Video Lesson

Lesson Objectives

After Learning this lesson, you will be able to:

• analyze the nature of relationship among different African states;
• evaluate the factors for the rise and decline of the various pre-colonial African
  empires;
• recognize the achievements of pre-colonial African states

Brainstorming Questions

• Based on your learning in unit five above, explain about the states in pre-colonial Africa.
• How do you relate trade, Islam and the state in your locality?

Key Terms and Concepts

North East and Northern Africa and Eastern Africa

In the 16th-19th centuries, Africa saw significant state formation, trade expansion, and the spread of Islam. By 1275, the Nubian Christian kingdoms of Alwa and Makuria were absorbed by the Egyptian Mamluks. The growing influence of Arab clans and Islam in Nubia since the early 14th century led to the dominance of Arabs in the region.

However by the early 16th century, Arab dominance in Nubia was contested by the Funj, a cattle-keeping pastoral group with indigenous religious practices. Their origins are debated, with some historians linking them to the Shilluk people, the state of Bornu near Lake Chad, or northern Ethiopia.

In Nubia, the Funj quickly adopted Islam and founded the Funj Sultanate in 1504, with its capital at Sennar. A rival Arab state, Abdallabi, also emerged and contested the Funj for control and grazing rights in southern Gezira. Amara Dunqas, a notable Funj leader, led many battles against Abdallabi for dominance. Ultimately, the Funj prevailed and ruled Nubia, with support from Abdallabi Arabs. The Funj era was marked by territorial expansion into Nilotic Sudan and increased Islamization. Over time, Arab clans intermarried with local Nubians and became culturally Africanized.

Decline: The Funj Sultanate faced three major attacks from the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. Around 1620, King Susenyos destroyed several Funj villages. In 1742 and 1744, King Iyasu II led two more expeditions, with the second resulting in a significant defeat for the Christian forces by a Funj-Arab coalition. Despite these challenges, the Funj Sultanate expanded its influence into Kordofan and Darfur and remained a key regional power until its conquest by Mohammed Ali’s Egypt in 1821.

The Moroccan Sultanate

In the 16th century, Morocco emerged as a powerful independent state under the Sa`dids Arab clans and Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur. By the late 16th century, Morocco was the only North African state not under Ottoman rule and expelled the Portuguese from the coast in 1578. In 1591, Morocco’s army crossed the Sahara, capturing Gao and Timbuktu, which led to the disintegration of the Songhay Empire and the destruction of Timbuktu’s culture. However, this conquest disrupted Morocco’s gold trade, redirecting it to Tunis, Tripoli, Cairo, and European traders on the Atlantic coast of West Africa.

After Ahmad al-Mansur’s death in 1603, Morocco was weakened by internal strife and split into rival sultanates of Fez and Marrakesh. The Alawid Dynasty, established in 1669, reunified Morocco in the late 17th century and bolstered its strength by enlisting West African captives into the Moroccan army.

In the 17th century, Morocco maintained a military presence in the Niger bend, but much of the former Songhay Empire remained beyond Moroccan control. The Moroccan army, known as Arma, settled in the region, intermarrying with locals and establishing themselves as rulers of independent states. By the mid-17th century, the Arma severed their allegiance to the Moroccan Sultan and ceased paying tribute. Their rule ended in 1737 when the Tuareg Berber nomads took control of Timbuktu and the surrounding Niger bend grasslands.

Eastern Africa

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Sub-Saharan Africa saw various states emerging across the region. In East Africa’s Great Lakes area, Buganda was a prominent kingdom located northwest of Lake Victoria. Under its kabaka (king), Buganda expanded significantly in the 18th century, thriving through agriculture, trade, and handicrafts. To the southwest, the kingdom of Rwanda was established by the cattle-keeping Tutsi and agricultural Hutu peoples. The Tutsi, as the ruling class, collected tribute from the Hutu farmers and herders.

