Wenberg 1 Kara Wenberg Unit: Pre-Colonial Africa Context: The students have been learning about Pre-Colonial Africa.

They are currently working on an ABC book for this unit. They must find information for specific topics and then use people, physical features, traditions, etc. for every letter of the alphabet. While students have been going off on their own to find some of their information and also having class discussions, reading folktales, and performing skits, the students will be getting into primary source documents to help broaden their research options. They also will be using the primary source documents to gain more information for their ABC books. These documents will be focusing on the three major kingdoms from Pre-Colonial Africa, Songhai, Mali, and Ghana. Plan Number: 3 Primary Instructional Objective and CCSS: CCSS: Students will be able to complete an ABC book assignment in which they analyze a primary resource document(s) and support an original assertion with specific supporting details about different geographic phenomena and its impact on African cultural groups. 6.H.1 - Use historical thinking to understand the emergence, expansion and decline of civilizations, societies and regions over time. SWBAT: Analyze primary source documents Recall information from primary source documents to further illustrate their understanding of people, places, and physical features from Pre-Colonial Africa Create an ABC book on Pre-Colonial Africa Materials/Technology Resources Required: 1. Kingdom of Songhai primary source document * 2. Kingdom of Mali primary source document* 3. Kingdom of Ghana primary source document* 4. SCIM-C question sheet* 5. SCIM-C worksheet* 6. Laptop 7. ELMO *NOTE: The primary source documents, question sheet, and worksheet will be in the appendix Time: 50 minutes Instructional Procedures/Steps:

Wenberg 2 Introduction (5 minutes): I will take a few minutes to explain to the students that we will be looking at 3 primary source documents. I will introduce them to the SCIM-C method and go over what the acronym means and how it will help them. I will have a few student volunteers help me pass out the packets to cut down on time. I will allow students to work with partners from their groups. We will also take a brief moment to go over our group norms as a reminder of how they should be using their class time. Activity (40 minutes): Students will be given the large part of class to work on these three documents and answer their questions with their partners. I will be circulating the room to help out with any questions or concerns students have. The students will be allowed to keep all of the information so that they can use it as notes for their ABC books that they have due on Friday, April 11th. Closure (5 minutes): I will get the students to come back together and have them complete an exit ticket. The ticket will be me asking them to simply evaluate the SCIM-C method. I will explain that if they did not finish their primary source document activity it must be completed for homework and will be collected the following class. Evaluation: I will evaluate how the students did with the activity based on their Exit Tickets as well as when I collect their worksheets and go over their work. Accommodations: I will be wearing a mic to help the students with hearing impairments. I also am providing an organized worksheet for students who have trouble with organization and focusing on what they need to be working on. Appendix: A. Kingdom of Songhai Primary Source Document One

Kingdom of Songhai
Primary Source Documents
Leo Africanus, an Arab traveler visited Timbuktu in the Kingdom of Songhay early in the 1500s and left this description of that city. Howbeit there is a most stately temple to be seene, the wals whereof are made of stone and lime; and a princely palace also built by a most excellent workeman of Granada. Here are many shops of artificers, and merchants, and especially of such as weaue linen and cotton cloth. And hither do the Barbarie merchants bring cloth of Europe. All the women of the region except maidservants go with their faces couered, and sell all necessarie victuals. The inhabitants, & especially strangers there residing, are exceeding rich, insomuch that the king that now is, maried both his daughters vnto two

Wenberg 3 rich merchants. Here are many wels, containing most sweete water; and so often as the riuer Niger overfloweth, they conueigh the ater thereof by certaine sluces into the towne. Corne (sorghun), cattle, milke, and butter this region yeeldeth in great abundance: but salk it verie scarce heere; for it is brought hither by land from Tagaza, which is fiue humdred miles distant. When I myselfe was here, I saw one camel loade of salt sold for 80 ducates. The rich king of Tombuto (Timbuktu) hath many plates and scepters of gold, some of ehreof weigh 1300 poindes; He hath alwaies three thousand horsemen, and a great number of footmen that shoot poysoned arrowes, attending upon him. Here are great store of doctors, judges, priests and other learned men, that are bountifully maintained at the kings cost and charges. And hither are brought diuers manuscripts or written bookes out of Barbarie, which are sold for more money than any othe merchandize

Questions:
. What can you tell about Timbuktu from this description? . What can you tell about the economic connections between Timbuktu and North Africa and Europe? Selected by Dorian Bowman, Winsor School Leo Africanus The History and Description of Africa pp. 824-825 B. Kingdom of Mali Primary Source Document Two

Kingdom of Mali
Primary Source Documents
The following description of the visit to Cairo in 1324 by the King of Mali, Mansa Musa, was written by Al-Umari, who visited Cairo several years after the Mansa Musas visit. From the beginning of my coming to stay in Egypt I heard talk of the arrival of this sultan Musa on his Pilgrimage and found the Cairenes eager to recount what they had seem of the Africans prodigal spending. I asked the emir Abuand he told me of the opulence, manly virtues, and piety of his sultan. When I went out to meet him {he said} that is, on behalf of the mighty sultan al-Malik al-Nasir, he did me extreme honour and treated me with the greatest courtesy. He addressed me, however, only through an interpreter despite his perfect ability to speak in the Arabic tongue. Then he forwarded to the royal treasury many loads of unworked native gold and other valuables. I tried to persuade him to go up to the Citadel to meet the sultan, but he refused persistently saying: I came for the Pilgrimage and nothing else. I do not wish to mix anything else with my Pilgrimage. He had begun to use this argument but I realized that the audience was repugnant to him because he would be obliged to kiss the ground and the sultans hand. I continue to cajole him and he continued to make excuses but the sultans

