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Oldest independent republic in Africa (1847); established as a settlement for the repatriation of freed U.S. slaves (1822)
Liberia
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British West African colony, purchased in 1787 and established as a homeland for escaped or emancipated slaves
Sierra Leone
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The dispersion of a people from their homeland; the community formed by such a people
Diaspora
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East African syncretic language and culture based on Bantu and Arabic trade networks in the Indian Ocean basin
Swahili
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Powerful West African empire (c. 350 – 1054 CE); controlled trans-Saharan salt and gold trade
Ghana
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West African empire based in upper Niger River delta region; dominated sub-Saharan gold trade in early 14th centur
Mali
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Last of the great West African empires; replaced Mali (1493); controlled trans-Saharan and Niger River gold and slave trades until Moroccans invaded in 1591
Songhay
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Powerful Central African kingdom (14th – 18th centuries); allied with Portugal, converted to Christianity and participated in the Atlantic slave trade
Kongo
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Kongolese ruler (r. 1506 – 1542) who converted to Christianity and tried, unsuccessfully, to save his realm from the depredations of Portuguese slave raiders and merchants
King Alfonso I
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Central African kingdom conquered by Portugal (1660s); renamed Angola, the first European colony in sub-Saharan Africa
Ndongo
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ought courageously (1623 – 1663) to save her realm from Portuguese forces, who subdued Ndongo after her death
Queen Nzinga
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Fortified capital city of a powerful kingdom that controlled trade between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers and the Swahili coast (14th – late 15th centuries)
Great Zimbabwe
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Dutch trading post established on the South African coast (1652); center of later Dutch and British colonies
Cape town
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Recognized supreme, remote creator god and powerful nature and ancestral spirits that intervene in human affairs
Indigenous African religons
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Center of Islamic scholarship; wealthy commercial capital of the Mali and Songhay empires
Timbuktu
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Militant Muslims dedicated to eradicating African religions through jihad and establishing “pure” (Koranic) Islamic states in West Africa (c. 1680 – 1903)
Fulani
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Founder of the Antonian movement in Kongo (1704); taught that Jesus was a black African and heaven was for Africans; burned at the stake for challenging Portuguese missionaries
Dona Beatrice
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American root crop cultivated in Africa; important source of flour that contributed significantly to sub-Saharan demographic expansion; a.k.a. cassava
Manioc
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Deported approximately 10 million Africans to the Mediterranean basin, Southwest Asia, and the Indian Ocean basin (8th – 20th centuries)
Islamic Slave trade
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Atlantic slave trade begins; twelve Africans shipped to Portugal
1441
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East-west leg of triangular trade in Atlantic basin; African slaves brutally shipped from West and Central Africa to Brazil, Caribbean islands, and North America
Middle passage
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Peak of Atlantic slave trade; 88,000 Africans shipped to western hemisphere each year
1780s
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Syncretic belief systems based on Christianity, created by slave societies in the western hemisphere: Vodou (Haiti), Santeria (Cuba), and Candomble (Brazil)
African American Religons
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Saudi Arabia and Angola abolish slavery
1960s
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Former slave who published his autobiography (1789) and worked tirelessly to abolish slavery in the British empire and the U.S.
Olaudah Equiano
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