36-Week WAEC Revision Programme — History
September to the May WAEC sitting. SS3 is not a year of new material so much as a year of pressure on material already met, so this is not a course to work through from the beginning — it is a testing programme. Each week you answer cold, work the ones you got wrong, and have the AI explain why you got them wrong. Anything you turn out never to have been taught, you learn there and then, and meet again three weeks later.
A week is one block of the syllabus and the prompts that cover it. You are not meant to do all of them: answer the questions first, and let what you get wrong decide which of the rest you need. Fifteen or twenty minutes a subject is a real week's work — nine subjects do not fit any other way.
Every week, in this order
Start with the questions, not the explanation. The first two steps are in every week; a purpose-written mistake or pitfalls prompt appears in about half of them, and where it does not, your own wrong answers are the material for step three.
- 1. Retrieve — Answer cold, with nothing in front of you. Wrong answers are the point — they show you where the week's work is.
- 2. Drill — Work the ones you missed properly, showing every step, so you and the AI can both see where it went wrong.
- 3. Explain my error — Ask why your answer was wrong, not just what the right one is. Where the week offers a Spot My Mistake or WAEC Pitfalls prompt, use it.
- 4. Teach me — Only if the error turns out to be something you were never taught. Then come back and retrieve it again.
Historical Skills & Sources
↑ Jump to week- Week 1
- Quiz me on the political and religious conditions in Hausa land before the 1804 jihad
- Quiz me: The difference between primary and secondary sources, with West African examples of each
- Objective test: The main sources of history — oral, written, archaeological and linguistic
- Practice set: the early life, education and preaching of Usman Dan Fodio
- WAEC essay: the organisation and course of Usman Dan Fodio's jihad
- Practice set: How a historian judges whether a source is reliable
- WAEC essay: The uses and importance of studying history
- Catch my mistakes: The flight to Gudu and its significance as a hijra
- Catch my mistakes: Bias, exaggeration and silence as problems in historical evidence
- Explain back: the causes of the Sokoto jihad
- Roleplay: interview about the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate
- Project task: The Gobir rulers' response to Usman Dan Fodio's preaching
- Link to today: The parts played by Abdullahi dan Fodio and Muhammad Bello in the jihad
- Explain back: Why two historians can disagree about the same event
- Roleplay: The work of a historian gathering evidence about a Nigerian community
- Project task: Building a short history of my own family or town from the sources available to me
- Link to today: Chronology and dating, and the problem of establishing when things happened
- Learn: The meaning of history, and what makes an account historical rather than legendary
- Week 2
- Quiz me: Griots, court historians and praise singers as keepers of oral tradition
- Objective test: Oral tradition compared with written records as historical evidence
- Practice set: The strengths of oral tradition for reconstructing West African history before writing
- WAEC essay: How a historian tests an oral account against other kinds of evidence
- Catch my mistakes: Why a tradition of origin is not the same thing as a proven fact
- Explain back: The limitations of oral tradition — distortion, telescoping and the interest of the teller
- Roleplay: Collecting an oral account from an elder and recording it properly
- Project task: The Bayajidda and Oduduwa accounts as examples of traditions of origin
- Link to today: Archaeology and linguistics as checks on what oral tradition claims
- Learn: What oral tradition is, and the forms it takes in West Africa
Pre-Colonial West African States
↑ Jump to week- Week 3
- Objective test: the similarities and differences between Seku Ahmadu's and Umar's jihads
- Quiz me on the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade
- Objective test: the establishment of early mission stations in West Africa
- Practice set: the causes of Seku Ahmadu's jihad
- WAEC essay: the biography and career of Alhaji Umar (Umar Tal)
- WAEC essay: the roles of missionary societies such as the Church Missionary Society
- Catch my mistakes: The course of Alhaji Umar's jihad and the building of the Tukulor empire
- Catch my mistakes: The difficulties missionaries met in the West African interior
- Explain back: the impacts of Seku Ahmadu's jihad on Masina
- Project task: The administration of the Caliphate of Hamdullahi
- Link to today: The effects of the Tukulor empire on the western Sudan
- Explain back: The part played by freed slaves and Saro returnees in West African missions
- Roleplay: The missionary study of West African languages and the work of translation
