Virginia Standards of Learning
Grade Three: History and Geography
3.2 The student will study the early West African empire of Mali by describing its oral tradition (storytelling), government (kings), and economic development (trade).
3.4
The student will develop map skills by
a) locating Greece, Rome, and West Africa
b) describing the physical and human characteristics of Greece, Rome, and West Africa
c) explaining how the people of Greece, Rome, and West Africa adapted to and/or changed their environment to meet their needs
3.8
The student will recognize the concepts of specialization (being an expert in one job, product, or service) and interdependence (depending on others) in the production of goods and services (in ancient Greece, Rome, the West African empire of Mali, and in the present).
AN IMPORTANT PART OF VIRGINIA'S HERITAGE is our African
heritage. Most African-Americans in Virginia have an ancestor from the lands of
the Mali and Sonrai Empires. There is a glorious history to be proud of!
Modern Mali is a small country (geographically more than
twice the size of Texas, but with a population of only 11 million). Mali is a
democracy with an elected President named Amadou Toumani Touré. Mali is still
Africa's third biggest gold producer, but by international standards it is poor
country. Its greatest resource is the warmth and friendliness of the Mali
people.
The medieval empire of Mali was founded in 1235 by Sunjata
Keita, the original Lion King. Mali's written Constitution, the Kouragan
Fouga, was published that same year, just
19 years after the English barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. Mali was way ahead of the game!
The Mali Empire is less famous than the Roman Empire, and
yet it was just as big. Everyone has heard of Timbuktu, but few people know
that this city on the southern edge of the Sahara desert was the northern
capital city of the Mali Empire. Now all 3rd Graders in Virginia
learn about Timbuktu and the Mali Empire because it is an SOL requirement, one
of their Standards of Learning.
The legend of Timbuktu grew out of the pilgrimage (haj) of
the Malian Emperor Mansa Musa, who returned from Mecca in 1325 having
distributed unimaginable quantities of gold. He built the great mosque of
Timbuktu which remains a center of worship today, 700 years later.
The Empire of Mali SOL brings our children the history of
Africa and trade, of camels and ostriches in the Sahara Desert, of the Nile and
the Niger rivers, and – above all – it brings them the discovery
that Mali today is a wonderful place in Africa where Islam and
Christianity and ancestral African monotheism live peacefully beside a great
river filled with crocodiles and hippopotami (called mali in the Bambara language).
In studying Mali and the successor dynasty of Sonrai,
Virginia's children discover how much Africa has given to America: our food
(okra, gombo, hush puppies, donuts, peanut stew, collard greens, and fried
chicken are all foods from Mali), our music (jazz, blues, soul, reggae, cajun,
pop, rap, hip hop are all derived from Mali's music, and the banjo is our
version of Mali's ngoni), and our
lifestyles (the Southern porch came from Africa - there is nothing like it in
chilly Europe!).
More than anything, Virginia's children learn from studying
Mali that their African heritage is a fine, noble and wonderful gift from the
ancestors.