Directions:

Click on the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Click on Pointer and then Pen. Use the Pen to draw a line from the country name to the correct location on the map. When done, click OFF the pencil and on the arrow.

EGYPT

SUDAN

MALI

GHANA

Having trouble? Try studying the map again here.

Resources of Africa•Africa is a land of great beauty and

resources. Some of the resources that come from Africa are; rubber, gold,

wheat, copper and cotton.

Early Africa• The earliest

fossils found of creatures considered human beings came from Africa. So it seems likely that Africa was the birthplace of human beings!

“Lucy” was a fossil found in Ethiopia and called a “missing link.”

During the middle ages, most of African society was organized into villages. The villages were small and most villagers were related. Most of the people in the villages were either farmers or herders.

African Society -Did you know?

The villages were often governed by a tribal council, which was made up of older men who had gained the respect of their village. Disputes and arguments were settled by the tribal council, who often spent many days discussing their decisions until everyone agreed.

African Government-Did you know?

In the large trading states, kings who were considered to be descended from gods, ruled the people.

Government

African villagers believed that an all powerful god created the world and set down the rules that people should follow. This god, or Supreme Spirit, taught the first Africans how to fish, hunt, plant, make tools and weave. Then he went back to live in the sky.

African Religion Did you know?

They believed that this supreme spirit was too great to pray to, so they worshipped lesser gods that lived in natural objects like water, fire, trees and rocks. These were the gods that they would pray to when they wanted favors.

Religion

They also prayed to their ancestors. They believed that the dead ancestors could help them by speaking to the supreme spirit.

Last of all, every village also had a diviner. The diviner could call on the gods to ask questions and answer prayers.Griots told histories of the tribe/village

African Religion Did you know?

Ethiopia is considered an area of one of the oldest human settlements.

Lucy is considered the world’s oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil.

These are the pyramids of Ancient Ethiopia, which is also called Nubia. They were used as tombs. Although they are similar to those of Ancient Egypt, they have some differences. Compare these pyramids with those of ancient Egypt.

(Notice person next to middle one.)

Nubian Pyramids

Nubian Pyramids

Nubian Pyramids

These are the pyramids of Egypt. Compare them to those of Ethiopia.

Notice the people at the base of this Egyptian pyramid. This helps to show the size of the pyramid.

For many centuries, the people and culture of Ancient Ethiopia were a mystery to the world. Even the Ancient Greeks wrote about an advanced culture that was mostly unknown to other civilizations of the time.

Ancient Ethiopia was a great kingdom that produced many resources like gold, ivory, copper, frankincense and ebony.

Ethiopia was also known as Kush. The name Ethiopia is Greek –aithiopia- “burnt face” = Ethiopian

A frankincense tree. The resin was used to make good smelling

incense.

The Kingdom of Ghana - Gold for salt trade – In Africa, south of the Sahara desert, salt was very important but hard to find. In hot climates people need salt in their bodies to keep from dehydrating. Salt also preserves food, especially meat, and seasons it. So, this gold for salt trade developed in the middle ages.

It worked like a triangle. Arab traders loaded their camels with beautiful silks, cottons and leather goods. They traveled to North Africa to trade these items for salt. There was plenty of salt in North Africa. Then, the Arabs took the salt to West Africa where they traded it for gold.

Since the Kingdom of Ghana was in the middle of all this trading, they controlled it. Both sides of Africa - north and south - paid Ghana a tribute to handle the trades. Although Ghana never owned gold and salt mines, they controlled the trade between the kingdoms and got rich

Then, with the arrival of camel trains, the caravans, the Kingdom of Ghana expanded their control to include trade with the foreigners. They traded gold for spices and other luxury goods as well as salt.

Eventually, Ghana and other countries along the coast became known as the Gold coast.

Salt mine

At the end of the eleventh century, Muslims attacked Ghana and this invasion caused the gold for salt trade to end. Ghana lost its power.

Ghana became a rich and powerful nation, especially when the camel began to be used as a source of transport. Ghana relied on trade and trade was made faster and bigger with the use of the camel.

After 700 AD, the religion of Islam began to spread over northern Africa. Followers of this religion are called Muslims. Muslim warriors came into Ghana and fought with the non-Islamic people there. This weakened the great civilization of Ghana. Local warriors then decided to break away from Ghana and form their own kingdoms. This ended many of the trade networks. It also eventually weakened the civilization of Ancient Ghana.

Islamic Mosque in Ghana

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Mali then gained control of the gold for salt trade after Mali. It was a large kingdom south of Ghana. A powerful king named Sundiata ruled this area from around 1230-1255 AD. He led the people in conquering and expanding his kingdom to be as great as Ghana had been.