- Link to today: the link between the abolition of the slave trade and the spread of Christianity
- Learn: the conditions in Masina before Seku Ahmadu's jihad
- Learn: the meaning and origins of Christian missionary activity in West Africa
- Week 4
- Quiz me on the social impact of missionary education in Nigeria
- Objective test: the roles elites played in political development in Nigeria
- Practice set: the rise of the educated African elite class
- WAEC essay: the roles elites played in social and economic development
- Catch my mistakes: Missionary education in Nigeria and the elite it produced
- Roleplay: Mission schools and the training of clerks, teachers and catechists
- Project task: The newspapers and associations founded by the educated elite
- Link to today: The tensions between the educated elite and the traditional rulers
- Learn: the political impact of Christian missionary activities on Nigeria
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 5
- Quiz me: The factors behind the rise of the Ghana Empire
- Objective test: Kumbi Saleh as a twin capital, and what its two towns reveal about Ghana
- Practice set: The gold-and-salt trade, and how Ghana profited from standing between the two
- WAEC essay: How Ghana taxed and controlled the trans-Saharan trade
- Catch my mistakes: The reasons for the collapse of the Ghana Empire
- Explain back: The government of Ghana — the king, his court and the provincial rulers
- Roleplay: The coming of Islam to Ghana and its effect on the royal court
- Project task: The Almoravid attacks and the weakening of Ghana
- Link to today: What the states that came after Ghana inherited from it
- Learn: The location of ancient Ghana, and why it is not the modern country of that name
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 6
- Quiz me: Sundiata Keita and the defeat of Sumanguru at Kirina
- Objective test: The economic basis of Mali — gold, salt and agriculture
- Practice set: Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca and the effects it had
- WAEC essay: Timbuktu and Djenne as centres of trade and Islamic learning
- Catch my mistakes: The reasons for the decline of the Mali Empire
- Explain back: The administration of the Mali Empire under the Mansa
- Roleplay: Ibn Battuta's visit to Mali, and what a traveller's account can tell us
- Project task: The army and the provincial system that held Mali together
- Link to today: How the government of Mali compared with that of Ghana
- Learn: How Mali rose on the ruins of Ghana
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 7
- Quiz me: The military career and conquests of Sunni Ali
- Objective test: The University of Sankore and scholarship in Timbuktu
- Practice set: How Askia Muhammad came to power, and what he changed
- WAEC essay: Askia Muhammad's pilgrimage and his promotion of Islam in Songhai
- Catch my mistakes: The reasons for the fall of the Songhai Empire
- Explain back: The administration of Songhai under Askia Muhammad
- Roleplay: The economy of Songhai and its control of the middle Niger
- Project task: The Battle of Tondibi and the Moroccan invasion of 1591
- Link to today: What Songhai's collapse meant for the western Sudan
- Learn: The origins of Songhai at Gao and its break from Mali
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 8
- Quiz me: The Sefuwa dynasty and the move from Kanem to Bornu
- Objective test: Islam in Kanem-Bornu and the place of Sharia in its government
- Practice set: The office of the Mai and the government of Kanem-Bornu
- WAEC essay: Idris Alooma's military innovations, including firearms and Turkish musketeers
- Catch my mistakes: The reasons for the decline of Kanem-Bornu
- Explain back: The reign and reforms of Mai Idris Alooma
- Roleplay: Trade between Kanem-Bornu and North Africa across the desert
- Project task: The place of queen mothers and titled women in Kanem-Bornu
- Link to today: The lasting influence of Kanem-Bornu on the Lake Chad region
- Learn: The origins of Kanem and the beginnings of the Sefuwa dynasty
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 9
- Quiz me: The Bayajidda account of Hausa origins
- Objective test: The coming of Islam to Hausaland and its effect on the courts
- Practice set: The government of a Hausa state — the Sarki and his officials
- WAEC essay: Craft industry and trade in Kano and Katsina
- Catch my mistakes: Why the Hausa states never united into a single empire
- Explain back: The walled city, the birni, and its place in Hausa life
- Roleplay: Queen Amina of Zazzau and the expansion of Zaria
- Project task: Rivalry and warfare between the Hausa states
- Link to today: Relations between Hausaland, Bornu and the Songhai Empire
- Learn: The Hausa Bakwai and the Banza Bakwai
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 10
- Quiz me: The position and powers of the Alaafin
- Objective test: The Oyo cavalry, and how the grassland made it possible
