostly the colonizers centralized power in the hands of the chiefs of the native administration so that these chiefs could better accomplish the tasks given them, like the collection of taxes. In West Africa, the climatic zones aligned in a series of east-to-west belts Sahara desert, desert-grassland margin (the Sahel), savannah grassland and tropical forest. Click here to be redirected to our dedicated TimeMaps help section. African cultivators have generally taken great pride in their skills. Government and Economy. ZWFhZmI1NmY5ZjVhZjJjNjYxYTFjNzUxMjgzZTE4MGZhOWIyODQyZWE4ZGIz In many cases, however, craft production was devoted to local, regional or long-distance trade. 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. The main structure of the Awilu class people were considered precious in Hammurabi's Code and they were richer than the other two majorclasses in the society. This makes the huge effort of clearing even small areas of very dense forest worthwhile. Linguistically, acculturation among Africans has been much slower than among Indians. Together with drought, famine, epidemic, violence, and an unforgiving food-producing environment, it is easy to see how African populations struggled to grow. Some states were created by rulers of village clusters who, through military prowess, were able to use their manpower to conquer other clusters. If the demands of royal authority became too onerous, in the form of heavy taxes, say, or the demands made for public projects or service in the royal army, people could (and did) simply up and leave en masse. Africa Africa's Great Rift Valley is the largest landform on Earth, and the only one visible from the moon. However, all African cities were to some extent religious centers, as rulers were closely associated with local shrines and rituals. The great majority of this area is far too dry for agriculture whether crop cultivation or animal grazing of any kind. social structure, in sociology, the distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together. African hospitality can be defined as that extension of generosity, given freely without strings attached (Ekeke & Ekeopora, 2010). This close concentration of dwellings formed the core of the villages. There were, however, networks of long-distance trade criss-crossing the continent from an early date. This process started to happen at different times according to region. Big Men had four, five or more wives. J. Clyde Mitchell, The Yao Village: a Study in the Social Structure of a Malawian Tribe. They include the second largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Victoria. A hard environment NjhkMjY1MGEwZGFkNGU1MTkyY2ZlMDdlNWEwMTIxZGI5YjQwNzljMmRjOWI2 African Kingdoms arose in a variety of ways. These ancestral spirits thus became the channel through which spiritual forces could be accessed. In many regions low or fickle rainfall greatly magnifies this problem. Oratory, debate, story-telling, poetry and conversation were all held in high esteem, and were developed into a highly sophisticated art at the royal courts of African kingdoms and chiefdoms. As a result, production was often labour-intensive, in a part of the world where labour was already scarce. The specifics of the caste systems in Africa vary among . All African towns, with but one or two exceptions such as Jenne in West Africa, were capitals of kingdoms. MWQxZmFmZDU1YzRiOTgwN2YwNjgwNGEyMWVmYmVjZTQ1YTI4ODkzMTA1OGQ2 Slavery was widespread in traditional African societies. As in all pre-modern societies, infants and their mothers, the very groups upon whom the successful growth of population most depended, were most at risk. Men who were spared death were set to work as laborers, miners or porters; or, if they had suitable skills, as craftsmen. Other cultural systems that were intended to create distinct classes of people and uphold a rigid hierarchy of power and control include the feudal system, slavery, Jim Crow laws, and apartheid. ZGEzYzEwNGE3M2M4NDVjZWFiNDg4OTE5MzljZGNmY2UyN2ViOTc1YTZmMTRk Many of largest population concentrations in Africa remained entirely stateless, their constituent communities jealously guarding their independence. Gradually, the hunter-gatherers were squeezed off the best lands by the incoming pastoralists and cultivators, who were able to live in larger groups. Those humans whose livelihood depended on adventuring into the bush hunters above all but also herbalists and iron workers, who needed wood for their furnaces were regarded with awe, for they must be protected by strong magic to survive such trips. The resulting dissent, fueled by machismo, ambition, or desire for land, might lead to the exodus of a group of young men to a new location. This would exacerbate the already existing social fault-lines which afflicted all such societies. Long-distance trade rested chiefly on high value goods produced only in confined areas. In forest regions, away from lakes and rivers, human porterage was the only means of transport as the presence of tsetse fly meant that animals could not be used; this was by definition very labour intensive and meant that agricultural produce could travel only short distances. Over the millennia they have become highly adapted to life in an ecosystem