Introduction

Note. This book is based on the Wikipedia article, "Africa." The supporting
articles are those referenced as major expansions of selected sections.

Africa

Area 30,221,532 km2 (11,668,598.7 sq mi)

Population 1,000,010,0001 (2005, 2nd)
Pop. density 30.51/km2 (about 80/sq mi)
Demonym African
Countries 54 (List of countries)
Dependencies
Languages List of languages
Time Zones UTC-1 to UTC+4
Largest cities List of cities
Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent,
after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent
islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total
land area.2 With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it
accounts for about 14.72% of the world's human population.
The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the
Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the
Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The
continent has 54 sovereign states, including Madagascar, various island
groups, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a member state of the
African Union whose statehood is disputed by Morocco.

1"World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision" United Nations (Department of Economic
and Social Affairs, population division)
2Sayre, April Pulley. (1999) Africa, Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN 0-7613-1367-2.
Africa, particularly central eastern Africa, is widely regarded within the
scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae clade
(great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their
ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million
years ago – including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus,
A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest
Homo sapiens (modern human) found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000
years ago.3
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is
the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern
temperate zones.4 The African expected economic growth rate is at about
5.0% for 2010 and 5.5% in 2011.5

Etymology
Afri was the name of several Semitic peoples who dwelt in North Africa near
Carthage ( in modern Tunisia). Their name is usually connected with
Phoenician afar, "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis6 has asserted that it stems from
a Berber word ifri or Ifran meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.7
Africa or Ifri or Afer8 is name of Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania
(Berber Tribe of Yafran).9
Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of Africa Province, which also
included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Roman suffix "-ca" denotes
"country or land".10 The later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia,
also preserved a form of the name.
Other etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient
name "Africa":

3Homo sapiens: University of Utah News Release: Feb. 16, 2005

4Visual Geography. "Africa. General info". . Retrieved 2007-11-24.
5IMF WEO Oct. 2010 Retrieved 15-10-2010
6Names of countries, Decret and Fantar, 1981
7The Berbers, by Geo. Babington Michell, p 161, 1903, Journal of Royal African people book
on ligne
8
9Itineraria Phoenicia, Edward Lipinski, Peeters Publishers, p200, 2004, ISBN 90-429-1344-4
Book on ligne
10"Consultos.com etymology". .
•the 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it
was named for Epher, grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose
descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
•Latin word aprica ("sunny") mentioned by Isidore of Seville in Etymologiae
XIV.5.2.
•the Greek word aphrike (Αφρική), meaning "without cold." This was proposed
by historian Leo Africanus (1488–1554), who suggested the Greek word
phrike (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the privative prefix
"a-", thus indicating a land free of cold and horror.
•Massey, in 1881, derived an etymology from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, "to turn
toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person
and "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for
the Egyptians, "the birthplace."11
•yet another hypothesis was proposed by Michèle Fruyt in Revue de
Philologie 50, 1976: 221–238, linking the Latin word with africus 'south wind',
which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally 'rainy wind'.

The Irish female name Aifric is sometimes anglicised as Africa, but the given
name is unrelated to the geonym.

History

11"'Nile Genesis: the opus of Gerald Massey'" . Gerald-massey.org.uk. 1907-10-29. . Retrieved

2010-05-18.
Paleohistory
At the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, Africa was joined with Earth's other
continents in Pangaea.12 Africa shared the supercontinent's relatively uniform
fauna which was dominated by theropods, prosauropods and primitive
ornithischians by the close of the Triassic period.13 Late Triassic fossils are
found through-out Africa, but are more common in the south than north.14 The
boundary separating the Triassic and Jurassic marks the advent of an
extinction event with global impact, although African strata from this time
period have not been thoroughly studied.15
Early Jurassic strata are distributed in a similar fashion to Late Triassic beds,
with more common outcrops in the south and less common fossil beds which
are predominated by tracks to the north.16 As the Jurassic proceeded, larger
and more iconic groups of dinosaurs like sauropods and ornithopods
proliferated in Africa.17 Middle Jurassic strata are neither well represented nor
well studied in Africa.18 Late Jurassic strata are also poorly represented apart
from the spectacular Tendaguru fauna in Tanzania.19 The Late Jurassic life of
Tendaguru is very similar to that found in western North America's Morrison
Formation.20
Midway through the Mesozoic, about 150–160 million years ago, Madagascar
separated from Africa, although it remained connected to India and the rest of
the Gondwanan landmasses.21 Fossils from Madagascar include abelisaurs and
titanosaurs.22
Later into the Early Cretaceous epoch, the India-Madagascar landmass
separated from the rest of Gondwana.23 By the Late Cretaceous, Madagascar
and India had permanently split ways and continued until later reaching their
modern configurations.24

12Jacobs, Louis L. (1997). "African Dinosaurs." Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Edited by Phillip J.

Currie and Kevin Padian. Academic Press. pp. 2–4.
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
By contrast to Madagascar, mainland Africa was relatively stable in position
through-out the Mesozoic.25 Despite the stable position, major changes
occurred to its relation to other landmasses as the remains of Pangea
continued to break apart.26 By the beginning of the Late Cretaceous epoch
South America had split off from Africa, completing the southern half of the
Atlantic Ocean.27 This event had a profound effect on global climate by
altering ocean currents.28
During the Cretaceous, Africa was populated by allosauroids and spinosaurids,
including the largest known carnivorous dinosaurs.29 Titanosaurs were
significant herbivores in its ancient ecosystems.30 Cretaceous sites are more
common than Jurassic ones, but are often unable to be dated radiometrically
making it difficult to know their exact ages.31 Paleontologist Louis Jacobs, who
spent time doing field work in Malawi, says that African beds are "in need of
more field work" and will prove to be a "fertile ground ... for discovery."32

Pre-history
Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited
territory on Earth, with the human species originating from the continent.3334
During the middle of the twentieth century, anthropologists discovered many
fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years
ago. Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have
evolved into modern man, such as Australopithecus afarensis (radiometrically
dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BC),35 Paranthropus boisei (c.
2.3–1.4 million years BC)36 and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years
BC) have been discovered.37
Throughout humanity's prehistory, Africa (like all other continents) had no
nation states, and was instead inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers such
as the Khoi and San.383940

25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33Genetic study roots humans in Africa, BBC News | SCI/TECH
34Migration of Early Humans From Africa Aided By Wet Weather , sciencedaily.com
35Kimbel, William H. and Yoel Rak and Donald C. Johanson. (2004) The Skull of
Australopithecus Afarensis, Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-515706-0.
36Tudge, Colin. (2002) The Variety of Life., Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860426-2.
37
38van Sertima, Ivan. (1995) Egypt: Child of Africa/S V12 (Ppr), Transaction Publishers. pp.
324–325. ISBN 1-56000-792-3.
39Mokhtar, G. (1990) UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. II, Abridged Edition: Ancient
Africa, University of California Press. ISBN 0-85255-092-8.
40Eyma, A. K. and C. J. Bennett. (2003) Delts-Man in Yebu: Occasional Volume of the
Egyptologists' Electronic Forum No. 1, Universal Publishers. p. 210. SBN 1-58112-564-X.
At the end of the Ice Ages, estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the
Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, 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 BC the Sahara
region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. The population trekked out
of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract
where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic
recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and
Eastern Africa. Since this time dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa,
and increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.
The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have
existed alongside hunter-gathering cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC
cattle were already domesticated in North Africa.41 In the Sahara-Nile
complex, people domesticated many animals including the donkey, and a small
screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia. In the year
4000 BC the climate of the Sahara started to become drier at an exceedingly
fast pace.42 This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly
and caused increasing desertification. This, in turn, decreased the amount of
land conducive to settlements and helped to cause migrations of farming
communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa.43
By the first millennium BC ironworking had been introduced in Northern
Africa and quickly spread across the Sahara into the northern parts of sub-
Saharan Africa44 and by 500 BC metalworking began to become commonplace
in West Africa. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many
areas of East and West Africa, although other regions didn't begin
ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt, North
Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in
West Africa, suggesting that trans-saharan trade networks had been
established by this date.45

Early civilizations
At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise
of literacy in the Pharaonic civilisation of Ancient Egypt.46 One of the world's
earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with
varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.4748 Egyptian
influence reached deep into modern-day Libya, north to Crete49 and Canaan,
and south to the kingdoms of Aksum and Nubia.

41Diamond, Jared. (1999) "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New
York:Norton, pp.167.
42O'Brien, Patrick K. (General Editor). Oxford Atlas of World History. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005. pp.22–23
43
44Martin and O'Meara. "Africa, 3rd Ed." Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995. [0]
45
46Were Egyptians the first scribes?, BBC News | Sci/Tech
47Hassan, Fekri A. (2002) Droughts, Food and Culture, Springer. p. 17. ISBN 0-306-46755-0.
48McGrail, Sean. (2004) Boats of the World, Oxford University Press. p. 48. ISBN 0-19-
927186-0.
49Shavit, Jacob; Shavit, Yaacov (2001). History in Black: African-Americans in Search of an
Ancient Past. Taylor & Francis. p. 77. ISBN 0-714-68216-0. .
An independent centre of civilisation with trading links to Phoenicia was
established by Phoenicians from Tyre on the north-west African coast at
Carthage.505152
European exploration of Africa began with Ancient Greeks and Romans. In
332 BC, Alexander the Great was welcomed as a liberator in Persian-occupied
Egypt. He founded Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the prosperous
capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty after his death.53 Following the conquest of
North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was
integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman
settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast.
Christianity spread across these areas from Palestine via Egypt, also passing
south, beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia and by at least the
6th century into Ethiopia.
In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic Caliphate
expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while the local
Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Ummayad
capital Damascus fell in the eight century, the Islamic center of the
Mediterranean shifted from Syria to Qayrawan in North Africa. Islamic North
Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists and
philosophers. During the above mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-
Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration. 54

9th–18th century
Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and
polities55 characterised by many different sorts of political organisation and
rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San
people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family
clan groupings of the Bantu-speaking people of central and southern Africa,
heavily structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa, the large Sahelian
kingdoms, and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the
Yoruba and Igbo people (also misspelled as Ibo) in West Africa, and the
Swahili coastal trading towns of East Africa.
By the 9th century AD a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa
states, stretched across the sub-saharan savannah from the western regions to
central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana, Gao, and the
Kanem-Bornu Empire. Ghana declined in the 11th century but was succeeded
by the Mali Empire which consolidated much of western Sudan in the 13th
century. Kanem accepted Islam in the 11th century.
50Fage, J. D. (1979) The Cambridge History of Africa, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-
521-21592-7.
51Fage, J. D., et al (1986) The Cambridge History of Africa, Cambridge University Press. Vol.
2, p. 118.
52Oliver, Roland and Anthony Atmore. (1994) Africa Since 1800, Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-42970-6.
53"Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt: 332 BC-395 AD" . Wsu.edu. 1999-06-06. . Retrieved 2010-05-
18.
54Ayoub, Mahmoud M. (2004). Islam: Faith and History. Oxford: Oneworld. pp. 76, 92–3, 96–
7.
55Meredith, Martin (January 20, 2006). "The Fate of Africa – A Survey of Fifty Years of
Independence". washingtonpost.com. . Retrieved 2007-07-23.
In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew
up with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo
was established around the 9th century and was one of the first. It is also one
of the oldest Kingdom in modern day Nigeria and was ruled by the Eze Nri.
The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo
Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the 9th century. 56
The Ife, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms,
established government under a priestly oba (ruler), (oba means 'king' or
'ruler' in the Yoruba language), called the Ooni of Ife. Ife was noted as a major
religious and cultural centre in Africa, and for its unique naturalistic tradition
of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted at Oyo, where
its obas or kings, called the Alaafins of Oyo once controlled a large number of
other Yoruba and non Yoruba city states and Kingdoms, the Fon Kingdom of
Dahomey was one of the non Yoruba domains under Oyo control.
The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a
wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the 11th
century.57 The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection of Arab Bedouin
tribes from the Arabian peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between
the 11th and 13th centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the
Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized,58 and Arab culture
absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of
Islam.59
Following the breakup of Mali a local leader named Sonni Ali (1464–1492)
founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western
Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu
in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the
cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–
1528) made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought Muslim
scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition
of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship, to Gao.60 By the 11th century some
Hausa states – such as Kano, jigawa, Katsina, and Gobir – had developed into
walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans, and the manufacture of
goods. Until the 15th century these small states were on the periphery of the
major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and
Kanem-Borno to the east.

56"Igbo-Ukwu (ca. 9th century) | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The
Metropolitan Museum of Art". Metmuseum.org. . Retrieved 2010-05-18.
57Glick, Thomas F. Islamic And Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages. (2005) Brill
Academic Publishers page 37
58" Mauritania – Arab invasions". Library of Congress Country Studies.
59"Genetic Evidence for the Expansion of Arabian Tribes into the Southern Levant and North
Africa". Pubmedcentral.nih.gov. 2010-04-01. . Retrieved 2010-05-18.
60Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge 1988
Height of slave trade
Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.6162 Between the seventh and
twentieth centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took
18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes.
Between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries(2000 years) , the Atlantic
slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World. 636465
In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused
dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading,
prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-
slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's
increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt
new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron
seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were
aboard.66
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British
treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos",
deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African
rulers.67 The largest powers of West Africa: the Asante Confederacy, the
Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire, adopted different ways of adapting
to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of
"legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold,
forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire,
unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.68

Colonialism and the "Scramble for Africa"

In the late nineteenth century, the European imperial powers engaged in a
major territorial scramble and occupied most of the continent, creating many
colonial territories, and leaving only two fully independent states: Ethiopia
(known to Europeans as "Abyssinia"), and Liberia. Egypt and Sudan were
never formally incorporated into any European colonial empire; however, after
the British occupation of 1882, Egypt was effectively under British
administration until 1922.

61Historical survey > Slave societies , Encyclopædia Britannica

62Swahili Coast, National Geographic
63Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History , Encyclopædia Britannica
64Focus on the slave trade, BBC
65Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa p 25 by Paul E. Lovejoy
66Sailing against slavery. By Jo Loosemore BBC
67"The West African Squadron and slave trade" . Pdavis.nl. . Retrieved 2010-05-18.
68Simon, Julian L. (1995) State of Humanity, Blackwell Publishing. p. 175. ISBN 1-55786-585-
X.
Berlin Conference
The Berlin Conference held in 1884–85 was an important event in the political
future of African ethnic groups. It was convened by King Leopold of Belgium,
and attended by the European powers that laid claim to African territories. It
sought to bring an end to the Scramble for Africa by European powers by
agreeing on political division and spheres of influence. They set up political
the divisions continent by spheres of interest that exist in Africa today.

Independance Struggles
Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World
War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained
formal independence.Independence movements in Africa gained momentum
following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In
1951, Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia
and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghana followed suit the
next year, becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be freed. Most of
the rest of the continent became independent over the next decade.
Portugal's overseas presence in Sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola,
Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted
from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown
in a military coup in Lisbon. Zimbabwe won its independence from the United
Kingdom in 1980 after a bitter guerrilla war between black nationalists and
the white minority Rhodesian government of Ian Smith. Although South Africa
was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state
remained under the control of the country's white minority through a system
of racial segregation known as apartheid until 1994.

Post-colonial Africa
Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which still have the
borders drawn during the era of European colonialism. Since colonialism,
African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption,
violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are
republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule.
However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a
permanent basis, and many have instead cycled through a series of coups,
producing military dictatorships.
Great instability was mainly the result of marginalization of ethnic groups, and
graft under these leaders. For political gain, many leaders fanned ethnic
conflicts that had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many
countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could
effectively maintain order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the
1970s and early 1980s. During the period from the early 1960s to the late
1980s, Africa had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations.
Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed
borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.
Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as
the policies of the International Monetary Fund, also played a role in
instability. When a country became independent for the first time, it was often
expected to align with one of the two superpowers. Many countries in
Northern Africa received Soviet military aid, while many in Central and
Southern Africa were supported by the United States, France or both. The
1970s saw an escalation, as newly independent Angola and Mozambique
aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, and the West and South Africa
sought to contain Soviet influence by funding insurgency movements. There
was a major famine in Ethiopia, when hundreds of thousands of people
starved. Some claimed that Marxist/Soviet policies made the situation
worse.697071
The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been
the Second Congo War. By 2008, this conflict and its aftermath had killed 5.4
million people. Since 2003 there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur which
has become a humanitarian disaster. AIDS has also been a prevalent issue in
post-colonial Africa.

