African Vocabulary Terms

Question 1

Lineage

Answer 1

People who are descended from a common ancestor

Question 2

Stateless societies

Answer 2

Cultural groups in which authority is shared by lineages as opposed to a centralized government

Question 3

Patrilineal

Answer 3

A social system in which family descent and inheritance rights are traced through the father

Question 4

Matrilineal

Answer 4

A social system in which family descent and inheritance rights are traced through the mother.

Question 5

Ghana

Answer 5

A West African kingdom that grew rich from taxing and controlling trade (9th-11th centuries)

Question 6

Mali

Answer 6

A West African empire that flourished from 1235 to the 1400s

Question 7

Songhai

Answer 7

A West African empire that conquered Mali and controlled trade from the 1400s to 1591.

Question 8

Sundiata

Answer 8

Founder of the Mali Empire

Question 9

Mansa Musa

Answer 9

Tenth ruler of the Mali Empire. He was a skilled military leader and greatly expanded the empire.

Question 10

Ibn Battuta

Answer 10

A great Muslim traveler from North Africa who went to different Mali cities

Question 11

Hausa

Answer 11

A West African people who lived in several city-states

Question 12

Yoruba

Answer 12

A West African people who formed several kingdoms

Question 13

Benin

Answer 13

A kingdom that arose near the Niger River delta in the 1300s and became a major West African state in the 1400s