1. READ ch.5 146-173 and answer reading guide
HOMEWORK:
READ ch and answer reading guide
DEFINE: Highlighted words pages
ALL Due Friday 4/20

2. MODERN AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS
WEST AFRICA

3. I. WEST AFRICAN CULTURE AND DAILY LIFE (300AD-1600AD)
A. Village Life in West Africa
1. Families were the foundation for all social, economic, and government activity in West Africa.
2. Powerful empires controlled much of West Africa, but the rulers did not greatly affect the lives of their people.

4. B. The Importance of Family
1. Kinship groups formed the government of many African societies.
2. In Kinship groups decisions were often made by a council of the eldest members.

5. C. Work
1. In West African villages, life for most people centered on farming.
2. Women prepared food, cared for children, made pottery, worked in fields, and brought water to the village.
3. Men looked after cattle or camels, cleared land for farming, and built houses and fences.
4. Children were responsible to gather firewood, help their fathers tend the flocks, and help their mothers clean the home.
5. Some people focused on specific types of work like metal working, iron technology and trading. This is called labor specialization.

6. II. TRADE AND REGIONAL COMMERCE
A. Cities and States Develop
1. West African kingdoms began to grow through trade.
2. Gold mining and trade in slaves led to more contact in North Africa.
3. As regional and international trade increased, the expanding cities became even more important centers of trade, politics, religion, and education.
4. West Africa traded gold, slaves, ivory, and cattle hides, to North Africa.
5. In return, North Africa traded salt, cloth and metal wares to West Africa

7. B. Rise of Kings
1. As West African societies developed complex trade systems, some powerful individuals called kings gained control of the trade system.
2. Many people were loyal to the king because he kept trade running smoothly, and kings played an important role in the religious life of the people.

8. III. THE ORAL TRADITION IN WEST AFRICA
A. Storyteller
1. For centuries, West Africa had no written language, so they passed on their history and cultural values through oral history; a rich collection of stories about people and spiritual forces of the natural world.
2. Storytellers, or GRIOTS, often used music in their stories

9. B. Stories and Community
1. Griots sang for kings and common people.
2. Griots are still an important part of West African culture.

10. IV. THE EMPIRE OF GHANA A. West Africa’s Geography Fuels Empires
1. West Africa’s geography supported a strong trade system that led to an empire.
2. The three vegetation zones in West Africa are dessert, grass lands, and forest.

11. B. Geography of West Africa
1. The Northern part of West Africa is part of the Sahara dessert.
2. The middle/central part of West Africa is a savannah; a grassland in a tropical region.
3. The Southern region of West Africa is a rain forest.
4. The Niger River runs across West Africa, and is a key route for transportation, communication, and trade.
5. The Niger River formed part of the Southern border of Ghana’s Empire.
6. South of Ghana there were major gold deposits.

12. C. Trade Across the Sahara
1. The Sahara Dessert, in Northern West Africa, has rich deposits of salt.
2. On the Savanna, in central West Africa crops such as millet grew well.
3. The forest in Southern West Africa hold large amounts of gold.
4. Trans-Saharan camel caravans increased trans-Saharan trade.

13. V. THE GROWTH OF GHANA’S EMPIRE
Many people farmed the region (Central West Africa) between the Sahara and the forest of Southern West Africa.
MAP PAGE 158
They called their king ‘Ghana’ and eventually the region itself became known as Ghana

14. A. The Foundation of the Empire
1. The Northern part of Ghana bordered the Sahara.
2. As Ghana was located in middle/central West Africa, salt and other trade goods arrived in Ghana from the North. Gold, enslaved people, and food for trade, reached Ghana from the South.
3. The people of Ghana supervised the trading between Northern, Central, and Southern West Africa, and they kept the source of the gold a secret. The king of Ghana gained wealth by taxing trade.

15. 4. The King of Ghana used the wealth gained from this taxation to expand Ghana into an empire.
5. He conquered surrounding lands and forced the people lining there to pay tribute to him.
6. Cities in Ghana became thriving trade centers, including the city of Koumbi Saleh, the capitol of Ghana. It was also the center of the empire and the greatest city in West Africa before the 1200’.

16. B. Religious and Cultural Changes
1. Most of the people who traded salt and other goods across the Sahara were a group called the Berbers
2. Berbers came from North Africa, practiced Islam, and spoke Arabic.
3. The Berber traders established the trade routes to West Africa and introduced written language (Arabic) and Islam to West Africa.

17. VI. ISLAM AND GHANA
Some of the kings of Ghana converted to Islam, but they continued to practice some aspects of their traditional religion to maintain their claim to the throne. Most of the common people kept their traditional beliefs.

18. A. Influence of Islamic Beliefs
1. If a king in Ghana rejected his original religion, he would lose his claim to the throne.
2. Muslims use of written language helped them gain positions of power in Ghana’s government.
3. Islamic ethics, or beliefs, on what is right or wrong, also influenced Ghana.

