Axum is an ancient city in Africa; this city is very different than the others found in Sub Saharan Africa. Axum adopted Christianity during the 4th century; which is also the time Constantine adopted it in the Roman Empire. King Ezana, the monarch of the time, decided to adopt Christianity. Today, Axum is known as the religious capital of the Christians of Ethiopia.
Axum was different from other cities for another reason. The city of Axum used plows to farm wheat and other crops. Most other cities used hand tools like hoes and digging sticks. Axum harvested wheat, millet, and barley. They also harvested a very unique grain to the region; teff. Teff is a highly nutritious grain that was hard to come by in Africa.
This may not seem very interesting, but if you think about the things that are present in the United States today; Axum was an amazing city in Africa. The main religion in the US today is Christianity and Axum was the first city in Africa to use it as their main religion. Their farming system is also very common these days; to harvest most of our crops we us big plows and other machinery. Imagine if we just used hand tools like hoes or digging sticks; I don’t think that would turn out so well.
My information can be found in the book Ways of The World by Robert Strayer and http://www.incredible-ethiopia.com/Axum.html.
Showing posts with label sub-Saharan Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sub-Saharan Africa. Show all posts
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Where is sub-Saharan Africa?
Recently I just discovered what the geographical area of the term sub-Saharan Africa is. Now I’m sure many of you are already questioning my intelligence, but I am also sure that many of you have never actually thought about where sub-Saharan Africa is. We are all guilty of just going through the motions for our classes, and not really bothering to look up information apart from what the professor says. I myself just did an assignment and watched a video, but never bothered to look up the terms required to further understand and grasp the topic.
Now, in hindsight, I probably should have known where sub-Saharan Africa was, but we all have those days, and I’m pretty sure many of you are wondering if I’m ever going to tell you where sub-Saharan Africa is. Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the continent that is below the Sahara Dessert, and I think the light bulb just came on and the room got a little brighter.
Another thing I learned about Africa is that North Africa is linked to the Arabian world. For me, this information also caused a light bulb to go off, because much of sub-Saharan African’s history is missing, or destroyed, while many are aware of Northern African history, in places like Egypt. I think that a large part of the reason why North Africa’s history is more known than sub-Saharan Africa, because many settlers viewed southern African’s as primitive, and unable to build some of the archaeological findings that were found by explorers.
Now, in hindsight, I probably should have known where sub-Saharan Africa was, but we all have those days, and I’m pretty sure many of you are wondering if I’m ever going to tell you where sub-Saharan Africa is. Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the continent that is below the Sahara Dessert, and I think the light bulb just came on and the room got a little brighter.
Another thing I learned about Africa is that North Africa is linked to the Arabian world. For me, this information also caused a light bulb to go off, because much of sub-Saharan African’s history is missing, or destroyed, while many are aware of Northern African history, in places like Egypt. I think that a large part of the reason why North Africa’s history is more known than sub-Saharan Africa, because many settlers viewed southern African’s as primitive, and unable to build some of the archaeological findings that were found by explorers.
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