which is fiercely hostile to other peoples. NWIyZWQ1YTA3MjZkYTQzOWRjMzhmYTJkYjAyNzViOGRjNjIxMGM0YTRjNGJl Yams are a very productive crop, providing a large number of calories per acre harmed. The usual form of marriage was through bride-wealth a groom exchanged a portion for his wealth to a brides family in order to marry her. In many of the great kingdoms of Africa, administration was carried on entirely orally. MzE2MGQ0NGZjMTczYTA2YjU3ZDY1YWQ3YTRiOTdlZmE5NTQyMTg0NDgwZTYz Some groups of Iron Age farmers from West Africa, moving into the Great Lakes region at the end of the first millennium BCE and then moving down towards central and southern Africa, adopted a cattle-keeping way of life. Difficulties in transport encouraged local self-sufficiency, and most trade consisted of purely local exchanges, for example at river banks where fish was bartered for vegetables, or where forest and savannah met, where the products of the two zones were exchanged. Farming populations have therefore sought out well-watered locations such as river banks, lakesides and moist depressions. The histories and cultures of Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia and North Africa are covered elsewhere. In these states, violence and exploitation led to societies ruled by classes of military aristocrats or nobles. As in other parts of the world, textile crafts were widespread. Dance was the most important African cultural form, central to communal festivals, religious ceremonies and masquerades. Indeed, in some areas, particularly where grassland and forest met, all three modes were practiced locally, resulting in a particularly fruitful exchange of produce. MzJiMzEwNzkwMzQ0MDVhMWZmOTU0NzM1MzMzMmE1ZDE4MGY5ZjkyNzY5ZDA2 Together with freedom it is an important element of the economy, culture and social structure of a country. These occupied the grasslands around (and sometimes within) the Sahara and Kalahari deserts, and the more arid grasslands which covered so much of the continent. All women married, as early as possible. Similarly, belief that spiritual power came only through dead ancestors was common amongst herding societies. These nomadic groups traveled continuously for food,. - studies work with social structure to explain matters that are such as crimes or stolen things. The most spectacular practitioners of this were kings and chiefs, which gave rulers swarms of sons to contest the succession or fragment the state. Firstly there was the King who ruled over everyone and was thought to have divine powers. Otherwise, large urban settlements were rare: Great Zimbabwe, Mbaza Kongo, and a handful of other towns were exceptional. OGUyMjAwMmI0ZjlmYzAyMmYxYjllZmEzN2EwMTYzMmMyNzQyZGIwY2IifQ== Eventually, however, immigrant rulers usually learnt to co-exist with local religious practitioners. In Africa, trade and industry were constrained by underpopulation. The ancientness of the continents rocks, whose minerals have leeched out over the aeons, mean that the soil is generally of a poor quality, posing challenges for farmers. In many agricultural societies, however, the most important spiritual beings were the spirits of the land and, closely associated with these, ancestral spirits. Defence could become more organized, and they could build up their numbers by large raids on neighboring peoples and bring in captives as new (if somewhat disadvantaged) new settlers. The continent of Africa covers several broad climatic zones. However, state-building was not a straightforward process in African conditions. Oral traditions and Muslim and European records suggest that large-scale famines occurred every 70 years or so, and were often accompanied by epidemic disease. Surrounded as they were by vast stretches of bush, agricultural villages and the human societies they sheltered were fragile places, always under threat from the encroaching forest. The abundant insect life of the tropics makes for a very high prevalence of serious diseases, for both humans and their animals; this greatly constrains the rates at which populations can grow. Taking captives was a major objective in war, with most of the individuals thus enslaved being women or children. Pastoralist and farming communities have therefore lived in close proximity, which has been a major factor in state formation in these regions.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'timemaps_com-leader-2','ezslot_11',177,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-timemaps_com-leader-2-0'); Pastoralist communities are more dispersed, and much more mobile, than agricultural ones, as they follow their flocks and herds around in the search for good grazing. In West Africa, a new religious influence began to make itself felt in the later first millennium. When one society was conquered by another, it was the mediums and priests, as well as others in the community with high religious status such as iron workers and herbalists, who often put up the stoutest resistance to alien rule. The African History is a number one educational website that features General history of Africa which include Ancient & Pre-colonial Africa, Ancient African civilizations, Empires/Kingdoms, Great Ancient African rulers, African Culture, global black