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WorksheetsAfricana Studies Quiz Bowl 2026
Total questions: 100
Worksheet time: 50mins
The first African American woman to travel into space was _____?
Mae Jemison
Sally Ride
Eileen Collins
Kalpana Chawla
Identify the founder of BET (Black Entertainment Television).
Robert L. Johnson
Oprah Winfrey
Tyler Perry
Sean Combs
The largest river in Africa by volume of water discharged is:
Nile
Congo
Niger
Zambezi
What laws were passed after Reconstruction to enforce racial segregation? These laws are known as:
Jim Crow laws
Civil Rights Acts
Equal Protection Laws
Voting Rights Acts
Black mathematician’s orbital mechanics calculations crucial to NASA’s moon landing?
Katherine Johnson
Dorothy Vaughan
Mary Jackson
Benjamin Banneker
Who was the first Black Secretary of Defense?
Lloyd Austin
Colin Powell
Robert Gates
James Mattis
The largest lake in Africa is ______.
Lake Victoria
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Malawi
Lake Chad
Identify the country that has the largest economy in Africa today.
Nigeria
South Africa
Egypt
Algeria
What artist released Thriller, recognized as the best-selling solo album of all time?
Michael Jackson
Elvis Presley
Prince
Madonna
Who was the Belgian king responsible for atrocities in the Congo Free State?
King Leopold I
King Leopold II
King Albert I
King Baudouin
Identify the name of the first all-Black fighter squadron in WWII.
Tuskegee Airmen
99th Pursuit Squadron
332nd Fighter Group
None of the above
Who was the first president of Ghana?
Kwame Nkrumah
John Atta Mills
Jerry Rawlings
Nana Akufo-Addo
The influential album Straight Outta Compton was released by which hip-hop group?
Wu-Tang Clan
N.W.A
Public Enemy
The Notorious B.I.G.
What year was the Voting Rights Act passed?
1964
1965
1966
1967
The major university city in Mali, home to Sankore University, is:
Timbuktu
Gao
Mopti
Bamako
The first Black U.S. Secretary of State is _______.
Barack Obama
Condoleezza Rice
Colin Powell
Kamala Harris
The river that was central to the rise of Ancient Egyptian civilization is:
Nile River
Tigris River
Euphrates River
Indus River
Name the social activist group protest movement formed in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Trayvon Martin protest
Nothing
Black Lives Matter
Ferguson demonstration
Rome’s greatest rival and home to Hannibal was _______.
Carthage
Alexandria
Tunis
Tripoli
Who was the first African American to win the Masters golf tournament?
Tiger Woods
Arnold Palmer
Jack Nicklaus
Gary Player
What formerly enslaved African led a revolution in Haiti?
Toussaint Louverture
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
François Makandal
Boukman
The document issued in 1863 that declared enslaved people in Confederate states free is the ________________.
Emancipation Proclamation
Bill of Rights
Gettysburg Address
Declaration of Independence
What European conference in 1884-85 divided Africa among European powers?
Berlin Conference
Treaty of Versailles
Congress of Vienna
Yalta Conference
The West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were dominated by the ______ trade.
Gold-Salt trade
Slave trade
Spice trade
Silk trade
Which African nation successfully launched its first satellite in 2003?
Nigeria
Egypt
South Africa
Kenya
Who was the first African American general in the U.S. Army?
Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.
Colin Powell
Martin Luther King Jr.
Who is known as the 'Queen of Soul'?
Aretha Franklin
Whitney Houston
Diana Ross
Tina Turner
Which of the following was a founder of the Black Lives Matter movement?
Patrisse Cullors
Alicia Garza
Opal Tometi
All of the above
Who became the first Black U.S. vice president?
Kamala Harris
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton
The year the Civil Rights Act passed is:
1964
1954
1972
1983
What African country is known for experiencing genocide in 1994?
Rwanda
Nigeria
Sudan
South Africa
The largest desert in Africa is:
Sahara Desert
Kalahari Desert
Namib Desert
Gobi Desert
Identify the landmark case in 2020 that resulted in widespread protests against police brutality.
George Floyd case
Breonna Taylor case
Rodney King case
Michael Brown case
Who was the first African to win a Nobel Prize?
