South Africa Grade 7 Social Sciences Syllabus

History

• Term 1: The Kingdom of Mali and the city of Timbuktu in the 14th century
• Trade across the Sahara Desert: Camel caravans, goods traded (salt, gold, slaves, ivory, ostrich feathers), spread of Islam.
• The Kingdom of Mali: Mansa Musa's reign, pilgrimage to Mecca, construction of the Great Mosque.
• The City of Timbuktu: Leo Africanus's accounts, Timbuktu as a trade center and center of learning (mathematics, chemistry, physics, optics, astronomy, medicine, history, geography, Islamic traditions, law), Timbuktu Manuscripts Project, World Heritage Site status.
• Term 2: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
• West Africa before and during the European slave trade.
• Slavery in the American South: Plantations (tobacco, rice, sugar cane, cotton), reasons for slave labor, capture, sale, and transport of slaves, slave markets.
• Impact on slaves: Plantation life, slave culture, resistance (individual and collective), Nat Turner's revolt, Amistad Mutiny, Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, John Brown.
• Economic impact: Effects on West Africa, America, and Britain.
• Term 3: Colonisation of the Cape in the 17th and 18th centuries
• Indigenous inhabitants of the Cape.
• Dutch settlement: Reasons for VOC settlement, slaves at the Cape (origins, conditions, resistance, legacy), free burghers, Huguenot immigration, expanding frontiers (trekboers), land dispossession, Genadendal mission station, work of Bleek and Lloyd.
• Term 4: Co-operation and conflict on the frontiers of the Cape Colony in the early 19th century
• British arrival and expansion.
• Eastern Frontier: Frontier wars (Chief Maqoma and Xhosa resistance), Andries Stockenstrom, British immigration, abolition of slavery, Great Trek, inboekselings.
• Northern Frontier: Trade relationships, Kora and Griqua, Tswana towns, missionaries and traders (Robert Moffat at Kuruman).

Geography

• Term 1: Map skills (Focus: Local maps)
• Local and street maps: Locating places, using index and grid, describing routes.
• Sketch maps and routes: Sketching routes, compass directions, estimating distances.
• Sketch map of local area (Project): Symbols, key, scale, land use, vegetation, compass directions.
• Distance and scale: Line and word scales, small and large scale maps, measuring distances (direct and indirect).
• Current events: Locating places in the news, latitude and longitude.
• Term 2: Earthquakes, volcanoes, and floods
• Structure of the earth: Core, mantle, crust, tectonic plates.
• Volcanoes: Global location, causes.
• Earthquakes: Global location, causes (plate movement), effects (injury, loss of life, disease, displacement, damage, tsunamis), community risk, reducing impact, case study.
• Floods: Causes (rain, environmental factors, tsunamis), effects, community risk, reducing impact, case study.
• Term 3: Population growth and change (Focus: World)
• Population concepts: Birth rates, death rates, population growth rates, infant mortality rates, life expectancy.
• Factors affecting birth and death rates: Disease (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, diarrhea, Black Death, smallpox), economic status, family needs, conflict, government policy.
• World population growth: Growth patterns, influencing developments (food production, scientific advancements, healthcare).
• Term 4: Natural resources and conservation in South Africa
• Natural resources: Water, air, forests, soil, wildlife, use and abuse.
• Resource management: Conservation (reasons, areas, case study), community projects, eco-tourism.
• Water in South Africa: Water users, availability, river health, wetlands (case study), responsible use.