Berbers in North Africa
The modern-day region of Maghrib - the Arab "West"
consisting of present-day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia - is
inhabited predominantly by Muslim Arabs, but it has a large
Berber minority.
North Africa served as a transit region for peoples moving
toward Europe or the Middle East. Thus, the region's inhabitants
have been influenced by populations from other areas. Out of
this mix developed the Berber people, whose language and culture,
although pushed from coastal areas by conquering and colonizing
Carthaginians, Romans, and Byzantines, dominated most of the land
until the spread of Islam and the coming of the Arabs. The
purpose of this research is to examine the influence of the
Berbers on North Africa.
The cave paintings found at Tassili-n-Ajjer, north of
Tamanrasset, and at other locations depict vibrant and vivid
scenes of everyday life in the central Maghrib between about 8000
B.C. and 4000 B.C. They were executed by a hunting people in the
Capsian period of the Neolithic age who lived in a savanna region
teeming with giant buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and
hippopotamus, animals that no longer exist in the now-desert
area. The pictures provide the most complete record of a
prehistoric African culture.
Earlier inhabitants of the central Maghrib have left behind
equally significant remains. Early remnants of hominid
occupation in North Africa, for example, were found in Ain el
Hanech, near Saida (200,000 B.C.). Later, Neanderthal tool
makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian
styles (43,000 B.C.) similar to those in the Levant. According
to some sources, North Afri...
... middle of paper ...
...region came under Ottoman
suzerainty in the sixteenth century, the Zayanids kept a tenuous
hold in the central Maghrib. The regime, which depended on the
administrative skills of Andalusians, was plagued by frequent
rebellions but learned to survive as the vassal of the Merinids
or Hafsids or later as an ally of Spain.
In conclusion, to the strong loyalties of the tribe, the
Berber added individualism, democratic participation in inter-
tribal affairs and fierce opposition to foreign invaders. Over
the centuries, many conquerors came to the Maghrib, but few
established durable empires, and few exercised a significant
cultural influence. In the religious sphere, the Berbers
continued to practice their animistic beliefs, while often
adopting religious heresies to oppose their Christian, Jewish or
Islamic overlords.
Using specific illustrations from Maryse Conde's novel Segu, this is an essay that discusses how the coming of Islam to Bambar society affected that people's traditional, political, social and economic practices as well as challenging the Bambaras' religious beliefs.
Africa is filled with several hundred distinct tribes that all bear themselves in a different fashion, depending on each other, or even fighting each to get what they want. This exchange between the many tribes has resulted in a rich history of conflict, economic development, and culture. One small example of the possible hundreds of tribes is the Mossi tribe, who reside right at the border of sub- Saharan Africa, in Burkina Faso and also the second largest ethnic group in Cote D'ivoire . While a relatively small tribe compared to the likes of the Zulus or the Dinka, their tribe is made up of roughly 3.5 million people, which is still quite a large number.The Mossi are neighboring the people of the Dogon, Kurumba, Gourmantche,Gurunsi, Bisa,Dagomba, and Sisala tribes. The Mossi have an official language called More, pronounced Moray, that is spoken by the them and most of the population of Burkina Faso, as well as about 60,000 people in Togo and Mali. Like many African languages, More uses pitch to distinguish the meaning of words and phrases. Their political was very closely connected with their religion, so as the Muslim religion began to spread throughout Africa, they resisted conversion to the religion even as most of the tribes around them accepted the religion. This may be why there are some Muslim influences within Mossi society. As Africa was being colonized by Europeans, the Mossi were one of the last tribes to be colonized, and when French colonists conquered them in 1896-97, taxes were imposed that impelled many of the Mossi to move to Cote D'ivoire to earn money. While they did not leave their families behind, many Mossi men went south to Cote D'ivoire in between crop-growing seasons and would return with the money th...
Are there any similarities between the treatment of German Americans during WWI and the treatment of Islamic Americans and Arab Americans after 9/11?
where they lived. They chose to dwell in cliffs faced to catch the winter sun
Brief History From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern: the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art of the cuisine so treasured and carefully transmitted to their daughters has become part of the great culinary classics of these lands. But seldom are the African blacks given that recognition.
