Deck 17: Africa From Axum to 1400

Question 1

Which of the following did African merchants NOT gain access to by adopting Islam?

A)literacy
B)new commercial and financial connections
C)the Muslim trade network
D)a written law code
E)a common currency

Answer 1

a common currency

Question 2

Which Sudanese kingdom was destroyed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in part because of a Muslim jihad?

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

Answer 2

Ghana

Question 3

The Abu'l-Mawahibs established a Sultanate based on Islamic piety in what area?

A)Ghana
B)Great Zimbabwe
C)Kilwa
D)Benin
E)Oyo

Answer 3

Kilwa

Question 4

Which one of the following was the sky god of the Yoruba people?

A)Oduduwa
B)Olorun
C)Oni
D)Ogboni
E)Ewuare

Question 5

What was the main purpose of the secret societies in West and Central Africa?

A)priests who were responsible for religious sacrifices and appeasing the gods
B)groups of teenagers of about the same age in the village
C)determined descent and rights through mother's lineage
D)male-dominated associations who served the role of enforcing law
E)determined descent and rights through the father's lineage

Question 6

What was the most notable aspect of the kingdom of Mali?

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

Question 7

In the early centuries C.E., what natural resource was discovered in the Senegal River region?

A)iron
B)salt
C)diamonds
D)silver
E)gold

Question 8

Which one of the most significant cultural aspects accepted in early Africa was ended by the coming of Islam?

A)matrilineal descent
B)patrilineal descent
C)the clan as the primary social unit
D)slavery
E)male polygamy

Question 9

What was the duty of village elders in African societies?

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

Question 10

Which of the following was NOT a Sudanic kingdom?

A)Ghana
B)Mali
C)Kanem-Bornu
D)Songhay
E)Kilwa

Question 11

What did thirteenth-century Arabs traveling to Africa find shocking by Muslim standards?

A)widespread 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)the lack of any form of government

Question 12

Which of the following statements describes the Oyo?

A)They remained a group of small villages.
B)They were Swahili migrants to the forests.
C)The Oyo were the only Christian kingdom in Africa.
D)They did not practice agriculture.
E)They were the largest and most powerful Yoruba city-state.

Question 13

What was the basic unit of society i n sub-Saharan Africa?

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

Question 14

How did most early Europeans who came to sub-Saharan Africa view the native societies?

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

Question 15

Which of the following was considered a forest or woodland civilization?

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

Question 16

From whom did forest and woodland leaders claim descent?

A)Solomon
B)Oduduwa
C)Mansa Sulayman
D)Mansa Musa
E)Muhammad

Question 17

Which of the following statements was NOT true about the lives of children in Africa?

A)Boys and girls from an early age worked with clan elders farming the fields.
B)Children were trained by elders in bush schools.
C)Boys and girls were taught oral traditions, histories, and myths of the clan.
D)Youths were trained to carry on the family profession.
E)Youths had to submit to a formal rite of passage before being placed in age sets.

Question 18

Which of the following best describes the Swahili traders?

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

Question 19

What was the role of a king in the Sudanic kingship?

A)He was head of a complex bureaucracy.
B)He performed priestly duties and divined the will of the ancestors.
C)He had a small cabinet of officials who advised him on state matters.
D)He was the absolute ruler with final say in all matters.
E)He would administer the law code of the society.

Question 20

All of the following contributed to the growth of the Ifè 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)It used waterways to engage in long-distance trade.

Question 21

Which of the following were vital commodities in the Saharan trade?

A)salt, gold, slaves
B)gold, silver, wood
C)slaves, silver, gold
D)silver, sugar, salt
E)sugar, salt, gold

Question 22

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

Question 23

Which of these  African arts is considered the  most famous?

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 24

Axum was located in the ____________________ highlands.

Question 25

All of the following were true of Mansa Musa's rule EXCEPT

A)He founded a madrasa at the Sankore Mosque.
B)Islam gained acceptance in West Africa.
C)He extended his rule to include Spain and Egypt.
D)Timbuktu became a center of Islamic book production and trade.
E)He ruled over a population of approximately 8 million.

Question 26

In 1324, the king of Mali, ____________________, made the pilgrimage to the holy places in Arabia.

Question 27

The terra-cotta portrait heads of the ____________________ people are the oldest examples of African art.

Question 28

Which kingdom was founded by the Soninke people?

A)Ghana
B)Mali
C)Great Zimbabwe
D)Oyo
E)Benin

Question 29

Which word best describes the Europeans' initial thoughts on the African slave trade?

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

Question 30

The Ethiopian royals claimed descent from ____________________.

Question 31

​In order to achieve political power in Africa, one had to control all of the following EXCEPT

A)​imports
B)​exports
C)​women
D)​livestock
E)​priests

Question 32

In what year did the people of Benin found their city?

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

Question 33

The artwork from the Swahili involved the use of which resources?

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

Question 34

Due to a general absence of written languages in sub-Saharan Africa, the arts became important, and the most famous of these were sculptures known as ____________________.

Question 35

The ____________________ was a religious cult and society that had veto rights over all decisions made by the king, especially those involving war, treaty making, alliances, and tribute payments.

Question 36

Mansa Musa was the most famous ruler of which kingdom?

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

Question 37

Early settled life in southern Africa centered around which of the following?

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 inland-city of Great Zimbabwe

Question 38

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

Question 39

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

Question 40

____________________ was the most valued trading commodity of West Africa.

Question 41

Term for identification: Benin bronzes

Question 42

Term for identification: Great Zimbabwe

Question 43

Term for identification: Swahili

Question 44

Term for identification: matrilineal and patrilineal descent

Question 45

What factors contributed to the cosmopolitan nature of the Swahili city-states? Support your answer with examples.

Question 46

Term for identification: Ewuare

Question 47

Compare and contrast the western Sudan, forest and woodland, East African, and Great Zimbabwe civilizations including cultural, economic, religious, and geographical aspects.

Question 48

Term for identification: ôba

Question 49

Term for identification: Axum

Question 50

Term for identification: Kilwa

Question 51

Term for identification: Oyo

Question 52

Discuss the significance of Axum in African history. Include aspects such as religion, trade, and long-term impact on that region of Africa.

Question 53

Describe the similarities and differences of the forest and woodland cultures including political, economic, and religious aspects.

Question 54

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

Question 55

Term for identification: age sets

Question 56

Describe the early African civilizations including political and social organization. What was the European view of these African civilizations?