AAS 100

• Africana studies uses social history
• In 1994, black Africans could study themselves
• Human Agency refers to one's ability to actualize in the world
• The Black experience includes 6 epochs of oppression, not just limited to food and fashion
• Sankofa, an Akan word from West Africa, means 'to return and recover it', symbolizing a quest for knowledge
• History is the record of humans in the process of humanizing the world
• African/Black History focuses on the struggle and record of Africans in the process of Africanizing the world
• Characteristics of history:

  • Human
  • Social
  • Conflictual
  • Fluid and changeable
  • Manageable and subject to controlled and directed change
• Major oppositions in history:

  • Nature
  • Society
  • Other humans
  • Their immediate selves
• Primary challenges to studying the History of Africa:

  • The vastness of the subject
  • The predominance of oral history (GRIOTS)
  • European invasion and conquest
• GRIOTS are a group of professional oral historians who act as the collective memory of an ethnic group, nation, or empire
• The colonizers voice presents two perspectives on Africa: the uncommon voice and the common voice, which often shows a Eurocentric bias in American History
• Genetic Classification:

  • Australopithecus
• Cosmology & World view in Africa includes:

  • Peace and harmony with nature
  • Communalism
  • Spirituality with a connection to the living and dead
  • Respect for elders
  • WEUSI (We, us, I) - emphasizing community over individualism
• Bodies of water surrounding Africa:

  • North: Mediterranean Sea
  • Northeast: Red Sea
  • Southeast: Indian Ocean
  • West (South): Atlantic Ocean
• Africa is the second largest continent in the world, covering 20% of the earth's surface and containing five major climatic zones
• Climatic Zones in Africa:

  • Mediterranean
  • Sub-Desert
  • Desert
  • Savannah
  • Tropical Rain Forest
• Features of the Nile Valley:

  • Extends over 4000 miles, from the highlands on the east coast of central Africa to the delta region in the extreme north
  • Traced to the twin sources of the Nile River, the Blue Nile and the White Nile
• The Nile Valley River System:

  • The world's largest waterway (41,600 miles) that irrigates approximately 2,800,000 acres of land in Sudan and 7,600,000 acres in Egypt
• The Nile is one of two major rivers that flow from south to north
• Ancient Egypt has been referred to as the gift of the Nile
• Nubia:

  • The name Nubia originated from the Egyptian word for gold (NUB)
• Nomenclature of Chronology:

  • B.C.E references events before the common (Christian) Era
  • A.C.E references events after the common Christian Era
• Nubia's 4 main periods:

  • Pre-Kerma
  • Kerma
  • Napata
  • Merotic
• Pre-Kerma Period: (3900-2500) B.C.E
• Napata Period: (1900-270) B.C.E
• Merotic Period: (270 B.C.E - 350 C.E)
• Nubian Organization Social Structure:

  • Emergence of the office of High Priestess of Amen
  • Strengthening of the role of the Queen mother
• Titles of the High Priestess: The Divine wife, the acbrer of God, and the itand of God
• Queen Mother:

  • This title transforms from queen mother with power to the office in the second century B.C.E
• Meroe (270 B.C.E - 320 C.E):

  • A city with palaces, an observatory, temples, pools, foundations, arts and crafts, and large complexes
• Egypt's Chronology:

  • Prehistorical period, a Predynastic period, and series of dynastic periods
• The Old Kingdom Period: (2686-2182) B.C.E
• The legacy of Egypt includes concepts of resurrection and judgement after death, the immortality of the soul, equality of men and women, treatment of the poor as a measure of moral quality, and the moral obligation to constantly repair and heal the world
• Ethiopian history:

  • Evolves from the formation of the state of Aksum, originating in economic and cultural exchanges between Africans and people in southwestern Arabia around 500 B.C.E
• Ghana:

  • Emerged as a state around 300 C.E and declined by 1240
  • Known as the 'Land of the God'
  • Wealth came from controlling trade in salt and gold
• Mali:

  • First emperor was Sundiata, ruling from 1230 to 1255
  • During his reign, he controlled the trans-Saharan trade routes
• Mansa Musa:

  • Conquered major Berber cities, extended into Mauritania, Southern Algeria, and northern Nigeria
  • Doubled Mali's size, reaching a population of around ten million
  • Built the University of Sankore and Timbuktu, attracting students and professors worldwide
• Songhai:

  • Largest and most developed of the western Sudan civilizations
• Sunni Ali Ber:

  • Became ruler in 1464, recaptured Timbuktu in 1468 from Mali