Unit on Africa
Terms
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- Congo River
- The second longest river in Africa
- Ibn Battuta
- A traveler, historian, native of Tangier and visited one of Mansa Musa's successors
- Saninke
- The founders of the Ghana empire
- Askia Muhammed
- Tried to conver Sunni Ali Ber II, was exiled and came back with army to overthrow Sunni Ali Ber II
- Almoravids
- A berber dynasty that was from the Sahara desert
- Oldvai Gorge
- A steep sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley; "The Cradle of Mankind"
- Bambuti
- The oldest pygmy-indigenous people of the Congo
- Zambezi River
- The 4th longest river in Africa, flows into the Indian Ocean
- Initiation Rites/Rites of Passage
- The rites in which a child becomes an adult
- Nile River
- The only northern flowing river in Africa
- Adulis
- The capital of Aksum
- Diviner
- A witch doctor
- Griot
- Story telling
- Coptic Christianity
- An adapted form of Christianity developed by King Ezana
- Desertification
- The process in which a desert can grow engulfing surrounding land
- Namib Desert
- A coastal desert in Africa, merges with the Kalahari
- Kalahari Desert
- A desert that occupies most of Botswana and Namibia
- Fetish
- A lucky charm that Africans wear around their necks to ward off evil spirits
- Hausa
- A group of people named after the language they spoke
- Swahili
- The most widely spoken Bantu language and the official language of Kenya
- Sahel
- A region of Western to Northern central Africa occupying an area of land from Senegal to Sudan
- Almohads
- A berber-muslim dynasty founded in the 12th century that occupied northern Africa
- Nok Culture
- The earliest African culture that occupied modern day Nigeria
- Great Rift Valley
- A major branch of the east African Rift system
- Mary Leakey
- Discovered the first skull of the fossil ape
- Bantu
- A group of people with a common language group that had one of the biggest migrations in World History
- Niger River
- The principal river of western Africa
- Animism
- The common religion in Africa, where people believe in nature spirits
- Oasis
- A small patch of greenery in the desert with a water source directly below it
- Atlas Mountains
- The mountain range that prevents water from entering the Sahara Desert
- Victoria Falls
- A waterfall settled on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Jungle
- An area of land with dense, overgrown forest
- Lake Tanganyika
- A large lake in central Africa, the third largest freshwater lake
- Gao
- The capital of the Songhai empire
- Ife
- An ancient Yoruba city in South-Western Nigeria
- Tribal Marks
- Marks that signify from which tribe a person is from
- Berbers
- The indigenous people of North Africa who are of a Mediterranean ethnicity
- Ge'ez
- The official written language of the Aksum empire
- Queen Amina
- The first Queen of Hausa
- Collectivism
- When a group of people work together to maintain the good of the tribe
- Benin
- A empire on the delta of the Niger river, was greatly influenced by the Yoruba
- Banishment
- When a person is exiled from the tribe
- Ghana
- The trading stated that was the most important; traded gold for silver
- Sahara Desert
- The biggest desert in the world, located in northern Africa
- Tuareg
- A nomadic pastoralist people who are the inhabitants of the inner-Sahara desert
- Sundiata
- Mali's first great leader, came to power by crushing a cruel unpopular leader
- Rainforest
- A dense forest, rich in biodiversity, which usually receives annual, heavy rainfall
- Age Sets
- Sets of different ages that work together to maintain the tribe
- Savannah
- A grassy plain in tropical and subtropical regions of the world
- Mali
- An empire of Mande speaking people that lived south of Ghana. Emerged in 1235
- Djenn-Djenno
- The city located near the area of the Nok Culture
- Chief
- The leader of a tribe
- Mutota
- Developed the Empire of Monomotapa
- Aksum
- One of the first major empires in Africa that occupied Ethiopia and Eritiria
- Stelae
- A large pillar/tablet that was used as a territorial marker
- Masai
- The tribe with the jumping people
- Council of Elders
- A council that works side-by-side with the chief to help him make decisions
- Ezana
- The strongest ruler of the Aksum empire; was never defeated, created canals for irrigation and water towers
- Oyo
- A west African empire that covered modern-day Nigeria and Benin
- Yoruba
- A group of people that spoke the same language and eventually formed localized kingdoms
- Sunni Ali Ber
- A brutal ruler that destroyed Timbuktu
- Timbuktu
- A Muslims city that was a center of research and learning
- Polygamy
- The marriage of more than one wife
- Songhai
- A group of people that broke away from the Mali empire and started their own empire
- Bridewealth
- Something that a husband pays for when he is about to marry his bride
- Mount Kilimanjaro
- "The roof of Africa"
- Mansa Musa
- The most famous Musa, gave tons of gold away as alms when he went on a Hajj