HS WH Organizing Principle 3 - Sub-Saharan Africa

Unit 2: Africa: BENCHMARK
(Curriculum Standards)
BENCHMARK CODE
(Organizing Principle 3, continued) • Trace the growth of major sub-Saharan African kingdoms and empires.

SS.912.W.3.9 Examples:
SS.912.W.3.10 Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Timbuktu, gold and salt trade, slavery

SS.912.W.3.11 • Identify key significant economic, political, and social characteristics of Ghana.

SS.912.W.3.12 Examples:
salt and gold trade, taxation system, gold monopoly, matrilineal inheritance, griots, ancestral
SS.912.W.3.13 worship, rise of Islam, slavery.

SS.912.W.3.14 • Identify key figures and significant economic, political, and social characteristics associated with

Mali.
Examples:
Sundiata, Mansa Musa, Ibn Battuta, gold mining and salt trade, slavery, Mali social hierarchy

• Identify key figures and significant economic, political, and social characteristics associated with

Songhai.
Examples:
Sunni Ali, Askia, gold, salt trade, cowries as a medium of exchange, Sankore University,
professional army, provincial political structure.

• Compare economic, political, and social developments in East, West, and South Africa.

Examples:
Swahili Coast, Great Zimbabwe, Kilwa, Ethiopia, Indian Ocean trade

• Examine the internal and external factors that led to the fall of the empires of Ghana, Mali, and

Songhai.
Examples:
disruption of trade, internal political struggles, Islamic invasions