Africa One Pager By: Dustin Merrill
humanities.mcmaster.ca
mrdowling.co
m
mrdowling.co
m
Was Ghana the strongest Trading Empire?
Was Mali the Richest Empire?
Was Songhai the smartest empire when it came to trade?
What were the most important historical and tradition in these empires?
en.wikipedia.org
(Wealth) Ghana became very wealthy by collecting taxes from people who came to trade their goods.
(Gold and Salt)Salt was highly valuable and could be traded for many luxury items and gold.
(Ancient Africa) Africa had many storytellers called Griots who crossed vast land spreading what they
learned.
(Mali) In Mali there were many great cities such as Songhai which was known for trading.
(Mansa Musa) Pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 and carried many items along with him.
(Timbuktu) It was a very spiritual and intellectual place near the Niger River.
(The Empire of Ghana and Mali) Ghana was in the prime location for the trade routes while Mali was
Mansa Musa who was there leader at the time, was leading them to victory and to be very rich.
(Ibn Battuta: The Greatest Traveler in the middle Ages) Was possibly one of the greatest travelers of all
time as he travelled to Mecca in 1325 and travelled over 75,00 miles and reached his destination in
1304.
Mansa Musa was a very rich King. Mansa Musa was from the Mali Empire. Mansa Musa was famous for
making a Hajj to the Arabian Peninsula. He was important because he had over 500 Men come on the
journey and gave away so much gold that it actually dropped the value of it for 20 years. Mansa Musa is
like Franklin Roosevelt How Franklin Roosevelt was the first President to travel by airplane on official
business across the world.
Silent Barter Is when Men would trade there items without ever making eye contact and speaking face
to face. This is important because it started the way we trade curtain items today. EBay is a good form of
silent barter how people meet online without ever meeting face to face and trade items by the mail.
Oral History was told by people called Griots who would travel across Africa telling people family history
and stories they were told. This was important because they needed to spread the history so that
everyone would know it. Today this is like Google how you can just search anything and find out what
you want to know about anything.