Medieval Africa Vocab

An area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes

• Savanna

• Sub-Saharan Africa

• Polytheism

• Mansa Musa

Seeking guidance from and holding the spirits of deceased ancestors in high esteem

• overgraze

• Matrilineal

• ancestor worship

• Animism

When livestock eat most of the grass and leave the ground exposed to the sun.

• silent barter

• overgraze

• extended family

• Rifts

The belief that bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits

• Animism

• Rain forest

• Surplus

• Polytheism

an excess supply of something

• Polytheism

• Surplus

• Griots

• Sahel

Belief in many Gods

• Surplus

• Polytheism

• Matrilineal

• Rain forest

Africa south of the Sahara Desert

• Griots

• Savanna

• Sahel

• Sub-Saharan Africa

West Africa's semi-desert vegetation zone

• Savanna

• Rain Forest

• Sahel

• Animism

father, mother, children, and close relatives in one household

• Extended family

• Immediate family

• family unit

a method of trading used between two or more people who do not speak the same language

• Quiet Barter

• Silent Barter

• Shh Barter