Vocabulary
This African region is made up of grasslands with scattered trees.
What is the savanna?
The first major West African empire.
What is Ghana?
West African empires gained wealth by controlling these.
What are trans-Saharan trade routes?
This ruler made a famous pilgrimage that showed off Mali’s wealth.
Who is Mansa Musa?
The largest desert in the world, found in northern Africa.
What is the Sahara Desert?
A storyteller who preserves history through spoken word.
Who is a griot?
The empire that became powerful under Mansa Musa.
What is Mali?
This mineral was as valuable as gold to West Africans.
What is salt?
Mansa Musa brought this major change to Mali.
What is the spread of Islam and Islamic learning?
These grasslands stretch across much of West Africa.
What are the savannas?
This term refers to passing on history, beliefs, or stories by word of mouth.
What is oral tradition?
The last of the three major West African empires.
What is Songhai?
This type of trade crossed the Sahara.
What is trans-Saharan trade?
This type of historian passed down stories before writing was common.
Who is a griot?
This major trade route crossed harsh environments.
What is the trans-Saharan route?
A group of travelers, often merchants, moving across the desert together.
What is a caravan?
These three empires grew wealthy by controlling trade routes.
What are Ghana, Mali, and Songhai?
West Africans traded mainly with people from this region.
Who are North African traders?
This leader strengthened Mali and expanded its influence.
Who is Mansa Musa?
This physical region helped isolate West Africa from North Africa.
What is the Sahara?
This desert region separates North and West Africa.
What is the Sahara?
This empire became important because it controlled trade and had strong leadership.
What is Ghana?
Salt was important because West Africans needed it for these two reasons.
What are preserving food and maintaining health?
These storytellers were essential to remembering African traditions.
Who are griots?
This vast physical feature made trade difficult, required caravans to cross, and influenced the rise of West African trade routes.
What is the Sahara Desert?