KINGDOMS AND STATES OF AFRICA
As African civilizations developed, great trading states arose. Traveling across
the desert and over the wide Indian Ocean, traders from these states helped make
their people rich and powerful. Trade not only resulted in a transfer of ivory, gold, and
other valuable merchandise, but also in a transfer of cultures, spreading religion,
languages, and new ideas.
The Kingdom of Ghana
Ghana, the first great trading state in West Africa, emerged as early as a.d. 500.
The kingdom of Ghana was located in the upper Niger River valley, a grassland region
between the Sahara and the tropical forests along the West African coast. (The
modern state of Ghana takes its name from this early state but is located in the forest
region to the south.) Most of the people in the area were farmers living in villages under
the authority of a local ruler. Together, the villages formed the kingdom of Ghana. The
kings of Ghana were strong rulers who governed without any laws.
To protect their kingdom and enforce their wishes, Ghanaian kings relied on a
well-trained regular army of thousands of men. The people of Ghana had lived off the
land for centuries. In addition, they prospered from their possession of both iron and
gold. The region had an abundant supply of iron ore. The skilled blacksmiths of Ghana
were highly valued because of their ability to turn this ore into tools and weapons.
Ghana also had an abundance of gold. The heartland of the state was located
near one of the richest gold-producing areas in all of Africa. Ghana’s gold made it the
center of an enormous trade empire. Ghanaians traded their abundant gold for
products brought from North Africa. Muslim merchants from North Africa exchanged
metal goods, textiles, horses, and salt with the Ghanaians. Salt, a highly desired item,
was used to preserve food and to improve food’s taste. It was also important because
people needed extra salt to replace what their bodies lost in the hot climate. Other
Ghanaian exports, including ivory, hides, and slaves, were carried to the markets of
the Mediterranean and beyond. Trade across the desert was carried by the Berbers,
nomadic peoples whose camel caravans became known as the “fleets of the desert.”
Camels became a crucial factor in trade across the Sahara, since they were well-
adapted to desert conditions. As many as a hundred camels would be loaded with
goods and supplies for the journey across the desert. The caravan moved at a rate of
about three miles (4.8 km) per hour. A caravan might take 40 to 60 days to reach its
destination. The trading merchants and kings of Ghana often became wealthy. Kings
also prospered because they imposed taxes on goods that entered or left the kingdom.
By the eighth and ninth centuries, however, much of this trade was carried by Muslim
merchants. They bought the goods from local traders, using iron or copper or items
from as far away as Southwest Asia. They then sold them to Berbers, who carried
them across the desert.
The Kingdom of Mali
Ghana flourished for several hundred years. Eventually weakened by wars, it
collapsed during the 1100s. In its place rose new trading states in West Africa. The
greatest was Mali, established in the mi thirteenth century by Sundiata Keita.
Founding and Economy
Like George Washington in the United States, Sundiata is considered the founder
of his nation. Sundiata defeated Ghana and captured its capital in 1240. He united the
people of Mali and created a strong government. Extending from the Atlantic coast
inland as far as the famous trading city of Timbuktu (tihm•BUHK•TOO), presentday
Tombouctou, Mali built its wealth and Sundiata Keita c. 1210–1255 Malian ruler
Sundiata belonged to a family that had ruled in Mali for about two centuries. Born with
a disability, he was still unable to walk at seven years old. Eventually, a blacksmith
made braces for Sundiata’s legs and he gradually and painfully learned to walk. When
his half-brother became ruler, Sundiata and his mother fled. While in exile, he became
headman of a village and raised a personal army. After the kingdom of Susu conquered
Mali and killed Sundiata’s brothers, Sundiata marched on Susu and killed their king.
Because of bravery and courage, he became ruler, or mansa, of Mali. Sundiata ruled
Mali from 1230 to 1255. As a powerful warrior-king and the founder of the kingdom of
Mali, Sundiata Keita became revered as the father of his country. How did Sundiata
become ruler of Mali? power on the gold and salt trade. Most of its people, however,
were farmers who grew grains such as sorghum, millet, and rice. The farmers lived in
villages with local rulers, who served as both religious and administrative leaders. The
ruler sent tax revenues from the village to the king.
