Ancient Mali
Arguably, the ancient empire of Mali took over after the fall of Ghana Empire around 1240AD. Certainly, the first capital in the Mali Empire was Djeriba, Niani, and Mali respectively. Perhaps, the powerful kingdom began to lose its influence and power in the course of 16th century. The ancient Mali was ruled by one of the greatest rulers, such as Sakura, Sundiata, Maghan, Musa, and Maria Jata (Strickland & Lemoine 116). Its leaders together with traders established powerful trade links in the region. Ancient Mali dominated the Sahel region because of its premeditated approach for controlling and conducting trade in the whole North Africa. The word Mali among the ancient people means Hippopotamus or a residence of the king (Hazel 12).
The Ancient Mali fell in the hands of colonizers in the late years of 1800s. Colonization during this era affected ancient Mali politically, economically as well as socially. The consequences were both negative and positive. Economically, colonization enhanced trading activities across the sub-Saharan region. It led to introduction and spread of Islam in the region. The region was the focus of colonialists; this was because Mali was rich in gold.
Politically, the coming of colonies disrupted the organization and ease of the kings. In fact, the arrival of French disintegrated and brought to an end the domination of the ancient Mali Empire. The political setup of upheaval and anarchy within the empire was disrupted. The natives of Mali were turned into slave and refugees (Hazel 13). Most of them ran away to escape the brutality of the slave trade as well as communal violence. French colony took over the active cities of Gao and Timbuktu. During this era, French used the ancient Mali as a place to market and sell their goods.
Additionally, French constructed roads and improved the infrastructural facilities. This effort improved Mali, but the main intention was to open Mali for investment, especially in the farms. French colony became the first group to construct cotton industries, which led to pressurization of slaves for massive production. Because of this, Mali has flourished in the production and importation of cotton (Strickland & Lemoine 116). Colonization also affected Mali adversely; cotton plantation drove the nation into famine and poverty.
Ancient Mali is well known for its trade, mining, weaving, as well as architecture. By the end of 14th century, the empire of Mali had accumulated a lot of wealth and achieved greater powers, than Ghana. The civil war that began during the 14th century between Songhai and Ancient Mali reduced the powers of Ancient Mali. The dominance, wealth, and power of Ancient Mali and its empires became to an end during the arrival of Portuguese, which marked the beginning of colonization era in the region (Hazel 14).
In today’s history, Mali is among the poorest nations in the globe. Despite its increasing poverty level, it became the crossroad between West Africa and northern Africa during trade. Therefore, Mali is rich of diverse culture; this is because of interaction of black nations in the south and Arab nations to the north; it forma a cultural meeting place. Economically, people of Ancient Mali specialized in fishing and farming. The main products of farming include millet, cotton, peanuts, corn, rice, and vegetables; they also kept sheep, goats, and cattle. Up to date, cotton is the main export in the region. Despite its economic downfall, Mali is one of the stable countries in Africa socially and politically.
Songhai
After the fall of Numidia, Carthage, and Egypt dynasties, the delight of African shifted to the empires of West Africa. The West African empires include Songhai, Mali and Ghana. Scholars and nonprofessionals regarded Songhai Empire as being the greatest empire in the African region. The empire rose to its utmost height in the late 1400s this was during the outstanding rule of Sunni Ali. In the reign of Ali Sunni, Mali and Ghanaian empire were integrated to form the Great Songhai Empire. Songhai was just a mere community whose main economic activity was fishing; therefore, they traded fish in exchange of other goods and services. Other prominent leaders of Songhai were Bakari Da’a, Musa, Alskia Daud, Alskia Ishak, and Alskia the Great (Spielvogel & Duiker 378)
Songhai was well known for its advancement in education, banking and credit procedures, measures and weights, as well as all sorts of professionalism. Professionals such as doctors, priests, teachers, and judges were recognized and maintained by the king (Harry 14). Songhai valued education; hence, books were particularly valuable. Traders of books accumulated sizeable amount of gold from the sales.
The natives of Songhai followed and believed on African religions of magic, spirits, and witchdoctors. As the colonizers arrived, the people of Songhai were assimilated to believe in one god, especially in the Islam religion. In the past the nobles and leaders, believed in one Islam god, but the common people worshipped many goddesses and gods. The existence of Songhai Empire and other prominent kingdoms was an indicator that Africans were in a position of creating civilization even before colonization.
