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Review Questions

1 .
What made cultural contact between the Sahel and the Mediterranean peoples of North Africa difficult?
  1. Red Sea
  2. Kalahari Desert
  3. Sahara
  4. the Nile
2 .
In what African ecological system did the migrating Bantus likely adopt ironworking technology from the Nok?
  1. tropical rainforest
  2. desert
  3. semiarid grassland
  4. savanna
3 .
What is the name of the branch of Christianity that emerged in Egypt?
  1. Maghrebi
  2. Visigothic
  3. Sufi
  4. Coptic
4 .
What does the “Africanization” of Christianity and Islam in the medieval period refer to?
  1. the process of converting African communities to monotheism
  2. the development of holy books written in indigenous African languages
  3. the blending of traditional African beliefs with those of Christianity and Islam
  4. the diffusion of traditional African beliefs among the Abrahamic faiths of the Near and Middle East
5 .
The Ghana and Mali Empires were centered on what two capital cities, respectively?
  1. Ouagadougou and Accra
  2. Koumbi Saleh and Niani
  3. Koubmi Saleh and Bure
  4. Niani and Cairo
6 .
Who was Mansa Musa?
  1. a Christian ruler of the Swahili coast who traveled to China
  2. a Muslim ruler of the Ghana Empire who followed the trans-Saharan trade route to Egypt
  3. a pagan tribal chief who led a revolt against Islamized Africans in West Africa
  4. a Muslim ruler of the Mali Empire who made a pilgrimage to Mecca in the fourteenth century
7 .
What were the two principal goods the medieval empires of West Africa were renowned for trading in?
  1. furs and ceramics
  2. gold and salt
  3. metalware and textiles
  4. porcelain and ivory
8 .
What characterized the political systems of the West African empires?
  1. A formerly independent kingdom incorporated into a larger empire often retained its identity and internal political structure.
  2. When empires declined in power, they left anarchy behind.
  3. Empires were indivisible organizations with stable borders.
  4. Empires were synonymous with chiefdoms and engaged in nearly constant tribal warfare.
9 .
Bantu-speaking peoples brought innovations to southern Africa that led to the foundation of which medieval kingdoms?
  1. Songhai and Mali
  2. the Swahili coast and Natal
  3. Mapungubwe and Zimbabwe
  4. Mozambique and Lesotho
10 .
The Sanhaja and Masmuda founded what West African kingdoms, respectively?
  1. Mali and Ghana
  2. Ghana and Egypt
  3. Almoravid and Almohad
  4. Almohad and Al-Andalus
11 .
The Fatimid Caliphate followed ______ Islam.
  1. Shia
  2. Sunni
  3. Sufi
  4. Al-Wabbi
12 .
Gao was the capital and important trading center of what kingdom?
  1. Ghana
  2. Songhai
  3. Maghreb
  4. Almoravid
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