Reign of Mansa Musa
One of the richest and most powerful kings was Mansa Mu¯ sa¯ , who ruled from
1312 to 1337 (mansa means “king”). Mansa Mu¯ sa¯ doubled the size of the kingdom
of Mali. He created a strong central government and divided the kingdom into
provinces ruled by governors whom he appointed. Once he felt secure, he decided—
as a devout Muslim—to make a pilgrimage to Makkah. A king, of course, was no
ordinary pilgrim. Mansa Mu¯ sa¯ was joined by thousands of servants and soldiers on
this journey. Accompanying the people were hundreds of camels carrying gold, as well
as food, clothing, and other supplies. Everywhere he went, Mansa Mu¯ sa¯ lavished
gold gifts on his hosts and bought hundreds of items with gold. In fact, by putting so
much gold into circulation in such a short time, he caused its value to fall.
Mansa Mu¯ sa¯’s pilgrimage demonstrated his wealth and power. His journey
also had another legacy. Mansa Mu¯ sa¯ was inspired to make Timbuktu a center of
Islamic learning and culture. In Timbuktu, he built mosques and libraries. He brought
scholars to the city to study the Quran. Timbuktu became recognized as one of the
intellectual capitals of the Muslim world. The city attracted religious leaders, scholars,
and artists from all over the Middle East and Africa. As many as 20,000 students may
have attended the famous Sankore mosque. Mansa Mu¯ sa¯ proved to be the last
powerful ruler of Mali. By 1359, civil war divided Mali. Within another hundred years a
new kingdom—that of Songhai— was beginning to surpass Mali.
The Kingdom of Songhai
Like the Nile, the Niger River floods, providing a rich soil for raising crops and
taking care of cattle. East of Timbuktu, the Niger makes a wide bend. Along the river,
south of that bend, a people known as the Songhai established themselves there. In
1009, a ruler named Kossi converted to Islam and established the Dia dynasty. This
first Songhai state benefited from the Muslim trade routes linking Arabia, North Africa,
and West Africa. An era of prosperity ensued with Gao as the chief trade center. Under
Sunni Ali, who created a new dynasty—the Sunni—in 1464, Songhai began to expand.
Sunni Ali spent much of his reign on horseback and on the march as he led his army
in one military campaign after another. His armies both defended Songhai territory
from attacks by outsiders and conquered new territories. Two of Sunni Ali’s conquests,
Timbuktu and Jenné, were especially important. They gave Songhai control of the
trading empire—especially trade in salt and gold— that had made Ghana and Mali so
prosperous. Sunni Ali not only controlled the military, but the government of Songhai.
Among his most important administrative accomplishments was uniting rural and city
dwellers, who often had differing interests, under a single government. The Songhai
Empire reached the height of its power during the reign of Muhammad Ture. A military
commander and devout Muslim, Muhammad Ture overthrew the son of Sunni Ali and
seized power in 1493, thus creating a new dynasty, the Askia. Askia means “usurper.”
Muhammad Ture continued Sunni Ali’s policy of expansion, creating an empire that
stretched a thousand miles along the Niger River. He was an able administrator who
divided Songhai into provinces. Muhammad Ture maintained the peace and security
of his kingdom with a navy and soldiers on horseback. The chief cities of the empire
prospered as never before from the expanding salt and gold trade. After Muhammad
Ture’s reign, Songhai entered a period of slow decline. Near the end of the sixteenth
century, that decline quickened when the forces of the sultan of Morocco occupied
much of Songhai. One observer wrote, “From that moment on, everything changed.
Danger took the place of security, poverty [took the place] of wealth. Peace gave way
to distress, disasters, and violence.” By 1600, the Songhai Empire was little more than
a remnant of its former glorious self.
Migration of the Bantus
South of Axum, along the shores of the Indian Ocean and inland from the
mountains of Ethiopia, lived a mixture of peoples. Some lived by hunting and food
gathering, while others raised livestock. In the first millennium b.c., farming peoples
who spoke dialects of the Bantu (BAN•too) family of languages began to move from
the Niger River region into East Africa. They moved slowly, not as invading hordes,
but as small communities. Recent archaeological work has provided many insights
into Bantu society. Their communities were based on subsistence farming—growing
crops for personal use, not for sale. Grains like millet and sorghum were the primary
crops, along with yams, melons, and beans. Iron and stone tools were used to farm
the land. Men hunted or conducted local trade in salt, copper, and iron ore, while
women tilled the fields and cared for the children. The Bantus spread iron-smelting
techniques across Africa and the knowledge of high-yield crops like yams and
bananas. Some time after a.d. 1000, descendants of a Bantu tribe established the
prosperous city of Great Zimbabwe. The center of a thriving state, Great Zimbabwe
dominated the trade route to the coast.
