African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam

Africa was never totally isolated from Asian, Mediterranean and Egyptian civilizations, although the contacts with them were intermittent. However, with coming of Islam to Africa this religion would be sub-Saharan Africa’s primary contact with the external world. The contact with Islam was much the same as in south Asia: Islam brought new influences and contacts without uniting African culture or integrating it politically with the Middle East. Africa civilizations were changes, but they did not loose their individuality.

African Societies: Diversities and Similarities

Sub-Saharan Africa was extremely diversified. Unlike parts of Europe, Asia, and north Africa, it was never united under a universal religion or empire/state.

Some African societies were stateless, organized around kinship and family obligation with no centralized authority. Government in these societies was never a full time occupation; there were no large armies, no large-scale political organization, no large building projects, nor were there conditions to conduct long-distant trade with other people.

What similarities there were resulted from the earlier migration of the Bantu people. Their root language created common structure and vocabularies across African languages and dialects; this allowed some mutual understanding among various tribes.

Most African tribes also had similarities in their belief systems. They were animistic, believing in a world controlled by spiritual forces and gods. These forces had to be dealt with through a specialist who would proscribe rituals, sacrifices, or some other form of religious practice to affect events. These beliefs created a view of how the universe worked and how one should ethically relate oneself to it. Their dead ancestors, the first settlers of the land, were the true owners of the land, and had a role in harvests and fertility. Thus land was more than just a source of agriculture; it took on religious significance.

As far as the economies of Africa are concerned, the north was fully integrated with the Mediterranean and Arab worlds of trade. The Sub-Saharan was a completely different. Its economies were primarily local and regional and varied so much that it is impossible to generalize about them.

The Arrival of Islam in North Africa

North Africa had been involved in classical civilization for a long time (the Phoenician city of Carthage, the Greek city at Cyrene, etc). Egypt was conquered by Alexander and later became a province in the Roman Empire and was always an important trading center for both of them..

In the 7^th century C.E. Muslims swept across north Africa. By 711 they had cross Gibralter into Spain. Their advance into western Europe was stopped by Charles Martel in 732. Nevertheless, north Africa was fertile ground for conversion (with the exception of the Berbers who resisted conversion for a while). Under the political unity of the Abbasid Dynasty, conversion to Islam took place very rapidly. With the fall of the Abbasids, north Africa broke down into several competing regions.

Islam took hold in North Africa for several reasons. It was easy to accept new Muslim rulers when they taught that all Muslims within the community were equal before Allah. Local African kings were attracted to Islam’s uniting the power of the state with religion: they saw it as a way of strengthening their rule by giving it powerful religious authority above the priests of animistic traditional religions. Recent converts, such as the Berbers, realized that at least in law they would be on an equal religious footing as the Arab Muslims. However, despite these positive endowments from Islam, actual practices differed widely from region to region and Islam’s teaching often found it difficult to overcome traditional hierarchies (such as class and gender.) These disparities between belief and practice led to many reform movements in which leaders attempted to bring society back in line with the original teachings of Muhammad.

The Christian Kingdoms: Nubia and Ethiopia

As Islam spread across north Africa, there remained “islands” of Christianity in the midst of its civilizations. Christianity came to Africa before Islam. Nubia, Axum, and Ethiopia had had hristian communities for several centuries before the Muslims came. Originally tied to Byzantine Christianity, they eventually split from them and developed their own unique Christian practices. When the Muslims came, they tolerated the Coptic communities and gave them some limit rights.

The most important Christian community in Africa was Ethiopia. Surrounded by Muslims and pagans, they took to the highland areas and became self-sufficient. They famously carved churches out of the mountain rock (page 175). In the 16^th century, the Ethiopian Christians were threatened by a neighboring Muslim state. The Portuguese arrived and drove the Muslims back. Their attempt to convert the Ethiopians to Roman Catholicism failed, and Ethiopia remained isolated, Christian, and fiercely independent.

Kingdoms of the Grasslands

In western Africa three kingdoms emerged which combined Islam with local traditions to form new and powerful states. Between the forest and desert regions, where several trading zone came together, the kingdom of Ghana was formed in about the 3^rd century C.E. It grew wealthy from the gold and salt trade routes that connected in its territory.

The Sudanic states of west Africa were influenced by the coming of Islam. These states (page 177) were led by patriarchal or family elders acting as kings. They extended their control beyond their territory by requiring taxes and military support from subordinate regions. When Islam came to these states, the religion was used to reinforce the rule of the kings. Although many people never converted, the Islamic ruling families were able to strengthen their rule through Islam. Two of these states rose above the others and became empires: Mali and Songhay.

As the state of Ghana began to break down, the Mali Empire broke from it and emerged as a separate. The leaders of Mali used the religion of Islam to enforce their tribal customs of kingship. Its most famous leader was Mansu Musa who made a much celebrated trip to Mecca in 1324. This trip became legendary and brought the attention of the Muslim world to Mali. Another result of this trip was in architecture. Mansa brought back a Spanish Muslim who directed the building of famous Mosques still around today (page 179).

Large cities grew in both the Mali and Songhay states because these empires granted state protection to merchants. The wealth and cosmopolitan life of some of these cities, such as Timbuktu, drew Muslim scholars, merchants, and populations as high as 50,000. Despite these developments, most of the inhabitants of Mali (80%) still lived in small villages and made their living from the land.

As the Mali power began to decrease, the people of Songhay rose to dominate the area. Like Mali, only the leaders converted; the majority of the Songhay people remained tied to traditional African beliefs. The most famous of the Songhay leaders was Sunni Ali who helped break away completely from Mali and establish Songhay as an independent kingdom. He was a great military commander and a ruthless leader. He captured important trading centers such as Timbuktu. Sunni Ali opposed any threat to his rule, even fellow Muslims (he persecuted Muslim scholars at Timbuktu. After Sunni, the Songhay came to dominate the entire central Sudan.

Social and cultural life in the Songhay was much like in the other Muslim sudanic states. The Islamic leaders failed to convert the general population to Islam and they always worried about the people not confirming to Muslim rules, such and women being veiled and mixing in public with men.

The Songhay fell apart after a Muslim army from Morocco, equipped with muskets, defeated the larger Songhay force.

Political and Social Life in the Sudanic States

The coming of Islam to the Sudanic States provoked many changes. As merchants fell under the protection of state law, trade flourished and trading centers grew wealthier. The Muslim concept of a ruler who united political and religious authority was used to strengthen and reinforce traditional ideas of kingship. In all these states, Islam fused with the existing traditions and belief systems; many rulers—Sunni Ali for example—still recognized the local traditions of their people. Many people never converted and those who did kept many traditional beliefs and mixed them with Islam.

Most interesting is the effect on women. Some of the Sudanic states were matrilineal. Visitors from strict Muslim nations were shocked by the freedom women enjoyed. The slave trade grew significantly with the coming of Islam. Muslims viewed slavery as a stage in the conversion process. Because many slaves were used as concubines, there was an emphasis on enslaving women. Many Muslims freed children born to slave mothers, but this simply increased the demand to find new slaves. Thus children were targeted by slave traders. Islam created a vast market in slaves that lasted over 700 years.