F and K’s African Adventure By Francesca and Kristen

Our Home in Axum! We live in Eastern Africa on the Red sea now known as modern day Ethiopia and it is…Axum. Axum was the first official kingdom of the religion of Christianity.We enjoy trading with others across the Red Sea. Trading helped us become very wealthy.While living in Axum, Francesca and I love to visit the Rock Churches of Lalibela.12 churches are carved out of the rock by King Lalibela and it shows that Axum remained Christian.The Rock Churches of Laliblea is a beautiful place to explore.

Obelisks and the Ark of the Covenant Today Kristen and I are going to be visiting the obelisks of Axum which are the tallest single stone obelisks in the world. We have made it and this marks were the tombs of kings lay. Axum has very good technology and wealth. The ark of the covenant was a special box over 3,000 years old that contains the 10 commandments. The ark of the covenant is in Modern day Ethiopia and is in a church guarded by some sort of priest. As you can see Axum has a lot of interesting artifacts.

Ghana We will now be traveling to West Africa where the Empire of Ghana stands. Ghana has a strong leader named Dinge Cisse. The famous leader Dinge Cisse named the Territory Ghana which means “Warrior King”. Dinge Cisse was responsible for uniting most of Western Africa. They work with a lot of iron and made quality tools and weapons. All Traders are forced to pay a tax to Ghana in order to trade. No tax = No trade.

Ghana Ghana is mostly based on trade. When traveling to Ghana people traveled along the death road. This was a trading route from the middle East/Europe to West Africa.Ghana had cross roads of trade in Western Africa. Most of the people in Ghana were Muslim, however there were some people that were Polytheistic but not many.

Mali Finally, Francesca and I will be traveling right next door from Ghana to Mali. Mali lasted between the years The leader of Mali was Mansa Musa. He was known as the last strong king of Mali.Mansa Musa was able to stop people from conquering Mali. Even though Mansa Musa was the leader he did not start Mali. Mali started from a man named Sundiata Keita.Most people from Mali used the Niger River for trade. They also controlled salt and gold mines and then traded with the Europeans.

Mali In Mali there were many griots,which are African storytellers. Many people had to be responsible for teaching lessons and passing history from generation to generation. Mali is very famous for their beautiful masks. They made masks to celebrate important occasions like holidays, births and even death. Masks were made of different materials such as wood, gold and mud. Most people were Muslim and very few people were polytheistic. Now Francesca and I have to go back home to Axum.

Aboard Slave Ship There Kristen and I are ready to go home after our adventure from our home Axum to Ghana then to Mali we need to get back home. The only way we see is a ship. We come aboard a ship called the Amistad. As soon as we are aboard the ship we see a lot of Africans on the boat in chains. A man comes over to us and mistakes us for someone else. As soon as that happens he chains us up and throws us under the deck with the rest of the Africans. It is horrible I can barely stand it. Kristen and I are next to each other packed so tightly.

Aboard Slave Ship When we get to go to the bathroom we only have a bucket to use and that isn’t big enough for us to use. We didn’t know why we were down there and then we finally noticed that we had become slaves. Next to me was a man named Cinque. He was a very nice and intelligent man. He found some tools that would help us get out of the chains. We quietly crept up the stairs with some tools to fight the men that were keeping us captive. After one of the men saw us we had started a battle with the men and finally Cinque got the captain to take us back to Africa. Cinque

Finally From there we finally went back to Axum and we told our family about our great adventures. Cinque got reunited with his family and so were the rest of the Africans. Our family got scared after the slave ship story but relieved after they knew we were ok. Kristen and I are so happy to be back home and hope to travel more.