The Making of Modern Africa-2nd week

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Lecture7IslaminSub-SaharanAfrica.ppt
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Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa

Lecture # 7

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Islam Today: Demographics

  • There are an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide
  • Approximately 1/5th of the world's population
  • Growth without missionary efforts
  • Where Do Muslims Live?
  • Only 18% of Muslims live in the Arab world
  • 20% are found in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • 30% in the South Asian region of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh
  • The world's largest single Muslim community is in Indonesia
  • The Top 9: 1) Indonesia, 2) Pakistan, 3) Bangladesh, 4) India, 5) Turkey, 6) Iran, 7) Egypt, 8) Nigeria, and 9) China

Two Main Braches of Islam

  • There are two main branches of Islam today

  • Sunni recognize the male heirs of the first 4 elected (according to Muhammad's instruction) caliphs (or spiritual heads) after Muhammad’s death

  • Shiite recognize the decedents of only the 4th caliphs—Ali (M’s son-in-law & cousin), the only true descendent of Muhammad

  • In all other ways Sunni and Shiite are very similar


African Civilizations
and the Spread of Islam

What is the geography of Africa?
How might this geography impact Africans?

African Regions

Pre-Islamic Africa

  • Extremely diverse societies developed
  • Political unity was difficult because of terrain
  • Bantu: primary language spoken
  • Oral traditions; very few written records
  • Most communities are preliterate (lacking writing system)
  • Animistic and polytheistic religions
  • Power of natural forces; ritual and worship
  • Dancing, drumming, divination, and sacrifice
  • Witchcraft; cosmology
  • Ancestors are called upon
  • Economies vary by region
  • N. Africa: Islamic trade routes and Mediterranean trade
  • Sub-Saharan: agriculture; ironworking; tribes and herders
  • Africans exchanged abundant raw materials (esp. salt) for manufactured goods

Geography of Africa

Africa’s geography was very diverse
& Africans were lived differently based on where
they lived

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Geography of Africa

The Sahara is the world’s largest desert
& acted as a barrier to separate North Africa from sub-Saharan Africa

Early Societies of Africa

By 750, North Africans were part of the Islamic Empire, converted to Islam, & shared Arabic culture

Early societies of North Africa were influenced by Mediterranean cultures such as the Phoenicians & Romans

Early Societies of Africa

African societies south of the Sahara were isolated & missed out on the cultural diffusion of the Classical Era

Influence of Islam in Africa

  • 640-700: Muslims moved west from Arabia across N. Africa to spread Islam
  • Rapid conversions by Berbers (Saharan nomads)
  • Spreads along pre-existing caravan routes
  • Maghreb: NW Africa (W of Egypt); Islamized
  • 11th-12th centuries: Almoravids and Almohads (ultra-conservative Muslim Berbers) grow in power
  • Reformers: launch jihad (war to spread and protect faith) against “lax” Muslims
  • Almohads defeat Almoravids
  • Almohad Caliphate: 1121-1269
  • These groups are essential to the spread of Islam throughout Africa.
  • Why is Islam attractive?
  • Egalitarian; reinforced kings’ authority; equal footing politically/religiously/economically with Arabs

Almoravids

1040-1147

How did early people in Sub-Saharan Africa live?

Characteristics of Sub-Saharan Africa

  • While the societies of sub-Saharan Africa were diverse, they shared some similarities:

Most societies lived in farming villages in family-based clans

Few societies had
written languages;
Histories were
shared orally by
storytellers (griots)

Made iron tools

Characteristics of Africa

  • Sub-Saharan people
    were polytheistic:

Practiced animism,
a religion in which
spirits exist
in nature &
play a role
in daily life

“Stateless” Societies

  • Many small African communities are politically organized in this way
  • There are authoritarian and centralized empires, however
  • Lack concentration of power and authority
  • Authority and power normally exercised by a ruler and court is held by a council or families or community
  • Not a “fulltime job”
  • Weakness of stateless societies
  • No organization to collect taxes  no effective militaries
  • No consensus  Difficult to resist external pressures
  • No undertaking of large building projects
  • Internal problems could be resolved by allowing dissidents to leave and establish new villages

The Bantu Migration

Over the course of 4,000 years, Bantu peoples of central Africa migrated south in search of farmland

These Bantu migrations helped spread new farming & ironworking techniques

What factors shaped the culture of East Africa?

