Chapter 3: Early African Societies and the Bantu Migrations

Vocabulary

• “Gift of the Nile”: This was what the Greek historian Herodotus proclaimed Egpyt as, “The Gift of the Nile”, because it’s prosperity was in large part due to it’s location on the Nile River. Nubia was also located on the Nile, but Herodotus was not aware of the Kingdom (of Kush), and therefore did not say the same thing of it although he could have. 

• Nubia: Also known as the Kingdom of Kush, this consisted of many cities, such as Napata, Kerma, and Meroё. Nubia was the Egypt’s largest threat on a consistent basis, and while trade did occur between the two regions, conflict was not rare. 

• Menes: Menes started out as minor official in the Egyptian government, but he was ambitious. Menes unified Egypt and founded the important city of Memphis, which became the capital of Egypt many times while also being the religious/cultural center of both northern and southern Egypt. Menes also led the way in changing Egypt to a centralized state, and also engineered the idea of a pharaoh led Egypt. 

• Pharaohs: Pharaohs were considered to be divine, or semi-divine beings chosen by the gods to rule a people. The power of the pharaoh was strongest during the Archaic Period (3100-2650 B.C.E.). 

• Queen Hatshepsut: One of the few, female rulers of her time. Although, she was technically a co-ruler with her stepson Tuthmosis III, this was by far the most prominent government position a female undertook in ancient Egyptian society. Queen Hatshepsut took part in all activities that a pharaoh would do, even having a monumental statue built of her in which she had the traditional stylized beard common of male pharaohs. 

• Hieroglyphs: Writing that appeared in Egypt (at least by 3200 B.C.E.), and may have been brought about from Mesopotamian influence. When the Greeks visited the Egyptian temples and saw them, they coined the phrase “hieroglyphs”- which comes from the two Greek words meaning “holy inscriptions”. Hieroglyphs began to represent sounds and ideas, and eventually were supplanted as the Egyptian’s main writing system, by that of the Greek alphabet. 

• Cult of Amon-Re: Amon and Re were two deities for two different regions. They were both considered to be the most powerful by their respective region, and when the cult of Amon-Re was created, the idea was that Amon and Re were actually the same, universally powerful, god. In Heliopolis, a massive temple was erected to worship Amon-Re. 

• Aten: Aten was a brief religious challenge to the Cult of Amon-Re. Aten was a deity related to the sun, just as Amon, Re, and Amon-Re were. Aten’s main support came during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, who reigned between 1353-1335 B.C.E., and Amenhotep IV even changed his name to Akhenaten in honor of Aten. Akhenaten’s religious beliefs were monotheistic, in which Aten was the one, all-powerful god. This was one of the very earliest monotheistic religions. 

• Mummification: Egyptians, unlike the Mesopotamians, did not believe that death was the end of an individual’s existence. They believed that death was a transition into existing in a different place or dimension. To go about this, they created the process of mummification, in which the individual’s brains would be pulled out with a hook through the nostrils, and the organs taken out through a slit in the abdomen’s side. Than the individual would be wrapped and placed in a sarcophagus and buried in a tomb. Depending on the individual’s wealth and social stature, the tomb would be decorated. If the individual had servants or slaves, they may be killed and placed within the tomb to serve the individual in his afterlife. 

• Bantu: Bantu was a language, and Bantu-speaking people dominated most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The earliest Bantu people settled along rivers, but gradually migrated inland. They absorbed many hunting and gathering societies, which is why they had the capability to spread so quickly throughout Sub- Saharan Africa. The Bantu language is in the Niger-Congo language family, and today, over 90 million people speak some dialect/form of it, making it the most used language in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Focus Question #1

            How was ancient Egypt’s development into a complex society similar to and different from Mesopotamian society? Consider political organization, demographics, economics, culture, and social organization.

            The early Egyptian society was in so many ways different than that of Mesopotamia’s society, they varied greatly in the fields of governmental structure and religion; but they also shared several similarities, such as in both societies attempted to expand many times, the creation of social classes, agriculture and the domestication of animals, and both societies created early forms of writing, albeit they were different.

            Variations in the government included one stark contrast, the ancient Egyptians had an all powerful monarch, the pharaoh, who was believed to be divine or semi-divine, and who would ultimately have control over everything and anything within his kingdom. This is unlike the Mesopotamian form of government, which had different ranking officials controlling different buildings, towns, etc, while also having a king who oversaw everything but didn’t necessarily have a say in everything. Another contrast between the two societies was on the subject of religion. The ancient Egyptians were polytheistic for the large majority of the time, much like the Mesopotamians, but they also had a short era in which monotheism was very strong. During this time period, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (later known as Akhenaten) was the ruler of Egypt and he paid homage only to the god Aten, who was also a god related to the sun. Amenhotep diligently put effort into converting Egypt into a monotheistic state. The Mesopotamians, on the other hand, had many gods at all times, mostly these gods had to do with the weather since agriculture was vital to Mesopotamia (as well as Egypt).

            The similarities between the two societies are much more numerous. Ancient Egypt mainly tried to conquer the area to the south of its borders, the Kingdom of Kush (Nubia), and the two regions shared conflict for hundreds of years. Many states and/or cities in Mesopotamia also tried expanding as well. Social stratification occurred in both societies, with the wealthy becoming the most prominent figures in the social system, and the poor becoming the servants and slaves that do the majority of the hard labor. The early form of writing the created in Egypt was coined hieroglyphics (by the Greeks) and the early form of writing the Mesopotamians utilized was called cuneiform. Hieroglyphic symbols represented symbols and sounds, while cuneiform symbols represented ideas. Both forms were eventually supplanted by some form of the Greek alphabet.

Focus Question #2

            What were the causes and effects of the Bantu Migration?

            There were many causes of the Bantu Migration, but the most important and the largest cause, were that their living areas were becoming overpopulated. The effects of the Bantu Migration include the spread of the Bantu language throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, the spread of the use of iron weapons throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, the spread of agriculture and animal domestication throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and the spread of many other technologies and ideas all through Sub-Saharan Africa.

            Because the Bantu-speaking people were prospering through their agriculture and animal domestication, their population was spiking. Thus, in order to avoid crowded living areas, small parts villages would migrate to a new area to start a new village. Another contributor to overpopulation was that hunting and gathering people tended to join the Bantu people, once they learned the ways of agriculture and saw the weapons of iron that they carried.

            The Bantu Migration is almost solely, if not completely, responsible for the diffusion of the majority of the ideas and technologies throughout Sub-Saharan Africa—technologies such as bronze and iron metallurgy, which made ideas such as agriculture easier because they replaced stone farming equipment with sturdier, metal farming equipment. The Bantu also spread their language, which is part of the Niger-Congo language family. Some dialect or form of Bantu is now spoken by 90 million inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa, by far the largest amount of people speaking the (somewhat) same language in the region. Through the Bantu migration, Sub-Saharan Africa began to thrive through agriculture like other regions such as the Nile River Valley, or Mesopotamia, or the Indus River Valley.