Vocab
An item left by an earlier culture
Artifact
an ancient West African city built along the Niger River
Jenne-jeno
a medieval civilization and empire in West Africa
Ghana
a zone of semidesert, south of the Sahara, where short grasses, small bushes, and a few trees grow
Sahel
a family line traced through the mother
Matrilineal
the first West African ruler to practice Islam devoutly
Mansa musa
the longest river in West Africa, and a kind of trading highway in early times
Niger River
a talented poet-musician of the Mande people, who tells stories, sings songs, and recites poems to share history
griot
a people living in West Africa in the 500s B.C.E. who mastered ironworking
Nok
a people who broke away from the empire of Mali and eventually built their own vast empire in West Africa
Songhai
a family line traced through the father
Patrilineal
a large, hot desert in North Africa that covers about 3.5 million square miles
Sahara
a West African empire ruled by the Mande that became a major crossroads of the Islamic world
Mali
A region that, because of its soil and climate, has a distinctive types of plants
Vegetation zone
a traditional form of cloth produced in West Africa
kente
a vegetation zone of tall grasses and scattered trees, with a long rainy season
savanna
learning and cultural ideas passed down orally, from one generation to the next
oral tradition