Wole Soyinka
Nelson Mandela
Chinua Achebe
Kofi Annan
Who is the first African American heavyweight boxing champion.
Jack Johnson
Joe Louis
Muhammad Ali
Mike Tyson
The jazz musician famous for songs like 'What a Wonderful World' is:
Louis Armstrong
Dizzy Gillespie
Charlie Parker
Miles Davis
The ship where a famous slave rebellion took place in 1839 was:
La Amistad
Mayflower
Santa Maria
Endeavour
In Sudan, the conflict that led to genocide in the early 2000s was the ______ conflict.
Sudanese Civil War
Darfur conflict
Second Civil War
Blue Nile conflict
Identify the organization founded in 1963 to promote African unity.
Organization of African Unity
African Union
Pan-African Congress
African Development Bank
Who was the founder of the Songhai Empire?
Sunni Ali
Mansa Musa
Sundiata Keita
Askia Mohammad I
The African American scientist who developed over 300 products from peanuts is George Washington Carver.
George Washington Carver
Benjamin Banneker
Percy Julian
Mae Jemison
Who was the first Black CEO of a Fortune 500 company?
Kenneth Frazier
Robert L. Johnson
Ursula Burns
Thasunda Brown Duckett
Who was the leader of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya?
Dedan Kimathi
Jomo Kenyatta
Tom Mboya
Oginga Odinga
The first Black female four-star admiral is:
Admiral Michelle Howard
Admiral Michelle Obama
Admiral Valerie Jarrett
Admiral Condoleezza Rice
What modern country is home to the ancient city of Timbuktu?
Mali
Niger
Senegal
Burkina Faso
The indigenous (Mande) name of the West African griots who preserve history through storytelling is:
Djeli
Djembe
Kora
Mandinka
Identify the three major language families of Africa:
Afrasian, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Saharan
Afrasian, Niger-Congo, and Khoisan
Niger-Congo, Khoisan, and Sino-Tibetan
Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, and Afrasian
Who became the first Black woman billionaire?
Oprah Winfrey
Beyoncé
Rihanna
Serena Williams
Who became the first African American U.S. senator from Georgia?
Raphael Warnock
Michelle Obama
Barack Obama
John Lewis
Name the Islamist militant group in Nigeria.
Boko Haram
Al-Qaeda
ISIS
Taliban
Kush was ruled by this famous woman who defeated the Roman Empire in battle?
Cleopatra
Nefertiti
Hatshepsut
Amanirenas
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in which year?
2021
2019
2020
2022
What is Africa's largest trading bloc?
African Continental Free Trade Area
Economic Community of West African States
East African Community
Southern African Development Community
Which country was the only African nation to successfully resist European colonization in the 19th century?
Ethiopia
Liberia
Nigeria
Kenya
Which African American soldier is most prominently associated with leading the Buffalo Soldiers?
Lewis Armstrong
Charles Young
Daniel Butterfield
Wesley Merritt
Who founded the first Black-owned haircare empire?
Madam C.J. Walker
Oprah Winfrey
Tyra Banks
Iyanla Vanzant
Who was the first emperor of modern Ethiopia, crowned in 1889?
Menelik II
Haile Selassie
Tewodros II
Meles Zenawi
The major colonial war that led to the independence of Mozambique was the ___________________.
Boer War
Mozambican War of Independence
Anglo-Zulu War
Portuguese Colonial War
Which African American poet wrote The Weary Blues?
Langston Hughes
Gwendolyn Brooks
Maya Angelou
Countee Cullen
Which civil war led to the creation of South Sudan?
The First Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War
The Nigerian Civil War
The Eritrean Civil War
Legislation passed in 1865 that abolished slavery in the U.S. is known as ________.
13th Amendment
14th Amendment
15th Amendment
Emancipation Proclamation
Beloved was written by:
Toni Morrison
James Baldwin
Virginia Woolf
Chinua Achebe
This Kenyan athlete holds the record for the fastest marathon time:
Eliud Kipchoge
Haile Gebrselassie
Kenenisa Bekele
Paul Tergat
Who is known as the 'Godfather of Soul'?
James Brown
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonder
Ray Charles
Identify the organization that replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 2002.
