African Trade Networks
The large region of the African continent located south of the Sahara Desert.
What is Sub-Saharan Africa?
A large linguistic group with hundreds of related languages.
What is Bantu?
A coastal culture and language that blended African Bantu and Arabic influences.
What does Swahili refer to?
West Africa empires located south of the Sahara along the Niger River.
What is Ghana, Mali, and Songhai?
A king of the Mali Empire in West Africa in the 1300s.
Who is Mansa Musa?
Overland route linking China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean
What is Silk Roads?
The Bantu migration affect on Africa’s agriculture and technology?
What is the spread of farming techniques, crops like cassava, and ironworking skills?
Swahili word for “Storefront”.
What is Duka?
Ghana, Mali, and Songhai eventually collapsed due to?
What is internal instability, and invasions that damaged their trade‑based economies?
Mali experienced a “golden age” of wealth and culture during Mansa Musa's reign due to?
What is building projects and support for education?
Instrument that helped sailors calculate their position north or south (latitude) using the stars, improving open‑sea navigation.
What is Astrolabe?
The belief that all natural objects, including inanimate ones, possess souls or spirits, fostering a deep connection to the natural world.
What is Animism?
Swahili words for everyday goods come from?
What is Arabic, Persian, or Indian languages?
Quickly became Arabized and Muslim, serving as the base for further expansion.
What is North Africa?
An annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims.
What is Hajj?
Maritime routes using predictable monsoon winds that helped merchants know when to sail.
What is the Indian Ocean Route?
Appears early in West Africa and spreads widely across
sub-Saharan Africa.
What is Iron metallurgy?
Merchant elites adopted Islam and built mosques in coastal towns starting around the 8th century.
What is Swahili convert to Islam?
Muslim traders from North Africa crossed the Sahara to trade salt, gold, and other goods with West African merchants along major caravan routes eventually caused what?
What is the spread of Islam and Arabic in Cities and Government?
Used in laws, tax records, and other government business.
What is Arabic writing?
Traded major goods included gold, salt, ivory, and enslaved people.
What is Trans-Saharan trade?
It strengthened rulers, supported state building, and raised the status of smiths.
What is control over iron production?
Independent coastal cities on the East African shore.
What is Kilwa, Mombasa, and Zanzibar?
Cities of learning?
What are Timbuktu, Djenne and Gao?
Earlier, before Mali. Tax on gold–salt trade. Koumbi Saleh.
What is Ghana?