African History - Middle School and High School

Explore the continent of Africa by learning these words related to African history. This list covers African countries, the development of agriculture, diverse religious and cultural traditions, colonialism and slavery, and much more.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Afrikaans
    an official language of the Republic of South Africa
  2. Afrikaner
    a white native of Cape Province who is a descendant of Dutch settlers and who speaks Afrikaans
  3. agriculture
    the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock
  4. Algeria
    a republic in northwestern Africa on the Mediterranean Sea with a population that is predominantly Sunni Muslim; colonized by France in the 19th century but gained autonomy in the early 1960s
  5. Almoravid
    a member of a Muslim dynasty of Berber warriors that flourished from 1049 to 1145 and that established political dominance over northwestern Africa and Spain
  6. Angola
    a republic in southwestern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean
  7. animism
    the doctrine that all natural objects have souls
  8. apartheid
    a social policy of racial segregation
  9. aquifer
    underground layer of rock or sand that yields groundwater
  10. assimilation
    the process of absorbing one cultural group into another
  11. Bantu
    of or relating to the African people who speak one of the Bantoid languages or to their culture
  12. Belgian Congo
    a republic in central Africa
  13. Benin
    a country on western coast of Africa
  14. Berber
    a member of an indigenous people of northern Africa
  15. Boer
    a white native of Cape Province who is a descendant of Dutch settlers and who speaks Afrikaans
  16. Boer War
    either of two wars: the first when the Boers fought England in order to regain the independence they had given up to obtain British help against the Zulus (1880-1881); the second when the Orange Free State and Transvaal declared war on Britain (1899-1902)
  17. Botswana
    a landlocked republic in south-central Africa that became independent from British control in the 1960s
  18. Burkina Faso
    a desperately poor landlocked country in western Africa
  19. Burundi
    a landlocked republic in east central Africa on the northeastern shore of Lake Tanganyika
  20. camel
    cud-chewing mammal used as a saddle animal in desert regions
  21. Cameroon
    a republic on the western coast of central Africa
  22. caravan
    a procession traveling together in single file
  23. cash crop
    a cultivated plant that is grown to be sold for profit
  24. cattle
    domesticated cows as a group
  25. Cecil J. Rhodes
    British colonial financier and statesman in South Africa
  26. Central African Republic
    a landlocked country in central Africa
  27. Chad
    a landlocked desert republic in north-central Africa
  28. chief
    the head of a tribe or clan
  29. Christianity
    a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior
  30. city-state
    an independent nation comprised of a single town
  31. civilization
    a society in an advanced state of social development
  32. clan
    group of people related by blood or marriage
  33. colonial
    relating to a body of people who settle far from home
  34. colonialism
    exploitation by a stronger country of a weaker one
  35. colony
    a geographical area controlled by a distant country
  36. commerce
    transactions supplying goods and services
  37. Comoros
    a country on the Comoro Islands
  38. Congo
    a republic in central Africa
  39. Congolese
    of or relating to or characteristic of the Congo region or its people
  40. Congo River
    a major African river
  41. council
    a body serving in an administrative capacity
  42. craftsman
    a skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft
  43. Darfur
    an impoverished region of western Sudan
  44. David Livingstone
    Scottish missionary and explorer who discovered the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls (1813-1873)
  45. delta
    a low area of alluvial deposits where a river divides
  46. democracy
    a political system in which power lies in a body of citizens
  47. desertification
    a gradual transformation into arid, uninhabitable land
  48. Desmond Tutu
    South African prelate and leader of the antiapartheid struggle (born in 1931)
  49. dictatorship
    a form of government in which the ruler is unconstrained
  50. dissident
    a person who objects to some established policy
  51. diviner
    someone who claims to discover hidden knowledge with the aid of supernatural powers
  52. drought
