| A | B |
|---|
| Plateau | An area of high, flat land |
| Ghana | First West African empire; was a “crossroads of trade” |
| Mali | The kingdom that replaced Ghana after it fell in the 1200s |
| Griot | West African storyteller |
| Sundiata Keita | A great warrior-king known as the “Lion Prince”; won control of lands from the Atlantic coast to Timbuktu; put Mali in control of gold-mining areas |
| Timbuktu | Trading city of Muslim learning in West Africa |
| Mansa Musa | The last, strong king of Mali |
| Sunni Ali | Leader of the Songhai who stormed into Timbuktu and drove out the Berbers and conquered many lands |
| Songhai | Empire of western Africa that was ruled by Sunni Ali |
| Axum | A city-state in ancient Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) |
| Dhows | An African sailing vessel with a triangular sail |
| Clan | A group of people descended from the same ancestor |
| Olaudah Equiano | Member of the Igbo who believed in one supreme God |
| Ibn Battuta | A young Arab lawyer from Morocco who traveled throughout the lands of Islam for almost 30 years |
| Makkah | Muslim holy city; aka Mecca (where the Kabbah is located) |
| Askia Muhammad | mperor of the Songhai; he helped build the largest empire in medieval West Africa |
| Sultan | Military and political leader with absolute authority over a Muslim country |
| Swahili | The cultures and language of East Africa |
| Benue River | Located in present day eastern Nigeria; Bantu (wandering fishing groups) packed belongings in canoes and moved south and west on it |
| Extended Families | Family group including several generations as well as other relatives |
| Matrilineal | A group that traces descent through mothers rather than fathers |
| Dahia al-Kahina | Queen who lead the fight against the Muslim invasion of her kingdom (located in present-day Mauritania) |
| Oral History | Stories passed down from generation to generation |
| Nzinga | Queen who ruled lands in what are now Angola and Congo; she spent almost 40 years battling Portuguese slave traders |
