Warm Up
February 11-12, 2014
 Chapter: Early Societies in West Africa
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Essential Question: Why didn’t people
north of the Sahara interact with
people south of the Sahara?
EARLY SOCIETIES IN WEST
AFRICA
History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond:
Chapter 12
A Long Unwritten Past

People have lived in West Africa for hundreds of thousands of
years.
 Due to only passing information orally for much of this time, we
do not have written records.
 Muslim scholars began writing about the kingdom of Ghana in
the 800s.
 It was at least 300 years old by then.

Archeologists and historians look at various things for clues
including:
 Geography – natural features like rivers and vegetation
show where people settled.
 Artifacts – Objects that were left behind show various things
such as farming methods and how people lived.

We know that Africa went from family based communities to
villages to towns to cities and then into great kingdoms.
Geography and Trade

West Africa has a wide range of
geographical features:
 In
the North is the Sahara Desert.
 South of the Sahara is the Sahel, which is dry but
has enough water for short grasses and small
bushes and trees.
 Next is the savannah, this area has tall grasses
and trees with a long rainy season.
 The Niger river goes through this and then into
woodlands and then rainforest.
Sahara Desert
Sahel
Savannah
Savannah
Niger River Delta
Niger River
Rain Forest
Geography and Trade cont.

The wide variety of
geographical features in
Western Africa made no
area self-sufficient, they
needed to trade with other
areas to get all the things
they needed to survive.
 People in the forest
would trade mahogany
wood for grains from
the savannah.
Early Communities and Villages

People started settling in farming communities
around 4000 B.C.E. in the Sahel.

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These communities were made of extended
families.
An extended family includes close relatives such as
grandparents as well as aunts, uncles, and their
children. These communities would be about 15-20
people.
Men typically made the decisions in these
communities.
Eventually these communities joined together to
form villages, these would contain anywhere
between 100 and 200 people.

Discoveries of high walls suggest that villages were
formed in order to create a common defense.
The Development of Towns and Cities

Villages often grew into towns and cities. This was due to
two main reasons.
 Ironworking
developed in 1500 B.C.E. by the Hittites in
present day Turkey. This spread to Africa by 500 B.C.E.
 Iron tools allowed for more efficient farming which allowed for
a surplus of food.
 One great city was the city of Jenne-jeno.
Cities were located
close to water ways.
The Development of Towns and Cities cont.

The surplus of food was then traded to gain goods
that the communities could not develop themselves.
 People
began moving to areas that trade was easy
(near water or well traveled routes) and became
wealthy.
 Africans prized iron more than gold and marveled at
the blacksmiths’ creations, even considering them
magical or godlike.
The Rise of Kingdoms and Empires

Kingdoms first developed as rulers of trading
cities began collecting taxes and became very
rich.
 They
were then able to create very large and
powerful armies to conquer foreign cities.
 They then would collect tribute from conquered
areas.
 Tribute
is a payment made by one ruler of country to
another for protection or as a sign of submission.
 West
African kings were considered to have special
powers given to them by the gods.
The Rise cont.

There were disadvantages to
those conquered into empires.

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Local rulers had to pay tribute.
Local men had to fight in the
king’s army.
There were also advantages of
those conquered into empires.

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Armies made trade safe, and kept
raiders and foreign armies out of
the cities.
Loot from conquered cities was
often passed fairly throughout the
kingdoms.
Work citied
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History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond: Chapter 12
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