Social Studies Africa Vocabulary

Savanna

Open grassland with scattered trees

Sahel

West Africa’s semi-desert vegetation zone.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa south of the Sahara Desert

Oral History

Spoken records of past events

Griots

West African storytellers

Polytheism

Belief in more than one god

Surplus

An excess supply of something

Mansa Musa

One of Mali’s most famous leaders who made Timbuktu into an important city

Rain forests

Moist, densely wooded areas

Rifts

Long, deep valleys formed by the movement of the Earths crust

Extended family

Father, mother, children, and close relatives in one household

Silent barter

A method of trading used between two or more people who do not speak the same language

Animism

The belief that bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits

Matrilineal

Descended through the mothers side of the family

Overgraze

When livestock eat most of the grass and leave the ground exposed

Ancestor worship

Seeking guidance from and holding the spirits of deceased ancestors in high esteem