HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AFRICA?
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer the following statements with True or False:
1.______The United States fits into the area of Africa a little over 3 times.
2.______Africa is composed mostly of desert, jungle and some grassland.
3.______Africa has lion, tigers and many other wild animals.
4.______The cultures of Africa are very similar.
5.______Most of Africa has four seasons.
6.______Africa is one of the largest countries in the world.
7.______Cannibalism was a common practice in Africa.
8.______Tarzan was actually a British orphan lost in Central Africa.
9.______The “Afro” is a hair style from Africa.
10.______There are very few tribes left in Africa today.
11.______Outside of South Africa, there are very few ethnic problems in Africa.
12.______Africa is a poor land with few resources.
13.______The Americans started slavery in Africa.
14.______The people in Africa live in huts.
15.______The male lion is the best hunter of all the African cats.
16.______Africa had no early history or any advanced civilizations.
17.______The largest river in the world is the Nile.
18.______Most Africans speak the same language.
19.______Africans are either natives or Europeans.
20.______The first recorded event of a person being boiled alive was
in Africa.
______Write down your number of TRUE statements
Answers:
1. The U.S. (3,618,770 square miles) fits into Africa (11,688,000 square miles) about 3.2 times.
2. Africa is actually about 55% savanna grassland, 25% desert (and increasing in size), and 10% rain forest (and decreasing in size). The “jungle”-very thick vegetation-is usually found around rivers where the sun can penetrate to the ground. Rain forests have little ground vegetation due to the blockage of the sun by the trees.
3. There are no tigers in Africa. Less than 1% of the animal population Africa had in 1900 remains today due to poaching and human encroachment wildlife habitat.
4. There are over 700 different culture groups in Africa.
5. Most of Africa has wet and dry seasons. Ninety percent of Africa is located in the tropics.
6. Africa is a continent with more countries than any other continent.
7. This was an image promoted by early explorers and missionaries in Africa to justify their existence in Africa and the need to bring Africans “civilization.”
8. This is a “Hollywood” image of Africa. Tarzan only exists in the movies.
9. The Afro is an American hair style.
10. Same as number 4.
11. Just about every African country has or has had ethnic or tribal problems-Uganda, Nigeria, Angola, Ethiopia, etc.
12. Africa has a vast amount of resources: 70% of the world’s diamonds, 60% of the world’s gold, 40% of the world’s water power, copper, tin, platinum, uranium, etc.
13. Africans practiced slavery before Europeans explored there, but it was the Arabs, Europeans, and later the Americans who took the slaves out of the continent.
14. Africans live in all types of houses--try to avoid the ethnocentric term of “huts” left over from colonial days.
15. The female lion does most of the hunting. “King of the Jungle” should actually be “Queen of the Savanna!”
16. This statement was used by Europeans to justify colonization of Africa. Africans had many advanced civilization, but few written records were left.
17. The Nile is the longest river in the world; the Amazon is the largest in water volume.
18. Most Africans speak their tribal language, another tribal or regional language (such as Swahili in East Africa), and a European language.
19. Explain to your students that everyone is a “native” of some place, and the term should not only apply to Africa. Also, there are Arabs and many Asians in Africa.
20. Another “Hollywood” image.
RESOURCES:
Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Collier Books, 1974.
July, Robert W. A History of the African People. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,1974.
Oliver, Roland and J.D. Fage. A Short History of Africa. Baltimore:
Penguin Books, 1973.
Turnbull, Colin M. Man in Africa. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1977.