1. AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS
1500 B.C. – A.D. 700

2. DIVERSE SOCIETIES IN AFRICA
• Identify the different geographic regions of
Africa and explain how early how early
Africans adapted to their environments.
• Summarize the achievements of early
West African Societies

3. AFRICA- A LAND OF GEOGRAPHIC CONTRASTS
• 2nd largest continent in the
world
• 1/5ths of Earth’s land surface
• Geography:
• Narrow coast lines
• Central plateau
• Waterfalls, rapids, rivers
• Few inlets
• Navigation almost impossible
to and from the coast

4. CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENTS
• Sahara- largest desert in the N.
• Roughly as large as U.S.
• Atlantic Ocean to Red Sea
• Ea. Yr. expands in the south
[Sahel]
• Kalahari- largest desert in the S.
• Africa’s rainforest, partly
uninhabitable
• Known as nature’s garden
• Produces mahogany and teak
trees
• Tsetse fly- prevents cattle,
herd, donkeys and invaders

5. EARLY HUMANS ADAPT TO THEIR
ENVIRONMENTS
• Nomadic Lifestyle
• Earliest peoples are nomadic hunter-gatherers.
• Herders drive animals to find waters and graze pastures.
• Transition to a Settled Lifestyle
• Agriculture probably develops by 6,000 B.C.
• As the Sahara dried up farmers move to West Africa or Nile
Valley.
• Agriculture allows permanent settlements and governments to
develop

6. EARLY SOCIETIES IN AFRICA
• Societies organized by Family Groups
• Extended families made up several generations
• Families with common ancestors form groups known as clans
• Local Religions
• Early religions usually include elements of animism-belief in spirits
inhabiting objects
• Keeping a History
• Few African societies have written languages
• History, literature, culture passed on by story tellers called griots.
• Cultures in West Africa are advanced long before outsiders arrive.

7. WEST AFRICAN IRON AGE
• Learning about the past
• Artifacts reveal how people lived in the past.
• Evidence of sub-Saharan cultures producing
iron around 500 B.C.
• Nok Culture
• Nok—West Africa’s earliest known culture—
made iron tools and weapons

8. WEST AFRICAN IRON AGE
• Djenne-Djeno
• From 600-200 B.C., cities began to develop
near rivers and oases
• Djenne-Djeno, Africa’s oldest known city, was
discovered in 1977.
• It was a bustling trade center that was linked to
other West African towns through camel trade
routes.