DID THE MOSES ERA INFLUENCE AFRICA?

 

           Religion especially the Abrahamic religion had a great impact on the African continent and people of African descent all across the world. Powerful African empires such as Mali and Songhai embraced the Muslim branch of the Abrahamic religion and Congo advanced the Christian branch. The Abrahamic religion influenced the African narrative. In dating the religious figures like Moses, many biblical historians date that period to be 13th Century BC. This article will discuss the activities that happened in Africa during that time.

         According to the Abrahamic religion, Moses helped his people liberate themselves from Egyptian bondage, leading them to the promised land. During the 13th BC, Scholar Christopher Ehret explained, "If we look back across the whole range of developments in Africa between 3500 - 1000 BCE, we see a continent whose history paralleled in most respect the historical patterns on other continents. Agriculture in a great range of varieties had become the basis of the domestic economy over two-thirds of Africa, just as similar livelihoods had become widely spread in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In the  Southern portion of the continent hunting and gathering still held sway as it did in different forms in the Northern regions of Asia, the farther norths of Europe, the northern parts of North America and the southern reaches of Southern America."

             In West Africa during the 13th century BC, the Tichitt settlement was called by a historical scholar as a classical phase of development. Tichitt was located in modern-day Mauritania. It was an early settlement believed to have been founded by the Soninke people. Christopher Ehret writes that the Tichitt was  "The first smelting of metals- in particular, copper - developed in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 2500 years just as it did in parts of Asia and Europe and separately in Mesoamerica. More specialised production for trade took shape in several areas of the continent and parallel fashion to the peoples in the Mesopotamian region of Southwest Asia and almost the same period. Africans in both Nubia and Egypt participated in the kinds of historical development that led first to the concentrated population growth on favoured farming land and then to the emergence of the first states, to pre-commercial towns and class societies." One of the most common features of the Tichitt site during the 13th century BC was the expansion of a vast stone settlement. Paul Laine and Peter Mitchell writes that, "many authors have identified Tichitt as the political antecedent of the Empire of Ghana and therefore West Africa first large scale complex society, using terms such as 'chiefdom' or even 'incipient state'. Today neither term acts well with a growing Africanist scepticism towards the utility of such contrived and imported Social categories. Instead, let us simply consider Tichitt's characteristics at its apogee. A four-tier hierarchy is proposed ranging from hamlets through villages and district centres to regional centres, each district centre may have administered between three and twenty villages while the regional centre featured 540 stone-walled compounds, most of them containing several dwellings and granaries made of perishable materials." Many historians believe that Tichitt is the predecessor of the Ghana empire that began to thrive as a distinguishable kingdom around 300 AD.

        In the 13th Century BC, the rise of Ramesses II and the battle of Kadesh was a popular event. Ramesses II is considered by many as the greatest and most popular  Pharaoh of Egypt. He came to the throne at the age of 25 and became known as a warrior king. His victory over the Hittites at the battle of Kadesh restored Egypt's supremacy over its neighbours. He resolved his final conflicts with the Hittites with what scholars called a masterpiece of diplomacy, this was said to be one of the first international peace treaties in world history. At the Battle of Kadesh. The Egyptian forces under the leadership of Ramesses II consisting of 20000 soldiers defeated an army of Hittites numbering about 17000 soldiers. Willie Page writes that "Ramesses carried out building programs on a massive scale, the most impressive was his mortuary temple, the Ramesseum at the Thebes and Abu Simbel, a temple consisting four gigantic seated figures of Ramesses. Another of his important constructions was a temple dedicated to Osins. Which was located at Abydos. A master in the art of self-promotion, Ramesses was not content with the simple monument buildings. In his campaign to make his presence felt throughout his kingdom. He went so far as to put his name on monuments built by other Pharaohs."

       In the 13th century Africa many Africans embraced the Abrahamic religion and in West Africa Islam was adopted by many elites. The empires of Mali and Songhai advanced Islam as a state religion perhaps in an attempt to include themselves in the Abrahamic religion. A historian claimed that Pharaoh (Ramesses II) used to get some of his priests from the Songhai empire. Maiga Hassini writes that "in the history of Sudan. A chronicle written in Arabic about 1653, which is considered the single most important primary source for the history of the Songhay empire, Abderhamane Es Sadi confirmed that the city of Koukya (West Africa) already existed at the time of Pharaoh Ramesses II. He stated that it was from the city, Koukya, that the Pharaoh called for a group of magicians (priests) to challenge Moses."