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Imperial Africa
Imperial African States that we know about mostly developed along
the Sahel ("Corridor") which was the major trade route between East and
West Africa. The Sahel "shore" was seen as a "coastline" on the great
expanse of the Sahara Desert. Crossing the Sahara was very much like
navigating the oceans in that there were few permanent features that one
could follow, and one's direction was generally determined by stellar navigation.
Towns in the northern Sahel were, therefore, considered trading ports,
just as a town on an ocean coast might have been.
Empires that developed in the southern interior of the continent
are not as well documented, and while they very likely did develop, as
in the case of Great Zimbabwe, almost nothing is known about them.
Ethiopia (Axum, Abyssinia)
The oldest and longest lasting of African cultures presented here
is Ethiopia (originally called Abyssinia by the Romans), which developed
out of Judeo-Christian Axum, and maintained it's national character to
the present day despite Islamic intrusion beginning in the sixth and seventh
centuries, and the Italian invasion in the late 1930's ending in 1941.
When Egypt fell to Rome, Axum had already become the major trading
port on the Red Sea, bringing in goods from India and southern and western
Africa, and forming a hub of exchange with those regions and the Mediterranean.
Early in the Christian era, Axum had extended it's influence from the Horn
of Africa to the northern edge of the Abyssinian Plateau and well inland.
By the fourth century, Axum had gained its full extent as East Africa's
leading entry port, and strongest military and political power. During
this time, the conversion of Axum's King Ezana to Christianity solidified
Ethiopia as a Christian state. By the sixth century, Axum enjoyed
strong friendly relations with Christian Byzantium, who regarded Axum as
a friendly Christian power (despite Monophysite doctrinal differences for
which the Byzantines persecuted adherents in their own country).
However, with the declining power of the Western Roman Empire, and
pressures from the north on the Mediterranean and the resulting decline
in import of goods from India, Axum began to loose it's major trading status
and the importance of Axum's ports (and even their existence) was soon
forgotten. With the Muslim invasion of Egypt in the seventh century,
Axum was completely cut-off from the Mediterranean.
With Axum isolated (under Islamic pressure) from her former trading
partners, she began to develop a unique culture, over the next thousand
years, within the confines of the Abyssinian Plateau. Greek (once
the official language) ceased to be spoken in favor of the Semitic language
of Ge'ez; and Axumite Christianity began to amalgamate it's Coptic doctrine
with local Animist practice, and Jewish practices left over from Axum's
earlier days, until there finally emerged out of the Axumites and Cushite
highland peasants the present day Ethiopian people.
Nubia
With the sack of Meroe, the Nubians rebuilt Sudanic civilization
in the form of a series of new states, particularly Nobatia, Makouria and
Alwa. Through the efforts of Empress Theodora of Byzantium and the
Egyptian Coptic church, these states converted to Christianity.
Over time Makouria absorbed Nobatia and formed a single capital at
Old Dongola. A Muslim invasion in the mid fifth century was turned
back at Old Dongola by Nubian archers, and a treaty was signed that guaranteed
the freedom of Christian worship and the establishment of a peaceful trade
agreement that lasted six hundred years
Alwa turned her attention south and west, and from the ancient site
of Meroe, encompassed most of the Gezira plain between the White and Blue
Nile Rivers establishing a capital at Soba.
When the Mamluk Rulers came to power in Egypt in the thirteenth century,
they invaded Makouria in an abortive conquest attempt that weakened Makouria
and destroyed much of its wealth. This was followed by a large scale
immigration of Arab people into the region that led to Makouria's political
collapse in the fourteenth century, and Alwa's demise in the fifteenth
century.
Bornu-Kanem
As Lake Chad forms a large body of water in the centre of the Sahel,
it presents a natural crossroads and stopping point for Saharan and sub-Saharan
trade routes. Thus, many different peoples moved into the region,
from various parts of Africa as a part of natural trade movements and as
refugees from one sort of invasion or another.
