The peoples of Africa: culture and traditions. Art of medieval Africa

And then North Africa. They began to trade with the local population, and gradually, through trade, these regions became rich. To the south of the Sahara were covered with dense thickets, which were difficult to clear. In addition, there was a threat of dangerous diseases in these areas. As the Africans mastered the processing of iron and the manufacture of durable iron tools, they moved further south, using them to clear the land and plow the fields.

States of West Africa

Arab merchants began to make regular journeys across the Sahara. They also bought gold in West Africa and sold it in Mediterranean ports. Thanks to trade, the population African countries got richer. Magnificent cities with palaces and mosques began to be built there. The most famous city of all was the city of Timbuktu, which is shown in the picture. Some of the African kings ruled large states. One of the most powerful among them was Mali. , who visited these countries, kept travel notes and described their impressions of the luxury they saw, especially at the courts of kings. Shown here are Arab merchants who came to a reception at the palace of an African king.

Since 1420, the Portuguese prince Enrique, nicknamed the Navigator, organized expeditions to explore the western coast of Africa and establish trade with Africans. Arab traders bought lotto, ironwork, tusks and coconuts. From there, they carried goods to India and China in their fast ships.

The picture on the left shows a Christian in Ethiopia. In the north, only Ethiopia was able to resist the advance of Islam and preserve the Christian faith.

Life in southern Africa

The tribes that lived in southern Africa differed, among other things, in the way of life they led. In the Kalahari Desert, the Bushmen obtained their food by hunting wild animals. Pygmies living in the tropical jungle also hunted, but, in addition, they also collected berries and fruits in the jungle. The tribes living on the open plains of the east kept livestock and cultivated the land. People who knew how to process iron and make tools from it were indispensable for their fellow tribesmen.

HISTORY OF AFRICA

C The center, where once, in ancient times, the first civilization of agricultural people was born, was the Middle East. Back in the 5th millennium BC, the first cities and temples grew here, writing was born, and then crafts, trade and arts appeared. Together with settlers and merchants, the achievements of the ancient civilization spread to the west and east, to Europe, to India - and further, to where sailing ships sailed and caravan trails reached. To the north of the ancient center of civilization was the Great Steppe, and to the south stretched the endless deserts of Arabia and the Sahara - however, in those days the Sahara was not as lifeless as it is now; there were many lakes overgrown with reeds, and in the rainy season the vast lowlands were green with fresh grass. In the south, beyond the Sahara, there was a savannah, where grass grew to the height of a man, and in some places there were islands of forests; these islands became more and more frequent and dense, and finally merged into a green wall of impenetrable, vine-twined jungle. The jungle was a special world where only people of the forest could survive - undersized pygmies who knew how to make their way in wet thickets and catch small animals with nets. In the savanna north of the forests lived black Negroes, courageous hunters, with bows and poisoned arrows, lying in wait for bulls, giraffes and elephants; the poison did not immediately kill these giants, and the hunters had to chase the wounded beast for days on end, dodging its horns or tusks. To the east and south of the vast area of the jungle also lay the savannah; here lived the Bushmen, who differed from the Negroes in their smaller stature and lighter skin. In the Middle Ages, when Arab traders began to visit these lands, they were quite surprised by the clicking, bird-like language of the Bushmen and the unusually thick buttocks of Bushmen women - this was considered by the natives as a sign of beauty.