East Africa

  • The societies of East African participated
    in the Indian Ocean trade network & were shaped by cultural diffusion:

The kingdom of
Aksum trade with
Persia, India,
Arabia, & Rome;
Aksum became a
Christian kingdom

Axum Church

Swahili Coast of East Africa

  • Islamized trading ports along coast by 13th c.
  • Most merchants converted; financial motivation
  • Ibn Battuta: Islamic scholar/writer who visits these cities; refers to them as Muslim cities
  • Swahili language (Bantu + Arabic) emerged in urbanized trading ports
  • Syncretism: merging of different cultures
  • Swahili civilization = set of commercial city-states stretching along the East African coast
  • Kilwa, Mogadishu, Mombasa: large city-state and trading centers along coast
  • Each city-state was politically independent with its own king
  • Sharp class distinctions in each city-state: big gap between the merchant elite class and the commoners

East Africa

  • Arab merchants introduced Islam to East African trade cities

The mix of African & Arab cultures led to a new Swahili language

Towns had mosques & were ruled by a Muslim sultan

But many people kept their traditional religious beliefs

KILWA

  • Located on East African Coast
  • Independent City-State - not part of kingdom
  • Monopolized (controlled) gold trade with interior
  • Model drawing of Palace of Kilwa - Palace was destroyed by the Portuguese in early 16th century
  • Swahili Culture:
  • Islamic & African culture blended
  • Swahili language
  • Beautiful mosques

Hail Mary in Swahili

What factors shaped the culture of West Africa?

West African Kingdoms

  • Grasslands Kingdoms = West African Kingdoms= Sudanic States = Ghana, Mali, Songhai
  • Sahel Grasslands: transition zone between Sahara Desert and savannahs to the south
  • Point of exchange between North and Sub-Saharan Africa; important region of trade once gold is found

West Africa

  • West Africa was were shaped by the trans-Saharan trade network:

West Africans had large deposits of gold, but lacked salt

The gold-salt trade connected North & West Africa

West Africa

  • The gold-salt trade increased cultural diffusion with Muslim merchants:

Islam was introduced in West Africa & slowed gained converts

Many Africans blended Islam with animism or never converted

West African Kingdoms

  • Islam reinforced ideas of kingship and power: “royal cult”
  • Joining Islam gives rulers prestige and associates them with other great Muslim leaders
  • Majority of population never converted; retain their polytheism/animism
  • Rulers were more concerned about political benefits of Islam than conversion
  • Trade gold and salt
  • Mali, Ghana and Songhai
  • Combine Islamic religion/culture with local practices
  • Each incorporates the previous kingdom; bigger than last
  • Each will exert power over subordinate communities through taxes, tribute, and military support

West Africa

  • The gold-salt trade led to wealth & empires
    in West Africa

By 800, Ghana became an empire by taxing merchants, building a large army, & conquering surrounding people

Ghana kings served as religious leaders, judges, & generals

Ghana Empire
400? – 1076

  • 1st great West African empire
  • Trade salt and gold
  • 10th c: rulers convert to Islam while common people remain loyal to polytheism
  • 11th c.: political height
  • Almoravid armies invaded Ghana in 1076

West Africa

  • The kings who ruled Mali after Sundiata converted to Islam
  • The most important king was Mansa Musa:

He built a 100,000 man army to keep control over Mali

He divided Mali into provinces ruled by appointed governors

Mali Empire
(1230-1600)

  • Broke away from Ghana in 13th c.
  • Economy: agriculture and gold trade
  • Traders spread beyond W Africa
  • Very wealthy empire
  • Islamized state in 13th c. when rulers convert
  • Mosques built; public prayers
  • Founder: Sundiata (dies 1260)
  • “Lion Prince”
  • Divides society into clans with different jobs
  • Peace created through loyalty; crimes severely punished
  • Credited with Malinke expansion and creation of unified state with each tribe having a representative at court
  • Heavily defended empire

Mali Empire
(1230-1600)

  • Jenne and Timbuktu
  • Major cities of commercial exchange
  • Scholars, artisans, merchants
  • Mosques, libraries, universities
  • Mostly agricultural; polygamy allowed because of Islamic beliefs and for the ability to have children work
  • Irrigation along Niger River

Mansa Musa

Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim & went on a hajj to Mecca in 1324

