1. Ancient Africa

2. Geography and Migration
Tropical rain forests cover only 5% of land
Sahara is world’s largest desert
Desertification?
Land becomes parched and desert spreads
Forces migration
Bantu?
Root language that has helped trace movement of earliest peoples

3. The West Africans who migrated south and east spoke Bantu.

4. The variety of climate and geography in Africa influenced its diversity of culture.
As mentioned earlier, one of its most notable geographic features is the vast Sahara Desert. 4

5. The most populated regions are the savannas.
African vegetation regions are wide bands across the continent.
The most populated regions are the savannas.
Deserts, rain forests, and rivers with cataracts hindered easy movement. 5

7. Nubia What have we learned already? Competed with Egypt
Upper Nile
What have we learned already?
Competed with Egypt
750 BC overtook Egypt for a century
500 BC Meroe (mehr uh wee) was centralized capital, iron ore, river trade
AD 350 taken over by Axum

8. Trade Started by having a surplus of food
Network linked savanna to forest land in south and even to Middle East
Gold plentiful in (Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal), traded for salt from Sahara

9. Ghana “Land of Gold”
Located where Niger and Senegal rivers form “V”. King collected tolls on all goods entering or leaving

10. Capital was Kumbi Saleh, two separate walled towns 6 miles apart
First was mostly royal palace where king was semidivine who kept order
Second was prosperous Muslim merchants
Islam never spread far here but culture and design did
Overtaken by Mali

11. Kingdom of Mali Sundiata, 1235, found empire
Mali is Arab for “where the king dwells”
Mansas?
Kings
Mansa Musa came to throne in 1312 and expanded borders, ensured peace and order in empire
Adopted Islam but women had more rights
Timbuktu went from salt center to center of learning and scholars

12. Timbuktu

14. Songhai Kingdom Gao, wealthy trading capital 1450
Sonni Ali, soldier-king, brought trade routes and wealthy cities under his control
Followed traditional religious beliefs
Askia Muhammad set up Muslim dynasty and made kingdom even larger
Set up bureaucracy with various departments
Civil war erupted in 1586 while Morocco sent armies south to defeat but could not control
West Africa splintered into many small kingdoms