West African Study Guide Flashcards

call - and - response

a song style in which a singer or musician leads with a call, and a chorus responds

griot

griot

a talented poet-musician of the Mande people, who tells stories, sings songs, and recites poems to share history

oral traditions

learning and cultural ideas passed down orally, from one generation to the next

Niger River

the longest river in West Africa, and a kind of trading highway in early times

Sahara

a large, hot desert in North Africa that covers about 3.5 million square miles

Sahel

a zone of semidesert, south of the Sahara, where short grasses, small bushes, and a few trees grow

Savanna

a vegetation zone of tall grasses and scattered trees, with a long rainy season

Ghana

a medieval civilization and empire in West Africa

matrilineal

a family line traced through the mother

trans-Saharan trade

trade between peoples north and south of the Sahara

Mali

a West African empire ruled by the Mande that became a major crossroads of the Islamic world

Mansa Musa

the first West African ruler to practice Islam devoutly

patrilineal

a family line traced through the father

Songhai

a people who broke away from the empire of Mali and eventually built their own vast empire in West Africa