Ch. 1

What is the "noble savage" myth and what purpose did it serve?

What are two aspects of traditional African culture that have become absorbed and then transformed into American culture?

Industrialization is occurring in Japan, North America, Taiwan, and Singapore. What is stopping Africa from being industrialized?

Why was Africa depicted as the "dark continent" or savage country by the Europeans?

Ch. 2

What does the future hold for Africa in terms of the AIDS epidemic and other diseases such as malaria?

Why did the sub-Saharan population per capita income and per capita food production decline after the 1960s?

What prevents Africa from using the same agricultural system as the U.S.?

What are the five physical and vegetational zones on the African continent?

What are the climates of Africa?

What is the "shifting cultivation" method and where is it practiced in Africa?

Ch. 3

Is it difficult to manage international boundaries when many African pastoralists go back and forth between countries?

How did the presence of foreign traders lead to mixed languages, such as pidgins?

What are the main language families of Africa?

Why are the Bantu languages so widespread in Africa?

 How has the separation of male/female roles in agriculture reflected on African cultures?

Ch. 4

What is lost-wax casting?

On what three levels should African art be understood, according to the book?

What are the main source and central forms of African literature?

What forms of art are distinctively African, and how are they to be understood?

What is African polyrhythmic musical style?

What is the trickster character in African myths and stories, and what is its importance to Americans?

Ch. 5

What is polygyny and how does it shape African society?

How did African women regulate the size of their families, in the traditional context?

What are the two major types of descent in traditional Africa? Are there others?

What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of polygyny?

Why are men in different physical accommodations and/or social roles than women?

How does the traditional bridewealth work?

How do polygyny and monogamy coexist in an African community?

Ch. 6

What is the relation between communal labor and spirituality?

How does labor relate to social organization (i.e., kinship groups, local government, age-sets) in pre-colonial Africa?

What problems did the colonial idea of labor encounter with Africa's idea of labor?

Under colonial rule, lhow has labor for the production of commodities altered the traditional African view?

In what ways do Western views of space differ from Africans' philosophy regarding space?

What is the pattern of African men who are working away from their homes on labor contracts?

Ch. 7

What are some similarities and differences between African courts and American courts?

How much do traditional thoughts and ideas along with traditional governing policies impact current African governments, and in what ways?

What are the characteristics of stateless societies?

What type of role do traditional states play in African countries?

What are a few examples of different social organization between states and stateless societies?

How can big state politics compromise with more traditional approaches?

How does hierarchy of authority help in taxation in traditional African states?

What were the legal methods, such as courts and moots, that traditional African states utilized? Stateless societies?

How did traditional African states determine succession to rule?

Ch. 8

How is the social side of the market important?

What are the three different ways that money can be used as described in the book?

Besides an economic center, what other important functions does the African market place serve? For instance, what roles do markets play in the social life of Africans?

Describe the differences among market economies and subsistence economies, and give examples of the two.

Ch. 9

What false conclusions has Europe come to about African religious practices?

What are the two main components of most African rituals?

What is the basis for witchcraft beliefs in traditional African thought?

How does ritual maintain the fabric of African society? Examples?

How have Christian missionaries shaped the religious and social make-up of Africans?

How do Muslim or Christian Africans incorporate any of the native beliefs?

Ch. 10

Who are the Hominidae?

Why is it so hard to come to any conclusions about early human culture?

Are the Khoisan people distinctively different from other Africans? In what ways?

How does the use of language fit into the scheme of the development of humans?

What is 'mitochondrial DNA' and why is it important?

Ch. 11

Is there evidence as to whether fishing was important or widespread in all of the interior of sub-Saharan Africa before the Sahara became as arid as it is today?

What agricultural techniques were displaced through iron-working?

What impact did the introduction of the camel have on sub-Saharan African markets?

How does linguistics play a role in studying the early migration patterns of early African people? How is the spread of language similar to the spread of agriculture across the continent?

What were the main contact situations among African cultures in the pre-colonial setting?

What are some firsts for Africa, even though they are still behind technologically?

What was revolutionary about the discovery of agriculture?

Ch. 12

How is Islam affecting Africa today, and how did it affect it in the past?

What role did Islam play in the lopsided development of northern Africa vs. sub-Saharan Africa? Do "modern" religions such as Christianity and Islam outnumber indigenous belief systems in modern Africa?

What proportion of the sub-Saharan Africans are Muslims today? Are their Muslim practices the same as in the Middle East and North Africa?

What else did Islam introduce to Africa besides its religion?

Since the Kush and Nubian states were in contact with the Mediterranean region, what influence did they have on the Roman world?

Ch. 13

How has Islam contributed to African societies?

With the introduction of the slave trade, was the end of isolation a good thing?

What is the main cause for famine and depopulation?

How did Ghana's geographical position enable it to become one of the first of a sequence of empires?

What caused the states of Ghana and Mali to collapse?

What is the tsetse fly and why did it limit the range of cattle keeping?

Ch. 14

How did slavery affect African economies?

How was slavery in Africa different from slavery in America?

What were the major slave uprisings on the African coast during the slave trade era?

Were there specific regions that were hurt more than others by the slave trade? that were made wealthy?

Ch. 15

What is "informal empire"?

What were other alternatives to empires?

Did other groups besides the Mthethwa and Zulu separate men into age grades for living, training, and fighting?

Ch. 16

How did the Sahara Desert influence the spread of Islam in Africa? In what ways was Islam introduced?

What effect have traditional African religions had on the doctrines of Islam?

What was the arrangement with Liberia involving ex-slaves?

Ch. 17

What were the significant changes taking place in Europe during the colonial period that affected the African colonies?

What events took place that consolidated the European annexation of Africa to its empires?

How has the European colonization of Africa affected the political boundaries on the continent?

Ch. 18

Why didn't indirect rule work well in Africa?

What was the nature of European ethnocentrism?

What political consequences did railroad investment have?

Ch. 19

What was the first step by Africans towards an independent state?

What was the uprising of the Ibo against the British?

What role did socialism play in the African independence movements, if any?

Ch. 20

What role does the illegitimate drug trade play in the economics of African nations?