Geography
Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest
landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is
joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by
the Suez Canal), 163 km (101 miles) wide.72 (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai
Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)73
From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the
most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a
distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles);74 from Cape Verde,
17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27'52" E,
the most easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km
(4,600 miles).75 The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the
absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that
Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,010,000 square miles) – about a
third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).76

69"BBC: 1984 famine in Ethiopia". BBC News. 2000-04-06. . Retrieved 2010-01-01.

70Robert G. Patman, The Soviet Union in the Horn of Africa 1990, ISBN 0-521-36022-6, pp.
295–296
71Steven Varnis, Reluctant aid or aiding the reluctant?: U.S. food aid policy and the Ethiopian
Famine Relief 1990, ISBN 0-88738-348-3, p.38
72Drysdale, Alasdair and Gerald H. Blake. (1985) The Middle East and North Africa, Oxford
University Press US. ISBN 0-19-503538-0.
73"Atlas - Xpeditions @ nationalgeographic.com" . National Geographic Society. 2003. .
Retrieved 2009-03-01.
74Lewin, Evans. (1924) Africa, Clarendon press.
75(1998) Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (Index), Merriam-Webster. pp. 10–11.
ISBN 0-87779-546-0.
76
Africa's largest country is Sudan, and its smallest country is the Seychelles, an
archipelago off the east coast.77 The smallest nation on the continental
mainland is The Gambia.
According to the ancient Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia"
was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn
between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 AD),
indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of
Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans
came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa
expanded with their knowledge.
Geologically, Africa includes the Arabian Peninsula; the Zagros Mountains of
Iran and the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey mark where the African Plate
collided with Eurasia. The Afrotropic ecozone and the Saharo-Arabian desert
to its north unite the region biogeographically, and the Afro-Asiatic language
family unites the north linguistically.

Climate
The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its
northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central and southern areas
contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In
between, there is a convergence where vegetation patterns such as sahel, and
steppe dominate.

Fauna
Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of
freedom" of wild animal populations and diversity, with wild populations of
large carnivores (such as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as
buffalo, deer, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily
open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of "jungle" animals
including snakes and primates and aquatic life such as crocodiles and
amphibians. Africa also has the largest number of megafauna species, as it
was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.

77Hoare, Ben. (2002) The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia, Kingfisher Publications. p. 11. ISBN 0-
7534-5569-2.
Ecology
Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).78 Some sources claim that
deforestation has already wiped out roughly 90% of West Africa's original
forests.79 Since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago, Madagascar has lost
more than 90% of its original forest.80 About 65% of Africa's agricultural land
suffers from soil degradation.81

Politics
The African Union (AU) is a 53 member federation consisting of all of Africa's
states except Morocco. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa as its
headquarters, on 26 June 2001. In July 2004, the African Union's Pan-African
Parliament (PAP) was relocated to Midrand, in South Africa, but the African
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights remained in Addis Ababa. There is
a policy in effect to decentralize the African Federation's institutions so that
they are shared by all the states.
The African Union, not to be confused with the AU Commission, is formed by
the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which aims to transform the African
Economic Community, a federated commonwealth, into a state under
established international conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary
government, known as the African Union Government, consisting of
legislative, judicial and executive organs. It is led by the African Union
President and Head of State, who is also the President of the Pan African
Parliament. A person becomes AU President by being elected to the PAP, and
subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP. 1 The powers and authority
of the President of the African Parliament derive from the Constitutive Act and
the Protocol of the Pan African Parliament, as well as the inheritance of
presidential authority stipulated by African treaties and by international
treaties, including those subordinating the Secretary General of the OAU
Secretariat (AU Commission) to the PAP. The government of the AU consists
of all-union (federal), regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as
hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the
institution.
There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations
and states. In the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former
Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring
African countries became involved (see also Second Congo War). Since the
conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 5 million.

78Deforestation reaches worrying level – UN . AfricaNews. June 11, 2008.

79Forests and deforestation in Africa – the wasting of an immense resource . afrol News.
80Terrestrial Ecoregions – Madagascar subhumid forests (AT0118), National Geographic.
81Nature laid waste: The destruction of Africa. The Independent. June 11, 2008.
Political associations such as the African Union offer hope for greater co-
operation and peace between the continent's many countries. Extensive
human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa, often under the
oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often
as a side effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations
have been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Economy
Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's
poorest and most underdeveloped continent, due to a variety of causes that
may include the spread of deadly diseases and viruses (notably HIV/AIDS and
malaria), corrupt governments that have often committed serious human
rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, lack of
access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging
from guerrilla warfare to genocide).82 According to the United Nations' Human
Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th)
were all African.83
Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation,
as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in
the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank84 announced revised
global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25
per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 80.5% of the Sub-Saharan
Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day in 2005, compared
with 85.7% for India.85
The new figures confirm that sub-Saharan Africa has been the least successful
region of the world in reducing poverty ($1.25 per day); some 50% of the
population living in poverty in 1981 (200 million people), a figure that rose to
58% in 1996 before dropping to 50% in 2005 (380 million people). The
average poor person in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to live on only 70
cents per day, and was poorer in 2003 than he or she was in 1973 86 indicating
increasing poverty in some areas. Some of it is attributed to unsuccessful
economic liberalization programs spearheaded by foreign companies and
governments, but other studies and reports have cited bad domestic
government policies more than external factors.878889

82Richard Sandbrook, The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation, Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge, 1985 passim
83[1], United Nations
84"World Bank Updates Poverty Estimates for the Developing World" . Econ.worldbank.org. .
Retrieved 2010-05-18.
85"The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against
poverty". World Bank. .
86Economic report on Africa 2004: unlocking Africa’s potential in the global economy ,
(Substantive session 28 June-23 July 2004) United Nations
87"Neo-Liberalism and the Economic and Political Future of Africa" . Globalpolitician.com.
2005-12-19. . Retrieved 2010-05-18.
88"Capitalism – Africa – Neoliberalism, Structural Adjustment, And The African Reaction" .
Science.jrank.org. . Retrieved 2010-05-18.
89http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=58925
From 1995 to 2005, Africa's rate of economic growth increased, averaging 5%
in 2005. Some countries experienced still higher growth rates, notably Angola,
Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, all three of which had recently begun
extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded their oil extraction
capacity. The continent has 90% of the world’s cobalt, 90% of its platinum,
50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite,90 64% of its
manganese and one-third of its uranium.91 The Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world’s coltan, and most mobile phones in the
world have coltan in them. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world’s
diamond reserves.92 Guinea is the world’s largest exporter of bauxite.93 As the
growth in Africa has been driven mainly by services and not manufacturing or
agriculture, it has been growth without jobs and without reduction in poverty
levels. In fact, the food security crisis of 2008 which took place on the heels of
the global financial crisis has pushed back 100 million people into food
insecurity.94
In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger
ties with African nations. In 2007, Chinese companies invested a total of US$1
billion in Africa.95

Demographics
Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and
consequently it is relatively young. In some African states half or more of the
population is under 25 years of age.96 African population grew from 221
million in 1950 to 1 billion in 2009.9798
Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger-Congo family) are the majority
in southern, central and East Africa proper. But there are also several Nilotic
groups in East Africa, and a few remaining indigenous Khoisan ('San' or
'Bushmen') and Pygmy peoples in southern and central Africa, respectively.
Bantu-speaking Africans also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea,
and are found in parts of southern Cameroon. In the Kalahari Desert of
Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San",
closely related to, but distinct from "Hottentots") have long been present. The
San are physically distinct from other Africans and are the indigenous people
of southern Africa. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central
Africa.99

90" Africa: Developed Countries' Leverage On the Continent". AllAfrica.com. February 7,

2008.
91" Africa, China's new frontier". Times Online. February 10, 2008.
92" DR Congo poll crucial for Africa". BBC News. November 16, 2006.
93" China tightens grip on Africa with $4.4bn lifeline for Guinea junta". The Times. October
13, 2009.
94" The African Decade?". Ilmas Futehally. Strategic Foresight Group
95" China and Africa: Stronger Economic Ties Mean More Migration". By Malia Politzer,
Migration Information Source. August 2008.
96"Africa Population Dynamics". .
97Population. Western Kentucky University.
98Africa's population now 1 billion. AfricaNews. August 25, 2009.
99Pygmies struggle to survive in war zone where abuse is routine . Times Online. December
16, 2004.
The peoples of North Africa comprise two main Semitic groups; Berber and
Arabic-speaking peoples in the west, and Egyptians and Libyans in the east.
These peoples have always been ethnically, culturally, physically, historically
and linguistically far more closely related to the Semites of the Middle East
than to the Africans of Sub Saharan Africa. The Arabs who arrived in the
seventh century introduced the Arabic language and Islam to North Africa.
The Semitic Phoenicians (who founded Carthage) and Hyksos, the Indo-
Iranian Alans, the Indo- European Greeks, Romans and Vandals settled in
North Africa as well. Berbers still make up the majority in Morocco, while they
are a significant minority within Algeria. They are also present in Tunisia and
Libya.100 The Semitic Tuareg and other often-nomadic peoples are the
principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. Nubians are a
Nilo-Saharan-speaking group (though many also speak Arabic), who developed
an ancient civilisation in northeast Africa.
Some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans,
collectively known as "Habesha") speak languages from the Semitic branch of
the Afro-Asiatic linguistic family (due to invasion and settlement in the region
by Semitic peoples from North Africa and Arabia), while the Oromo and
Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic. Sudan is
divided between a mostly Muslim Nubian and Beja north and a Christian and
animist Nilotic south, with Mauritania somewhat similarly structured. Some
areas of East Africa, particularly the island of Zanzibar and the Kenyan island
of Lamu, have also received Arab Muslim and Southwest Asian settlers and
merchants throughout the Middle Ages and in antiquity.101
Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era,
Europeans were represented in every part of Africa.102 Decolonisation during
the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass emigration of European-
descended settlers out of Africa – especially from Algeria and Morocco (1.6
million pieds-noirs in North Africa),103 Kenya, Congo,104 Rhodesia, Mozambique
and Angola.105 By the end of 1977, more than one million Portuguese were
thought to have returned from Africa.106 Nevertheless, White Africans remain
an important minority in many African states, particularly South Africa,
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Réunion.107 The African country with the largest
White African population is South Africa.108 The Afrikaners, the Anglo-Africans
(of British origin) and the Coloureds are the largest European-descended
groups in Africa today.

100Q&A: The Berbers. BBC News. March 12, 2004.

101The Story of Africa. BBC World Service.
102"We Want Our Country" (3 of 10). Time. November 5, 1965
103Raimondo Cagiano De Azevedo (1994). " Migration and development co-operation.".
Council of Europe. p.25. ISBN 9287126119
104Jungle Shipwreck. Time. July 25, 1960
105Flight from Angola, The Economist , August 16, 1975
106Portugal - Emigration, Eric Solsten, ed. Portugal: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for
the Library of Congress, 1993.
107Holm, John A. (1989). Pidgins and Creoles: References survey. Cambridge University
Press. p. 394. ISBN 0521359406.
108South Africa: People: Ethnic Groups. World Factbook of CIA
European colonization also brought sizable groups of Asians, particularly
people from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Indian
communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya,
Tanzania, and some other southern and East African countries. The large
Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972,
though many have since returned. The islands in the Indian Ocean are also
populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and
Europeans. The Malagasy people of Madagascar are an Austronesian people,
but those along the coast are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and
European origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also important components
in the group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with
origins in two or more races and continents). During the 20th century, small
but economically important communities of Lebanese and Chinese109 have also
developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.110

Languages
By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated
around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.111 Most are of African origin,
though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most multilingual
continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not
only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well.
There are four major language families indigenous to Africa.
•The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and
285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa,
the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
•The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred
languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by
Nilotic tribes in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and northern
Tanzania.
•The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is
probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different
languages.
•The Khoisan languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa
by approximately 120,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are
endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants
of this part of Africa.

109
110" Lebanese Immigrants Boost West African Commerce", By Naomi Schwarz,
VOANews.com, July 10, 2007
111"Africa". UNESCO. 2005. Archived from the original on June 2, 2008. . Retrieved 2009-03-
01.
Following the end of colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official
languages that originated outside the continent, although several countries
also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as Swahili,
Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa). In numerous countries, English and French (see
African French) are used for communication in the public sphere such as
government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese,
Afrikaans, Malagasy and Spanish are examples of languages that trace their
origin to outside of Africa, and that are used by millions of Africans today,
both in the public and private spheres. Prior to World War I, Italian and
German were used in certain areas also.

Culture
Some aspects of traditional African cultures have become less practiced in
recent years as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and
post-colonial regimes. There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover
and revalourise African traditional cultures, under such movements as the
African Renaissance, led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism, led by a group of
scholars, including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of
traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of Vodou and other forms of
spirituality. In recent years, traditional African culture has become
synonymous with rural poverty and subsistence farming.

Visual art and architecture

African art and architecture reflect the diversity of African cultures. The
oldest existing examples of art from Africa are 82,000-year-old beads made
from Nassarius shells that were found in the Aterian levels at Grotte des
Pigeons, Taforalt, Morocco. The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the
world's tallest structure for 4,000 years, until the completion of Lincoln
Cathedral around the year 1300. The stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe are also
noteworthy for their architecture, and the complexity of monolithic churches
at Lalibela, Ethiopia, of which the Church of Saint George is representative.

Music and dance

Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of
the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular West Africa, was transmitted
through the Atlantic slave trade to modern samba, blues, jazz, reggae, hip
hop, and rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these
various styles with the popularization of Afrobeat and Highlife music. Modern
music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern
Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of soukous, dominated by
the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indigenous musical and dance
traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions, and they are distinct
from the music and dance styles of North Africa and Southern Africa. Arab
influences are visible in North African music and dance and, in Southern
Africa, Western influences are apparent due to colonisation.
Sports
Fifty-three African countries have football (soccer) teams in the Confederation
of African Football, while Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, and Ghana have
advanced to the knockout stage of recent FIFA World Cups. South Africa
hosted the 2010 World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to
do so. According to FIFA ranking, Egypt currently has the best soccer team in
Africa. Their team has won the African Cup 7 times, and a record-making 3
times in a row.
Cricket is popular in some African nations. South Africa and Zimbabwe have
Test status, while Kenya is the leading non-test team in One-Day International
cricket and has attained permanent One-Day International status. The three
countries jointly hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Namibia is the other
African country to have played in a World Cup. Morocco in northern Africa has
also hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified
for a major tournament. Rugby is a popular sport in South Africa.

Religion
Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs 112 and statistics on religious
affiliation are difficult to come by since they are too sensitive a topic for
governments with mixed populations.113 According to the World Book
Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, 45% of the population are Muslims,
40% are Christians and less than 15% continue to follow traditional African
religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, Baha'i, or have beliefs from
the Judaic tradition. Examples of African Jews are the Beta Israel, Lemba
peoples and the Abayudaya of Eastern Uganda. There is also a small minority
of Africans who are non-religious.

