It’s time to get those rope-tuned drums out.
Questions
Known as ‘The Great’ and buried in Gao with his tomb being recognised as a World Heritage Site, name a year is Askia Muhammad’s reign of the Songhai?
1493 TO 1528
Named for their first ruler rather than a potential religious reason, which dynasty ruled the Songhai empire from 1464 to 1493, before the Askia dynasty took over?
SONNI / SUNNI / SI
The southern part of Mali is in what savanna, where most of the inhabitants live and through which the Niger and Senegal rivers pass?
SUDANIAN
Which is the largest ethnic group of Mali at 33.3%? On the list of notable people there are many named Traoré and Coulibaly.
BAMBARA
Which interim president of Mali took power from Bah Ndaw in a 2021 coup, also being leader of the military junta that ousted Boubacar Keïta in 2020?
ASSIMI GOÏTA
An army from which country defeated the Songhai at the Battle of Tondibi in 1591, leading to the empire’s collapse?
MOROCCO
Named for an animal, which operation did France launch in 2013 to peg back the Tuareg rebels who had declared the independent state of Azawad?
SERVAL
Which 13th century great-uncle of Mansa Musa was a prince and founder of the Mali empire? An epic poem primarily known through oral tradition by the Malinké centres around his life.
SUNDIATA KEITA
According to a legend, into what animal did Sundiata Keita transform himself upon his death?
HIPPOPOTAMUS
Also a Ramsar wetland, which tributary of the Niger forms part of the border between Guinea and both Côte d’Ivoire and Mali? It was here that Sundiata Keita allegedly turned into a hippopotamus.
SANKARANI
What term is given to a West African storyteller in the oral tradition with musical accompaniment, sometimes called a bard? In the “Blank Panther” films, there is an artificial intelligence assistant that goes by this name.
GRIOT
Containing over 2 million individuals in Mali that make up nearly 10% of the population, which Mande speaking people were the founders of the ancient empire of Ghana?
SONINKE
Similar to the earlier settlement found at Dia on the Niger river, which other double-barreled Malian archaeological site is known for its terracotta figurines of humans and animals, sharing the first half of its name with an extremely famous site in Mali?
DJENNÉ-DJENNO
The most important of his works being “Book of Highways and Kingdoms”, which Huelva-born Arab historian and geographer mentions that Gao in the 10th century was one of the few urban centres on the Niger river to have embraced Islam?
AL-BAKRI
There works of Ibn Khaldun describe the conversion of a Malian ruler callee Barmandana, but for which work is the Tunisian-born author best known, also being called the “Prolegomena”?
MUQADDIMAH
A few geographical details about Mali are found in the works of which Ceuta born Arab geographer, who created the “Tabula Rogeriana”, one of the medieval world’s most advanced maps?
AL-IDRISI
The Ghana empire ended in 1078 when it was conquered by which dynasty, who had their capital at Marrakesh?
ALMORAVID
At which battle that took place around 1235 was king Sumanguru Kanté defeated by Sundiata Keita, resulting in the creation of the Mali empire?
KIRINA
Of which empure was Sumanguru Kanté king, with its existence being sandwiched between the Ghana empire and the Mali empire that defeated it at the 13th-century Battle of Kirina?
SOSSO
Born in Andalusia and captured by Muslim slave traders as a young boy, who led the forces that defeated the Songhai empire at the Battle of Tondibi, later being executed as a result of Moroccan politics in 1606?
JUDAR PASHA
The djembe drum can be found in which classification of musical instruments, with examples all being drums except for mirlitons, kazoos and swazzles?
MEMBRANOPHONES
Part of the membranophone family, the djembe is what shaped drum?
GOBLET OR CHALICE
Traditionally played only by men, which drum that is played with a stick is played in an ensemble with one or more djembes?
DUNUN
Conversely to the male dominated djembe and dunun players, which percussion instrument made from a hollowed-out gourd that is covered with a net of beads is usually only played by women?
SHEKERE
Like the shekere mainly played by women, which percussion instrument is a closed basket with a flat bottom that is played by shaking, similar to maracas?
CAXIXI
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