Q 01/05

Which leader gave the newly independent Gold Coast the name of ancient Ghana in 1957?

A) Jomo Kenyatta

B) Kwame Nkrumah

C) Julius Nyerere

D) Patrice Lumumba

Answer · why

B) Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah led the Gold Coast to independence as Ghana, although the old empire lay hundreds of miles to the northwest and never reached the modern...

Q 02/05

Which animals in gold and silver collars guarded the king of ancient Ghana's audience pavilion?

A) Lions

B) Leopards

C) Cheetahs

D) Dogs

Answer · why

D) Dogs

Dogs of excellent pedigree hardly ever left the king's side, an 11th-century account says, and their collars were studded with balls of the same preci...

Q 03/05

Which animal, new to the western Sahara in the 3rd century, made ancient Ghana's desert trade possible?

A) The camel

B) The donkey

C) The mule

D) The ox

Answer · why

A) The camel

The camel turned irregular desert tracks into a trade network that linked North Africa with the West African interior by the 7th century.

Q 04/05

When a king of ancient Ghana died, the throne passed by custom to which relative, not his own child?

A) His younger brother

B) His daughter's husband

C) His sister's son

D) His first wife

Answer · why

C) His sister's son

His sister's son inherited because kingship in the empire ran through the female line, a system historians call matrilineal descent.

Q 05/05

Every gold nugget in ancient Ghana belonged to the king, so his subjects could keep gold only as what?

A) Coins

B) Dust

C) Rings

D) Wire

Answer · why

B) Dust

Dust was all a commoner could keep, a rule that let the king control the supply and stop the metal losing its value.