According to the Bornu Chronicle (a written history based upon oral
tradition), at about 800 CE, the Kanuri people of the Lake Chad region,
under the leadership of their legendary king Dugu, formed the beginnings
of the trading empire of Kanem, and later Bornu. With the introduction
of horses and camels, the Kanuri created a strong military presence that
was renowned from the Nile to the Niger and was used to great effect to
unify the area.
At about 1085, with the influence of Islam having entered the region
some time before, the first Muslim ruler, Houme of the Sefawa dynasty,
came to the throne. And, under Mai (king) Salma (1194-1221) Islam became
the state religion. The reign of Mai Dunama Dibalemi (1210-1248)
saw a strengthening of the Kanem Empire which gained control of the Saharan
trade routes north of Lake Chad.
From Kanem's beginnings, through this time, towns were little more
than nomadic settlements of reed huts with thatched roofs. Such was
the city of Njimi, the early Sefawa capital. In legend, Njimi was
the site of a palace built of red brick (a building method imported from
the Nile), and there are many sites in the region of Kanem with ruins of
such structures. This innovation advanced the Kanem culture in it's
architecture.
The Kanuri governed through regional governors who were, more or
less, chosen from the indigenous chiefs and elders. This feudal type
of government awarded land to people who served the Kanuri kings well,
and provided men to serve the Kanuri in time of war. The empire traded
kola nuts, gold, ivory and slaves (eunuchs and young girls kidnapped in
raids to the south of Kanem, a Kanuri specialty were much sought by North
African Berbers) for horses, salt, copper and metal wares.
Border disputes, internal revolts, and court intrigues and rivalry
plagued Kanem, almost from the beginning. By the fourteenth century
a new capital was built (principally by King Umar) west of Lake Chad, to
replace Njimi which had been over-run by the neighboring Bulala people,
thus establishing the Kingdom of Bornu. Bornu was largely agricultural,
and their people were little affected by the presence of the Kanuri, given
the Kanuri system of government that seldom interfered with local affairs.
In the fifteenth century, Ali Ghaji ended palace struggles, and established
a new capital at Gazargamu. This created an up-turn in the fortunes
of the Kanuri.
Under the reign of Idris Alooma (1580-1603), the now merged Empire
of Bornu-Kanem regained much of its influence with its borders encompassing
Murzuk to the north and Darfar in the east. This gave Bornu-Kanem
control of trade from the Nile valley in the east, and the North African
coast, and established its almost total control of the central Sahel.
Idris introduced firearms to his military, along with Ottoman instructors
to train them in their use. With such advanced weaponry and tactics,
Idris subdued all of his neighbors, defeated the Tuaregs and reconquered
Kanem.
Idris was also devoutly Muslim, and worked to establish mosques in
the capital city of Gazargamu and hostels for travelers from Bornu in Mecca.
He was particularly interested in establishing a system of law and government
that followed the Koran. This tightened control of local populations,
and established new moral codes of conduct. The previous local autonomy
enjoyed by local tribal groups was effectively removed.
Kanuri leadership gradually declined in its effectiveness over succeeding
generations until the end of the eighteenth century. This was largely
due to inattention of the Kanuri kings to affairs of state, preferring
Muslin piety. Subject neighbors gradually slipped from Kanuri control
until the Kanuri were faced with invasion from the Fulani armies that had
already conquered Hausaland. Unable to resist, the Kanuri way of
life gave way to Fulani occupation and reform.
Ghana
Ghana's origins are lost to antiquity, and was first mentioned by
Arab commentators in the eighth century as an already well established
state lead by the Soninke Kings and very wealthy in gold. Traditional
oral histories spoke of various dynasties prior to the Arab documentation,
and hark to a long standing position of power in the region, long before
the Arab arrival. By the ninth century, Ghana was reaching it's greatest
extent.
This Imperial Ghana has nothing more than name to do with the modern
day Republic of Ghana, and was located about a thousand miles to the north
of the present day country.
Ghana's wealth was legendary giving the King of Ghana the reputation
of being "the richest monarch in the world". He appeared be decked
in the finest of cloth and ornaments of gold, while dressing his court
and the royal animals in similar fashion.
Ghana's competition came from the Sanhaja Berbers seeking to control
Western Saharan Commerce and trade routes from their city of Awdaghost.