- Practice set: The Oyo Mesi and the Bashorun as a check on the Alaafin
- WAEC essay: The Eso and the Are-Ona-Kakanfo in the Oyo military system
- Catch my mistakes: The causes of the fall of the Oyo Empire
- Explain back: The Ogboni society and its part in Oyo government
- Roleplay: Oyo's control of the trade routes down to the coast
- Project task: The constitutional crisis between Bashorun Gaha and Alaafin Abiodun
- Link to today: What Oyo's collapse meant for nineteenth-century Yorubaland
- Learn: The origin and rise of the Oyo Empire
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 11
- Quiz me: The Ogiso rulers and the coming of the Oba dynasty
- Objective test: The reign of Oba Ewuare and the expansion of Benin
- Quiz me: The village assembly and decision-making by consensus
- Objective test: The Ofo holder and the authority of the family head
- Practice set: The authority of the Oba and the palace chiefs
- WAEC essay: Benin bronze casting, and what the palace plaques record
- Practice set: The age grade system and the duties given to each grade
- WAEC essay: The Umuada and the place of women in Igbo governance
- Catch my mistakes: The reasons for the decline of the Benin Kingdom
- Catch my mistakes: The exceptions to the stateless pattern — Nri, Onitsha and Arochukwu
- Explain back: The Uzama and the town chiefs in Benin government
- Roleplay: Portuguese contact with Benin and the trade that followed
- Project task: The Benin city walls and moat as an engineering achievement
- Link to today: The British expedition of 1897 and the removal of Benin's art
- Explain back: The Ozo title and how a man came to hold it
- Roleplay: Elders, the Nze na Ozo and the settling of disputes
- Project task: The Aro and the Ibini Ukpabi oracle as an institution reaching beyond one village
- Link to today: Why British indirect rule failed in Igboland
- Learn: The origin and early history of Benin
- Learn: What is meant by government without kings in Igbo society
Revisit from three weeks ago
Trade, Islam & the Jihads
↑ Jump to week- Week 12
- Quiz me on the meaning of imperialism
- Objective test: The demand for raw materials and new markets that drove imperialism
- Quiz me on the countries that attended the Berlin Conference
- Practice set: the European countries involved in the scramble for Africa
- Practice set: the key decisions taken at the Berlin Conference
- WAEC essay: the features and consequences of the partition of Africa
- Catch my mistakes: The treaties and chartered companies used to claim African territory
- Catch my mistakes: The free trade and navigation clauses of the Berlin Act
- Explain back: the economic reasons behind the scramble for Africa
- Roleplay: The technological advances that made the conquest of Africa possible
- Project task: The humanitarian and civilising arguments used to justify imperialism
- Explain back: the principle of effective occupation
- Roleplay: Bismarck's reasons for calling the Berlin Conference
- Project task: The Congo question and the position of King Leopold II
- Link to today: Why no African ruler was represented at Berlin
- Learn: the meaning of the Industrial Revolution
- Learn: the background and events leading to the Berlin Conference
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 13
- Quiz me: The goods carried north and the goods carried south
- Objective test: The political effects of the trade on the states of the western Sudan
- Practice set: The camel, and why it made the desert crossing possible
- WAEC essay: The gold-for-salt exchange and the practice of silent trade
- Catch my mistakes: How European sea trade undercut the trans-Saharan routes
- Explain back: How a caravan was organised, and the part played by Berber middlemen
- Roleplay: The spread of Islam along the trade routes
- Project task: The dangers and costs of crossing the Sahara
- Link to today: The towns that grew on the trade — Gao, Timbuktu, Kano and Katsina
- Learn: The main trans-Saharan routes and the towns at either end
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 14
- Quiz me: The part played by traders and clerics in spreading Islam
- Objective test: Islam and the growth of learning and literacy in West Africa
- Quiz me: The early life and preaching of Usman dan Fodio
- Objective test: The duties of an emir and the officials who served under him
- Practice set: Islam at the courts — which rulers converted, and why
- Explain back: The difference between court Islam and popular practice
- WAEC essay: The effect of Islam on government and law in the western Sudan
- Practice set: The religious, political and economic causes of the jihad
- WAEC essay: The structure of the caliphate — Sokoto, Gwandu and the emirates
- Catch my mistakes: Resistance to Islam, and the areas where it made little headway
- Catch my mistakes: The achievements of the Sokoto Caliphate in learning and administration
- Roleplay: The pilgrimage to Mecca and the political uses rulers made of it
