RISE AND

DEVELOPMENT OF
SOCIETIES
AFRICA, AMERICA, AND THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

LESSON 3.3
 ACTIVITY
AFRICA
WHAT I KNOW

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW

 OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to
• Relate to African contexts of circulation of ideas and culture,
and geography and modern kingdom’ borders.
• Uproot the origin of African civilization and influence
• Illustrate the timeline of African history
 AFRICA’S
CIVILIZATIONS

• Anthropological evidence
proved that the advances in
various fields such as
engineering, mathematics,
navigation, writing, arts occurred
solely in African societies.
• Many essential things that we
utilize today should be rightfully
credited to the ancient
accomplishments of Africa’s
ancient civilizations.
 FIRST HUMANS
• The earliest human-like fossil was found in
East Africa and dates back to about 2.8 million
years.
• This evidence suggests that the “true” humans
or the Homo Sapiens were of African descent.
• Scientists have also found signs of primitive
life in Algeria when they discovered primitive
stone tools, and animal bones that were
scratched in a way suggesting that the animals
were skinned, gutted and butchered.
THE BENIN EMPIRE
• 11th century, one of the oldest and most
highly developed civilizations in West
Africa,
• The Benin City and the surrounding
kingdom were lined with man-made
walls known as the Walls of Benin
• It is estimated that 150 million hours were
spent working on the construction, after
which the walls stood for over 400 years
protecting the civilization of Benin.
 ANCIENT EGYPT
• Established around 3100 BC, the early
Egyptian civilization had to invent things for
themselves since they had no one to learn
from.
• Therefore, they were the first to discover
metallurgy, astronomy, writing, paper,
medicine, mechanics & machinery
(including ramps, levers, ploughs and mills)
and all that goes for the continuation of a
large organized society.
• The Empire of Mali introduced the EMPIRE OF MALI
prosperous University of Sankore to
the world as a highly significant
seat of learning.

• Today, Timbuktu holds over 700,000

manuscripts with many dating back
to the 12th -16th centuries (West
Africa’s Golden Age).
 EMPIRE OF SONGHAI
• In the 15th and 16th century,
• Due to the stationed army in the provinces throughout
the empire, the state would protect the port cities and
the merchants who formed partnerships making it a
very strong commercial center known for the
production of both practical crafts as well as religious
crafts.
• The empire possessed craft guilds that consisted of
several artisans and mechanics including
metalworkers, fishermen and carpenters.
• This labor system from the 15th century is often
described to resemble the modern day unions.
 THE GARAMANTES
• According to Herodotus, the
Garamantes, -tribal people in Fezzan,
Libya around 100BC – were a great
nation who farmed dates, herded
cattle and used four-horse chariots.
• The Garamantes tribes are
particularly known for their
elaborately constructed agricultural
system known as the “foggara
underground irrigation system”.
 KANEM-BORNU EMPIRE
• 8th century
• The empire was geographically situated
amidst one of the most convenient trans-
Saharan routes facilitating trade connections
with the surrounding kingdoms.
• This allowed the empire to be in control of a
strongly built network of trade between
North Africa, the West African Kingdoms,
and East Africa.
 KINGDOM OF LUBA
• At around 1585,
• What sets the Luba Kingdom apart from other
kingdoms is that it held the arts in high esteem.
• A carver with an axe (adze) carried over his shoulder
held a relatively high status among the society.
• Among the figures used to adorn objects were female
figures, due to the important role that they played both
in political society and in myths of creation.
• The Kingdom’s rulers held such high prestige that
rulers of small neighboring chiefdoms were keen to
associate themselves with the Luba culture.
KINGDOM OF MAKURIA

• Makuria was a Nubian kingdom located in the modern

day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan region.
• By the end of the sixth century, Makuria had converted
to Christianity, but a century later, Egypt was
conquered by Islamic armies who made an attempt to
invade Makuria.
• Thus, in the 7th century, a treaty known as the “baqt”
was signed between the Christian state of Makuria
and the Muslim rulers of Egypt to create a relative
peace between the two sides.
• This treaty lasted almost seven hundred years,
making it the longest-lasting treaty in history.
 NRI KINGDOM

• Established in the 10th century, the Nri

Kingdom was a medieval polity
administrated by the priest-king Eze
Nri.
• The kingdom of Nri served as a haven
9th century snail-shaped for those who have been rejected from
bronze vessel excavated
in Igbo-Ukwa, Nigerian their communities.
Nationa lMuseum, Lagos
• Moreover, it was a place where slaves
were set free from their servitude.
OROMO • Long before the 16th century, the
Oromo people implemented the
Gadaa system of governance, an
exceptional democratic socio-
political system.
• The Gadaa system would elect a
leader from five Oromo groups
(miseensa), and the leader remains
in power only for 8 years, after
which another election takes place
for the successive leader.
 LAND OF PUNT
• The kingdom of punt was an
ancient land known for being a
powerful trading partner of
Egypt.
• The land of Punt was known for
the production and exporting of
gold, ivory, ebony, aromatic
resins, blackwood and even
wild animals.
 SOME OF AFRICA’S
ANCIENT
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE
WORLD
• Africa’s oldest known writing system dates back to
over 6000 years ago. WRITING
• While on the other hand, Europe’s oldest writing
dates back to 1400 BC, which was used by the
Greeks yet largely derived from the Proto-Sinaitic,
an old African script.
• The most famous indigenous writing system that
emerged from Africa is the Egyptian hieroglyphs,
which developed later into Hieratic, Demotic and
Coptic. Then, there was the Meroitic language
native to the Kingdom of Kush (present day Sudan).
• There is also the Tifinagh writing system which is
still used to a certain degree (Tamazight) in the
Maghreb, Sahel and Sahara regions.
• The Horn of Africa also developed the Ge’ez script
which is used today in Ethiopia and Eritrea for Hieroglyphs (left) and Ge’ez (right)
different languages such as Amharic and Tigrinya.
 ART
Africans as first artists
• It was Africans that introduced arts to
humanity for the first time about 73,000 years
ago, and This fact was brought to light with
the discovery of ancient artworks in the
Blombos cave of South Africa.
 SCULPTURES
• Sculptures of masks often represented
the spirit of animals in religious rituals.
• The African artists mainly used wood,
but they also explored with different
materials such as bronze, iron, ivory,
ceramics and terracotta.
• Precolonial African art is mainly
characterized by being three-
dimensional rather than the regular flat
paintings.
 SEA-FARING VESSELS
• The coastal civilizations used
sailing vessels for both fishing and
travelling.
• The sails of early vessels were
made from animal skins or woven
fabrics.
• Among the leading civilizations in
the construction of sea-faring
vessels were, Egypt (with the
Khufu ship)
 PAPYRI
• Papyrus was derived from the aquatic
plant Cyperus papyrus, which was native of the
Nile delta region in Egypt.
• Use only by experienced scribes to document
religious and medical texts, scientific manuals,
literature, and for record-keeping and writing
official documents.
• Many papyri survive to that day telling us of
ancient discoveries made by the Egyptians.
• Among those is the ancient Egyptian dating
system or the first calendar that used a year of
https://thinkafrica.net/african-civilisations/
365 days.
 ACTIVITY
IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS APPLICATION IN THE CURRENT PERIOD
 REFERENCE

• https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_African_civilization
• https://
www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/africa
n-origin-of-civilization
• https://www.history.com/news/7-influential-african-e
mpires
THANK
YOU