Africa Investigation On ANOTHER sheet of paper, answer the following questions using the documents provided. 1.

What were the sources of wealth and power for the West African kingdoms AND for the Swahili Coast city states? 2. Explain why gold and salt were the two essential commodities of the Saharan trade system. Why did each group place such a high value on their respective commodity?

3. How was Africa integrated into the larger Eurasian trade network? 4. What can you surmise about African slave trade in this period? 5. What can you tell about the significance of Timbuktu from the documents?
Document 1 Indian Ocean trade routes about 1200 CE

The Indian Ocean, controlled by the Muslim merchants until the arrival of the Portuguese in the end of the 15th century, was of far greater importance for world trade than the Mediterranean. Gold from Great Zimbabwe passed through the cities on the East African coast before shipment to the Middle East and east to India and China.

Document 2 Austen, R. A. The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade: A Tentative Census. The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade. New York, Academic Press. 1979. Estimated magnitude of Trans-Saharan Slave Trade, 650-1500 Years 650-800 800-900 900-1100 1100-1400 1400-1500 Annual Average # of Slaves Traded 1000 3000 8700 5500 4300 Total 150,000 300,000 1,740,000 1,650,000 430,000

Document 3 Abraham Cresques, a French Jew and Mapmaker of The Catalan Atlas, 1375. The Atlas, Commissioned by Charles V of France contains the above map of North Africa and its many references to Ghana. The map shows Mansa Musa sitting on his throne holding a gold nugget the size of a grapefruit.

Document 4 West African Trade Routes and Goods during the 11th through 15th Centuries. The Center of trade was the city of Timbuktu (Ti). At Fez, the traders bought goods from around the Mediterranean. At Sijilmasa (S), they load up with water for the 25 day trip to Taghaza (Ta). At Taghaza they take on salt and more water. Arriving in Timbuktu, they trade the salt and Mediterranean goods for gold. Finally, they load up with water and food for the return journey.

Document 5 Leo Africanus, a Moroccan traveler, describing the city of Timbuktu from his home in Italy after his conversion to Christianity. Here are many shops of artificers and merchants and especially of such as weave linen and cotton cloth. And hither do the Barbary (North African) merchants bring cloth of Europe. All the women of this region except the maid servants go with their faces covered and sell all the necessary victuals (foods). The inhabitants, and especially strangers...are exceedingly rich...Here are many wells containing most sweet water; and so often as the River Niger overflows they convey the water by sluices into town. Corn (wheat), cattle, milk and butter this region yields in abundance...The inhabitants are people gentle and cheerful of disposition, and spend a great part of each night dancing and singing in the streets of the city. Here are many doctors, judges, priests and other learned men that are well maintained at the kings costs. Various manuscripts and written books are brought hereand sold for more money than other merchandise. Document 6 The trans-Saharan slave trade was distinctive because approximately two-thirds of the slaves exported on these routes were female, destined to serve as concubines and domestic servants in Arabia and South Asia. Along with items such as salt, gold, and ivory, slaves were among the few commodities considered valuable enough to merit risky long-distance journeys by camel caravan across the Sahara. Trans-Saharan traders procured slaves taken primarily from the savanna and forest zones of West Africa, and, to a lesser extent, the East African coast. Traders exchanged luxury items such as Indian cotton, perfumes, spices, and horses for slaves sold either by other merchants, based in market towns such as Timbuktu, or by local rulers, who acquired slaves through raids, warfare, or tribute. Once purchased, slaves typically traveled on foot, and many had to assist with daily chores en route. Mortality rates, not surprisingly, were high. Upon their arrival in the Mediterranean port cities such as Tunis and Tripoli, slaves were sold in marketplaces. After the 8th century, Islamic principles defined many of the rules of commerce: Children under the age of seven could not be separated from their mothers, Muslim slaves could not be sold to non-Muslims Buyers were also allowed a three-day trial period to inspect the constitution and health of the slave they had purchased Women sold as concubines or into harems or were often held in escrow by a third party until menstruation proved they were not pregnant. Africa became an increasingly important source for slaves in Arabia and South Asia as more traditional sources from northern and central Europe were depleted during the 12th century. Beginning about the 14th century, slaves were also shipped to Italy and other European destinations. In addition to using female slaves for concubinage or domestic service, these buyers used male slaves for low-ranking soldiers or manual laborers on plantations or in cities. A relatively small number of male slaves were castrated; they served as eunuchs, often rising to positions of wealth and power because they were entrusted with important financial and political transactions. Many scholars have noted the absence of a distinct African population in contemporary southwest Asia, suggesting that the majority of slaves, particularly women who served as concubines, became integrated into the host societies, most often under Muslim law. Male slaves were also circumcised and given Muslim names. Upon bearing a son to their owner, concubines could not be sold or given away. Furthermore concubines were liberated upon their owner's death and the child was considered a free individual. Many other slaves were probably manumitted (freed) after working a nine-year period, after which many pious Muslims felt that the slaves had worked sufficiently to have earned their freedom.

