TO UR IS HUMAN

Middle East and Africa

1. What proportion of the world’s population lives in Africa?

2. The Middle East produces about a third of the world’s oil. Which is the biggest producer in the region?

3. The following currencies are used in which countries? a) cedi b) pula c) lilangeni d) dobra e) nakfa

4. Approximately how many languages are spoken throughout the continent of Africa?

5. Over 360 tonnes of what are flown out of Nairobi airport every day?

6. Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot were appointed by which governments to do what when?

7. In which countries in the Middle East do Shia Muslims make up a majority?

8. What is the meaning of the names of the following groups? a) al Qaeda b) Ennahda c) Shabab

9. The Kurds are spread over which four countries?

10. Nkandla, a small village in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, is notorious for what reason?

11. Which city is known colloquially as “the mother of the world”?

12. In what year did these countries gain their independence? a) Algeria b) Uganda c) Burundi

13. Where did the Arab Spring begin?

14. Which Middle Eastern government was overthrown in 1953 and by whom?

15. According to the National Pact, an unwritten understanding dating back to 1943, the Lebanese president, prime minister and parliament’s speaker must be drawn from which religious groups respectively?

16. In which city and in what year did the peace accords between the Israelis and Palestinians take place, then led by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat?

17. Which African country is the world’s newest state?

18. Who is the first and (as of 2017) only Arab to have won the Nobel prize for literature?

19. What is the significance of the number 46664?

20. In 2014 Nigeria became Africa’s largest economy overnight. How?

21. Hosni Mubarak took over as president of Egypt in 1981 following what event?

22. Israel fought the the six-day war in 1967 with which Arab states?

23. In which decade and in which country was the Muslim Brotherhood founded?

24. Why are the cities of Natanz and Fordow of particular concern to Israel?

25. Which is the largest country (by geographic area) in the Arab world?

26. What is the world’s oldest seat of Muslim learning and where is it located?

27. In what year was the kingdom of Saudi Arabia founded? a) 1901 b) 1911 c) 1929 d) 1932

28. At the end of the cold war, how many of Africa’s 53 countries were democracies?

29. In October 2016, South Africa, the Gambia and Burundi announced their withdrawal from which institution, claiming it was biased against African states?

30. In 2008 inflation in Zimbabwe reached what rate (to the nearest million %)?

31. Paul Biya is the ruler of which country and has been since when? (You can have three years either side.)

32. The borders of Lesotho are notable for what reason?

33. Which document did the African Union launch in 2016 and who were the first two recipients?

34. In the UN declaration of 1947, was Jerusalem declared: a) the capital of Israel b) the capital of Palestine c) a joint capital or d) an international area under UN control?

35. On which Jewish holiday did an Arab coalition launch a war against Israel?

36. Only three countries in the world recognised the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Two were Arab. Which were they?

37. Which Israeli politician worked briefly with Mitt Romney at the Boston Consulting Group in 1976?

38. What proportion of the population of the Middle East is aged between 15 and 29? (You can have 5% either side.)

39. Which state owns al-Jazeera?

40. The following countries were run by which colonial powers: a) Rwanda b) the Democratic Republic of Congo c) Mozambique d) Nigeria?

41. The son of which British prime minister tried to orchestrate a coup in which African country in 2004?

42. Which African country shares its name with an Anglo-Saxon boy’s name and the particles created when holes are punched in paper, such as on a voting ballot?

43. The war between Iran and Iraq, led by Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein, lasted how long?

44. Which prime minister said: “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles”?

45. The Rub al Khali desert is also known as what?

46. Who was Ethiopia’s last emperor?

47. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was murdered in 1975 by: a) his son b) his nephew or c) his butler?

48. What is notable about the constitution of Israel?

49. Which French philosopher did Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini meet while in exile in Paris?

50. Africa comprises what proportion of the world’s land area? (You can have 2% either side.)