19. B. Ghana Under Attack
1. A Muslim group called the Almoravids came to power in North Africa.
2. In the 11th century the Almoravids wanted other Muslims to follow their interpretation of Islam.
3. The Almoravids were camel herders who envied the great wealth of Ghana.
4. The Almoravids declared war on Ghana, and the war weakened Ghana’s trade network.
5. In 1076, the Almoravids seized the capital city of Koumbi Saleh.

20. VII. The Empire of Mali A. Mali builds on Ghana’s foundation.
1. In about 1240, Mali formed in the Southern area of what had been Ghana’s empire.
2. Mali was founded by the Malinke people, led by a great chief named Sundiata.

21. B. Sundiata Comes To Power
1. Sundiata formed a powerful army and captured the former capitol of Ghana.
2. Sundiata expanded his empire beyond Ghana’s old borders. He re-established the gold- salt trade and expanded trade routes.
3. Sundiata developed the city of Timbuktu as a city of trade and culture.
4. Timbuktu was on the Niger River where the desert and Savanna vegetation zones met. It later became a famous center of Islamic scholarship.
5. Sundiata supported the development of food crops, cotton farming, and cotton weaving. Sundiata was very popular with his people and is still considered a hero by the Malinke people of West Africa.

22. C. Mansa Musa Expands the Empire
1. In 1307, Mali’s most famous king, Mansa Musa a devoted Muslim, came to power.
2. Mansa means ‘King’ in the Malinke language and Musa is Arabic for Moses.
3. Manda Musa expanded the borders of the empires of Mali till 1332.

23. VIII. Decline of Mali A. Internal Problems
1. After Mansa Musa expired, his descendents argued over who should be the next ruler of Mali.
2. The internal fighting greatly weakened the empire, and eventually Timbuktu was raided and burned.
3. Newly conquered regions of Mali’s empire began to rebel.
4. The Songhai people, in the East, gained strength around their homeland near the great bend of the Niger River.

24. 5. The main Songhai city in the region, Gao , was captured by Mali in 1325, and was led to independence about 40 years later from Mali.
B. EXTERNAL PROBLEMS
1. In the North, Berber nomads seized much of Mali’s territory and captured Timbuktu in 1433.
2. In the South, bandits began to raid trading caravans and military outposts.
3. By 1500 rebels and invaders had reduced Mali’s territory to the original area occupied by the Malinke people and Mali was no longer a strong empire.

25. IX. THE EMPIRE OF SONGHAI
A. Songhai Expands
1. Since 1433 the Berbers had controlled Timbuktu
2. In 1468, Muslim leaders of the city asked the Songhai king Sunni Ali, to help overthrow the Berbers.
3. Sunni Ali captured Timbuktu, drove out the Berbers and gained a reputation as a powerful harsh leader and he went on to conquer neighboring lands.

26. B. Askia Mohammed
1. The Songhai empire expanded greatly under Sunni Ali’s rule.
2. In 1492 Sunni Ali’s son was declared ruler of Songhai.
3. A leader named Askia Mohammed, defeated Sunni Ali’s son and he became the ruler of the Songhai empire.

27. C. Askia’s Organization
1. Askia Mohammad’s greatest achievment was organizing the government of the Songhai empire.
2. He divided Songhai into provinces and appointed governors, directors of finance and agriculture, army and navy, and set up an organized tax system.
3. The rule of Askia Muhammed spread Islam throughout the empire, but in rural areas Islamic beliefs continued to blend with traditional religious beliefs.

28. D. Songhai Fails
1. Askia Muhammed’s son removed his father from the throne.
2. The rulers of Songhai after Askia were weak.
3. In the 1580’s the army of Moracco raided the Songhai salt lines.
4. Moroccan forces captured Timbuktu and Gao.
5. Soon after that the Songhai empire collapsed, but most West Africans, living in kinship groups in agricultural villages continued their lives as much as before.

29. CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

30. A. The Growth of Coastal Trading Cities
1. East Africans exported ivory, gold, iron, timber and slaves in the Indian Ocean Trade.
2. The language of Swahili developed from a Bantu language that incorporated Arabic words.

31. B. Empires Built on Gold and Trade
1. Both Great Zimbabwe and Mutapa became wealthy and powerful as a result of the taxes they levied on the gold that passed through their territory.
2. According to oral tradition the Mutota Empire was founded by a traveler named Mutota who found it while searching for new sources of salt.

32. C. The Kongo Kingdom
1. The positions of dukes and counts were created to replace the former hierarchy of the Kongo government.
2. Relations between Portugal and Kongo became strained when Portugal’s desire for enslaved Africans grew.

33. Interaction between Africans and Arabs led to the development of Swahili and the adoption of Islam by middle class towns people, wealthy merchants, and government officials. In addition, Islamic ideas influenced governments.
Great Zimbabwe demanded tribute in gold from weaker rulers surrounding it.