Ancient West African Kingdoms

by Jane Shuter

What is a griot? How were the Ancient West African Kingdoms ruled? Why did the Ancient West African Kingdoms disappear? The Ancient West African Kingdoms answers these questions and more. The books in the History Opens Windows series help you discover what life was like in ancient civilizations and other historic times. Learn what the Ancient West African people wore, what they ate, how they traveled from place to place, and find out how we know about them today.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Margaux Collier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ancient West African Kingdoms is written by Jane Shutter. This book takes about the first trading kingdoms developed in West Africa. The first kingdom was Ghana, then Mali, and later was the Songhai Empire replaced them. Two of the main things these kingdoms traded were salt and gold. Since Ghana had gain control over all West Africa’s trade routes, it was the first powerful trading states. Most of the people, who wanted to trade with Ghana, would trade gold. Then by 1240 AD Ghana was part of the Mali, which became the second large trading kingdom. Mali’s king was named Sundiata Keita, which means “Hungering Lion”. He was the once that expanded its empire to include Ghana. Later, Mali became rich from its gold-salt trade, since they controlled the salt trade routes. Islam was the main religion practiced in Mali’s kingdoms. The next, and last kingdom was the kingdom of Songhai, which took control of all Ghana and Mali’s trading routes. Songhai’s ruler was Sultan Sunni Ali when he died King Askia Muhammad was the one who succeeded him. The city of Timbuktu was the major state of trade. Thus, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were the largest states of trade.

Out of the ten questions proposed from the list, I chose three. My favorite photograph from the book is an old picture of an ancient map, the showing was people should go. It is my favorite because we can see how the maps were drawn before. The author probably wrote this book to help students learn more about this topic. For example, when they have a test it may help them revise or if they just want to learn something new, they can use this book since it talks about everything they would want to know. My favorite part of the book is when they talk about the trade because I have learned the main things people liked to trade, which is salt and gold, and that Timbuktu was the major state of trade.

I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn about the history of Western Africa. This book would be perfect if any people had an essay to write on this topic since it talks about everything they should know. Thus, this book would also be great for 6-10 graders and people who would like to read this book for an essay or for pleasure.