Deck 6: Sub-Saharan Africa

Question 1

The Sahel

A) is a cultural group that is struggling for political independence in Nigeria.
B) is a zone of ecological transition between the Sahara to the north and the wetter savannas and forests to the south.
C) is the African term for Sub-Saharan Africa.
D) is a species of domesticated cattle from which many Africans make their livelihood.
E) is an ethnic group in Chad.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is transhumance?

A) the seasonal movement of animals between wet- and dry-season pastures
B) the political uprisings that took place in many African nations after they were released from colonial rule
C) the zone of ecological transition between the Sahara to the north and the wetter savannas and forests to the south
D) the shifting seasonal climate pattern experienced in southern Africa
E) a grass-roots environmental policy emphasizing planting trees

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following crops was imported to North America by enslaved people from Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) rice
B) corn
C) millet
D) sorghum
E) yams

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In which Sub-Saharan African country is tropical deforestation the most prevalent?

A) Madagascar
B) the Democratic Republic of Congo
C) Republic of the Congo
D) Gabon
E) Ghana

Question 5

What parts of Sub-Saharan Africa are most vulnerable to global climate change?

A) highland regions
B) the cities
C) the temperate zones
D) the tropical rainforests
E) the semi-arid regions

Question 6

In what country are powdered rhino horns from Sub-Saharan Africa valued as a traditional medicine?

A) Yemen
B) China
C) Brazil
D) Spain
E) New Zealand

Question 7

In what part of Sub-Saharan Africa are the most secure wildlife reserves located?

A) the northern portion of the region
B) the southern portion of the region
C) the eastern portion of the region
D) the western portion of the region
E) the Horn

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a problem associated with deforestation in the woodlands of the savannas in Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) soil erosion
B) shortage of biofuels
C) moisture loss
D) flooding
E) extreme economic hardship

Question 9

What is the international policy regarding the sale of ivory?

A) A worldwide ban on ivory sales was imposed in 1989.
B) A worldwide ban on ivory sales was imposed in 1989, then in the late 1990s the ban was lifted.
C) A worldwide ban on ivory sales imposed in 1989 has been modified to allow limited sales.
D) Sale of ivory follows "fair trade" practices.
E) No action has been taken on the sale of ivory.

Question 10

Where does African ivory come from?

A) the horn of the rhino
B) ivory quarries near the Great Escarpment
C) petrified trees found in Congo
D) elephants' tusks
E) ivory mines in Botswana

Question 11

For what type of animal is Africa and its wildlife refuges especially known?

A) birds
B) monkeys
C) snakes and other reptiles
D) large mammals
E) All of the choices are correct.

Question 12

As a region, what is the unifying characteristic of Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) common religious experience
B) similar livelihood systems and shared colonial experience
C) shared language
D) unified political system
E) similar philosophy

Question 13

Sub-Saharan agricultural practices have

A) led to the end of subsistence agriculture.
B) encouraged farmers to produce export crops.
C) been sufficient to prevent famine.
D) generally included policies to keep agricultural products high in price.
E) resulted in an African "Green Revolution."

Question 14

Why did Professor Wangari Maathai of Kenya win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004?

A) She brought an end to Apartheid in South Africa.
B) She established the "Doctors Without Frontiers" program.
C) She negotiated a peace agreement in Darfur, Sudan.
D) Her Greenbelt Movement led to the planting of millions of trees.
E) All of the choices are correct.

Question 15

What food crop is a staple of the diet of the Ibo of Nigeria?

A) corn
B) coconut
C) wheat
D) yams
E) rice

Question 16

What effect have the historically low human population densities and the presence of several endemic diseases among humans in Africa had on the survival of African wildlife?

A) They have helped African wildlife to survive.
B) They have had no effect on African wildlife.
C) They have made it more difficult for African wildlife to survive.
D) Low human population densities have made it easier for African wildlife to survive, while endemic diseases have made it harder for African wildlife to survive.
E) Low human population densities have made it harder for African wildlife to survive, while endemic diseases have made it easier for African wildlife to survive.

Question 17

What are the primary biofuels in Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) non-renewable resources such as coal and oil that are used to power industrial operations in African factories
B) wood and charcoal used for household energy needs
C) a new form of synfuel that has been created to solve Sub-Saharan Africa's energy problems
D) wood chips that are compacted together into log form and then sold at African markets for heating fuel
E) fuels manufactured from food and lawn wastes

Question 18

Where are the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa's oil reserves located?