Document 7 Between 750 and 1500 C.E., three major trading kingdoms emerged in West Africa: Ghana, Mali and Songhai. Each owed its power and success to its control over trade. By the mid 8th century, when the first of these kingdoms was emerging, the basic lines of the long and extremely hazardous trans-Saharan trade had been established. After the conquest of North Africa by Islamic armies, Arab and Berber traders set up outposts in the north from which they sent their caravans south. For a thousand years, until the late 1800's, camel caravans traveled this dangerous two-month desert crossing. Although the risks were great, the profits were equally high. From the north, merchants sent steel, copper, glass beads, horses and slaves. On their way south, the caravans stopped at Taghaza, an oasis that stood above a vast salt mine. The salt that was so plentiful at Taghaza was worth its weight in gold just 500 miles to the south. Loading up on huge blocks of salt, the caravans plodded on to busy trading centers that grew up at the southern terminus of the desert. For the return journey, caravans carried back leather goods, cotton cloth, malaquetta pepper, acacia gum, kola nuts and slaves. Most important, however, they stocked up on gold. Gold and salt were the two essential commodities of the trans-Saharan trade. Whereas plentiful supplies of gold were found in West Africa, salt was rare and highly prized. The gold-salt exchange not only affected merchants in west and North Africa but also had an impact on the trade of three continents: Africa, Europe and Asia. Before Europeans gained access to the gold of the Americas, they had no substantial gold supplies of their own. Instead, it was the gold mined in West Africa that eventually became the basis of international currencies. By the late Middle Ages, the emerging nation-states of Europe were desperate for gold. Monarchs needed money to pay their armies and civil servants as well as to finance the growing expenses of their courts. Also, as trade with the east expanded, much gold was being sent overseas to buy the goods of India and China. The gold shortage was, therefore, a major concern of medieval monarchs. The influence of west African gold was evident in the English coin called a "guinea," as direct reference to its west African source. The need for gold and the desire to tap west African sources of this precious metal motivated Prince Henry the Navigator's support for voyages of exploration along the coast of west Africa.

Document 8 Timbuktu began as a campsite for desert nomads. Under Mansa Musa it grew into a thriving entrept, attracting merchants and traders from North Africa and all parts of the Mediterranean world. These people brought with them cosmopolitan attitudes and ideas. In the fifteenth century, Timbuktu developed into a great center for scholarship and learning. Architects, astronomers, poets, lawyers, mathematicians and theologians flocked there. One hundred fifty schools were devoted to the study of the Koran. The school of Islamic law enjoyed a distinction in Africa comparable to the prestige of the school at Cairo. A vigorous trade in books flourished in Timbuktu. Leo Africanus, a 16th century Muslim traveler and writer who later converted to Christianity, recounts that around 1500, Timbuktu had a "great store of doctors, judges, priests and other learned men." It is easy to understand why the university at Timbuktu was called by a contemporary writer "the Queen of the Sudan." Timbuktus tradition and reputation for African scholarship lasted until the 18th century. Moreover, in the 14th and 15th centuries many Muslim intellectuals and Arabic traders married native African women. These unions brought into being a group of racially mixed people. The necessity of living together harmoniously, the traditional awareness of diverse cultures and the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Timbuktu all contributed to a rare degree of racial toleration and understanding. After visiting the court of Mansa Musa's successor in 1352-53, Ibn Battuta observed that, The Negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers. . . They do not confiscate the property of any white man who dies in their country, even if it be uncounted wealth. On the contrary, they give it into the charge of some trustworthy person among the whites, until the rightful heir takes possession of it.