AFRICAN EMPIRES

From c.1230 to c.1600, the interaction of black, Bantu- speaking Africans with Arab Muslims shaped African history.

In East Africa, Bantu people and Arabs mixed to create the Culture and language called Swahili. Trade in gold and ivory created thriving ports down the East African coast- such as Zanzibar and Kilwa.

Inland, the city of Great Zimbabwe (the name means “house of the stone”) flourished within its huge granite walls. It is now a run, but in the 1400s, gold made this city the heart of the Monomatapa Empire.

Further inland, but the lakes of Uganda were the extraordinary grass places belonging to the Buganda kings.

In West Africa, trade across the Sahara made Kingdoms like Ghana flourish. Two great empires grew up- first Mali (1240-1500) and then Songhai, which peaked in the 1500s.

The Mali Empire centered on the city of Timbuktu.

Timbuktu’s glory began in 1324 when King Mansa Musa went on a grand trip to Mecca with camels laden with gold and brought back the best scholars and architect.

Timbuktu means “mother with a large navel” after an old woman said to have first settled here. But from 1324 to 1541 Timbuktu was a spending city with what may have been the world’s biggest university, catering for up to 25,000 students.

The Songhai Empire in the 1400s stretched right across West Africa from what is now Nigeria to the Gambia. It reached its peak under Sunni Ali (1464-1492), who conquered Timbuktu, and his son Askia the Great (1493-1528).