1. Essential Question:
What was Africa like before the introduction of Islam?
Warm-Up Question:
Get out your Ibn Battuta reading for a quick HW check.

2. What is the geography of Africa
What is the geography of Africa? How might this geography impact Africans?

3. Geography of Africa
Africa’s geography was very diverse & Africans were lived differently based on where they lived

4. Geography of Africa
The Sahara is the world’s largest desert & was a barrier that separated North Africa from sub-Saharan Africa

5. Early Societies of Africa
By 750, North Africans were part of the Islamic Empire.
They were Muslim & spoke Arabic.

6. Early Societies of Africa
African societies south of the Sahara were isolated from the Mediterranean cultures because of:
Difficult terrain
Impassable rivers
Disease (Tsetse fly/ Sleeping Sickness)
Few good ports

7. How did early people in Sub-Saharan Africa live?

8. Characteristics of Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa were diverse, but they shared some similarities:
Most societies were hunter-gatherer/ farming clans
They were stateless societies: the leading families shared the power to
rule equally
Few had written languages; Histories were shared orally by storytellers (griots)
Made iron tools

9. Characteristics of Africa
Sub-Saharan people were practiced animism -- a religion in which spirits exist in nature & play a role in daily life

10. The Bantu Migration
Because of desertification, the Bantu peoples of central Africa migrated southeast in search of new farmland
These Bantu migrations helped spread new farming & ironworking techniques

11. What factors shaped the culture of East Africa?

12. East Africa
East African societies participated in the Indian Ocean trade network & were shaped by cultural diffusion:
The kingdom of Aksum traded with Persia, India, Arabia, & Rome
Aksum became a Christian kingdom

13. Aksum Church

14. East Africa
Arab merchants introduced Islam to East African trade cities:
The mix of Bantu & Arab cultures led to the language known as Swahili
Eastern cities exported: ivory, gold, iron, slaves, and animals

15. West Africa
West Africa was were shaped by the trans-Saharan trade network:
West Africans had large deposits of gold, but lacked salt
The gold-salt trade used camels to connect North & West Africa

16. West Africa
The gold-salt trade increased cultural diffusion with Muslim merchants:
Islam was introduced in West Africa
Many Africans blended Islam with animism or never converted

17. West Africa The gold-salt trade led to wealth & empires in West Africa
Ghana became an empire by taxing trade & conquering the surrounding people
Ghana kings converted to Islam & encouraged literacy

18. West Africa Ghana was overthrown & the Mali empire emerged:
Larger in size than Ghana
Re-established the
gold-salt trade route
Mali kings converted to Islam

19. Mansa Musa passed out gold nuggets to the people he met along the way
The Mali king Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim & went on a hajj to Mecca in 1324
Mansa Musa passed out gold nuggets to the people he met along the way

20. This is a European map of Africa
This is a European map of Africa. Very little was known about Africa below the Sahara, but Mansa Musa is on the map. Based on his image on the map, what did Europeans know about Mansa Musa?

21. West Africa
When he returned from Mecca, Mansa Musa built mosques throughout Mali, including Timbuktu
This trade city attracted scholars & became a center for learning

22. Timbuktu
Djenne Mosque
University