Mansa Musa passed out gold nuggets to the people he met along the way

Mansa Musa: Malinke Ruler

  • Second ruler of Mali
  • 1324: Hajj to Mecca
  • Aligns himself with Islamic rulers
  • Brings back scholars, architects, artists
  • Ishak al-Sahili: architect who builds great Mosque of Jenne
  • Inadvertently devastates economies he enters as he passes out gold and spends it
  • Symbol of existence of wealthy, sophisticated empires in Africa
  • Estimated wealth: $400 billion

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West Africa

  • When he returned
    from Mecca, Mansa Musa built mosques throughout Mali, including Timbuktu

This trade city attracted scholars, doctors, religious leaders

It had a university & became an important center for learning

West Africa

  • When he returned
    from Mecca, Mansa Musa built mosques throughout Mali, including Timbuktu

This trade city attracted scholars, doctors, religious leaders

It had a university & became an important center for learning

West Africa

  • After Mansa Musa,
    Mali declined & was replaced by Songhai

Kings gained control of trade cities along the gold-salt routes

Songhai grew into
the largest of the West African empires

Its fall in 1591 ended a 1,000 year era of empires in West Africa

Songhai Empire
(1464-1591)

  • Independent from Mali in 1370s
  • Prospered as a trading state and military power.
  • Founded by Sunni Ali (1464-1492)
  • Great military leader; extended rule over the entire Niger River valley.
  • Rulers practice Islam; people maintain polytheism
  • Muslims are merchants (wealthy); become elite
  • Songhai remained dominant until defeated by Moroccans in 1591 for practicing a lax form of Islam

Influence of Islam
in West African Kingdoms

  • Islam provided universal faith, sense of community, and a strong political/legal system.
  • Royal Cult: rulers reinforced authority through Muslim ideology; spiritual and political leader
  • Many who are exposed to Islam do not convert but remain practitioners of their indigenous religion
  • Many Sudanic societies were matrilineal.
  • Hesitancy over conversion to Islam since it restricted women more than these societies did
  • Islam supports interregional trade
  • Slavery and slave trade grew in prominence (7 million traded)
  • Slave trade has existed since Classical period; Islam helps globalize it
  • Majority of Africa, even after introduction of Islam, will remain in isolation and not connected to larger networks

C- Islamic Influence

Islam is not an African religion; it was introduced from the major source region, Arabia. Islam, however, is part of the Africa's heritage and its social, cultural, and religious fabric.

Islam has existed in Sub-Saharan Africa since at least A.D. 700-1300. Today, the religion has a major influence on the cultural, economic, and political systems of regions, especially in the Sahel and Savanna belts of West Africa and along the coast of East Africa

(Diffusion of Islam in Africa, Rowntree and Al., 2000)

  • The first was by contact between Arabian traders and the people along the coast of East Africa and its surrounding islands (Zanzibar, Pemba, and the Comoros). This first wave of Islamic influence began around 700 A.D. These contacts and the subsequent spread of Islam were confined to the coast;
  • The second wave of Islamic diffusion began around A.D. 900 and continued until the nineteenth century, For the most part, of the diffusion process was enhanced by trade via Trans-Saharan routes and Jihads, Holy Wars.
  • The third way in which Islam diffused to Sub-Saharan Africa was by trade between Egypt and Arabia and within the horn of Africa (the easternmost African extension of land between the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden): Islamization and Arabisation.
  • Islam introduced a new religion and an Arabic language, helped in the formation of states, influenced the development of Swahili as a trade language, established the basis for an Arabic educational system, and influenced food choice and dress patterns.
  • The relationship between Islam and indigenous cultures was more of a conversation than a domination: "Wolofisation" of the religion in Senegal (Amadou Bamba); “Pularization”of Islam in Fulani community of the Futa Toro Kingdon (Umar Futiyu).
  • Reaction against Christianity as the colonial religion led to Islamic conversions:

The use of the African drum in religious practices, the acknowledge of polygamy, Islam has been less critical of female circumcision.

Global Connections

  • Spread of Islam brought large areas of Africa into the global community through increasing contact from 700-1500 CE.
  • Specifically, Sudanic states and East Africa
  • However, most of Africa evolved in regions free of Islamic contact (Central + Southern Africa).
  • Organized their lives in stateless societies.
  • While no universal empires and religions develop in Africa, Christianity and Islam impact the region through political, economic, and cultural development.
  • Reality is there are more written records in regions affected by Islam; knowledge is not even