African Trade Empires

1. African Trade Empires Ch. 13 Sections 2 & 3

2. Ghana • The empire of Ghana was in West Africa between the Sahara desert to the north and forests to the south • Good position for trading the two main resources of West Africa: gold and salt • Trading gold and salt usually was done by silent barter-exchanging goods without having to contact each other directly • Salt traders would leave a certain amount of salt on a riverbank; in exchange, gold traders would leave a fair amount of gold in the same place • Kept trade peaceful and kept gold mines secret

3. Ghana’s Empire • Ghana began to control all of the trade that went through their area • They became very wealthy and powerful $$$ • They had strong armies with strong iron weapons

4. Ghana’s Decline • Ghana’s empire fell apart for three main reasons: • Invasion • Overgrazing • The cows ate too much grass, land wasn’t fertile for farming without the grass • Rebellion from inside the empire

5. Other Trade Empires of West Africa • Mali Empire was along the Niger River • Being along the river was great for growing crops • Also, the Mali were able to control trading on the river • Songhai Empire was also traded and became rich and powerful

6. Keeping History Alive • West Africans didn’t have a written language, instead they passed along their stories and history by oral history • Oral history is a spoken record of past events (storytelling) • The storytellers of early West Africa were called griots (gree-ohz) • Griots’ job was to tell stories and make sure that the history of West Africa was passed on • Griots also told proverbs-short sayings of wisdom