CHAPTER 28
CHALLENGES OF NATION BUILDING IN
AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
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MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
2. Among the selectively distributed benefits of Western civilization in Africa in the
1940s were
a. universal public schooling in all British and Portuguese colonies.
b. railway networks and other industrial sectors in Algeria and South Africa.
c. a well-developed industrial nucleus in the Gold Coast.
d. nuclear power plants in Zimbabwe.
4. In regard to agricultural development in colonial Africa, it can be said that
a. the European “Green Revolution” seeds saved millions of lives in the 1930s.
b. most export profits were returned to local populations.
c. most of the native rural population grew their crops solely for their own
sustenance.
d. modern industrial development was relevant to the crop production of most
Africans.
6. In terms of the chronology of decolonization, it is accurate to say that
a. the first black African nation to become independent was the Congo, called the
Banana Coast prior to independence.
b. the African National Congress became increasingly radical as its modest initial
goals were rejected by white South African governments.
c. Ahmad Ben Bella convinced Britain to proclaim Sudanese independence in
1988.
d. Portugal left Angola in 1949.
8. The following are true of the ANC except
a. it was originally led by Western-inclined intellectuals who had little popular
support.
b. it was initially aimed at achieving full equality for the educated native
population through peaceful means.
c. its policies met with cooperative reactions from the white majority who held
power.
d. in time, its policies became more prone to the use of violence to achieve its
goals.
9. It can be said that, by the late 1960s,
a. Mozambique and Angola were still controlled by Portugal.
b. all of Africa had achieved independence.
c. the French colonies in Africa had still not achieved independence.
d. even Canada had at last agreed to free Gambia.
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10. The reasons for the relatively late development of African nationalism included
a. the rural population were little effected by colonialism and refused to change
traditional ways until the 1980s.
b. Africa’s late colonization meant that it would take longer for dissatisfaction to
develop and become institutionalized.
c. northern and southern Africans were deeply divided over the issue of
colonialism and linguistic and religious matters.
d. disputes over negritude and exoticism fatally divided francophone intellectuals.
11. In the years since the nations of Africa attained independence
a. economic wealth, but not social equality, has been achieved in all of Africa
except the Republic of South Africa.
b. most of the governments have not been pluralistic democracies.
c. the goal of economic prosperity has been broadly achieved.
d. social equality has become the norm.
12. African economic growth has been limited by all of the following except
a. scarce resources were squandered upon military equipment.
b. the necessity to import technology and manufactured goods from the West.
c. the spread of AIDS.
d. excessive water pollution by Africa’s successful industrial development.
14. In his Arusha Declaration of 1967, Julius Nyerere attempted to
a. establish a system of socialism and self-reliance.
b. take advantage of the multi-party system in Tanzania.
c. permit personal incomes to grow as much as they could.
d. initiate economic programs in the villages that would become totally
entrepreneurial.
15. In Kenya
a. the population has been reduced, which has slowed economic growth.
b. the shortage of available agricultural land forced many Kenyans to migrate to
Saudi Arabia to find better farmland.
c. the government of President Moi publicly praised the novelist Ngugi Wo
Thiong’o and published his work in the Kikuyu language.
d. capitalism is the dominant economic system.
16. The most notorious African dictator of recent decades and the country he ruled was
a. F.W.de Klerk and South Africa.
b. Abdoulaye Wade and Senegal.
c. Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya.
d. Ahmad Ben Bella and Algeria.
e. Idi Amin of Uganda.
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18. Of recent African developments, it can be said that
a. South African hopes collapsed when President Nelson Mandela established a
dictatorial regime.
b. true pluralistic democracy came to Algeria, at last, in 1995.
c. President Mobutu Sese Seko failed to keep his promise to create democratic
pluralism in Zaire and was overthrown in 1997.
d. the termination of Soviet support for Marxism in Ethiopia produced anarchy
and starvation in Nigeria.
20. In 1993, President de Klerk agreed with Nelson Mandela to implement
a. immediate and total National Party control until the ANC had greater
experience in governing such a diverse society.
b. a transitional period in which representatives of the National Party and the
ANC could be cabinet members.
c. democratic national elections.
d. a temporary dictatorship which combined representatives of both parties.
22. Which of the following is not true about the role of women in Africa?
a. Pre-colonial African women were as subordinate to men as their counterparts
in China and India.
b. Their roll was “complimentary rather than subordinate to men.”
c. Independence has furthered the cause of sexual equality in Africa.
d. Female genital mutilation is not uncommon in some African societies.
23. African culture has adapted to serve the tourist industry and the export market in the
areas of
a. pottery and steel fabrication in Axum.
b. wood carving, painting, and sculpture.
c. publication, tripling the Onitsha Market pamphlets for tourists since 1994.
d. novels and poetry written in local languages.
24. In African literature in recent years,
a. Wole Soyinka received the Nobel Prize for literature, but, threatened with
arrest, lives abroad.
b. the topical thrust in novels turned from attacks on imperialists to the
questioning of African leaders and the exploration of personal problems.
c. female novelists have been denied any chance to publish.
d. both a and b
25. The tragic situation in the Central African states of Rwanda and Burundi was the
conflict between
a. Christians and Muslims.
b. animists and shambas.
c. communists and capitalists.
d. Tutsi and Hutus.
