Oscar’s Grade 6 Blog

Iron Technology’s Impact on West Africa

Before the discovery of iron they mostly ate fruit and vegibals because they didn’t have the tools to hunt animals for meat.
To make iron into a good tool they worked with the iron in the following steps. First they hacked the iron into small pieces. The pieces were later melted down with the help of fire. When the iron had cooled down a bit they hammered the iron into spearheads or other tools.
The discovery of iron help the people to get meat because of sharper spearheads, they got a greater food supply and axes also shovels that were helpful when growing crops.
Some early trade centers were Jenne Jeno that was located next to the Niger River. The Niger River was used as the trade highway to transport gods. Now that the people could trade they become wealthier.
This presentation was good and easy to understand. They talked clearly and fluently, knew what they were going to say and made it feel like a personal presentation.

The Kingdom of Gold

The trans-Saharan trade was in Ghana. Ghana could tax all the people who came to trade because of its location and military power. Tax could be food or goods. Ghana was also a very safe place. In Ghana natural resources were traded. The North Africans came to Ghana to trade salt against gold that the West Africans brought to Ghana.
With so many traders form all over Africa there was a mix of religions. One of the big religions that were brought to Ghana by traders was Islam. Many of the cities in Ghana were divided into two parts. This was because the government wanted to keep Islam away from the original Ghana religion. But many people in the government transferred to Islam any way. With Muslims in the government they had the money and power to build mosques. They actually built 12 beautiful mosques.
The original Ghana religion was based on several gods. They believed that one god created Earth and that another god ruled there daily life. They also worshiped ancestors and thought that if the gods got gifts and offers disasters could be prevented.
Now what held this trading kingdom together? It had a good military that kept the people safe. The strong government had fair laws and justice. It was a stable country and the richest in West Africa.
This was what we presented. I think the presentation went were well and that we rotated who spoke.

The Kingdom of Mali Under Mansa Musa

Mansa Musa was a powerful leader of Mali. Year 1203 the leader of the Sosso, Sumanguru, wanted to take over Mali. Sumanguru went to attack on Mali. Mali’s warriors were ready for war and defended Mali. The battle took place in a town called Kirian. The battle was so great that only one building was left when it was over. It was also believed that magic was used from both sides in the battle. Sosso did not win though and Mali almost doubled in size.
Mali was almost two times as big as Ghana and was powerful for nearly 200 years. Mansa Musa was a very generous man. Traveling through the desert, camels and slaves carried his gold. He gave away so much gold that the money in Mali became less valuable. Mali was also so powerful that it was included in the maps of Europe.
This presentation was a bit hard to understand because of all the difficult and unknown words.

How the Songhai Empire Grow to Greatness

It was Sunni Ali Ber that helped Songhai to become independent. After a while the government of Songhai thought that Sunni Ali Ber had done enough and replaced him with another person.
Songhai took over Mali’s place as the biggest trading center and became the last and greatest trading places in West Africa. Songhai also had many fishermen and farmers.
I think this presentation was short and a bit confusing. Though they spoke loud and clearly and didn’t interrupt each other.

The Conquest of Songhai by Morocco

Al-Mansur, the sultan of Morocco, wanted to concur Songhai in year 1580 so he built up a large army. The reason why he wanted to have control over Songhai was because he wanted the gold and the salt resources.
Al-Mansur sent 200 men to the Salt Mines of Taghaza. When they came to the salt mines there were no people there. The emperor of Songhai saw what was happening and stopped all trade with Morocco. Morocco then sent 4000 musketeers to Gao, the capital of Songhai, to capture it. In Gao the musketeers meet over 118,000 soldiers. The musketeer had guns so it was easy for them to capture Gao and Songhai.
As a result of the capture of Songhai, Songhai was dissolved. The salt and gold trade in Songhai was also terminated.
This presentation was the most interesting and easy to understand because they presented it in a way that caught your attention.

Assignment

/oscar