The life of African hunters went on as usual until a new civilization of farmers and pastoralists was born in the Middle East. Feeling a shortage of pastures, the pastoral tribes of Arabia in the VI millennium passed through the Isthmus of Suez to Africa and soon settled in the expanses of the Sahara right up to the Ocean. Huge herds mercilessly trampled the vegetation; the climate became more and more hot, and the Sahara gradually turned into a desert. At the end of the 2nd millennium, a wave of invasion came to Africa, spilling out from the Great Steppe; the "peoples of the sea", having mastered the Balkans, transferred from chariots to ships and landed on the coast of Libya; here they again mounted large chariots drawn by four horses and rushed into the depths of the mainland. These tribes of chariot warriors were called Garamantes; they conquered the shepherds of the Sahara and gave rise to a new people - the Berbers, who still inhabit the Great Desert. The "Peoples of the Sea" also attacked Egypt, but were driven back by the powerful pharaohs of the New Kingdom; Egypt then was at the zenith of glory, and the victorious armies of the pharaohs made campaigns far south along the Nile Valley. As far back as the 15th century, Egyptian troops passed through the gorges cut by the great river in the lifeless mountains surrounded by desert and conquered Nubia, the country of black people on the border of the savannah. Fortresses and temples were built here, and local scribes learned to convey the words of their language using Egyptian hieroglyphs This is how the first civilization of Black Africa was born. In the 11th century, unrest began in Egypt, and Nubia became independent; here appeared their divine pharaohs, who built pyramids and made trips to Egypt. Nubian detachments penetrated the savannah to the west, captured slaves and subjugated the Negro tribes, who could not resist the iron swords of the Nubians. The conquered peoples borrowed from the conquerors the secrets of smelting iron and growing cereals - but since wheat did not grow well in the savannah, the Negroes domesticated local cereals, sorghum and millet. At the turn of our era, the tribes of the savannah learned to grow yams, a tuber-bearing plant similar to potatoes. Yams could grow in clearings in the jungle, and this discovery marked the beginning of the development of the rainforest: farmers with iron axes cut down trees in a small area, then burned the dried trunks and, tearing holes among the stumps, planted yams. The cleared area bore fruit for only two or three years, then the village moved to a new place, and the felling quickly overgrown with a moist forest. Just like in the forests of Asia and Europe, the shifting system of agriculture required the unification of all the forces of the village, so the peasants lived in close-knit tribal communities: they felled the forest together, worked the land together with hoes and harvested the crops. During the first millennium of our era, the tribes of Bantu farmers settled widely in the tropical forests, and some of them went to the southern edge of the jungle, into the savannahs on the banks of the Zambezi; Bushmen hunters were pushed back into the Kalahari Desert.

In the 4th century, the mighty Nubian kingdom was suddenly attacked by an invasion from the east, from the side of the Ethiopian highlands. The highlands were an amazing mountainous country, located at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level and cut off towards the coastal plains by sheer stone walls. There was a mild climate and fertile soils, which have long attracted settlers from the other side of the Red Sea - from Arabia. Settlers who arrived in the 1st century AD founded the city of Aksum on the plateau and brought with them the culture of the East - writing, the art of building dams and stone buildings. Not far from Aksum was the port of Adulis, where the ships of the Alexandrian Greeks heading to India stopped. Ethiopian merchants participated in maritime trade, sold to the Greeks ivory, incense, slaves and sailed with them to India. In 330, the Aksumite king Ezana heard from merchants that the Roman emperor Constantine had converted to Christianity and decided to follow the example of his powerful neighbor. Ezana created a strong army, made many campaigns, and "by the power of the god Christ" conquered Nubia. According to the legends, part of the Nubians retreated across the savannah to the west, where they subjugated the locals and founded new city-states.

Aksum remained a powerful state until the 7th century, when a wave of Arab invasion flooded all of North Africa and reached the borders of Nubia. Ethiopia was cut off from the rest of the Christian world, and she had to fight alone with numerous Muslim peoples. The port of Adulis was destroyed, the Ethiopians were pushed back from the sea and retreated to the highlands, communication with outside world interrupted; the time of decline came, when many crafts were forgotten, including the art of building stone buildings. Foreigners surrounded the highlands from all sides and more than once tried to seize this huge natural fortress - but Ethiopia survived and retained its independence and its faith. The churches of Lalibela, hewn from a single rock by thousands of nameless builders, became a symbol of the inflexibility and greatness of the Christian spirit - an amazing architectural monument created in the 13th century, at the very hard times fight against enemies. The church protected the legacy ancient culture, ancient holy books were kept and copied in churches and monasteries - and among them were those that were lost in the "big world" and survived only in Ethiopia. Vague rumors reached Christian Europe of an Orthodox kingdom somewhere to the south, and in the twelfth century the pope sent a greeting to "John, the glorious and great king of the Indians." It is not known whether this message achieved its goal - reliable information about the visit of Europeans to Ethiopia dates back only to the 15th century, and until that time the history of Ethiopia is known only from scant fragments of monastic chronicles.

