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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 10 of 11

African Kingdoms & Empires

Mali, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe and more

What your child practices

Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe, the Swahili coast, Benin and Ethiopia from about 600 to 1900, trade across the Sahara and the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic slave trade and African resistance to colonization.

Alaska content standards learning standard: SS.7.3.16.3; SS.7.4.16.2 · the kingdoms of West Africa and the trade that connected them to other regions

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Ghana, Mali and Songhai grew rich from gold and salt trade across the Sahara. Mansa Musa of Mali went on pilgrimage to Makkah in 1324.
  2. Swahili city-states like Kilwa and Mombasa traded across the Indian Ocean. Great Zimbabwe, Benin and Ethiopia were also powerful.
  3. Historians use Arabic writings, griots’ oral histories and archaeology.

Example: The empire of Mali grew rich from trading what? Mali controlled routes across the Sahara. Gold from the south was traded for salt from the desert. Answer: gold and salt

African Kingdoms & Empires in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 10 of 11 in 7th grade Social Studies, after The Islamic World and before Maya, Aztec & Inca.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Mansa Musa, ruler of Mali, is famous for his 1324 pilgrimage to…

    • Beijing
    • Rome
    • Makkah

  2. Question 2

    Why was salt so valuable in West Africa?

    • it was used as building stone
    • people needed it for health and to keep food from spoiling
    • it was rare everywhere in the world

  3. Question 3

    Ibn Battuta, who wrote about his visit to Mali, was a…

    • Roman senator
    • traveler from Morocco
    • Chinese admiral

  4. Question 4

    In the 1520s, King Afonso I of Kongo wrote to Portugal's king to protest…

    • high silk prices
    • the harm the slave trade did to his people
    • a new calendar

  5. Question 5

    The empire of Mali grew rich from trading…

    • gold and salt across the Sahara
    • silk and porcelain
    • furs and timber

  6. Question 6

    Ethiopia stayed independent after defeating Italy at the Battle of…

    • Yorktown, in 1781
    • Hastings, in 1066
    • Adwa, in 1896

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