African Expedition

1. Axum Cont. Axum African Expedition Hello our names are Nick and Sal. We are time travelers from the year 2009. We are reporters that are reporting on ancient Africa. Most people in our time know nothing about Africa, so our boss ordered us to travel back in time and see some of the stuff that Africa did in the past! Slave Ship! Swahili Coast By: Nick & Sal Ghana

2. Axum Cont. Home Axum Our first stop is in Axum. This is where the Obelisks of Axum are. Also this is where the Ark of the Covenant supposedly is. You might be familiar with the movie of Indiana Jones and the raiders of the lost Ark. When we were with the Obelisks we found out that they were the largest single stone monuments in the world at the time because now we have an escalator to the moon. We also found out that the obelisks serve as grave markers.

3. Swahili Coast Home Axum Con. The other thing we found out about Axum is that their economy was based on trade. A reason for that was because they were located on the red sea so they could trade overseas. We also learned that Axum was the first official Christian Kingdom. Talking about Christianity, the 12 rock churches of Lalibela were a sign that Axum remained Christian, even though it was surrounded by Islamic Kingdoms.

4. Home Ghana Swahili Coast • The second place we decided to visit was the Swahili coast. The Swahili coast wasn’t one kingdom but several city-states that were independent. I didn’t realize that until the camel driver asked me which place in the Swahili coast. The Swahili is a mixture of African and Arab cultures. The Swahili coast declined in the European conquest. I forgot to mention the tour boats were called “dhows”. That is what most people used for transportation and trade.

5. Home Slave Ship Ghana • Our next destination was Ghana. In Ghana we found out that the economy of Ghana was also based on trade. The person who started Ghana was Dinge Cisse. The people of Ghana were very skilled at working with metal.

6. Home Slave Ship • The last stop that we took was the worst thing I have ever seen, a slave ship. We were on a slave ship called the Amistad. A couple of years before my year (2009) they made a movie about this ship. When we warped on the ship we were already on our way on the middle passage. The middle passage was a slave ship route that went between Africa and the Americas. We were stuck in the slave cavern in the bottom of the ship. That was a horrible experience. The ship smelled like sweat and dirt, it was moist and hot, and being at the bottom of the ship made it even worse. We were stuck on the ship for about 4 hours in handcuffs and they were extremely tight. Then a man named Cinque broke out of his handcuffs using a small piece of metal. He then freed everybody else. We all got machetes and went up on the deck to kill the people. They left a couple of people alive and they forced them to bring them back to Africa. We thought they were going to Africa but they actually brought us to the Americas. When we got there they said that we were arrested for being pirates. We all went to court and they said we were free but some people thought otherwise. We ended up going to the supreme court and there John Quincy Adams was our lawyer. It was really boring in the court and John gave a 4 hour long speech. In the end they said we were free to go back to Africa but they wouldn’t give us any money so we had to raise money to rent a boat. It took almost a year to raise all the money and in the process one of the men drowned himself because he thought they would never get back, but in the end they were able to raise enough money and that’s when we left and went back to our time.