Sub Saharan Africa Trade

Change and Continuity Over Time Essay

Topic: Religion in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1450 to the present

Beginning Middle End
|Trans-Saharan trade (gold, salt) brought Islamic ideas into |Slave trade ended in the 1860s, but Europeans continued to convert|Decolonization was aided by the weakened economic power of Europe,|
|sub-Saharan Africa from North Africa. |Africans into Christianity because of the "scramble" for Africa. |and by the 1960s most of the African countries were independent. |
|Songhai Empire was a major Islamic state (Timbuktu, Sunni Ali). |Many mission schools were established in these colonies (the |However, Africans still continued to believe in the religions they|
|Portuguese merchants in Kongo introduced Roman Catholicism. |"white man's burden"). |converted to, as many felt it became a part of them. |
|Slave trade also introduced Christianity to other sub-Saharan |Muslims used the creation of these new cities in the colonies to |Syncretism coexists with these world religions today. |
|African countries like Angola, where there was a large amount of |help spread Islam further inland. | |
|slaves being sent out. |Though syncretism was still presents, policies like assimilation | |
|Syncretism during this time blended in African beliefs in spirits |made it difficult for Africans to incorporate their own beliefs | |
|and magic. A significant syncretic cult was the Antonian movement. |into the religion they were converted to. | |

Changes: rise of Islam, introduction of Christianity, syncretism

Continuities: Christianity in Ethiopia, which had existed before this time period, and continued to be the major religion in Ethiopia despite the surrounding Islamic influence due to its tolerance of other religions. The traditional practice of animism/other indigenous religions, which survived (though was weakened at points) due to decentralization, and because rival tribes in the same country would ignore the other tribe and practice their own religion.

THESIS: From 1450 to the present, sub-Saharan African religious beliefs and practices changed with the rise of Islam and Christianity and the methods used to convert people to those religions because of trade, colonization, and decolonization, while continuities included Christianity in Ethiopia and belief in animism due to the decentralization of Africa.