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What was life like for the people living and trading in West Africa in the fourteenth century? These two excerpts describe life in the Mali Empire. In the first, al-Umari, a Syrian scholar employed by the Mamluk sultan in Cairo, describes an aspect of Malian rule. In the second, Arab traveler Ibn Battuta describes the salt-mining center at Taghaza.
- The Rise of Civilization and Agriculture
- Neolithic Prehistoric Cultures
- History of Sub-Saharan Africa Until 1880 C.E.
- History of North Africa
- European Exploration and Conquest
- Twentieth Century: 1900-1945
- Postcolonial Era: 1945-Present
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At the end of the ice age around 10,500 B.C.E., the Sahara had become a green fertile valley again, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 B.C.E. the Sahara region was becoming increasingly drier. The population trekked out of the...
North Africa
Neolithic rock engravings, or "petroglyphs" and the megaliths in the Sahara desert of Libya attest to early hunter-gatherer culture in the dry grasslands of North Africa during the glacial age. The region of the present Sahara was an early site for the practice of agriculture (in the second stage of the culture characterized by the so-called "wavy-line ceramics" c. 4000 B.C.E.). However, after the desertification of the Sahara, settlement in North Africa became concentrated in the valley of t...
Sub-Saharan Africa
Linguistic evidence suggests the Bantu people (for example, Xhosa and Zulu) had emigrated southwestward from what is now Egypt into former Khoisan ranges and displaced them during the last 4000 years or so, during the transition from the paleolithic to the iron age, which happened very suddenly in Africa south of Egypt. Bantu populations used a distinct suite of crops suited to tropical Africa, including cassava and yams. This farming culture is able to support more persons per unit area than...
The Bantu expansion
The Bantu first originated around the Benue-Cross rivers area in southeastern Nigeria and spread over Africa to the Zambia area. Sometime in the second millennium B.C.E., perhaps triggered by the drying of the Sahara and pressure from the migration of Saharans into the region, they were forced to expand into the rainforests of central Africa (phase I). About 1,000 years later they began a more rapid second phase of expansion beyond the forests into southern and eastern Africa. Then sometime i...
West Africa
There were many great empires in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past few millennia. These were mostly concentrated in West Africa where important trade routes and good agricultural land allowed extensive states to develop. These included the Nok, Mali Empire, Oba of Benin, the Kanem-Bornu Empire, the Fulani Empire, the Dahomey, Oyo, Aro confederacy, the Ashanti Empire, and the Songhai Empire. Also common in this region were loose federations of city-states such as those of the Yoruba and Hausa.
Trans-Saharan trade
Trade between Mediterranean countries and West Africa across the Sahara Desert was an important trade pattern from the eighth century until the late sixteenth century. This trade was conducted by caravans of Arabian camels. These camels would be fattened for a number of months on the plains of either the Maghreb or the Sahelbefore being assembled into caravans.
Ancient Egypt
Africa's earliest evidence of written history was in Ancient Egypt, and the Egyptian calendar is still used as the standard for dating Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures throughout the region. In about 3100 B.C.E., Egypt was united under a ruler known as Mena, or Menes, who inaugurated the first of the 30 dynasties into which Egypt's ancient history is divided: The Old, Middle Kingdoms and the New Kingdom. The pyramids at Giza (near Cairo), which were built in the Fourth dynasty, testify to the...
Phoenician, Greek and Roman colonization
Separated by the 'sea of sand', the Sahara, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa have been linked by fluctuating trans-Saharan trade routes. Phoenician, Greek and Roman histories of North Africa can be followed in entries for the Roman Empire and for its individual provinces in the Maghreb, such as Mauretania, Africa, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Aegyptus, and so on. In Northern Africa, Ethiopia has been the only state which throughout historic times has (except for a brief period during World War...
Dark Ages
The classical era drew to a close with the invasion and conquest of Rome's African provinces by the Vandals in the 5th century, although power passed back briefly in the following century to the Byzantine Empire.
Nineteenth century European explorers
Although the Napoleonic Wars distracted the attention of Europe from exploratoration in Africa, those wars nevertheless exercised great influence on the future of the continent, both in Egypt and South Africa. The occupation of Egypt (1798–1803) first by France and then by Great Britain resulted in an effort by Turkey to regain direct control over that country, followed in 1811 by the establishment under Mehemet Ali of an almost independent state, and the extension of Egyptian rule over the e...
