MC_A Concise History of Africa

West Africa

century. Beginning as early as the 17th and 18th centuries, but mainly in the 19th century, the Fulani, reputed to be a people of Semitic origin, launched jihads, and took control of various West African states. The Yoruba States The Yoruba make up approximately 21 per cent of Nigeria’s total population, and around 30 million individuals throughout West Africa. There were seven Yoruba states, including the Oyo kingdom, Ife, and Benin, the people being non-Bantu Kwa speakers. These states had elected monarchs, some more dictatorial than others, but which were removable, while in the 18th century there were instances of rule by councils of eminent citizens. It was a sophisticated society, with the military wielding power, and guilds, societies, clubs, and religious groups providing social control. The cities were wealthy and there was patronage of the arts, the people excelling in wood carving, metalwork (especially brass), pottery, weaving, beadwork, and the production of masks. Benin, between 1300–1850, was a wonderfully complex Yoruban

Although the vast majority of its inhabitants were Muslim by the 16th century, they were attacked by Muslim Fulani jihadists in the early 19th century, when the last Hausa state was finally incorporated into the Sokoto Caliphate. The Hausa A Hausa woman in Nigeria. The modern Hausa of Nigeria are mainly concentrated in the provinces of Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, and Zaria, their population probably numbering between 6 and 8 million in Nigeria alone. The Hausa language is an important lingua franca in West Africa.

Islam Islam reached the Sahel in the 8th century, when the written history of West Africa begins. It was accepted as early as 850 in the Kingdom of Tekrur, situated on both banks of the Senegal river, whose subjects were the first indigenous people to accept Islam. Islam arrived via traders from the Maghreb, becoming a personal faith rather than a state ideology. It became a religion largely of the rulers, while their subjects intermingled Islam with traditional beliefs. Islam then declined among the ruling classes and non-Islamic rule became common, a situation that continued until the revivalist and reform movement of the 18th

OPPOSITE: Statue of King Béhanzin in Abomey, Benin. Béhanzin (1844–1906) is considered the eleventh King of Dahomey, modern-day Benin.

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