Ethiopia was cut off from the sea by Muslim city-states on the coast East Africa . These cities were scattered along the ocean coast as far as the mouth of the Zambezi River; they were founded by Arab traders who sailed to Africa for gold and slaves and gradually settled on the coast. Merchants did not go deep into the equatorial regions where the Negro "Zinji" lived; they bought slaves from local chieftains in exchange for swords, spears, textiles, and glass beads. In order to capture slaves to exchange for these "gifts of civilization", the Negroes waged constant wars among themselves; at the same time, the pastoral tribes, who once came from the north and subjugated the local Bantu farmers, were distinguished by their particular militancy. Once upon a time, these brutal conquerors were riders who prancing on horseback - but their horses could not survive in the tropics because of the devastating infection of the tsetse fly; then they mounted short, swift bulls: they saddled and bridle them like horses, and fought on them in battle. The descendants of the conquerors had harsh customs: young men could not marry until the age of 30 and made up a caste of warriors, they usually went naked, adorned themselves with feathers and painted their faces; their weapons were long spears with a wide iron tip and large shields of ox-skin. The leaders of these tribes were revered like gods, and mass sacrifices were held on their graves - but at the same time, with the onset of old age, they were forced to commit suicide: it was believed that the health of the god-leader personifies the vitality of the entire tribe and, so that this force does not fade away, on the decrepit "god" should be replaced by a young and strong one. The chief's palace, according to the description of 19th-century travelers, was a huge hut made of straw and reeds; when receiving ambassadors, hundreds of his wives stood around the leader and there were large and small sacred drums - symbols of royal power. At feasts they ate fried meat and drank banana wine - it is interesting that the food of most of the people was not bread, but bananas. Bananas, cloves, balance beam boats and stilt houses were borrowed by the inhabitants of the mainland from the inhabitants of the mysterious southern island of Madagascar. This huge island was inhabited not by negroes, but by bronze-skinned people who once arrived from the east in thousands of large sailing canoes equipped with double-ended balance beams. They were Indonesians, residents of Java and Sumatra, who crossed the ocean thanks to the monsoon blowing in winter from the northeast to the southwest. Indonesians settled a deserted island where tropical forests grew and outlandish animals lived - large lemurs, hippos and huge birds three meters high and half a ton in weight - epiornis ostriches. Epiornis were soon exterminated by the colonists who hunted for their eggs, each of which weighed half a pood - such fried eggs were enough to feed 70 people! However, the legend of the giant birds that live in the south is preserved in the Arabian tales of Sinbad the Sailor and in the book of Marco Polo - this bird was called Rukh and it was said that it could lift an elephant in its claws.

Madagascar, or "Moon Island", was the southern limit of the world known to Muslims, and South Africa remained an area unknown to the Arabs - but they were well acquainted with West Africa, with countries south of the Sahara. These countries were called in Arabic manuscripts "Bilad al-Sudan" - "Land of the Blacks", or "Sahel" - "Shore": the Sahara seemed to the Arabs a huge sandy sea, and the peoples living south of the desert were for them the inhabitants of the opposite "shore". Even in ancient times, through the sands of Western Sahara, there was a road that went from well to well - later it was called the "road of chariots", because in these places numerous images of chariots were found on the rocks. The passage through the desert lasted a month, and not every caravan reached that shore - it happened that the sultry wind "sirocco" buried dozens of camels and drivers under the sand. However, it was not in vain that the caravaners risked their lives: in the valley of the Niger River, which flowed through the savannah, there were rich placers of gold, and the Negroes, who did not know its true value, exchanged gold dust for an equal amount of salt. True, merchants had to give part of the gold to the Berbers who lived in the Sahara; the Berbers were a warlike and stern people of the desert, reminiscent in their character of the peoples of the Asiatic Great Steppe; Berber tribes constantly fought among themselves and raided the "Land of the Blacks". Sometimes they united and fell upon the agricultural peoples of the savannah in a wave, subjugated them and created states in which the conquerors were rulers and warriors, and the conquered Negroes were tributaries and slaves. One of these kingdoms, which existed in the X-XI centuries, was Ghana; the ruler of Ghana could put up an army of 200 thousand people, horsemen and foot soldiers. In this state there were cities with houses made of stone, in which Muslim merchants lived, and villages with thatched adobe huts - dwellings of Negroes. In 1076, the capital of Ghana was destroyed by the Almoravid Berbers, supporters of Imam Ibn Yasin, who called for the purification of Islam. Just as in the time of Muhammad, the fanatical desert nomads united under the banner of the true faith and attacked the surrounding countries; they conquered not only Ghana, but also Morocco, as well as half of Spain. Wherever the Almoravids went, they abolished "unfair" taxes, poured wine on the ground and broke musical instruments: in their opinion, "true believers" should only pray and fight for the faith.

