Geog. 300: Africa

Review Questions 5

Cities, Towns, and Villages

1. In Africa, which of the following occupy the top of the hierarchy of settlements?
   1. Towns
   2. Cities
   3. Villages
   4. Hamlets
   
   
2. Which of the following is at the bottom of the settlement hierarchy in Africa?
   1. Towns
   2. Cities
   3. Villages
   4. Hamlets
   
   
3. Which of the following will be more urban in Africa?
   1. Regional capitals
   2. District capitals
   3. Both of them
   
   
4. The first human settlements in Africa were in the form of
   1. huts and hamlets
   2. towns and villages
   3. towns and cities
   4. all of the above
   
   
5. According to archaeologists, the transformation of towns into cities in Africa were largely due to
   1. economic reasons
   2. religious reasons
   3. political reasons
   4. all of the above
   
   
6. In which of the following places did transformation of towns into cities take place in Ancient Africa?
   1. The Lower Nile Valley
   2. The Upper Nile Valley
   3. The Mediterranean Coast
   4. All of the above
   
   
7. The development of the first cities in Ancient Africa occured during the reign of
   1. Amenhotep
   2. Tutunkamen
   3. Ramses II
   4. Menes
   5. None of the above
   
   
8. Which of these places became a capital city of ancient Egypt?
   1. Abydos
   2. Memphis
   3. Thebes
   4. Avaris
   5. All of the above
   
   
9. The first city in Ancient Africa to reach 100,000 people and also the first to be walled is
   1. Thebes
   2. Avaris
   3. Memphis
   4. Abydos
   5. All of the above
   
   
10. At the time it became the number one city of Ancient Egypt, Thebes was a city of how many people?
    1. 100,000
    2. 80,000
    3. 60,000
    4. 200,000
    5. 300,000
    
    
11. Which of the following cities vied to be the world's largest city in the third century?
    1. Cairo
    2. Memphis
    3. Alexandria
    4. Thebes
    
    
12. At its height in ancient times, this city had 300,000 people. It was in this city that Caesar met Cleopatra when the Romans tried to conquer Egypt. When Egypt became a Roman Province this city still remained as the largest Jewish city as well as the center of Greek civilization in Africa. Which city is being described?
    1. Cairo
    2. Carthage
    3. Memphis
    4. Thebes
    5. Alexandria
    
    
13. For which of the following were Egyptian cities noted?
    1. Their aqueducts
    2. Monumental architecture
    3. Public baths
    4. Smallness
    
    
14. Which of these cities emerged in the Upper Nile region?
    1. Kerma
    2. Nepata
    3. Meroe
    4. All of the above
    
    
15. The last major city of Ancient Africa that gained a considerable fame was
    1. Cairo
    2. Carthage
    3. Messina
    4. Sicily
    
    
16. In which present-day African country was the city of Carthage?
    1. Egypt
    2. Morroco
    3. Tunisia
    4. Algeria
    
    
17. How important did Carthage become in the third century?
    1. It became the largest city in the world
    2. It became the second largest city in the world
    3. It became more important than Rome
    4. It became the third largest city in the world
    
    
18. The Punic Wars were fought between
    1. the Romans and the Greeks
    2. the Romans and the Egyptians
    3. the Romans and the Carthaginians
    4. the Carthaginians and the Berbers
    
    
19. What was Punic?
    1. The language of Egyptians
    2. The language of Romans
    3. Phoenician language
    4. The language of the people of Carthage
    5. Both c and d
    
    
20. After bouncing back three times from near destruction, Carthage was finally ransacked by
    1. the Moslem Arabs
    2. the Greeks
    3. the French
    4. the Phoenicians
    5. the Romans
    
    
21. Much of city growth in the Lower Nile during Medieval Africa was influenced by the
    1. Moslem invasion
    2. Christian invasion
    3. Greek invasion
    4. Roman invasion
    5. All of the above
    
