Early Civilization in Africa

Tiffany Abdullah

History 1110

February 18, 2011

Fri. 11-1:45pm

Early Civilization in Africa

The continent of Africa has played a central role in the long evolution of humankind. Africa was the continent where the first hominids appeared almost three million years ago by the name of homo sapiens. After the decline of the Egyptian empire it was a huge focus on social change where a series of major trading states took part. During antiquity, Saba was considered a major trading state because of its vast and wealth and resources. Saba was later declined which then made the states of Kush and Axum an ancient trading network, which were later affected because of the various ways of cross cultural throughout the region.

The people in Africa were also religious, before the rise of Islam most of the countries were Christian; however beliefs varied from place to place and different characteristics were shared by most African societies. One of the features was pantheism, which was a belief in a single god. Many African religious also shared a belief in the form of a afterlife during which the soul floated in the atmosphere through eternity that were closely connected by the lineage group, these groups could trace back to a founding ancestor or group of ancestors and was similar in many respects to clans in China, although outsiders such as friends or other dependents may have been admitted to membership and in China, the elders had considerable power over the economic functions of the other people in the group, which provided mutual support for all members. In early Africa, creative expression was a mean of serving religion and the social order whether it was in the form of a painting, literature, or music. The wooden mask which is sometimes called the bronze and iron statuary of southern Nigeria is simply a work of art, however to artist it was often a means of expressing religious convictions and common concerns. Like sculpture and wood carving, African music and dance often served a religious function, dances with heavy beats were a means of communicating with the spirits and dances with movement were identified to represent the spirits acting through humans. Literature did not exist in sub-Saharan Africa during early traditional period except where Islam was bought in the Middle East. One famous epic in Africa was The Epic of Son- Jara the founder and ruler of Mali's empire in (1230-1255), the celebration of Son-Jara is more celebrated in West Africa because of the dynamic and unbroken oral traditions of the West African peoples.

In conclusion, civilization in Africa may not exist like it did back hundreds of years ago, however their culture and traditions still carry on today's society. I think in order for us to learn how