West and South-Central African Kingdoms and Southern Africa

Benin, Oyo, Dahomey and Ashante

In West Africa’s forest region, states thrived due to long-distance trade facilitated by Muslim traders. The Edo people established the Empire of Benin in what is now southern Nigeria, reaching its zenith by the end of the 15th century. Benin City, the capital, was renowned for its walls, spacious streets, and wooden houses. Its power grew through ocean trade with the Portuguese and Dutch, exchanging pepper and dyed cotton for European goods. Benin was also noted for its bronze sculptures, but the empire began to decline in the 17th century.

In the 17th century, the Yoruba chieftaincies unified to create the Empire of Oyo, which thrived in present-day Nigeria for over a century. The Yoruba economy was based on agriculture, but they excelled in crafts like spinning, dyeing, and metalwork. By the 19th century, the Empire of Oyo fell due to invasions by the Fulani and internal rebellions. The Fulani then conquered Hausa lands and founded the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria, gaining prominence through the Jihads led by Fulani cleric Usman dan Fodio in the early 19th century.                                                                                             

To the west of Benin and Oyo, Dahomey and Ashante rose as powerful states. Dahomey, established as an independent kingdom in 1625, reached its peak in the mid-19th century and was a major player in the transatlantic slave trade. Unique in Africa, Dahomey trained women as elite soldiers in the Abomey Amazons, a regiment led by the fierce Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh. These female fighters, numbering between 2,000 and 6,000, engaged in invasions and resistance against the French colonialists. The Amazons were disbanded after the French occupied Dahomey at the end of the 19th century.

The Ashante, known for their warrior prowess and wood carving, were a dominant Akan group who traded gold with the Songhay Empire. By the late 17th century, the Ashantehene unified much of present-day Ghana, with the kingdom thriving on tribute and trans-Saharan gold trade. As gold trade declined, they traded slaves, guns, and goods with the Portuguese at Gold Coast and exported kola nuts to the north. The capital, Kumasi, was a notable city. In the 18th century, the Ashante expanded into the northern grasslands and, in the early 19th century, into coastal areas. They modernized governance by appointing skilled officials and employing Europeans in key positions.

The Kingdom of Kongo

The Kingdom of Kongo emerged around 1400 in west-central Africa, located south of the Congo River in present-day Democratic Republic of Congo and Northern Angola. It was inhabited by the Bantu-speaking Bakongo people, who excelled in agriculture, metalworking, pottery, and weaving. The highly centralized government was led by the Manikongo (king), with Mbanza Kongo (now San Salvador) as its capital, organized into six provinces with a strong administrative system. Regional governors collected tribute, including ivory, millet, and animal skins. The economy was based on agriculture and trade, including iron tools, pottery, sea salt, and slaves. Weaving and iron smelting were prestigious occupations reserved for the nobility.

From the late 15th century, Portuguese traders significantly expanded the slave trade in the Kingdom of Kongo, making it a major supplier to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. By the end of the 16th century, the kingdom faced decline due to internal unrest exacerbated by Portuguese slave raids and invasions by the Jaga (Imbangala) warriors from the Lunda or Luba region.

Torwa, Mutapa and Rozwi

Great Zimbabwe was abandoned by the late 15th century due to environmental strain and a shift in trade routes to the Zambezi Valley. The stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe remain as a testament to its historical significance. Successor states emerged in the region between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, including the Torwa state, which developed in the latter half of the 15th century southwest of Great Zimbabwe, in what is now Matabeland. The Torwa capital, Khami (or Danangombe), continued and refined the stonewalling traditions of Great Zimbabwe and became a major trade hub, evidenced by imported European and Chinese artifacts.

At the end of the 15th century, the Mutapa state, or Mwene Mutapa Empire, emerged as a successor to Great Zimbabwe, founded by Mutota. Using a strong army, Mutota and his successor, Matope, controlled trade between the plateau and the Swahili coast and expanded their domain from the Kalahari Desert to Mozambique. The title “Mwene Mutapa” (master conqueror) became synonymous with the empire, which the Portuguese later named the Kingdom of Monomotapa. In the 16th century, the empire dominated gold and ivory trade along the Zambezi Valley, interacting significantly with Swahili coastal trading posts. Mwene Mutapa resisted Portuguese encroachment until it was eventually subdued in the mid-17th century.

