Africa and the Atlantic World

1
Africa and the Atlantic World

• Ch. 25

2
African Politics and Society in Early Modern Times
3
The States of West Africa and East Africa

• The Songhay Empire Songhay Administration
• Songhay rulers built a flourishing city-state
• By the 15th century, Songhay emerged as the
  dominant power of the western grasslands.
• Sunni Ali built an elaborate administrative and
  military apparatus to oversee affairs in his
  realm
• Appointed governors to oversee provinces
• Instituted a hierarchy of command that turned his
  army into an effective military force
• Created imperial navy to patrol the Niger River,
  which was an extremely important commercial
  highway in the Songhay empire

• Fail of Songhay
• In 1591 a musket-bearing Moroccan army opened
  fire on the previously invincible Songhay
  military.
• Songhay forces withered under the attack, and
  subject peoples took the opportunity to revolt
  against Songhay domination
• Resulted in series of small, regional kingdoms
  and city-states emerged in west Africa.

• Swahili Decline
• In 1505 Portuguese naval expedition subdued all
  the Swahili cities from Sofala to Mombasa
• Portuguese forces disrupted trade patterns
• Swahili cities into a decline from which they
  never fully recovered

4
The Kingdoms of Central Africa and South Africa

• The Kingdom of Kongo
• Built a centralized state with officials
  overseeing military, judicial, and financial
  affairs
• Kongo embraced much of the modern-day Republic of
  Congo and Angola.
• Portuguese merchants had established a close
  political and diplomatic relationship with the
  kings of Kongo
• Supplied the kings with advisors
• Provided a military garrison to support the kings
  and protect Portuguese interests
• Brought tailors, shoemakers, masons, miners, and
  priests to Kongo
• Kings of Kongo converted to Christianity to
  establish closer commercial relations with
  Portuguese merchants monarchy

• Slave Raiding in Kongo
• Portugal brought wealth and foreign recognition
  to Kongo
• Led to the destruction of the kingdom and the
  establishment of a Portuguese colony in Angola
• Portuguese merchants sought high-value
  merchandise such as copper, ivory, and, most of
  all slaves
• Exchanged salves for textiles, weapons, advisors,
  and artisans
• Portuguese merchants made alliances with local
  authorities, and provided them with weapons
• Relations between Kongo and Portugal
  deteriorated, particularly after Portuguese
  agents began to pursue opportunities south of
  Kongo

• The Kingdom of Ndongo
• Was a powerful regional kingdom, largely on the
  basis of the wealth it was able to attract from
  trade
• Portuguese forces campaigned in Ndongo in an
  effort to establish a colony that would support
  large-scale slave trading

5
The Kingdoms of Central Africa and South Africa
(cont.)

• Queen Nzinga The Portuguese colony of Angola
• Led 40 year resistance against Portuguese forces
• Mobilized central African peoples against her
  Portuguese adversaries
• Her aim was to drive the Portuguese from her
  land, expel the Dutch, and create a vast Central
  African Empire
• Angola was the first European colony in
  sub-Saharan Africa
• When Nzinga died, Portuguese forces faced less
  resistance
• Resulted in extended and tightened control over
  Angola

• Regional Kingdoms in South Africa
• Kingdoms had begun to emerge as early as the
  eleventh century, largely under the influence of
  trade
• In south Africa, regional kingdoms dominated
  political affairs
• By 1300, rulers of one kingdom had built a
  massive, stone-fortified city known as Great
  Zimbabwe

• European Arrival in South Africa
• Europeans struck alliances with local peoples of
  South Africa in search of commercial
  opportunities
• Intervened in disputes with the aim of supporting
  their allies and advancing their own interests
• Their conquests laid foundation for series of
  Dutch and British colonies
• Became the most prosperous European possessions
  in Sub Saharan Africa

6
Islam and Christianity in Early Modern Africa

• The Fulani and Islam
• Were Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa which had
  concerns about the purity of Islam
• Many Fulani had settled in cities where they
  observed a strict form of Islam
• Their Campaigns strengthened Islam in sub-Saharan
  Africa
• Laid a foundation for new rounds of Islamic state
  building and conversion efforts

• Christianity and Sub Saharan Africa The
  Antonian Movement
• Portuguese community in Kongo and Angola
  supported priests and missionaries who introduced
  Roman Catholic Christianity to central Africa
• Christian teachings blended with African
  traditions formed syncretic cults
• An influential syncretic cult was the Antonian
  movement in Kongo
• Flourished when the Kongolese monarchy faced
  challenges throughout the realm
• Antonian movement began when Dona Beatriz
  proclaimed that St. Anthony of Padua had
  possessed her and chose her to communicate his
  messages
• Beatriz taught that Jesus Christ had been a black
  African man, that Kongo was the true holy land of
  Christianity, and that heaven was for Africans.