A) along the coastal plains and continental shelves of West and Central Africa
B) in the Kalahari Basin in Southern Africa
C) in the Sahel of Northern Africa
D) in the Great Rift Valley of Western Africa
E) the Horn of Africa

Question 19

Why is there concern about the tsetse fly in Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) The tsetse fly spreads HIV/AIDS.
B) The tsetse fly is an important part of the food chain in Sub-Saharan Africa; without it, African wildlife could not exist.
C) The tsetse fly spreads sleeping sickness to humans, cattle, and some wildlife.
D) The tsetse fly is an endangered species, found only in a small corner of Cameroon.
E) The tsetse fly exists in vast numbers, laying its eggs in the rainforests of Sub-Saharan Africa, and contributing to deforestation.

Question 20

In what region of Sub-Saharan Africa is desertification most severe?

A) the Sahel
B) the Kalahari
C) South Africa
D) the Horn of East Africa
E) the Congo

Question 21

Which country in Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest population in the region?

A) Nigeria
B) South Africa
C) Angola
D) Kenya
E) Ethiopia

Question 22

What makes the Nile River distinctive?

A) It is the world's deepest river.
B) It is the world's largest river by volume.
C) It is the world's longest river.
D) It is the world's muddiest river.
E) It is the world's fishiest river (has the most fish).

Question 23

Which of the following countries of Sub-Saharan Africa lies farthest west?

A) Mauritania
B) Nigeria
C) Angola
D) Tanzania
E) Ethiopia

Question 24

Which country of Sub-Saharan Africa is the LEAST densely settled in the region?

A) Namibia
B) Burundi
C) Angola
D) Ethiopia
E) Nigeria

Question 25

The population of Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by

A) a relatively low percentage of children under the age of 15.
B) a doubling time of just over 100 years.
C) large families.
D) low infant mortality rates.
E) low rate of natural increase.

Question 26

How has the existence of the Great Escarpment, which runs from southwestern Angola and ends in northeastern South Africa, affected coastal settlement in the region?

A) It was an impediment to settlement.
B) It caused development to occur more quickly.
C) It led to the construction of military forts along the escarpment.
D) It facilitated the development of plantation along the escarpment.
E) The Great Escarpment had no effect on settlement.

Question 27

What disease is a major problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, causing death and leaving many children orphaned?

A) cholera
B) HIV/AIDS
C) cancer
D) heart disease
E) tuberculosis

Question 28

Which of the following countries of Sub-Saharan Africa is landlocked?

A) Senegal
B) Eritrea
C) Chad
D) Namibia
E) Tanzania

Question 29

What is the tallest mountain peak in Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) Ras Dashen
B) Mount Cameroon
C) Mount Kenya
D) Jebel Toubkal
E) Kilimanjaro

Question 30

On which African river are Sub-Saharan Africa's two largest hydroelectric power plants located?

A) Zambezi River
B) Congo River
C) Niger River
D) Nile River
E) Gambia River

Question 31

Why does Uganda have lower rates of HIV/AIDS infections when compared to other Sub-Saharan African countries?

A) Uganda has an aggressive educational campaign.
B) Uganda has closed its borders to outsiders.
C) Ugandan doctors developed a cure for the disease, but they have refused to share with other nations.
D) The virus that causes HIV/AIDS has a difficult time thriving in the climate of Uganda.
E) A targeted foreign aid program instituted by Great Britain has been very successful.

Question 32

Sub-Saharan Africa

A) contains more than a billion people.
B) has a young population in comparison with western countries.
C) has a relatively high GNI per capita.
D) has seen declining population numbers in recent years due to AIDS.
E) is a region of middle-income countries.

Question 33

In what part of Sub-Saharan Africa are the highest rates of HIV/AIDS found?

A) the northern portion of the region
B) the southern portion of the region
C) the eastern portion of the region
D) the western portion of the region
E) the Horn of Africa

Question 34

Which group of Africans bears a disproportionate burden of the AIDs epidemic in the region?

A) children
B) women
C) the elderly
D) adult males
E) the medical community

Question 35

On average, about how many children does a woman in Africa have during her lifetime?

A) 1 or 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5 or 6
E) 8 or more

Question 36

What is the reason that most of the Kalahari cannot be classified as a true desert?

A) It is not large enough.
B) It does not contain enough sand.
C) Much of it receives more than 10 inches of rain a year.
D) It has too many oases.
E) It is too near the coast.

Question 37

What is the world's largest desert?

A) the Gobi
B) the Arabian desert
C) the Kalahari
D) the Sahara
E) the Namib Desert

Question 38

Which of the following countries is NOT in the Horn of Africa?

A) Somalia
B) Chad
C) Ethiopia
D) Djibouti
E) Eritrea

Question 39

The Congo River

A) is also known as the Zambezi River.
B) drains into the Atlantic Ocean.
C) originates in Ethiopia.
D) is navigable for most of its length.
E) is the smallest watershed in the region.