This competition was curtailed (at least temporarily) when in 990 the Soninke
of Ghana captured the city.
Until the eleventh century, Ghana was able to maintain it's regional
dominance. However, at this time, the Sanhaja underwent a deep religious
revival precipitated by the puritanical Muslim Almoravid sect. Revival
soon turned to jihad from Morocco to Andalusia, and in the Sahel as a campaign
against Ghana. The result of this confrontation was the conversion
of Ghana (either forcibly or voluntarily) to Islam, and the shifting of
control of desert trade over to the Almoravids, sending Soninke Ghana into
decline.
Soon thereafter, the former Ghanan vassal state of Kaniaga rose up
against Ghana, and under the leadership of Sumaguru Kante sacked the city
of Kumbi and brought an end to the independent state of Ghana.
Mali
With the fall of Ghana, Sumaguru turned his attention to the Mandinka
as their farm land was very near the source of West Africa's gold deposits.
According to tradition, after conquering the Mandinka, Sumaguru put to
death all of the sons of the Mandinka ruler, save one who was a cripple
named Sundiata, and seemed to pose no threat. Sundiata overcame his
weakness, raised an army, and defeated and killed Sumaguru. Sundiata
then moved to consolidate the former Ghana and take over the gold trade,
and in 1240 set the foundations for the Empire of Mali.
Sundiata built his administration on the traditional clan and lineage
model of his Mandinka heritage, and established his capital in his home
village of Niani. Despite this, the Mandinka were, at least in some
part, Muslim, and to a degree, Islam had influence, but not as much in
early Mali history as later on when Mali's splendor was well exhibited
in the caravan of Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca.
While Mali was primarily agricultural, they still took control of
trans-Saharan trade of not just gold, but Taghaza's salt, and Saharan copper
as well. It was at this time that Timbuktu began to take it's place
of prominence as a Sahel entry port for trade and commerce. Expansion
pushed the borders of Mali well beyond the original Ghana sphere of influence
capturing Gao in the east, and Tekrur in the west, and Mali continued strong
toward the end of the fourteenth century.
Palace intrigues and the difficulties of managing a large empire
encouraged attack from the outside. Timbuktu was sacked by the Mossi
and later captured by the Tuareg in 1433. Songhay then captured the
city in 1468, and successfully went against the city of Jennea few years
later.
Mali lingered on into the seventeenth century, gradually declining
until it was finally reduced to a small village culture by the states of
Kaarta and Segu.
Yoruba
The Yoruba Culture has origins that were lost in the mists of time,
and while they were mostly small forest states, they have been very long
lived, and extremely important to the development of the area. Among
the most prominent of the Yoruba stated, Oyo developed a strong military,
including a cavalry. Ife was most likely the hub of the Yoruba Culture,
and had significant influence in the organization of power and politics
in the region especially on such states as Benin.
As early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, Yoruba had built
large walled cities, and were trading extensively with their neighbors
to the north. This shifted southward as Europeans began arriving
on the coast. A lucrative slave trade became a great incentive for
the city state of Oyo to push its dominion southward toward the sea and
northward toward the Sahel, demanding tribute as it went. Oyo enjoyed
a period of power and wealth, but in the final run, lost to its own greed
when wars, rebellions and defections brought Oyo down in the 1700 and 1800's.
Benin
The origins of Benin are shrouded in myth, but relate the Benin with
the Yoruba to the west of the Benin Empire. Early grit histories
relate that a lack of effective leadership prompted the Beni to invite
Oduduwa, King of Ife, to send a prince to help establish a strong ruler.
Ife sent Oranmiyan who was to found the city of Oyo. Oranmiyan marriad
the daughter of a Beni Uzama (ancient hereditary chief) and fathered Eweka,
the first Benin Oba, and founder of the Benin Empire.
Eweka's reign dates to the beginning of the 1200's, but the Oba's
didn't begin to assert power over the Beni chiefs until the reign of Ewedo
(the fourth Oba) who reorganized the hierarchy and functions of the palace
chiefs, and put the center of power into the Oba's office.
Among his reforms, Ewedo reorganized the army and set the stage for
later conquests which reached zenith during the reign of Ewuare.
