Chapter 13 Section 3

African Society and Culture

Life in Medieval Africa

• Around 3000 B.C., fishing groups along the Benue River in present day eastern Nigeria packed belongings in their canoes and moved south and west along the Niger River. The wanderers called themselves Bantu, meaning “the people.”

• The Bantu people began to migrate into the grasslands of Central Africa, and had settled most of Africa by A.D. 400. They spread their language, Swahili, and their culture as they traveled.

African Families

• African’s often lived with extended families, or families made up of several generations.

• Many African villages were matrilineal, meaning the people traced their ancestors through their mothers rather than their fathers.

• Children were valued in African culture. They were considered the link between the past and the future. Some people believed ancestors could be reborn in children.

• History was kept alive through a type of teaching called oral history—stories passed down from generation to generation.

• Families and villages taught children the history of their people and the skills they would need as adults. Stories were passed down through word-of-mouth, and lessons were given through short sayings called proverbs.

African Women

• Women’s roles were mainly as wives and mothers.

• Men had more rights than women did, and they controlled what women did. There were exceptions. – Dahia al-Kahina was a queen who led the

fight against Muslim invasion. – Nzinga was a queen who battled Portuguese

slave traders for nearly 40 years.

Slavery in Africa • Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans.

Africans enslaved criminals and enemies captured in war. – Slaves within Africa could win their freedom through hard

work or by marrying a free person. – The slave trade grew as trade with Muslim merchants

increased. Muslims were not allowed to enslave other Muslims, but they could enslave people of others faiths.

• When Europeans arrived in West Africa, a new market for enslaved Africans opened. Africans armed with European guns began raiding villages to seize captives to sell.

• The Portuguese brought 235 enslaved Africans to Europe in 1441. These enslaved people were used to farm crops of cotton, grapes, and sugar cane.

• In the beginning, African slaves stayed in Portugal, this changed when the Portuguese settled the Atlantic islands.

• In the late 1400s, Europeans established sugar plantations in the Americas and brought enslaved Africans to work the fields.

• Portugal was the leading supplier of sugar.

African Culture

• Cave paintings are the earliest form of African art that we know about.

• Music played a large part in the lives of Africans, they used it to express their religious feelings.

• Enslaved Africans sometimes relied on music to remind them of their homeland.

__ 1. Wooden boats known as __ were powered by triangular sails.

__ 2. An area of high, flat land is a __.

__ 3. Each district in Ghana usually included a chief’s __.

__ 4. African __ are storytellers.

__ 5. __ societies trace their descent through mothers.

__ 6. __ culture and language exist in Africa today.

A. clanB. MatrilinealC.SwahiliD.plateauE. griotsF. dhows

Checking for Understanding