full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Gus Casely-Hayford: The powerful stories that shaped Africa

Unscramble the Blue Letters


And like all of those great empires, Sundiata kteia invested in securing his legacy through history by using story — not just formalizing the idea of silotrntyleg, but in building a whole convention of telling and rienletlg his story as a key to founding a narrative for his empire. And these stoeris, in musical form, are still sung today.

Now, several decades after the dateh of Sundiata, a new king ascended the throne, Mansa Musa, its most famous emperor. Now, Mansa Musa is famed for his vast gold reserves and for sending envoys to the courts of Europe and the Middle East. He was every bit as ambitious as his predecessors, but saw a different kind of route of securing his plcae in hstiory. In 1324, Mansa Musa went on pilgrimage to Mecca, and he tavrleed with a rniutee of thousands. It's been said that 100 camels each carried 100 pounds of gold. It's been recorded that he built a fully functioning mosque every Friday of his trip, and performed so many acts of kindness, that the great berebr cohrcnielr, Ibn Battuta, wrote, "He flooded Cairo with kisdenns, snedinpg so much in the markets of North Africa and the mldide East that it affected the price of gold into the next decade."

Open Cloze


And like all of those great empires, Sundiata _____ invested in securing his legacy through history by using story — not just formalizing the idea of ____________, but in building a whole convention of telling and _________ his story as a key to founding a narrative for his empire. And these _______, in musical form, are still sung today.

Now, several decades after the _____ of Sundiata, a new king ascended the throne, Mansa Musa, its most famous emperor. Now, Mansa Musa is famed for his vast gold reserves and for sending envoys to the courts of Europe and the Middle East. He was every bit as ambitious as his predecessors, but saw a different kind of route of securing his _____ in _______. In 1324, Mansa Musa went on pilgrimage to Mecca, and he ________ with a _______ of thousands. It's been said that 100 camels each carried 100 pounds of gold. It's been recorded that he built a fully functioning mosque every Friday of his trip, and performed so many acts of kindness, that the great ______ __________, Ibn Battuta, wrote, "He flooded Cairo with ________, ________ so much in the markets of North Africa and the ______ East that it affected the price of gold into the next decade."

Solution


  1. middle
  2. place
  3. keita
  4. storytelling
  5. retinue
  6. stories
  7. berber
  8. traveled
  9. kindness
  10. chronicler
  11. death
  12. spending
  13. retelling
  14. history

Original Text


And like all of those great empires, Sundiata Keita invested in securing his legacy through history by using story — not just formalizing the idea of storytelling, but in building a whole convention of telling and retelling his story as a key to founding a narrative for his empire. And these stories, in musical form, are still sung today.

Now, several decades after the death of Sundiata, a new king ascended the throne, Mansa Musa, its most famous emperor. Now, Mansa Musa is famed for his vast gold reserves and for sending envoys to the courts of Europe and the Middle East. He was every bit as ambitious as his predecessors, but saw a different kind of route of securing his place in history. In 1324, Mansa Musa went on pilgrimage to Mecca, and he traveled with a retinue of thousands. It's been said that 100 camels each carried 100 pounds of gold. It's been recorded that he built a fully functioning mosque every Friday of his trip, and performed so many acts of kindness, that the great Berber chronicler, Ibn Battuta, wrote, "He flooded Cairo with kindness, spending so much in the markets of North Africa and the Middle East that it affected the price of gold into the next decade."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
ansar dine 6
great zimbabwe 6
mansa musa 4
middle east 3
west africa 3
cultural heritage 2
ordinary people 2
purely african 2
sundiata keita 2


Important Words


  1. acts
  2. affected
  3. africa
  4. ambitious
  5. ascended
  6. battuta
  7. berber
  8. bit
  9. building
  10. built
  11. cairo
  12. camels
  13. carried
  14. chronicler
  15. convention
  16. courts
  17. death
  18. decade
  19. decades
  20. east
  21. emperor
  22. empire
  23. empires
  24. envoys
  25. europe
  26. famed
  27. famous
  28. flooded
  29. form
  30. formalizing
  31. founding
  32. friday
  33. fully
  34. functioning
  35. gold
  36. great
  37. history
  38. ibn
  39. idea
  40. invested
  41. keita
  42. key
  43. kind
  44. kindness
  45. king
  46. legacy
  47. mansa
  48. markets
  49. mecca
  50. middle
  51. mosque
  52. musa
  53. musical
  54. narrative
  55. north
  56. performed
  57. pilgrimage
  58. place
  59. pounds
  60. predecessors
  61. price
  62. recorded
  63. reserves
  64. retelling
  65. retinue
  66. route
  67. securing
  68. sending
  69. spending
  70. stories
  71. story
  72. storytelling
  73. sundiata
  74. sung
  75. telling
  76. thousands
  77. throne
  78. today
  79. traveled
  80. trip
  81. vast
  82. wrote