African Union
United African Nations
Economic Community of West African States
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The first president of independent Kenya was:
Jomo Kenyatta
Mwai Kibaki
Daniel Arap Moi
Uhuru Kenyatta
The system of racial segregation in South Africa was called:
Apartheid
Jim Crow
Colonialism
Mandela
A country that was split into two nations in 2011 is:
Sudan
South Sudan
Egypt
Morocco
What U.S. Supreme Court case declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional?
Brown v. Board of Education
Plessy v. Ferguson
Roe v. Wade
Marbury v. Madison
Who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947?
Jackie Robinson
Branch Rickey
Satchel Paige
Roberto Clemente
Who invented the three-way traffic light?
Garrett Morgan
John P. Thompson
Harry S. Truman
George Washington
What ancient kingdom was located south of Egypt and known for its many pyramids made of sandstone?
Kush
Axum
Babylon
Assyria
The Grand Renaissance Dam was built by _____.
Egypt
Sudan
Ethiopia
Kenya
An ancient dynasty known for creating rock-hewn churches in Lalibela.
Zagwe
Aksum
Ethiopia
Abyssinia
What was the primary goal of the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
To end racial segregation on buses
To protest economic inequality in the transportation system
To support political candidates
To improve bus conditions
The war in 1896 that saw Ethiopia defeat Italy is the?
First Italo-Ethiopian War
Second Italo-Ethiopian War
Italo-Turkish War
Italian Wars of Unification
Name the Harlem Renaissance writer who authored Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston
Claude McKay
Countee Cullen
The Olympic sprinter and long jumper who won four gold medals in 1936 is:
Jesse Owens
Carl Lewis
Usain Bolt
Wilma Rudolph
The Underground Railroad is largely associated with the efforts of:
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Frederick Douglass
Sojourner Truth
What African country is the world's largest producer of cocoa?
Ivory Coast
Ghana
Nigeria
Cameroon
What was the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence?
Ghana
Nigeria
Kenya
Ethiopia
Who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?
Maya Angelou
Toni Morrison
Zora Neale Hurston
James Baldwin
The first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court is _______________.
Thurgood Marshall
Clarence Thomas
John Roberts
Sandra Day O'Connor
Who was the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress?
Shirley Chisholm
Barbara Jordan
Carol Moseley Braun
Kamala Harris
Which African country was founded by formerly enslaved Africans who migrated there from the United States in 1847?
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
Ghana
Who wrote The Souls of Black Folk?
W.E.B. Du Bois
Langston Hughes
James Baldwin
Zora Neale Hurston
The first home security system was invented by ______.
Marie Van Brittan Brown
Alexander Graham Bell
Thomas Edison
Nikola Tesla
Select the richest man in history who ruled the Mali Empire in the 14th century:
Mansa Musa
Mansa Suleyman
Sundiata Keita
Osei Tutu
What war took place in a West African country from 1967 to 1970?
Nigeria-Biafra Civil War
World War II
War of the Roses
Nilo-Saharan War
Who was the first African American president of the United States?
Barack Obama
George W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Ronald Reagan
The religion introduced to North Africa by Arab traders is:
Islam
Christianity
Judaism
Hinduism
The famous South African anti-apartheid activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 is:
Desmond Tutu
Nelson Mandela
Steve Biko
Albert Luthuli
What mountain is the highest peak in Africa?
Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kenya
Mount Elgon
Mount Meru
The first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is ______.
Patrice Lumumba
Joseph Kasa-Vubu
Mobutu Sese Seko
Moise Tshombe
What Black abolitionist founded the anti-slavery publication, The North Star?
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Tubman
Sojourner Truth
W.E.B. Du Bois
Identify the first European country to establish colonies in Africa.
Portugal
Spain
France
England
The traditional religion of the Yoruba people is popularly known as __________.
Orisha
Ifá
Ancient Yoruba Myth
Yorùbá spirituality
The first African American player to win a Grand Slam tennis tournament was:
Arthur Ashe
Althea Gibson
Yannick Noah
Serena Williams
The first African American billionaire is:
Robert L. Johnson
Oprah Winfrey
Sean Combs
Tyra Banks
What was the capital city of the Songhai Empire?
Gao
Timbuktu
Ghana
Mali
