Africa Vocab Words

Question 1

Savannah

Answer 1

A tropical land mass of grassland and scattered trees.

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

Question 3

Sahara desert

Answer 3

The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic. Its area of 9,200,000 square kilometres is comparable

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

A member of a Bantu people of Zanzibar and the neighboring coast of Africa.

Question 6

Subsistence farming

Answer 6

farming whose products are intended to provide for the basic needs of the farmer, with little surplus for marketing.

Question 7

Mansa Musa

Answer 7

Musa Keita I was the tenth Mansa, which translates as “sultan” or “emperor”, of the wealthy West African Mali Empire.

Question 8

Ghana

Answer 8

a republic in West Africa comprising the former colonies of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, the protectorate of the Northern Territories, and the U.N. trusteeship of British Togoland: member of the Commonwealth of Nations since 1957. 91,843 sq. mi. (237,873 sq. km).

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: Harare.

Question 11

Timbuktu

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Mohammed

Answer 12

Same as muhammad

Question 13

Sonni Ali

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Matrilineal

Answer 14

inheriting or determining descent through the female line.

Question 15

Oral traditions

Answer 15

a community’s cultural and historical traditions passed down by word of mouth or example from one generation to another without written instruction.

Question 16

Gold and salt trade

Answer 16

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 17

Trans-Sahara

Answer 17

Trans Saharan Trade requires travel across the Sahara (north and south) to reach sub-Saharan Africa from the North African coast, Europe, to the Levant. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the early 17th century.

Question 18

Sub-Saharan

Answer 18

from or forming part of the African regions south of the Sahara desert.

Question 19

Songhai

Answer 19

a member of a people living mainly in Niger and Mali.

Question 20

Griot

Answer 20

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 21

Diviner

Answer 21

a person who divines; soothsayer; prophet.

Question 22

Lineage

Answer 22

lineal descent from an ancestor; ancestry or extraction:

Question 23

Ibn batuta

Answer 23

Ibn Baṭūṭah, or simply Muhammad Ibn Battuta, was a Medieval Moroccan Muslim traveler and scholar, who is widely recognised as one of the greatest travelers of all time.

Question 24

Indian Ocean

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Sahel

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Askia

Answer 26

Mohamed Toure in Futa Tooro, later called Askia, also known as Askia the Great, was an emperor, military commander, and political reformer of the Songhai Empire