MEDIEVAL HISTORY                                            VOCABULARY FOR CHAPTER 2

 

CIVILIZATIONS OF AFRICA

 

Savanna: An area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes

 

Sahara: A huge desert stretching across most of North Africa

 

Oral History: Accounts of the past that people pass down by word of

                            mouth

 

Clan: A group of families who trace their roots to the same ancestor

 

Mansa Musa: A king of Mali in the 1300s

 

Mali: A rich kingdom of the West African savanna

 

Ghana: The first West African kingdom based on the gold and salt trade

 

Songhai: A powerful kingdom of the West African savanna

 

Ile-Ife: The capital of a kingdom of the West African rain forest

 

Benin: A kingdom of the West African rain forest

 

City-State: A city that is also a separate, independent state

 

Swahili: A Bantu language with Arabic words, spoken along the East

                  African coast

 

Great Zimbabwe: A powerful southeast African city