To what extent did trade shape the rise of west African kingdom? How? What other factors influenced the emergence of such kingdom as those in Ghana, Mali, and Songhai?

Chapter 1

1. How can comprehending the rise of Egyptian civilization enrich our understanding of African American history?
2. What accounts for the rise of Islam and its extraordinary spread after its advent in the seventh century CE?
3. To what extent did trade shape the rise of west African kingdom? How? What other factors influenced the emergence of such kingdom as those in Ghana, Mali, and Songhai?
4. What were the major features of African society and culture prior to contact with European traders?

Chapter 2

1.Once the Portuguese found a way to navigate down the west coast of Africa, was it inevitable that a slave trade would begin? To what extent was the slave trade forced upon west African? What were some of the dynamics of African complicity in it?

2. once colonizing Europeans established the plantation system on the west side of the Atlantic, what labor sources might they have drawn upon instead of enslaved Africans?
3. What strategies and resources did enslaved Africans draw on to endure the traumas of capture, the “middle passage” across the Atlantic, and sale in New world European colonies?
4. How would you characterize the first encounters between colonizing Spaniard and enslaved Africans taken to their colonies? What were some of the possibilities and limits within which African Americans negotiated the terms of their bondage?