History TEST 5 – study guide – CIVILIZATION + WEST AFRICAN EMPIRES (Ghana, Mali and Songhai)
Civilizations – 7 Key Characteristics
Stable Food Supply – (Development/Advancement of Agriculture)| Government – politics and power/ State organization |Religion
– belief systems |Writing – text + oralTechnology – arts, architecture, tools |Social Structure – family, clan, community, city, states
|Highly developed way of life – TRADE AND ECONOMY
Geography
Growth of trans-Sahara gold trade across the sahel ("sahel" is Arabic for "shore" or "coast") at southern boundary of the Sahara
Desert, which was likened to a sea. In western Africa a number of black kingdoms emerge whose economic base lay in their
control of trans-Saharan trade routes. Gold, kola nuts, and slaves were sent north in exchange for cloth, utensils, and salt. This
trade enabled the rise of the great empires—Ghana, Mali, and Songhai--of the savanna ("savanna" refers to a treeless or
sparsely forested plain.)
3 Empires of West Africa from 700 – 1600 AD – Ghana, Mali and Songhai
GRIOT is a West African historian, storyteller,
praise singer, poet and/or musician. The griot is a
repository of oral tradition and is often seen as a
societal leader due to his traditional position as an
advisor to royal personages.
Ghana Empire - Soninke PEOPLE
(in what is now SE Mauritania) at height of power. The earliest of the 3 great
West African states (emerging ca. 300 CE), Ghana equipped its armies with
iron weapons and became master of the trade in salt and gold, controlling routes. The Trans-SAHARA Trade Route established
during the Ghana Empire and expanded into Empire and Mali and Songhai. The domestication of the camel, which preceded
Muslims and Islam by several centuries, brought about a gradual change in trade, and, for the first time, the extensive gold, ivory
trade, and salt resources of the region could be sent north and east to population centers in North Africa, the Middle
East and Europe in exchange for manufactured goods. Tenkamenin - King of the kingdom Ghana 1037 to 1075 AD. But his
greatest strength was in government. Each day he would ride out on horseback and listen to the problems and concerns of his
people. He insisted that no one be denied an audience and that they be allowed to remain in his presence until satisfied that
justice had been done. His principles of democratic monarchy and religious tolerance make Tenkamenin’s reign one of the great
models of African rule.
Mali Empire – Mande or Mandinka Peoples
Mansa Musa (ruled Mali from 1312 – 1337) – gained wealth through Mali’s supply of salt and gold, which was the main source for
most of the world during that time. Educated his countries during his rule. Build great mosques in Timbuktu – a centre of trade
and education. Rise of the Mali Empire of the Mande (or Mandinka) peoples in West Africa. The Mali Empire was strategically
located near gold mines and the agriculturally rich interior floodplain of the Niger River. This region had been under the
domination of the Ghana Empire until the middle of the 11th century.
Timbuktu - near the Niger River. An old center of Islamic culture, it was important because of its position on the trans-Saharan
caravan route. Established in the 11th century as a seasonal camp by Tuaregs, it became part of the Mali Empire by the 14th
century and was a major trading center of the western Sudan. Famed for its gold trade, it came under the Songhai Empire in the
15th and 16th centuries and was a Muslim educational center of great renown.
Songhai Empire – 15th
and 16th century AD
At its peak the empire was
one of the largest
in African history. The
empire bore the same name
as its leading ethnic group,
the Songhai people, the
ruling elite in the empire.
Under the rule of Sonni Ali,
the Songhai surpassed the
Malian Empire in area,
wealth, and power,
absorbing vast areas of the
Mali Empire and reached its
greatest extent.