- Project task: The blending of Islam with existing West African beliefs
- Link to today: The effects of Islam on trade, architecture and dress
- Explain back: The course of the jihad from the hijra to the fall of Alkalawa
- Roleplay: Muhammad Bello and the consolidation of the caliphate
- Project task: The ribat system and the defence of the caliphate's frontiers
- Link to today: The fall of the caliphate to the British, and what survived of it
- Learn: How Islam first reached West Africa
- Learn: The state of Hausaland before 1804
Revisit from three weeks ago
Atlantic Trade, Abolition & Missions
↑ Jump to week- Week 15
- Objective test: the policy of indirect rule
- Quiz me on examples of European culture introduced into Africa
- Objective test: the effect of consolidation on African traditional institutions
- Practice set: the methods Europeans used to subjugate Africans
- WAEC essay: the policy of direct rule
- WAEC essay: the negative impacts of cultural consolidation
- Catch my mistakes: The Portuguese and Belgian systems of colonial rule
- Catch my mistakes: Changes to African dress, diet and housing under colonial rule
- Explain back: African reactions and resistance to subjugation
- Project task: The French policies of assimilation and association
- Link to today: The machinery of a colonial administration from governor to district officer
- Explain back: the positive impacts of cultural consolidation
- Roleplay: The colonial school curriculum and the language of instruction
- Link to today: The survival of African languages, religion and custom despite colonial pressure
- Learn: the meaning of colonial subjugation
- Learn: the meaning of cultural consolidation under colonial rule
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 16
- Quiz me: The Portuguese voyages of exploration along the coast
- Objective test: The entry of the Dutch, British and French into the coastal trade
- Practice set: Elmina and the building of European forts and castles
- WAEC essay: How coastal rulers controlled the trade and profited from it
- Catch my mistakes: The rise of middleman states along the coast
- Explain back: The goods exchanged in early trade between Europeans and West Africans
- Roleplay: The earliest missionary attempts on the coast, and why they came to nothing
- Project task: The effect of firearms on the coastal societies that obtained them
- Link to today: How early European contact prepared the way for the slave trade
- Learn: Why the Portuguese came down to the West African coast
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 17
- Quiz me: The triangular trade, and what moved along each leg of it
- Objective test: African participation in the trade — rulers, middlemen and raiders
- Practice set: How captives were obtained in the interior
- WAEC essay: The scale of the trade, and why historians find it hard to estimate
- Catch my mistakes: The economic effects of the slave trade on West Africa
- Explain back: The Middle Passage and conditions aboard the slave ships
- Roleplay: The effect of the trade on the population of West Africa
- Project task: The effect of the trade on West African political institutions
- Link to today: What Europe and the Americas gained from the trade
- Learn: The origins of the trans-Atlantic slave trade
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 18
- Quiz me: The economic arguments for abolition, and the part played by the Industrial Revolution
- Objective test: The settlement of Sierra Leone and of Liberia
- Quiz me: The main missionary societies, and where each of them worked
- Objective test: The missionaries and the ending of practices such as twin-killing and human sacrifice
- Practice set: Wilberforce, Clarkson and the abolitionist campaign in Britain
- WAEC essay: The West African Squadron and the naval enforcement of abolition
- Practice set: The Niger Mission and Bishop Ajayi Crowther
- WAEC essay: Mission hospitals and the introduction of Western medicine
- Catch my mistakes: Why the slave trade carried on illegally after 1807
- Catch my mistakes: The links between missionary work and the coming of colonial rule
- Explain back: The Act of 1807, and what it did and did not actually stop
- Roleplay: The recaptives, the Saro, and the part they later played in West Africa
- Project task: Legitimate trade in palm oil and groundnuts as the replacement for slaving
- Link to today: The effects of abolition on the coastal states of West Africa
- Explain back: Mission schools and the beginnings of Western education in West Africa
- Roleplay: The reduction of West African languages to writing
- Project task: African objections and resistance to missionary teaching
- Link to today: The rise of the African church and the Ethiopian movement
- Learn: The humanitarian arguments raised against the slave trade
- Learn: Why Christian missions came to West Africa in the nineteenth century
Revisit from three weeks ago
Scramble, Partition & Colonial Rule
↑ Jump to week- Week 19