Perhaps the greatest king of Mali was Mansa Musa (1312-1337). He developed the gold and salt trade of Mali and his kingdom became very powerful and rich.

Mansa Musa was a Muslim, meaning he followed the religion of Islam. He built many beautiful mosques in western Africa.

In 1324 Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage ( a journey to a holy place) to Mecca, which is a holy city in Arabia, with 60,000 servants and followers and 80 camels carrying more than 4,000 pounds of gold to be distributed among the poor. Of the 12,000 servants 500 carried a staff of pure gold. This showed his power and wealth to the other people he visited.

When Mansa Musa died there were no kings as powerful as he was to follow. The great kingdom of Mali weakened. Eventually a group of people known as Berbers came into the area and other people came up from the south to claim territory that was once part of the kingdom. Although Mali fell, another advanced African kingdom took its place, the kingdom of Songhai.

The Berbers still live in North Africa. This picture, taken in 1893, shows a Berber group.

Songhai was a strong Muslim kingdom. The first great ruler of Songhai was named Sonni Ali. Sonni Ali sent warriors to march on landlocked cities like Timbuktu and another city called Jenne. Soon, the kingdom grew larger than Mali and Ghana. It kept growing until it was the largest kingdom in all of West Africa.

Eventually, Songhai controlled the gold mines in the south and the salt mines in the north. At its height, Songhai stretched over 2,000 miles.

Sunni Ali died in 1492 CE. His son took over the rule of Songhai but he did not accept Islam as a religion. Islam was accepted as a religion by many people in northern Africa.

One of Sunni Ali’s generals, named Muhammad Ture, overthrew the new king and made himself king of Songhai.

Ture was a Muslim and so he made Islam the religion of his kingdom.

This is a photo of a mosque in western

Africa. Many mosques were built of local materials.

Songhai remained a rich and strong kingdom under Muhammad Ture’s rule.

It had a complex government centered in the city of Gao, and great centers of learning. But later rulers were not as powerful.

The Fall of Songhai – By 1590, Songhai began a civil war. Just like Ghana and Mali, the wealth and power of Songhai began to fade and in 1591 the Moroccan army invaded. The Songhai were defeated because the Moroccans had a new weapon, the gun, and the army of Songhai did not. After that, the kingdom of Songhai split up into small, independent states. This led to the fall of Songhai.

All three kingdoms of West Africa relied on trade for their strength and wealth.

Timbuktu Gao

Jenne

Gold, Ivory, Wood, Slaves

Silk, Ceramics, Beads, Islam from Europe and

Asia

Coming into West Africa

Coming from Africa and going to Europe and Asia

Salt

Zimbabwe means house of stone, which comes from the language of the Shona people, who were expert stone builders or masons.

They knew how to build stone walls without using mortar, which is cement that glues bricks together. Zimbabwe was a powerful kingdom for hundreds of years because this area had precious minerals like gold and iron and many people came to trade the gold, iron and ivory.

All the trading along the east coast of Africa united the people and as a result, East Africans developed a language known as Swahili, which is an African language mixed with Arabic words.

Within this region, there are many large forests, which have so much rain a year that they are called rain forests.

Farming in the rainforest area can be done, but all the rain usually will wash away the fertile topsoil. However, the rainforests have valuable hardwoods, like ebony and sandalwood.

Ebony tree

A savanna is land covered with grass with a few trees and bushes. Despite the fact that the soil is not very good, a lot of the savannas are farmed.

Deserts cover about 40 % of Africa. There are 3 major deserts in Africa, Sahara, Kalahari and the

Namib.

The fourth climate zone is called the Mediterranean zone. This type of climate has hot dry sunny summers and moist warm winters. In northern Africa, farmers grow many of the same corps that are grown in Europe..

Mediterranean zone

Africa has some high mountains. Mount Kilimanjaro is the fourth tallest mountain in the world.

Also in eastern Africa is a deep valley that runs north and south for about 4000 miles which is a crack in the surface of the earth called the Great Rift Valley. Lake Victoria is located here.

Great Rift Valley

Great Rift ValleyThe Great Rift Valley is a 4,000 mile giant fault, or break in the earth’s crust. It extends from the Red Sea to the Zambezi River.

Africa also has some large rivers, the Nile, the Zaire, the Zambezi and the Niger River.The Niger river is the longest river in western Africa and it flows across the savanna, through the rain forest and finally it ends in the Atlantic ocean.

Africa is home to the biggest and fastest animals on earth. The elephant is the biggest.

The giraffe is the tallest.

The cheetah is the fastest.

Ostriches, the world largest birds, also live in Africa.

People come from all over the world to see the animals, and to keep them safe from hunters.

African countries have build large parks and game reserves, like Serengeti National park in Tanzania.