Deck 8: Early Civilizations in Africa

Question 1

Describe the characteristics of the various geographical regions of Africa.To what degree does access to,or lack of,water determine their boundaries?

Answer 1

Answer not provided.

Question 2

What are the possible explanations-geographical,political,religious,and economic-which kept the West in almost total ignorance of sub-Saharan Africa until relatively recent times?

Answer 2

Answer not provided.

Question 3

Describe African societies in terms of urban life,family relationships,and the parts played by women and the institution of slavery in their social fabrics.

Answer 3

Answer not provided.

Question 4

The text raises the question of whether Africa is a continent without history.Why would earlier historians have held such a view,and what prompted the modification of that perspective? In what way is the general perception of what constitutes "history" shaped by distinctly European preconceptions? In what ways are historians of Africa able to overcome the paucity of written sources? What correct historical information can be gleaned from the Hausa oral traditions recorded in the story "Honoring the Sacred Tree God," found in the Kano Chronicle?

Question 5

In what way does the story "The Nyanga Meet the Pygmies of Gabon" reflect the concept held by most early societies that law is sacred in origin?

Question 6

In your opinion,other than perhaps the Egyptian pyramids,what were the most significant architectural accomplishments in Africa,and why? Be specific.

Question 7

Identify the following terms.
Karl Mauch/19th century Europeans

Question 8

Compare and contrast the elements of civilization in sub-Saharan Africa with the civilizations of Mesoamerica.What are the similarities and differences and why?

Question 9

Discuss,with specific examples,the impact of climate upon the development of African societies.

Question 10

Identify the following terms.
Coptic Christianity

Question 11

What were some of the possible factors that inhibited the growth of civilized "states" in southern Africa?

Question 12

Identify the following terms.
Saba

Question 13

Identify the following terms.
Congo River

Question 14

Identify the following terms.
Kush

Question 15

What are the several possible reasons that might explain Islam's success in Africa prior to 1500 C.E.? What do the career and accomplishments of Mansa Musa reveal about African society during the fourteenth century C.E.?

Question 16

How did Karl Mauch's opinion of origin of the ruins he discovered reflect the general attitude of nineteenth century Europeans toward the sub-Saharan Africans? How have new discoveries about developments in Nubia,Kush,and the Sahara challenged historians' thinking about the origins of civilization in Africa,and the world? In your opinion,what are the most significant cultural contributions of African societies?

Question 17

Identify the following terms.
Niger River

Question 18

Identify the following terms.
"hermit kingdom"

Question 19

Identify the following terms.
Axum

Question 20

Identify the following terms.
Nubia

Question 21

Identify the following terms.
Berbers

Question 22

Identify the following terms.
Cape Guardafui

Question 23

Identify the following terms.
Nyame

Question 24

Identify the following terms.
Nok culture

Question 25

Identify the following terms.
Rhapta

Question 26

Identify the following terms.
Ethiopia

Question 27

Identify the following terms.
Meroë

Question 28

Identify the following terms.
Ashanti

Question 29

Identify the following terms.
savannas

Question 30

Identify the following terms.
Bantu

Question 31

Identify the following terms.
al-Maghrib

Question 32

Identify the following terms.
Madagascar

Question 33

Identify the following terms.
"fleets of the desert"

Question 34

Identify the following terms.
the Garamantes

Question 35

Identify the following terms.
Kilwa

Question 36

Identify the following terms.
Zagwe dynasty

Question 37

Identify the following terms.
Zanj/Azania

Question 38

Identify the following terms.
the Periplus

Question 39

Identify the following terms.
Swahili

Question 40

Identify the following terms.
desiccation of the Sahara

Question 41

Identify the following terms.
the Khoi and the San

Question 42

Identify the following terms.
Great Zimbabwe

Question 43

Identify the following terms.
Mansa Musa

Question 44

Identify the following terms.
Mali

Question 45

Identify the following terms.
mansa

Question 46

Identify the following terms.
bards and The Epic of Son-Jara

Question 47

Identify the following terms.
"noncentralized societies"

Question 48

Identify the following terms.
Timbuktu

Question 49

Identify the following terms.
matrilinear

Question 50

Identify the following terms.
lineage group

Question 51

Identify the following terms.
Khoisan

Question 52

Identify the following terms.
African slavery

Question 53

Identify the following terms.
Axum stelae

Question 54

Identify the following terms.
Mombasa,Zanzibar,and Mogadishu

Question 55

Identify the following terms.
Benin bronzes

Question 56

Identify the following terms.
Zambezi River

Question 57

Identify the following terms.
rock paintings

Question 58

Identify the following terms.
Ghana and Saleh

Question 59

Identify the following terms.
Ibn Battuta

Question 60

Identify the following terms.
Luba and Kongo

Question 61

The following were true about the trans-Sahara caravan trade except

A) the Arab introduction of the camel into Africa enabled this trade to greatly increase.
B) cultural exchanges were stimulated by the growth of the caravan activity.
C) it enabled the Sahara region to become a major crossroad of international commerce.
D) it brought the first Islamic traders to central Africa in the first century B.C.E.
E) it allowed Islam to influence much of Africa south of the Sahara.

