African American Vocab Words

Question 1

Savannah

Answer 1

A grassy plain in tropical and subtropical regions, with few trees.

Question 2

Plateau

Answer 2

An area of relatively level high ground.

Question 3

Sahara Desert

Answer 3

The largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert in the world after Antarctica and the Arctic.

Question 4

Bantu

Answer 4

Relating to or denoting a group of Niger–Congo languages spoken in central and southern Africa, including Swahili, Xhosa, and Zulu.

Question 5

Swahili

Answer 5

A Bantu language widely used as a lingua franca in East Africa and having official status in several countries.

Question 6

Subsistence Farming

Answer 6

Self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families.

Question 7

Mansa Musa

Answer 7

An emperor (mansa) of the Mali Empire during the 14th century.

Question 8

Ghana

Answer 8

Warrior king

Question 9

Mali

Answer 9

A country of western Africa.

Question 10

Zimbabwe

Answer 10

A contracted form of dzimba-hwe which means “venerated houses” in the Zezuru dialect of Shona

Question 11

Timbuktu

Answer 11

A historical and still-inhabited city in the West African nation of Mali

Question 12

Mohammed

Answer 12

“The Most Praised One”. It is the name of the Islamic prophet.

Question 13

Askin

Answer 13

Eye dialect spelling of asking.

Question 14

Sonni Ali

Answer 14

The first king of the Songhai Empire, located in Africa and the 15th ruler of the Sonni dynasty.

Question 15

Matrilineal

Answer 15

Of or based on kinship with the mother or the female line.

Question 16

Oral traditions

Answer 16

Information passed down through the generations by word of mouth that is not written down.

Question 17

Gold and Salt trade

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Trans-Saharan

Answer 18

Requires travel across the Sahara (north and south) to reach sub-Saharan Africa from the North African coast, Europe, to the Levant.

Question 19

Sub-Saharan

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Songhai

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Griot

Answer 21

A member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa.

Question 22

Diviner

Answer 22

Of, from, or like God or a god.

Question 23

Lineage

Answer 23

Lineal descent from an ancestor; ancestry or pedigree.

Question 24

Ibn Batuta

Answer 24

A Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveler.

Question 25

Indian Ocean

Answer 25

It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, and on the south by the Southern Ocean or, depending on definition, by Antarctica.

Question 26

Sahel

Answer 26

A semiarid band of land stretching across northern Africa at roughly the 13th parallel, dividing the Sahara desert from Africa’s tropical forests.