Why did Medieval Mali become a powerful African Empire?

This fun and engaging lesson has been commissioned by the History Academy as part of a series on Medieval African history to help fill a much neglected part of the curriculum. For far too long the history of Africa has been relegated, neglected and ignored.

The Empire of Mali was one of the largest empires in Medieval West African History spanning from the Atlantic Coast to central parts of the Sahara desert. Founded by the Lion King in 1214, it had doubled in size by the reign of Mansa Musa, who is offen sited at the richest man in history. He became king because his brother abdicated because he wanted to sail the oceans and ‘pursue knowledge and discovery.’ The historical evidence suggests that he reached America over 180 years before Christopher Columbus . The education system and universities of Timbuktu and Gao were famous throughout the Medieval World and were set up 100 years before both Oxford and Cambridge.

This two part lesson looks at the rise and fall of the Empire of Mali. It looks at how the empire was founded and extended under the first three rulers before moving on to look at how its society was was organised and governed. The second lesson looks in more detail at trade, economy, religion, culture, trade and the economy. This lesson is aimed at KS3 and was designed originally for a middle ability Year 7 class. We have included a range of different activities that you can sellect for your classes from knowledge recall questions, heads and tails, missing words, word search, knowledge quizzes, review triangles and an essay question along with supporting activities.

When you purchase this resource you will be able to download a 33 slide PowerPoint Presentation which includes aims, objectives, starters, plenaries, tasks, activities, video links, information slides as well as historical sources. You will also be able to download a four page Word Document which is designed to run along side the PowerPoint and includes both the information, templates for photocopying, tasks and activities. We have also uploaded both documents as PDFs, just in case you do not have access to Microsoft Office. For further

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Kind Regards

Roy