After long wars and troubles, the state of Mali was formed on the site of Ghana, the rulers of which had black skin, but professed Islam; by this time, the conquering Berbers had mixed with the Negroes, adopted their language and turned into a local aristocracy that owned thousands of slaves. Just as in Ghana, there were Muslim cities and mosques in Mali, and huge caravans went north every month with gold, ivory and black slave women. In the 15th century, the kingdom of Mali was replaced by the state of Songhai, whose ruler Askia Mohammed divided his country into provinces and introduced taxes according to the Muslim model. The Kingdom of Songhai was a powerful medieval power - but in other countries of the world a new time has long come, the time of gunpowder, muskets and cannons. In 1589, the army of the Moroccan sultan al-Mansur unexpectedly broke through the caravan route across the Sahara. When crossing the desert, more than half of the soldiers died and only about a thousand Moroccans reached the shores of Niger - but they had muskets that terrified the enemy. The Songhai army fled after the first salvo of the Moroccans. “Since that time, everything has changed,” says the historian of that time. “Security gave way to danger, wealth to poverty. Tranquility opened the way to misfortune, disaster and violence.” The capital of Songhai was sacked and destroyed in the same way that cities on the east coast were sacked and destroyed by men with muskets. These people sailed from Europe on large sailing ships, on the decks of which there were cannons - and the roar of their shots symbolized the beginning of a new era.

From the book The Fall of the Roman Empire by Heather Peter

Loss of Africa Attila appears in the pages of history as a co-ruler who shared power over the Huns with his brother, Bleda. Both inherited power from their uncle, Rua (or Rug; in November 435 he was still alive) (313). The first of the Eastern Roman

From the book Requests of the Flesh. Food and sex in people's lives author Reznikov Kirill Yurievich

13.2. History of Sub-Saharan Africa The African Neolithic began in the Sahara. There 7000 years BC. e. in place of the desert stretched green savannah. The people who lived there by the 6th millennium BC. e. already made ceramics, grew plants and bred animals. Gradually, the climate of the Sahara became

From the book Russo-Japanese War. At the beginning of all troubles. author Utkin Anatoly Ivanovich

Around Africa The tenth anniversary of the reign of Nicholas II was celebrated on ships. They gave me a big lunch. Admiral Rozhdestvensky raised a toast. In the continuation there were also toasts against the “mistress of the seas”. Music was playing on deck. The British finally left the Russian fleet, and the sailors dreamed of

From the book The Grand Plan of the 20th Century. by Reed Douglas

Plan for Africa Africa was then a continent where there was order. No one starved and no one fought. England, France, Belgium and Portugal have long divided everything. High infant mortality, infectious diseases, the slave trade and famine were ended. Already in the 19th century

From the book 500 famous historical events author Karnatsevich Vladislav Leonidovich

YEAR OF AFRICA Monument in honor of gaining independence in the capital of Togo - Lome At the beginning of the 20th century. Africa was almost entirely colonial. 9/10 of its territory belonged not to local residents, but to metropolitan areas. However, two world wars changed this situation. During the Second World War

From the book Cairo: the history of the city by Beatty Andrew

From Africa: Nile Cairo is a Middle Eastern city, but also African. In the 19th century, Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902), former Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and founder of the De Beers mining company, dreamed of connecting all British possessions in Africa with a railway that would

author Filatova Irina Ivanovna

Oblomov in South Africa What was he looking for in distant countries, why did the author of Ordinary History go there, having not yet given the reader either Oblomov or The Cliff? He himself answered this question as follows: “If you ask me why I went, you will be absolutely right. me first how

From the book Russia and South Africa: Three Centuries of Relations author Filatova Irina Ivanovna

Echoes in Southern Africa The acquaintance of South Africans with Russia goes back to that war. Before that, they had only seen sailors from Russian ships and immigrants from Russia. And during the war - volunteers, doctors, sisters of mercy. During the war, several South Africans visited

From the book History of Africa since ancient times author Buttner Tea

From the book 500 Great Journeys author Nizovsky Andrey Yurievich

Across Africa Scotsman Vernie Lovett Cameron, along with Livingston and Stanley, made his name as one of the preeminent explorers of the Congo basin. He began his career as a naval officer and was already an experienced traveler when, in 1872, he was assigned to

author Team of authors

A. V. Voevodsky. History of South Africa in the writings of African intellectuals and educators late XIX- the first third of the 20th century: features of the formation of historical ideas Historical ideas are the most important factor national

From the book Africa. History and historians author Team of authors

"The history of Africa in the interpretation of European scientists was a heap of myths" A balanced, pragmatic attitude towards the colonial heritage did not eliminate the need to "correct the psychology of people by destroying the" colonial mentality "". Nkrumah considered

From the book Africa. History and historians author Team of authors

A. S. Balezin. African Historians and UNESCO's "General History of Africa": Yesterday and Today, the "General History of Africa", published under the auspices of UNESCO in the 1980-1990s, was the first fundamental collective work of African scholars (written, however, in collaboration with white

From the book Nature and Power [World History environment] author Radkau Joachim

6. TERRA INCOGNITA: THE HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENT - THE HISTORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE BANAL? It must be admitted that there is a great deal in the history of the environment that we do not know or only vaguely recognize. It sometimes seems that the ecological history of Antiquity or the non-European world before modern times consists in

author Jeta Casilda

From the book Sex at the Dawn of Civilization [The Evolution of Human Sexuality from Prehistoric Times to the Present] author Jeta Casilda

The peoples who inhabited Africa south of the Sahara went through a long and distinctive path of historical development. These peoples are called tropical civilization. In the Middle Ages, there was no civilization, but there were only separate tribes.

