Middle Niger · about 250 BC-AD 1400

Jenne-jeno: a city without a king?

On the floodplain of the Niger, a town grew into a busy city long before any famous empire. Archaeologists found crafts, trade goods from far away and no palace. Students weigh the evidence for a city without a king.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1100
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

On the floodplain of the Niger, a town grew into a busy city long before any famous empire. Archaeologists found crafts, trade goods from far away and no palace. Students weigh the evidence for a city without a king.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Jenne-jeno in the inland delta of the Niger and explain why the floodplain suited farmers and traders.
  • Use archaeological clues (crafts, imported beads, the absence of a palace) to describe life in the city.
  • Explain why Jenne-jeno changed ideas about where and when West African cities began.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1100

The inland delta

Open the map in 1100 and turn on Cities. Find Timbuktu at the bend of the Niger, then follow the river south-west into the wide inland delta that floods every year.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1100

Two rivers

Zoom in where the Bani river joins the Niger at today's Mopti. Jenne-jeno lay upstream on the Bani. Why might a city grow on a river floodplain?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1100

Across the desert

Turn on Trade Routes. Find the route across the Sahara that starts at Timbuktu. Goods from the inland delta reached this route by river. What could the region send north?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Archaeologists found no palace and no great royal tomb at Jenne-jeno. Does that prove there was no king? What else could explain it?
  2. Jenne-jeno had separate quarters for smiths, potters and other crafts. Why might crafts people live in their own groups?
  3. Glass beads from far away were found in early layers of the city. What does that tell us about trade?
  4. Some people once claimed West African cities only grew after Arab traders arrived. How does Jenne-jeno challenge that idea?
  5. Jenne-jeno was abandoned around 1400 while Djenné, close by, grew. Give two possible reasons why people moved.
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Mansa Musa, who ruled the Niger lands centuries later. Discuss: Jenne-jeno may have thrived without a single ruler. What does a king add to a trading city, and what does he cost it?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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