Unit 1: Origins of the African Diaspora
African American Studies · Unit 1 · Paper 2

Origins of the African Diaspora unit test

A test on this unit alone, marked as a percentage and a letter grade — for the test your class is actually sitting, rather than for May. Answer everything, then submit once: seeing the answer to question 3 before attempting question 4 makes the final percentage meaningless.

Paper 1Paper 2Paper 3
Each paper is built from this unit’s 33 terms and is the same for everyone, so a teacher can assign “Unit 1, Paper 2” and every student sits the identical test. Multiple choice is marked objectively; the written sections you mark yourself against the model answer and rubric.
Suggested time 30 min 27 points0/17 attempted
1

Women's authority in African societies

2

Songhai Empire (c. 1464–1591)

3

Demographic effects on West and Central Africa

4

African cultural retention in the Americas

5

Indigenous African slavery vs chattel slavery

6

Racialization of slavery

7

Griot

8

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

9

Africa's geographic diversity

10

Sundiata Keita and the Epic of Sundiata

11

Timbuktu and Sankore

12

Islam in West Africa

Short answer 1. Define or explain: Triangular trade

3 pts

Short answer 2. Define or explain: Olaudah Equiano

3 pts

Short answer 3. Define or explain: Ghana Empire (c. 300–1200)

3 pts

Short answer 4. Define or explain: Indian Ocean trade network

3 pts

Free response

3 pts

SHORT-ANSWER QUESTION 2: Non-Text Source (3 points). Examine the description of the image. The image is a 1970 photograph by Marli Shamir (Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art) of the griot Basimana in Mali, seated with his guitar — a modern portrait of a West African hereditary musician-historian with his instrument.

A. Describe an important role played by early West African griots.

B. Describe one example of a griot tradition that was continued by people of the African diaspora during the period of enslavement.

C. Using a specific example, explain how twentieth-century (1900s) cultural or artistic traditions demonstrate connections to West African griot traditions.