Africa Vocab Words Flashcards
(26 cards)
Savannah
A tropical land mass of grassland and scattered trees.
Plateau
a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut
Sahara desert
The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic. Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres is comparable
Bantu
A member of any of several peoples forming a linguistically and in some respects culturally interrelated family in central and southern Africa.
Swahili
A member of a Bantu people of Zanzibar and the neighboring coast of Africa.
Subsistence farming
farming whose products are intended to provide for the basic needs of the farmer, with little surplus for marketing.
Mansa Musa
Musa Keita I was the tenth Mansa, which translates as “sultan” or “emperor”, of the wealthy West African Mali Empire.
Ghana
a republic in West Africa comprising the former colonies of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, the protectorate of the Northern Territories, and the U.N. trusteeship of British Togoland: member of the Commonwealth of Nations since 1957. 91,843 sq. mi. (237,873 sq. km).
Mali
Republic of, a republic in W Africa: formerly a territory of France; gained independence 1960. 463,500 sq. mi. (120,000 sq. km).
Capital: Bamako.
Zimbabwe
Formerly Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia. a republic in S Africa: a former British colony and part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; gained independence 1980. 150,330 sq. mi. (389,362 sq. km).
Capital: Harare.
Timbuktu
a town in central Mali, W Africa, near the Niger River.
Mohammed
Same as muhammad
Sonni Ali
Sunni Ali, also known as Sunni Ali Ber, was born Ali Kolon. He reigned from about 1464 to 1492. Sunni Ali was the first king of the Songhai Empire, located in Africa and the 15th ruler.
Matrilineal
inheriting or determining descent through the female line.
Oral traditions
a community’s cultural and historical traditions passed down by word of mouth or example from one generation to another without written instruction.
Gold and salt trade
Camel caravans from North Africa carried bars of salt as well as cloth, tobacco, and metal tools across the Sahara to trading centers like Djenne and Timbuktu on the Niger River. Some items for which the salt was traded include gold, ivory, slaves, skins, kola nuts, pepper, and sugar.
Trans-Sahara
Trans Saharan Trade requires travel across the Sahara (north and south) to reach sub-Saharan Africa from the North African coast, Europe, to the Levant. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the early 17th century.
Sub-Saharan
from or forming part of the African regions south of the Sahara desert.
Songhai
a member of a people living mainly in Niger and Mali.
Griot
A member of a hereditary caste among the peoples of western Africa whose function is to keep an oral history of the tribe or village and to entertain with stories, poems, songs, dances, etc.
Diviner
a person who divines; soothsayer; prophet.
Lineage
lineal descent from an ancestor; ancestry or extraction:
Ibn batuta
Ibn Baṭūṭah, or simply Muhammad Ibn Battuta, was a Medieval Moroccan Muslim traveler and scholar, who is widely recognised as one of the greatest travelers of all time.
Indian Ocean
An ocean S of Asia, E of Africa, and W of Australia. 28,357,000 sq. mi. (73,444,630 sq. km).
