What's Where in African History Quiz

Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire from 1312-1337. He is often said to be the richest person ever to have lived, but how wealthy he actually was is not really known. Musa was a Muslim and established many mosques and centres of Islamic learning throughout his territory.

In 1324 he undertook the Hajj pilgrimage to the city of Mecca taking with him a procession that reportedly consisted of 60,000 men and 80 camels.

Nelson Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa who was jailed for life in 1962 for conspiracy to overthrow the state. South African President FW de Klerk freed Mandela in 1990 after he'd spent 27 years in prison. Mandela and de Klerk then worked to end apartheid. Mandela was elected president of South Africa in 1994.

The Mau Mau rebellion was a conflict in the area of modern day Kenya between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), known as the Mau Mau, and the ruling British colonists. The conflict started in 1952, and ended with the start of the Kenyan transition to independence in 1960, although the majority of the rebellion had been suppressed by 1956.

The rebellion was brutally stopped by the British authorities although there were massacres committed by both sides during the conflict. Widespread public support for the KLFA was lacking and it is debatable how much influence the rebellion had on Kenya's path to independence.

The Rwandan genocide took place during the Rwandan Civil War, a conflict which occurred between 1990 and 1994. The civil war was fought between the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front and the Rwandan Armed Forces of the ruling regime; the conflict grew out of the long standing dispute between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups in Rwanda.

The genocide occurred following the assassination of the Hutu president Jevenal Habyraimana, which led to a power vacuum and resulted in the systematic killing of those of Tutsi ethnicity. It is estimated that between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsi people were killed during the roughly 100 day period of the genocide.

Carthage was an ancient city near modern day Tunis in Tunisia. The Roman Empire and the Carthaginians fought a series of wars known as the Punic Wars. During the Third Punic War the city of Carthage was besieged by Roman troops this siege was to last three years from 149 BC-146 BC.

The Romans began their final assault on Carthage in the spring of 146 BC during which they destroyed the city and killed the inhabitants, along with taking 50,000 slaves. The Romans then made the previously Carthaginian territories into the Roman province of Africa and had their capital at Utica.

The siege of Khartoum occurred in 1885 in Sudan during the Mahdist Revolt against Egyptian rule (although by this time Egypt was essentially a British protectorate). With the Egyptian forces unable to put down the rebellion and not wanting to have British troops involved in fighting in Sudan, British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, ordered the evacuation of Egyptian forces in Sudan and appointed General Gordon to oversee the evacuation.

On arrival in Khartoum, Gordon found the other Egyptian garrisons in Sudan besieged and became determined to rescue them rather than evacuating Khartoum and abandoning the other garrisons. Gordon started to fortify the city of Khartoum which was then besieged by the Mahdi. With food running short the British government sent troops in to rescue the garrison however two days before they arrived the Mahdists attacked the city at night, killing the entire garrison including General Gordon.

Robert Mugabe holds a complex place in the history of Zimbabwe. Originally he was a freedom fighter who resisted white minority rule and was instrumental in the negotiations of the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979 which created a fully democratic Zimbabwe. Once elected Prime Minister he took to using force to suppress dissent and his political rivals; and by the time he was ousted in 2017 was regarded as an oppressive dictator.

Mugabe was ousted as leader following moves by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to take control of key buildings in Harare on 14 November 2017. Following this the ruling party of Zimbabwe removed Mugabe as leader and called on him to resign the Presidency. When Mugabe failed to do so Parliament met to impeach him, however, before the impeachment could take place Mugabe resigned the presidency. Mugabe died in September 2019 at the age of 95.

The Suez Canal was originally operated by the Suez Canal Company, with both Egyptian and French shareholders. Egypt was forced to sell its shares in the company in 1875 to the British government due to a financial crisis. President Nassar had become Egyptian president in 1954 and nationalised the Suez Canal Company in 1956.

The nationalisation of the canal led to the Suez Crisis with Israel invading Egypt in October 1956; followed by support from British and French troops in early November of that year. The invasion resulted in major embarrassment for the French and the British as they were forced to withdraw after pressure from the USA, USSR and the UN.

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was fought from 1935-1937 as part of Mussolini's attempts to increase Italy's colonial territories in the years preceding the Second World War. The war saw an invasion of Ethiopia from Italian controlled Eritrea.

The Italians waged a brutal war using mustard gas, and expanding or dumdum bullets, in violation of the Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention. General Pietro Badoglio led a column of mechanised infantry into the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on 5th May 1936 signifying the fall of the city, although the Ethiopian ruler, Haile Selassie I had already escaped the city.

The Angolan Civil War came about following Angola's independence from Portugal which resulted in a power struggle between those who supported communist rule and those against it. The civil war was fought between the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the anti-communist National Union for the Liberation of Angola (UNITA).

Against the backdrop of the Cold War the two groups had significant foreign support from countries who ideologically were pro/anti communism. The war lasted from 1975 to 2002, with periods of fighting interspersed with more peaceful times. The war finally ended following the killing of Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, after which UNITA ceased fighting and became a political party.