Deck 17: Africa from Axum, to 1400

Question 1

The Oyo

A) predate the Ife.
B) were Swahili migrants to the forests.
C) were the one Christian kingdom in Africa.
D) did not practice agriculture.
E) were the Alafin peoples.

Answer 1

were the Alafin peoples.

Question 2

All of the following contributed to the growth of the Ife EXCEPT

A) its geography and agricultural practices.
B) its trading activities.
C) it may have contained a local religious shrine.
D) it had the most contact with Muslim leaders.
E) None of the options are correct.

Answer 2

it had the most contact with Muslim leaders.

Question 3

What factors contributed to the "cosmopolitan" nature of the Swahili city-states?

Answer 3

Answers would include a discussion of trade,Muslim,Persian,Arab,and Indian traders,the Indian Ocean and the establishment of regional trading centers.

Question 4

The duty of village elders in African societies was to

A) oversee all decision-making in the village.
B) perform marriages.
C) settle disputes.
D) make laws.
E) lead wars when necessary.

Question 5

Elaborate on the forest and woodland cultures.

Question 6

Muslim traders seemed "shocked" at the amount of freedom women had,Europeans found which of the following most disturbing?

A) The matrilineal nature of some societies.
B) The lack of a clear governmental structure.
C) The prominence of Islam.
D) The small number of natural resources in Africa.
E) The amount of dangerous wildlife.

Question 7

In sub-Saharan Africa,the basic unit of society was the

A) nuclear family.
B) extended family.
C) clan.
D) village.
E) tribe.

Question 8

The peoples of early Africa may most accurately be described as

A) diminutive.
B) primitive.
C) artistic.
D) varied.
E) violent.

Question 9

One of the most significant cultural aspects accepted in early Africa but ended by the coming of Islam was

A) matrilineal descent.
B) patrilineal descent.
C) the clan as the primary social unit.
D) women's rights of inheritance.
E) male polygamy.

Question 10

Compare and contrast the West Sudan,forest and woodland,East African and Great Zimbabwe civilizations.

Question 11

Africa's first links to international trade and commerce came through

A) coastal Swahili.
B) the Indian Ocean.
C) the Sudan.
D) Great Zimbabwe.
E) the Nile valley.

Question 12

The Bantus moved into eastern and central Africa and absorbed the people they met there through

A) advanced agricultural methods.
B) help from the Arabs.
C) the use of iron weaponry.
D) guns bought from Europeans.
E) superior use of horses.

Question 13

Most early Europeans who came to sub-Saharan Africa mistakenly viewed the native societies as

A) highly individualistic.
B) politically unorganized.
C) non-spiritual.
D) overly loyal to their kings.
E) completely stateless.

Question 14

Why is Axum significant in African history?

Question 15

Elaborate on the social organization of early African civilizations.

Question 16

The figure forest and woodland leaders claimed descent from was

A) Solomon.
B) Oduduwa.
C) Ghana.
D) Mansa Musa.
E) Muhammad.

Question 17

Which of the following was a forest or woodland civilization?

A) Mali
B) Great Zimbabwe
C) Ife
D) Axum
E) Nubia

Question 18

Arab travelers in the 13?? century were shocked by

A) cannibalism in Africa.
B) the freedom of African women.
C) the fact that children were used as slaves.
D) the wealth of African kings.
E) All of these options were shocking.

Question 19

Describe the cultures of the Western Sudan,and explain what elements made them unique among African civilizations.

Question 20

The kingdom of Axum,the modern-day Ethiopia,was unusual in Africa,in that its people

A) were quick converts to Islam.
B) became heavily involved with Arab traders by the 7th century.
C) believed that their kings were tied to biblical lines of descent.
D) maintained the strongest presence along the Nile through the 12th century.
E) managed to convert their Egyptian neighbors to Islam.

Question 21

Mansa Musa was the most famous ruler of

A) Songhay.
B) Axum.
C) Mali.
D) Ghana.
E) Ethiopia.

