Ghana, Mali & Songhai: Awesome lessons from California Social Science Project

I begin teaching the African kingdoms after spring break.  The University of California at Davis has one of the best resources for teaching these kingdoms and the influence of Islam on them. It's called  "Sites of Encounter” and the sites include six trading cities including Calicut, Mali, and Quanzhou.

Each site has a series of lessons, many based on primary sources. I adapted the ones for Mali for hybrid teaching.

The first is a map activity that  I put on Google Draw. It asks students to annotate major African cities, physical features, and trade goods.

A second activity asks students to examine the effects of exchange on Mali through a series of short paragraphs for which students create a title and highlight evidence for the selection.

Next, students read a series of  Arab and North African sources on Ghana and Mali, answer questions on each source, and complete a chart.

Finally, I adapted an interesting lesson on Kongo from Nick Dennis and Toby Green. It reviews Kongo's political system, oral tradition,  writing, proverbs, and Minkisi.