African History Trivia

1. The coup d'etat started with gunfire erupting in the capital, Ouagadougou. Despite initial denials, it became evident that Roch Marc Christian Kaboré had been detained. What position did Kaboré have before the coup?

From Quiz Control

Answer: President

The Burkinabé President was Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, and he had just been elected in 2020 to a second term. On Sunday, January 23, 2022, gunfire was heard near the Presidential Palace in Ouagadougou, and several cars were found riddled with bullets. Despite initial denials by government officials, it eventually came to light that Kaboré had been arrested by the rebels. A tweet from him read: "Our Nation is going through difficult times. At this precise moment, we must safeguard our democratic achievements. I invite those who have taken up arms to lay them down in the Higher Interests of the Nation. It is through dialogue and listening that we must resolve our contradictions."

From Quiz History of Algiers

Answer: Third Punic War

Ancient Romans had great success capturing parts of Northern Africa during the Third Punic War. In 149, they captured the nearby city of Carthage and moved to seize the rest of Northern Africa. Yksm was a small settlement, primarily used as a trading post and market for travelers. The Romans renamed the city Icosium and it remained under their control until the Muslim Conquest of North Africa in the seventh century.

From Quiz A Short History of Mozambique

Answer: Tools indicating evidence of flour being milled from pre-domesticated cereals

This anthropology research team found tools that were approximately 20000years old that were used to mill flour from grain, probably sorghum. The startling discovery was that cereals such as wheat and barley were first thought to have been domesticated in the Fertile Crescent only 8000 years ago. This means the ancient people in the Mozambique area were milling wild grain for food long before the history books told us so.

From Quiz History of Casablanca

Answer: Anfa

Berbers first settled into what is now Casablanca in the tenth century BC. It wasn't until about 15 BC that the Romans began using Anfa or Anfus as a port city and it became a center of commerce and trade in Northern Africa. Romans used it primarily as a port to ship purple dye from Mauretania. Today Anfa is the name of the neighborhood occupying part of Casablanca's old town.

From Quiz History of Tunis

Answer: Carthage

Tunis is sometimes incorrectly believed to be the same city as Carthage when they are two separate cities with Tunis being more inland and overlooking Carthage. However, the two were closely linked in many ways. Tunis was originally a Berber city originally, though it has been ruled by a number of different empires and states, including Carthage.

From Quiz Africa's Independence Decade -- The 1960s

Answer: Kenya

In 1945 Jomo Kenyatta helped organize the Pan-African Congress, held in Britain. In 1947 he was elected president of the Kenya African Union. From 1953 to 1961 he was imprisoned by the British for being a member of the Mau Mau, a charge that has never been proven. While in prison he was elected president of the Kenya Africa National Union, a post he held until Kenya gained its independence, whereupon Kenyatta became Prime Minister (until '64) and subsequently Kenya's first President. He died in office in 1978.

From Quiz African Independence Explosion: 1960

Answer: Mauritania

Although it is 90% desert, Mauritania does have a coastline on the Atlantic, where its capital is located. About a third of the country's population lives in the capital. Officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the country takes its name from Mauretania, an ancient Berber kingdom in Morocco which existed for about a thousand years between the Third Century BC and the Seventh Century AD, when it was conquered by the Arabs in the spread of Islam.

From Quiz Early African History Primer

Answer: Menes (Narmer)

Narmer and Menes may be two men, or they may be the same man. The debate continues. One suggested meaning for "Menes" is "He who endures." Cheops is the Greek name for Khufu. He built the Great Pyramid. Tut is just a short form of Tutankhamun, also often referred to as "the boy king" because he died young. He is famous because his tomb was found intact. As a prince his name was Tutankhaten. His father was Akhenaton, who was named Amenhotep IV as a child but adopted the name we know him by when he tried to establish the new monotheistic religion worshipping Aten.

From Quiz Up the Niger River Where the Musas Lived

Answer: Mali

This empire encompassed some 400 cities which were synonymous with prosperity, culture and Islamic scholarship. The tenth Musa, the King of Kings, the Ruler Moses, as he was variously titled, ruled the Malian empire for 25 years. The kingdom stretched from the Atlantic coast in the west to Songhay, far down the Niger in the east, from the salt mines of Taghaza in the north and to the gold mines of Wangara in the south.

From Quiz Bus Ride Day 196: South Sudan

Answer: swamp

The Sudd is an area of swampy wetlands running generally from northwest to southeast through the central portion of South Sudan. It is one of the largest wetland areas in the world. The area consists of very flat land, where, according to some sources, average slope from south to north for 400 km is only 0.01%. This posed a great challenge to early explorers of the area, who had to go around it to proceed westward across the continent. "The Sudd" is generally thought to be derived from an early term meaning "obstacle". Although most people attribute the title "Sudan" as having an original meaning of "country of black men", some scholars believe Sudd and Sudan come from a similar root, the Egyptian "Sut", meaning "sedge swamp". The area of the Sudd varies with weather conditions-when it is rainy, its size increases.

From Quiz Free as a Bird

Answer: Portugal

The Portuguese had been in contact with the Kongo state, the former Angola, since 1483. During the 16th century, the Portuguese took control of the coast and the Portuguese Colony of Angola was formed. In 1951, Portugal changed Angola's name to Overseas Province of Angola, making the colony a Portuguese overseas territory. The Portuguese left a lot of cultural heritage to the Angolans. In fact, the country's official language is Portuguese!