• Islam in Sub Saharan Africa
• Was most popular in the commercial centers of
  west Africa and the Swahili city-states of east
  Africa
• Most African Muslims blended Islam with
  indigenous beliefs and customs
• This syncretic Islam struck many devout Muslims
  as impure and offensive

7
Social Change in Early Modern Africa

• American Food Crops in Sub Saharan Africa
• Trade brought new food crops to sub-Saharan
  Africa
• American crops such as manioc, maize, and peanuts
  arrived in Africa aboard Portuguese ships

• Population Growth
• Bread made from manioc flour had become a staple
  food in much of west Africa and central Africa
• It helped to underwrite steady population growth
• 34 million (1500) to 44 million (1600) to 52
  million (1700) to 60 million (1800)
• American food crops supported expanding
  populations in all regions if Sub Saharan Africa
  during early modern times

8
The Atlantic Slave Trade
9
Foundation of the Slave Trade

• Slavery in Africa
• Slaves in Africa came from the ranks of war
  captives
• Criminals and individuals expelled from their
  clans frequently fell into slavery
• Once enslaved individuals had no personal or
  civil rights
• Agricultural plantations in the Songhay empire
  often had hundreds of slave laborers,
• Africans routinely purchased slaves to enlarge
  their families and enhance their power
• They assimilated slaves into their kinship
  groups, so that within a generation a slave might
  obtain both freedom and an honorable position in
  a new family or clan

• The Islamic Slave Trade
• Muslim merchants from north Africa, Arabia, and
  Persia sought African slaves for sale and
  distribution to
• Destinations were to the Mediterranean basin,
  southwest Asia, India, southeast Asia and China
• By the time Europeans ventured to sub-Saharan
  Africa, traffic in slaves was a well-established
  feature of African society
• A system for capturing, selling, and distributing
  slaves had functioned effectively for more than
  five hundred years
• Atlantic slave trade brought an enormous
  involuntary migration that influenced the
  development of societies throughout the Atlantic
  Ocean basin.

10
Human Cargoes

• The Early Slave Trade
• Traders delivered their human cargoes to
  Portuguese island colonies in the Atlantic
• Sugar planters called for slaves in increasing
  quantities
• Portuguese entrepreneurs extended slave labor to
  South America.
• In 1518 the first shipment of slaves went
  directly from West Africa to the Caribbean, where
  they worked on recently established sugar
  plantations
• Spanish authorities introduced slaves to Mexico
• English colonists introduced slaves to the North
  American mainland

• Triangular Trade
• 1st leg they carried horses and European
  manufactured goods (mostly cloth and metal wares,
  especially firearms) that they exchanged in
  sub-Saharan Africa for slaves
• 2nd leg took enslaved Africans to Caribbean and
  American destinations.
• 3rd leg, they filled their vessels' hulls with
  American products and embarked on their voyage
  back to Europe
• At every stage of the process, slave trade was an
  inhumane and brutal business.

• The Middle Passage
• After being captured, enslaved individuals were
  forced to march to the coast, where they lived in
  holding pens until a ship arrived to transport
  them to the western hemisphere
• The dreadful middle passage refers to the
  trans-Atlantic journey, aboard filthy, crowded
  slave ships
• Conditions were so bad, slaves attempted to
  starve themselves to death or mounted revolts
• Ship crews attempted to preserve the lives of
  slaves, intending to sell them for a profit at
  the end of the voyage
• Treated the unwilling passengers with cruelty and
  contempt
• Approximately 25 percent of individuals enslaved
  in Africa did not survive the middle passage

11
The Impact of the Slave Trade in Africa

• Social Effects of the Slave Trade Gender and
  Slavery
• The Atlantic slave trade deprived African
  societies of about sixteen million individuals
• in addition, several million others were consumed
  by the continuing Islamic slave trade during the
  early modern era.

• Political Effects of the Slavery Trade
• Approximately two-thirds of all slaves were young
  men between fourteen and thirty-five years of age
• Resulted in a gender imbalance
• Militated against slaves reproducing in most
  places of colonial America
• Resulted in women making up more than two-thirds
  of the adult population of Angola,
• This encouraged Angolans to embrace polygyny (the
  practice of having more than one wife at a time).

