Geography/Kush/Aksum
Great Zimbabwe
Ghana
Mali
Songhai/Important People
100

Describe the African Sahara and rain forest

African Sahara:

13 million square miles

Most Africans live in the Savanna

Central Africa

African Rain Forest:

17 feet of rain per year

Very humid

37 countries, 15% of land

Congo River

100

What languages is Swahili a mix of?

Arabic and Bantu

100

Who conquered Ghana?

  • Conquered by Muslim Almoravids from North Africa in 1076

    • Capital: Marrakech

100

What did trade look like for Mali? (Goods, imports, exports)

  • Gold and salt trade

  • Subsistence farmers, griots (historians and advisors)

    • Rice, millet

100

Who was Songhai invaded by?

  • Invaded by Morocco in 1591 who was using gunpowder

200

What is the highest mountain in Africa?

Mount Kilimanjaro

200

What were the economy and government like in Great Zimbabwe?

  • Established by the Bantu-speaking people in 1000 AD between Limpopo and Zambezi Rivers

  • Controlled trade close to the Indian Ocean

    • Evidence of Chinese and Persian glass beads and porcelain

  • Central bureaucracy - king
200

What geographical feature did the people of Ghana use to their advantage?

Niger River

200

What was religion like in Mali?

  • Malinke ethnic group

  • 1st Islamic state in Africa

  • Blending of Animism, Shamanism, Islam

200

What was religion like in African societies?

  • Use of rituals to communicate with gods

    • Diviners: people with power to foretell events

      • Hired by kings

  • Central god and lower deities

  • Importance of ancestors

  • Challenged by Islam

    • Mixing

    • Some conversion, earlier in the West than the East

      • More Christianity in the East - Portugal

300

Describe the kingdom of Kush

  • Just south of Egypt, in the Nubia area

    • Traded with Egypt

    • Conquered Egypt in 750 BC, but lost Egypt to Assyrians in 666 BC

  • High roles of women in politics and religion

    • Kandakes

  • Polytheistic: Egyptian gods

  • Furnaces used for ironwork

    • From Assyrians

  • Golden age of capital Meroe: 250 BC-50 AD

    • Trade with Middle East, Mediterranean, central Africa

  • Fell in 350 AD to Aksum

300

Why was Great Zimbabwe abandoned?

  • Abandoned in 1600s

    • Likely because of global downturn of trade

    • Land erosion? Drought?

    • Royalty leaves to go north to find salt mines

300

What did education look like in African societies?

  • Schools split up by gender

  • Puberty: initiation ceremony and ritual ceremony to become adult

  • Men: hunting, fishing, farming

  • Women: become good wives and mothers, hometakers, farmers

300

What caused the decline of the Mali Empire?

  • Decline

    • Incompetent leadership

    • Shift of gold-salt trade routes 

    • Exists past 1450, but not as strong, until 1599

300

Describe society in Songhai (Military, empire size, etc)

  • Largest West African state

  • Lack of modern weapons
  • Civil War 
400

Label the Sahara desert, Kalahari desert, Namib desert Nile River, and Congo River




400

What was lineage like in African societies?

  • Lineage groups: extended family in small round dwellings

    • Power of the elder

  • Matrilineal society

    • Women farmers, merchants, could own property

    • Men cattle herders, hunters, usually more  power

400

What did Ghana trade look like/what resources did Ghana import and export?

  • Controlled gold-salt trade in Western Africa

    • King limited supply of gold and salt

    • Berbers: caravan traders

  • Imported metallurgy, textiles, salt
400

What was the capital of Mali and what was it known for?

  • Capital: Timbuktu

    • Center of learning

400

Who was Ibn Battuta and what did he do?

  • Muslim traveler who visited cities across Africa in the 1300s

  • Recorded impressions of Muslim countries and African societies, as well as China, India, etc.

500

Describe the kingdom of Aksum

  • Northeastern Africa, location of Arab migrants from 1,000 BC

  • Golden Age: 325-360 AD, King Ezana

    • Conquers Kush

    • Conversion to Christianity

  • Focus on trade: traded salt, ivory, emeralds for olive oil, wine

  • Farmers, traders, architects

  • Polytheistic: Mahrem one of the gods

    • Worshipped spirits, honored dead ancestors, sacrifices

  • Mint own coins, terrace farming, dams

  • Ge’ez: Language

  • Loss of trade to Muslim traders; climate change impacts farming - but still exists today as a city

500

What did society/architecture look like in Great Zimbabwe?

  • Gold mines close by

  • Stone walls, cone towers, stone government buildings and royal palace

    • Mud houses for people

  • Great Enclosure: oval space surrounded by wall, close to round houses

  • Dhaka pits: reservoirs

500

What did society look like in Ghana? (Women, religion, military)

  • High status of women

  • Influence of Islamic religion, but local beliefs stayed

  • Use of well-trained army

500

Who were the 2 important people in Mali and what did they do?

  • Founder: Sundiata the Lion King

    • Oral traditions and stories passed down by griots (storytellers)

  • Mansa Musa

    • Converted Mali to Islam, based justice system on Quran, made Hajj

    • Military leader, expansion to Atlantic Ocean

    • Mosques built in Timbuktu and Gao

    • Strong central government, use of governors

500

Who were the 2 main important people in Songhai and what did they do?

  • Sunni Ali

    • Conquered Timbuktu

    • Central government that helped all peoples

  • Askia Mohammed: ruler after killing Ali’s son

    • Use of provinces and governors

    • Expanded empire along Niger River

    • Use of military

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