EQ's
What role did families play in West African society?
Families were the foundation of all social, economic, and government activity.
How could Mali build on Ghana’s empire?
Mali could re-establish the gold-salt trade to build its empire.
What is oral history?
These are regions with certain plants and climate.
What are vegetation zones?
Why was the area named Ghana?
Because the king was called Ghana
How did trading develop in West Africa?
Trade developed internally (tribes) then expanded into North Africa
How did weak rulers lead to Mali’s decline?
Internal fighting weakened the empire and newly conquered regions began to rebel
These people would tell of spirits, people, and clan history in their stories.
What are griots?
What were the people's lives mostly focused around?
Farming
As long as the kings kept this in order, they would remain in power.
What is trade?
What are three vegetation zones in West Africa?
Desert, grasslands, and forest
What benefits did a strong leader bring to Songhai?
Leader brought centralized leadership and motivation to Songhai
This was a source of transportation, communication, and trade.
What is the Niger River?
This allows West Africans to have different jobs in which they are skilled at.
What is labor specialization?
This city became a center of trade and culture in the Mali Empire.
What is Timbuktu?
Besides goods, what can trade bring to a region?
Written language and religion
How did Islam influence Ghana?
new ideas, new language, and new belief system
This trade route developed when W. Africa traded gold for salt with N. Africa.
What is the trans-Sahara trade route?
(This started the slave-trade)
How did the development of city states begin?
West Africa started trading goods with North Africa.
What happened when trade started to grow?
Many cities became political, religious, and cultural centers.
This culture merged with Ghana and gave them new language and ideas.
What is Islam?