The boundaries of the Benin Empire expanded to the Niger River in the east,
Southward to the ocean, and Westward into Yoruba territory, reaching it's
full dominion by the middle of the seventeenth century.
Benin wealth exhibited itself in the flourishing of art and urban
life exemplified by magnificent work in bronze and ivory statuary, and
in the development of such centers as Benin city which was well defended
city 25 miles in circumference.
In 1485, the Portuguese came in search of trade. Slaves and
pepper became the chief exports of the Benin Empire, however, Benin indifference
to the slave trade forced slavers to look elsewhere for their kidnapped
victims. Attempts to Christianize the Beni also met with failure
when set against the complex and deeply set Imperial state religion.
From the seventeenth century onward, Benin gradually declined until
it was finally brought down by British occupation in 1897.
Songhay
The Songhay people seem to have had their origins along the Niger
River in the area of the settlement of Kooky. Early on, the Za Dynasty
presided over the Songhay agricultural economy and eventually was replaced
by the Sunni ruler ship as the fourteenth century came toward its close,
Mali's control began to decay, and the Sunni, perceiving opportunity, occupied
the northern Sahel trade port of Gao, just as the Tuareg were taking control
of Timbuktu. This move gave Songhay a strategic advantage toward
a westward expansion, as well as, bringing greater trading wealth and cultural
exchange.
Songhay began to acquire territories formerly under the control of
Mali. It was during the reign of Sunni Ali (1464-1492) that imperial
expansion took its most dramatic form. During this time, Sunni Ali
captured Timbuktu and brought the entire Niger country under Songhay control.
His capture of Timbuktu and persecution of the Muslims there (who had supported
the Twaregs) gave him a bloodthristy and savage image in the eyes of the
Muslims, but generally, Ali maintained positive relations with Muslims
in his captured territories. Upon his death, the throne was usurped
by Muhammad Toure who founded the Askia Dynasty.
Muhammud expanded and stabilized Songhay, and sought to placate Muslim
powers. Where Ali had only been nominally Muslim, and adhered most
closely to Songhay traditions, Muhammud was devoutly Muslim, and retained
Songhay traditions only to maintain his place on the throne. In 1528
he was deposed by his sons. Through a series of coups over the next
sixty years, the final disintegration of the century and a half old Songhay
Empire was assured.
Hausa States
Hausa was mostly a collection of agricultural settlements and trade
centres with no real unity until the early nineteenth century. Population
centres of Kano and Katsina developed as trading posts, Zaria as a slave
raiding centre, Rano as an industrial centre, and Gogir at the desert's
edge served to protect from nomadic raiders. These were the major
centres of the Hausa States, and became major political players in the
seventeenth century.
For a good deal of the history of the Hausa region, the area was
under the political pressure or even the vassalage of their more powerful
neighbors of Bornu-Kanem, Songhay, and Mali, as each power rose up in their
respective turn. For most of Hausa history, inter cultural rivalry
consumed most of the regions political energies, as each state fought the
others for dominance of the region.
Islamic culture and religion was gradually introduced into the region
through the trade routes from the north, but made little impression on
the populace or it's leadership. Kano and Katsina were under Islamic
influence by the late fourteenth century, while Gobir was still animist
in the sixteenth century, and Zaria didn't accept Islam until the nineteenth
century when the Fulani Jihad lead by Usuman dan Fodio finally united the
region and ended the individual influences of each of the Hausa States.
Akan States
The Akan people seem to have developed out of hunter gatherer clans
that consolidated into small states and adopted an agricultural economic
base sometime in the fifteen hundreds. It appears that the presence
of gold in the Akan forests and the prospect of trade for this commodity
spurred the shift to an agricultural base. The Akan people traded
gold that was mined on their lands for slaves who were used to clear land
for farms. These farms were distributed to settlers who then provided
goods and services to the Akan rulers in a basic feudal arrangement.
Thus, commerce and not land, opened the door to Akan development.
When the Europeans arrived and opened the trans-Atlantic slave trade,
the Akan were easily ready to shift from the gold trade and to exchange
slaves for European goods and firearms.
