What factors provided impetus for the development of early cities in Africa?

What characteristics distinguish Djenne-Jeno from other urban archaeological sites before 1000 C.E.?

What factors provided stimulus for long-distance interaction and connections across the Sahara?  Compare these factors to motivations for interactions between Bantu-speakers and Batwa before 1500 C.E.

What factors contribute to long-term cultural continuity? Are these the same (or different) factors that contribute to geographically wide-spread cultural continuity?

What is the different between environmental influence and environmental determinism?

Skills focus

Periodization
Argumentation and evidence
Interpreting oral traditions

Reading Questions

McIntosh + McIntosh
Why is Djenne-Jeno’s location on the inland Niger Delta significant?

What is significant about the McIntosh’s ability to date evidence of complex urban life in West Africa as early as 200 B.C.E.?

What previous periodization (or presumption about turning points) does this early date challenge?

What parallels between modern Jenne and ancient Djenne-Jeno do the McIntoshes highlight? Why do you think they made that choice?

Lange

What evidence connects the modern city of Djenne to the archaeological site of Djenne-Jeno?

Does Lange appear more interested in documenting change or continuity in Djenne?

Austen

Why was the Sahara a significant barrier to human interactions before c. 700 C.E.?

What changes transformed the Sahara from a barrier to a “global highway”?

Describe the contours of trans-Saharan trade and Sudanic trade between c. 700 CE and c. 1500 CE. Why are dates around 700 and 1500 significant turning points?

What factors does Austen identify as the salient points of comparison between the Atlantic and Saharan slave trades?

Vocabulary