1. African Kingdoms

2. A varied landscape  Africa’s landscape and climate presents challenges  Too little water  Too much water  Non-navigable rivers  Mountains  Water borne parasites

3. Social Structure  Village life based on clans and age-sets  Division of labor  Oral traditions  -griots  Animist religions

4. Bantu migration  Bantu peoples migrated into most of central and southern Africa  Bantu peoples spread agricultural techniques across Africa displacing hunter-gatherer groups

5. Aksum  Aksum was based on wealth from the Red Sea trade routes  Developed one of the few written languages in Africa  Adopted Christianity

6. Ethiopia  Inland from Axum  Built distinctive churches  2 nd dynasty claims to be descended from Solomon  Claim to have the ark of the covenant  Not colonized by Europe

7. Coastal City-States  Dependent on Indian Ocean monsoon winds  Arabia, Persia India  Arab Muslim traders brought Islam  Swahili came about from blending Arab and Bantu languages  Ivory, gold and slaves from the interior (Great Zimbabwe)

8. West African Kingdoms  Depended on trans- Saharan trade caravans  Salt and Gold were the most important trade goods  Cities that controlled trade routes developed empires

9. West African Kingdoms  Ghana linked gold regions of the south with salt producers in the north  Mali adopted Islam  Timbuktu  Mansa Musa  Songhai started with river trade then controlled traditional routes