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Midterm Study Guide
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Things to think about for the mid-term Updated on Feb. 19, 2007
Potential IDs: (This is a non-exhaustive list, there may be terms on the test that are not on this list. It is merely an attempt to give you a sample of the sorts of things that might appear.) Think about how these relate specifically to African History. Muhammad Koran Five pillars of Islam esp. Hajj Axum Meroe Monophysite Christianity in Ethiopia and Nubia Coptic Christianity Yoruba religion Orrisa Polygyny Matrilineal descent Patrilineal descent Bridewealth Hamitic Hypothesis Savannah Sahel Swahili Rain Forest Malaria Trypanosomiasis Yellow Fever Volta Gap Niger-Congo Afro-Asiatic Khoi-San Nilo-Saharan Grain Gathering Root Agriculture Sifting Cultivation or Slash and Burn Banana Millet and Sorghum Maize or "corn" Iron making Jenne Jeno Ghana Kumbi-Saleh Mali Mansa Musa Timbuktu Rhapta Periplus of the Erythrean Sea Monsoon Gold Salt Ivory Igbo-Ukwuu Trans-Saharan Trade Archaeology Oral History Griot
Possible essay topics: Relationship between the African environment and historical process. Changing relationship between Africa and the non-African world. The sources of African history-i.e. oral history, linguistic evidence, ethnographic evidence, archaeology. Consider what the advantages and disadvantaged of these are for the historian Relationship between of changing technology and changing social structure. State building in Africa, is it different from other places in the world?
Broad themes: Technology and social change. How does technological change affect every day life and social organization? Environment and Geography. How do these factors affect settlement, farming, interaction with non-Africans, and the location of major states? Trade. How does trade affect the rise of states? Is trade essential to the functioning of states? African historians have used of a variety non-written sources in reconstructing the African past. Why? What are these sources? What are the advantages and limitation of each of them? How have ideas like the Hamitic hypothesis affected the writing of African history? Why were Africans the main source of labor for the Atlantic plantation system?
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