Wenberg 4 protocol demanded that I should bring him into the royal presence, so I kept on at him till he agreed. When we came in the sultans presence we said to him: Kiss the ground! but he refused outright saying: How may this be? Then an intelligent man who was with him whispered to him something we could not understand and he said: I make obeisance to God who created me! then he prostrated himself and went forward to the sultan. The sultan half rose to greet him and sat him by his side. They conversed together for a long time, then sultan Musa went out. The sultan sent to him several complete suits of honour for himself, his courtiers, and all those who had come with him, and saddled and bridled horses for himself and his chief courtiers. This man [Mansa Musa] flooded Cairo with his benefactions. He left no court emir nor holder of a royal office without the gift of a load of gold. The Cairenes made incalculable profits out of him and his suite in buying and selling and giving and taking. They exchanged gold until they depressed its value in Egypt and caused its price to fall. Gold was at a high price in Egypt until they came in that year. The mithqal did not go below 25 dirhams and was generally above, but from that time its value fell and it cheapened in price and has remained cheap till now. The mithqal does not exceed 22 dirhams or less. This has been the state of affairs for about twelve years until this day by reason of the large amount of gold which they brought into Egypt and spent there. Questions: . What can you tell about Mansa Musa from the above account? How did he view himself? . What can you tell about the extent of his wealth? Selected by Dorian Bowman, Winsor School Al-Umari cited in Levitzion and Hopkins Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (Cambridge University Press 1981) pp. 269-273. C. Kingdom of Ghana Primary Source Document Three

Kingdom of Ghana
Primary Source Documents
The following description of the Kingdom of Ghana was written by Al-Bakri, a member of a prominent Spanish Arab family who lived during the 11th century.

Wenberg 5 The city of Ghana consists of two towns situated on a plain. One of these towns, which is inhabited by Muslims, is large and possesses twelve mosques, in which they assemble for the Friday prayer. There are salaried imams and muezzins, as well as jurists and scholars. In the environs are wells with sweet water, from which they drink and with which they grow vegetables. The kings town is six miles distant from this one Between these two towns are continuous habitations. In the kings town, and not far from his court of justice, is a mosque where the Muslims who arrive at his court pray. Around the kings town are domed buildings and groves and thickets where the sorcerers of these people, men in charge of the religious cult, live. In them too are their idols and the tombs of their kings. These woods are guarded and none may enter them and know what is there. The kings interpreters, the official in charge of his treasury and the majority of his ministers are Muslims. Among the people who follow the kings religion only he and his heir apparent (who is the son of his sister) may wear sewn clothes. All other people wear robes of cotton, silk, or brocade, according o their means. All of them shave their beards, and women shave their heads. The king adorns himself like a woman (wearing necklaces) round his neck and (bracelets) on his forearms, and he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. He sits in audience or to hear grievances against officials in a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses covered with gold-embroidered materials. Behind the king stand ten pages holding shields and swords decorated with gold, and on his right are the sons of the (vassel) kings of his country wearing splendid garments and their hair plaited with gold. The governor of the city sits on the ground before the king and around him are ministers seated likewise. At the door of the pavilion are dogs of excellent pedigree who hardly ever leave the place where the king is, guarding him. Round their necks they wear collars of gold and silver studded with a number of balls of the same metals. The audience is announced by the beating of a drum which they call duba made from a long hollow log. When the people who profess the same religion as the king approach him they fall on their knees and sprinkle dust on their head, for this is their way of greeting him. As for the Muslims, they greet him only by clapping their hands. Their religion is paganism and the worship of idols. On every donkey-load of salt when it is brought into the country their king levies one golden dinar and two dinars when it is sent out. The best gold is found in his land comes from the town of Ghiyaru, which is eighteen days traveling distance from the kings town over a country inhabited by tribes of the Sudan whose dwellings are continuous The king of Ghana when he calls up his army, can put 200,000 men into the field, more than 40,000 of them archers. Questions:

Wenberg 6 . What can you tell about religion in Ghana? . What was the basis of Ghanas wealth? . Is there any example of ethnocentrism in this account? Selected by Dorian Bowman, Winsor School Al-Bakri, The Book of Routes and Realms, cited in Levitzion and Hopkins, Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, (Cambridge University Press, 1981) pp. 79-81. D. SCIM-C Questions

SCIM-C: The five phases and analyzing primary source documents

Summarizing- Facts/Details/Observation. Go obvious-What do you see, read and hear? 1. What type of historical document is this source? (goes to primary/secondary/record or relic) 2. What specific information, details, and/or perspectives does the source provide? 3. What are the s subject and purpose of the source? (goes to intention) 4. What are the author and audience of the source? Contextualizing- Placing the source in time and space it comes from the past. 1. When and where was the source produced? 2. Why was the source produced? (goes to intention) 3. What was happening within the immediate and broader context at the time the source was produced? (goes to context) 4. What summarizing information can place the source in time and space? Inferring- what is suggested? Making educated guesses and ideas. 1. What is suggested by the source? 2. What interpretations may be drawn from the source? 3. What perspectives are indicated in the source? 4. What inferences may be drawn from absences or omissions in the source? Monitoring- what is the question again? Have I lingered with the source- squeezed it? 1. What additional evidence beyond the source is necessary? 2. What ideas, images, or terms need further defining from the source? 3. How useful or significant is the source for its intended purpose in answering the historical question? 4. What questions from the previous stages need to be revisited in order to analyze the source satisfactorily? Corroborating- what can I write- what do the charts tell me? What do I know now? 1. What similarities and differences exist between the sources? 2. What factors could account for the similarities and differences? 3. What conclusions can be drawn from the accumulated interpretations?

Wenberg 7 4. What additional information or sources are necessary to answer more fully the guiding historical questions? E. SCIM-C Primary Source Documents Worksheet