Indian Ocean Trade and Ports
On the eastern fringe of the continent, the Bantu-speaking peoples began to take
part in the regional sea trade up and down the East African coast. With the growth in
regional trade following the rise of Islam during the seventh and eighth centuries a.d.,
the eastern coast of Africa became a part of the trading network along the Indian
Ocean. Beginning in the eighth century, Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula and the
Persian Gulf began to settle at ports along the coast. The result was the formation of
a string of trading ports that included Mogadishu (moh•guh•DEE•shoo), Mombasa,
and Kilwa in the south. Merchants in these cities grew very wealthy. One of the most
magnificent cities was Kilwa, which was located in what is now Tanzania. In the
fourteenth century, two monumental buildings were constructed in Kilwa of coral cut
from the cliffs along the shore. One was the Great Mosque of Kilwa. Even grander was
the Husuni Kubwa palace, an enormous clifftop building that contained more than a
hundred rooms. Members of Kilwa’s wealthy elite built their houses near the palace
and the Great Mosque. With imported Chinese porcelain and indoor plumbing, these
homes provided a luxurious lifestyle. Arab traveler Ibn Battuta, who lived in the
fourteenth century, was among those who visited the cities of Kilwa, Mogadishu, and
Mombasa. One of the most widely traveled people of his time period, Battuta traveled
as many as 75,000 miles, visiting almost all Muslim countries and even reaching
China. As Battuta traveled, he recorded his impressions about the places he visited.
No stranger to the architectural wonders of his time, Battuta called Kilwa, which he
visited in 1331, “one of the most beautiful towns in the world.” Kilwa’s splendor did not
last long, however. Kilwa began to decline, and the Portuguese finished the job in 1505
by sacking the city and destroying its major buildings. Located just north of the Equator,
Mogadishu was also founded by Arab traders. Arising in the tenth century, this trading
port enjoyed hundreds of years of prosperity, but declined in the sixteenth century.
Arab traders settled Mombasa, which is located on the coast of present-day Kenya, in
the eleventh century. Like Mogadishu and Kilwa, Mombasa played a key role in trade
across the Indian Ocean.
As time passed, a mixed AfricanArabian culture, eventually known as Swahili
(swah•HEE•lee), began to emerge throughout the coastal area. Intermarriage was
common among the ruling groups. Gradually, the Muslim religion and Arabic
architectural styles became part of a society that was still largely African. The term
Swahili (from sahel, meaning “coast” in Arabic, and thus “peoples of the coast”) was
also applied to the major language used in the area. The Swahili language arose as a
result of trade between people from Arab lands and the Bantu people who lived along
Africa’s eastern coast. The language incorporated words from both Bantu and Arabic.
It enabled these two groups of people without a common language to communicate
and trade. As Arab trade in ivory and slaves spread north and west, the Swahili
language spread there, too.
Societies in South Africa
In the southern half of the African continent, states formed more slowly than in
the north. Until the eleventh century a.d., most of the peoples in this region lived in
what are sometimes called stateless societies—groups of independent villages
organized by clans and led by a local ruler or clan head. In the grassland regions south
of the Zambezi River, a mixed economy of farming, cattle herding, and trade had
developed over a period of many centuries. Villages were usually built inside walls to
protect the domestic animals from wild animals at night. Beginning in the eleventh
century, some of these villages in southern Africa gradually united. From about 1300
to about 1450, Zimbabwe (zihm•BAH• bwee) was the wealthiest and most powerful
state in the region. It prospered from the gold trade with the Swahili trading
communities on the eastern coast of Africa. Indeed, Zimbabwe’s gold ended up in the
court of Kublai Khan, emperor of China. The ruins of Zimbabwe’s capital, known as
Great Zimbabwe, illustrate the kingdom’s power and influence. The town sits on a hill
overlooking the Zambezi River and is surrounded by stone walls. Ten thousand
residents would have been able to live in the area enclosed by the walls. Artifacts
found at the site include household implements, ornaments made of gold and copper,
and porcelain imported from China.
The Great Enclosure, whose exact purpose is not known, dominated the site. It
was an oval space surrounded by a wall 800 feet long, 17 feet thick, and 32 feet high
(about 244 m long, 5 m thick, and 10 m high). Near the Great Enclosure were smaller
walled enclosures that contained round houses built of a mudlike cement on stone
foundations. In the valley below was the royal palace, surrounded by a high stone wall.
The massive walls of Great Zimbabwe are unusual. The local people stacked granite
blocks together without mortar to build the walls. By the middle of the fifteenth century,
however, the city was abandoned, possibly because of damage to the land through
over-grazing or natural disasters such as droughts and crop failures.
