What were the most important economic, political, and cultural aspects of West African society? In ...

Ideal Answer: The ideal answer should:
1) Describe the major West African kingdoms of the Sudan: Ghana, Mali, Songhai. All were politically competitive and involved in long distance trade relations.
2) Describe the major West African kingdoms of the forest region: Senegambia, Akan, Benin, Igboland. These all played major roles in the development of West African society through warfare, religious expansion, and trade.
3) Outline West African technology (iron production), religion (polytheism and Islam), trade systems based on iron, ivory, textiles; rigid class system, and family-based leadership systems.
4) Explain the role of the Sahara desert in creating North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa; the forests of West Africa provided many slaves to European colonies because of their close proximity to the coastline; the savanna or grasslands of central and southern Africa provided the home to large internal kingdoms involved in shaping West African national histories and the slave trade.
5) Conclude that geographical characteristics, primarily aridity, continue to shape modern African political and socioeconomic development.