Life in this territory was formed in 1000 AD. History in this case puts an experiment - the development of peoples in complete isolation. There are 2 points of view on the development of the peoples of Africa.

The position of the European, associated with thinking about the development of Africa, which depends on internal factors and features of the development of the Negro race (they called into question the mental abilities of the whole race).

Negritude concept. The Negroid type is more survivable, capable of a higher intense takeoff. The reason for the lag in development is seen in colonialism and the slave trade (Europeans took more than 100 million people out of Africa).

Until the 15th century, there was a pre-colonial era in Africa. Peoples developed in isolation. After the 15th century, the period of post-colonialism began (is there such a word?)

Africa belongs to the adaptive type of civilizations:

High adaptability to nature (influence on consciousness)

The specificity of soils that do not allow the use of plow land ownership is a very thin fertile layer.

The abundance of strong predators - a high level of self-defense, + numerous diseases of people

Huge spaces and low density - low variability of development.

In Africa, the system of intracontinental trade never developed, there were primitive means of storing information (only the oral method of its transmission, or dances and rituals). All African peoples were characterized by the integration of man into the natural habitat, inseparable from the earth. Man and nature interpenetrate each other. All these factors form a certain system of values - social wealth consists in broad family ties, no autonomy of the individual, a high degree of mythology in the minds of people in a combination of figurativeness and concreteness of thinking. Thus, the reasons for the slow historical development is the impossibility of self-development. Many historians call this type of society cold.

The main States of Africa are Sudan, Mali, Ghana. On the territory of modern Sudan there was a political image - Nubia (the area of the White and Blue Nile). It was an agricultural civilization. One of the most developed political associations, became the center of the spread of Christianity.

Ghana is a territory in the east to Niger, in the south to Senegal. Political heyday in 1054. Constant wars with the Berbers. Conducted trade with the countries of the Maghreb. From 1076, Ghana became the subject of conquest, first by the Almoravids, then by the Moroccans. In 1203 it was conquered by the kingdom of Soso.

Mali. Appeared around the 8th century. The economic heyday dates back to the beginning of the 12th century under the commander Sundiata. The capital, Niani, is the largest trading center on the upper reaches of the Niger.

18. Slavery in the socio-economic and political life of Asian and African countries.

From the second quarter of the 15th century, the penetration of Europeans, mainly the Portuguese and Spaniards, began. Having gained a foothold in West Africa and having created a wide plantation economy there, the Portuguese were in great need of labor, which led to the slave trade. They took slaves to sugar plantations and to the Gold Coast, where they were exchanged for gold. By this time, the demand for slave labor had risen many times over. The intensified struggle of the European colonial powers for the capture of African labor markets began. By 1610, the Portuguese monopoly was undermined by Dutch competition. However, the dominance of Holland was not durable, England and France entered the struggle to seize the colonial markets. They organized large trading companies in the slave trade, for example, a Frenchman. Company, founded in 1664, or the English Royal African Company, founded in 1672.

The huge demand for labor brought the volume of the slave trade to unprecedented proportions. Two-thirds of the slaves were taken out of West Africa, which caused irreparable damage to the development of African peoples. Wars, the slave trade claimed millions of human lives.

The slave trade had profound internal economic and political consequences for the subsequent history of African peoples. They were expressed in the paralysis of productive forces, in the destruction of traditional trade relations with the northern regions of the continent, in the collapse of large states. formations, in the moral degradation of the ruling classes of African states drawn into the trade.

The history of the peoples of Africa goes back to ancient times. In the 60-80s. 20th century on the territory of South and East Africa, scientists found the remains of human ancestors - Australopithecus monkeys, which allowed them to suggest that Africa could be the ancestral home of mankind (see Formation of mankind). In the north of the continent, about 4 thousand years ago, one of ancient civilizations- Ancient Egyptian, which left numerous archaeological and written monuments (see Ancient East). One of the most populated regions of Ancient Africa was the Sahara with abundant vegetation and a diverse wildlife.