Question 62

The great iron-working culture of northern Nigeria was the

A) Nok.
B) Axum.
C) Kush.
D) Berger.
E) Malagasy.

Question 63

Which of the following statements about the Sahara Desert is true?

A) Its western half was under the Atlantic Ocean until 2000 B.C.E.
B) All evidence indicates that it was never anything other than a vast desert region.
C) At one point, it was an area that was green and flourishing with life.
D) It contained no significant trade routes.
E) It completely cut off Egypt from the rest of Africa.

Question 64

The great river that dominates the western region of Africa,the so-called "hump of Africa," is the

A) Nile.
B) Niger.
C) Congo.
D) Zaire.
E) Zambeze.

Question 65

The geographical obstacle which divides Africa's northern coast from the rest of the continent

A) is the Niger River.
B) is the Nile River.
C) are the Atlas Mountains.
D) is the Sahara Desert.
E) is the Kalahari Desert.

Question 66

Malayan traders and settlers

A) brought oranges and rayon to East Asia.
B) may have introduced yams and bananas to Africa.
C) were the first Khoisan speakers in southern Africa.
D) composed just under half of the population of Zanj.
E) refused to go west of India.

Question 67

Identify the following terms.
Zagwe churches

Question 68

A Malay settlement was established on the island of

A) Madagascar.
B) Zimbabwe.
C) Saba.
D) Rhapta.
E) Malawi.

Question 69

Axum was

A) the capital city of Kush.
B) founded possibly by migrants from the Kingdom of Saba/Sheba in the Arabian Peninsula.
C) the home of Mansa Musa.
D) fatally defeated by the army of Zimbabwe.
E) on the Congo River.

Question 70

The vast grasslands that border the great desert region of the Sahara are known as

A) meoris.
B) wetlands.
C) savannahs.
D) jungles.
E) transvaals.

Question 71

The northern area of Africa,from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans,is composed of the greatest desert on earth,the

A) Kalahari.
B) Gobi.
C) Sahara.
D) Niger.
E) Mojave.

Question 72

If one traveled south from the grasslands of central Africa,one would reach the region of

A) the transvaal.
B) the Great Divide of the continent.
C) the area in which the predecessors of modern human beings first lived.
D) some of the world's richest deposits of minerals.
E) the Nile River

Question 73

All of the following are correct about the Garamantes except they

A) transported goods across the Libyan Desert.
B) were known to the Romans.
C) survived for only a century.
D) traded in salt, glass, metal, olive oil, and wine, gold, and slaves.
E) declined as the desert dried up.

Question 74

East African trade

A) was exclusively oriented through the Nile to the Mediterranean.
B) provided a lively, ocean-going commercial intercourse with civilizations far to the east.
C) maintained a strictly coastal exchange between African cultures only.
D) was mainly with Madagascar.
E) was dominated by Christian merchants from Constantinople.

Question 75

A unique aspect of the ancient Ethiopian civilization was the fact that

A) it was the only Muslim society in the area.
B) it adopted the form of Christianity practiced in Egypt.
C) its assimilation by Kush was brought about through the development of trade ties.
D) the Syrians were able to make it a Muslim nation.
E) it remained animist in religion until the twentieth century.

Question 76

Which of the following is not a valid observation about the ancient civilization of the Kush?

A) It was located in Nubia.
B) Evidence suggests that it may have developed an agricultural kingdom before the Egyptians.
C) It spread its empire to the north by driving the Romans out of Egypt.
D) It had emerged as a major trading state by the end of the second millennium B.C.E.
E) It declined in the mid-first millennium B.C.E.

Question 77

The people of North Africa,who served as trade intermediaries for the great trans-Saharan commerce,were the

A) Kurds.
B) Phoenicians.
C) Carthaginians.
D) Berbers.
E) Cree.

Question 78

Karl Mauch found the ruins of

A) Katmandu.
B) Pietermar Teburg.
C) Great Zimbabwe.
D) Kilwa.
E) Namibia.

Question 79

The family of languages spoken by people who inhabit the region of Central Africa south of the Sahara Desert is

A) Kalaharian.
B) Nok.
C) Swahili.
D) Bantu.
E) Khoisan.

Question 80

The ancient civilization that was located in the highlands of what is known today as Ethiopia was

A) Yoruba.
B) Kush.
C) Sahara.
D) Axum.
E) Saba.