- Quiz me on how the African economy was linked to European capitalism
- Objective test: the long-term effects of the colonial economy on Africa
- Practice set: cash crop production under colonial rule
- WAEC essay: the extraction of raw materials from Africa
- Catch my mistakes: The colonial economy in Nigeria and whom the railways served
- Roleplay: The building of railways and ports to serve colonial exports
- Project task: The introduction of taxation and of colonial currency
- Link to today: The marketing boards and the fixing of producer prices
- Learn: the meaning and nature of the colonial economy
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 20
- Quiz me on why Africans were conscripted to fight in the World Wars
- Objective test: The African campaigns of the First World War in the Cameroons and Togoland
- Quiz me on the reasons colonial powers gave for colonial rule
- Practice set: the contributions of African soldiers in the World Wars
- WAEC essay: how the World Wars influenced the growth of African nationalism
- Practice set: the attitudes of colonial rulers towards Africans
- WAEC essay: other evils of colonial rule that caused resentment
- Catch my mistakes: The return of ex-servicemen and their part in post-war protest
- Catch my mistakes: The colour bar and discrimination in the colonial civil service
- Explain back: the impact of the World Wars on colonial Africa
- Roleplay: The food, minerals and money demanded from the colonies during the wars
- Project task: The Atlantic Charter and its effect on African expectations
- Explain back: forced labour and taxation as sources of African discontent
- Roleplay: interview about how colonial discontent fed into early nationalist movements
- Project task: Land alienation and the loss of African farmland
- Link to today: Strikes and trade union protest in colonial West Africa
- Learn: the countries involved in the First and Second World Wars
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 21
- Quiz me: The economic causes of the Scramble
- Objective test: Treaties, chartered companies and the methods used to claim territory
- Quiz me: Jaja of Opobo and his defence of the palm oil trade
- Objective test: The Ekumeku movement and the Aba Women's War as later forms of resistance
- Practice set: The political and strategic causes of the Scramble
- WAEC essay: The principle of effective occupation and what it required
- Practice set: Nana Olomu of Itsekiri and the Benin River trade
- WAEC essay: Samori Toure and the long resistance to the French
- Catch my mistakes: The consequences of partition for West African societies
- Catch my mistakes: What the resistances achieved even though they were defeated
- Explain back: The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 and the decisions taken there
- Roleplay: The Royal Niger Company and the British acquisition of Nigeria
- Project task: How the colonial boundaries were drawn, and the peoples they cut through
- Link to today: Why West African states could not prevent the partition
- Explain back: The Ashanti wars and the stand made by Yaa Asantewaa
- Roleplay: Collaboration as an alternative strategy, and why some rulers chose it
- Project task: The reasons most armed resistance to colonial conquest failed
- Link to today: What later nationalists inherited from the early resisters
- Learn: What is meant by the Scramble for Africa
- Learn: The different forms African resistance to colonial rule took
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 22
- Quiz me: The machinery of indirect rule — Resident, Native Authority, Native Court and Native Treasury
- Objective test: The Aba Women's War of 1929 and what followed from it
- Practice set: Why indirect rule worked as well as it did in Northern Nigeria
- WAEC essay: The failure of indirect rule in the East and the warrant chief system
- Catch my mistakes: The disadvantages of indirect rule and the criticisms made of it
- Explain back: How indirect rule worked in Yorubaland, and the difficulties it met there
- Roleplay: The amalgamation of 1914 and the administration it created
- Project task: The advantages claimed for indirect rule
- Link to today: The effects of indirect rule on later Nigerian politics
- Learn: What indirect rule meant, and where Lugard took the idea from
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 23
- Quiz me: The Four Communes of Senegal and the citizens they produced
- Objective test: French centralisation and the federations of West and Equatorial Africa
- Quiz me: The cash crops each West African colony was made to produce
- Objective test: The expatriate firms and their hold on import and export trade
- Practice set: The indigenat, and the subjects who lived under it
- WAEC essay: The meaning of the policy of association and how it worked in practice
- Practice set: Railways and roads, and the routes they were built to serve
- WAEC essay: The introduction of currency and of taxation under colonial rule