Territories and regions

The countries in this table are categorised according to the scheme for
geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per
sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly
indicated.
Name of Area Population Density Capital
region and (km²)
114
(2009 est) (per km²)
territory, with except where noted
flag
Eastern 6,384,904 316,053,651 49.5
Africa:

112"African Religion on the Internet" , Stanford University

113Onishi, Normitsu (November 1, 2001). "Rising Muslim Power in Africa Causing Unrest in
Nigeria and Elsewhere". The New York Times Company. . Retrieved 2009-03-01.
114Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map.
 Burundi 27,830 8,988,091115 322.9 Bujumbura

Comoros 2,170 752,438116 346.7 Moroni

Djibouti 23,000 516,055117 22.4 Djibouti

Eritrea 121,320 5,647,168118 46.5 Asmara

Ethiopia 1,127,127 85,237,338119 75.6 Addis Ababa

Kenya 582,650 39,002,772120 66.0 Nairobi

Madagascar587,040 20,653,556121 35.1 Antananarivo

Malawi 118,480 14,268,711122 120.4 Lilongwe

Mauritius 2,040 1,284,264123 629.5 Port Louis

Mayotte 374 223,765124 489.7 Mamoudzou

(France)
801,590 21,669,278125 27.0 Maputo

Mozambique
Réunion 2,512 743,981(2002) 296.2 Saint-Denis

(France)
Rwanda 26,338 10,473,282126 397.6 Kigali

Seychelles 455 87,476127 192.2 Victoria

Somalia 637,657 9,832,017128 15.4 Mogadishu

115USCensusBureau:Countries and Areas Ranked by Population: 2009

119
118
117
116
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
 Tanzania 945,087 41,048,532129 43.3 Dodoma

Uganda 236,040 32,369,558130 137.1 Kampala

Zambia 752,614 11,862,740131 15.7 Lusaka

Middle Africa:6,613,253 121,585,754 18.4

Angola 1,246,700 12,799,293132 10.3 Luanda

Cameroon 475,440 18,879,301133 39.7 Yaoundé

Central 622,984 4,511,488134 7.2 Bangui

African
Republic
Chad 1,284,000 10,329,208135 8.0 N'Djamena

Congo 342,000 4,012,809136 11.7 Brazzaville

Democratic 2,345,410 68,692,542137 29.2 Kinshasa

Republic of the
Congo
Equatorial 28,051 633,441138 22.6 Malabo

Guinea
Gabon 267,667 1,514,993139 5.6 Libreville

São Tomé 1,001 212,679140 212.4 São Tomé

and Príncipe
Northern 8,533,021 211,087,622 24.7
Africa:
Algeria 2,381,740 34,178,188141 14.3 Algiers

129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
 Egypt142 1,001,450 83,082,869143 82.9 Cairo
total, Asia 1.4m
Libya 1,759,540 6,310,434144 3.6 Tripoli

Morocco 446,550 34,859,364145 78.0 Rabat

Sudan 2,505,810 41,087,825146 16.4 Khartoum

Tunisia 163,610 10,486,339147 64.1 Tunis

Sahrawi 266,000 405,210149 1.5 El Aaiún

Arab
Democratic
Republic148
Spanish and Portuguese territories in Northern Africa:
Canary 7,492 1,694,477(2001226.2 Las Palmas de
) Gran Canaria,
Islands Santa Cruz de
(Spain)150 Tenerife
Ceuta 20 71,505(2001) 3,575.2 —

(Spain)151
Madeira 797 245,000(2001) 307.4 Funchal

Islands
(Portugal)152
142Egypt is generally considered a transcontinental country in Northern Africa (UN region)
and Western Asia; population and area figures are for African portion only, west of the Suez
Canal.

143
144
145
146
147
148The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is recognized as a sovereign state by the African
Union, however, Morocco claims the entirety of the country as Morocco's own Southern
Provinces, and has occupied most of its territory since it declared its independence from
Spain in 1976. Morocco's occupation and annexation of this territory has not been recognized
internationally.

149
150The Spanish Canary Islands, of which Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are Santa Cruz de
Tenerife are co-capitals, are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their relative
proximity to Morocco and Western Sahara; population and area figures are for 2001.

151The Spanish exclave of Ceuta is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa;

population and area figures are for 2001.

152The Portuguese Madeira Islands are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their
relative proximity to Morocco; population and area figures are for 2001.
 Melilla 12 66,411(2001) 5,534.2 —

(Spain)153
Southern 2,693,418 56,406,762 20.9
Africa:
Botswana 600,370 1,990,876154 3.3 Gaborone

Lesotho 30,355 2,130,819155 70.2 Maseru

Zimbabwe 390,580 11,392,629156 29.1 Harare

Namibia 825,418 2,108,665157 2.6 Windhoek

South 1,219,912 49,052,489158 40.2 Bloemfontein,

Cape Town,
Africa Pretoria159
Swaziland 17,363 1,123,913160 64.7 Mbabane

Western 6,144,013 296,186,492 48.2

Africa:
Benin 112,620 8,791,832161 78.0 Porto-Novo

Burkina 274,200 15,746,232162 57.4 Ouagadougou

Faso
Cape Verde 4,033 429,474163 107.3 Praia

Côte 322,460 20,617,068164 63.9 Abidjan,165

Yamoussoukro
d'Ivoire

153The Spanish exclave of Melilla is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa;

population and area figures are for 2001.

154
155
156
157
158
159Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa, while Cape Town is its legislative seat,
and Pretoria is the country's administrative seat.

160
161
162
163
164
165Yamoussoukro is the official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while Abidjan is the de facto seat.
 Gambia 11,300 1,782,893166 157.7 Banjul

Ghana 239,460 23,832,495167 99.5 Accra

Guinea 245,857 10,057,975168 40.9 Conakry

Guinea- 36,120 1,533,964169 42.5 Bissau

Bissau
Liberia 111,370 3,441,790170 30.9 Monrovia

Mali 1,240,000 12,666,987171 10.2 Bamako

Mauritania 1,030,700 3,129,486172 3.0 Nouakchott

Niger 1,267,000 15,306,252173 12.1 Niamey

Nigeria 923,768 158,259,000174 161.5 Abuja

Saint 410 7,637175 14.4 Jamestown

Helena,
Ascension and
Tristan da
Cunha (UK)
Senegal 196,190 13,711,597176 69.9 Dakar

Sierra 71,740 6,440,053177 89.9 Freetown

Leone
Togo 56,785 6,019,877178 106.0 Lomé

Africa Total 30,368,609 1,001,320,281 33.0

166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
See also
•Urbanization in Africa
•Highest mountain peaks of Africa
Lists:
•List of topics related to Africa
•List of African countries by population
•List of cities in Africa

Further reading
•Asante, Molefi (2007). The History of Africa. USA: Routledge.
ISBN 0415771390.
•Clark, J. Desmond (1970). The Prehistory of Africa. London: Thames and
Hudson. ISBN 9780500020692.
•Crowder, Michael (1978). The Story of Nigeria. London: Faber.
ISBN 9780571049479.
•Davidson, Basil (1966). The African past; chronicles from antiquity to modern
times. Harmondsworth: Penguin. OCLC 2016817.
•Gordon, April A.; Donald L. Gordon (1996). Understanding contemporary
Africa. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 9781555875473.
•Khapoya, Vincent B. (1998). The African experience: an introduction. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780137458523.
•Naipaul, V. S.. The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief. Picador,
2010. ISBN 978030472050

External links
General information

•Africa at the Open Directory Project

•African & Middle Eastern Reading Room from the United States Library of
Congress
•Africa South of the Sahara from Stanford University
•The Index on Africa from The Norwegian Council for Africa
•Africa from The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online
•Aluka Digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa
•Atlas of Our Changing Environment: Africa from United Nations Environment
Programme
•Africa Interactive Map from the United States Army Africa

•Wikimedia Atlas of Africa

History

•African Kingdoms
•The Story of Africa from BBC World Service
•Africa Policy Information Center (APIC)
•Charles Finch: Nile Genesis

News media

•allAfrica.com current news, events and statistics

•Focus on Africa magazine from BBC World Service

Travel

•Africa travel guide from Wikitravel

bjn:Aprika gag:Afrika

History of Africa
The history of Africa begins with the first emergence of Homo sapiens in
East Africa, continuing into the present as a patchwork of diverse and
politically developing nation states.
The history of Africa has been a challenge for researchers in the field of
African studies due to the scarcity of written sources in large parts of Sub-
Saharan Africa. Scholarly techniques such as the recording of oral history,
historical linguistics, archaeology and genetics have been crucial.

Prehistory
Paleolithic
According to paleontology, early hominids' skull anatomy was similar to their
close cousins, the great African forest apes, the gorilla and chimpanzee, but
the hominids had adopted a bipedal locomotion and freed their hands. This
gave them a crucial advantage, enabling them to live in both forested areas
and on the open savanna at a time when Africa was drying up and the savanna
was encroaching on forested areas. This occurred 10 to 5 million years ago.179
By 3 million years ago, several australopithecine (southern ape) hominid
species had developed throughout southern, eastern and central Africa. They
were tool users, not makers of tools. They scavenged for meat and were
omnivores.180
By approximately 2.3 million years ago, primitive stone tools were first used to
scavenge kills made by other predators and to harvest carrion and marrow for
their bones. In hunting, Homo habilis was probably not capable of competing
with large predators, and was still more prey than hunter. H. habilis probably
did steal eggs from nests, and may have been able to catch small game, and
weakened larger prey (cubs and older animals). The tools were classed as
Oldowan.181
Around 1.8 million years ago Homo ergaster first appeared in the fossil record
in Africa. From Homo ergaster, Homo erectus (upright man) evolved 1.5
million years ago. Some of the earlier representatives of this species were still
fairly small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like H. habilis. The
brain later grew in size, and H. erectus eventually developed a more complex
stone tool technology called the Acheulean. Possibly the first hunters, H.
erectus mastered the art of making fire, and was the first hominid to leave
Africa, colonizing most of the Old World, and perhaps later giving rise to
Homo floresiensis. Although some recent writers suggest that Homo
georgicus was the first and most primitive hominid to ever live outside Africa,
many scientists consider H. georgicus to be an early and primitive member of
the H. erectus species.182183
The fossil record shows Homo sapiens living in southern and eastern Africa at
least 100,000 and possibly 150,000 years ago. Around 40,000 years ago, the
species' expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by
modern human beings. By 10,000 BCE, Homo sapiens has spread to all
corners of the world. Their migration is traced by linguistic, cultural and
(increasingly) computer-analyzed genetic evidence.184185186
179Shillington, Kevin (2005), History of Africa, p. 2. Rev. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-59957-8.
180Shillington (2005), p. 2.
181Shillington (2005), p. 2-3.
182Shillington (2005), p. 3.
183Ehret, Christopher (2002), The Civilizations of Africa, p. 22. Charlottesville: University of
Virginia. ISBN 0-8139-2085-X.
184
185The genetic studies by Luca Cavalli-Sforza are considered pioneering in tracing the spread
of modern humans from Africa.
186Sarah A. Tishkoff,* Floyd A. Reed, Françoise R. Friedlaender, Christopher Ehret, Alessia
Ranciaro, Alain Froment, Jibril B. Hirbo, Agnes A. Awomoyi, Jean-Marie Bodo, Ogobara
Doumbo, Muntaser Ibrahim, Abdalla T. Juma, Maritha J. Kotze, Godfrey Lema, Jason H.
Moore, Holly Mortensen, Thomas B. Nyambo, Sabah A. Omar, Kweli Powell, Gideon S.
Pretorius, Michael W. Smith, Mahamadou A. Thera, Charles Wambebe, James L. Weber, Scott
Emergence of agriculture
Around 16,000 BCE, from the Red Sea hills to the northern Ethiopian
highlands, nuts, grasses and tubers were being collected for food. By 13,000-
11,000 BCE, people began collecting wild grains. This spread to southwest
Asia, which domesticated its wild grains, wheat and barley. Between 10,000
and 8,000 BCE, northeast Africa was cultivating wheat and barley and raising
sheep and cattle from southwest Asia. A wet climatic phase in Africa turned
the Ethiopian highlands into a mountain forest. Omotic speakers domesticated
enset around 6500-5500 BCE. Around 7000 BCE, the settlers of the Ethiopian
highlands domesticated donkeys, and by 4000 BCE domesticated donkeys had
spread to southwest Asia. Cushitic speakers, partially turning away from
cattle herding, domesticated teff and finger millet between 5500 and 3500
BCE.187188
In the steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel, the Nilo-Saharan
speakers started to collect and domesticate wild millet and sorghum between
8000 and 6000 BCE. Later, gourds, watermelons, castor beans, and cotton
were also collected and domesticated. The people started capturing wild
cattle and holding them in circular thorn hedges, resulting in domestication.189
They also started making pottery. Fishing, using bone tipped harpoons,
became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the
increased rains.
In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in expanding rainforest and wooded
savannah from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9000 and 5000 BCE, Niger-
Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Two seed plants,
black-eyed peas and voandzeia(African groundnuts) were domesticated,
followed by okra and kola nuts. Since most of the plants grew in the forest,
the Niger-Congo speakers invented polish stone axes for clearing forest.190
Most of Southern Africa was occupied by pygmy peoples and Khoisan who
engaged in hunting and gathering. Some of the oldest rock art was produced
by them.191
Just prior to Saharan desertification, the communities that developed south of
Egypt, in what is now modern day Sudan, were full participants in the
Neolithic revolution and lived a settled to semi-nomadic lifestyle, with
domesticated plants and animals.192 It has been suggested that megaliths
found at Nabta Playa are examples of the world's first known
archaeoastronomical devices, predating Stonehenge by some 1000 years.[2]
The sociocultural complexity observed at Nabta Playa and expressed by
different levels of authority within the society there has been suggested as
forming the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and
the Old Kingdom of Egypt.193
M. Williams. The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. Published
30 April 2009 on Science Express.
187Diamond, Jared (1997), Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, pp. 126-
127. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-03891-2.
188Ehret (2002), pp. 64-75, 80-81, 87-88.
189Ehret (2002), pp. 64-75.
190Ehret (2002), pp. 82-84.
191Ehret (2002), pp. 94, 95.
192Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith
193Late Neolithic megalithic structures at Nabta Playa - Wendorf (1998)
By 5000 BCE, Africa entered a dry phase, and the climate of the Sahara region
gradually became drier. The population trekked out of the Sahara region in all
directions, including towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract,
where they made permanent or semipermanent settlements. A major climatic
recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in central and
eastern Africa. Since then, dry conditions have prevailed in eastern Africa.