Ashante
Early settelemnts founded by the Oyoko clan included the town of
Kumasi in the northern forest area. Kumasi was in a region rich in
gold and kola nuts, and developed into a junction where several trade routes
came together.
In the seventeenth century, the area came under the control of the
Denkyira who were neighbors of the Oyoko people. As a result,
the Oyoko developed a strong military and defeated the Denkyira expanding
their influence from the Savannah to the coast. The Oyoko clan, under
the leadership of Obi Yeboa, began to consolidate the other ruling
lineages and establish the states of the Ashante: Kumasi, Kokofu,
Nsuta Mampon, Juaben, and Bekwai. Osei Tutu then established the
golden stool as the spiritual symbol of Ashante unity and made Kumasi the
Ashante capital. Osei Tutu then became the first Ashantehene, head
of the Ashante state, and established a constitution that acknowledged
the supremacy of his office. The kings of the member states became
a council of advisors and supplied the army with soldiers, but were left
in control of their own local affairs.
The Ashante union thus solidified control in the Akan region, and
was further expanded under Osei Tutu's successors.
Fante
The Fante were known by the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century
as a small city-state near the coast, but by the late seventeenth century
the Fante had expanded their influence along the coast line from the Pra
river to Ga in the west. The Fante formed a political union headed
by a Braffo, ruler, who over saw a council of representatives from the
the states that they incorporated.
Much of this was a response to the presence of the Ashante union,
and a desire to keep some of the economic control of the area from the
Ashante. Lacking the cohesiveness of the Ashante, the Fante tended
to wax and wane in their political and economic control of the area against
the Ashante. However, when the Ashante were preoccupied with domestic
civil strife, the Fante enjoyed unmolested control of their domain.
Consolidation
In the nineteenth century, Ashante invasions of Fante lands began
to involve Europeans who began to penetrate Africa inland. As Europeans
intervened in disputes between the Ashante and the Fante, the unity of
the Fante fell apart under the pressure of Ashante expansion. The
result was an empire of a hundred and fifty thousand square miles and about
four million for the Ashante to control and administer.
To meet this need Osei Kwadwo replaced the hereditary chiefs with
a bureaucracy by royal appointment and responsible solely to the throne
(the Golden Stool) of the Ashante. Each province was placed under
the control of a proconsul also responsible to the throne. Tolls,
taxes, a nationalized trading company, and nationalized mines brought economic
control of the empire back to the throne, as well. Military power
was solidified by the development of a new military of foreign mercenaries,
and by limiting the power of the hereditary chiefs in the provinces.
This centralization was augmented by cultural assimilation of subject peoples
and the imposition of ideological unity throughout the Ashante empire.
The final result was a complex, organized, centralized state.
With the Partition of Africa from 1880 to 1885 resulting from the
Berlin Conference, the British overran the Ashante with the brutal might
of the British armed forces in a scramble for African land. The Akan
people, Ashante included, then became subjects of the British Crown.
Zanj
Along the eastern coast from the Red Sea to Mozambique there developed
a number of coastal communities based upon trade with Asia. The earliest
European text that makes note of these communities, "The Periplus (sailor's
guide) of the Erythraean (Red) Sea", comes from around 110 CE, and was
written by a Greek sea pilot. The mention is vague, and probably
based upon stories gathered by sea farers who traveled farther south than
the author of the text. The text tells of what sorts of people one
would encountre, and especially what goods could be traded for what other
goods. These communities are also mentioned by Claudius Ptolomy in
his "Geography" which was written around the second century.
The people of this region were thought to be of Bantu speaking origin,
having migrated into the area from around the Zambesi and Congo rivers.
From those early writings, little mention of these regions have been made
except for Arabian, Persian, Indonesian and Chinese writers who mention
Black slaves who were purchased from the region.
Arabic, Islamic and Persian influence came in the form of traders
and refugees who fled Oman as a result of political struggles in their
own country. One such refugee, Husain ben Ali, and his sons are credited
with founding some of the most influential towns of the region, and are
written into the histories of these settlements. But these stories
are mostly traditional as these settlements may predate the Arabic refugee
period.