• Volume of the Slave Trade in Africa
• The Atlantic slave trade brought about the
  involuntary migration of about twelve million
  Africans to the western hemisphere.
• Kingdoms like Rwanda and Bugunda escaped the
  slave trade, partly because of resistance, and
  because their lands were distant from major slave
  ports on west African coast.
• Other societies flourished and benefited
  economically from the slave trade

12
The African Diaspora
The dispersal of African peoples and their
descendants
13
Plantation Societies

• Cash Crops
• Sugar was one of the most lucrative cash crops of
  early modern times
• Soon tobacco rivaled sugar as a profitable
  product
• Rice became a major plantation product, as did
  indigo
• By the eighteenth century, cotton and coffee had
  begun to emerge as a plantation specialty
• Caribbean American plantations specialized in
  the production of some agricultural crop in
  demand, where African or African American slaves
  performed most of the labor

• Regional Differences
• In Caribbean and South America, many slaves fell
  victim to tropical diseases such as malaria and
  yellow fever
• Of all the slaves delivered from Africa to the
  western hemisphere, about half went to the
  Caribbean, and about one-third went to Brazil
• About 5 percent of enslaved Africans went to
  North America where diseases were less threatening

• Resistance to Slavery
• Some forms of resistance were mild but costly to
  slave owners
• Slaves often worked slowly for their masters but
  diligently in their own gardens
• Slaves occasionally sabotaged plantation
  equipment or work routines.
• A more serious form of resistance involved
  running away from the plantation community
• Maroon (runaway) communities flourished through
  out slave holding regions of the western
  hemisphere

14
Plantation Societies (cont.)

• Slave Revolts
• Most dramatic form of resistance was the slave
  revolt
• Slaves far outnumbered others in most plantation
  societies
• They had the potential to organize and overwhelm
  their masters
• Only in the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue
  did a slave revolt abolish slavery as an
  institution
• This revolt declared independence from France and
  renamed the land Haiti, and established a self
  governing republic

• Slavery and Economic Development
• The physical labor of African and African
  American slaves made crucial contributions to the
  building of new societies in the Americas
• Slave labor cultivated many of the crops and
  extracted many of the minerals that made their
  way around the world in the global trade networks
  of the early modern era

15
The Making of African American Cultural Traditions

• African and Creole Languages African American
  Religions
• European languages were the dominant tongues in
  the slave societies of the western hemisphere
• African languages also influenced communication
• Slaves spoke a creole tongue that drew on several
  African and European languages
• Some slaves shipped out of Africa were Christians
• Others converted to Christianity after their
  arrival in the western hemisphere
• All the syncretic, African-American religions
  drew inspiration from Christianity

• African American Music
• For many of these involuntary laborers, the
  playing of African music brought a sense of home
  and community to mind
• Slaves in the Americas adapted African musical
  traditions
• This included their rhythmic and oratorical
  elements, to their new environments
• This was a means of buffering the shock of
  transition
• Was also a way to survive and to resist the
  horrid conditions of their new lives

• African American Cultural Traditions
• Slaves introduced African foods to Caribbean and
  American societies
• Helped give rise to distinctive hybrid cuisines
• Slaves introduced rice cultivation to tropical
  and subtropical regions, including South
  Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana
• Added variety to American diets
• The African diaspora influenced the ways all
  peoples lived in plantation societies

16
The End of the Slave Trade and the Abolition of
Slavery

• The Economic Costs of Slavery
• Plantations, slavery, and the slave trade
  continued to flourish as long as they were
  profitable
• Slave labor did not come cheap.
• As the profitability of slavery declined,
  Europeans began to shift their investments from
  sugarcane and slaves to newly emerging
  manufacturing industries

• End of Slave Trade The Abolition of Slavery
• The end of the legal commerce in slaves did not
  abolish the institution of slavery itself
• As long as plantation slavery continued, a
  clandestine (secretive) trade shipped slaves
  across the Atlantic
• The last documented ship that carried slaves
  across the Atlantic arrived in Cuba in 1867
• Officially, slavery no longer exists, but
  millions of people live in various forms of
  servitude even today.

• Olaudah Equiano
• Some freed slaves contributed to the abolitionist
  cause
• Write books that exposed the brutality of
  institutional slavery
• Most notable of them was the west African Olaudah
  Equiano
• Published an autobiography detailing his
  experiences as a slave and a free man