In the 1670s, Changamire, a Shona military leader, founded the Rozwi Empire on the western Zimbabwe plateau. His followers, known as the Rozwi (“the destroyers”), rivaled the Mwene Mutapa Empire. In the 1680s, Changamire conquered the Torwa state and expelled the Portuguese from the plateau in 1693. The Rozwi Empire flourished until 1830, when it was destroyed by the Nguni and Ndebele tribes, who had migrated north due to the rise of the Zulu Empire. The Ndebele and Nguni then established the Kingdom of Matabele among the Shona in Zimbabwe.

Southern Africa: The Zulu Kingdom

In southern Africa, Bantu-speaking groups like the Venda, Sotho, Tsongo, Nguni, and Inhambane were present from the 15th century, but major state formation did not occur until the late 18th century. This development was driven by intertribal conflicts and the expansion of Dutch (Boers) and British colonizers.

In the 1780s, southern Bantu clashed with the expanding Boers, leading to a century-long conflict. In response, several Bantu states formed, including the powerful Zulu Kingdom under Shaka Zulu (1818-1828), who defended his kingdom with his mother’s support. After Shaka’s death, the Zulu kingdom weakened due to internal strife and British colonization. By the mid-19th century, the British, who had taken over the Cape Colony from the Dutch, expanded northwards and conquered the Zulu Kingdom and other Bantu clans.

The Ottoman Conquest of North Africa

Until the early 19th century, North Africa, excluding Morocco, was under nominal Ottoman Turkish rule. Throughout the 16th century, the Ottomans and Spaniards vied for control of the region. The Ottomans, with their superior navy and Janissaries, along with the support of North African Arab and Berber Muslims, ultimately defeated the Spaniards and expelled them from their Maghrebi coastal posts in Ifriqiya (Tunisia), Algiers, and Tripolitania.

The Ottomans conquered Egypt in 1517, defeating the Mamluk rulers and subsequently extended their control over Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia, threatening Morocco. By the end of the 16th century, the Ottomans had pacified Arab and Berber nomads and established these Maghreb countries as Ottoman provinces. In the 1550s, their conquests reached as far as the third cataract in Nubia.

In Ottoman North Africa, Turkish Pashas (viceroys) and deys (military commanders) were appointed from Istanbul to govern the provinces. Turkish was the official language, and Arabs and Berbers were excluded from top government positions. The Pashas were supported by Turkish Janissaries, whose numbers decreased from about 15,000 in the 17th century to nearly 4,000 by 1830, and by Ottoman spahis (cavalry forces) who were more respected due to their mixed heritage of Turkish soldiers and local Arab women. Each province was divided into Sanjaks (sub-provinces), managed by Mutasarrifs (deputy governors) under the Wali (governor general). Local Arab chiefs administered the districts within the sub-provinces.

The Ottomans introduced the millet system for local administration in North Africa and attempted reforms in land holding, taxation, and military services while fostering trade and commerce. Ottoman traders also exported firearms across the Sahara, significantly impacting West African states. For example, in the 16th century, Mai Idris Alooma of Kanem-Bornu, who obtained firearms from North African Turks, was able to successfully expand his empire.

By 1700, the Ottoman Sultan’s control over North African states weakened, with local military rulers in Algeria, Tunisia, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica becoming practically independent while still paying tribute. In Egypt, hereditary Mamluk beys and pashas held significant power under Ottoman nominal suzerainty. In 1805, Mohammed Ali established a dynasty that ruled Egypt for over 150 years. In the 1840s, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania became centers for the Senussi, a Muslim reform group led by Mohammed Ben Ali as-Senusi, advocating a return to early Islam. Algeria, meanwhile, was occupied by the French in the 1830s and 1840s, which extended their control into the Sahara and settled around 40,000 French colonists, increasing to 400,000 by the early 1880s.