Africa

Objectives:

By the end of the lesson you will be able to:• Outline at least five historical

facts about Africa.

• Explain the term emancipation.

Vocabulary

ancestors

A family member who lived long ago

urban

Found in a city or town

civilization

A high level of cultural and technological development

Vocabularyempire

A number of territories or people under a

single sovereign authority

Middle Passage

The voyage of enslaved Africans across

the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa to

America

Vocabularyemancipation

freedom of slaves

Middle Passage

The voyage of enslaved Africans across

the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa to

America

In The Bahamas approximately 85 percent of the population’s ancestors were brought to The Bahamas as slaves from the countries of Western and Central Africa.

Africa, one of the seven continents, is

known as the place where the civilization

of humans began. It is where humans,

approximately 1.5 million years ago, first

appeared on the Earth. Many people

believe that the ‘Garden of Eden’ is to be

found in the interior of East Africa

around the Great Rift Valley.

Great Rift Valley

Garden of Eden

Great West African Empires

Africa is also the home of many

great civilizations. When the

Europeans began travelling to West

Africa in the early 16th century they

found well-established urban

civilizations.

Mali Empire This empire consisted of

basic settlement units known

as kafu or walled towns with

surrounding farmland.

Ife Empire

This was a well known empire even in the

ninth century for its metal and glass

industries and particularly for its segi

beads and terracotta and cast brass

sculptures.

Ife Empire

terracotta sculptures

cast brasssculptures

segi beads

Songhay, Askia and Tuareg Empires

These empires were found along

the Niger river with its capital in

the great city of Timbuktu.

These empires used the labour

of enslaved people caught mainly

in battle. Within these empires

there were educated clerics and

lawyers. There was also the

renowned university of Sankore

at Timbuktu.

The Journey of Slaves

It is thought that African people

first came to The Bahamas in the

early 1500s with the Spanish

explorers. Most of the Africans who

came to The Bahamas were forced

into making the long dangerous

voyage from Africa as enslaved

people during the evil Transatlantic

Slave Trade when they travelled the

Middle Passage.

In The Bahamas there are

many people whose

ancestors were brought as

slaves across the Atlantic

Ocean from Africa.

The Middle Passage

The middle passage, was a horrible dreadful experience.

The emancipation of slaves

One day things began to change. People in other

parts of the world learnt about that terrible

’Middle Passage’ across the Atlantic. They heard

about the cruelty that many slaves suffered on

the plantations.

Some people in England tried to stop the slave

trade. They also called for emancipation, which

means freedom for slaves.

In 1804 the trade in African slaves

across the Atlantic was forbidden.

But slaves in The Bahamas were not

free.

Even after the English stopped their

ships carrying enslaved people, other

countries continued the trade in

human beings. The British Navy

captured some of these slave ships

and set the Africans free.

Many of these people were brought to The

Bahamas. They settled at Adelaide and

Carmichael in New Providence, on Grand

Bahama and on Andros.

It was another 30 years before slaves in The

Bahamas were made free. On 1 August 1834

a new law, called The Emancipation Act, came

into effect. From that day, every slave in

The Bahamas was free. Those in the United

States were not made free until 1865.