Ghana Posters, Art Prints, Charts, Maps
for classrooms, homeschoolers & theme decor.

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Kwame Nkrumah
b. 9-21-1909; Nkroful, Gold Coast
d. 2-27-1972; Bucharest, Romania (skin cancer)

Kwame Nkrumah lead the Gold Coast, the predecessor state of Ghana, and became both the first president and first prime minister of Ghana.

A theologian and teacher, Nkrumah was commitment to Pan-Africanism and founded the Organization of African Unity. He was inspired by the black intellectuals Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and George Padmore.

In 2000 the listeners of the BBC World Service voted Nkrumah Africa's man of the millennium.

Kwame Nkrumah quote ~
• “We face neither East nor West; We face forward.”

Kofi Annan
b. 4-8-1938; Kumasi, Gold Coast

Kofi Annan was the seventh Secretary-General of the UN, serving from January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2006.

The United Nations and Annan were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for his founding the Global AIDS and Health Fund.

Ghana, Mali, Songhai Ancient African Civilizations Poster

Ghana, Mali, Songhai-

Taken together, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai controlled most of western Africa for nearly 1,000 years. All three empires were fabulously wealthy and powerful, and their influence can still be felt in the culture and arts and sciences of modern West Africa. The civilization of Ghana was established durning the 5th and 6th centuries C.E. This hightly structured empire, which spread over the countries now known as Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali, was fueled by the huge gold reserves in the southern savanna lands. Visitors to Ghana were shocked to see how much gold the king (called “Ghana”) displayed in his royal palace – even the horses and dogs wore gold collars. Important trade routes helped Ghanan merchants to sell their ware all over Africa. But all the gold in Ghana could not save the empire when a group of Berber Muslims known as the Almoravids, invaded in 1076 and burned the capital.

After several centuries of fighting to control the trade routes, the Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita rose to power in the year 1233 and established the empire of Mali. This civilization, which lasted for more than 300 years, incorporated all the trade routes and land west of the Niger River as well as the gold reserves of the south. Timbuktu became the capital and soon earned a reputation as one of the most worldly cities in Africa, as well as one of the richest in the world. Arts and education flourished in the Islamic universities of Timbuktu. Malian sculpture became famous for its strong shapes. Musical storytellers called griots were the royal musicians, and the sound of a guitar-like instruments called the kora was soon heard all over western Africa.

But Mali began to weaken in the 1400s, when the empire became too big to manage. The Songhai people rose to power in 1464, under the leadership of Sonni Ber Ali, who eventually conqured Timbuktu and the leading city of Jenne. Ali and his successors ruled over the Songhai empire for more than 100 years, until it fell to Moroccan invaders.

While no great empire rose up to replace Songhai, the traditions of all three civilizations live on in the art, music, and traditions of modern Africa – and in the vibrant and sophisticated city of Timbuktu.

The Songhai Empire succeeded the declining Mali Empire and from the early 15th to the late 16th century was one of the largest African empires in history. The Songhai Empire was centered in eastern Mali and stretched through parts of present day Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Senegal, Mauritania, and Guinea.

The first great king of Songhai was Sunni Ali, a Muslim like the Mali kings before him, who had derived great wealth through trade with Arabs. The Songhai Empire continued to be a strong trading economy with the goldfields of the Niger River a primary resource of the Songhai Empire. Gold was sometimes traded one to one for precious salt, a primary ingredient in food preservation.

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