Portuguese invaded Songhai and carried out slave trade. The colonization of Songhai marked the beginning of human misery and suffering. Apart from the slave trade, invasion of Portuguese into the Songhai Empire flourished trade in the region (Spielvogel & Duiker 379). Songhai imported books, in exchange of salt, gold and slaves. The gold riches in the Songhai Empire encouraged the invasion, weakening its political power.
Culturally, Songhai had a Farah Maka who is an ancestral figure and a hero. They believe that Faran battled numerous spirits in the river, and won over the control of Niger River. On the other hand, Dongo, the divinity of thunder and lightning, verified anger towards Faran by killing people and burning villagers. Due to demonstration of power by Dongo, Faran was to offer music, animal sacrifices, as well as praise poems as a show of respect. Therefore, the belief has been passed from one generation to another. Modern Songhai set to stage similar events, known as possession ceremonies. The praise songs and poems are believed to be directing the descendants of Faran. Hence, the myths of Songhai are kept active through religious and social activities.
Contemporarily, Songhai is still famous for its pursued and interest in education. There are many schools, colleges, and universities that enhance continued development of professionalism. The criminal system of justice is mostly based on Islamic principles, its main goal (Harry 17). Despite the civilization that has taken place, some low class individuals still believe and worship traditional gods. Currently, the dress code is much civilized, apart from some norms and beliefs that are still followed. For example, women should always cover their heads regardless of the reclining of their hair. Economically, Songhai still depends on farming, fishing, and trade. The people of Songhai observe secular holidays, for example Tabaski, Muhammad birthday, and Ramadan. The natives of Songhai always celebrate their heroic and successful past through epic poetry, dance, and song. This performance is always witnessed during marriage, holidays, and births.
Great Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe history can certainly be dated to stone structures, Dhlo-Dhlo and Great Zimbabwe, as these were the first civilization indicators. Among the shone language, Zimbabwe refers to house of stones or sacred house. Great Zimbabwe is located on the high plateau between Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers. As a matter of fact, history reveals that Great Zimbabwe was inexistence since 1100 to 1450 C.E; this was during the era of Iron Age. Settlement of people in Great Zimbabwe began in the fourth century. During this period, Gokomere was the only identified community, who carried out farming activities, and mining (Hall 295).
Great Zimbabwe was the center of controversial issues; colonialists at first were exceedingly amazed on the land, but later perplexed when they saw impressive and towering ruins in the southern Mashonaland. Historically, facts show that the great Zimbabwe was established by the natives called Shona. the city later grew to be one of the best for trading Gold. The Great Zimbabwe was positioned in an economically advantaged region; it stood on the trade routes. This factor gave the leaders of the Empire a chance to levy tax on traders who used the route. The Europeans became interested in Great Zimbabwe because of abundance of gold mines in the region.
Colonization of Zimbabwe made it one of the wealthiest nations in the past. In terms of wealth in Africa, Great Zimbabwe is one of the nations that used its natural resources, such as ivory and Gold, to grow economically and become rich through trade. In fact, Great Zimbabwe gives a clear insight on trade that existed before the coming of Europeans (Nyathi 90).
The colonialists came with numerous impacts on the economy, social, and political life of people of Great Zimbabwe. They first conquered the land as an investigative group on the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. Colonial era took the heritage of the people of Zimbabwe; Cecil Rhodes claimed that more civilized individuals, rather than Africans constructed the ruins (Hall 297). Furthermore, British colonialists took the resources and fertile lands. Socially, cultures and heritage of the people of Zimbabwe was undermined. British domination also led to oppression of the natives.
The culture of Great Zimbabwe is extremely rich in traditions and customs, which are detailed. Certainly, when British came they diluted the culture of Zimbabwe through Christianity, but up to date Christianity is still a mixture of colonial philosophies and cultural beliefs. Other cultural activities include art, and woodcarving (Hall 300).
Contemporary situation is one of the most complex in African history, especially with the leadership of Mugabe. Up to date, the pre-colonial tension still exists, as well as leadership wrangles. In fact, the current president has been in power for a long time because of his dictatorship (Nyathi 93). Recently, there was turmoil in the economy of Zimbabwe due to depreciation of its currency. In addition, Mugabe has forced all the colonial settlers out of Zimbabwe, and gave land to the natives. In reality, the economy of Zimbabwe could be one of the best in Africa due to variation of its population.
Today, the government of Zimbabwe has subjugated the ruins from the great Zimbabwe. They have named numerous parts of the nation after the tremendous structures. For example, soapstone bird, conical tower, and Great Exposure are embedded on coins, banknotes, and national flag. Zimbabwe is currently looking to pre-colonial past in creating their new identity as a nation. Some of the famous ruins in Great Zimbabwe included Great Enclosure, The Conical Tower, Hill Complex, and Soapstone Bird.