Metallurgy
The first metals to be smelted in Africa were lead, copper, and bronze in the
fourth millennium BCE.194 Smelting of copper and its alloy arose in northern
Africa, from southwest Asia ro the Aïr Mountains north of Nigeria. Copper was
already being smelted in Egypt during the predynastic period, and bronze
came into use not long after 3000 BCE at the latest195 in Egypt and Nubia.
Nubia was a major source of copper, as well as gold.196 The use of gold and
silver in Egypt also dates back to the predynastic period.197198
In the region of the Aïr Mountains in Niger, copper was being smelted
independently of developments in the Nile valley between 3000 and 2500
BCE. The process used was not well developed, indicating that it was not
brought from outside the region; it became more mature by about the 1500
BCE.199
By the 1st millennium BCE, iron-working had been introduced in northwestern
Africa, Egypt, and Nubia.200 In 670 BCE, Nubians were pushed out of Egypt by
Assyrians using iron weapons, after which the use of iron in the Nile valley
became widespread.
The notion of iron spreading to Sub-Saharan Africa via the Nubian city of
Meroe is no longer widely accepted. Metalworking in West Africa has been
dated as early as 2500 BCE at Egaro west of Termit in Niger, and iron-
working was practiced there by 1500 BCE.201
In addition, iron smelting was developed in the area between Lake Chad and
the African Great Lakes between 1000 and 600 BCE, long before it reached
Egypt. Before 500 BCE, Nok culture in the Jos Plateau was already smelting
iron.202203

Antiquity

194Nicholson, Paul T, and Ian Shaw (2000), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, p.
168. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45257-1.
195Nicholson and Shaw (2000), pp. 149–160
196http://wysinger.homestead.com/nubians.html
197Nicholson and Shaw (2000), pp. 161–165, 170.
198Ehret (2002), pp. 136-137.
199Ehret (2002), pp. 136, 137.
200Martin and O'Meara. "Africa, 3rd Ed." Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995.
201Iron in Africa: Revising the History, UNESCO Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en
Afrique, Une ancienneté méconnue: Afrique de l'Ouest et Afrique centrale.
202Shillington (2005), pp. 37-39.
203O'Brien, Patrick Karl (2002), Atlas of World History, pp. 22-23. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0-19-521921-X.
Egypt
After the desertification of the Sahara, settlement became concentrated in the
Nile Valley, where numerous sacral chiefdoms appeared. The regions with the
largest population pressure were in the delta region of lower Egypt, in upper
Egypt, and also along the second and third cataracts of the Dongola reach of
the Nile in Nubia. This population pressure and growth was brought about by
the cultivation of southwest Asian crops, including wheat and barley, and the
raising of sheep, goats, and cattle. Population growth led to competition for
farm land and the need to regulate farming. Regulation was established by the
formation of bureaucracies among sacral chiefdoms. The first and most
powerful of the chiefdoms was Ta-Seti, founded around 3500 BCE. The idea of
sacral chiefdom spread throughout upper and lower Egypt.204
Later consolidation of the chiefdoms into broader political entities began to
occur in upper and lower Egypt, culminating into the unification of Egypt into
one political entity by Narmer (Menes) in 3100 BCE. Instead being viewed as
a sacral chief, he became a divine king. The henotheism, or worship of a single
god within a polytheistic system, practiced in the sacral chiefdoms along
upper and lower Egypt, became the polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt.
Bureaucracies became more centralized under the pharaohs, run by viziers,
governors, tax collectors, generals, artists, and technicians. They engaged in
tax collecting, organizing of labor for major public works, and building
irrigation systems, pyramids, temples, and canals. During the Fourth Dynasty
(2620-2480 BCE), long distance trade was developed, with the Levant for
timber, with Nubia for gold and skins, with Punt for frankincense, and also
with the western Libyan territories. For most of the Old Kingdom, Egypt
developed her fundamental systems, institutions and culture, always through
the central bureaucracy and by the divinity of the Pharaoh.205
After the third millennium BCE, Egypt started to extend direct military and
political control over her southern and western neighbors. By 2200 BCE, the
Old Kingdom's stability was undermined by rivalry among the governors of the
nomes who challenged the power of pharaohs and by invasions of Asiatics into
the delta. The First Intermediate Period had begun, a time of political division
and uncertainty.206

204Ehret (2002), pp. 143-46.

205Davidson, Basil (1991), Africa In History: Themse and Outlines, pp. 30-33. Revised and
expanded ed. New York: Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-82667-4
206Davidson (1991), pp. 30-33.
By 2130, the period of stagnation was endedby Mentuhotep, the first Pharaoh
of the 11th dynasty, and the emergence of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramid
building resumed, long-distance trade re-emerged, and the center of power
moved from Memphis to Thebes. Connections with the southern regions of
Kush, Wawat and Irthet at the second cataract were made stronger. Then
came the Second Intermediate Period, with the invasion of the Hyksos on
horse-drawn chariots and utilizing bronze weapons, a technology not yet seen
in Egypt. Horse-drawn chariots soon spread to the west in the inhabitable
Sahara and North Africa. The Hyksos failed to hold on to their Egyptian
territories and were absorbed by Egyptian society. This eventually led to one
of Egypt's most powerful phases, the New Kingdom (1580-1080 BCE), with the
Eighteenth Dynasty. Egypt became a superpower controlling Nubia and
Palestine while exerting political influence on the Libyans to the West and on
the Mediterranean.207
As before, the New Kingdom ended with invasion from the west by Libyan
princes, leading to the Third Intermediate Period. Beginning with Shoshenq I,
the Twenty-second Dynasty was established. It ruled for two centuries.208
To the south, Nubian independence and strength was being reasserted. This
reassertion led to the conquest of Egypt by Nubia, begun by Kashta and
completed by Piye (Pianhky, 751-730 BCE) and Shabaka (716-695 BCE). This
was the birth of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The Nubians tried to re-
establish Egyptian traditions and customs. They ruled Egypt for a hundred
years. This was ended by an Assyrian invasion, with Taharqa experiencing the
full might of Assyrian iron weapons. The Nubian pharaoh Tantamani was the
last of the Twenty Fifth Dynasty.209
When the Assyrians and Nubians left, a new Twenty-sixth Dynasty emerged
from Sais. It lasted until 525 BCE, when Egypt was invaded by the Persians.
Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians stayed. In 332, Egypt was conquered by
Alexander of Macedon. This was the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
which ended with Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Pharaonic Egypt had come to
an end.210

Nubia
Around 3500 BCE, one of the first sacral kingdoms to arise in the Nile was Ta-
Seti, located in northern Nubia. Ta-Seti was a powerful sacral kingdom in the
Nile Valley at the 1st and 2nd cataracts that exerted an influence over nearby
chiefdoms. Based on its pictorial representation, it claimed to have ruled over
Upper Egypt. Ta-Seti traded as far as Syro-Palestine, as well as with Egypt.
Ta-Seti exported gold, copper, ostrich feathers, ebony and ivory to the Old
Kingdom. By the 32nd century BCE, Ta-Seti was in decline. After the
unification of Egypt by Narmer in 3100 BCE, Ta-Seti was invaded by the
Pharaoh Hor-Aha of the First Dynasty, destroying the final remnants of the
kingdom. Ta-Seti is affiliated with A-Group culture known to archaeology.211

207
208
209
210
211Ehret (2002), pp. 144, 145.
Small sacral kingdoms continued to dot the Nubian portion of the Nile for
centuries after 3000 BCE. Around the latter part of the third millennium,
there was further consolidation of the sacral kingdoms. Two kingdoms in
particular emerged: the Sai kingdom, immediately south of Egypt, and
Kingdom of Kerma at the third cataract. Sometime around the 18th century
BCE, the Kingdom of Kerma conquered the Kingdom of Sai, becoming a
serious rival to Egypt. Kerma occupied a territory from the first cataract to
the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and River Atbara. About 1575-
1550 BCE, during the later part of the Seventeenth Dynasty, the Kingdom of
Kerma invaded Egypt.212 The Kingdom of Kerma also allied itself with the
Hyksos invasion of Egypt.213
Egypt eventually re-energized under the Eigthteenth Dynasty and conquered
the Kingdom of Kerma or Kush, ruling it for almost 500 years. The Kushites
were Egyptianized during this period. By 1100 BCE, the Egyptians had
withdrawn from Kush. The region regained independence and reasserted its
culture. Kush built a new religion around Amun and made Napata its spiritual
center. In 730 BCE, the Kingdom of Kush invaded Egypt, taking over Thebes
and beginning the Nubian Empire. The empire extended from Palestine to the
confluences of the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and River Atbara.214
In 760 BCE, the Kushites were expelled from Egypt by iron-wielding
Assyrians. Later, the administrative capital was moved from Napata to Meröe,
developing into a new Nubian culture. Initially Meroites were highly
Egyptianized, but they subsequently began to take on distinctive features.
Nubia became a center of iron-making and cotton cloth manufacturing.
Egyptian writing was replaced by the Meroitic alphabet. The lion god
Apedemak was added to the Egyptian pantheon of gods. Trade links to the
Red Sea increased, linking Nubia with Mediterranean Greece and Rome. Its
architecture and art became more unique, with pictures of lions, ostriches,
giraffes, and elephants. Eventually with the rise of Aksum, Nubia's trade links
were broken and it suffered environmental degradation from the tree cutting
required for iron production. In 350 CE, the Aksumite king Ezana brought
Meröe to an end.215

212Alberge, Dalya. Tomb Reveals Ancient Egypt's Humiliating Secret, The Times{London},
28 July 2003(Monday).
213Ehret (2002), pp. 148-151.
214Shillington (2005), pp. 40-41.
215Shillington (2005), pp. 42-45.
Carthage
The Egyptians referred to the people west of the Nile, ancestral to the
Berbers, as Libyans. The Libyans were agriculturalists like the Mauri of
Morocco and the Numidians of central and eastern Algeria and Tunis. They
were also nomadic, having the horse, and occupied the arid pastures and
desert, like the Gaetuli. Berber desert nomads were typically in conflict with
Berber coastal agriculturalists.216 The Phoenicians were seamen of the
Mediterranean. They were in constant search for valuable metals like copper,
gold, tin, and lead. Soon they began to populate the North African coast with
settlements, trading and mixing with the native Berber population. In 814
BCE, Phoenicians from Tyre established the city of Carthage. By 600 BCE,
Carthage had become a major trading entity and power in the Mediterranean,
largely due to trade with tropical Africa. Carthage's prosperity fostered the
growth of the Berber kingdoms, Numidia and Mauretania. Around 500 BCE,
Carthage provided a strong impetus for trade with sub-Saharan Africa. Berber
middlemen, who had maintained contacts with sub-Saharan Africa since the
desert had desiccated, utilized pack animals to transfer products from oasis to
oasis. Danger lurked from the Garamantes of Fez, who raided caravans. Salt
and metal goods were traded for gold, slaves, beads, and ivory.217
The Carthaginians were rivals to the Greeks and Romans. Carthage fought
three wars with Rome: the First Punic War (264 to 241 BCE), over Sicily; the
Second Punic War (218 BC to 201 BCE), in which Hannibal invaded Europe;
and the Third Punic War (149 B.C to 146 BCE). Carthage lost the first two
wars, and in the third it was destroyed, becoming the Roman province of
Africa, with the Berber Kingdom of Numidia assisting Rome. The Roman
province of Africa became a major agricultural supplier of wheat, olives, and
olive oil to imperial Rome via exorbitant taxation. Two centuries later, Rome
brought the Berber kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania under its authority.
In the 420s CE, Vandals invaded North Africa and Rome lost her territories.
The Berber kingdoms subsequently regained their independence.218
Christianity gained a foothold in Africa at Alexandria in the 1st century CE
and spread to northwest Africa. By 313 CE, with the Edict of Milan, all of
Roman North Africa was Christian. Egyptians adopted Monophysite
Christianity and formed the independent Coptic Church. Berbers adopted
Donatist Christianity. Both groups refused to accept the authority of the
Roman Church. In 642 CE, Arab Muslims conquered Byzantine Egypt, and by
711 CE they had conquered all of North Africa. By the 10th century, the
majority of population of North Africa was Muslim.219

216Iliffe, John (2007), Africans: The History of a Continent, p. 30. 2nd ed. New
York:Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68297-8.
217Shillington (2005), pp. 63-65.
218Shillington (2005), pp. 65.
219Shillington (2005), pp. 65-67, 72-75.
Somalia
In antiquity, the ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the
Horn of Africa connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the ancient
world. Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense,
myrrh and spices, all of which were valuable luxuries to the Ancient
Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians.220221
In the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone,
Mosyllon and Malao competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for
the rich Indo-Greco-Roman trade.222
The birth of Islam opposite Somalia's Red Sea coast meant that Somali
merchants and sailors living on the Arabian Peninsula gradually came under
the influence of the new religion through their converted Arab Muslim trading
partners. With the migration of Muslim families from the Islamic world to
Somalia in the early centuries of Islam, and the peaceful conversion of the
Somali population by Somali Muslim scholars in the following centuries, the
ancient city-states eventually transformed into Islamic Mogadishu, Berbera,
Zeila, Barawa and Merka, which were part of the Berber (the medieval Arab
term for the ancestors of the modern Somalis) civilization.223224 The city of
Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islam,225 and controlled the East
African gold trade for several centuries.226

Aksum
Aksumite Empire

220Phoenicia, pg. 199.

221Rose, Jeanne, and John Hulburd, The Aromatherapy Book, p. 94.
222Vine, Peter, Oman in History, p. 324.
223David D. Laitin, Said S. Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State, (Westview Press:
1987), p. 15.
224I.M. Lewis, A modern history of Somalia: nation and state in the Horn of Africa, 2nd
edition, revised, illustrated, (Westview Press: 1988), p.20
225Brons, Maria (2003), Society, Security, Sovereignty and the State in Somalia: From
Statelessness to Statelessness?, p. 116.
226Morgan, W. T. W. (1969), East Africa: Its Peoples and Resources, p. 18.
The earliest state in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia was D'mt, dated around the
eighth and 7th centuries BCE. D'mt traded through the Red Sea with Egypt
and the Mediterranean, providing frankincense. By the fifth and 3rd centuries,
D'mt had declined, and several successor states took its place. Later there
was greater trade with southern Arabia, mainly with the port of Saba. Adulis
became an important commercial center in the Ethiopian highlands. The
interaction of the peoples in the two regions, the southern Arabia Sabaeans
and the northern Ethiopians, resulted in the Ge'ez culture and language and
eventual development of the Ge'ez script. Trade links increased and expanded
from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, with Egypt, Greece, and Rome, to the
Black Sea, and to Persia, India, and China. Aksum was known throughout
those lands. By the 5th century BCE, the region was very prosperous,
exporting ivory, hippopotamus hides, gold dust, spices, and live elephants. It
imported silver, gold, olive oil, and wine. Aksum manufactured glass crystal,
brass, and copper for export. A powerful Aksum emerged, unifying parts of
eastern Sudan, northern Ethiopia (Tigre), and Eritrea. Its kings built stone
palatial buildings and were buried under megalithic monuments. By 300 CE,
Aksum was minting its own coins in silver and gold.227
In 331 CE, King Ezana(320-350 CE) was converted to Monophysite
Christianity supposedly by Frumentius and Aedesius, who were stranded on
the Red Sea coast. Some scholars believed the process was more complex and
gradual than a simple conversion. Around 350, the time Ezana sacked Meroe,
the Syrian monastic tradition took root within the Ethiopian church. 228
In the 6th century, Aksum was powerful enough to add Saba on the Arabian
peninsula to her empire. At the end of the 6th century, the Persians pushed
Aksum out of peninsula. With the spread of Islam through western Asia and
northern Africa, Aksum's trading networks in the Mediterranean were closed.
The Red Sea trade diminished as it was diverted to the Persian Gulf and
dominated by Arabs, causing Aksum to decline. By 800 CE, the capital was
moved south, into the interior highlands, and Aksum was much diminished. 229

West Africa and Bantu Expansion

In the western Sahel, the rise of settled communities was largely due to the
domestication of millet and sorghum. Archaeology points to sizable urban
populations in West Africa beginning in the 2nd millenium BCE. Symbiotic
trade relations developed before the trans-Saharan trade, in response to the
opportunities afforded by north-south diversity in ecosystems across deserts,
grasslands, and forests. The salt-starved agriculturists received salt from the
desert nomads. The protein-starved desert nomads acquired meat and other
foods from pastoralists and farmers of the grasslands and from fishermen on
the Niger River. The forest dwellers provided furs and meat.230