Question 40

What is Sub-Saharan Africa's largest lake?

A) Lake Chad
B) Lake Nyasa
C) Lake Victoria
D) Lake Tanganyika
E) Lake Nile

Question 41

What is the term for a social unit in Sub-Saharan Africa that is typically smaller than a tribe or ethnic group, but larger than a family?

A) clan
B) relatives
C) cultural group
D) linguistic group
E) extended family

Question 42

Family size is large in much of Sub-Saharan Africa for all of the following reasons, EXCEPT

A) large family size increases prestige.
B) infant and child mortality rates are low.
C) most women do not have high levels of education.
D) birth control methods are neither readily available nor universally accepted.
E) rural lifestyle.

Question 43

Approximately what fraction of Nigerian citizens live in cities?

A) one-third
B) one-half
C) one-quarter
D) two-thirds
E) three-quarters

Question 44

In what Sub-Saharan African country has a civil war occurred in its Darfur region?

A) Sudan
B) Rwanda
C) Somalia
D) Burundi
E) South Africa

Question 45

What language began as a trade language in Sub-Saharan Africa and is now the most widely used language in the region?

A) French
B) Arabic
C) Swahili
D) Spanish
E) Portuguese

Question 46

What is the racial category used in the country of South Africa to define people of mixed European and African ancestry?

A) biracial
B) coloureds
C) mulatto
D) mixed-race
E) negro

Question 47

What were homelands in the country of South Africa?

A) nominally independent ethnic territories created for coloureds under apartheid
B) nominally independent ethnic territories created for whites under apartheid
C) nominally independent ethnic territories created for Indians under apartheid
D) nominally independent ethnic territories created for blacks under apartheid
E) nominally independent ethnic territories created for blacks, whites, coloureds, and Indians under apartheid

Question 48

What is the term for a person who has fled from a conflict, but who still resides in his or her country of origin?

A) a refugee
B) a dissident
C) an excommunicated resident
D) an internally displaced person
E) an emigrant

Question 49

Which of the following was NOT one of the elements or characteristics of apartheid?

A) It was an official policy of racial segregation.
B) It was practiced in the country of South Africa.
C) Whites, coloureds (mixed-race), Indians (South Asian), and Africans (blacks) were all categories for the purpose of segregation.
D) Blacks were crowded into the least desirable areas, forming squatter settlements called townships.
E) Non-whites (blacks, coloureds, and Indians) were enslaved.

Question 50

What is Sub-Saharan Africa's largest city?

A) Nairobi, Kenya
B) Lagos, Nigeria
C) Cape Town, South Africa
D) Kinshasa, Congo
E) Accra, Ghana

Question 51

What is the most important of the indigenous language groups of Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) Niger-Congo
B) Khoisan
C) Austronesian
D) Nilo-Saharan
E) Indo-European

Question 52

Of the following languages, which is the least used in Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) English
B) Spanish
C) French
D) Dutch
E) Arabic

Question 53

In Sub-Saharan Africa, at about what age do most women marry?

A) when they are teenagers
B) at an average age of 22
C) at an average age of 24
D) at an average age of 27
E) at an average age of 30

Question 54

With what religion are Sharia laws, such as those imposed in seven Nigerian states in 2000, most closely associated?

A) Buddhism
B) Animism
C) Islam
D) Christianity
E) Judaism

Question 55

What role did disease play in European efforts to colonize Africa?

A) As in Latin America, European diseases devastated the populations of Sub-Saharan Africa, facilitating European conquest.
B) Endemic tropical diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa killed many Europeans, and delayed their conquest of the region.
C) Initially, endemic tropical diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa killed many Europeans, but later, European diseases devastated the peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa.
D) Initially, European diseases devastated the peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa; later endemic tropical diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa killed many Europeans, but by then, European conquest was well underway.
E) Disease played no role.

Question 56

The AIDS crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa

A) could not have been anticipated in the late 1980s.
B) will lead to a significant decline in the population of the region within ten years.
C) is particularly concentrated among the working-age segment of the population.
D) has not really been addressed by the region's governments.
E) is nearing an end due to the availability of a vaccine.

Question 57

In what category are indigenous African religions generally placed?

A) Animist
B) Buddhist
C) Christian
D) Islamic
E) Protestant

Question 58

From the 1500s until 1870, about how many Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves?

A) 500,000
B) 1 million
C) 5 million
D) 7 million
E) 12 million

Question 59

The Boers

A) were the original indigenous peoples of southern Africa.
B) are one of the three main tribal groups residing in Nigeria.
C) established the independent nation of Eritrea.
D) were Dutch settlers in South Africa.
E) were the ruling family of the Ibo nation.