    a shortage of rainfall
  53. dynasty
    a sequence of powerful leaders in the same family
  54. Egypt
    a republic in northeastern Africa known as the United Arab Republic until 1971; site of an ancient civilization that flourished from 2600 to 30 BC
  55. empire
    the domain ruled by a single authoritative sovereign
  56. equator
    an imaginary line around the Earth forming a great circle
  57. Equatorial Guinea
    a country of west central Africa
  58. Ethiopia
    Ethiopia is a republic in northeastern Africa on the Red Sea
  59. ethnic group
    people of the same race or nationality who share a distinctive culture
  60. famine
    a severe shortage of food resulting in starvation and death
  61. folktale
    a traditional story or legend circulated by word of mouth
  62. Fulani
    a member of a pastoral and nomadic people of western Africa
  63. Gabon
    a republic on the west coast of Africa
  64. Gambia
    a narrow republic surrounded by Senegal in West Africa
  65. genocide
    systematic killing of a racial or cultural group
  66. Ghana
    a republic in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea
  67. governor
    the head of a state authority
  68. Great Rift Valley
    a depression in southwestern Asia and eastern Africa
  69. griot
    a storyteller in West Africa
  70. Guinea
    a republic in western Africa on the Atlantic
  71. Haile Selassie
    emperor of Ethiopia; worshipped by Rastafarians (1892-1975)
  72. Hausa
    a member of a people living chiefly in northern Nigeria
  73. Henry M. Stanley
    Welsh journalist and explorer who led an expedition to Africa in search of David Livingstone and found him in Tanzania in 1871; he and Livingstone together tried to find the source of the Nile River (1841-1904)
  74. herder
    someone who drives a herd
  75. Horn of Africa
    a peninsula of northeastern Africa (the easternmost part of Africa) comprising Somalia and Djibouti and Eritrea and parts of Ethiopia
  76. hunter-gatherer
    a member of a hunting and gathering society
  77. Hutu
    a member of a Bantu people living in Rwanda and Burundi
  78. Igbo
    a member of the largest ethnic group in southeastern Nigeria
  79. imperialism
    a policy of extending your rule over foreign countries
  80. Iron Age
    the period following the Bronze Age
  81. Islam
    the monotheistic religious system of Muslims
  82. Ivory Coast
    a republic in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea
  83. Jomo Kenyata
    Kenyan statesman and the first president of independent Kenya (1893-1978)
  84. Kalahari Desert
    a desert in southwestern Africa - largely Botswana
  85. Kenya
    a republic in eastern Africa
  86. kingdom
    the domain ruled by a monarch
  87. Lake Tanganyika
    the longest lake in the world in central Africa between Tanzania and Congo in the Great Rift Valley
  88. Lake Victoria
    the largest lake in Africa and the 2nd largest fresh water lake in the world; a headwaters reservoir for the Nile River
  89. Lesotho
    a landlocked constitutional monarchy in southern Africa
  90. Liberia
    a republic in West Africa
  91. Libya
    a military dictatorship in northern Africa on the Mediterranean; consists almost entirely of desert; a major exporter of petroleum
  92. lineage
    the kinship relation between an individual and progenitors
  93. Madagascar
    a republic on the island of Madagascar
  94. Maghreb
    the region of northwest Africa comprising the Atlas Mountains and the coastlands of Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia
  95. malaria
    a disease caused by parasites transmitted by mosquito bite
  96. Malawi
    a landlocked republic in southern central Africa
  97. Mali
    a landlocked republic in northwestern Africa
  98. martial law
    military rule over civilian affairs
  99. matrilineal
    based on or tracing descent through female ancestors
  100. Mauritania
    a country in northwestern Africa with a provisional military government; achieved independence from France in 1960; largely western Sahara Desert
  101. Mauritius
    a parliamentary state on the island of Mauritius
  102. migration
    the movement of persons from one locality to another
  103. miner
    laborer who extracts ores and minerals
  104. Mogadishu
    the capital and largest city of Somalia
  105. Mombasa
    a port city in southern Kenya on a coral island in a bay of the Indian Ocean
  106. monotheism
    belief in a single God
  107. monsoon
    a seasonal wind in southern Asia
  108. Morocco
    a kingdom (constitutional monarchy) in northwestern Africa with a largely Muslim population; achieved independence from France in 1956