history and news. All this has left African societies comparatively isolated from the great developments affecting other regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, and indeed from each other. Some of these village clusters would experience the next step of evolving into small chiefdoms; and groups of chiefdoms might eventually be united (usually by force) into a single kingdom. There is a direct link between a strong democratic state and a prosperous and attractive country.' Except in favorable locations, especially where fishing, or gathering aquatic resources, could supplement diets, hunting and foraging groups needed a large area of land on which to sustain themselves. State formation Egyptian culture has six thousand years of recorded history. This categorization was not hard and fast. One other consequence of African underpopulation was the prevalence of the polygamy (see below). Gender and age differentials This article looks at the societies and cultures of sub-Saharan Africa in pre-modern history. The most prized qualities were seen as the preserve of males, such as aggression and courage. Social There were six social classes in Ancient Ghana. Even large towns often resembled several villages grouped together, with each lineage group in its own walled sector. Malaria was probably the biggest killer, especially of infants. In large settlements religion and healing was in the hands of professionals, whose interests naturally lay in keeping such matters out of the reach of the general populace. Other states were built around sacred shrines and their custodians, who enjoyed a concentration of religious authority which they were able to convert into political power. In most patrilineal societies womens status tended to be less favorable. Spinning and weaving technologies remained comparatively primitive, and therefore labour intensive, but craftsmen and women produced cloth of high quality and often of great beauty. Apart from in West Africa and on the Swahili coast, where true cities had developed, African towns tended to have the appearance of large villages, or clusters of villages. In fact, cults involving rain shrines and weather gods might command the loyalty of people over a wide area, a form of worship practiced side-by-side with that concerning the spirits of the land. Many of them rose and fell throughout the African history. The previously hidden corridor is the latest discovery of the ScanPyramids project, a mission made up of heritage experts from . All this implies that womens status in African societies was low, and in some this was indeed the case, especially amongst cattle-herders. Small, isolated areas of dense population were surrounded by large tracts of sparsely peopled wilderness. 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. Many African societies therefore experienced considerable social mobility. Growth of the Axum Kingdom. We learn about their beliefs and religion and the important structures that still stand in Egypt today. Establishing a new settlement was not just about clearing forest or scrub and creating fields for crops; it was about taming the land, seeking the permission of the spiritual forces which controlled a patch to settled on it, and making a contract with them to bless them with protection and fertility. The staple crops varied throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In East, Central and Southern Africa, the mix of staple crops varied from place to place according to environment, but normally included yams and sorghum, later supplemented by plantain. Yet there is still debate about how many species of elephant bird there actually were. Sometimes the growth of these village clusters went unchecked by major famine or disease for a long time. The most productive salt mines were located deep in the Sahara desert, and the miners lived isolated lives working in appalling conditions. Their repertoire involved rituals, spells, dances and trances, as well as more practical applications such as herbs and ointments. As one should expect for such a vast region as sub-Saharan Africa, with its thousands of societies and cultures, religious beliefs and practices varied enormously. There is little known about the early history of Axum, however, from Greek and Roman sources, we know that the Axum Kingdom was a rapid growing kingdom in the first century CE. Such organizations had strong parallels with modern corporations, with agents stationed in towns scattered over the area where they operated. Women predominated in small-scale trade as market sellers, which gave those involved considerable economic independence. Canoes came in all sizes on the great rivers, and were probably the cheapest form of transport; but, of sub-Saharan rivers, only the Niger and Congo were navigable for any distance along their length. Towns and cities They also had a reputation for being independent-minded. The Sahara desert forms a major barrier to contacts between the cities and states of the Mediterranean region and the peoples to its south. Imperialism Africa was among the last regions of the globe to be subject to imperial rule. They sought to bring shrines and cults under their authority through a mixture of threat and patronage.