Bellringer: 4/18 + 4/19
• 1. Pick up the
papers by the door.
• 2. Use the image to
the right to fill in
your Africa map.
• 3. Update your
ToC:
– 140: Notes:
Africa
– 141: Maps:
Africa & the
Americas
– 142: Folk
Legends
Reading/Chart
SAHARA DESERT
Timbuktu
Niger River
Congo River
Zambezi River
Limpopo River
Rulers of the Nile: Egypt
Egypt
Rulers of the Nile: Kush
Egypt
Kush (Nubia)
Rulers of the Nile: Assyria, Persia, Rome
Egypt
Kush (Nubia)
Mesopotamians
(Assyria, Persia, Rome)
Rulers of the Nile: Assyria, Persia, Rome
Egypt
Kush (Nubia)
Mesopotamians
(Assyria, Persia, Rome)
Rulers of the Nile: Assyria, Persia, Rome
Egypt
Kush (Nubia)
Mesopotamians
(Assyria, Persia, Rome)
Rulers of the Nile: Aksum
Egypt
Kush (Nubia)
Mesopotamians
(Assyria, Persia, Rome)
Aksum
What were three
geographically
important
features around
the empire of
Aksum?
1. Red Sea
2. Rivers
3. Arabian
Peninsula
Aksum
• Aksum was a
prosperous
trading empire
• Traded with
Europe,
Arabia,
Egypt,
Persia, India
Aksum
• Where is it?
– Ethiopian highlands
– Became the
Ethiopians
• Adopted
Christianity
– Stayed Christian until
modern times
Aksum
• Cool facts
–Written
language (Ge’ez)
–Steles
Great Zimbabwe
• Powerful inland trade
city in Southern Africa
– Powerful because
it’s near gold
• Power through trade
– Zambezi and
Limpopo rivers,
Indian Ocean coast
of Africa
Great Zimbabwe
• Mysterious
–Giant circular walls that don’t look
defensive
–City was suddenly abandoned
Great Zimbabwe
• Mysterious
–Giant circular walls that don’t look
defensive
–City was suddenly abandoned
West Africa
• What is the most important
geographic feature of West Africa?
West Africa
Trade
• West Africa has something everybody
wants
GOLD!
• West Africa needs something they can
get from the desert
Salt
• What’s the best way to get stuff across
a desert?
Camels
Gold-Salt Trade
Know this.
Gold-Salt Trade
• Gold: west and south Africa  world
• Salt: the Sahara  west Africa 
world
• Ideas and goods: Mediterranean
region into Sub-Saharan Africa
–Islam expands through trade, not
war
West African Empires
• All three West African Empires
became powerful in the same way
= TRADE!
–Control the trade! People who
lived where the best gold mines
were built armies and conquered
everyone else
1. Ghana
• First empire in West
Africa
• Led by a king
– Controlled the supply
of gold
– Collected taxes
– Protected traders
• Safety
• Fairness
2. Mali
• Gold mines shifted east so new people take over
• Sundiata = creates an empire, first emperor (“mansa”) of
Mali
• Mansa Musa = most famous of the Mali leaders
– Expands empire
– Hajj
• Ibn Battuta: historian/traveler
• Timbuktu – center of trade
3. Songhai
• Gold mines shifted
east so new people
take over
• Continue
gold/salt trade
into 1500s-1600s
• Conquered by
Moroccans with
guns (effects of
industrialization)
Religion in
Africa
• Original African
religion was based on
the belief in nature
and ancestor spirits,
called animism
• Trade spreads Islam
throughout West Africa
and East African coast
– Mali and Songhai
Map Activity + Folk
Legends Activities
• Once you’re finished with the map, you can
begin your West African folk legends
reading. It contains 3 short stories. After
reading each one, fill in the corresponding
row on the folk legends chart. You will have
the rest of class to work on this. If you do
not finish, it becomes your homework.
• Homework: Finish folk legends chart; bring
your textbooks next class
Folktales