Deck 12: Africa From Kush to the Fifteenth Century

Question 1

It would be most accurate to describe the kingdom of Kush as

A) a major industrial center based on silver.
B) a kingdom influenced and impacted by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and finally, Africa as a whole.
C) strongest in the eighth century B.C.E.
D) the only empire strong enough to defeat that of Axum.
E) having its major trading strength in iron and ivory.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

When climatic change began to create the Sahara Desert as we know it today,

A) farmers moved south into the Niger River valley where they could continue familiar ways.
B) Saharan herders migrated eastward, where they found lands conducive to their way of life.
C) many of the pastoral herders became nomadic, using the scant resources of the desert to eke out a living.
D) agriculture spread south into the rain forests, where cereals began to be grown for the first time.
E) the cultivation of millet and rice was carried into both the Niger and Nile River valleys by those forced to migrate.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

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 5

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 6

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 7

How do the individual African cultures serve as models for diversity? Choose several for comparison and contrast.

Question 8

The Sahel region is characterized by

A) great city states.
B) a pastoral economy.
C) iron production.
D) trade in ivory.
E) abundant wildlife.

Question 9

Describe the significant institutions, and the functioning of, African societies.

Question 10

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 11

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

Question 12

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

Question 13

In early Africa, "mixed farming" consisted of

A) pastoralism and hunting.
B) hunting and gathering.
C) hunting and farming.
D) farming and pastoralism.
E) hunting, gathering, and farming.

Question 14

Arab travelers in the 13^th 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 the above were shocking.

Question 15

What assumptions did Europeans make about Africans in general? What distortions resulted from these generalizations?

Question 16

Describe the impact of weather, climate, and geography on African civilizations.

Question 17

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

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

Question 18

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 7^th century.
C) believed that their kings were tied to biblical lines of descent.
D) maintained the strongest presence along the Nile through the 12^th century.
E) managed to convert their Egyptian neighbors to Christianity.

Question 19

Africa's geography includes

A) a large continental mountain range.
B) highlands in the southwest.
C) deserts in the north and the southwest.
D) mountains in the west.
E) the Sahara Desert in the southwest.

Question 20

The peoples of early Africa may most accurately be described as

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

Question 21

The early conclusions reached by Europeans who made contact with Africans

A) led to an appreciation for Sudanese culture.
B) intimidated them.
C) laid the foundations for European racism.
D) had no appreciable impact.
E) caused them to resist colonizing there.

Question 22

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

Question 23

The Swahili were ____ traders.

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

Question 24

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 25

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 26

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 27

Which of the following would most accurately describe African 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 28

Mansa Musa was the most famous ruler of

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

Question 29

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 30

____________________ was the most valued trading commodity of West Africa.

Question 31

Historians know less than they would like about the kingdom of Kush because

A) Europeans destroyed much of that civilization's ancient culture.
B) defeat by the Egyptians led to a decline in record-keeping.
C) the Kushites had no written language.
D) the Kushite script remains un-deciphered.
E) the Kushites destroyed many of their records before abandoning their homeland for a move to the south.

Question 32

By the 13^th 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 33

Slavery in pre-15^th century Africa was

A) illegal.
B) introduced by Europeans.
C) practiced only by Arabs.
D) commonplace.
E) restricted to the use of farm labor.

Question 34

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 35

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 36

The term ____________________ describes native African religion.

Question 37

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

Question 38

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

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

Question 39

Ulama were

A) armored warriors.
B) residents of Songhay's capital.
C) Muslim scholars.
D) Malian religious teachers.
E) Arab traders.

Question 40

The kingdom of Songhay was established

A) by Sonni Ali, who used cavalry and naval forces to conquer territory.
B) by a conquering Mansa Musa in 1325.
C) before Ghana became a significant force in West Africa.
D) by Askia Muhammad in the 1520s, after which he put the kingdom strictly in the Muslim camp.
E) without warfare, after Sonni Ali and Mansa Musa reached a diplomatic settlement.

Question 41

The original Bushmen of Southern Africa still survive in the ____________________ Desert.

Question 42

The kingdom of ____________________ was at one time closely associated with and influenced by Egypt.

Question 43

Axum was located in the ____________________ Highlands.

Question 44

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

Question 45

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

Question 46

Africa consists of five geographic zones: the ____________________ and ____________________ coasts; the ____________________; ____________________; the ____________________ ____________________; and the ____________________.