  109. Mozambique
    a republic on the southeastern coast of Africa on the Mozambique Channel; became independent from Portugal in 1975
  110. Namibia
    a republic in southwestern Africa on the south Atlantic coast (formerly called South West Africa); achieved independence from South Africa in 1990; the greater part of Namibia forms part of the high Namibian plateau of South Africa
  111. nationalist
    one who loves and defends his or her country
  112. Negritude
    an ideological position that holds Black culture to be independent and valid on its own terms; an affirmation of the African cultural heritage
  113. Nelson Mandela
    South African statesman who was released from prison to become the nation's first democratically elected president in 1994 (born in 1918)
  114. neocolonialism
    control by a powerful country of less developed countries
  115. Nigeria
    a republic in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea
  116. Niger River
    an African river; flows into the South Atlantic
  117. Nile River
    the world's longest river
  118. nomad
    a member of a people who have no permanent home
  119. paternalism
    attitude that people should be controlled in a fatherly way
  120. patrilineal
    based on or tracing descent through the male line
  121. plateau
    a relatively flat raised area of land
  122. poach
    hunt illegally
  123. protectorate
    a state or territory partly controlled by a stronger state
  124. rainforest
    a densely wooded tropical area with heavy precipitation
  125. Rwanda
    a landlocked republic in central Africa
  126. sacrifice
    the act of killing in order to appease a deity
  127. Sahara Desert
    the world's largest desert in northern Africa
  128. sanction
    the act of punishing
  129. savanna
    a flat grassland in tropical or subtropical regions
  130. self-rule
    government by a country's own people rather than by an outside power
  131. Senegal
    a republic in northwestern Africa on the coast of the Atlantic; formerly a French colony but achieved independence in 1960
  132. Shona
    a member of a Bantu tribe living in present-day Zimbabwe
  133. Sierra Leone
    a republic in West Africa
  134. slavery
    the practice or system of owning people as property
  135. slave trade
    traffic in people who are forced into unpaid labor
  136. Songhai
    a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Songhai in Mali and Niger
  137. South Africa
    a republic at the southernmost part of Africa
  138. sphere of influence
    the area over which a nation has power or control
  139. stele
    an ancient upright stone slab bearing markings
  140. sub-Saharan
    of or relating to or situated in the region south of the Sahara Desert
  141. subsistence farming
    farming that provides for the basic needs of the farmer without surpluses for marketing
  142. Sudan
    a republic in northeastern Africa on the Red Sea
  143. sultan
    the ruler of a Muslim country
  144. Swahili
    the most widely spoken Bantu languages
  145. Swaziland
    a landlocked monarchy in southeastern Africa
  146. Tanzania
    a republic in eastern Africa
  147. terrace
    make land into level shelves, as for cultivation
  148. Timbuktu
    a city in central Mali near the Niger river
  149. Togo
    a republic on the western coast of Africa on the Gulf of Guinea; formerly under French control
  150. township
    an administrative division of a county
  151. trade
    the commercial exchange of goods and services
  152. traditional
    pertaining to time-honored orthodox doctrines
  153. tsetse fly
    bloodsucking African fly; transmits sleeping sickness etc.
  154. Tunisia
    a republic in northwestern Africa on the Mediterranean coast
  155. Tutsi
    a member of a Bantu speaking people living in Rwanda and Burundi
  156. Uganda
    a landlocked republic in eastern Africa
  157. veldt
    elevated open grassland in southern Africa
  158. Western Sahara
    an area in northwestern Africa with rich phosphate deposits
  159. West Indies
    the string of islands between North America and South America; a popular resort area
  160. Yoruba
    a member of a West African people living chiefly in southwestern Nigeria
  161. Zanzibar
    an island in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa
  162. Zimbabwe
    a landlocked republic in south central Africa formerly called Rhodesia; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1980
  163. Zulu
    a member of an eastern South African community
Created on Wed Feb 15 13:55:51 EST 2017 (updated Fri Mar 31 11:37:07 EDT 2017)

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