Dead White Males and answerability are pretty
closely linked.
Given a European nation, how many
leaders/political intrigues/conflicts can the average team answer
questions about? Lots. And, many are (or necessarily
involve) DWMs.
Take England. If you started with
the Picts and ran through Tony Blair you'd end up
with a gigantic list of tossups that most teams can
answer.
Given a non-European nation, how many leaders/political
intrigues/conflicts can you answer questions about? Not nearly as
many.
Potential tossup or bonus answers about: Kanem-Bornu,
Hausa, Fulani, Usman dan Fodio, Sokoto, Yoruba, Oyo,
Igbo, Aro, Kano, Berlin Conference, Nnamdi Azikiwe,
Obafemi Awolowo, Action Group, NPC, Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Biafra, Murtala Muhammed,
Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Sani
Abacha, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Moshood Abiola.
I might
have missed a few. Anyway, many of these will go
unanswered in an average room. Those that won't tend to be
repeated more often.
Matt Schneller