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African Trade Empires. Ch. 13 Sections 2 & 3. Ghana. The empire of Ghana was in West Africa between the Sahara desert to the north and forests to the south Good position for trading the two main resources of West Africa: gold and salt
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African Trade Empires Ch. 13 Sections 2 & 3
Ghana • The empire of Ghana was in West Africa between the Sahara desert to the north and forests to the south • Good position for trading the two main resources of West Africa: gold and salt • Trading gold and salt usually was done by silent barter-exchanging goods without having to contact each other directly • Salt traders would leave a certain amount of salt on a riverbank; in exchange, gold traders would leave a fair amount of gold in the same place • Kept trade peaceful and kept gold mines secret
Ghana’s Empire • Ghana began to control all of the trade that went through their area • They became very wealthy and powerful $$$ • They had strong armies with strong iron weapons
Ghana’s Decline • Ghana’s empire fell apart for three main reasons: • Invasion • Overgrazing • The cows ate too much grass, land wasn’t fertile for farming without the grass • Rebellion from inside the empire
Other Trade Empires of West Africa • Mali Empire was along the Niger River • Being along the river was great for growing crops • Also, the Mali were able to control trading on the river • Songhai Empire was also traded and became rich and powerful
Keeping History Alive • West Africans didn’t have a written language, instead they passed along their stories and history by oral history • Oral history is a spoken record of past events (storytelling) • The storytellers of early West Africa were called griots (gree-ohz) • Griots’ job was to tell stories and make sure that the history of West Africa was passed on • Griots also told proverbs-short sayings of wisdom