africa

Question 1

savanna

Answer 1

a plain characterized by coarse grasses and scattered tree growth, especially on the margins of the tropics where the rainfall is seasonal, as in eastern Africa.

Question 2

plateau

Answer 2

a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons.

Question 3

sahara desert

Answer 3

a desert in N Africa, extending from the Atlantic to the Nile valley. About 3,500,000 sq. mi. (9,065,000 sq. km).

Question 4

bantu

Answer 4

a member of any of several peoples forming a linguistically and in some respects culturally interrelated family in central and southern Africa

Question 5

swahili

Answer 5

Also, Kiswahili, ki-Swahili. the Bantu language of the Swahili people, used also as a lingua franca in Tanzania, Kenya, and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Question 6

subsistence farming

Answer 6

farming whose products are intended to provi

Question 7

mansa musa

Answer 7

Mansa Musa (about 1280 – about 1337) was an emperor (mansa) of the Mali Empire during the 14th century. He became emperor in 1307. He was the first African ruler to be widely known throughout Europe and the Middle East. Mansa Musa was the great nephew of Sundiata Keita, who was founder of the empire.

Question 8

ghana

Answer 8

a medieval W African empire extending from near the Atlantic coast almost to Timbuktu; flourished from about the 9th to 12th centuries.

Question 9

mali

Answer 9

Republic of, a republic in W Africa: formerly a territory of France; gained independence 1960. 463,500 sq. mi. (120,000 sq. km).
Capital: Bamako.

Question 10

zimbabwe

Answer 10

Formerly Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia. a republic in S Africa: a former British colony and part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; gained independence 1980. 150,330 sq. mi. (389,362 sq. km).
Capital:

Question 11

timbuktu

Answer 11

a town in central Mali, W Africa, near the Niger River.

French Tombouctou.

Question 12

mohammed

Answer 12

the Conqueror”) 1430–81, sultan of Turkey 1451–81: conqueror of Constantinople 1453.

Question 13

askia

Answer 13

died 232 b.c, Buddhist king in India 269?–232? b.c.

Question 14

sonni ali

Answer 14

Sonni Ali, also known as Sunni Ali Ber or “Sunni Ali”, was born Ali Kolon. He reigned from about 1464 to 1492. Sunni Ali was the first king of the Songhai Empire, located in west Africa and the 15th ruler of the Sonni dynasty.

Question 15

matrilineal

Answer 15

of or based on kinship with the mother or the female line.

Question 16

oral traditions

Answer 16

a community’s cultural and historical background preserved and passed on from one generation to the next in spoken stories and song, as distinct from being written down

Question 17

gold and salt trade

Answer 17

Camel caravans from North Africa carried bars of salt as well as cloth, tobacco, and metal tools across the Sahara to trading centers like Djenne and Timbuktu on the Niger River. Some items for which the salt was traded include gold, ivory, slaves, skins, kola nuts, pepper, and sugar.

Question 18

trans-saharan

Answer 18

a desert in N Africa, extending from the Atlantic to the Nile valley. About 3,500,000 sq. mi. (9,065,000 sq. km).

Question 19

sub-saharan

Answer 19

of, relating to, or in Africa south of the Sahara Desert:

Question 20

songhai

Answer 20

a member of a group of peoples living along the Niger River in the area of Timbuktu and Gao in Mali and in adjacent areas of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Question 21

griot

Answer 21

a member of a hereditary caste among the peoples of western Africa whose function is to keep an oral history of the tribe or village and to entertain with stories, poems, songs, dances, etc.

Question 22

diviner

Answer 22

a person who divines; soothsayer; prophet.

Question 23

lineage

Answer 23

lineal descent from an ancestor; ancestry or extraction

Question 24

ibn batuta

Answer 24

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, was a Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveler. He is known for his traveling and going on excursions called the Rihla. His journeys lasted for a period of almost thirty years

Question 25

indian ocean

Answer 25

an ocean S of Asia, E of Africa, and W of Australia. 28,357,000 sq. mi. (73,444,630 sq. km).

Question 26

sahel

Answer 26

the arid area on the S flank of the Sahara desert that stretches across six countries from Senegal to Chad.