INTERACTIVE WORD OF THE DAY LIST

INTERACTIVE WORD OF THE DAY LIST

Sub-Saharan

Africa

GEOGRAPHY AND ANCIENT LIFE

PLATEAU

(EERT)

Plateau - A plateau is a geographic landform denoted by step sides, rising to a flat top.

SAVANNA

(Ritter)

Savanna - A savanna is a climatic zone that consists of dry grasslands with very few trees. Africa is comprised primarily of savanna.

SAHEL REGION

(Roach) (Gibson)

Sahel Region - The Sahel Region is the area in Africa between the Sahara and Sub-Sahara Africa. This region is afflicted with a phenomenon of Desertification. Desertification occurs when arable land becomes desert.

Ancient West African Empires

Empire of Ghana (500-1200AD)- The Empire of Ghana flourished in West Africa by selling gold and salt to Arab traders from North Africa.

Empire of Mali (1200-1400AD)- The Mali Empire sold gold, iron and copper from its mines

Songhai Empire (700-1600)- The Songhai (Songhay) overthrew their rulers, the Mali, creating their own prosperous empire based on trade and agriculture (See the map via link Ancient West African Empires above).

EAST AFRICAN EMPIRES

AXUM AND KUSH

IMPERIALISM AND THE COLONIAL AGE

AfricanSlaveTrade.gif (169479 bytes)

(Department of History)

Atlantic/African Slave Trade1500-1800 - The Atlantic/African Slave trade began because of the need for a cheap source of labor on New World plantations. It is estimated by some that upward to 22 million Africans were brought to the New World via this trade.

Middle Passage - The Middle Passage refers to the journey across the Atlantic Ocean by African slaves taken from Africa to the New World from 1500-1800.

Dark Continent - The Dark Continent was a reference to Africa by Europeans who had not explored the continent because of non-navigable rivers, shallow coastlines, jungle, the Sahara Desert, disease and hostile tribes. Finally, by the late 1880's explores like Stanley started making in-roads to the continent.

(Drake)

The 3-G's - The 3 G's are Gold, Glory and God and were the motivation for European imperialism of unknown lands.

Gold - Money

Glory - Nationalism

God - Missionaries

Scramble for Africa - The Scramble for Africa refers to the events at the Berlin Conference in 1884 at which the powers of Europe divided up the continent of Africa for themselves.

(Oswego City School District)

MODERN ERA

Tribalism - Tribalism, in which groups place their allegiance to their tribe or ethnic group before their nation, has devastated Africa. The events in Rwanda (1994) are the best example of this. Hutu militia massacred over 500,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus.

(Downy & Ker)

Great Liberation – The Great Liberation occurred in Africa and Asia after World War II. During this period of 30 years many African countries gained their independence led by people like Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah and Leopold Senghor.

Pan-Africanism – Pan-Africanism refers to the movement in Africa after World War II in which all African nations were working to solve common problems of poverty, drought and disease.

APARTHEID - Apartheid is a Boer (white South African)/Afrikans (Boer language) term that means separateness and was incorporated into the South African constitution in 1941. It refers to the racial policy of the separation of blacks and whites in South Africa.

(Decker)

Nelson Mandela – Nelson Mandela was a leader of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC). As the leader of the largest black political party he was jailed for 27 years for his actions against the white (Boer) controlled Apartheid government . In April of 1994 he was elected President of South Africa and won the Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. De Klerk.

(Global Village)

F. W. De Klerk – As the last white leader in South Africa, De Klerk worked to end the Apartheid system in South Africa by freeing Nelson Mandela, lifting the ban on opposing political parties and holding the first free election in South Africa.

(Faber)

Sharpeville Massacre – In 1960, a large antiapartheid demonstration in Sharpeville left 69 dead. As a result the white government banned the ANC and the ANC retaliated by adopting a policy of violet resistance.

Soweto Uprising – In 1976, students in Soweto, a black township

(townships were areas in South Africa in which, the white minority forced the black majority to live and were not allowed to leave without passes), rose up against the introduction of Afrikaans (white minority language) to black schools. As a result, rioting spread and forced the government to end segregation in many public places.

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WORKS CITED

Ancient Ghana. 10/30/02.

http://www.ghana.co.uk/history/history/ancient_ghana.htm

Department of History,University of Colorado at Colarado Springs. 10/31/02.

http://web.uccs.edu/~history/index/151maps.html#slavetrade

Drake, Afred J. . Welcome to the Image Collections of Al Drake.10/31/02.

http://www.ajdrake.com/gallery/images/Heroes/Heroes%20New%20Gamma/stanley_cutting_his_

way_smaller.gif

Decker, M. Zuid Afrika. 11/20/02. http://www.landenweb.com/images/imgZuidAfrika/apartheid.jpg

EERT. USGS NATIONAL COAL RESOURCE ASSESSMENT. 10/21/02.