African Regions
What is the belief of multiple gods and spirits and can be called Pagans
Polytheim
What was the first written language in West Africa?
Arabic
What natural resource helped make Ghana strong and rich?
Gold
What did the Trans-Saharan caravan routes served as ?
Cultural diffusion which spread cultural traits from region to region
West Africans responded to the introduction of Christianity by fusing it with ____?
animism
Spirits of the dead ancestors could be called on to protect and guide the living
ancestor worship
What was traditional story tellers whose job was to keep an oral history of a tribe, village, family, or kingdom
Griots
Arab merchants who came to Ghana along the Saharan routes brought what 2 culture elements to West Africa?
Muslim religion and Arabic language
How was Islam introduced to West Africa?
by the Arab Merchants who interacted with the animists of the region
What was 3 Islamic practices?
1. They learned the five pillars of Islam
2. They prayed in Arabic
3. They studied the Quran
priest like elders in indigenous religion who are thought to have special powers to communicate with the spirit world
Shamans
Disney's "The Lion King" is based on a West African oral history called ______?
Where did trade between North Africa and West Africa flow through?
Ghana
What is another word for polytheism?
Paganism
What was the largest of the three West African trading kingdoms?
Songhai
When different groups interact and borrow ideas from each other leading to changes in language, customs, religion, etc.
cultural blending
*bonus points if you can do all 4**
Keepers of history
learned to memorize events, songs, and legends passed down knowledge from generation to generation
served as tutors and advisors for princes and rulers
entertained their communities with poems and songs
How did Ghana and its kings grow wealthy according the Muslim scholar Al-Bakri?
Taxing the gold-salt trade
What was the worship of nature spirits?
Animism
What was Mansa Musa responsible for spreading in West Africa?
Islam
How was Christianity brought to west Africa?
European missionaries began spreading christianity in west Africa in the 1500's
What is an unwritten spoken record of the past?
Oral history
What city had a university and magnification library that had scholars across the Muslim world that came there to teach and study?
Timbuktu
How did the Saharan desert have a positive impact in North Africa?
It provided salt, a valuable trading resource
What was a common source of power for the West African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai?
the gold-salt trade between north Africa and West Africa