Europe’s desire for trade goods from the Far East drove men such as Bartolomeo Diaz and later Vasco da Gama around the horn of Africa in search of a trade route to the luxurious products from China and India; where upon supply depots needed to be established somewhere along the coast of the African continent: Portuguese built several along the eastern coast while the Dutch built at Cape Town. While the initial establishment of supply ports were built and manned by both the Dutch and Portuguese; both were soon to discover a truth discovered in the New World not many years past—Africans were not as industrious as their European counterparts much like the indigenous people of the Caribbean and coastal regions of the Americas and later deep into the interior. Africans began to resent the presence of the Dutch and Portuguese both were dealt with in kind, but were doomed as the push for land, minerals, and cattle drove the Europeans deeper into the veldt, highlands, and savannah of Southeast Africa.
In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, something is always contrasted against something else. Within the title itself, the contrast of light and dark is made. Throughout the book, the contrast is made between good and evil, between the pilgrims and the cannibals that Marlow encounters. Using the ironic opposition of the pilgrims and the cannibals will present a way into a post-colonial analysis of the book.
Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, is well-known for being one of the greatest travelers of his time. Battuta’s descriptive account of his travels to East and West Africa in the fourteenth century provides important insight into African Islamic life at that point in time. Although Battuta and the peoples in black Africa shared the same religion, he comes to realize that sharing a religion is not enough to completely relate to a different group of people. The story of Ibn Battuta in Black Africa illustrates the difficulties he faced in relating to these peoples due to the non-traditional role of women, different religious customs, and frequent misinterpretation of situations.
Bar-Yosef, Vallo F. “The Natufian culture and the origin of the Neolithic in the Levant”. Current Anthropology. Aug. 90 - Oct. 90, Vol. 31 Issue 4, p433, 4p. Retrieved 25 Mar. 2004 with Academic Search Premier.
West African Kingdoms It is generally accepted by scholars and scientists today that Africa is the original home of man. One of the most tragic misconceptions of historical thought has been the belief that Black Africa had no history before European colonization. Whites foster the image of Africa as a barbarous and savage continent torn by tribal warfare for centuries. It was a common assumption of nineteenth-century European and American Whites - promoted by the deliberate cultivation of pseudoscientific racism - that Africans were inferior to Whites and were devoid of any trace of civilization or culture.
During the years of 3500 BC to 2500 BC, the geography of a land often impacted a civilizations development in great measures. Depending on the resources available or the detriments present due to certain topographical characteristics like rivers or deserts, a civilization could flourish or collapse. By studying the geographic features of growing societies like the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris Rivers as well as the Mediterranean Sea of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the link between developing cultures and geography will be examined through sources, including Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land edited by Jaromir Malek and Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek. To determine the extent of its influence, this investigation will attempt to compare and contrast the role of geography in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, focusing on the civilizations’ various periods of development and settlement.
Baur John. 2000 years of Christianity in Africa: An Africa Church History. Nairobi: Pauline’s Publications
Morocco,is a country in the northwestern corner of Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the north and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, separates Morocco from Spain by only about 8 miles (13 kilometers). Fertile plains lie along Morocco's coasts, and forested mountains stretch across the middle of the country from southwest to northeast. Beyond the mountains lies a sun-baked desert, the Sahara. Rabat is Morocco's capital, and Casablanca is the largest city. Nearly all Moroccans are of mixed Arab and Spanish descent. But the people make up two distinct ethnic groups--Arab and Spanish--depending mainly on whether they speak Arabic or Spanish. Almost all Moroccans are Muslims. Farming is the chief occupation, and more than half the people live in rural areas. France and Spain controlled Morocco from the early 1900's until it won independence in 1956.
W. Raymond Johnson, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, (1996), pp. 65-82, Date viewed 19th may, http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3822115.pdf?&acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true
In the post classical era, Islam arose and took control of its surroundings at an alarmingly fast rate. Muhammad and his followers spread the teachings of Islam throughout the Arabian Peninsula. His caliphate, successors, led the strong Muslim military across much of the known world conquering and claiming the land. The Islamic empire stretched from North Africa to parts of the fallen Persian Empire. Through the many successful military conquests, the Muslims were the controlling body of most of Spain, North Africa, and South Asia. Due to the extensive control, Muslims were able to trade among each other and other empires with little to no interference, acquire new technologies and knowledge discovered by other nations of the world, and collect