227Collins, Robert O., and James M. Burns (2007), A History of Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 66-71.
New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68708-9.
228Iliffe (2007), p. 41.
229Shillington (2005), pp. 66-71.
230Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 79-80.
Tichit(Dhar Tichitt) was prominent among the early urban centers, dated to
2000 BCE, in present day Mauritania. About 500 hundred stone settlements
litter the region in what was once a rainier Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and
grew millet. Around 300 BCE, the region became more desiccated and the
settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. From
the type of architecture and pottery, it is believed that Tichit was related to
the subsequent Ghana Empire. Old Jenne (Djenne) began to be settled around
300 BCE, producing iron and with sizable population, evidenced in crowded
cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BCE, Jenne
was a large, thriving market town.231232
Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1000 BCE, the Nok culture
developed on the Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok
people produced miniature lifelike representations in terracotta, including
human heads, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BCE, they were smelting
iron. By 200 CE, the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities
with Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of Ife and Benin are believed to be
continuation of the tradition.233
The Bantu expansion was a critical movement of people in African history and
the settling of the continent. Bantu is a branch of the Niger-Congo family.
"Bantu" comes from the root word ntu, which means people. The expansion
began in the second millennium BCE, from Cameroon. Its first thrust was
eastward to the Great Lakes region in the second millennium BCE. In the first
millennium BCE, Bantu languages spread from the Great Lakes to southern
and east Africa. An early expansion was south to the upper Zambezi valley in
the 2nd century BCE. Then, Bantu speakers pushed westward to the
savannahs of present-day Angola and eastward into Malawi, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe in the 1st century CE. The second thrust from the Great Lakes was
eastward, 2,000 years ago, expanding to the Indian Ocean coast and Tanzania.
The eastern group eventually met the southern migrants from the Great Lakes
in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Both groups continued southward, with
eastern group continuing to Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd
century CE, and rexpanding as far as Durban. By the later first millennium
CE, the expansion had reached the Great Kei River of South Africa. Sorghum,
a major Bantu crop, could not thrive under the regime of winter rainfall of
Namibia and the western Cape. Khoisan people inhabited the remaining parts
of southern Africa. The Bantu expansion was complex, gradual, and not simply
linear in detail.234

Medieval

North Africa

231Iliffe, John (2007). pp. 49,50

232Collins and Burns (2007), p. 78.
233Shillington, Kevin (2005), p. 39.
234Iliffe (2007), pp. 34, 35.
Maghreb (the West)
By the 9th century CE, the unity brought about by the Islamic conquest of
North Africa and the expansion of Islamic culture came to an end. Conflict
arose as to who should be the successor of the prophet. The Umayyads had
initially taken control of the Caliphate, with their capital at Damascus. Later,
the Abbasids had taken control, moving the capital to Baghdad. The Berber
people, being independent in spirit and hostile to outside interference in their
affairs and to Arab exclusivity in orthodox Islam, adopted Shi'ite and Kharijite
Islam, both considered unorthodox and hostile to the authority of the Abbasid
Caliphate. Numerous Kharijite kingdoms came and fell during the eighth and
9th centuries, asserting their independence from Baghdad. In the early 10th
century, Shi'ite groups from Syria, claiming descent from Muhammad's
daughter Fatima, founded the Fatimid Dynasty in the Maghreb. By 950, they
had conquered all of the Maghreb, and by 969 all of Egypt. They had
immediately broken away from Baghdad.235
In an attempt to bring about a purer form of Islam among the Sanhaja
Berbers, Abdallah ibn Yasin founded the Almoravid movement in present-day
Mauritania and Western Sahara. The Sanhaja Berbers, like the Soninke,
practiced an indigenous religion along side Islam. Abdallah ibn Yasin found
ready converts in the Lamtuna Sanhaja, who were dominated by the Soninke
in the south and the Zenata Berbers in the north. By the 1040s, all of the
Lamtuna was converted to the Almoravid movement. With the help of Yahya
ibn Umar and his brother Abu Bakr ibn Umar, the sons of the Lamtuna chief,
the Almoravids created an empire extending from the Sahel to the
Mediterranean. After the death of Abdallah ibn Yassin and Yahya ibn Umar,
Abu Bakr split the empire in half, between himself and Yusuf ibn Tashfin,
because it was too big to be ruled by one individual. Abu Bakr took the south
to continue fighting the Soninke, and Yusuf ibn Tashfin took the north,
expanding it to southern Spain. The death of Abu Bakr in 1087 saw a
breakdown of unity and increase military dissension in the south. This caused
a re-expansion of the Soninke. The Almoravids were once held responsible for
bringing down the Ghana Empire in 1076, but this view is no longer
credited.236
During the tenth through 13th centuries, there was a large-scale movement of
bedouins out of the Arabian Peninsula. About 1050, a quarter of a million Arab
nomads from Egypt moved into the Maghreb. Those following the northern
coast were referred to as Banu Hilal. Those going south of the Atlas
Mountains were the Banu Sulaym. This movement spread the use of the
Arabic language and hastened the decline of the Berber language and the
Arabisation of North Africa. Later an Arabised Berber group, the Hawwara,
went south to Nubia via Egypt.237

235Shillington (2005), pp. 75, 76.

236Shillington, Kevin (2005). p 90.
237Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 156, 157
In the 1140s, Abd al-Mu'min declared jihad on the Almoravids, charging them
with decadence and corruption. He united the northern Berbers against the
Almoravids, overthrowing them and forming the Almohad Empire. During this
period, the Maghreb became thoroughly Islamised, and saw the spread of
literacy, the development of algebra, and the use of the number zero and
decimals. By the 13th century, the Almohad states had split into three rival
states. Muslim states were largely extinguished in Spain by the Christian
kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Around 1415, Portugal engaged in
a reconquista of North Africa by capturing Ceuta, and in later centuries Spain
and Portugal acquired other ports on the North African coast. In 1492, Spain
defeated Muslims in Granada, effectively ending eight centuries of Muslim
domination in southern Iberia.238
Portugal and Spain took the ports of Tangiers, Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis. This
put them in direct competition with the Ottoman Empire, which re-took the
ports using Turkish corsairs (pirates and privateers). The Turkish corsairs
would use the ports for raiding Christian ships, a major source of booty for the
towns. Technically, North Africa was under the control of the Ottoman
Empire, but only the coastal towns were fully under Istanbul's control. Tripoli
benefited from trade with Borno. The pashas of Tripoli traded horses,
firearms, and armor via Fez with the sultans of the Bornu Empire for slaves.239
In the 16th century, an Arab nomad tribe that claimed descent from
Muhammad's daughter, the Saadis, conquered and united Morocco. They
prevented the Ottoman Empire from reaching to the Atlantic and expelled
Portugal from Morocco's western coast. Ahmad al-Mansur brought the state to
the height of its power. He invaded Songhay in 1591, to control the gold
trade, which had been diverted to the western coast of Africa for European
ships and to the east, to Tunis. Morocco's hold on Songhay diminished in the
17th century. In 1603, after Ahmad's death, the kingdom split into the two
sultanates of Fes and Marrakesh. Later it was reunited by Moulay al-Rashid,
founder of the Alaouite Dynasty (1672–1727). His brother and successor,
Ismail ibn Sharif(1672–1727), strengthen the unity of the country by importing
slaves from the Sudan to build up the military.240

Egypt
Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate was prosperous. Dams and canals were
repaired, and wheat, barley, flax, and cotton production increased. Egypt
became a major producer of linen and cotton cloth. Its Mediterranean and Red
Sea trade increased. Egypt also minted a gold currency called the Fatimid
dinar, which was used for international trade. The bulk of revenues came from
taxing the fellahin (peasant farmers), and taxes were high. Tax collecting was
leased to Berber overlords, who were soldiers who had taken part in the
Fatimid conquest in 969 CE. The overlords paid a share to the caliphs and
retain what was left. Eventually, they became landlords and constituted a
settled land aristocracy.241

238Shillington (2005), pp. 88-92.

239Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 166,167
240Shillington (2005), pp. 167, 168.
241Shillington, Kevin (2005), p. 157.
To fill the military ranks, Mamluk Turkish slave cavalry and Sudanese slave
infantry were used. Berber freemen were also recruited. In 1150s, tax
revenues from farms diminished. The soldiers revolted and wreaked havoc in
the countryside, slowed trade, and diminished the power and authority of the
Fatimid caliphs.242
During the 1160s, Fatimid Egypt came under threat from European crusaders.
Out of this threat, a Kurdish general named Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb
(Saladin), with a small band of professional soldiers, emerged as an
outstanding Muslim defender. Saladin defeated the Christian crusaders at
Egypt's borders and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. On the death of the
Fatimid caliph in 1171, Saladin became the ruler of Egypt, ushering in the
Ayyubid Dynasty. Under his rule, Egypt returned to Sunni Islam, Cairo
became an important center of Arab Islamic learning, and Mamluk slaves
were increasingly recruited from Turkey and southern Russia for military
service. Support for the military was tied to the iqta, a form of land taxation in
which soldiers were given ownership in return for military service. 243
Over time, Mamluk slave soldiers became a very powerful landed aristocracy,
to the point of getting rid of the Ayyubid dynasty in 1250 and establishing a
Mamluk dynasty. The more powerful Mamluks were referred to as amirs. For
250 years, Mamluks controlled all of Egypt under a military dictatorship.
Egypt extended her territories to Syria and Palestine, thwarted the crusaders,
and halted a Mongol invasion in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut. Mamluk Egypt
came to be viewed as a protector of Islam, and of Medina and Mecca.
Eventually the iqta system declined and proved unreliable for providing an
adequate military. The Mamluks started viewing their iqta as hereditary and
became attuned to urban living. Farm production declined, and dams and
canal lapse into disrepair. Mamluk military skill and technology did not keep
pace with new technology of handguns and cannons.244
With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt was easily defeated. In 1517,
Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul revived the iqta system.
Trade was reestablished in the Red Sea, but it could not completely connect
with Indian Ocean trade due to growing Portuguese presence. During the 17th
century and 18th century, hereditary Mamluks regain power. The leading
Mamluks were referred to as beys. Pashas, or viceroys, represented the
Istanbul government in name only, operating independently. During the 18th
century, dynasties of pashas became established. The government was weak
and corrupt.245
In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt. The local forces had little ability to resist
the French conquest. However, Britain and the Ottoman Empire were able
remove French occupation in 1801. These events marked the beginning of
19th-century Anglo-Franco rivalry over Egypt.246

Horn of Africa

242Shillington (2005), p. 158.

243Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 158,159
244Shillington (2005), pp. 159-161.
245Shillington (2005), p. 161.
246Shillington (2005), p. 162.
Somalia
During this period, the sultanates and republics of Merca, Mogadishu,
Barawa, Hobyo and their respective ports flourished and had a lucrative
foreign commerce with ships sailing to and coming from Arabia, India,
Venice,247 Persia, Egypt, Portugal and as far away as China. Vasco da Gama,
who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city
with houses four or five storeys high and big palaces in its centre, in addition
to many mosques with cylindrical minarets.248
In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from the Kingdom
of Cambaya in modern-day India sailed to Mogadishu with cloth and spices,
for which they in return received gold, wax, and ivory. Barbosa also
highlighted the abundance of meat, wheat, barley, horses, and fruit in the
coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants. 249
Mogadishu, the center of a thriving weaving industry known as toob benadir
(specialized for the markets in Egypt and Syria),250 together with Merca and
Barawa, also served as a transit stop for Swahili merchants from Mombasa
and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa.251 Jewish merchants from the
Strait of Hormuz brought their Indian textiles and fruit to the Somali coast to
exchange for grain and wood.252
Trading relations were established with Malacca in the 15th century,253 with
cloth, ambergris, and porcelain being the main commodities of the trade.254
Giraffes, zebras, and incense were exported to the Ming Empire of China,
which established Somali merchants as leaders in the commerce between the
Asia and Africa255 and influenced the Chinese language with borrowings from
the Somali language in the process. Hindu merchants from Surat and
southeast African merchants from Pate, seeking to bypass both the
Portuguese blockade and Omani meddling, used the Somali ports of Merca
and Barawa (which were out of the two powers' jurisdiction) to conduct their
trade in safety and without interference.256

Ethiopia
The Zagwe dynasty ruled many parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea from
approximately 1137 to 1270. The name of the dynasty comes from the Cushitic
speaking Agaw people of northern Ethiopia. From 1270 AD on for many
centuries, Solomonic dynasty ruled the Ethiopian Empire.

247Journal of African History p. 50, by John Donnelly Fage and Roland Anthony Oliver.
248Da Gama's First Voyage p. 88.
249East Africa and its Invaders, p. 38.
250Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa pg.35
251The return of Cosmopolitan Capital:Globalization, the State and War, p. 22.
252The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century, by R. J. Barendse.
253Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, p. 30.
254Chinese Porcelain Marks from Coastal Sites in Kenya: aspects of trade in the Indian
Ocean, XIV-XIX centuries. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1978 p. 2.
255East Africa and its Invaders, p. 37.
256Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, p. 45.
In the early fifteenth century Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with
European kingdoms for the first time since Aksumite times. A letter from King
Henry IV of England to the Emperor of Abyssinia survives.257 In 1428, the
Emperor Yeshaq sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon, who sent return
emissaries who failed to complete the return trip. 258 The first continuous
relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal under
Emperor Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father.259
This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was
subjected to the attacks of the Adal General and Imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-
Ghazi (called "Grañ", or "the Left-handed"), Portugal assisted the Ethiopian
emperor by sending weapons and four hundred men, who helped his son
Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule.260 This Ethiopian–Adal
War was also one of the first proxy wars in the region as the Ottoman Empire
and Portugal took sides in the conflict. However, when Emperor Susenyos
converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest
followed resulting in thousands of deaths.261 The Jesuit missionaries had
offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on June 25, 1632,
Susenyos's son, Emperor Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be
Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and
other Europeans.262263

East Africa

Christian and Islamic Nubia

Christian Nubia and nile
After Ezana of Aksum sacked Meroe, people associated with the site of
Ballana moved into Nubia from the southwest and founded three kingdoms:
Makuria, Nobatia, and Alodia. They would rule for 200 years. Makuria was
above the third cataract, along the Dongola Reach with its capital at Dongola.
Nobadia was to the north with its capital at Faras, and Alodia was to the south
with its capital at Soba. Makuria would eventually absorb Nobadia. The people
of the region converted to Monophysite Christianity around 500 to 600 CE.
The church initially started writing in Coptic, then in Greek, and finally in Old
Nubian, a Nilo-Saharan language. The church was aligned with the Egyptian
Coptic Church.264265

257Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV (2007), p.111

258Girma Beshah and Merid Wolde Aregay, The Question of the Union of the Churches in
Luso-Ethiopian Relations (1500–1632) (Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar and Centro
de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1964), pp. 13–4.
259Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 25.
260Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 45–52.
261Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 91, 97–104.
262Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, p. 105.
263van Donzel, Emeri, "Fasilädäs" in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha
(Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), p. 500.
264Shillington (2005), p. 67
265Ehret (2002), p. 305.
By 641, Egypt was conquered by Muslim Arabs. This effectively blocked
Christian Nubia and Aksum from Mediterranean Christendom. In 651-652,
Arabs from Egypt invaded Christian Nubia. Nubian archers soundly defeated
the invaders. The Baqt (or Bakt) Treaty was drawn, recognizing Christian
Nubia and regulating trade. The treaty controlled relations between Christian
Nubia and Islamic Egypt for almost six hundred years.266
By the 13th century, Christian Nubia began its decline. The authority of the
monarchy was diminished by the church and nobility. Arab bedouin tribes
began to infiltrate Nubia, causing further havoc. Fakirs (holy men) practicing
Sufism introduced Islam into Nubia. By 1366, Nubia had become divided into
petty fiefdoms when she was invaded by Mamelukes. During the 15th century,
Nubia was open to Arab immigration. Arab nomads intermingled with the
population and introduced the Arabic culture and language. By the 16th
century, Makuria and Nobadia had been Islamized. During the 16th century,
Abdallah Jamma headed an Arab confederation that destroyed Soba, capital of
Alodia, the last holdout of Christian Nubian. Later Alodia would fall under the
Funj Sultanate.267
During the 15th century, Funj herders migrated north to Alodia and occupied
it. Between 1504 and 1505, the kingdom expanded, reaching its peak and
establishing its capital at Sennar under Badi II Abu Daqn (c. 1644-1680). By
end of the 16th century, the Funj had converted to Islam. They pushed their
empire westward to Kordofan. They expanded eastward, but were halted by
Ethiopia. They controlled Nubia down to the 3rd Cataract. The economy
depended on captured enemies to fill the army and on merchants travelling
through Sennar. Under Badi IV (1724–1762), the army turned on the king,
making him nothing but a figurehead. In 1821, the Funj were conquered by
Muhammad Ali (1805–1849), Pasha of Egypt.268269

266Collins and Burns (2007), p. 77.

