Lesson Y8-U03-L01

Y8-U03-L01 Africa Before the Slave Trade Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 9

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U03-L01, Africa Before the Slave Trade: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 9: Year 8: Slavery, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What two goods made the Empire of Mali rich through trade across the Sahara?

    • Cotton and tea
    • Silk and spices
    • Gold and salt
    • Silver and tin

  2. What was the name of Mali's famous centre of learning?

    • Timbuktu
    • Alexandria
    • Benin City
    • Mecca

  3. Which wealthy Mali ruler made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324?

    • Mansa Musa
    • Sunni Ali
    • Oba Ewuare
    • Askia Muhammad

  4. What is a pilgrimage?

    • A long religious journey to a holy place
    • A type of trade route that crossed the Sahara and linked West Africa to the north
    • A royal palace built in the centre of a capital city for the ruler and his court
    • A bronze sculpture cast by a master craftsman for the court of the Oba of Benin

  5. What was the title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Benin?

    • The Askia
    • The Sultan
    • The Mansa
    • The Oba

  6. What were the Benin Bronzes mostly made of?

    • Marble
    • Wood
    • Gold
    • Brass

  7. Which Songhai ruler reorganised the empire with provinces, governors and a tax system?

    • Ibn Battuta, the Moroccan traveller who wrote about the cities of West Africa
    • Askia Muhammad
    • Sunni Ali, the warrior who expanded Songhai by conquest in the late fifteenth century
    • Mansa Musa, the famous Mali ruler whose pilgrimage to Mecca made his empire known

  8. Which was the largest empire in West African history by the 1500s?

    • Rome
    • Britain
    • Songhai
    • Ottoman Empire

  9. Which traveller visited Mali around 1352 and praised its justice and security?

    • Leo Africanus
    • Christopher Columbus
    • Ibn Battuta
    • Marco Polo

  10. What did Ibn Battuta praise about the people of Mali?

    • They banned all trade with the outside world and closed every port to foreign ships
    • They had no laws at all, so disputes were settled by force between rival families
    • They built iron ships that sailed the Atlantic and traded with the peoples of Europe
    • They were seldom unjust and hated injustice

  11. The stereotype that Africa had no history was used in part to excuse which practice?

    • Medieval trade in silk
    • The Roman roads
    • The slave trade
    • Building cathedrals

  12. Why was salt valuable in West Africa?

    • It was scarce in the south but essential for preserving food and health
    • It was made of gold and then melted down to be shaped into coins for the traders
    • It was only used as decoration on the walls of the palaces and the temples of the court
    • It grew wild in every village and could be gathered freely by any family at any time

  13. Why was Mansa Musa's gold giveaway in Cairo significant?

    • It made the Pope rich, because the gold was sent to Rome as a gift for the Church
    • It caused Mali to collapse at once, when its treasury ran out in a single year
    • It showed the world West Africa's wealth, and in Cairo it lowered gold's value for years
    • It proved Mali had no gold and that the stories of its wealth were all false

  14. What does the fine bronze art of Benin suggest about its society?

    • It had no contact with other peoples, so its art developed in complete isolation
    • It was wealthy, skilled and organised enough to train master craftspeople
    • It was a nomadic society with no cities, moving constantly to find new pasture for its herds
    • It was too poor to make art, and its people had to rely on imports from other lands

  15. Why was Timbuktu important in the medieval world?

    • It was a Portuguese fort built to guard the trade routes along the Niger river
    • It was a famous centre of learning with scholars and manuscripts
    • It was a silver mine that supplied the coins of the Songhai and Mali courts
    • It was a port for British slave ships that anchored along the river for trade

  16. Why is the Kingdom of Benin not the same as the modern country of Benin?

    • The Kingdom of Benin was in present-day southern Nigeria
    • The Kingdom of Benin was in Brazil, where Portuguese settlers built its great walls
    • The Kingdom of Benin was in Ireland, on the coast near the mouth of the River Shannon
    • It is the same place as Mali, which was simply called Benin by European mapmakers

  17. Why is the stereotype that Africa had no history dangerous?

    • It could be used to dehumanise people and excuse the slave trade and empire
    • It shows that Europeans invented writing, and that African peoples had no written records at all
    • It makes Africa more famous to European readers who want exotic stories about the continent
    • It proves Africa had no cities, which is simply a false claim made by some European writers

  18. Why does the lesson say the Songhai Empire shows 'civilisation'?

    • Its rulers were all from Europe, and it was governed from the capital in Lisbon
    • Its organisation and administration, not only its wealth, show a sophisticated state
    • It was smaller than a village, with only a few families living in its small court
    • It had no armies or taxes, so it depended entirely on voluntary gifts from its people

  19. Why is the Benin Bronze art evidence against the 'backward' stereotype?

    • Bronze can be made without any skill, simply by pouring metal into a mould
    • Master craftspeople needed patrons, training, materials, stability and peace
    • Art shows a society had no laws, since artists only work when there is no authority
    • Art can only be made by poor people who have no other way to earn a living at all

  20. Why does Ibn Battuta's praise count as evidence against the 'backward' stereotype?

    • It describes a just, safe and well-governed society, from an experienced outside eyewitness
    • It describes a land with no roads, where travellers had to walk for weeks through the desert
    • It shows Mali had no laws, since its rulers relied entirely on the strength of their armies
    • It proves Ibn Battuta was from Mali, because he wrote the account while living in the palace

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