- Catch my mistakes: The effects of French policy on chiefs and traditional rulers
- Catch my mistakes: The effects of the colonial economy on African farmers and traders
- Explain back: Why the French abandoned assimilation in favour of association
- Roleplay: Forced labour and conscription under French colonial rule
- Project task: How French colonial administration compared with the British system
- Link to today: The legacy of French policy in francophone West Africa
- Explain back: The marketing boards and how producer prices were fixed
- Roleplay: Mining in colonial West Africa and the labour it demanded
- Project task: Why colonial West Africa developed almost no manufacturing
- Link to today: What independent West Africa inherited from the colonial economy
- Learn: What the French policy of assimilation set out to do
- Learn: What is meant by a colonial economy
Revisit from three weeks ago
Apartheid in South Africa
↑ Jump to week- Week 24
- Objective test: the Bantustan (homelands) policy
- Quiz me on the successes of resistance to Apartheid
- Objective test: international sanctions imposed on South Africa
- Practice set: the key Apartheid laws
- WAEC essay: the European economic interests behind Apartheid legislation
- WAEC essay: external support for the anti-Apartheid struggle
- Catch my mistakes: The Population Registration Act and racial classification
- Catch my mistakes: Nelson Mandela, the Rivonia Trial and the turn to armed struggle
- Explain back: the Pass Laws and their effect on Black South Africans
- Project task: The Group Areas Act and the forced removal of communities
- Link to today: Bantu Education and the schooling of Black South Africans
- Explain back: the failures and setbacks of resistance to Apartheid
- Roleplay: The Sharpeville massacre of 1960 and what followed it
- Project task: The Soweto uprising of 1976
- Link to today: The negotiations that ended Apartheid and the election of 1994
- Learn: the meaning of Apartheid
- Learn: African resistance movements against Apartheid such as the ANC
Revisit from three weeks ago
Nationalism, Independence & After
↑ Jump to week- Week 25
- Quiz me on the features of neo-colonialism in Africa
- Objective test: examples of neo-colonial control over African economies
- Practice set: the reasons neo-colonialism persists in Africa
- WAEC essay: how neo-colonialism affects political development
- Catch my mistakes: Neo-colonialism in Africa after independence
- Roleplay: Multinational corporations and their influence on African governments
- Project task: Foreign aid and loan conditions as instruments of neo-colonialism
- Link to today: Cultural and media influence as a form of neo-colonialism
- Learn: the meaning of neo-colonialism
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 26
- Quiz me on the nature of underdevelopment in Africa
- Objective test: possible solutions to underdevelopment in Africa
- Quiz me on the formation and aims of the United Nations
- Practice set: the historical causes of African underdevelopment
- Practice set: the UN's role in African decolonisation
- WAEC essay: UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa
- Catch my mistakes: The brain drain and the loss of skilled Africans
- Catch my mistakes: UN agencies such as UNESCO, WHO and UNICEF and their work in Africa
- Explain back: the effects of underdevelopment on the African economy
- Roleplay: How underdevelopment is measured and compared between countries
- Project task: The part played by poor infrastructure and weak institutions
- Explain back: the UN trusteeship system for former colonies
- Roleplay: interview about the UN's role in African development
- Project task: The organs of the United Nations and what each of them does
- Link to today: The limits of UN action and the criticisms made of it
- Learn: the meaning of underdevelopment
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 27
- Quiz me on the objectives of ECOWAS
- Objective test: The Treaty of Lagos of 1975 and the states that signed it
- Quiz me on the reasons for military intervention in Nigerian politics
- Objective test: The coups of January and July 1966 and the slide towards civil war
- Practice set: the achievements of ECOWAS in regional integration
- WAEC essay: ECOWAS's role in regional peacekeeping
- Practice set: the effects of military rule on national development
- WAEC essay: the transition programmes attempted by military governments
- Catch my mistakes: The proposal for a single West African currency
- Catch my mistakes: Military rule in Nigeria and the coups of 1966
- Explain back: the challenges facing ECOWAS
- Project task: The ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and goods
- Link to today: The ECOWAS response to unconstitutional changes of government
- Explain back: key military coups in Nigerian history
- Roleplay: Decrees as the instrument of military government
- Project task: The creation of states under successive military governments
