Medieval African culture can be divided into two large regions: North Africa, which encompasses the Saharan region, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
During medieval times, North Africa was under several Islamic caliphates. Therefore, sense of community and shared responsibility in medieval North African cultures came from the religious notion of belonging to the <em>Umma</em>, the Islamic community. For these societies, the social order established under the Sharia or Islamic law was a sacred order with a religious basis, and people had strong bonds to every neighbor since they were part of the same religion/political order.
This was very different from the Sub-Saharan societies where the sense of community and shared responsibilities was a product of the family bonds that existed within a tribe or small kingdom. Religion and beliefs were also a very important factor for the creation of community links since it set a common ground for understanding and belonging.
Nevertheless, there were some societies located mainly in the Sahara desert, that shared both the Islamic faith and a tribal form of organization -like the Tuareg people-, which used to combine elements from the two systems in order to strengthen the community bonds in a deeper level.
