Trade across the Sahara Desert: Unit 1: pg. 34 - 43

Question 1

a) When did trade in North and West Africa begin?

b) When did trade in North and West Africa reach its peak?

Answer 1

a) A long time ago.

b) Between the 8th and the late 16th century.

Question 2

What did the people living in the Sahara Desert use as a means of transport?

Answer 2

Dromedary camels.

Question 3

a) What tribe brought the Dromedary camels to North Africa from the dry desert areas of West Asia?
b) When had they brought them?

Answer 3

a) The Berbers.

b) The 3rd century.

Question 4

Why were camels chosen as a means of transport?

Answer 4

Dromedary camels are suited to the desert because their bodies have adapted to the hot, dry and sandy conditions found in deserts.

Question 5

List 8 ways of how the Dromedary camel has adapted to the desert.

Answer 5

1. They have a double row of eyelashes and can close their nostrils, which helps to stop sand from getting into their eyes and noses, even in a sandstorm.
2. Can conserve water by changing their body temp. during the day, which helps them stay cool and to save water by not sweating.
3. Can drink lots of water quickly.
4. Have humps that store fat, which they can change into water and energy when food and water are not available.
5. Have thick coats that protect them from the heat radiating from the desert sand.
6. Have long legs that keep their bodies away from the hot desert sand.
7. Have pads under feet that widen when they step on the ground, which helps them to not sink into the sand.
8. Have thick lips that help them to eat coarse and thorny desert plants.

Question 6

How did people use camels for trading transport?

Answer 6

The camels were fattened because this made them suitable for travelling long distances, because they could live off the fat stored in their bodies.

Question 7

What was the main commodity of the trade between the Tuareg and the Berbers?

Answer 7

Salt.

Question 8

What was the main commodity of the trade?

Answer 8

Salt.

Question 9

What were the 2 main trade routes?

Answer 9

1. The one started in Morocco and ended in Niger.

2. The second started in Mali, went through Tunisia and ended in Egypt.

Question 10

____ remained the commodity in the trans-Saharan trade, followed by k_____ n_____, s_____, i_____ and o_____ f_______.

Answer 10

Gold.
Kola nuts.
Slaves.
Ivory.
Ostrich feathers.

Question 11

Why was there a decline in the gold-salt trade?

Answer 11

After the European ‘discovery’ of the Americas in the 16th century, Europeans settled on both continents. They started establishing plantation farms (for sugar and tobacco) that needed cheap and reliable labour.

Question 12

Why did many people convert to Islam? (Give 3 reasons)

Answer 12

1. Early Muslim missionaries, such as Abadallah ibn Yasin, influenced thousands of Berbers to convert to Islam.
2. Many Saharan Africans converted to Islam to protect themselves against being sold into slavery, which was a flourishing trade at the time.
3. Some leaders converted to Islam to gain political support from the Arabs and to make commercial relationships easier.