Deck 1: Ancestral Africa

Question 1

In West Africa,female slaves

A)were acquired to serve as wives and agricultural laborers.
B)represented twice as much of the internal slave trade as men,but only half as much as men in the trans-Saharan slave trade.
C)represented twice as much of the trans-Saharan slave trade as men,but only half as much as men in the internal slave trade.
D)were traditionally protected from having to provide their masters with sexual services.

Answer 1

were acquired to serve as wives and agricultural laborers.

Question 2

What military asset did Sonni Ali exploit in his fifteenth-century conquest of the Niger region of West Africa?

A)a riverine navy
B)an improved crossbow
C)a trained cavalry that fought on horseback
D)gunpowder muskets and cannons

Answer 2

a riverine navy

Question 3

The empire of Ghana exhibited all of the following characteristics EXCEPT

A)an international reputation that extended to such distant cities as Cairo and Baghdad.
B)an army that could reportedly field 200,000 soldiers.
C)a hostile attitude toward Islam and the brutal persecution of Muslims.
D)the control of gold mines,which provided Ghana's emperors with an important source of revenue.

Answer 3

a hostile attitude toward Islam and the brutal persecution of Muslims.

Question 4

The English word "slave" originally referred to people from

A)Eastern Europe.
B)West Africa.
C)England.
D)Egypt.

Question 5

Which legendary thirteenth-century ruler led a successful revolt that consolidated and strengthened the kingdom of Mali?

A)Tunka-Menin
B)Sundiata
C)El Omari
D)Soni Ali

Question 6

Which king ascended to Ghana's throne in 1063?

A)Al-Bakri
B)Muhammad Rumfa
C)El-Momar
D)Tunka-Menin

Question 7

Which subject people of the kingdom of Ghana reportedly overthrew the kingdom in the twelfth century,only to have their own empire overthrown by one of their own subject peoples,the Malinke of Mali,in the thirteenth century?

A)the Soninke
B)the Keita
C)the Hausa
D)the Sosso

Question 8

Which of the following statements about West African slavery is LEAST accurate?

A)Some Africans were enslaved as a result of political offenses.
B)Some poor Africans entered into slavery voluntarily in return for protection.
C)Africans never enslaved members of their own ethnic communities.
D)Many Africans entered slavery after being conquered by a military rival.

Question 9

How did West African conceptions of land ownership differ from European ones?

A)West Africans did not believe that individual farmers could own or sell the products of the land they farmed.
B)West Africans believed that land was the collective possession of a state or kinship group.
C)West Africans believed that land must be continuously redistributed to ensure that each adult man had his own plot.
D)West Africans believed that individual ownership of land was an inviolable right.

Question 10

Which African king embarked on a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324?

A)Tunka-Menin
B)Sundiata Keita
C)Mansa-Musa
D)Sonni Ali

Question 11

What triggered the economic collapse of Ghana in the late eleventh century?

A)The arrival of Muslim traders redirected West African commerce across the Sahara.
B)A series of droughts undermined the agricultural foundation of Ghana's economy.
C)A wave of epidemic diseases devastated the population.
D)The intensification of the slave trade diverted Ghana's economy from productive industries to a single-minded and destructive focus on enslaving neighboring peoples.

Question 12

How did the status of European serfs differ from the status of European slaves?

A)Serfs had almost unlimited freedom of mobility.
B)Serfs did not have to pay taxes.
C)Serfs were protected from harsh or coercive treatment.
D)Serfs enjoyed certain legal rights.

Question 13

Which of the following statements about West African slavery is most accurate?

A)Gang labor of the sort that would be used in New World plantations was unknown in West Africa.
B)Because slaves were seen as integral members of their master's household,they could not be sold to other masters.
C)Because of the threat of revolt,slaves were only used for domestic and agricultural services,and were never employed in military or political capacities.
D)The status of slaves varied across a wide spectrum depending on the services they provided.

Question 14

Which of the following statements about West African slavery in the centuries leading up to the arrival of Europeans in that region is most accurate?

A)Slaves could not own property of their own.
B)West African slavery resembled slavery as practiced in the Muslim world.
C)Slavery was a permanent status which could not be transcended either by a slave or a slave's children.
D)Slavery was an aberration that was almost unknown in most West African societies.

Question 15

The West African practices of bridewealth and polygamy suggest that

A)women's function in West African societies was more ornamental than functional.
B)women stood on an equal legal and political footing with men in West African societies.
C)women in West African societies were treated as dependents who drained the resources of their households.
D)women's productive and reproductive labors were highly valued in West African society.

Question 16

What linguistic group predominated in the region of north-central Africa?

