wayground logo

Free Printable Worksheets

Font size

S
M
L
XL
Worksheets

Beginnings in Africa

Total questions: 20

Worksheet time: 20mins

Name
Class
Date
1.

On which continent did the first modern humans appear?

a)

Africa

b)

Asia

c)

Australia

d)

North America

2.

Why might students of African American history want to start by studying African history?

a)

Many African American customs and traditions have their roots in Africa.

b)

Africa is a tiny continent with only a few people

c)

No people lived in Africa until a few centuries ago.

d)

Africa’s history is very simple and easy to learn.

3.

Where is Nubia located?

a)

east of Mali on the Red Sea

b)

south of Egypt on the Nile

c)

west of Ghana on the Atlantic Ocean

d)

south of the Sahara on the Congo

4.

How did the rulers of Ghana grow wealthy?

a)

They owned vast farmlands.

b)

They taxed all the trade that moved through their kingdom

c)

They owned large salt mines.

d)

They borrowed heavily from other kingdoms.

5.

What was one change Mansa Musa brought to Mali?

a)

He required all his subjects to be Christian.

b)

He forced people to start speaking Arabic

c)

He closed all schools and libraries in the empire

d)

He helped spread Islam through the empire.

6.

What role did the griots play in West African society?

a)

They ruled the kingdoms.

b)

They preserved history and traditions

c)

They collected taxes.

d)

They were warriors

7.

What do historians hope to learn by studying the society and culture of West Africa today?

a)

why people live in West Africa

b)

how the Swahili language developed

c)

what society and culture were like in the past

d)

where the first humans lived

8.

Which group blended customs with Africans to form the Swahili culture?

a)

Persians

b)

Egyptians

c)

Chinese

d)

Arabs

9.

the first West African empire, known as the kingdom of gold

(a)  

10.

one of the world’s oldest civilizations, ruled by the pharaohs

(a)  

11.

Great Bantu kingdom centered on a large city

(a)  

12.

advanced civilization whose writing system remains largely untranslated

(a)  

13.

changing plants and animals to make them more useful to humans

(a)  

14.

belief that natural objects have spirits

(a)  

15.

groups of people born within a few years of each other

(a)  

16.

spoken record of past events

(a)  

17.

Kush traded with places as far away as India and China.

(a)  

18.

The region known as sub-Saharan Africa lies north of the Sahara Desert.

(a)  

19.

Most civilizations of West Africa did not have written languages.

(a)  

20.

The Egyptians regarded their rulers as gods on earth.

(a)