Early West African Civilizations, Ghana, Mali, Songhai

Question 1

Ghana Rise and fall

Answer 1

Started by the sonike reached its peak in 1100’s. Fall caused by Almoravid’s fall caused by 3 main reasons
1.) internal rebellion
a. people that had been conquered by Ghana were not happy with the government year 1200 people rose up and took over
2.) Invasion
a.) invasion-Almoravid tried to invade Ghana for 14 years, this weakened their Ghana’s army
3.) over grazing-Almoravid broughut cattle with them which ate all the grass and destroyed all farming areas turned to dirt/sand
Almoravid’s attacked in 1060 cut off trade routes

Question 2

Almoravid

Answer 2

group of northern Muslims who attacked Ghana

Question 3

silent Barter

Answer 3

trading without coming within contact of traders, kept locations of gold and salt secretive, traders would leave salt/gold on river bank and then the other trader would leave a fair amount of gold/salt for the other traders and would take goods, prevented arguments, if you didnt leave gold/salt then your business would fail because no one would want to trade with you if you didn’t leave your gold, war. didn’t want people to find out location of gold and salt mines

Question 4

Battle of Kirina

Answer 4

Magical battle between Ghana’s king Sumanguru and Sundiata 1200 Sundiata won took over what was Ghana

Question 5

Mali rise and fall

Answer 5

Sundiata took over what was Ghana and Expanded to build Mali. Sundiata helped get Mali to its peak. In 1300 Mali reached its peak under Mansa Musa in 1300. Mansa Musa dies, his son Magan takes over, not a bad leader but not as good as his father people don’t like him, they rebel under his rule.

Question 6

Songhai rise and Fall

Answer 6

Sunni Ali comes along helps build Sonhai, he dies his son Sunni Baru takes over, he is not muslim people dont like him in 1500’s Askia Muhamed leads rebellion against him, Askia Muhammad starts calling himself Askia the great people like him in 1600’s Moroccans lead by Judar Pasha attack Songhai had 25,0000 soldiers Moroccans had 1,000 soldiers they had guns fall of Songhai 1600

Question 7

Savannah

Answer 7

Open grassland with scattered trees

Question 8

Sahel

Answer 8

little rainfall, divides desert from wetter areas

Question 9

sub Saharan Africa

Answer 9

area south of the desert crossed by major rivers…BIG

Question 10

rain forests

Answer 10

near equator, heavy rain densely wooded Congo basin, people destroying it looking for resources… lots of gold!

Question 11

griot

Answer 11

West African story tellers, memorize history of villedge and all the families in it, some can recite their villages history back 2,000 years

Question 12

oral history

Answer 12

History passed down though generation by story telling through the spoken word in west africa oral history passed down through griots, stories may get distorted because griot are in charge of entertaining but also telling history…conflict of interest. people forget things and mix things up

Question 13

proverbs

Answer 13

short wise sayings griots usually use proverbs for story telling

Question 14

animism

Answer 14

belief that bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits,, not many people still believe in animism but there are still some tribes that practice it ancestor worship

Question 15

extended family

Answer 15

mother, father, children, close relatives, loyalty to family was important, lived with extended family, everyone had a job to do

Question 16

Sunni Ali

Answer 16

Expansion of Songhai lead by Sunni Ali became ruler in 1464 unified strengthend and enlarged the empire, added much land that was one Mali participated in Islam and local religions

Question 17

Sunni Baru

Answer 17

Sunni Ali’s son not Muslim