1. Chapter 5: early west African societies
Geography of Africa

2. Section 1: Geography of Africa
Landforms, Water, Climate, and Plant Life
Rifts – long, deep valley’s formed by the
movement of the Earth’s crust
Plateaus, and wide, low plains
Sub-Saharan Africa
Area south of the Saharan Desert
Major Rivers
Congo
Zambezi
Niger (N-eye-jeer)
Primary river of the West African Societies

3. Section 1: Geography of Africa
West Africa’s Great River
Niger River
Low-lying lakes and deltas
Animal populations
Crocodiles, geese, hippopotamus
West Africa’s Climate and Plants
Four different regions – bands from north to south
Southern Sahara – desert
Sahel – strip of land that divides the desert from wetter areas
Savannah – open grassland with scattered trees
Rain forests – moist, densely wooded areas

4. Section 1: Geography of Africa

5. Section 1: Geography of Africa
West Africa’s Resources
Crops – dates, nuts, food crops
Mineral resources – salt and gold
Salt essential to diets of West Africans
Gold mines were hidden

6. Chapter 5: early west African societies
Early Culture and Trade

7. Section 2: Early Culture and Trade
Families, Religion, and Daily Life
Families, Villages, and Loyalties
Extended Family – included father, mother, children, and close relatives of the household
Each person had to be loyal to their extended family
Age-sets – men who had been born within the same two-three years of each other and formed special bonds
Female age-sets

8. Section 2: Early Culture and Trade
Duties within Extended Families and Age-Sets
Men hunted and farmed
Millet and sorghum
Cattle, goats, sheep
Women farmed and gathered
Ground grain, carried water
Cared for children
Elderly and Children
Children helped to work
Elders told stories and taught traditions

9. Section 2: Early Culture and Trade
Religions and Culture
Religion
Importance of family
Spirits of ancestors
Shrines to them
Spirits provided protection
Animism – the belief that bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits
Dependence on natural world for survival

10. Section 2: Early Culture and Trade
Technology and Change
Development of iron tools
Heating process
Nok People and Iron
Earliest people to use iron
Present day Nigeria
Farming tools
Improved crop yields
Weapons and hunting tools
Clearing forest lands

11. Section 2: Early Culture and Trade
Trade and West Africa
Desert Trade
AD 200s, Romans began to use camels for trade expeditions
Others used camels to form trade caravans and travel across the Sahara
Berbers
Knowledge of desert and the Sahara improved desert trade network

12. Section 2: Early Culture and Trade
Trade in Gold and Salt
Salt and Gold became very valuable
Salt moved south from Sahara, then traded for gold
Traders then took gold north, to Europe and to Islamic world
Other goods cloth, copper, silver and slaves
Trade Centers
Timbuktu

13. Create a Persona: The Hajj diary
Who do you want to be today?
Create a character for your hajj diary?
You must choose one of the following names for your character
Next:
Create a back story of you extended family. With names of each including age-sets.
What kind of worker are you: trader, farmer, hunter, soldier?
Explain why you are going on the hajj with Mansa Musa, your king?
Girls
Kadidia
Hawa
Lara
Fatima
Rama
Bintou
Soumba
Abibatou
Aiicha
Oumou
Boys
Ousmane
Irbraham
Siaka
Drissa
Mohamed
Ali
Salif
Karim
Alou
Khadafi