QUESTIONS COMPANION

While reading the accompanying abstract, the student should keep in mind the following questions. While some of the questions test reading comprehension, others are not so straightforward and are intended to encourage discussion about different viewpoints.

What does "development" in the context of "African development" mean?

What is Africa and where is it located?

What are "natural resources" and what kind of natural resources does the African continent have?

What African environmental factors influenced the development of the human species?

What environmental factors, if any, affected human population growth?

What factors, if any, influenced the development of settled agriculture?

How did technology affect economic and political developments in Africa?

What were certain factors that influenced early patterns of African trade?

What is the "Periplus Maris Erythraei"?

What factors affected the development of the Aksum city state?

How did the African community developing in the Niger River valley differ from that which developed in Aksum?

What environmental factors have affected the ability of Africans to produce food?

How has disease affected African development?

Prior to European contact, how were African communities, generally, politically organized?

How did foreign trade affect the political organization of African communities?

What was the relationship between foreign trade and the development of elites in various African communities?

How did the demand for salt affect African trade?

What factors encouraged the development of an internal slave market?

How did European contact change the character of African slavery?

How did slavery destabilize African communities politically and economically?

What factors promoted hierarchies in African communities and the concentration of political power in the hands of elites?

What role did Christianity play in changing how African societies were politically organized?

What was the Kongo Kingdom of West Africa?

How did the sugar trade affect the political and economic development of Africa?

How has foreign trade affected the ability of African communities to be self-sufficient economically?

Who were the Trekboers and how did they affect the peoples of Southern Africa?

How did the discovery of diamonds and gold affect the relationship between African communities and European settlers in Southern Africa?

How have labor shortages affected the political and economic development of Africa.

Who was Cecil Rhodes?

What was the Diamond Trade Act of 1882?

What was the policy of "localization" practiced in South Africa?

What is meant by the "complexification" of African society?

What was the "African Scramble"?

Who was King Leopold II of Belgium and what were his ambitions in Africa?

Who was David Livingston?

How did International Law affect Leopold’s goals in Africa?

Who was Savorgnan de Brazza?

What was the International Association of the Congo?

Who was General Henry S. Sanford and what role did the U.S. play in supporting the establishment of the Congo Free State?

What role did the export of wild rubber have on the development of the Congo Free State?

Who was Edmund Morel and what was the Congo Reform Association?

Who was Roger Casement?

How did the African Scramble affect the political and economic development of African communities?

What factors encouraged or discouraged resistance by African communities to colonialism?

What is the "Rinderpest Virus" and how did it impact upon African communities?

What was the Maji-Maji Rebellion of 1905?

What was the Boer War and how did it affect the views of colonial powers towards colonialism?

How did the First World War affect Africa’s political future?

What is "tribalism" and what was its origin?

Who are the Xhosa people?

Who are the Zulu People?

Who are the Hutu and Tutsi peoples?

What factors influenced the development of an African educated elite?

What ideas affected the movement towards independence?

How did the colonial powers respond to the emergence of independence movements in their respective colonies?

What was the Mau Mau Rebellion

Who was Patrice Lumumba?

Who was Joseph Mobuto?

Who was Dag Hammarskold?

What is a coup d’etat?

What is the Organization for African Unity (OAU) and why was it established?

What was the Biafrin Civil War?

How successful have African states been in promoting the establishment of their democratic institutions?

What was Apartheid?