1. Comment fully on the course and reasons for the development of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. What do you consider to have been the short and long-term consequences of the slave on Africa’ Support your position with much considerable historical data. 2. Assume you are asked to give a lecture on the shaping of Southern African society to 1850. Select and discuss four themes you will include in your lecture. Be sure to include a justification for your selection and what you consider to be the nature of Southern African society by 1850. Support your response with significant historical data.
3. Select an African leader who ruled before 1830 and craft a biographical essay on him. you should focus your attention on his rise to power, administrative style, policies (foreign and domestic), achievements, and failures. Include comment on what you consider to be that leader’s most enduring legacy.
4. For this question select either the empire of Ghana, or Mali, or Songhay. Craft an essay on your selection focusing on its rise, civilization, policies, and decline. In your understanding of the history of your selection, how and why do you think it was able to last for centuires? Why do you think understanding the history of your selection matters? Be sure to situate your selection in geographical space and historical time.
5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of El Bekri’s Ghana, and Niane’s Sundiota as sources for the re-construction of the history of the medieval African societies which they describe. You must use substantial evidence from each to support your composition.
6. “The origins and development of the Empires of the Western Sudan (Ghana, Mali, and Songhay) were largely the result of the foreign influences, especially religion and trade, with local political, and economic elements? Discuss critically with specific reference to the nature and impact of the foreign influences and the role of geographic, economic and local political traditions in the shaping of Sudanic empires.