    
22. Which of these cities were founded after the Moslem invasions of North Africa?
    1. Fostat
    2. Qairawan
    3. Cairo
    4. All of the above
    
    
23. Which of these cities became the largest Islamic city and the fifth largest city in the world by 1013?
    1. Fostat
    2. Qairawan
    3. Cairo
    
    
24. What explained the rapid growth of Cairo during the Islamic period?
    1. Able kings
    2. Efficient transportation system
    3. the Nile River
    4. All of the above
    
    
25. As a medieval city, Cairo became the largest city in the world boasting of
    1. 500,000 people
    2. 35 major market places
    3. 494 mosques
    4. All of the above
    
    
26. Which of the following factors led to the decline of Cairo in the Middle Ages?
    1. The death of King Nasir
    2. A bubonic plague that wiped out almost about half of the city's population
    3. The Ottoman Turkish invasion
    4. All of the above
    
    
27. What factors accounted for the growth of Walata, Ghana, Mali, and Gao?
    1. Because they all served as the capital cities of the Western Sudanese Empires
    2. Because they were all major centers of learning
    3. Because they were major industrial sites
    4. Because they on caravan trade routes
    5. All of the above
    
    
28. Which of these cities became famous as centers of learning?
    1. Mali and Massina
    2. Timbuktu and mali
    3. Jenne and Timbuktu
    4. Gao and Jenne
    
    
29. Which of the following cities were established by the Hausa-speaking people of Northern Nigeria?
    1. Kano, Rano, and Katsina
    2. Zaria and Zamfara
    3. Daura and Gober
    4. All of the above
    
    
30. The greatest Medieval city in Eastern Africa was
    1. Mogadishu
    2. Kilwa
    3. Great Zimbabwe
    4. Nairobi
    
    
31. Which of the following factors affected the growth of settlements in Africa during the Colonial period?
    1. Transportation and communication nodes
    2. Resource regions
    3. Seats of Colonial administration
    4. All of the above
    
    
32. Which of the cities owed its growth to mining activities?
    1. Johannesburg, South Africa
    2. Kitwe, Zambia
    3. Kolwezi, DRC
    4. Que, Que, Zimbabwe
    5. All of the above
    
    
33. Which of the following cities owed their growth to transportation and communication development?
    1. Mombasa, Kenya
    2. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
    3. Takoradi, Ghana
    4. Port Harcourt, Nigeria
    5. All of the above
    
    
34. Why did the growth towns and cities in Africa accelerate in the post colonial period?
    1. The freedom of movement that came with the return to political independence
    2. The declining rural employment due to changing weather patterns that cause people to leave the countryside
    3. Economic development policies that created a lure of attraction in the few existing cities in the post colonial period
    4. All of the above
    
    
35. What does it mean to say most African capital cities are primate cities?
    1. Because they tend to be proportionately too large compared to other cities in the country that they dominate the political, economic, and cultural life of the country
    2. Because they tend to be proportionately too large compared to other cities in the country that they become almost unmanageable.
    3. Because they tend to be too large compared to other cities that they siphon all the resources in the country to themselves.
    4. All of the above
    
    
36. Which of the following building materials serves as a continuous reminder of Africa's colonial legacy?
    1. Mud and thatch
    2. Cement block
    3. The corrugated iron sheet
    4. The red roof
    5. All of the above
    
    
37. Which of the following architectural styles occur in Africa, especially in the countryside?
    1. The quadrangle
    2. Round compound houses
    3. Both a and b
    
    
38. Why is landscaping with grass a rare occurrence in the towns and villages of the African countryside?
    1. Because it is easier to keep the weeds out by sweeping with a broom than to clear the weeds with the machete
    2. Because it makes it easier to keep dangerous animals especially poisonous snakes away from settlements
    3. Both a and b
    
    
39. Which of the following factors constitutes a problem in African cities?
    Unemployment
    1. Crime and Violence
    2. Inadequate infrastructure
    3. Poor sanitation and public health
    4. All of the above
    
