History of Africa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans and — around 300,000–250,000 years ago — anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states.[1] The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt,[2] and later in Nubia, the Sahel, the Maghreb, and the Horn of Africa.[3]
Following the desertification of the Sahara, North African history became entwined with the Middle East and Southern Europe while the Bantu expansion swept from modern day Cameroon (Central West Africa) across much of the sub-Saharan continent in waves between around 1000 BC and 1 AD, creating a linguistic commonality across much of the central and Southern continent.[4]
During the Middle Ages, Islam spread west from Arabia to Egypt, crossing the Maghreb and the Sahel.
Some notable kingdoms and empires in Africa include the Ajuran Empire, Kitara/Bachwezi Empire, Ancient Egypt, Mali Empire, Gao Empire, Bamana/Segou Empire, Songhai Empire, Benin Empire, Oyo Empire, Sokoto Caliphate, Kingdom of Lunda, Luba Empire, Kanem-Bornu Empire, Ashanti Empire, Ghana Empire, Mutapa Empire, Kingdom of Zimbabwe, Maravi Empire, Rozwi Empire, Kingdom of Kongo, Mthethwa Empire, Jolof Empire, Ife Empire, D'mt, Adal Sultanate, Ethiopian Empire, Kingdom of Makuria, Merina Kingdom, Dagbon Kingdom, Warsangali Sultanate, Buganda Kingdom, Kingdom of Rwanda, Kingdom of Burundi, Busoga, Kingdom of Nri, Bonoman Kingdom, Mossi Kingdoms, Kingdom of Mapungubwe, Kingdom of Sine, Sultanate of Sennar/Funj, Oukwanyama, Zulu Kingdom, Empire of Kaabu, Ancient Carthage, Numidia, Mauretania, Almohad Caliphate, Mamluk Sultanate, Fatimid Caliphate, Darfur Sultanate, Kilwa Sultanate and the Aksumite Empire.
Some societies maintained an egalitarian way of life without hierarchy, such as the Jola or Hadza peoples, whilst others did not organise and centralise further into complex societies, such as the Boorana and the chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, and are rarely discussed in political history. At its peak, prior to European colonialism, it is estimated that Africa had up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs.[5][6]
Slavery in Africa has historically been widespread and systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world.[7] When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Red Sea slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and Atlantic slave trade began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems started supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa.[8][9] The Atlantic slave trade was the most exploited of these, and between 1450 and 1900 transported upwards of 12 million enslaved people overseas in terrible conditions with many dying on the journey.[10][11]: 194
From 1870 to 1914, driven by the Second Industrial Revolution, European colonization of Africa developed rapidly from around 10% of the continent being under European imperial control to over 90% as a result of the Scramble for Africa (1881–1914).[12][13]
Following struggles for independence in many parts of the continent, as well as a weakened Europe after the Second World War (1939–1945), waves of decolonization took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa and the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.[14]
In Sub-Saharan Africa societies history generally used to be recorded orally despite most societies having developed a writing script, leading to them being termed "oral civilisations" in contrast to "literate civilisations".[15] Disciplines such as recording of oral tradition, historical linguistics, archaeology, and genetics have been vital in rediscovering the great African civilizations of antiquity, as well as documenting those of later periods.