68 Atlantic African, American, and European Backgrounds to Contact, Commerce, and Enslavementpower and control, matrilinity focuses on female related-
ness, descent, and lineage. In matrilineal societies political
titles, exchanges of wealth, goods, and services are passed
down from mothers to daughters and/or men to their sis-
ters’ sons rather than their own biological sons. Daughter-
based investment of family wealth, defi ned as exchanges
between grandparents/parents and granddaughters/daugh-
ters, are also typically found in matrilineal societies. An-
thropological studies report strong connections between
societies in “horticultural” or farming stages of evolution-
ary development with low levels of paternal confi dence and
the occurrence of matrilineal culturally supported patterns.
Although matrilineal societies occur less frequently than
patrilineal ones (where descent is traced through fathers’
bloodline), they are recurrent and found in all regions of
the world, including Africa (e.g., Akan in Ghana, Toka in
Zambia, and Chewa in Malawi).
Cultural experiences with matrilineal societies were
undoubtedly part of the sociocultural experience of
many enslaved African Americans. Contemporary schol-
ars such as Nobles and Sudarkasa identifi ed many simi-
larities between African and African American cultural
patterns in marriage, family and kinship structure and
functioning. However, others like E. Franklin Frazier,
maintained the vicissitudes of slavery, emancipation, and
urbanization virtually destroyed any African cultural
retentions. Further, whether due to cultural values and
beliefs or large-scale social structural forces, character-
istics of matrilineal societies are evident within African
American life today.
African American mothers and daughters hold piv-
otal roles within families and kin networks that are fl uid
and oft en diverse. Exchanges of wealth, money, resources,
emotional support, child care services, physical care, and so
forth occur frequently over the life cycle between mothers,
daughters, sisters, and other female kin. Even among Afri-
can American elderly, adult daughters and elderly moth-
ers have been found to exchange emotional, fi nancial, and
physical support to help maintain themselves and/or their
households refl ective of lifelong patterns of reciprocity over
their life course. Generally, networks of African American
women constitute the foundation or relatedness and stabil-
ity within many families and kinship systems. Th ese female
interpersonal relationships of connectivity also appear to
coexist with forms of social organization more patrilineal
or patriarchal in nature.may have been the capital. At its height, Mali was a con-
federation of three independent, freely allied states (Mali,
Mema, and Wagadou) and 12 garrisoned provinces.
Th e most signifi cant of the Mali kings was Mansa Musa
(1312–1337), who expanded Mali infl uence over the large
Niger city-states of Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenne. Mansa
Musa was a devout Muslim who built magnifi cent mosques
all throughout the Mali sphere of infl uence. His gold-laden
pilgrimage to Mecca made him an historical fi gure even in
European history writing.
It was under Mansa Musa that Timbuktu became one
of the major cultural centers not only of Africa, but of the
entire world. Under Mansa Musa’s patronage, vast librar-
ies were built and madrasas (Islamic universities) were
endowed. Timbuktu became a meeting place of the fi nest
poets, scholars, and artists of Africa and the Middle East.
Even aft er the power of Mali declined, Timbuktu remained
the major Islamic center of sub-Saharan Africa.
Aft er the death of Mansa Musa, the power of Mali
began to decline. Mali had never been an empire proper,
and subject states began to break off from the Mali sphere
of infl uence. In 1430, the Tuareg Berbers in the north seized
much of Mali’s territory, including the city of Timbuktu,
and the Mossi Kingdom to the south a decade later seized
much of Mali’s southern territories. Finally, the kingdom
of Gao, which had been subjugated to Mali under Mansa
Musa, gave rise to a Songhai Kingdom that fi nally eclipsed
the power of Mali.
See also: Ghana; Musa, Mansa; Sahel; Senegambia; Songhai;
Sudanic Empires; Sundiata: Th e Epic of Old Mali
Moshe TerdimanBibliography
Fage, J. D. A History of Africa. London: Hutchinson, 1978.
Levtzion, Nehemia. Ancient Ghana and Mali. London: Methuen,
1973.
Niane, Djibril Tamsir. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. Harlow, UK:
Pearson Longman, 2006.
Th obhani, Akbarali. Mansa Musa: Th e Golden King of Ancient
Mali. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1998.
Matrilineal Societies
Matrilineal societies are groups where descent is traced
through mothers’ rather than fathers’ bloodlines. Distin-
guished from the concept of matriarchy that refers to female