World Geography / Unit 8: Africa
8.5 History of Africa
Notes
- Ancient civilizations: Egypt along the Nile; Kush in what is now Sudan; Aksum in Ethiopia.
- Trans-Saharan trade moved gold and salt by camel caravan, enriching West African empires: Ghana, Mali (ruler Mansa Musa, famous for his pilgrimage to Mecca) and Songhai. Timbuktu was a center of learning. Great Zimbabwe was a stone city in southern Africa.
- The Atlantic slave trade forcibly removed millions of Africans from the 1500s to the 1800s.
- At the Berlin Conference (1884-85), European powers set rules for dividing Africa. Colonial borders ignored ethnic and cultural groups, which still cause conflict.
- Most countries gained independence in the 1950s and 1960s. Ghana was the first sub-Saharan colony to do so, in 1957.
- Apartheid in South Africa ended in the early 1990s. Nelson Mandela became president in 1994.
Practice
Mansa Musa was a famous ruler of which empire?
Mansa Musa made Mali famous with his journey to Mecca.
Why do many African borders divide ethnic groups?
The Berlin Conference and colonial agreements set many arbitrary borders.
Which country was the first in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from colonial rule in 1957?
Ghana's independence inspired others.
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