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27. In African politics since 1980 all of the following have occurred except
a. Wole Soyinka went into exile because of government hostility toward his
writing.
b. the corrupt regime of Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown in 1997.
c. Nigeria’s oil wealth has been dissipated by a series of corrupt dictatorships.
d. most African states have experienced increasing economic prosperity.
28. The one issue that has served as a unifying factor for all Middle Eastern Muslim
states since the 1940s has been their
a. hostility toward Pakistan and India.
b. effort to defeat the Germans in World War II.
c. position on the Palestine question.
d. desire to increase oil production.
29. The formal establishment of the new state of Israel in May, 1948,
a. was made more palatable for Arabs by Israeli support for the establishment of
an Arab Palestinian state.
b. resulted in war between Israel and its Christian neighbors.
c. resulted in Arab denial of Israel’s recognition.
d. received United States support from President Franklin Roosevelt.
31. As a result of Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956,
a. Egypt was attacked by the British, the French, and the Israelis.
b. the Israelis supported the colonial powers.
c. the Eisenhower administration secured control of the canal for the Europeans
by sending in a United States occupation force.
d. the Israelis retained perpetual control of the Sinai Peninsula.
32. Gamal Abdul Nassar
a. was the only prominent Leninist to attain power in the Middle East.
b. appeared to be overshadowed by Colonel Saddam Hussein for two years.
c. implemented an extensive land reform program.
d. was the first Third World leader to develop atomic weaponry, on a very limited
scale.
33. All Israeli governments have been composed of coalitions of several political parties
because
a. of the diverse population and large area of the country.
b. the Knesset used the American electoral system.
c. the nation was composed of two sharply divided political parties.
d. the nation was composed of many political parties having diverse interests.
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35. Which undeclared or “surprise” wars were begun in the Middle East between 1965
and 1975?
a. an Israeli attack against Egypt and other Arab States in 1967
b. a Syrian attack on Israel and Jordan in 1970
c. an Egyptian and allied-Arab 1973 attack on Israel on Yom Kippur after
Nassar’s death
d. both a and c
36. Anwar al-Sadat
a. conceived of a union of Muslims, Arabs, Turks, and East Africans in the
“cross-continent state of sharing.”
b. never deviated from Nassar’s policies.
c. differed from Nassar, proving to be far more pragmatic.
d. was able, with the aid of President Richard Nixon, to work out a partial peace
with Israel in 1978.
37. The hopes for a lasting Middle East peace after Camp David were never realized, in
part because of
a. the 1981 assassination of Sadat by Jewish militants.
b. the refusal of many non-Islamic states to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
c. Israeli’s policy of establishing settlements in the occupied West Bank
territories.
d. Ronald Reagan’s election as the United States president.
e. the death of King Faisal.
39. All of the following about the rule of the Shah of Iran before 1979 are correct except
it
a. had raised per capita income significantly.
b. had strong American support, and resulted in Iranian policies that were hated
by many of its people.
c. caused, by advancing secular and Western ideas, a cultural clash within the
country that helped to cause his downfall.
d. attempted to establish a purely Islamic society.
40. Since 1979, Iraq has invaded both
a. Jordan and the Sudan.
b. Iran and Afghanistan.
c. Kuwait and Iran.
d. Kuwait and Afghanistan.
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41. The Islamic revival of the late twentieth century
a. has had a political impact in long-secular Turkey.
b. appeared first, and most strongly, in Lebanon.
c. is entirely the result of desires by the devout to oppose or reverse all new
ideas.
d. has focused on matters of belief, thus having little influence on women or
politics.
43. During the twentieth century, women in the Middle East
a. were aided by the “modernist” movement’s efforts to change female statuses
and roles by interpreting Islamic views in a manner closer to those
prevailing in the West.
b. experienced great changes in their lives before 1970, in countries such as
Saudi Arabia and Oman, which had regimes actively working to modernize
their societies.
c. have made perhaps the greatest advances in Saudi Arabia, where women now
have unlimited access to university education and may adopt Western
dress.
d. have never had any political rights in Iran.
45. In regard to the relationship between Islam and women’s rights, which of the
following is the most valid statement?
a. There is no longer a significant difference in ideas about female roles among
the peoples of the West and the Arab world.
b. Traditional attitudes have been re-established only in Iran.
c. Saudi Arabia has been the most conservative country in the Middle East in this
matter.
d. Early modernists viewed the wearing of the veil and the practice of polygamy
as purely Islamic.
46. The “economics of oil”
a. is actually a deceptively overstated term, as only two countries in the Middle
East contain significant oil deposits.
b. has enhanced the potential spread of Pan-Arabism.
c. is important politically as well, as most of the oil is located in such militarily
powerful and heavily populated areas as Turkey and Jordan.
d. played a role in Gamal Abdul Nasser’s espousal of Pan-Arabist ideas, as he
wanted all groups in the region to share in the oil wealth.
49. The two Muslim states in the Middle East which were in the forefront of giving
greater rights to women before 1980 were
a. Israel and Jordan.
b. Turkey and Iran.
c. Egypt and Syria.
d. Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
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