Mastery Mission: West African Civilizations Profile

Final unit assessment for World Builders Issue 09: combines knowledge recall, analysis, comparison, and written argument into one profile.

In this Mastery Mission, you will build a West African Civilizations Profile that shows what you have learned about Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. Use your notes, the entire issue, and your earlier activities to design a clear, well-supported explanation of how each empire grew powerful and why one stands out as the most successful.

Mastery Mission Parts

• Part 1 – Geography & Trade (Ghana) · 30 XP: Explain how geography and taxation shaped Ghana’s power and include a labeled trade-route diagram.
• Part 2 – Culture & Learning (Mali) · 30 XP: Explain Mansa Musa’s impact on Mali and analyze how Timbuktu became a famous center of learning, including an example of architecture or scholarship.
• Part 3 – Law & Religion (Songhai) · 30 XP: Explain how Askia Muhammad used Islam and legal reforms to strengthen Songhai, with at least one quote or paraphrase from the text.
• Part 4 – Reflection Essay · 10 XP: In 6–8 sentences, argue which empire was most successful and defend your choice using evidence from across the issue.

Click Here To Access This Text (pp. 3–14)

Use pages 6–7 to explain how geography and taxation helped Ghana become one of West Africa’s earliest powerful empires.

In this section, you are building the “Ghana” panel of your civilization profile. Your goal is to show how rivers, deserts, and trade routes made Ghana rich and why controlling trade through taxes gave its rulers long-lasting power.

Use pages 9–10 to explain how Mansa Musa and the city of Timbuktu helped make Mali famous for wealth, learning, and Islamic culture.

This section builds the “Mali” panel of your profile. Show how one ruler and one city changed how the world saw West Africa by combining gold, religion, education, and architecture.

Use pages 12–13 to explain how Askia Muhammad used Islam and legal reforms to strengthen the Songhai Empire.

This section builds the “Songhai” panel of your profile. Show how law and religion worked together to organize the empire, support trade, and give Songhai a strong identity within the Islamic world.

In 6–8 sentences, choose the empire you think was most successful and defend your choice using evidence from Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

This reflection is where you act as a historian and make a judgment. You will pick one empire and use evidence from the entire issue to argue why it stands out as the strongest or most successful.

Combine your work from Parts 1–4 into one West African Civilizations Profile. This is the version you can turn in, present, or publish in your World Builders portfolio.

Tip: Make sure each empire has at least one clear explanation and one strong piece of evidence. Your reflection paragraph should directly answer the question: “Which empire was most successful?”