From Quiz African or African't?

Answer: Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka from Nigeria received the prize in 1986. Other African Nobel laureates in Literature are Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Nadine Gordimer (1991), J.M. Coetzee (2003), and the French-Mauritian J.M.G. Le Clézio in 2008.

From Quiz Timeline Express Africa 3

Answer: Two

Botswana and Lesotho both joined the Commonwealth in 1966 shortly after gaining independence from the United Kingdom. Both countries are located in Southern Africa.

From Quiz Timeline Express Africa 2

Answer: 1962

Rwanda has three official languages: Kinyarwanda, French and English. "Hotel Rwanda", a 2004 American film, is based on real life events that took place in Rwanda in 1994.

From Quiz Timeline Express Africa 1

Answer: 1922

Egypt was one of the first countries to gain independence from the United Kingdom. It is an Arab Country located in North Africa. The Egyptian Pyramids are the most famous pyramids in the world, the most famous being the Great Pyramid of Giza.

From Quiz All Around Africa in the Past

Answer: King Farouk

King Mswati is the king of Swaziland. King Hassan was a Moroccan king who died of heart attack in 1999. King Adbelaziz (aka ibn Saud) was a member of the Saudi Arabian monarch. He died in 1953.

From Quiz Genocide in Darfur

Answer: Central African Republic, Chad, Libya

Darfur is an area in the western region of Sudan, bordered by the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya. Darfur is comprised of three federal states-West Darfur, South Darfur and North Darfur. It is about the size of Texas. The literal translation of Darfur is "Home of the Fur", the Fur being one of the largest ethnic African tribes involved in the conflict.

From Quiz The History of Mauritius and Rodrigues

Answer: The Arabs

The Arabs arrived long before the Portuguese and the Dutch. They named the island Dina Robin.

From Quiz African Countries That No Longer Exist

Answer: Katanga

Until 1997 Katanga was called Shaba province, a mining province the country formerly called Zaire. Now the province is again called Katanga and Zaire is again called (Democratic Republic of) Congo.

From Quiz Idi Amin's Uganda

Answer: King's African Rifles

Amin enlisted in 1946, after World War 2 ended, but often claimed to have fought against the Japanese in Burma.

From Quiz Former African Kingdoms

Answer: Buganda

Situated in SE Uganda by Lake Victoria. Kingdom made an integral part of Uganda 1967.

From Quiz Disputed Areas in Africa

Answer: Ifni

Morocco claimed the area 1960 and gained it from Spain in 1969.

From Quiz The War for Biafra

Answer: Nigeria

The Eastern Region was populated mainly by the Igbo people. In the Declaration of Independence, the Nigerian federal government was accused of condoning genocide by not taking sufficient measures to protect the Igbo.

From Quiz A History of Nigeria

Answer: Bayajidda

The legend says that the wandering prince happened upon the city of Daura in what is now northern Nigeria, where a giant python was preventing the natives from drawing water from their well. After killing the snake Bayajidda married the Queen of Daura, with whom he had seven sons. The sons went on to establish the seven Hausa city states, each of which grew rapidly and came to be known for something. For example, Kano was a trading center while Zaria was a military stronghold. The city-states all had mighty walls to keep their enemies at bay--especially the Kanem-Bornu in the east. When the nomadic Fulani came, no one could anticipate what would happen next.

From Quiz History of Addis Ababa

Answer: Entoto

Mount Entoto stands just to the north of Addis Ababa. In 1884, Negus Menelik II founded a military outpost on Mount Entoto. A city called Finfinne was also founded at the base. This would later be called Addis Ababa and become the capital. Finfinne was allegedly established in the ruins of Barara that remained.

From Quiz Control

Answer: Prime Minister

When Paul Kaba Thieba resigned from his position as Prime Minister of Burkina Faso in January of 2019, President Kaboré immediately appointed Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré as the new Prime Minister. He held that position for two years until he was fired by President Kaboré on December 8, 2021. The pretext for the firing was the growing unrest and constant insurgencies by hostile forces. While Kaboré made Dabiré take the fall for the unrest, many Burkinabé felt that it was Kaboré who should have stepped down instead.

From Quiz History of Algiers

Answer: Bologhine

Bologhine, also known as Buluggin ibn Ziri, was the first ruler of the Sanhaja Dynasty. He founded Algiers proper in 960. Much of the old city of Icosium was incorporated into what is now the Old Town and many of the ancient buildings still exist today in ruins. Bologhine was the first Sanhaja ruler and the first of many dynasties that would ruler over Algiers over the next few centuries. These dynasties typically lasted only a few decades at a time.

From Quiz A Short History of Mozambique

Answer: Bushmen

San is a relatively recent term. An exonym, it was adopted because "Bushman" had some negative connotations. The San were hunter/gatherers and spent much time foraging for food and water. The Bantu-speaking people arrived in the first to the fifth centuries AD. They were hunters and could forge iron.

From Quiz History of Casablanca

Answer: Pirates

Casablanca is located along the Atlantic Coast of Morocco and nearby the Mediterranean. This made it an ideal port city. Many explorations had launched from Casablanca. This also made it a convenient city for pirates because of all the ships coming into and leaving Casablanca. Casablanca was part of an independent state of the Merinid Dynasty which relied on the pirates and privateers for its economy and the Merinids shielded pirates in return.

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Last Updated Nov 16 2024 5:44 AM

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