(1) What factors contributed to the development of African civilizations? Which factors do you think were the most important? Explain why and provide an example.

(2) How did life change within Africa when it became involved in the global trade networks introduced by the Europeans and Arabs? Was African life influenced more by European or Arab traders or did both groups equally influence Africans? Why?

(3) Why have so many societies kept slaves?

(4) Why did the treatment of slaves vary so much from one culture to another?

(5) What conditions do you think finally led to the abolition of legal slavery? What allows various forms of illegal slavery to exist today?

(6) What effect did the deplorable conditions on the slave ship have on the psychology of the slaves?

(7) What audience was Baquaqua's biography written for, and how did that influence the content of his account?

(8) What do Muslim teachings in general say about the proper role of women in family life and society?