Chapter 6: States and Societies of Sub-Saharan Africa- Vocab Flashcards
Age grades
Bantu institution in which individuals of roughly the same age carried out communal tasks appropriate for that age.
Axum
African kingdom centered in Ethiopia that became an early and lasting center of Coptic Christianity
Bantu
African peoples who originally lived in the area of present-day Nigeria; around 2000 B.C.E. they began a centuries-long migration that took them to most of sub-Saharan Africa; the Bantu were very influential, especially linguistically.
Benin
A kingdom (city-state) that arose in the forested regions of West Africa in which the court and urban residents controlled the surrounding countryside through family relationships and political alliances. They produced magnificent sculptures.
Camels
Camels and their saddles came to north Africa from Arabia in the late BCE, and were useful in the arid region. They started to replace horses and donkeys throughout the Sahara and Central Asia after 300 CE.
Gold
A precious substance that was important to the kingdom of Ghana, which controlled gold trade that was mined and smelted nearby.
Great Zimbabwe
Large sub-Saharan African kingdom in the fifteenth century.
Griots
Professional singers and storytellers in west Africa that transmitted folk stories, factual histories, genealogies, accounts, and other oral traditions.
Ife
A kingdom (city-state) that arose in the forested regions of West Africa in which the court and urban residents controlled the surrounding countryside through family relationships and political alliances. They produced magnificent sculptures.
Islamic slave trade
A slave trade (smaller than the Atlantic slave trade) that transported 10 million African slaves to foreign lands between 750 and 1500 CE.
Jenne-jeno
Settlement in the middle Niger River region in Africa that flourished from the fourth to the eighth centuries C.E. Known for iron production.
Kebra Negast
A fictional work (meaning “The Glory of Kings”) attempted to trace the claimed lineage of Ethiopia’s Solomonic dynasty of being descendants of David and Solomon (in order to add biblical luster to their authority). The work became popular in the 20th century among reggae fans.
Kilwa
A busy city-state on the east African coast that relied mostly on fishing by the Bantu people, but in the next 2 centuries, they started trade, agriculture, and importing items, which enabled them to built large stone buildings and use coins. They had tremendous prosperity in the 13th-15th centuries, and were visited by Ibn Battuta.
Kin-based societies
A societal structure based on family ties; used by early Bantu-speaking peoples that settled in small villages and were organized by kinship ties and family heads as authority. Some networks of villages and districts were organized, and they grew quite massive.
Kingdom of Ghana
The principal state of west Africa (not related to the modern state of Ghana) at the time of the Muslims’ arrival, situated between modern-day Mali and Mauritania.