- Link to today: The oil boom and how military governments managed it
- Learn: the reasons for forming ECOWAS
- Learn: the periods of military rule in Nigeria
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 28
- Objective test: challenges facing the Fourth Republic
- Quiz me on Nigeria's role in ECOWAS peacekeeping missions such as ECOMOG
- Objective test: Nigeria's role in the fight against apartheid and colonialism
- Practice set: the 1999 Constitution
- WAEC essay: successive administrations of the Fourth Republic
- WAEC essay: Nigeria's contributions to international organisations
- Catch my mistakes: Federalism, revenue allocation and resource control
- Catch my mistakes: Nigeria's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council
- Explain back: key political developments since 1999
- Project task: The conduct of elections and the work of INEC since 1999
- Link to today: The 2015 election and the first handover between rival parties
- Explain back: Nigeria's diplomatic role in Africa
- Roleplay: The Technical Aid Corps and Nigerian assistance to other African states
- Link to today: The costs and the criticisms of Nigeria's Afrocentric foreign policy
- Learn: the establishment of the Fourth Republic in 1999
- Learn: Nigeria's role in African Union peacekeeping
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 29
- Quiz me on the need for economic diversification in Nigeria
- Objective test: the role of leadership in tackling Nigeria's challenges
- Practice set: unemployment and youth restiveness
- WAEC essay: historical lessons for addressing contemporary challenges
- Catch my mistakes: Population growth, urbanisation and the pressure on public services
- Roleplay: Corruption and the weakness of public institutions
- Project task: The state of education and the out-of-school child
- Link to today: Ethnic and religious tension and the search for national unity
- Learn: insecurity as a contemporary challenge facing Nigeria
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 30
- Quiz me on the contributions of women to Nigeria's independence struggle
- Objective test: women in contemporary Nigerian leadership
- Quiz me on how the study of history contributes to national development
- Practice set: the changing roles of women in Nigerian society over time
- Practice set: the importance of preserving historical records
- WAEC essay: history as a tool for national identity and unity
- Catch my mistakes: The obstacles women still meet in Nigerian public life
- Catch my mistakes: The teaching of history in Nigerian schools, its removal and its restoration
- Explain back: women's roles in traditional Nigerian societies
- Roleplay: Queen Amina of Zazzau and the Iyalode of Ibadan as women of authority
- Project task: The Aba Women's War of 1929 and the Abeokuta women's revolt
- Explain back: the importance of preserving national monuments
- Roleplay: interview about the dangers of neglecting historical preservation
- Project task: The National Archives and the museums that hold Nigeria's records
- Link to today: Oral history projects as a way of saving community memory
- Learn: notable Nigerian women in history such as Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 31
- Quiz me: The effect of the Second World War on West African nationalism
- Objective test: The newspapers and the part the press played in the nationalist movement
- Quiz me: Ethnicity and regionalism as sources of instability
- Objective test: Corruption and the misuse of public funds after independence
- Practice set: The early nationalists — Herbert Macaulay and the NNDP
- WAEC essay: Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello as nationalist leaders
- Practice set: The first military coups in West Africa, and why they happened
- WAEC essay: One-party states and the weakening of political opposition
- Catch my mistakes: The road to Nigerian independence in 1960
- Catch my mistakes: The return to civilian rule and the difficulties of sustaining democracy
- Explain back: The NCNC, the Action Group and the Northern People's Congress
- Roleplay: The Richards, Macpherson and Lyttleton constitutions
- Project task: Kwame Nkrumah, the CPP and Ghana's independence in 1957
- Link to today: The part played by trade unions, students and ex-servicemen
- Explain back: The causes of the Nigerian civil war
- Roleplay: Economic dependence on a single export commodity
- Project task: Debt, structural adjustment and their social effects
- Link to today: What West African states have actually achieved since independence
- Learn: What nationalism means, and what gave rise to it in West Africa
- Learn: The problems West African states inherited at independence
Revisit from three weeks ago
West Africa & the Wider World
↑ Jump to week- Week 32
- Quiz me on the benefits of Commonwealth membership for Nigeria
- Objective test: Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth in the 1990s
