Ancient History Resources for Homeschool and Personal Study. This weeks topics: Nigeria's Nok Culture, Bantu Tribes, The Griots and African Music

Ancient History is studied through the collection of archeological evidence, written records and oral stories or myths. Just because evidence shows a particular belief or custom was common at a particular time does not mean that everyone in that civilization shared that belief. When you study the topics for this week, you can either go deep on one topic for the week and skip the others or you can do a new topic each day. This outline is just a suggested pace, you can go slower or faster as needed. This outline is intended to provide you with a place to start. You will still need to do your own research.

Nok Sculpture at the Louvre

Homeschool Topics for Week 19

Nigeria's Nok Culture

Bantu Tribe

The Griots

African Music

Discussion Questions

Nigeria's Nok Culture

Very little is knows about Nigeria's Nok Culture which lasted 2,000 years before collapsing. The terra-cotta sculptures found there depict people with detailed hairstyles, with stylized features in various postures. One sculpture shows people in a dugout canoe. Others show various weapons for hunting. They ate millet, cowpeas and probably animals hunted from the surrounding area although no animal bones have been found in archeological sites due to the acidic soil.

Bantu Tribe

The Bantu tribes are the indigenous Africans who spread throughout Central Africa. The African Pygmies are indigenous to the rainforests who belong to the Bayaka, Mbuti and Twa tribes. These people do not speak Bantu languages and are an ethnic minority. Villages in ancient Africa were more than communities. They were teams. They all pitched in to take care of the children. They believed in working together for the common good. Each village ruled itself. Some villages were ruled by a chief. Others were ruled by a small group of elders. But in all villages, people could express their thoughts and ideas before final decisions were made either by the chief or by the elders. Each village had 50 to 500 homes. All the homes looked the same. Even the home of the chief or the elders looked just like everyone else's home. People had possessions, but if they owned something that everyone could use for the betterment of the whole village, then those possessions were shared.

The Griots

The Griots were the storytellers in the ancient kingdom of Ghana. After dinner, villagers might hear the sound of a drum or a rattle announcing a story was soon to be told. They collected around a central fire and settled down to listen.

The storytellers told many stories - stories about the many gods and goddesses worshiped by these early people. They told tales of war and battle and heroes and leaders and kings. Stories were often accompanied with music and dancing and song. There was no written language. Stories kept their history alive. Stories were also entirely fictional. (Ie. Anansi the Spider)