chapter 18

Question 1

In Africa, professional singers and storytellers are known as what?

Answer 1

Griots

Question 2

What physical disability did Sundiata have?

Answer 2

Congenitally defective leg left him partially crippled

Question 3

Where was the Kingdom of Ghana situated?

Answer 3

Between the Senegal and Niger rivers in a region straddling the border between Mali and Mauritania

Question 4

According to legends preserved by Arab travelers as many as how many kings ruled in Ghana before Muhammad and his followers embarked on the hijra?

Answer 4

22

Question 5

Where did the kings of Ghana get the gold that they sold?

Answer 5

The kings procured nuggets from lands to the south, probably from the region around the headwaters of the Niger, Gambia, and Senegal rivers

Question 6

What was the capital of the kingdom of Ghana?

Answer 6

Koumbi-Saleh

Question 7

By the tenth century, the kings of Ghana had converted to what religion?

Answer 7

Islam

Question 8

Islam spread to Africa through what two main routes?

Answer 8

To west Africa via camel caravan routes across the Sahara desert
To east Africa across the Indian Ocean basin

Question 9

The kingdom of Kongo was one of the more prosperous Congolese states that developed in along the basin of what major river?

Answer 9

Congo River

Question 10

What was the primary currency of the kingdom of Kongo?

Answer 10

cowries, seashells that came from the Indian ocean

Question 11

Did the kings of Ghana impose Islam forcibly on their subjects?

Answer 11

No

Question 12

What empire did the kingdom of Ghana fall to?

Answer 12

Mali empire?

Question 13

Who built the Mali empire during the first half of the thirteenth century?

Answer 13

(lion prince) Sundiata

Question 14

What was the capital of the Mali empire?

Answer 14

Niani

Question 15

How is Mansa Musa related to Sundiata?

Answer 15

He was his grand-nephew

Question 16

What was Mansa Musa famous for?

Answer 16

His famous pilgrimage to Mecca in which he distributed A LOT of gold and lavish gifts to the lands he passed

Question 17

“Swahili” is an Arabic term meaning what?

Answer 17

“coasters”

Question 18

Villages in east Africa had buildings made of what?

Answer 18

Wood, dried mud, also larger buildings made of coral, by 15th cent had buildings and mosques made of stone

Question 19

What in the world in Kilwa???

Answer 19

One of the busiest city-states on the east African coast

Question 20

What does the term ZImbabwe refer to?

Answer 20

The dwelling of a chief

Question 21

Where was the Great Zimbabwe?

Answer 21

Near Nyanda in the modern state of Zimbabwe

Question 22

What were the clearly defined classes that African peoples developed?

Answer 22

ruling elites, military nobles, administrative officials, relgious authorities, wealthy merchants, artisans, business entrepreneurs, common people, peasants, and slaves

Question 23

What did the kings residing at Great Zimbabwe do?

Answer 23

• controlled and taxed trade between interior and coastal region
• organized flow of gold, ivory, slaves, and local products from sources of supply to the coast

Question 24

How did sub-Saharan African peoples distribute and use land?

Answer 24

Did not recognize private ownership of land, male heads of families allocated portions of communal lands for relatives to cultivate and responsible for distributing harvests equitably among all members of their groups
—-functioned in society first as members of a family or a clan

Question 25

What did diviners do?

Answer 25

Consulted oracles when people came to them with their issues, identified causes of trouble, and prescribed “cure”

Question 26

What did African religions mainly revolve around?

Answer 26

Concerned more with explaining, predicting, and controlling the experiences of individuals and groups in the world–strongly emphasized morality and proper behavior as essential to maintenance of orderly world vs matters of theology

Question 27

What was one of the most prominent centers of early Christian thought?

Answer 27

Alexandria in Egypt