Starting from the III century. BC e. there was an active process of migration of Negroid tribes to the south of the continent, associated with the advance of the desert to the Sahara. In the 8th century BC e. - IV century. n. e. in the northeast of Africa, there were the states of Kush and Meroe, largely associated with culture ancient egypt. Ancient Greek geographers and historians called Africa Libya. The name "Africa" appeared at the end of the 4th century. BC e. at the Romans. After the fall of Carthage, the Romans founded the province of Africa on the territory adjacent to Carthage, then this name spread to the entire continent.

North Africa met the early Middle Ages under the rule of barbarians (Berbers, Goths, Vandals). In 533-534. it was conquered by the Byzantines (see Byzantium). In the 7th century they were replaced by the Arabs, which led to the Arabization of the population, the spread of Islam, the formation of new state and social relations, the creation of new cultural values.

In antiquity and early middle ages in West Africa, three large states arose, replacing each other. Their formation is associated with the expansion of intercity trade in the Niger River basin, pastoral agriculture, and the widespread use of iron. Written sources about the first of them - the state of Ghana - appear in the 8th century. with the arrival of the Arabs in Africa south of the Sahara, and oral traditions date back to the 4th century BC. Its heyday belongs to the VIII-XI centuries. Arab travelers called Ghana the country of gold: it was the largest supplier of gold to the Maghreb countries. Here, crossing the Sahara, caravan routes passed to the north and south. By its nature, it was an early class state, whose rulers controlled the transit trade in gold and salt and imposed a high duty on it. In 1076, the capital of Ghana, the city of Kumbi-Sale, was captured by newcomers from Morocco - the Almoravids, who initiated the spread of Islam. In 1240, the Malinke king from the state of Mali, Sundiata, subjugated Ghana.

In the XIV century. (the time of the highest prosperity) the huge state of Mali stretched from the Sahara to the edge of the forest in the south of Western Sudan and from Atlantic Ocean to the city of Gao; its ethnic basis was the Malinke people. The cities of Timbuktu, Djenne, and Gao became important centers of Muslim culture. Within Malian society, early feudal forms of exploitation spread. The well-being of the state was based on income from caravan trade, agriculture along the banks of the Niger, and cattle breeding in the savannah strip. Mali has been repeatedly invaded by nomads and neighboring peoples; dynastic strife led to its demise.

The state of Songhai (the capital of Gao), which came to the fore in this part of Africa after the fall of Mali, continued the development of the civilization of Western Sudan. Its main population was the Songhai people, who still live along the banks of the middle reaches of the Niger River. By the 2nd half of the 16th century. an early feudal society developed in Songai; at the end of the 16th century. he was captured by the Moroccans.

In the area of Lake Chad in the early Middle Ages, the states of Kanem and Bornu (IX-XVIII centuries) existed.

The normal development of the states of Western Sudan was put to an end by the European slave trade (see Slavery, Slave trade).

Meroe and Aksum are the most significant states of Northeast Africa between the 4th century BC. BC e. and VI century. n. e. The kingdoms of Kush (Napata) and Meroe were located on the territory of the north of modern Sudan, the state of Aksum - on the Ethiopian highlands. Kush and Meroe represented a late phase of ancient Oriental society. Few archaeological sites have survived to this day. In the temples and on the steles near Napata, several inscriptions in the Egyptian language have been preserved, which allow us to judge the political life of the state. The tombs of the rulers of Napata and Meroe were built in the form of pyramids, although they were much smaller than those of Egypt (see Seven Wonders of the World). The transfer of the capital from Napata to Meroe (Meroe was located about 160 km north of modern Khartoum) was apparently associated with the need to reduce the danger from the invasions of the Egyptians and Persians. Meroe was an important center of trade between Egypt, the states of the Red Sea coast and Ethiopia. An iron ore processing center arose near Meroe, iron from Meroe was exported to many African countries.

The heyday of Meroe covers the III century. BC e. - I century. n. e. Slavery here, just as in Egypt, was not the main thing in the system of exploitation, the main hardships were borne by the village community members - plowmen and pastoralists. The community paid taxes and supplied labor for the construction of pyramids and irrigation systems. The Meroe civilization is still underexplored - we still know little about Everyday life state, its relations with the outside world.

The state religion followed the Egyptian models: Amon, Isis, Osiris - the gods of the Egyptians - were also the gods of the Meroiites, but along with this, purely Meroitic cults also arise. The Meroiites had their own written language, the alphabet contained 23 letters, and although its study began as early as 1910, the Meroe language still remains difficult to access, making it impossible to decipher the surviving written monuments. In the middle of the IV century. King Ezana of Aksum inflicted a decisive defeat on the Meroitic state.

