Seminar: Joseph Harris' Africans & Their History, Chapters 9 & 11

CORE QUESTIONS:

1.What was the kingdom of Kongo like prior to the arrival of the Portuguese?

Modern historians believe that the kingdom of Kongo was founded in the fourteenth century and was permeated with a hierarchical structure with a headman in charge. Various villages consolidated themselves into a district under the rule of an official who was appointed by a king. At the head of the kingdom was a king called a manicongo. An electoral council of elders chose the most popular candidate from one of the two dynastic families to be king. The king was an absolute ruler with several loyal officials to help guide him. But Harris writes that "Although [the king] had a council of advisers, his power was great, and the kingdom was marked by a high degree of centralization" (146). The king even had his own royal fishery that gave him seashells to use as currency. There was no standing army, but the king had his own guard.

2. Who were the Khoikhoi?
A nomadic people, the Khoikhoi slept in small family clans in southern Africa under an old clan head. A council aided the headman and also served to pass judgments. The Khoikhoi saw the first European invasion in southern Africa because they started to compete with them for cattle and arable land. Sadly, the Khoikhoi eventually fell to the European's power and became their over-worked servants. Harris writes that "Out of this juxtaposition came concubinage and some intermarriage, which resulted in the emergence of a group of mulattoes called 'coloreds'" (153). Understandably, a great deal of cultural intermarriage occurred more so than acculturation. Other groups that inhabited southern Africa prior to European contacts were the Nguni and the Sotho, including the Zulu, Xhosa, Pondo, Thembu, and Swazi.

3. How did the British organize the systematic exploration of the African continent?
In 1788, the British African Association was founded in order to explore and eventually carve up Africa into generous European territories. The British arranged three expeditions to find the location and direction of the Niger River's flow, only to fail all three times. The British African Association then sent Mungo Park in 1795-1797 and again in 1805. These two journeys augmented Britain's understanding of the Niger, but John and Richard Landers would not discover the river's outflow into the ocean until twenty-five years later. During this twenty-five year period, Walter Ondney, Dixon Denham, and Hugh Clapperton explored the continent in 1822. Denham explored Bornu and Lake Chad, while Clapperton went to Kano and Sokoto. Denham and Clapperton gave Europeans an extensive account of caravan routes between Bornu and Tripoli and information about the area between Sokoto and Lake Chad. Gaspard Mollien and Rene Caille were two other renowned Western Africa explorers. John Ludwig Krapf and John Rebmann were two famous East Africa CMS missionaries.

CLOSING QUESTIONS: How does Africa during the Age of Imperialism compare to modern-day Africa?