Partition among European powers
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the map of Africa was transformed, in what was called the Scramble for Africa. Lines of partition, drawn often through trackless wildernesses, marked out the possessions of Germany, France, Britain, and other powers. Railwayspenetrated the interior, vast areas were opened up to Western conquest. The causes which led to the partition of Africa can be found in the economic and political state of western Europe at the time. Germany, recently united u...
Conflicting ambitions of the European powers
In 1873, Zanzibar, the busiest slave market in Africa, closed. The part of the continent to which King Léopold directed his energies was the equatorial region. In September 1876 he took what may be described as the first definite step in the modern partition of the continent. He summoned to a conference in Brussels representatives of Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia, to deliberate on the best methods to be adopted for the exploration and Westernization of A...
Africa at the start of the twentieth century
All of the African continent was claimed by European powers, except for Ethiopia (then called Abyssinia) and Liberia(a country for former slaves set up by the U.S.). The European powers created a variety of different administrations in Africa at this time, with different ambitions and degrees of power. In some areas, parts of British West Africa for example, colonial control was tenuous and intended for simple economic extraction, strategic power, or as part of a long-term development plan. I...
Interbellum
After World War I, the former German colonies in Africa were taken over by France and the United Kingdom. During this era a sense of local patriotism or nationalism took deeper root among African intellectuals and politicians. Some of the inspiration for this movement came from the First World War in which European countries had relied on colonial troops for their own defense. Many in Africa realized their own strength with regard to the colonizer for the first time. At the same time, some of...
World War II
Africa, especially North Africa, was an important theater of war. French colonies in Africa supported the Free French. Many black Africans were conscripted to fight against the Germans. Italy had a presence in Libya and also in Ethiopia. In the North African campaign, the Deutsches Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel were eventually defeated at the Second Battle of El Alamein. The Allies used North Africa as a jumping off point for the invasions of Italy and Sicilyin 1943. Germany wanted...
Decolonization
Decolonization in Africa started with Libya in 1951 (Liberia, South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia were already independent). Many countries followed in the 1950s and 1960s, with a peak in 1960 with the independence of a large part of French West Africa. Most of the remaining countries gained independence throughout the 1960s, although some colonizers (Portugal in particular) were reluctant to relinquish sovereignty, resulting in bitter wars of independence which lasted for a decade or more. The...
Pan-Africanism
In 1964, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was established with 32 member states. It aimed to: 1. Promote the unity and solidarity of the African states; 2. Coordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the peoples of Africa; 3. Defend their sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence; 4. Eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa; and, 5. Promote international cooperation, having due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the U...
East Africa
The Mau Mau Uprising took place in Kenya from 1952 until 1956, but was put down by British and local forces. A state of emergency remained in place until 1960. Kenya became independent in 1963 and Jomo Kenyattabecame its first president. The early 1990s also signaled the start of major clashes between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi. In 1994 this resulted in the Rwandan Genocide, a conflict in which over a million died.
Brooke-Smith, Robin. The Scramble for Africa. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1987. ISBN 9780333424919.Davidson, Basil. The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the curse of the Nation-State. New York: Times Books, 1992. ISBN 9780812919981.Davidson, Basil. The Search for Africa: History, Culture, Politics. New York: Times Books, 1994. ISBN 9780812922783.Davidson, Basil. The Story of Africa. London: Mitchell Beazley, 1984. ISBN 9780855335144.People also ask
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Dec 6, 2023 · Africa historical overview: to 1600. Humankind’s origins and the beginnings of cultural expression may be traced to Africa. Recent discoveries in the southern tip of Africa provide remarkable evidence of the earliest stirrings of human creativity. Ocher plaques with engraved designs, made some 70,000 years ago, represent some of humankind’s ...
Marriage as an Equal Partnership between a Man and a Woman. Marriage remains a fundamental necessity in the sustainability of life in the world. Marriage, as defined by Hastings (1973, 27) is "the union ... of a man and a woman for the purpose of procreation and the rearing of children and mutual assistance".
Jan 10, 2015 · In ancient Rome, marriage was a civil affair governed by imperial law. But when the empire collapsed, in the 5th century, church courts took over and elevated marriage to a holy union. As the ...
During the 200 year period between 1301 and 1500 (the 14th and 15th century) the main civilizations and kingdoms in Africa were the Mali Empire, Kingdom of Kongo, Ife Empire, Benin Kingdom, Hausa City-states, Great Zimbabwe, Ethiopian Empire, Kilwa Sultanate, Khormans and the Ajuran Sultanate. These kingdoms flourished in the first part of this ...
Jun 22, 2022 · This article discusses the challenges which the institution of marriage faces within the African indigenous societies. Marriage is understood to be one of the most vital mechanisms in maintaining ...