Aksum is the forerunner of the Ethiopian state, its history shows the beginning of the struggle waged by the peoples of the Ethiopian highlands to preserve their independence, religion and culture in a hostile environment. The emergence of the Aksumite kingdom dates back to the end of the 1st century BC. BC e., and its heyday - to the IV-VI centuries. In the IV century. Christianity became the state religion; monasteries arose throughout the country, providing great economic and political influence. The population of Aksum led sedentary life by doing agriculture and cattle breeding. Wheat was the most important crop. Irrigation and terraced agriculture developed successfully.

Aksum was an important trade center connecting Africa with the Arabian Peninsula, where in 517-572. he belonged to South Yemen, but the powerful Persian power ousted Aksum from the south of Arabia. In the IV century. Aksum established ties with Byzantium, controlled the caravan routes from Adulis along the Atbara River to the middle reaches of the Nile. The Aksumite civilization brought cultural monuments to our days - the remains of palaces, epigraphic monuments, steles, the largest of which reached a height of 23 m.

In the 7th century n. e., with the beginning of the Arab conquests in Asia and Africa, Aksum lost its power. Period from the 8th to the 13th century. characterized by deep isolation of the Christian state, and only in 1270 begins its new rise. At this time, Aksum loses its significance. political center country, it becomes the city of Gonder (to the north of Lake Tana). Simultaneously with the strengthening of the central government, the role of the Christian church also increased, the monasteries concentrated large land holdings in their hands. Slave labor began to be widely used in the country's economy; corvée and in-kind deliveries are being developed.

The rise also affected the cultural life of the country. Such monuments are being created as chronicles of the life of kings, church history; the works of Copts (Egyptians professing Christianity) on the history of Christianity are translated, world history. One of the outstanding Ethiopian emperors - Zera-Yaikob (1434-1468) is known as the author of works on theology and ethics. He advocated strengthening ties with the Pope, and in 1439 the Ethiopian delegation took part in the Florentine Cathedral. In the XV century. The embassy of the king of Portugal visited Ethiopia. The Portuguese at the beginning of the 16th century assisted the Ethiopians in the fight against the Muslim Sultan of Adal, hoping then to penetrate the country and capture it, but failed.

In the XVI century. the decline of the medieval Ethiopian state began, torn apart by feudal contradictions, subjected to raids by nomads. A serious obstacle to the successful development of Ethiopia was its isolation from the centers of trade relations on the Red Sea. The process of centralization of the Ethiopian state began only in the 19th century.

On the east coast of Africa, the trading city-states of Kilwa, Mombasa, and Mogadishu grew up in the Middle Ages. They had extensive ties with the states of the Arabian Peninsula, Asia Minor and India. The Swahili civilization arose here, absorbing African and Arab culture. Starting from the X century. Arabs played an increasing role in the ties of the east coast of Africa with a large number of Muslim states in the Middle East and South Asia. The appearance of the Portuguese at the end of the XV century. disrupted the traditional ties of the eastern coast of Africa: a period of long-term struggle of the African peoples against the European conquerors began. The history of the interior regions of this region of Africa is not well known due to the lack of historical sources. Arabic sources of the 10th century. It was reported that between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers there was a large state with a large number of gold mines. The civilization of Zimbabwe (its heyday dates back to the beginning of the 15th century) is best known during the period of the Monomotapa state; Numerous public and religious buildings have survived to this day, testifying to the high level of building culture. The collapse of the Monomotapa empire came at the end of the 17th century. due to the expansion of the Portuguese slave trade.

In the Middle Ages (XII-XVII centuries) in the south of West Africa there was a developed culture of the Yoruba city-states - Ife, Oyo, Benin, etc. They reached high level development of craft, agriculture, trade. In the XVI-XVIII centuries. these states took part in the European slave trade, which led them to decline at the end of the 18th century.

A large state of the Gold Coast was the confederation of Amanti states. This is the most developed feudal formation in West Africa in the 17th-18th centuries.

In the Congo River basin in the XIII-XVI centuries. there were early class states of the Congo, Lunda, Luba, Bushongo, etc. However, with the advent in the 16th century. the Portuguese, their development was also interrupted. historical documents about early period there is practically no development of these states.

Madagascar in the 1st-10th centuries developed in isolation from the mainland. The Malagasy who inhabited it were formed as a result of a mixture of newcomers from South-East Asia and Negroid peoples; the population of the island consisted of several ethnic groups - gelding, sokalava, betsimisarak. In the Middle Ages, the kingdom of Imerina arose in the mountains of Madagascar.

