History Of West Africa

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Africans are far from uniform. In fact, they are quite diverse. This diversity is largely due to the greatly varied and often hostile terrain. Africa is home to deserts, savannahs, tropical rainforests, and other vegetation zones, including a swath across the north of the continent that lies on the Mediterranean Sea and enjoys its climate. Africa’s history is closely related to overcoming hostile environments. The tse-tse fly, which carries “Sleeping Sickness,” prohibited raising of livestock and subsequently the transport of goods over a large portion of the continent. The Sahara Desert provided a natural barrier that prevented all but those accustomed to the largest desert in the world from entering sub-Saharan West Africa. Those who did traverse the desert, mostly Berbers, created trade networks with the people of West Africa. The Berbers also introduced Islam, which was the greatest outside influence on Africa prior to the slave trade, into West Africa. A great empire of West Africa, Mali, was founded by Sundiata in the eleventh century according to oral tradition. With a centralized and militarized government, Mali was a powerful, advanced civilization: the rival of any in Europe at the time. A later ruler, Mansa Musa, was the first make the Haaj. He also made Timbuktu into an important center of learning. As a gold producing empire, Mali was not only powerful but incredibly wealthy. Other West African societies, such as the Igbo, were so-called “stateless” societies because they lacked a centralized state with a recognized ruler. They were “quasi-democratic” and were ruled by assemblies. Although such societies could be quite advanced, Europeans considered them to be uncivilized due their lack of hierarchal government.
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...influences became more prevalent. Government took many forms and cultural practices diverged greatly across the continent. Some societies were matrilineal; others were patrilineal. To speak of Africans as being a uniform people is incredibly misleading. Nothing is farther from the truth. They did, however, share some qualities. First of all, they viewed control of people in much the same way that Europeans viewed control of land. This was due to an abundance of land and a scarcity of people to perform labor. Africans were also a people who migrated often. Although environmental difficulties varied across the continent, they were present over virtually the entire continent, making the taming of it common to all its inhabitants as well. Finally, regardless of what differences may have existed in Africa prior to the Europeans, the societies had a collectivist nature.

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