Ghana, West Africa, and African American History Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering ancient and modern West African history, the Atlantic slave trade, cultural retentions, Pan-Africanism, and connections to African American civil rights leaders.

African Diaspora

Communities of African descent living outside Africa, including through forced migration.

Atlantic Slave Trade

Forced transportation and sale of millions of Africans across the Atlantic from the 1500s through the 1800s.

Middle Passage

The forced Atlantic voyage of captive Africans from Africa to the Americas, characterized by severe overcrowding, disease, and high mortality.

Colonialism

Political and economic domination of one people or territory by another country.

Decolonization

The process through which colonized peoples gain political independence.

Pan-Africanism

Movement supporting solidarity, unity, and cooperation among African people and people of African descent throughout the world.

Cultural Retention

The preservation of cultural practices despite displacement, oppression, or new environments.

Cultural Adaptation

Changing or combining cultural traditions in response to new circumstances and conditions.

Resistance

Actions used to oppose, challenge, escape, or survive oppression, including rebellions, escape attempts, and preserving culture.

Trans-Saharan Trade

Long-distance trade connecting West Africa and North Africa across the Sahara desert.

Ghana Empire (Wagadu)

Ancient West African empire located primarily in present-day Mauritania and Mali, strongest roughly from the 700s through the 1000s.

Soninke

The West African ethnic group especially associated with the ancient Ghana Empire.

Kumbi Saleh

The capital city of the ancient Ghana Empire according to historical tradition and archaeological study.

Mali

A major West African regional power that rose in the 1200s after the decline of ancient Ghana.

Mansa Musa

Ruler of Mali whose famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 displayed Mali's immense wealth and connections to the Islamic world.

Songhai

One of Africa's largest empires, succeeding Mali and supporting commerce, Islamic scholarship, and government.

Asante (Ashanti)

A powerful state in the region of modern Ghana during the 1700s and 1800s that repeatedly resisted British colonial expansion.

Golden Stool

The sacred artifact symbolizing Asante unity, political authority, and cultural identity.

Elmina Castle

Coastal fort constructed by the Portuguese in 1482 for trade, which later became deeply connected to slave trafficking.

Cape Coast Castle

A major British coastal fort and slave-trading center where captive Africans were held in crowded dungeons.

Door of No Return

Symbolic doorway at coastal slave castles representing forced departure, loss, survival, remembrance, and reconnection for the African diaspora.

Gullah Geechee

Communities in the coastal United States that preserve especially strong West African connections in language, food, agriculture, crafts, and cultural traditions.

Gold Coast

The British colonial name for the region along the Gulf of Guinea that became the modern nation of Ghana.

Kwame Nkrumah

Leader who led Ghana to independence on March 6, 1957, and advocated for continent-wide African liberation and Pan-Africanism.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Leading African American scholar and Pan-African organizer who moved to Ghana in 1961 to work on Encyclopedia Africana and died there in 1963.

Encyclopedia Africana

The major scholarly work project in Ghana that W.E.B. Du Bois moved to direct in 1961 at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah.

Malcolm X

Civil rights leader who visited Ghana in 1964 and framed African American civil rights as an international human-rights struggle.