A)Koisan
B)Afro-Asiatic
C)Nilo-Siharan
D)Niger-Congo

Question 17

Members of the acephalous societies of the West African interior were particularly susceptible to enslavement because these societies

A)were the first societies encountered by European explorers in the fifteenth century.
B)resided along trade routes frequented by Muslim traders.
C)possessed abundant resources,which made them the envy and prey of their neighbors.
D)had less political organization than their more powerful neighbors.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about the reign of Mansa-Musa is LEAST accurate?

A)The reforms Mansa-Musa implemented ensured that his empire would continue to prosper and to grow in strength under almost a dozen successors.
B)Mansa-Musa's international fame grew to be so great that European cartographers included him and his empire in their maps.
C)Mansa-Musa embarked on a trek across North Africa and the Middle East that reportedly included an entourage of thousands of people and enough gold to lower the value of that precious metal.
D)Mansa-Musa was a devout convert to Islam who commissioned an Arab architect to build elaborate mosques in several cities under Mansa-Musa's rule.

Question 19

Kumbi Saleh was the capital of which West African empire?

A)Ghana
B)Mali
C)Songhay
D)Nok

Question 20

What event led Europeans to look toward Africa as a primary source of slaves?

A)the abolition of serfdom
B)the beginning of Muslim trade with West Africa
C)the fall of Constantinople
D)the rise of serfdom

Question 21

What confederation of five states managed to maintain its independence from Mali and Songhay before succumbing to the French in the nineteenth century?

A)Hausa
B)Mossi
C)Benin
D)Biguba

Question 22

The reforms implemented by Askia Muhammad included all of the following EXCEPT

A)the separation of church and state and the guarantee of religious freedom.
B)the development of a system of governance that relied on local governors and military administrators.
C)the establishment of a uniform system of weights and measures,which facilitated trade.
D)the improvement of banking and credit.

Question 23

Members of the Hausa city-states included all of the following cities EXCEPT

A)Gao.
B)Kano.
C)Zaria.
D)Kebbi.

Question 24

Under the skillful administration of rulers such as Askia Muhammad,which empire became the largest and most powerful kingdom in West African history?

A)Ghana
B)Mali
C)Kongo
D)Songhay

Question 25

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,the cities of Timbuktu,Gao,Walata,and Jenne were all important centers of

A)gold mining.
B)slave trading.
C)agriculture.
D)higher learning.

Question 26

Which of the following statements best represents the basis of political authority in regions such as Biguba,Sierra Leone,and the Gold Coast during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

A)Political authority was transmitted automatically from father to eldest son in a system of absolute monarchy.
B)Rulers were chosen through popular elections in which all male residents were allowed to vote.
C)A small group of powerful priests claimed the sole authority to appoint and remove kings from their thrones.
D)Rulers were elected by,and their powers were circumscribed by,representatives of a few prominent lineages.

Question 27

Although it contains many words borrowed from Arabic and other languages,in terms of structure,Swahili belongs to which language family?

A)Akan
B)Yoruba
C)Kintampo
D)Bantu

Question 28

Which of the following statements about the use of art to enhance royal authority in the kingdom of Benin is LEAST accurate?

A)For a time,the kings of Benin controlled the use of all copper within their realm,and ensured that it was used to celebrate their authority.
B)Commemorative art in Benin demonstrated the use of the physical head as a symbol of royal qualities.
C)Commemorative altars in Benin included brass representations of the heads of Benin's queen mothers.
D)Benin's kings were entombed in large pyramidal structures which were adorned with copper plaques celebrating their achievements.

Question 29

The appearance of European traders in West Central Africa in the fifteenth,sixteenth,and seventeenth centuries encouraged all of the following developments EXCEPT

A)the spread of Catholicism in some kingdoms.
B)the centralization of political authority in many states.
C)the conquest and settlement of many African states by European settlers.
D)the intensification of internal conflicts over sovereignty and the legitimacy of rulers.

Question 30

In 1491,Nzinga a Nkuwu,king of Kongo,took what unusual step for a West African ruler?

A)He abolished slavery throughout his realm.
B)He voluntarily converted to Catholicism.
C)He seized a Portuguese ambassador and sold him into slavery.
D)He ceded his throne to a Portuguese adventurer,who ruled the kingdom under the name Joao I.

Question 31

Most of the population in Atlantic Africa from the Gambia River to the Niger Delta lived under what type of political system?

A)small kingdoms
B)large empires
C)village-states
D)tribal chiefdoms

Question 32

Which ruler of Ndongo seized power in 1624 and then led an army,including a battalion of women,against Portuguese forces to remain on the throne?

A)Njinga
B)Hari a Kiljunaji
C)Amina
D)Muhammad Rumfa

Question 33

Which of the following statements about the Songhay kingdom is LEAST accurate?

A)Songhay cemented its power with an army composed of slaves and prisoners.
B)The rulers of Songhay encouraged the development and spread of learning.
C)Portuguese invaders overthrew the last Songhay king in 1598.
D)After returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca,a Songhay king established Islamic law as the basis for administering justice in the empire.