Focus on Africa Answers to Chapter 1

Define  Oral Tradition- is a way for a society to transmit history, literature, law and knowledge down through generations without a writing system.  Griot- Professional African historians that are trained in the oral tradition. They informed the kings about their people’s history.  Archaeology-The study of ancient societies. They search for material remains.  Botany- The study of plants. Scientists can learn about food development and its role in evolution.  Linguistics- The study of languages. By comparing languages, scientists can determine the time when related languages separated from one another.  Savanna- Consists of tropical woodland and grassland. The rain forest thins out as you move away from the rain forest to become savanna. This is an area that allows for farming.  Desertification- The process by which green land turns to desert.  Oasis- A place where underground water comes to the surface.  Trade language- This might be a combination of languages, or a simplification of one language in order to ease conversation between groups.

Identify: musi oa tunya  musi oa tunya means smoke that thunders and represents the spectacular Victoria Falls.  Missionary David Livingstone discovered these falls and named them after his queen.  Situated in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Answer  What function do the griots serve? They pass on traditions and knowledge to the next generations. They record history. “I teach kings the history of their ancestors so that the kings of the ancients might serve them as an example…” -In what ways is Africa geographically diverse? Africa has a variety of geographic features; including rain forests, savannas, deserts and highlands. Africa is a massive continent with over 50 countries, many of which vary in altitude. Africa is almost 12 million square miles. This diversity has led to a variety of different resources being mined.

Answers  What are the four major language groups in Africa? Afro- Asiatic, Congo-Kordofawian, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan.  Why are trade languages useful? They allow people to communicate despite having different mother languages and dialects.  What factors led historians to ignore the importance of the oral tradition? Because they didn’t see the importance of the oral history (different form their own), history has to be written for it to be considered genuine, ignored because stories can change over time and they saw this as a weakness, they were culturally ignorant of the African traditions, they saw the Africans as primitive and so did not value their history.