GRADE 8 TERM 3

ESS Chapter 11
Unit 6, chapter 11
Ghana Questions given in class and written on the board.
Page 367

1. Where is Ghana located?
In West Africa, between Senegal and the upper Niger rivers

2. What does Ghana mean?
War Chief

3. When did Ghanas rise to power begin?
AD 700

4. How many square km had it conquered by AD 1000?
258 980 km
2

5. What religion did the scholar Al-Zuhri follow?
Islam
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6. What do the following words mean?
a. Ignorant lacking knowledge/ training. Being uninformed.
b. Ebony a hard, dark wood.

7. Who did the Ghanaians attack, according to al-Zuhiri?
People who did not know how to use iron and only fought with clubs. (This means that their weapons
were inferior to those of the Ghanaians, making them easy to conquer)

8. Why were the Ghanaians weapons superior?
Theirs were made of iron, so they were stronger and dealt more damage.

9. What was the Ghanaians primary weapon?
Iron spear

10. What are tariffs?
taxes
11. Draw a diagram to illustrate how this tax system worked:

12. Who was the master of the gold?
The king of Ghana

13. Why was he called this?
He CONTROLLED countries that were rich in gold and held a monopoly over trade.

14. What does monopoly mean?
Complete control.

15. How did the king keep the price of gold high?
He made sure that it remained difficult to get, meaning it remained scarce and therefore remained
valuable.

16. What was Ghanas capital city called?
Kumbi-Saleh

17. What is it called today?
Accra

18. What did Northern African merchants bring to this city?
Pure salt

19. Where were the mines of this commodity (salt) located?
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In the Sahara
20. Name the two PRIMARY uses of salt:
a. flavouring food and
b. preserving food

21. Name four other goods traded by the North Africans:
a. Gold
b. Ivory
c. Cotton goods (cloths and fabric)
d. Animal skins

22. What was salt worth?
Its equal weight in gold. 1 pound of salt = 1 pound of gold

23. Why was salt so valuable?
It was very scarce.

ESS Chapter 11
ESS worksheet: unit 6, chapter 11
Lesson 3
Page 366
West African Beginnings
1. What does it mean to say the Soninkes were resourceful? They used, or took advantage if what they
had: an ideal (good) location for trade.
2. Complete the following chart:



3. According to the chart, who ended up with the gold, and who ended up with the salt? The Muslim
traders had gold and the Wangaras tribe had salt.
Soninkes
Muslim traders
Wangaras
Gold
Salt
Gold
Salt



4. REVIEW QUESTION: How did the Soninkes trade salt and gold? What was the result? The Soninkes
served as go-betweens in the trade of gold for salt. This traed cycle made the Soninkes very powerful
and rich.
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The Map
5. What kinds of climate do the following areas have?
a. West Africa tropical and dry
b. Central Africa - tropical
c. The Horn of Africa (in East Africa) - dry
d. Southern Africa mostly dry
6. What kind of deposit does North Africa lack?
Gold

7. What kind of deposit does North have an abundance (meaning a lot) of?
Iron
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Ghana
8. The Ghanaian army contributed to peace and order in the empire. How do you think the Ghanaian army
contributed to the wealth of Ghana?
They protected the trade routes from enemy attacks.

9. What would happen to the price of gold if others in the empire were allowed to claim gold found there?
Why?
The price of gold would rise and fall because not only one person would be controlling the gold trade.

10. REVIEW QUESTION: How did Ghanas kings get their wealth?
Through a monopoly on gold and by collecting tariffs on trade.
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Growth of Islam in West Africa
11. Name three things that the North African traders did that changed the lives of West Africans.
They showed them how to use money
They introduced the Arabic language
They brought Islam to West Africa

12. Did Islam become important in West Africa? Explain.
Yes. We know this because the West African rulers and traders followed Islam, and the great empires
that rose in Ghanas place were based not only on trade but also on Islam.

Mali and Mansa Musa
13. Where was Mali located?
west Africa

14. Was Mali larger or smaller than Ghana?
Yes. It was nearly twice as big.

15. Who was Mansa Musa? (Was he a teacher, a king, a philosopher, a trader, a religious leader)
He was a king

16. Vocabulary:
Mansas rulers (kings)

17. What three things was Mali known for?
a. wealth,
b. knowledge,
c. study

18. In the image on page 369, why has the mapmaker pictured Mansa Musa holding out a gold nugget to a
trader?
Because Malis riches came from the gold-for-salt trade.

19. REVIEW QUESTION: Why did people come to Mali during the rule on Mansa Musa?
a. To trade and
b. to learn (get an education)

Heritage
True or false? If false, correct the sentence

20. Most West African societies had advanced systems of writing.
False. Most West African societies had no system of writing.

21. The people known as Grots were important lawyers
False. They were important story tellers

22. The function of the Grots was to pass laws down from one generation to another
False. The function of the Grots was to pass stories down from one generation to another

23. The Grots are remembered as Africas storytellers.
True
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Songhay
1. After Ghana lost its power, Mali became more powerful. What was the next great West African empire
to emerge?
Songhay
2. Who defeated the Songhay Empire in 1591?
Morocco
3. REVIEW QUESTION: Why did other peoples want the Lands of the Songhay Empire?
a. Wealth and
b. power