AFRICA

1. AFRICA 3100 B.C.-Present Kwa mwendwo gutiri irima (On the way to one’s beloved there are no hills) -Kikuyu proverb

3. Overview • There are as many as a thousand languages spoken by different African ethnic groups, each of which has a distinct history, culture, and set of religious beliefs. • Africa’s earliest civilizations, Egypt and Kush, developed in the Nile Valley. • Between the eighth and the nineteenth centuries A.D. the trading states of Ghana, Mali, and Benin flourished in West Africa. • Ancient Egypt produced rich written literature, from myths and hymns to love poetry. • Griots, oral storytellers, preserved the literary traditions of heroes and kings.

4. Historical, Social and Cultural Forces • The Nile River stretches 4,000 miles through Africa, flowing from south of the equator and emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. • The Nile is the LONGEST RIVER IN THE WORLD! • Aur (Black)- The ancient Egyptians called the Nile this because of the rich soil left behind by the annual flooding of the river. • The Nile was crucial to the formation of ancient Egyptian civilization (transportation and crops) • Menes – united southern and northern Egypt. His reign began the first Egyptian dynasty. • Major periods of stable rule (Old kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom)

5. Hieroglyphics

6. Hieroglyphics • “Priest carvings” or “sacred writing” • Used for formal inscriptions • Later used for business transactions, record keeping, and daily life • Papyrus- reed paper (stayed stable during Egypt’s dry desert weather)

7. Transportation, Change, and Slavery • Camels= transportation • Trade= West African empires (Ghana and Mali) • Ghana’s wealth came from gold • Sundiata (Malian hero-king)- conquered Ghana, solidifying Mali Empire • 1518- a Spanish ship carried the FIRST boatload of African slaves to the Americas • Over 6 million endured the Middle Passage- brutal sea voyage (malnourishment, epidemics, mutinies) • What do you think about the fact that people were sold for a profit? What if we did that now to help our economy?

8. The Arts • The West African “talking drum” was designed to change pitch to imitate speech patterns. • Traditional African music is polyrhythmic (beating drums, striking bells, clapping hands, and stamping feet) • http://www.ehow.com/video_4395486_polyrhythms-sixteenth-notes-djembe.html • Visual arts were created for religious, ceremonial, everyday uses • Art work reflected where the people lived (example: people near forests become accomplished wood-carvers) • After about 700 A.D. African people who lived north of the Sahara were influence by Arab traditions of music and dance. • The drum was the most important instrument

9. Masked Dance • Call-and-Response: African music had conversational elements (one instrument would “talk” and another would answer) • Masked dance was utilized during several occasions: Agricultural celebrations (first rain and harvesting), right of passages (marking birth, adult-hood, marriage, and death), rituals of secret societies, and healing rituals. These dances were public, but only members of the societies were allowed to see the masks outside of performances and to observe dancers putting on their costumes. • http://video.id.msn.com/watch/video/behind-the-mask-of-a-west-african-tradition/yr5cg3fx?src=v5:share:email:&from=email

10. Architecture

11. Architecture • Muslim mosques were often built of sun- baked bricks • In Ethiopia, the Coptic Christians produced churches carved into mountainsides. • Civilizations develop in the Nile Valley

13. Osiris and Isis • Human events believed to be affected by a variety of supernatural forces • Akhenaten- tried to change religion (one deity)- did not last after his death • Osiris: king of the dead: the myth about his death was the foundation of the Egyptians’ elaborate beliefs about the afterlife • Isis: his sister and wife and savior • Scribes: masters of hieroglyphics and its teachers: prominent status in society • Death: mummy and possessions that might be needed in the afterlife

14. Literature and Beliefs • Family/clan important! • African oral literature (histories of ethnic and kinship, heroic legends, praise songs for chiefs and kings, trickster stories, animal fables, riddles, proverbs) • TRICKSTER: represents the unpredictable, chaotic elements of life. Cunning and foolish, playful and cruel, funny and brutal. Trickster can take animal form (Anansi the Spider- famous African trickster). The trickster archetype is one of the most universal figures in world mythology and folklore- also in popular culture: Bugs Bunny and Bart Simpson

15. Impacts • Simplified hieroglyphics= Phoenician alphabet= basis for all modern alphabets • Egyptian sculpture= classical Greek sculpture • Slave trade= spread of African cultures in the Americas • Traditional African sculpture influenced Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse • The word religion was non-existent because it was a staple in life

16. Osiris and Isis • Myth: Osiris was killed by Seth, his brother, and Isis revived him twice. Now people hope for new life in the afterworld because of him. • Belief: the ba (soul) must make a dangerous journey through an underworld filled with monsters to reach the Hall of Two Truths, where Osiris awaits to judge it. Souls had to recite the most important parts of the Book of the Dead during judgment: the “Negative Confession” or “Declaration of Innocence” • Feather (truth) versus the heart of the deceased= eaten by Ammet (monster) or welcomed by Osiris • Spiritual body= ka