African+Civilizations+and+the+Spread+of+Islam


 * 1. Notes on Stateless societies, Songhay Kingdom, Swahili society, Congo/Kongo society**

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 * 1) Stateless societies
 * Societies that lack political concentration
 * States are governments with an hierarchy of power whereas stateless societies relied on kinships for power
 * No ruler and court, just council of families or public assembly OR secret societies
 * Secret societies transcended **lineages**
 * No taxes for revenue
 * Catal Hüyük was an example and so were the Bedouins
 * Internal pressures were solved by exile or leaving
 * Difficult to resist external pressures
 * Stateless societies embarked on war expeditions, started large construction projects, and established stable long distance trade
 * 1) Songhay
 * Succeeded Mali and dominated the middle Niger Valley
 * Songhay consisted of farmers and herders and fishers
 * Began around the 7th century as an independent kingdom
 * By 1010, Islam was introduced
 * Empire began with Sunni Alli who ruled 1464-1492
 * Before he took rule, Songhay had broken free of Mali's control (c. 1370) and thrived from gold sources and resident foreign merchants
 * Great military tactician and ruthless leader, **//askia//**
 * Led conquests throughout the Niger Valley
 * Captured **Timbuktu** and **Jenne**, two major commercial centers
 * Developed a provincial administration system
 * **Muhammad the Great** was one of the line of Muslim successors and extended the borders to encompass central Sudan by the mid-16th century
 * Syncretism of Islam with the pagan religions
 * Muslim devotees were appalled by the loose interpretation and desired to impose stricter interpretations
 * Songhay fell in 1591 when a Muslim army defeated the Songhay army and ruling families quarreled and revolted against one another
 * Succeeding Songhay was the **Hausa** in northern Nigeria
 * **Kano** was a major city and it became a center of Muslim culture during the late 14th century
 * Had an urbanized royal court, fortified capital, and peasant majority like other Hausa cities
 * 1) Swahili Coast
 * Islamicized cosmopolitan trading ports by the 13th century
 * Governed by Muslim ruling families
 * About 30 ports, e.g. **Sofalal** and **Kilwa**
 * Constituted of Bantu-speaking herders from the north, farmers to the south, indigenous peoples, Indonesian/Malayan immigrants
 * Fished, farmed, pottery and simple iron metallurgy
 * Wave of immigrants from Oman and the Persian Gulf during the 8th and 9th centuries
 * Known as the land of **Zenj**
 * Bantu and Swahili, syncretism of Bantu with Arabic
 * Traded with China until 1431
 * 1) Congo
 * Began c. 1200 and flourished by the late 1400s
 * Strong agricultural sector
 * Industrial sector
 * weaving
 * pottery
 * metalsmithes
 * copper and iron
 * Iron was very important, the word //mani// in manikongo means blacksmith
 * carving
 * wood
 * Gender roles
 * Men took care of the labor intensive, political and commercial jobs
 * Women were housewives and farmers
 * Primogeniture of the throne, the role of **manikongo**
 * Local chieftains of eight provinces constituted the kingdom