Ancient Ghana was located in West Africa. They played a huge role in the gold-salt trade, where they traded their gold for North Africa’s salt.

Ancient Ghana was located in West Africa.They played a huge role in the gold-salt trade, where they traded their gold for North Africa’s

salt.

Ghana was known for their gold. Gold was prevalent in West Africa.

Items made out of gold in Ghana

Rulers in Mali and Ghana were made rich by the gold-salt trade. This is Mansa Musa,

ruler of Mali.

Ancient Mali

A map of ancient Africa

West African societies were known for their artwork. These sculptures are from Benin, made

from bronze. One is a ceremonial mask, while the other celebrates a king’s victory in battle.

Art was often tied to religion in West Africa. These are fetishes, or figurines made in the image of people’s ancestors. They were tied to religion as

people used them for ceremonies and prayer. They were made out of wood, terra cotta, bronze and brass.

Music was most often used in religion. They used instruments as an accompaniment to dancing.

Dancing was used often for religion.

A griot was an African storyteller. Ancient African societies often did not have a written language, so they kept oral traditions. Their history was passed down through word of

mouth (orally) for centuries. The griot’s job was to keep these stories. They were sung in

a performance-style in front of the village.

Ancient trading cities like Timbuktu (in the kingdom of Mali) were huge trading centers for goods and

knowledge.

Often people would travel to Timbuktu for their universities. It was a main reason why Islam spread to West Africa- Islamic scholars from North Africa would travel to Timbuktu, or people on the gold-salt trade would also

spread their religion.

Timbuktu

ancient Timbuktu

a sculptu

re in East

Africa

A traditional African village

Traditional village in the highlands of Africa

Africa is very diverse and has many different

landforms.They have desert, rainforest, highlands, coast, grasslands,

and mountains. The next few pictures give you a look into what Africa looked like both in the past

and today.

Grasslands

Ghana was known for their gold. Gold was prevalent in West Africa.

Grasslands (where you think of safaris and animals)

desert

the Sahara takes up about 1/3 of the whole continent of Africa

the Sahara is actually expanding through desertification. It gets larger every year

because the desert takes over some of the surrounding grasslands.

rainforest

rainforest

East African ruins on the coast

coast line

coast line in South Africa

highlands/mountains

Ethiopian highlands

highlands