- Quiz me: The formation of ECOWAS and the aims it was given
- Objective test: The OAU, its aims, and why it gave way to the African Union
- WAEC essay: Commonwealth institutions and summits
- Practice set: The organs of ECOWAS and how the body works
- WAEC essay: The achievements of ECOWAS and the problems it faces
- Catch my mistakes: The Commonwealth Games and cultural cooperation
- Catch my mistakes: The Commonwealth and the Francophonie as legacies of colonial rule
- Explain back: the challenges of Commonwealth membership for Nigeria
- Roleplay: The origins of the Commonwealth and the states that belong to it
- Link to today: Commonwealth scholarships and technical cooperation with Nigeria
- Explain back: ECOMOG and peacekeeping in Liberia and Sierra Leone
- Roleplay: The organs and objectives of the African Union
- Project task: The United Nations and West African membership of it
- Link to today: The benefits and the costs of regional integration for West Africa
- Learn: Nigeria's membership of the Commonwealth
- Learn: Why West African states chose to join international organisations
Revisit from three weeks ago
History, Nation & Career
↑ Jump to week- Week 33
- Objective test: how historical skills apply to other careers
- Practice set: further study opportunities in history and related fields
- WAEC essay: how historical skills apply to law, journalism and diplomacy
- Catch my mistakes: The subject combinations and entry requirements for reading history
- Explain back: the transferable skills gained from studying history
- Project task: Archaeology, archival work and museum curation as careers
- Link to today: Research, writing and argument as skills employers look for
- Learn: career pathways related to the study of history
Revisit from three weeks ago
Mixed WAEC Practice
↑ Jump to week- Week 34
- Quiz me on Apartheid in South Africa
- Objective test: The colonial economy and the two World Wars
- Quiz me on the 1979 transition from military to civilian rule
- Practice set: neo-colonialism and underdevelopment in Africa
- WAEC essay: military rule in Nigeria
- Practice set: the Second Republic
- WAEC essay: key events and figures in Nigeria's transitions to civilian rule
- Catch my mistakes: The Fourth Republic and Nigeria's contemporary challenges
- Catch my mistakes: The Abacha years and the Interim National Government
- Explain back: the United Nations and ECOWAS
- Roleplay: Resistance to Apartheid and the international response to it
- Project task: The road from neo-colonialism to regional integration
- Explain back: the 1999 transition from military to civilian rule
- Roleplay: interview about lessons from Nigeria's transitions to civilian rule
- Project task: The annulled election of June 1993 and the crisis that followed
- Link to today: The part played by civil society and the press in ending military rule
- Learn: colonial policies and African discontent
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 35
- Quiz me on colonial rule and its impact on Nigeria
- Objective test: The pre-colonial Nigerian states and their systems of government
- Quiz me on the Berlin Conference and the scramble for Africa
- Objective test: European exploration and the earliest contact with Africa
- Practice set: Nigeria's path to independence and civilian rule
- WAEC essay: Nigeria's role in regional and international affairs
- Practice set: the two World Wars
- WAEC essay: the United Nations and global organisations
- Catch my mistakes: Missionary activity and the rise of the educated elite in Nigeria
- Catch my mistakes: The Berlin Conference and the partition of Africa
- Explain back: The long years of military government in Nigeria and their consequences
- Roleplay: The trans-Atlantic slave trade and its abolition in Nigeria
- Link to today: The Nigerian civil war and the years that followed it
- Explain back: The rise and the fall of Apartheid as a system of government
- Roleplay: Colonial policies compared — British, French, Portuguese and Belgian
- Project task: Decolonisation and the independence of the African states
- Link to today: The Cold War and its effects on Africa
- Learn: Islamic movements in West Africa
- Learn: the Industrial Revolution and imperialism
Revisit from three weeks ago - Week 36
- Quiz me on colonial rule, the colonial economy and its impacts
- Objective test: The pre-colonial West African empires and the trans-Saharan trade
- Practice set: Apartheid, neo-colonialism and underdevelopment
- WAEC essay: Nigeria's contemporary challenges and role in international affairs
- Catch my mistakes: How to answer WAEC History essay and objective questions well
- Explain back: Nigeria's transitions to civilian rule and the Fourth Republic
- Roleplay: The scramble, the Berlin Conference and the partition of Africa
- Project task: The World Wars, nationalism and the road to independence
- Learn: Islamic and Christian movements in West Africa
Revisit from three weeks ago