Trans-Saharan Trade Network

across Sahara Desert Exchange of goods Set of connections Definition: TRANS = SAHARAN= TRADE= NETWORK= across Sahara Desert Exchange of goods Set of connections

1. It was a link between Africa and the Arab world. What was the trans-Saharan trade network? 1. It was a link between Africa and the Arab world. Arabia Africa This provided the opportunity of the trade of goods, such as gold, and ideas, including religion.

What was travel like along the trans-Saharan trade route? People traveled using camels because they had flat feet to move easily across sand and could retain water (and would not have to be fed often). It took two months to cross the 1200 mile Sahara Desert. It was a difficult trip, but people risked dying of thirst to become rich.

Trans-Sahara Trade Routes

I am the king of Ghana. I, along with the societies of Berbers in the north, keep the Saharan trade routes safe and punish thieves severely!

North: salt ceramics glass oil lamps gold kola nuts palm oil copper South:

Tunisia Egypt

Trans-Sahara Trade Routes Linked Africa and Arabia Used camels to transport gold, religion, and ideas Arabs spread ideas, system of writing, and worked in government Mansa Musa – spread gold and Islam – center of learning in Timbuktu

Timbuktu Center of learning, many mosques, and trade Young men “kept in irons until they had memorized the entire Qu’ran” (Ibn Battuta) “Salt comes from the north, gold from the south, but the word of God and the treasures of wisdom come from Timbuktu." High literacy rate

AFRICANS CONVERT TO ISLAM

How did the ideas & beliefs of Islam spread into Africa? Arab merchants came to live in Africa and so their ideas spread. Arab traders brought the first system of writing and numbers to West Africa. The African kings hired Arabs as government officials to help them take care of trade matters.

However, the Africans kept some of their own traditions, such as a matrilineal form of choosing the next ruler (the next king would be the king’s sister’s son). Women were also still very independent and they still scarred their faces to show clan affiliations.

WHY ISLAM? Africans converted to Islam because it stressed the belief in the “brotherhood of all believers,” which encouraged trust and peaceful trade between people of different nationalities.

Oral traditions and Traditional religions - copy Children would learn their history by griots Storytellers would teach basic skills, life lessons, and proverbs Polytheistic Creator god and lesser gods Listen to the signs from their ancestors

Family, Labor specialization, and Regional Commerce - Copy EXTENDED FAMILIES FARMERS WEST KINGDOMS – ISLAM, GOLD, AND SALT MATRILINEAL MINERS OF GOLD AND SALT EAST KINGDOMS – CHRISTIANITY, TEXTILES KING’S NEPHEW GOT POWER MERCHANTS TIMBUKTU AND JENNE - TRADE BANTU MIGRATIONS METAL WORKERS AND POTTERY MAKERS NIGER RIVER HONORING ANCESTORS SCHOLARS USE OF CAMELS/CARAVANS

Slavery - copy Arab Slave Trade (East African Slave Trade) Began in the 700s Slaves were captured in central Africa They were transported across the Sahara to the Middle East Atlantic Slave Trade Slavery already existed in Africa Europeans began to take slaves from West Africa to be shipped to the New World by the end of the 1500s Taken to New World to work on plantations growing crops such as sugarcane Lasted until the mid 1800s.