    
40. "These houses are European in design and very spacious. They are essentially European in style, and situated in pleasant, landscaped surroundings. They have high security walls, and guarded entrances." What type of African housing is being described?
    1. Middle-class housing
    2. Working-class housing
    3. Elite housing
    4. None of the above
    
    
41. The proportion of the middle-class living in government houses in Africa has declined in the post colonial times except for
    1. the police
    2. the military
    3. all of the above
    
    
42. Which of the following people have mostly from "low-cost" government housing in Africa?
    1. The elite
    2. The middle class
    3. The working poor
    4. The unemployed
    
    
43. Most of working poor housing in Africa consists of
    1. two rooms
    2. one room
    3. two rooms and individual kitchen
    4. all of the above
    
    
44. What type of housing is available to the unemployed in Africa's cities?
    1. Dwellings of relatives
    2. Entryways and courtyards of houses
    3. The streets, markets, or other public places
    4. All of the above
    
    
45. Who are the unemployed in urban America?
    1. Mostly men
    2. Migrants from the rural areas who have left their families
    3. Children some of whom have been orphaned by AIDS
    4. All of the above
    
    
46. Why is it that appropriateness of housing in Africa cannot be evaluated only in terms of utilitarian indices?
    1. Because in Africa, housing performs many more cultural functions.
    2. Because housing in Africa reflects several nonwestern cultural values
    3. Both a and b
    
    
47. Why did many public housing policies in Africa fail to meet the needs of the working poor?
    1. Because the prices of the so-called low income housing was beyond what the poor could afford
    2. Because in a number of cases the allocation of housing was undemocratic and was tainted with favoritism and nepotism.
    3. The high cost of construction also prevented enough housing to be provided.
    4. All of the above
    
    
48. Before the 1980s, how did African governments respond initially to squatter settlements?
    1. Upgrade the area for the rich
    2. Bulldoze the area down often with no warning
    3. Both a and b
    
    
49. What are the main components of urban upgrading schemes that are currently going on in urban Africa?
    1. Governments develops a new suburb by providing basic infrastructure and plot layouts
    2. Prospective homeowners build houses to suit their needs once they have acquired the lot
    3. Both a and b
    
    
50. How are governments dealing with squatter settlements now?
    1. They are improving their infrastructure and incentives to home owners to upgrade them
    2. They are buying out the properties from their owners and renovating them to look nicer
    3. They are still razing them down as before
    4. All of the above.
    
    
51. What did the International Monetary Fund (IMF) require African governments to do in terms of housing under their structural adjustment programs?
    1. To get out of the housing market.
    2. To curtail housing subsidy
    3. To privatize public-sector housing projects
    4. To limit housing subsidy
    5. All of the above
    
    
52. What resulted from the above policy?
    1. Housing became very expensive
    2. Many people were able to afford housing
    3. The number of homeless people were considerably reduced
    4. All of the above

52. The single most important development that affected settlement growth in Africa during the Colonial Period was the growing influence of Europeans in Africa. ___
    
    
53. Algiers, Elmina, Whydah, Cape Town, and Zanzibar all owed their growth to being slave ports. ___
    
    
54. The greatest slave port in Africa during the Slave Trade era was Lagos. ____
    
    
55. One of the results of the existence of primate city growth in Africa is the marked disparity that exists in amenities between the primate city and the countryside. ____
    
    
56. For the most part, life in the African countryside is very much the same as it pertains in the cities. ____
    
    
57. In most African towns and villages, the main building materials are mud and thatch. ___
    
    
58. The main determinant of access to housing in Africa is social class. ___
    
    
59. The squatter settlements in African cities constitute one response from those who have been denied access to building plots in the city. ____
    
    
60. The site-and-service schemes in urban Africa are now meeting the needs of the urban poor and the unemployed? ____