| A | B |
|---|
| Sahara | largest desert in the world found in northern Africa |
| Aksum | powerful, early trading society in eastern Africa along the Red Sea |
| Nok | early culture in west Africa that made terra cotta sculptures |
| savanna | the flat, grassy plains in Africa |
| Dark Continent | what Europeans called Africa |
| migration | the movement of people from one place to another |
| Sahel | the area along the edge of the Sahara desert |
| animism | a religion that believes in spirits in nature |
| griot | African storytellers who preserved literature and history |
| desertification | process where the soil dries out and the desert expands |
| patriarchal | a family centered around the eldest male |
| tribalism | refers to the fact that many Africans are more loyal to their tribes than to their countries |
| pastoralism | raising herds of animals |
| cataracts | many African rivers have these which makes it difficult to travel inland on them |
| gold-salt trade | this was the basis of the economy in west Africa in the empires of Ghana and Mali |
| rain forest | this is found in the central region of Africa and made it difficult to travel |
| equator | Africa is nearly divided in two by this |
| Mansa Musa | famous leader of Mali who made a pilgrimage to Mecca |
| Muslims | many Africans in west Africa are members of this religious group |
| Swahili | a language widespread in west Africa that is part Bantu and part Arabic |
| Vasco da Gama | Portuguese sailor who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 and reached eastern Africa |
| Cape of Good Hope | the southern tip of Africa |
| Timbuktu | famous city in the Mali empire that was a center of learning |
| Kalihari | desert found in southern Africa |
| Indian Ocean | body of water the borders Africa to the east |
| Atlantic Ocean | body of water that borders Africa to the west |
| nomads | people who wander around with their herds of animals seeking grazing lands and water |
| Bantu | African people who migrated and greatly impacted the language and culture of Africa |
| Great Rift Valley | a gorge formed by a fault in the earth's crust in eastern Africa |
| Benin | culture in early west Africa that were known for brass and copper sculptures |
| trade | this had the greatest impact on the spread of Islam and Christianity in east Africa |