267Collins and Burns 2007, p. 77.
268Page, Willie F.(2001). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture:From Conquest to
Colonization (1500-1850).New York:Learning Source Books, p. 88, ISBN 0-8160-4472-4.
269Lye, Keith(2002). Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilization. New York: The
Diagram Group, p. 189 ISBN 0-8160-4568-2.
Swahili Coast
Historically, the Swahili people could be found as far north as northern Kenya,
and as far south as the Ruvuma River in Mozambique. Arab geographers
referred to the Swahili coast as the land of the zanj (blacks).270 Although once
believed to be the descendants of Persian colonists, the ancient Swahili are
now recognized by most historians, historical linguists, and archaeologists as
a Bantu people who had sustained and important interactions with Muslim
merchants, beginning in the late seventh and early 8th centuries CE. Medieval
Swahili kingdoms are known to have had island trade ports, described by
Greek historians as "metropolises", and to have established regular trade
routes271 with the Islamic world and Asia.272 Famous African trade ports such
as Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Kilwa273 were known to Chinese sailors under
Zheng He and medieval Islamic geographers such as the Berber traveller Abu
Abdullah ibn Battuta.274 The main Swahili exports were ivory, slaves, and gold.
They traded with Arabia, India, Persia, and China.
The Portuguese arrived in 1498. On a mission to economically control and
Christianize the Swahili coast, the Portuguese attacked Kilwa first in 1505 and
other cities later. Due to Swahili resistance, the Portuguese attempt at
establishing commercial control was never successful. By the late 17th
century, Portuguese authority on the Swahili coast began to diminish. With
the help of Omani Arabs, by 1729 the Portuguese presence had been removed.
The Swahili coast eventually became part of the Sultinate of Oman. Trade
recovered, but it did not regain the levels of the past.275

Madagascar and Merina

Madagascar was apparently first settled by Austronesian speakers from
southeast Asia before the 6th century CE, and subsequently by Bantu
speakers from the east African mainland in the sixth or 7th century, according
to archaeological and linguistic data. The Austronesians introduced banana
and rice cultivation, and the Bantu speakers introduced cattle and other
farming practices. About 1000, Arab and Indian trade settlement were started
in northern Madagascar to exploit the Indian Ocean trade.276 By the 14th
century, Islam was introduced on the island by traders. Madagascar
functioned in the East African medieval period as a contact port for the other
Swahili seaport city-states such as Sofala, Kilwa, Mombasa, and Zanzibar.
Several kingdoms emerged after the 15th century: the Sakalava Kingdom
(16th century) on the west coast, Tsitambala Kingdom (17th century) on the
east coast, and Merina (15th century) in the central highlands. By the 19th
century, Merina controlled the whole island. In 1500, the Portuguese were the
first Europeans on the island, raiding the trading settlements.277

270Collins and Burns (2007), p. 103.

271Eastern and Southern Africa 500-1000 AD.
272Tanzanian dig unearths ancient secret by Tira Shubart .
273A History of Mozambique
274Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354.
275Page, Willie F.(2001). p. 263,264
276Shillington (2005), p. 135.
277Lye, Keith(2002). pp. 242,243
The British and later the French arrived. During the latter part of the 17th
century, Madagascar was a popular transit point for pirates. Radama I (1810–
1828) invited Christian missionaries in the early 19th century. Queen
Ranavalona I "the Cruel" (1828–61) banned the practice of Christianity in the
kingdom, and an estimated 150,000 Christians perished. Under Radama II
(1861–1863), Madagascar took a French orientation, with great commercial
concession given to the French. In 1895, in the second Franco-Hova War, the
French invaded Madagascar, taking over Antsiranana (Diego Suarez) and
declaring Madagascar a protectorate.278

Lake Plateau states & empires

Kitara and Bunyoro

By 1000 CE, numerous states had arisen on the Lake Plateau among the Great
Lakes of East Africa. Cattle herding, cereal growing, and banana cultivation
were the economic mainstays of these states. The Ntusi and Bigo earthworks
are representative of one of the first states, the Bunyoro kingdom, which oral
tradition stipulates was part of the Empire of Kitara that dominated the whole
lakes region. A Luo ethnic elite, from the Bito clan, ruled over the Bantu-
speaking Nyoro people. The society was essentially Nyoro in its culture, based
on the evidence from pottery, settlement patterns, and economic
specialization.279
The Bito clan claimed legitimacy by being descended from the Bachwezi clan,
who were said to have ruled the Empire of Kitara. However, very little is
known about Kitara; some scholars even question its historical existence. Most
founding leaders of the various polities in the lake region seem to have
claimed descent from the Bachwezi.280

Buganda
The Buganda kingdom was founded by the Ganda or Baganda people around
the 14th century CE. The ancestors of the Ganda may have migrated to the
northwest of Lake Victoria as early as 1000 BCE. Buganda was ruled by the
kabaka with a bataka composed of the clan heads. Over time, the kabakas
diluted the authority of the bataka, with Buganda becoming a centralized
monarchy. By the 16th century, Buganda was engaged in expansion, but
having a serious rival in Bunyoro. By the 1870s, Buganda was a wealthy
nation-state. The kabaka ruled with his kukiko (council of minister). Buganda
had a naval fleet of a hundred vessels, each manned by thirty men. Buganda
supplanted Bunyoro as the most important state in the region. However, by
the early 20th century, Buganda became a province of the British Uganda
Protectorate.281

278
279Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 122-123.
280
281Lye, Keith(2002). p. 121,122.
Rwanda
Southeast of Bunyoro, near the Lake Kivu at the bottom of the western rift,
the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded, perhaps during the 17th century. Tutsi
(BaTutsi) pastoralist formed the elite, with a king called the mwami. The Hutu
(BaHutu) were farmers. Both groups spoke the same language, but there were
strict social norms against marrying each other and interaction. According to
oral tradition, the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded by Mwami Ruganzu II
(Ruganzu Ndori) (c. 1600-1624), with his capital near Kigali. It took 200 years
to see a truly centralized Rwanda Kingdom, under Mwami Kigeli IV (Kigeri
Rwabugiri) (1840–1895). Subjugation of the Hutu proved more difficult than
subduing the Tutsi. The last Tutsi chief gave up to Mwami Mutara II (Mutara
Rwogera) (1802–1853) in 1852, but the last Hutu holdout was only conquered
in the 1920s by Mwami Yuhi V (Yuli Musinga) (1896–1931).282

Burundi
South of the Kingdom of Rwanda was the Kingdom of Burundi. It was founded
by the Tutsi chief Ntare Rushatsi (c. 1657-1705). Like Rwanda, Burundi was
built on cattle raised by Tutsi pastoralists, crops from Hutu farmers, conquest,
and political innovations. Under Mwami Ntari Rugaamba (c. 1795-1852),
Burundi pursued an aggressive expansionist policy, but one based more on
diplomacy than on pure force.283

West Africa

Sahelian empires & states

Ghana
The Ghana Empire may have been an established kingdom as early as the 4th
century CE, founded among the Soninke by Dinge Cisse. Ghana was first
mentioned by Arab geographer Al-Farazi in the late 8th century. Ghana was
comprise of urban dwellers and rural farmers. The urban dwellers were the
administrators of the empire, who were Muslims, and the Ghana (king), who
practiced traditional religion. Two towns existed, one where the Muslim
administrators and Berber-Arabs lived, which was connected by a stone-paved
road to the king's residence. The rural dwellers lived in villages, which joined
together into broader polities that pledged loyalty to the Ghana. The Ghana
was viewed as divine, and his physical well-being reflected on the whole
society. Ghana converted to Islam around 1050, after conquering
Aoudaghost.284

282Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 123-124.

283Collins and Burns (2007), p. 124.
284Shillington (2005), pp. 80-85.
The Ghana Empire grew wealthy by taxing the trans-Saharan trade that linked
Tiaret and Sijilmasa to Aoudaghost. Ghana controlled access to the goldfields
of Bambouk, southeast of Koumbi Saleh. A percentage of salt and gold going
through its territory was taken. The empire was not involved in production. 285
By the 11th century, Ghana was in the decline. It was once thought that the
sacking of Koumbi Saleh by Berbers under the Almoravid dynasty in 1076 was
the cause. This is no longer accepted. Several alternative explanations are
cited. One important reason is the transfer of the gold trade east to the Niger
River and the Taghaza Trail, and Ghana's consequent economic decline.
Another reason cited is political instability through rivalry among the different
hereditary polities.286
The empire came to an end in 1230, when Takrur in northern Senegal took
over the capital.287288

Mali
The Mali Empire began in the 13th century CE, when a Mande (Mandingo)
leader, Sundiata(Lord Lion) of the Keita clan, defeated Soumaoro Kanté, king
of the Sosso or southern Soninke, at the Battle of Kirina in c. 1235. Sundiata
continued his conquest from the fertile forests and Niger Valley, east to the
Niger Bend, north into the Sahara, and west to the Atlantic Ocean, absorbing
the remains of the Ghana Empire. Sundiata took on the title of mansa. He
establish the capital of his empire at Niani.289
Although the salt and gold trade continued to be important to the Mali
Empire, agriculture and pastoralism was also critical. The growing of
sorghum, millet, and rice was a vital function. On the northern borders of the
Sahel, grazing cattle, sheep, goats, and camels were major activities. Mande
society was organize around the village and land. A cluster of villages was
called a kafu, ruled by a farma. The farma paid tribute to the mansa. A
dedicated army of elite cavalry and infantry maintained order, commanded by
the royal court. A formidable force could be raised from tributary regions, if
necessary.290
Conversion to Islam was a gradual process. The power of the mansa depended
on upholding traditional beliefs and a spiritual foundation of power. Sundiata
initially kept Islam at bay. Future mansas would be devout Muslims but still
acknowledged traditional deities and took part in traditional rituals and
festivals, which were important to the Mande. Islam became a court religion
under Sundiata's son Uli I (1225–1270). Mansa Uli made a pilgrimage to
Mecca, becoming recognized within the Muslim world. The court was staffed
with literate Muslims as secretaries and accountants. The great Muslim
traveller Ibn Battuta left vivid descriptions of the empire.291

285Iliffe, John(2007). p. 51-53.

286Collins and Burns (2007), p. 83.
287Davidson (1991), pp. 173, 174.
288[3]
289Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 83-84.
290Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 83-87.
291
Mali reached the peak of its power and extent in the 14th century, when
Mansa Musa (1312–1337) made his famous hajj to Mecca with 500 slaves,
each holding a bar of gold worth 500 mitqals.292 Mansa Musa's hajj devalued
gold in Mamluk Egypt for a decade. He made a great impression on the minds
of the Muslim and European world. He invited scholars and architects like
Ishal al-Tuedjin (al-Sahili) to further integrate Mali into the Islamic world.293
The Mali Empire saw an expansion of learning and literacy. In 1285, Sakura, a
freed slave, usurped the throne. This mansa drove the Tuareg out of
Timbuktu, and established it as a center of learning and commerce. The book
trade increased, and book copying became a very respectable and profitable
profession. Timbuktu and Djenné became important centers of learning within
the Muslim world.294
After the reign of Mansa Suleyman (1341–1360), Mali began its spiral
downward. Mossi cavalry raided the exposed southern border. Tuareg
harassed the northern border, in order to retake Timbuktu. Fulani (Fulbe)
eroded Mali's authority in the west by establing the independent Kingdom of
Fouta Tooro, a successor to the kingdom of Takrur. Serer and Wolof alliances
were broken. In 1545-1546, the Songhai Empire took Niani. After 1599, the
empire lost the Bambouk goldfields and disintegrated into petty polities.295

Songhai
The Songhai people are descended from fishermen on the Middle Niger River.
They established their capital at Kukiya in the 9th century CE and at Gao in
12th century. The Songhai speak a Nilo-Saharan language.296
Sonni Ali, a Songhai, began his conquest by capturing Timbuktu in 1468 from
the Tuareg. He extended the empire to the north, deep into the desert, pushed
the Mossi further south of the Niger, and expanded southwest to Djenne. His
army consisted of cavalry and a fleet of canoes. Sonni Ali was not a Muslim,
and he was portrayed negatively by Berber-Arab scholars, especially for
attacking Muslim Timbuktu. After his death in 1492, his heirs were deposed
by a general, Muhammad Ture, a Muslim of Soninke origins.297

292Davidson, Basil (1971), Great Ages of Man: African Kingdoms, p. 83. New York:Time Life
Books. Library of Congress 66-25647.
293
294Davidson (1971), pp. 84-85.
295
296Collins and Burns (2007), p. 87.
297Shillington (2005), pp. 100, 101.
Muhammad Ture (1493–1528) founded the Askiya Dynasty, askiya being the
title of the king. He consolidated the conquests of Sonni Ali. Islam was used to
extend his authority by declaring jihad on the Mossi, reviving the trans-
Saharan trade, and having the Abbasid "shadow" caliph in Cairo declare him
as caliph of Sudan. He establish Timbuktu as a great center of islamic
learning. Muhammad Ture expanded the empire by pushing the Tuareg north,
capturing Aïr in the east, and capturing salt-producing Taghaza. He brought
the Hausa states into the Songhay trading network. He further centralized the
administration of the empire by selecting administrators from loyal servants
and families, and assigning them to conquered territories. They were
responsible for raising local militias. Centralization made Songhay very stable,
even during dynastic disputes. Leo Africanus left vivid descriptions of the
empire under Askiya Muhammad. Askiya Muhammad was deposed by his son
in 1528. After much rivalry, Muhammad Ture's last son Askiya Daoud (1529–
1582) assumed the throne.298
In 1591, Morocco invaded the Songhai Empire under Ahmad al-Mansur of the
Saadi Dynasty, in order to secure the goldfields of the Sahel. At the Battle of
Tondibi, the Songhai army was defeated. The Moroccans captured Djenne,
Gao, and Timbuktu, but they were unable to secure the whole region. Askiya
Nuhu and the Songhay army regrouped at Dendi, in the heart of Songhai
territory, where a spirited guerrilla resistance sapped the resources of the
Moroccans, who were dependent upon constant resupply from Morocco.
Songhai split into several states during the 17th century. Morocco found it
venture ultimatelt to be unprofitable. The gold trade had been diverted to
Europeans on the coast. Most of the trans-Saharan trade was now diverted
east to Bornu. Expensive equipment purchased with gold had to be sent
across the Sahara, an unsustenable scenario. The Moroccans who remained
married into the population and were referred to as Arma or Ruma. They
would established themselves at Timbuktu as a military caste with various
fiefs, independent from Morocco. Amid the chaos, other groups began to
assert themselves, including the Fulani of Futa Tooro who encroached from
the west. The Bambara Empire, one of the states that broke from Songhai,
sacked Gao. The Tuareg in 1737 massacred the Arma.299300

298Collins and Burns (2007), p. 88.

299Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 88-89.
300Shillington (2005), pp. 100-102, 179-181.
Kanem-Bornu (Kanembu)
Around the 9th centure CE, the cenral Sudanic Empire of Kanem, with its
capital at Njimi, was founded by the Kanuri-speaking nomads. Kanem arose by
engaging in the trans-Saharan trade. It exchanged slaves, captured by raiding
the south, for horses from North Africa, which in turn aided in the acquisition
of slaves. By the late 11th century, the islamic Sayfawa (Saifawa) dynasty was
founded by Humai (Hummay) ibn Salamna. The Sayfawa Dynasty ruled for
771 years, making it one of the longest-lasting dynasties in human history.301
In addition to trade, taxation of local farms around Kanem became an source
of state income. Kanem reached its peak under Mai (king) Dunama Dibalemi
ibn Salma (1210–1248). The empire reportedly was able to field 40,000
cavalry, and it extended from Fezzan in the north to the Sao state in the south.
Islam became firmly entrenched in the empire. Pilgrimages to Mecca were
common; Cairo had hostels set aside specifically for pilgrims from Kanem.302303
Around 1400, the Sayfawa Dynasty moved its capital to Bornu, a tributary
state southwest of Lake Chad with a new capital Birni Ngarzagamu.
Overgrazing had caused the pastures of Kanem to become too dry. In addition,
political rivalry from the Bilala clan was becoming intense. Moving to Bornu
better situated the empire to exploit the trans-Saharan trade and to widen its
network in that trade. Links to the Hausa states were also established,
providing horses and salt from Bilma for Akan gold.304 Mai Ali Gazi ibn
Dunama (c. 1475-1503) defeated the Bilala, reestablishing complete control of
Kanem.305
During the early 16th century, the Sayfawa Dynasty solidify its hold on the
Bornu population after much rebellion. In the latter half of the 16th century,
Mai Idris Alooma modernized its military, in contrast to the Songhai Empire.
Turkish mercenaries were used to train the military. The Sayfawa Dynasty
were the first monarchs south of the Sahara to import firearms.306 The empire
controlled all of the Sahel from the borders of Darfur in the east to Hausaland
to the west. Friendly relationship was establish with the Ottoman Empire via
Tripoli. The Mai exchanged gifts with the Ottoman sultan.307
During the 17th century and 18th century, not much is known about Bornu.
During the 18th century, it became a center of Islamic learning. However,
Bornu's army became outdated, by not importing new arms,308 and Kamembu
had also begun its decline. The power of the mai was undermined by droughts
and famine that were becoming more intense, internal rebellion in the
pastoralist north, growing Hausa power, and the importation of firearms
which made warfare more bloody. By 1841, the last mai was deposed,
bringing to an end the long-lived Sayfawa Dynasty.309

301
302Shillington (2005), pp. 182, 183.
303Collins and Burns (2007), p. 90.
304Shillington (2005), pp. 183, 184.
305Collins and Burns (2007), p. 91.
306
307Davidson (1991), p. 96.
308
309
Sokoto Caliphate
The Fulani were migratory people. They moved from Mauritania and settled in
Futa Tooro, Futa Djallon, and subsequently throughout the rest of West Africa.
By the 14th century CE, they had converted to Islam. During the 16th century,
they established themselves at Macina, in southern Mali. During the 1670s,
they declared jihads on non-Muslims. Several states were formed from these
jihadist wars, at Futa Toro, Futa Djallon, Macina, Oualia, and Bundu. The most
important of these states was the Sokoto Caliphate or Fulani Empire. In the
city of Gobir, Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817) accused the Hausa leadership of
practicing an impure version of Islam and of being morally corrupt. In 1804,
he launched the Fulani War as a jihad among a population that was restless
about high taxes and discontented with its leaders. Jihad fever swept northern
Nigeria, with strong support among both the Fulani and the Hausa. Usman
created an empire that included parts of northern Nigeria, Benin, and
Cameroon, with Sokoto as its capital. He retired to teach and write, and
handed the empire to his son, Muhammed Bello. The Sokoto Caliphate lasted
until 1903, when the British conquered northern Nigeria.310

Forest empires & states

Ashante
The origins of the Ashante (Ashanti, Asante) remain unclear. They speak the
Twi dialect of the Akan language within the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-
Congo family. When and how the Ashante got to their present location is
debatable. What is known is that by the 17th century CE Akan people were
established north of Lake Bosomtwi, trading in gold and kola nuts, and
clearing forest to plant yams. They built towns between the Pra and Ofin
rivers. They formed alliances for defense and paid tribute to Denkyira. During
the 16th century, Ashante society experienced sudden changes, including
population growth due to the cultivation of New World plants such as cassava
and maize, and an increase in the gold trade between the coast and the
north.311
By the 17th century, Osei Kofi Tutu I (c. 1695-1717), with help of Okomfo
Anokye, unified the Ashante into a confederation, with the Golden Stool as a
symbol of their unity and spirit. Osei Tutu engaged in a massive territorial
expansion. He built up the Ashante army based on the Akan state of Akwamu,
introducing new organization and turning a disciplined militia into an effective
fighting machine. In 1701, the Ashante conquered Denkyira, giving them
access to the coastal trade with Europeans, especially the Dutch. In 1717, the
year Osei died, the Ashante conquered the Akan state of Akim, an ally of
Denkyira.312

310Lye, Keith(2002). p. 188

311Collins and Burns (2007), p. 139.
312Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 139-140.
Opoku Ware I (1720–1745) engaged in further expansion, adding the southern
Akan states of Sefwi and Akwapim, allied with a revived Denkyira and Akim.
He turned north adding Techiman, Banda, Gyaaman, and Gonja, states on the
Black Volta. Between 1744 and 1745, Asantehene Opoku attacked the
powerful northern state of Dogoma, gaining control of the important middle
Niger trade routes. Kusi Obodom (1750–1764) succeeded Opoku. He solidified
all the newly won territories. Osei Kwadwo (1777–1803) impose
administrative reforms that allowed the empire to be governed effectively and
to continue its military expansion. Osei Kwame Panyin (1777–1803), Osei Tutu
Kwame (1804–1807), and Osei Bonsu (1807–1824) continued territorial
comsolidation and expansion. The Ashante Empire included all of present-day
Ghana and large parts of Ivory Coast.313
The ashantehene inherited his position from his mother. He was assisted at
the capital, Kumasi, by a civil service of men talented in trade, diplomacy, and
the military, with a head called the Gyaasehene. Men from Arabia, Sudan, and
Europe were employed in the civil service, all of them appointed by the
ashantehene. At the capital and in other towns, the ankobia or special police
were used as bodyguards to the ashantehene, as sources of intelligence, and
to suppress rebellion. Communication throughout the empire was maintained
via a network of well-kept roads from the coast to the middle Niger and
linking together other trade cities.314315
For most of the 19th century, the Ashante Empire remained powerful. It was
later destroyed in 1900, by British superior weaponry and organization
following the four Anglo-Ashanti wars.316

313Collins and Burns (2007), p. 140.

314Davidson (1991), p. 240.
315Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 140-141.
316Davidson (1991), p. 242.
Dahomey
The Dahomey Kingdom was founded in the early 17th century CE, when the
Aja people of the Allada kingdom moved northward and settled among the
Fon. They began to assert their power a few years later. In so doing they
established the Kingdom of Dahomey, with its capital at Agbome. King
Houegbadja (c. 1645-1685) organized Dahomey into a powerful centralized
state. He declared all lands to be owned of the king and subject to taxation.
Primogeniture in the kingship was establish, neutralizing all input from village
chiefs. A "cult of kingship" was established. A captive slave would be
sacrificed annually to honor the royal ancestors. During the 1720s, the slave-
trading states of Whydah and Allada were taken, giving Dahomey direct
access to the slave coast and trade with Europeans. King Agadja (1708–1740)
attempted to end the slave trade by keeping the slaves on plantations
producing palm oil, but the European profits on slaves and Dahomey's
dependency on firearms were too great. In 1730, under king Agaja, Dahomey
was conquered by the Oyo Empire, and Dahomey had to pay tribute. The
kingdom continued to expand and thrive, as a major dealer in slaves. Taxes on
slaves were mostly paid in cowrie shells. During the 19th century, palm oil
was the main trading commodity.317 France conquered Dahomey during the
Second Franco-Dahomean War (1892–1894) and established a colonial
government there. Most of the troops who fought against Dahomey were
native Africans.

Yoruba
Traditionally, the Yoruba people viewed themselves as the inhabitants of a
united empire, in contrast to the situation today, in which "Yoruba" is the
cultural-linguistic designation for speakers of a language in the Niger-Congo
family. The name comes from a Hausa word to refer to the Oyo Empire. The
first Yoruba state was Ile-Ife, said to have been founded around 1000 CE by a
supernatural figure, the first oni Oduduwa. Oduduwa's sons would be the
founders of the different city-states of the Yoruba, and his daughters would
become the mothers of the various Yoruba obas, or kings. Yoruba city-states
were usually governed by an oba and a iwarefa, a council of chiefs who
advised the oba. By the 18th century, the Yoruba city-states formed a loose
confederation, with the Oni of Ife as the head and Ife as the capital. As time
went on, the individual city-states became more powerful with their obas
assuming more powerful spiritual positions and diluting the authority of the
Oni of Ife. Rivalry became intense among the city-states.318

317Shillington (2005), pp. 191, 192.

318Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 131-132.
The 16th century saw the rise of the Oyo Empire. The Oyo state had been
conquered in 1550 by the kingdom of Nupe, which was in possession of
cavalry, an important tactical advantage. The alafin (king) of Oyo was sent
into exile. After returning, Alafin Orompoto (c. 1560-1580) built up an army
based on heavily armed cavalry and long-service troops. This made them
invincible in combat on the northern grasslands and in the thinly wooded
forests. By the end of the 16th century, Oyo had added the western region of
the Niger to the hills of Togo, the Yoruba of Ketu, Dahomey, and the Fon
nation. A governing council served the empire, with clear executive divisions.
Each acquired region was assigned a local administrator. Families served in
king-making capacities. Oyo, as a northern Yoruba kingdom, served as middle-
man in the north-south trade and connecting the eastern forest of Guinea with
the western and central Sudan, the Sahara, and North Africa. The Yoruba
manufactured cloth, ironware, and pottery, which were exchanged for salt,
leather, and, most importantly, horses from the Sudan to maintain the cavalry.
Oyo remained strong for two hundred years.319320 It became a protectorate of
Great Britain in 1888, before further fragmenting into warring factions. The
Oyo state ceased to exist as any sort of power in 1896. 321

Benin
Southwest of the Yoruba and on the western fringe of the Niger delta are the
Kwa Niger-Congo speaking Edo people. Legend has it that political
development of the Edo people began when the population got tired of their
king and requested that the Ife oni Oduduwa give them one of his sons as
ruler. Prince Oranyan was selected. By the mid 15th century, Benin was
engage in political expansion and consolidation. Under Oba (king) Ewuare (c.
1450-1480 CE), the state was organize for conquest. He solidified central
authority and initiated 30 years of war with his neighbors. At his death, the
Benin Empire, extended to Dahomey in the west, to the Niger Delta in the
east, along the west African coast, and to the Yoruba towns in the north.
Ewuare's grandson, Oba Esigie (1504–1550), eroded the power of the uzama
(state council) and increase contact and trade with Europeans, especially with
the Portuguese, who provided a new source of copper for court art.
The oba ruled with the advice from the uzama, a council consisting of chiefs of
powerful families and town chiefs of different guilds. Later its authority would
be diminished by the establishment of administrative dignitaries. Women
wielded power. The Queen Mother, who produce the future oba wielded
immense influence.322
Benin's expansion ended around the 16th century, and it ceased being a major
exporter of slaves. By the 18th century, it was wracked with dynastic disputes
and civil wars. After the 16th century, Benin mainly exported pepper, ivory,
gum, and cotton cloth to the Portuguese, who resold it to other African
societies on the coast. In 1897, the British sacked the city.323

319Davidson (1991), pp. 173-174.

320Collins and Burns (2007), p. 134.
321Stride, G.T. & C. Ifeka (1971). Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History
1000-1800. Edinburgh: Nelson. ISBN 0-17-511448-X.
322Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 134-135.
323Shillington (2005), pp. 188, 189.
Niger Delta and Igbo

Map of Igboland in southeastern Nigeria324325

Énugwú

Umuahia

Bight of Biafra

Atlantic
Ocean

Bight of Benin

Nsukka

Obolo

324Monteath, Archibald; Maureen Warner-Lewis (2007). Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican,

Moravian. University of West Indies Press. p. 26. ISBN 9-766-40197-7. .
325Chuku, Gloria (2005). Igbo women and economic transformation in southeastern Nigeria,
1900-1960. Routledge. p. 7. ISBN 0-415-97210-8. .
Abakaleke

Igrita

Elele

Ahoada

Aba

Ogu

Ihiala

Okigwe

Oka

Onicha

Owerre

Obiaruku
Agbor

Niger
River

Ugwu Ọcha

Atakpa

Idu

The Niger Delta comprised numerous city-states with numerous different

forms of government. These city-states were protected by the waterways and
thick vegetation of the delta. The region was transformed by trade in the 17th
century CE. The delta's city-states were comparable to those of the Swahili
people in East Africa. Some, like Bonny, Kalabari, and Warri, had kings.
Others, like Brass, were republics with small senates, and those at Cross River
and Old Calabar were ruled by merchants of the ekpe society. The ekpe
society regulated trade and made rules for members known as house systems.
Some of these houses, like the Pepples of Bonny, were well-known in the
Americas and Europe.326
The Igbo lived east of the Delta (but with the Anioma on the west of the Niger
River). The Kingdom of Nri rose in the 9th century CE, with the Eze Nri being
its leader. The kingdom expanded towards the Kingdom of Benin and to the
Igala Kingdom between 1100 and 1400. It was a political entity composed of
villages, and each village was autonomous and independent, with its own
territory and name, each recognized by its neighbors. Villages were
democratic, with all males and sometimes females a part of the decision-
making process. Graves at Igbo-Ukwu (800 CE) contained brass artifacts of
local manufacture and glass beads from Egypt or India, indicative of
extraregional trade.327328

Central Africa
Around 1000 BCE, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes of East
Africa. Halfway through the first millennium BCE, the Bantu had also settled
as far south as what is now Angola.

326Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 136-137.

327Martin, Phyllis M. and O'Meara, Patrick(1995). p.95
328Collins and Burns (2007), p. 137.
Luba Empire
Sometime between 1300 to 1400 CE, Kongolo Mwamba (Nkongolo) from the
Balopwe clan unified the various Luba peoples, near Lake Kisale. He founded
the Kongolo Dynasty, which was later ousted by Kalala Ilunga. Kalala
expanded the kingdom west of Lake Kisale. A new centralized political system
of spiritual kings (balopwe) with a court council of head governors and sub-
heads all the way to village heads. The balopwe was the direct communicator
with the ancestral spirits and chosen by them. Conquered states were
integrated into the system and represented in the court, with their titles. The
authority of the balopwe resided in his spiritual power rather than his military
authority. The army was relatively small. The Luba was able to control
regional trade and collect tribute for redistribution. Numerous offshoot states
would be formed with founders claiming descent from the Luba. The Luba
political system would spread throughout Central Africa, southern Uganda,
Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the western Congo. Two
major major empires claiming Luba descent were the Lunda Empire and
Maravi Empire. The Bemba people of Northern Zambia were descended from
Luba migrants who arrived in Zambia during the 17th century.329330

Lunda Empire
In the 1450s, a Luba from the royal family, Ilunga Tshibinda, married Lunda
queen Rweej and united all Lunda peoples. Their son, mulopwe Luseeng,
expanded the kingdom. His son, Naweej, expanded the empire further and is
known as the first Lunda emperor, with the title mwato yamvo (mwaant yaav ,
mwant yav),the Lord of Vipers. The Luba political system was retained, and
conquered peoples were integrated into the system. The mwato yamvo
assigned a cilool or kilolo (royal adviser) and tax collector to each state
conquered.331332
Numerous states claimed descent from the Lunda. The Imbangala of inland
Angola claimed descent from a founder, Kinguri, brother of Queen Rweej, who
could not tolerate the rule of mulopwe Tshibunda. Kinguri became the title of
kings of states founded by Queen Rweej's brother. The Luena (Lwena) and
Lozi (Luyani) in Zambia also claim descent from Kinguri. During the 17th
century, a Lunda chief and warrior called Mwata Kazembe set up an Eastern
Lunda kingdom in the valley of the Luapula River. The Lunda's western
expansion also saw claims of descent by the Yaka and the Pende. The Lunda
linked middle Africa with the western coast trade. The kingdom of Lunda
came to an end in the 19th century when it was invaded by the Chokwe, who
were armed with guns.333334

329Shillington (2005), p. 138, 139.