Question 22

Which of these has been most famous in African arts?

A) ivory work from the Swahili city-states
B) terra cotta portrait heads from Nigeria
C) bronze busts and other figures from Benin
D) wood sculptures from central Sudan
E) gold work from the various city-states

Question 23

One could safely assume that Ghanian merchants who willingly converted to Islam became

A) confused about the concept of monotheism.
B) well-known in Arabia.
C) feared by nature worshippers.
D) outcasts in their societies.
E) much more economically successful.

Question 24

____________________ began a history of Christianity in Ethiopia.

Question 25

Which of the following would most accurately describe Sudanic kingship?

A) The king acted as intermediary between the living and the dead.
B) African kings were elected to their positions by members of their tribes.
C) A sick or weak king was viewed as a threat to the survival of the group.
D) Both A and B.
E) Both A and C.

Question 26

Europeans' initial thoughts on the African slave trade seem to have been that it was

A) despicable.
B) acceptable.
C) shocking.
D) inhumane.
E) necessary.

Question 27

By the 13?? century,the city-states along Africa's east coast had become

A) Arab sultanates ruled directly from Arabia.
B) successful regional trading centers.
C) sophisticated commercial nation-states.
D) overpopulated and less profitable.
E) closely tied through trade with Great Zimbabwe.

Question 28

Which of the following was NOT a vital commodity in the Saharan trade?

A) Salt
B) Gold
C) Slaves
D) Silver
E) All were vital commodities.

Question 29

After Mansa Musa's death,the Muslim faith

A) went into decline.
B) went into disfavor with the nobility.
C) gained acceptance by the lower classes.
D) remained stagnant.
E) became an outmoded faith.

Question 30

The pest in the story of the founding of Benin was

A) lice.
B) tsetse fly.
C) gnat.
D) a fly.
E) a cockroach.

Question 31

The artwork from the Swahili involved the use of

A) wood.
B) silver.
C) gold and ivory.
D) bronze and gold.
E) diamonds.

Question 32

The Swahili cities were invigorated by an influx of ____________________ traders in the seventh and eighth centuries C.E.

Question 33

The kingdom of Mali is most noted for

A) the strong Muslim group that founded the empire.
B) its great wealth that was based on gold.
C) its adoption of a very strict form of Islam.
D) its takeover of Ghana's vast gold holdings.
E) its strong reliance on taxes imposed on traders traveling through the kingdom.

Question 34

Mansa Musa is said to have ruled over a population of ____________________ million.

Question 35

Early settled life in southern Africa centered around

A) the production of gold articles for sale.
B) pastoral life.
C) coastal trade with the Arabs.
D) trade with coastal Swahili port cities.
E) the fortress-city of Great Zimbabwe.

Question 36

The kingdom that was destroyed in the 11?? and 12?? centuries in part because of a Muslim jihad was

A) Ghana.
B) Mali.
C) Kush.
D) Sudan.
E) Meroe.

Question 37

The ancient civilized center of Southern Africa,whose ruins were only discovered in 1871,is ____________________.

Question 38

The people of Benin founded their city in

A) 1200 B.C.E.
B) 200 C.E.
C) 500 C.E.
D) 800 C.E.
E) 1300 C.E.

Question 39

The Swahili were ____ traders.

A) Indian
B) Arab
C) Bantu-speaking
D) Persian
E) Egyptian

Question 40

____________________ was the most valued trading commodity of West Africa.

Question 41

____________________ was the capital of Ghana.

Question 42

The Benin leader who in the 1400s greatly expanded their territory was ____________________.

Question 43

Ghana and Mali earned some of their income from taxes they imposed on Saharan traders in three vital commodities: ____________________,____________________,and ____________________.

Question 44

Axum was located in the ____________________ Highlands.

Question 45

The most important commodity in the diet of most West Africans was ____________________.