1743 French Map of Northwest Africa, depicting the areas covered in this curriculum unit. Courtesy of American Memory at the Library of Congress.
	Subject Areas Art and Culture    Anthropology    Architecture History and Social Studies    World History - Africa    World History - Ancient World    World History - Asia/Far East   Time Required   Activity 1: 2 class periods (1 for lesson; 1 for assessment) Activity 2: 2 class periods Activity 3: 2 class periods Activity 4: 2 class periods Activity 5: 2 class periods Activity 6: 2 class periods Activity 7: 2 class periods Activity 8: indeterminate   Skills   Map skills Observation and description Historical interpretation and analysis Critical Thinking Information gathering Visual analysis Communication   Additional Data   Date Created: 10/15/03

Trekking to Timbuktu: Mansa Musa Takes a Trip — Teacher Version

Lesson Four of Curriculum Unit:
Trekking to Timbuktu

Introduction:

Guiding Questions:

What was he like? How was he received in Cairo?

What decisions did the ruler make about his own realm during and after his pilgrimage?

In what ways was Mali changed as a result of the pilgrimage?

Learning Objectives:

• Identify Mansa Musa and discuss his pilgrimage
• Explain how he related to leaders in the East
• Describe decisions he made about his homeland
• Discuss changes brought about in Mali as a result of his pilgrimage

Preparing to Teach This Lesson:

Suggested Activities:

1. The Pilgrimage

2. Mosques, West African Style

1. The Pilgrimage

• Access Musa and the Mali Empire available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library. Read Pilgrimage to Mecca. Discuss with the students the emperor's magnificent entourage. Where did the emperor get all that gold? (See Lesson 2 of this curriculum unit.) How might the people of the Middle East have viewed the West African states before Mansa Musa's visit? How did he almost ruin the good impression he had made, and what does this say about his political savvy? How did this visit influence the way Europeans, Asians, and North Africans thought about the land of the Niger?
• The route of his pilgrimage can be viewed at A Center for Trade available through African Studies WWW. The pick axes on the map indicate salt mines, while the gold bars mark gold mines. Why might Mansa Musa have taken a slightly more southern route home? (This would have been an excellent opportunity to load up his camels, no longer carrying their burdens of gold, with salt.)

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage was immortalized in a map of Africa contained in the Catalan World Atlas of 1375.

• Access The Catalan map. As you view the map with your students, you might explain that Guinea (Mansa Musa is referred to as the Lord of the Negroes of Guinea) was actually the coastal region of West Africa where many of the gold mines were located. At that time, it was also a part of Mali. Have the students describe the various objects they see. In what ways is Mansa Musa presented as a European might have envisioned him? (For example, did he wear a European type of crown and sit upon a throne?).

2. Mosques, West African Style

• Access Mansa Musa. Scroll to the 8th paragraph beginning "He commissioned." Why was the mosque made of clay? (Stone is not readily available in this region.) Why did the walls have to be replastered annually? Now go to Timbuktu: The Mythical Site and read the paragraphs about the Djingareyber and Sankore mosques. What connection does Sankore have with the Kaaba?

• For a close look at the wooden posts used for scaffolding, go to Mali. Click on view slideshows. Navigate to the 4th slide. The posts are also very evident in the photo Timbuktu's Sankore Mosque and Grand Mosque of Timbuktu, Exterior

• Go to Djenne, Mali. Scroll down to the third paragraph and continue to the end of the page. Notice the "horns" on the building. What is a secondary function of these supports? (To minimize stress in the building during temperature extremes.) Now go to Great Mosque of Djenne. You can view additional photos of this structure by accessing Mosque in Djenne.

Assessment

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Return to Curriculum Unit: Trekking to Timbuktu

• Clickable Map of Africa:
  [http://artnetweb.com/guggenheim/africa/africamap.html African Voices]
• Sankore Mosque
  [http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi5/5_wondr6.htm]
• The Road to Timbuktu
  [http://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_e5.htm].

• Musa and the Mali Empire
  [http://www.africanevents.com/Essay-Habeeb-MansaMusa.htm]
• Timbuktu: Legendary City of Africa;
  [http://geography.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa101300a.htm]

• The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, Istanbul
  [http://www.islamicity.com/Culture/Mosques/Europe/TMp145a.htm]

• Djenne, Mali
  [http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/djenne.html].
• Empires of the Western Sudan
  [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sghi/hd_sghi.htm].
• Ghana Empire
  [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ghan/hd_ghan.htm
• Golden Age
  [http://www.historychannel.com/classroom/unesco/timbuktu/goldenage.html].
• Mansa Musa
  [http://purpleplanetmedia.com/bhp/pages/mansamusa.shtml]
• Mansa Musu and Songhai Empire
  [http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/mansa.htm].
• Songhay
  [http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CIVAFRCA/SONGHAY.HTM].
• The Catalan map
  [http://www.mrdowling.com/609-mansamusa.html ]
• Timbuktu: City of Legends
  [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1911321.stm]

Other Information

Standards Alignment

1. NCSS-1
   
   Culture and cultural diversity. more
   
   
2. NCSS-2
   
   Time, continuity, and change. The ways human beings view themselves in and over time. more
   
   
3. NCSS-3
   
   People, places, and environments. more
   
   
4. NCSS-4
   
   Individual development and identity. more
   
   
5. NCSS-5
   
   Individuals, groups, and institutions. more
   
   
6. NCTE/IRA-1
   
   Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works. more
   
   
7. NCTE/IRA-12
   
   Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information). more
   
   
8. NCTE/IRA-7
   
   Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience. more
   
   
9. NCTE/IRA-8
   
   Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. more
   
   
10. NGS-1
    
    How to Use Maps and Other Geographic Representations, Tools, and Technologies to Acquire, Process, and Report Information from a Spatial Perspective
    
    
11. NGS-12
    
    The Processes, Patterns, and Functions of Human Settlement
    
    
12. NGS-17
    
    How to Apply Geography to Interpret the Past
    
    
13. NGS-2
    
    How to Use Mental Maps to Organize Information About People, Places, and Environments in a Spatial Context
    
    
14. NGS-3
    
    How to Analyze the Spatial Organization of People, Places, and Environments on Earth’s Surface
    
    
15. NGS-9
    
    The Characteristics, Distribution, and Migration of Human Population on Earth’s Surface