Ancient Egypt
Undoubtedly, ancient Egypt history span the era from the early pre-dynastic settlement in the northern part of the Nile valley to conquest by Romans in the year 30BC. Three thousand years ago, the Ancient Egypt history was separated into approximately nine periods, known as kingdoms. It was one of the most civilized and flourishing kingdom, known for agricultural practices, architecture, art, and hieroglyphic writing. It was later conjured by Romans, Assyrians, French, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and British.
Politically, Egypt had a tremendous centralized form of government, which was controlled and by a number of hereditary rulers. These lines of hereditary rulers were called pharaohs; their main functions were to act as advisors and nobility in the court of law, as well as overseeing the governors of the entire provinces within the kingdom. Additionally, they were commanders in chief of the Egyptian army (Steele 20). There were priestesses and priests who carried out the officiating of complex religious practices and ceremonies, as well as attending to the gods. The power of pharaohs was considered dynastic; this implied that they had absolute powers in the kingdom. The power of pharaohs was seen as the people who represented gods in the world, as well as being the gods themselves.
The banks of river Nile made life in ancient Egypt dependable of agricultural activities. Many people in this society were involved in farming, especially growing of crops that lasted for nine months. The principal crops included fruits, vegetable, and wheat, additionally pastoral farmers kept goats, sheep, and cows. All this activities strengthened ancient Egypt economically. Despite the fact, the farms were impossible during flooding season; it receded fertile silt on the farmlands (Wassynger 13). The pyramids found on Egyptian soil has become a tourist attraction site, forming part of the economy.
The colonial era in ancient Egypt started in the year 1882. During this time, the British forced the french leader napoleon Bonaparte, out of African continent. This disrupted cultural, economic, social, and political aspects of ancient Egypt. Additionally, it led to the slave trade and enhanced goods trade in the Nile. Colonization also came with their religious beliefs, terming the ancient Egypt religion barbaric.
Ancient Egypt is believed to have been the foundation of the contemporary culture in Egypt. The ancient Egypt became to be known for their fantastic architectural stones, used to make monuments. Most of the monuments constructed during the ancient Egypt era still stand today in the desert. The tombs, pyramids, colossal statues, as well as, temples reveal the knowledge, technological knowhow, and beliefs of those who created. The projects in Egypt today, reveals expertise skills, in planning, measurement and monumental workforce (Steele 24). Additionally, they practiced death rituals such as mummification and embalming. After the death of an individual, they undertook funeral procession, opening of the mouth, drink, and food sacrifices were offered, as well as wearing of the jackal mask by the priest.
Nile served three fundamental roles; these are fishing, farming, and enhancing trade. Ships from foreign nations and colonialists sailed in the river Nile loaded with many trade goods. The Pharaohs exchanged paper, textile, grains, beads, dried fish, as well as luxury goods, for ivory, ebony, incense, spices, and copper from foreign traders (Wassynger 15). This trade later opened ancient Egypt to colonization.
The climatic condition of ancient Egypt defined the nature of dress code, and fashion treasured by the natives. They were dressed in linen clothes, due to high temperatures. The clothes were typically white, decorated by starched pleats. This unique form of dressed code still forms the style and fashion of the Egyptians textile industry. In addition, paintings on tombs, houses, and temples were related to the religious nature and the way of civilization.
In the contemporary society, the monuments and the activities of people from ancient Egypt formed the basis of numerous fields of study. Up to date, astronomers, architects, overseers, laborers, stonemasons, and mathematics exist, tracing its roots from ancient Egypt. Furthermore, the geographical features found in Egypt, contribute to the success of the Egyptian, ancient, and present culture.
Work cited
Hall, R. ‘The Great Zimbabwe’, Journal of the Royal African Society Vol.4, 15.
Harry, J. A History of colonization of Africa by Alien Races. Cambridge: Cambridge university
press. 1950.
Hazel, R. Life in Ancient Africa. London: Crabtree, 2005.
Nyathi, P. Zimbabwe’s Culture Heritage. London; Wiley, 2005.
Steele, P. Ancient Egypt. New York: Rowan, 2009.
Spielvogel, L & Duiker, W. World History: from 1500. Oxford: Oxford Press, 2006.
Strickland, J & Lemoine, F. Government Leaders, Military Rulers, and Political Activists. New
Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
Wassynger, R. Ancient Egypt: Background and Information, Activities and projects. New York:
Wiley, 1997.
