1. Ancient Ghana was located in West Africa. They played a huge role in the gold-salt trade, where they traded their gold for North Africa’s salt.

2. Ghana was known for their gold. Gold was prevalent in West Africa.

3. Items made out of gold in Ghana

4. Rulers in Mali and Ghana were made rich by the gold-salt trade. This is Mansa Musa, ruler of Mali.

5. Ancient Mali

6. A map of ancient Africa

7. West African societies were known for their artwork. These sculptures are from Benin, made from bronze. One is a ceremonial mask, while the other celebrates a king’s victory in battle.

8. Art was often tied to religion in West Africa. These are fetishes, or figurines made in the image of people’s ancestors. They were tied to religion as people used them for ceremonies and prayer. They were made out of wood, terra cotta, bronze and brass.

9. Music was most often used in religion. They used instruments as an accompaniment to dancing.

10. Dancing was used often for religion.

12. A griot was an African storyteller. Ancient African societies often did not have a written language, so they kept oral traditions. Their history was passed down through word of mouth (orally) for centuries. The griot’s job was to keep these stories. They were sung in a performance-style in front of the village.

13. Ancient trading cities like Timbuktu (in the kingdom of Mali) were huge trading centers for goods and knowledge.

14. Often people would travel to Timbuktu for their universities. It was a main reason why Islam spread to West Africa- Islamic scholars from North Africa would travel to Timbuktu, or people on the gold-salt trade would also spread their religion.

15. Timbuktu

16. ancient Timbuktu

17. a sculptur e in East Africa

18. A traditional African village

19. Traditional village in the highlands of Africa

20. Africa is very diverse and has many different landforms. They have desert, rainforest, highlands, coast, grasslands, and mountains. The next few pictures give you a look into what Africa looked like both in the past and today.

21. Grasslands

22. Ghana was known for their gold. Gold was prevalent in West Africa.

23. Grasslands (where you think of safaris and animals)

24. desert

25. the Sahara takes up about 1/3 of the whole continent of Africa

26. the Sahara is actually expanding through desertification. It gets larger every year because the desert takes over some of the surrounding grasslands.

27. rainforest

29. East African ruins on the coast

30. coast line

31. coast line in South Africa

32. highlands/mountains

33. Ethiopian highlands

34. highlands