The development of medieval Tropical Africa, due to natural and demographic conditions, and also because of its relative isolation, lagged behind North Africa.

The penetration of Europeans at the end of the XV century. was the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, which, like the Arab slave trade on the east coast, delayed the development of the peoples of Tropical Africa, caused them irreparable moral and material damage. On the threshold of a new era, Tropical Africa turned out to be defenseless against the colonial conquests of Europeans.

Africa is a place where people live, adhering to the rules of life, traditions and culture that developed several centuries ago, have survived to this day almost unchanged and are a clear guide to the everyday way of life of the population. The inhabitants of Africa still successfully exist due to fishing, hunting and gathering, without feeling the need and acute need for the objects of modern civilization. This does not mean that they are not familiar with all the innovations of civilization, they simply know how to do without them, leading a secluded lifestyle, not coming into contact with the outside world.

Peoples inhabiting Africa

The African continent has sheltered many different tribes with different levels development, traditions, rituals and outlook on life. The largest tribes are Mbuti, Nuba, Oromo, Hamer, Bambara, Fulbe, Dinka, Bongo and others. Over the past two decades, the inhabitants of the tribes have been gradually reorganizing themselves into a commodity-money way of life, but their priority is to provide themselves and their families with the necessary food in order to prevent prolonged famine. It can be said that the tribal population has practically no economic relations, which is why various conflicts and contradictions often arise, which can even end in bloodshed.

Despite this, there are tribes that are more loyal to modern development, entered into economic relations with other large nations and work for the development of social culture and industry.

The population of Africa is quite large, so on the continent on one square kilometer lives from 35 to 3000 people, and in some places even more, because due to the lack of water and the unfavorable climate of the deserts, the population is unevenly distributed here.

Berbers and Arabs live in northern Africa, who, over a dozen centuries of living in this territory, passed on their language, culture and traditions to the locals. Arab ancient buildings are still pleasing to the eye, revealing all the subtleties of their culture and beliefs.

There are practically no inhabitants in the desert area, but there you can meet a large number of nomads who lead whole caravans of camels, which is their main source of life and an indicator of wealth.

Culture and life of the peoples of Africa

Since the population of Africa is quite diverse and consists of more than a few dozen tribes, it is very obvious that the traditional way has long lost its primitiveness and, in some aspects, borrowed culture from neighboring residents. Thus, the culture of one tribe reflects the traditions of another and it is difficult to determine who was the founder of certain rituals. The most important value in the life of the tribal people is the family, it is with it that most of the beliefs, traditions and rituals are associated.

In order to marry one of the girls of the tribe, the guy must compensate the parents for the damage. Often this is a domestic animal, but more recently, ransom is also accepted in cash. It is believed that this tradition helps families unite, and in the case of a good amount of ransom, the father of the bride is convinced of the wealth of the son-in-law and that he can properly provide for his daughter.

The wedding only needs to be played on the night of full moon. It is the moon that will indicate what the marriage will be like - if it is bright and clear, then the marriage will be good, prosperous and prolific, if the moon is dim - this is very bad sign. The family in the tribes of Africa is distinguished by polygamy - as soon as a man becomes financially wealthy, he can afford several wives, which does not bother the girls at all, since they equally share household and childcare responsibilities. Such families are surprisingly friendly and direct all their efforts for the good of the tribe.

Upon reaching a certain age (it is different for each tribe), young people must undergo an initiation ceremony. Boys and sometimes girls are circumcised. It is very important that the guy during the ceremony does not scream or cry, otherwise he will forever be considered a coward.

Traditions and customs of the peoples of Africa

Africans spend a lot of time protecting themselves from evil spirits and getting closer to good gods. To do this, they perform ritual dances (causing rain, fight pests, receive a blessing before hunting, etc.), stuff tattoos, cut out masks that should protect them from evil spirits.

Sorcerers and shamans play a special role in the life of the tribe. They are considered servants of the spirits, it is to them that the leaders of the tribes listen and the common people come to them for advice. Shamans have the right to bless, heal, they hold weddings and bury the deceased.

The inhabitants of Africa honor their ancestors with particular enthusiasm, performing a series of rituals to worship them. Often this is the worship of dead ancestors, after whose death more than a year has passed, they are invited back to the house with the help of some ritual actions, allocating them a separate place in the room.

Before marriage, girls are taught a special language for married women, which only they know and understand. The bride herself must come to the groom's house on foot and bring her dowry. Marriage can be concluded from the age of 13.

Another feature of the tribal culture is the scarring on the body. It is believed that the more of them, the the best man warrior and hunter. Each tribe has its own drawing techniques.

home > healthcare