The name "Zanj" was given by Arabic traders, and later became the
root of the name of Zanzibar Island and the country of Tanzania (a fusion
of the names Tanganyika and Zanzibar). A geographer from Oman named
Masudi traveled to Zanj in 912 CE to study and gain information for a book
which later appeared under the title of "The Meadows of Gold and the Mines
of Gems". Masudi tells of skilled iron workers, and hard working
hunters and traders in ivory which they traded to the Far East.
In the writings of El Idrisi, from 1154, we learn of the increasing
prosperity of Zanj and it's trade with the Orient. Lamu, Malindi,
Pemba, Kilwa, Sofala, Zanzibar, and Mombasa, each city with it's own independent
government in cooperation with southern Arabia developed a vast trading
network. And while the Zanj owned no sailing vessels of their own,
their relationships with Middle eastern and oriental trading partners allowed
them to create thriving communities based on trade in gold, ivory, tortoise
shell and slaves. El Idrisi noted that the iron trade was the most
impressive, however, supplying most of the Middle East and India with the
highest quality iron for the manufacture of the legendary arabic weaponry
of the age.
The Chinese author Chou Ch'u-fei wrote a travel account entitled
Ling-Wai-tai-ta mentions the slave trade of East Africa (called PO-Pa-Li
by the Chinese) around 1178.
Trade goods that found there way to Zanj included Indian cloth and
beads, pottery and porcelain from China, and stoneware from Siam.
Highly valued works of the Asian craftsman's art found their way to Zanj.
By the time the Portuguese, led by Vasco da Gama in 1497, stumbled upon
the ports of Zanj, these Eastern African communities rivaled, and even
surpassed the port cities of Europe in architecture and standard of living.
The Portuguese were overwhelmed by the magnificence of Zanj, but
the people of Zanj did not find the Portuguese to be of much importance.
The ships from China that regularly docked at the ports of Zanj greatly
dwarfed those of the Portuguese, and the goods that the Portuguese had
to trade were virtually worthless to the people of Zanj.
The arrival of the Portuguese was disastrous for Zanj. Once
the Portuguese realized the potential of the region, they aggressively
attacked the easy-going and less well armed Zanj in an effort to establish
a Portuguese economic hegemony in East Africa. One by one each of
the coastal towns of Zanj were attacked and destroyed or forced to capitulate
and become a tributary to the King of Portugal.
Trade from this region went into decline as the Portuguese were unable
to maintain the trade routes that the Zanj, Arabs and Asians had held together
for well over a thousand years.
Great Zimbabee
What is known of Great Zimbabwe from the archeological record is
that the area has been host to successive communities of iron working peoples,
likely of Bantu origin, from the Late Classical Era and Early Christian
time period.
The name comes from "dzimbahwe", meaning "Great Stone House".
The reference may apply to the central feature of this culture which consists
of an "acropolis" topped by a well crafted "citadel" near an equally impressive
stone "temple", but has also been applied to the royal family or court.
This structure is only the largest and most impressive example of stonework
in the area, others being much more modest in their structure.
The construction of the stone edifice seems to have been begun by
the Karanga people and Shona Kingdom between 1200 and 1300 c.e., as simple
stone walls which were later expanded into an example of architectural
mastery. Centralized authority developed around 1300 with the arrival
of the Mbire people bringing with them strong organizational skills.
Shona came under the control of the Rozwi, who expanded the Zimbabwi sphere
of influence from the Indian Ocean to the Kalahari Desert by about 1480.
As Europeans began to arrive on the eastern coast, and the Rozwi King moved
the court north toward the Zambezi, Archetectural development ceased, and
disintegration began to take hold.
By 1629, the leadership of the Great Zimbabwe Culture was reduced
to little more than a Portuguese vassal, and an ineffectual influence in
the region.
Bibliography
Ancient African Kingdoms
Margaret Shinnie
New York, New American Library [1970]
A History of the African People
Robert W. July
Prospect Heights, Ill. : Waveland Press, Inc., c1992
ISBN 0881336319
The History Atlas of Africa
Samuel Kasule
New York : Macmillan, c1998
ISBN 0028625803
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