Ch 12: Early Societies in West Africa =
CLASS ACTIVITY – W. AFRICAN SOCIETIES
Day 1 exercise for Monday, make sure you have
answered all day 1 questions
A. Phase I Discussion Questions
1) What did the tokens you had to obtain in the exercise represent?
2) Why do you think early communities made up of family members
had to trade with other communities?
3) Who made the decision about with whom to trade?
4) Who do you think made the decisions in these communities?
5) How was this like the rule of early settlements in W Africa?
B. Phase II Discussion Questions
1) Why did families join together in larger communities during the
exercise?
2) In addition to protection, what other reasons might you have for
joining with another community to form a village?
3) How might you design your village to provide better protection than
your family community did?
a) Where would the houses be?
b) Where would the farmland be?
Page 1
Day 2 exercise for Tuesday, make sure you have
answered all day 1 questions
C. Phase III Discussion Questions
1) What did the area encircled in blue yarn represent?
2) When villages learned to make iron tools, not all people had to be
farmers. What other jobs might people have performed when they
no longer needed to be farmers?
3) What might the trading tokens represent?
4) What did the route along which you had to travel to trade represent?
D. Phase IV discussion Questions
1)
What did the area encircled in red yarn represent?
2)
Why did one city attack the others villages and cities?
a) Why did richest city attack the newly created city?
b) Why did the richest city attack the village on the savanna?
3) Why do you think the richest city was able to conquer the city and
village?
4)
How do you think this was what happened in W. Africa?
5)
In what geographic area was this kingdom established?
Page 2
Ch 12: Early Societies in West Africa =
CLASS ACTIVITY – W. AFRICAN SOCIETIES
Day 1 exercise for Monday, make sure you have
answered all day 1 questions
A. Phase I Discussion Questions
1) What did the tokens you had to obtain in the exercise represent?
2) Why do you think early communities made up of family members
had to trade with other communities?
3) Who made the decision about with whom to trade?
4) Who do you think made the decisions in these communities?
5) How was this like the rule of early settlements in W Africa?
B. Phase II Discussion Questions
1) Why did families join together in larger communities during the
exercise?
2) In addition to protection, what other reasons might you have for
joining with another community to form a village?
3) How might you design your village to provide better protection than
your family community did?
a) Where would the houses be?
b) Where would the farmland be?
Page 3
Day 2 exercise for Tuesday, make sure you have
answered all day 1 questions
C. Phase III Discussion Questions
1) What did the area encircled in blue yarn represent?
2) When villages learned to make iron tools, not all people had to be
farmers. What other jobs might people have performed when they
no longer needed to be farmers?
3) What might the trading tokens represent?
4) What did the route along which you had to travel to trade represent?
D. Phase IV discussion Questions
1)
What did the area encircled in red yarn represent?
2)
Why did one city attack other villages and cities?
a) Why did richest city attack the newly created city?
b) Why did the richest city attack the village on the savanna?
3) Why do you think the richest city was able to conquer the city and
village?
4)
How do you think this was what happened in W. Africa?
5)
In what geographic area was this kingdom established?
Page 4
Chapter 12: Early Societies in West Africa
CLASS ACTIVITY – WEST AFRICA SOCIETIES
DEVELOPMENT OF FAMILY BASED COMMUNITIES– PHASE I
Step 1: As a class, you compared the map on the floor to the
Geography Challenge map on page 135 of the text last Friday
Step 2: Assign roles. Your teacher will assign these roles in
each group: one Elder Male (oldest person) & two/or three
Members of the Extended Family (one who will also act as
the Reporter, one as Recorder).
Step 3: Settle in one of the indicated areas. With your group,
move to the area on the floor map indicated by an X that your
teacher told you to go. Mark the boundaries of your
settlement by placing the piece of yellow yarn (from your
envelope) around the X
Step 4: Trade with another settlement. You have been given
three tokens (small pieces of paper) that are the same color.
You need to trade one of your tokens for a token of a
different color. The Elder Male should direct a group member
to trade for a token of a different color with another group.
That member should return to your group as soon as the
trade has been made.
Step 5: While your trading member is away, begin to talk
about the discussion questions on the sheet you placed in
your NoteBook. You should all write your responses in your
NoteBook.
Step 6: Once the trading is complete, discuss the questions
as a class. Your Reporter should share your group’s
answers.
Page 5
The Development of Villages – Phase II
Step 1: Form a village.
Your settlement looks like the picture below. Your extended
family has built small groups of buildings, called compounds,
in the middle of your fields. Other extended families have
built similar compounds nearby.
Suddenly, outsiders attack your community. Quickly join
with the community nearest yours. When everyone in your
new community has joined, raise your hands and your
teacher will give you a piece of green yarn. Mark the
boundaries of your new community by placing the green yarn
around the area where your blue X’s are. Now you have a
green circle around your 2 smaller circles and you have
formed a village.
Step 2: Your teacher will lead a class discussion of the
questions in your NoteBook: (make sure to have these
questions completed they will help you complete the
answers to the ReadNotes in the Grey W/B
Step 3: Please return all materials to the envelopes they
came in and place them on the table for the next period, you
can start to answer questions in the Grey W/B p80
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The Development of Cities – Phase III Day 2
Step 1: Assign roles.
Your teacher will assign four members of your group the
roles of Trader, Discussion Leader, Recorder, and Reporter.
Step 2: Trade your surplus goods. You have 6 tokens of the
same color. You will use one as a tax. You will use the
others to trade with other villages to acquire tokens of 5
different colors. At the end of the trading, only 1 of those 5
tokens should be of the original color. Follow these trading
rules:
• You do not want to travel from village to village, because that would
require too much effort to move your trade goods. Instead, you want
to find a center in which to trade. Because water transportation is
the easiest way to move your goods, send your Trader to travel along
the Niger River until he or she reaches a trading village on the water.
He or she should wait there for other Traders.
• Obey any trading rules the village has established.
• Return to your village once you have tokens in 5 colors.
Step 3: While your Trader is away, begin to talk about the
discussion questions in your worksheet.
Step 4: Create a city.
After the trading, the village with the most tokens should
increase its boundaries by placing the blue yarn farther out
than the green yarn that encircled the village.
Step 5: Once the city is established, discuss the questions as
a class.
Step 6: Keep your tokens out for the next phase of the
activity.
Page 7
The Development of Kingdoms – Phase IV
Step 1: Establish new trading centers.
If you settled in the village located on the savanna and
closest to the Niger River, you should abandon your village
and start a new settlement on the banks of the Niger so you
can share in the taxes that come from controlling trade.
Encircle your new settlement with blue yarn to indicate that
you have become a city because of the trade you now
control.
Step 2: Create a kingdom.
The richest city on the Niger River—the city with the most
tokens—has “attacked” and conquered the new trading city.
It has also “attacked” the village on the savanna to insure
that the village remains loyal. The richest city on the Niger
should now mark the boundaries of its new area, which is
called a kingdom, by placing the red yarn around the city and
the village it has conquered. Encircle the kingdom in as
small an area as possible. Then collect one token from the
city and the village you have conquered.
Step 3: Your teacher will lead a class discussion of these
questions:
Step 4: Collect materials. Return all yarn to your teacher,
along with your envelopes from Phase 3.
Page 8