Question 60

Which country of Sub-Saharan African is the most highly urbanized in the region?

A) South Africa
B) Nigeria
C) Djibouti
D) Niger
E) Angola

Question 61

When did most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa gain independence?

A) during the first decade of the twentieth century
B) in the years immediately following World War I
C) in 1946 and 1947
D) from the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s
E) in the 1990s

Question 62

Which of the following regions in Sub-Saharan Africa seceded from its parent country, Ethiopia?

A) Biafra
B) Shaba province
C) Eritrea
D) Zululand
E) South Africa

Question 63

The demise of apartheid in South Africa

A) was precipitated by a major guerrilla war within the country.
B) came primarily as a result of unrelenting pressure from the Reagan administration.
C) culminated with a decision by the majority white party to hold free elections.
D) occurred in the late 1970s.
E) caused a major civil war.

Question 64

Which of the following countries did NOT receive African territory in the Berlin Conference?

A) France
B) Germany
C) Great Britain
D) Portugal
E) United States

Question 65

What was the purpose of the Berlin Conference?

A) to chart a path to African independence
B) to divide up the African continent among various European colonial interests
C) to create a free trade agreement between the European Union and many of the Sub-Saharan nations
D) to attempt to solve the AIDS crisis in Africa
E) to develop a model for an African version of the European Union

Question 66

European colonization was effective throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of one country. What was that exception?

A) Algeria
B) Ethiopia
C) Nigeria
D) Sudan
E) Uganda

Question 67

What Sub-Saharan African territory declared its independence in the 1990s, but has yet to be recognized as independent by any other nations?

A) Soweto
B) Somaliland
C) Swaziland
D) Rwanda
E) Burundi

Question 68

What form of Christianity is most common in Ethiopia?

A) Roman Catholicism
B) Orthodox Christianity
C) Evangelical Christianity
D) Coptic Christianity
E) Protestantism

Question 69

What is a kleptocracy?

A) an African democracy that is led by representatives from all its native tribes
B) a state where corruption is so institutionalized that large percentages of the country's wealth is siphoned off by politicians and government bureaucrats
C) an African nation that has recently achieved independence from its colonial masters
D) an African nation that is communist ruled
E) a state that allies itself with OPEC

Question 70

In what Sub-Saharan African nation is the war-torn region of Darfur located?

A) Rwanda
B) Sudan
C) Somalia
D) Burundi
E) South Africa

Question 71

Of the following countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, which one saw the least political strife in the 1990s?

A) Kenya
B) Rwanda
C) Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo
D) Liberia
E) Sudan

Question 72

South Africa

A) was a colony of France.
B) instituted apartheid in the middle of the twentieth century.
C) has few mineral resources.
D) eventually saw the Boers prevail over the British.
E) is an ethnically homogeneous country.

Question 73

What was the first European country to have extensive contact with Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) Spain
B) Britain
C) France
D) Portugal
E) Germany

Question 74

What influence does religious affiliation have on birthrates in Sub-Saharan Africa?

A) Religious affiliation plays a key role in fertility rates in the region, with Catholics and Muslims having the highest rates.
B) Religious affiliation has little effect on fertility rates in the region.
C) Religious affiliation plays a key role in fertility rates in the region, with Catholics having slightly higher rates than Muslims, and Animists having the lowest rates.
D) Religious affiliation plays a key role in fertility rates in the region, with Animists having the highest fertility rates in the region.
E) Religious affiliation plays a key role in fertility rates in the region, with Muslims having the highest fertility rates in the region.

Question 75

Which European country had lost all of its African colonies by 1920?

A) Portugal
B) Belgium
C) Germany
D) France
E) All of the choices are correct.

Question 76

Which of the following statements about South Africa is true?

A) It is the unchallenged economic powerhouse of Sub-Saharan Africa.
B) It has the highest GNI of Sub-Saharan Africa.
C) It has a well-developed and well-balanced industrial economy.
D) It is one of the world's mining superpowers.
E) All of the choices are correct.

Question 77

What two groups fought each other in the Boer War?

A) French and Ethiopians
B) British and Dutch
C) Dutch and Germans
D) British and French
E) French and Germans

Question 78

In which part of Sub-Saharan Africa has religious conflict had the most serious consequences?

A) northeastern Africa
B) the Horn of Africa
C) southern Africa
D) central Africa
E) western Africa

Question 79

Which country of Africa has the largest land area on the continent?

A) Sudan
B) Nigeria
C) Namibia
D) Ethiopia
E) South Africa

Question 80

In the colonial period, what European country had primary control of northwest Africa?

A) Spain
B) Britain
C) Portugal
D) France
E) Germany