The spread of Islam help increase literacy among the populations in the kingdoms of West and Central Africa as converts to Islam were required to read and study from the Qur’an, and Muslim mosques became centres of learning and intellectual libraries for those of the faith.
Answer: Option A
Explanation:
The spread of Islam was evident in the early stages of spread through the trade and commerce in West and Central Africa along the Saharan routes. The merchants of trade took advantage over the economic opportunity for the trade in the required language.
These needed them to be adept with the language for the studying of Quran which is a compulsion. Therefore, mosques were developed as the centre for learning with equipped libraries. Spreading occurred initially in the forest zones, like Mali, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, Guinea Basau and Ghana.