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.
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.
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.
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.
the Sahara is actually expanding through desertification. It gets larger every year
because the desert takes over some of the surrounding grasslands.