330Davidson (1991), p. 159, 160.
331Shillington (2005), p. 141.
332Davidson (1991), p. 161.
333Davidson (1991), p.161.
334Shillington (2005), p. 139, 141.
Maravi (Malawi)
The Maravi claimed descent from Karonga (kalonga), who took that title as
king. The Maravi connected middle Africa to the east coastal trade, with
Swahili Kilwa. By the 17th century, the Maravi Empire encompassed all the
area between Lake Malawi and the mouth of the Zambezi River. The karonga
was Mzura, who did much to extend the empire. Mzura made a pact with the
Portuguese to establish a 4,000-man army to attack the Shona, in return for
aid in defeating his rival, Lundi, a chief of the Zimba. In 1623, he turned on
the Portuguese and assisted the Shona. In 1640, he welcome back the
Portuguese for trade. The Maravi Empire did not long survive the death of
Mzura. By the 18th century, it had broken into its previous polities.335

Kongo Empire
By the 15th century CE, the farming Bakongo people (ba being the plural
prefix) were unified as the Kingdom of Kongo under a ruler called the
manikongo, residing in the fertile Pool Malebo area on the lower Congo River.
The capital was M'banza-Kongo. With superior organization, they were able to
conquer their neighbors and extract tribute. They were experts in metalwork,
pottery, and weaving raffia cloth. They stimulated interregional trade via a
tribute system controlled by the manikongo. Later, maize (corn) and cassava
(manioc) would be introduced to the region via trade with the Portuguese at
their ports at Luanda and Benguela. The maize and cassava would result in
population growth in the region and other parts of Africa, replacing millet as a
main staple. By the 16th century, the manikongo held authority from the
Atlantic in the west to the Kwango River in the east. Each territory was
assigned a mani-mpembe (provincial governor) by the manikongo. In 1506,
Afonso I (1506–1542), a Christian, took over the throne. Slave trading
increased with Afonso's wars of conquest. About 1568-1569, the Jaga invaded
Kongo, laying waste to the kingdom and forcing the manikongo into exile. In
1574, Manikongo Álvaro I was reinstated with the help of Portuguese
mercenaries. During the latter part of the 1660s, the Portuguese tried to gain
control of Kongo. Manikongo António I (1661–1665), with a Kongolese army of
5,000, was destroyed by an army of Afro-Portuguese at the Battle of Mbwila.
The empire dissolved into petty polities, fighting among each other for war
captives to sell into slavery.336337338

335Davidson (1991), pp. 164-165.

336Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 185-188
337Shillington (2005), p. 196-198
338Davidson (1991), pp. 156-157
Kongo gained captives from the Kingdom of Ndongo in wars of conquest.
Ndongo was ruled by the ngola. Ndongo would also engage in slave trading
with the Portuguese, with São Tomé being a transit point to Brazil. The
kingdom was not as welcoming as Kongo; it viewed the Portuguese with great
suspicion and as an enemy. The Portuguese in the latter part of the 16th
century tried to gain control of Ndongo, but were defeated by the Mbundu.
Ndongo experienced depopulation from slave raiding. The leaders established
another state at Matamba, affiliated with Queen Nzinga, who put up a strong
resistance to the Portuguese until coming to terms with them. The Portuguese
settled along the coast as trade dealers, not venturing on conquest of the
interior. Slavery wreaked havoc in the interior, with states initiating wars of
conquest for captives. The Imbangala formed the slave-raiding state of
Kasanje, a major source of slaves during the 17th century and 18th
century.339340

339Shillington (2005), p. 198, 199.

340Davidson (1991), p. 158.
Southern Africa
Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists
and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River by the fourth
or 5th century CE (see Bantu expansion), displacing and absorbing the
original Khoisan speakers. They slowly moved south, and the earliest
ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from
around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language
incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoi-San people,
reaching the Great Fish River in today's Eastern Cape Province.

Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe

The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first state in Southern Africa, with its
capital at Mapungubwe. The state arose in the 12th century CE. Its wealth
came from controlling the trade in ivory from the Limpopo Valley, copper from
the mountains of northern Transvaal, and gold from the Zimbabwe Plateau
between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, with the Swahili merchants at
Chibuene. By the mid 13th century, Mapungubwe was abandoned.341
After the decline of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe rose on the Zimbabwe
Plateau. Zimbabwe means stone building. Great Zimbabwe was the first city in
Southern Africa. Great Zimbabwe was the center of an empire, consolidating
lesser Shona polities. An technology of building in stone was inherited from
Mapungubwe. These building techniques were enhance and came into
maturity at Great Zimbabwe, represented by the wall of the Great Enclosure.
The drywall stone masonry technology was also used to build smaller
compounds in the area. Great Zimbabwe flourished by trading with Swahili
Kilwa and Sofala. The rise of Great Zimbabwe parallels the rise of Kilwa.
Great Zimbabwe was a major source of gold. Its royal court lived in luxury,
wore Indian cotton, surrounded themselves with copper and gold ornaments,
and ate on plates from as far away as Persia and China. Around the 1420s and
1430s, Great Zimbabwe was on the declined. The city was abandoned by
1450. Some have attributed the decline to the rise of the trading town
Ingombe Ilede.342343
African empires & states

341Ehret, Christopher (2002). p. 252.

342Ehret (2002), pp. 252-254.
343Shillington (2005), pp. 147-153.
A new chapter of Shona history ensued. Mutota, a northern Shona king of the
Karanga,, engaged in conquest. He and his son Mutope conquered the
Zimbabwe Plateau, going through Mozambique to the east coast, linking the
empire to the coastal trade. They called their empire Wilayatu 'l
Mu'anamutapah or mwanamutapa (Lord of the Plundered Lands), or the
Kingdom of Mutapa. Monomotapa was the Portuguese corruption. They did
not build stone structures; the northern Shonas had no traditions of building
in stone. After the death of Matope in 1480, the empire split into two small
empires: Torwa in the south and Mutapa in the north. The split occurred over
rivalry from two Shona lords, Changa and Togwa, with the mwanamutapa line.
Changa was able to acquire the south, forming the Kingdom of Butua, with its
capital at Khami.344345
The Mutapa Empire continued in the north under the mwanamutapa line.
During the 16th century, the Portuguese were able to establish permanent
markets up the Zambezi River in an attempt to gain political and military
control of Mutapa. They were partially successful. In 1628, a decisive battle
allowed them to put a puppet mwanamutapa named Mavura, who signed
treaties that gave favorable mineral export rights to the Portuguese. The
Portuguese were successful in destroying the mwanamutapa system of
government and undermining trade. By 1667, Mutapa was in decay. Chiefs
would not allow digging for gold because of fear of Portuguese theft, and the
population declined.346
The Kingdom of Butua was ruled by a changamire, a title derived from the
founder, Changa. Later it became the Rozwi Empire. The Portuguese tried to
gain a foothold but was thrown out of the region in 1693, by Changamire
Dombo. The 17th century were a period of peace and prosperity. The Rozwi
Empire fell into ruinsin the 1830s from invading Nguni from Natal.347

Early Namibia
By 1500 CE, most of southern Africa had established states. In northwestern
Namibia, the Ovambo engaged in farming and the Herero engaged in herding.
As cattle numbers increased, the Herero moved southward to central Namibia
for grazing land. A related group, the Mbanderu, expanded to Ghanzi in
northwestern Botswana. The Nama, a Khoi-speaking, sheep-raising group,
moved northward and came into contact with the Herero; this would set the
stage for much conflict between the two groups. The expanding Lozi states
pushed the Mbukushu, Subiya, and Yei to Botei, Okavango, and Chobe in
northern Botswana.348

344
345Davidson (1991), pp. 252-254.
346Davidson (1991), pp. 252-154.
347
348Shillington (2005), p. 218.
By the 1850s, British and German missionaries and traders had penetrated
Namibia. Herero and Nama competed for guns and ammunition, providing
cattle, ivory, and ostrich feathers. The Germans were more firmly established
than the British in the region. By 1884, the Germans declared the coastal
region from the Orange River to the Kunene River a German protectorate.
They pursued an aggressive policy of land expansion for white settlements.
They exploited rivalry between the Nama and Herero. 349
The Herero entered into an alliance with the Germans, thinking they could get
an upper hand on the Nama. The Germans set up a garrison at the Herero
capital and started allocating Herero land for white settlements, including the
best grazing land in the central plateau, and made tax and labor demands.
The Herero and Mbanderu rebelled, but the rebellion was crushed and leaders
were executed. Between 1896 and 1897, rinderpest crippled the economic
backbone of the Herero and Nama economy, andslowed white settlement
expansion. The Germans continued the policy of making Namibia a white
settlement, by seizing not only land but Herero cattle, and even trying to
export Herero labor to South Africa.350
In 1904, the Herero rebelled. German General Lothar von Trotha implemented
an extermination policy at the Battle of Waterberg, which drove the Herero
west of the Kalahari Desert. At the end of 1905, only 16,000 Herero were
alive, out of a previous population of 80,000. Nama resistance was crushed in
1907. All Nama and Herero cattle and land were confiscated from the very
diminished population, with remaining Nama and Herero assuming a
subordinate position. Labor had to be imported from among the Ovambo.351

Early South Africa and Botswana

Sotho-Tswana
By 1000-1400 CE, we see the development of Sotho-Tswana states based on
the highveld, south of the Limpopo River. The chief's power rested on cattle
and his connection to the ancestor. This can be seen in the Toutswemogala
Hill settlements with stone foundations and stone walls, north of the highveld
and south of the Vaal River. Northwest of the Vaal River, we also see the
development of early Tswana states centered around towns of thousands of
people. When disagreements or rivalry arose, different groups moved to form
their own states.352

349Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327-329, 340-342.

350Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327
351Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327.
352Shillington (2005), pp. 153-155.
One of the major states to emerge from the Mfecane was the Sotho Kingdom
founded at Thaba Bosiu by Moshoeshoe I around 1821-1822. It was a
confederation different polities that accepted the absolute authority of
Moshoeshoe. During the 1830s, the kingdom invited missionaries as a
strategic means of acquiring guns and horses from the Cape. Orange Free
State would slowly diminish the kingdom but never completely defeat it. In
1868, Moshoeshoe asked that the Sotho Kingdom be annexed by Britain, to
save the remnant. It became the British protectorate of Basutoland.353

Nguni and Zulu

Southeast of the Drakensberg mountains lived Nguni-speaking peoples (Zulu,
Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele). They, too, engaged in state building, with new
states developing from rivalry, disagreements, and population pressure
causing movement into new regions. They were metalworkers, cultivators of
millet, and their most prized activity, cattle herding.354
A moment of great disorder in southern Africa was the Mfecane, "the
crushing." It was started by the northern Nguni kingdoms of Mthethwa,
Ndwandwe, and Swaziland over scarce resource and famine. When
Dingiswayo of Mthethwa died, Shaka of the Zulu people took over. He
established the Zulu Kingdom, asserting authority over the Ndwandwe and
pushing the Swazi north. The scattering Ndwandwe and Swazi caused the
Mfecane to spread. During the 1820s, Shaka expanded the empire all along
the Drakensberg foothills, with tribute being paid as far south as the Tugela
and Umzimkulu rivers. He replaced the chiefs of conquered polities with
indunas, responsible to him. He introduced a centralized, dedicated, and
disciplined military force not seen in the region, with a new weapon in the
short stabbing-spear.355
In 1828, Shaka was assassinated by his half brother Dingane, who lacked the
military genius and leadership skills of Shaka. Voortrekkers tried to occupy
Zulu land in 1838. In the early months they were defeated, but the survivors
regrouped at the Ncome River and soundly defeated the Zulu. However, the
Voortrekkers dared not settle Zulu land. Dingane was killed in 1840, during a
civil war. His brother, Mpande, took over and strengthened Zulu territories to
the north. In 1879, the Zulu Kingdom was invaded by Britain, in a quest to
control all of South Africa. The Zulu Kingdom was victorious at the Battle of
Isandlwana, but was defeated at the Battle of Ulundi.356357

353Shillington (2005), pp. 261, 262, 271.

354Shillington (2005), pp. 153-155
355Shillington (2005), pp. 256, 257, 270.
356Shillington (2005), pp. 256, 257.
357Davidson (1991), pp. 274-275.
Khoisan and Afrikaaner
The Khoisan lived in the southwestern Cape Province, where winter rainfall is
plentiful. In parts of Southern Africa here rainfall is plentiful during the
summer, earlier Khoisan populations were absorbed by Bantu peoples, such as
the Sotho and Nguni, but the Bantu expansion stopped at the region with
winter rainfall. Some Bantu languages have incorporated the click
characteristic of the Khoisan languages. The Khoisan traded with their Bantu
neighbors, providing cattle, sheep, and hunted items. In return, their Bantu
speaking neighbors traded copper, iron, and tobacco.358
By the 16th century, the Dutch East India Company established a replenishing
station at Table Bay, for restocking water and purchasing meat from the
Khoikhoi. The Khoikhoi received copper, iron, tobacco, and beads in
exchange. In order to control the price of meat and stock and make service
more consistent, the Dutch established a permanent settlement at Table Bay
in 1652. They grew fresh fruit and vegetables, and established a hospital for
sick sailors. To increase produce, the Dutch decided to increase the number of
farms at Table Bay by encouraging freeburgher boers (farmers) on lands
worked initially by slaves from West Africa. The land was taken from Khoikhoi
grazing land, triggering the first Khoikhoi-Dutch war in 1659. No victors
emerged, but the Dutch assumed a "right of conquest" by which they claimed
all of the Cape. In a series of wars, pitting the Khoikhoi against each other,
the Boers would assume all Khoikhoi land and claim all their cattle. The
second Khoikoi-Dutch war (1673–1677) was a cattle raid. The Khoikhoi also
died in thousands from European diseases.359
By the 18th century, the Cape colony had grown, with slaves coming from
Madagascar, Mozambique, and Indonesia. The settlement also started to
expand northward, but Khoikhoi resistance, raids, and guerrilla warfare
slowed the expansion during the 18th century. Boers who started to practice
pastoralism were known as trekboers. A common source of trekboer labor was
orphan children who were captured during raids and whose parents had been
killed.360
By the 19th century, most of Khoikhoi territories were under Boer control. The
Khoikhoi had lost economic and political independence, and had been
absorbed into Boer society. The Boers spoke Afrikaans, a language or dialect
derived from Dutch, and no longer called themselves Boers but Afrikaner.
Some Khoikhoi were used as commandos in raids against other Khoikhoi and
later Xhosa. A mixed Khoi, slave, and European population called the Cape
Coloureds, who were outcasts within colonial society, also arose. Khoikhoi
who lived far on the frontier included the Kora, Oorlams, and Griqua. In 1795,
the British took over the Cape colony from the Dutch.361

358
359Shillington (2005), pp. 210-213.
360Shillington (2005), pp. 213, 214.
361Shillington (2005), pp. 215, 216.
Land in the Cape became scarce. In the 1830s, Boers embarked on a journey
of expansion, east of the Great Fish River into the Zuurveld. They were
referred to as Voortrekkers. They founded republics of the Transvaal and
Orange Free State, mostly in areas of sparse population that had been
diminished by the Mfecane/Difaqane. Unlike the Khoisan, the Bantu states
were not conquered by the Afrikaners, due to population density and greater
unity. Additionally, they began to arm themselves with guns acquired through
trade at the Cape. In some cases, as in the Xhosa/Boer Wars, Boers were
removed from Xhosa lands. It required a dedicated imperial military force to
subdue the Bantu-speaking states. In 1901, the Boer republics were defeated
by Britain in the Second Boer War. Yet, ironically, the defeat consummated
many Afrikaners' ambition: South Africa would now be under white rule. The
British placed all power—legislative, executive, administrative—in English and
Afrikaner hands.362363

Modern

European trade, exploration, and conquest

Between 1878 and 1898, in a 20-year period, European states partitioned and
conquered most of Africa. For 400 years, European nations had mainly limited
their involvement to trading stations on the African coast. Few dared venture
inland from the coast; those that did, like the Portuguese, often met defeats
and had to retreat to the coast. Several technological innovations helped to
overcome this 400-year pattern. One was the development of repeating rifles,
which were easier and quicker to load than muskets. Artillery started to be
used increasingly. In 1885, Hiram S. Maxim developed the maxim gun, the
model of the modern-day machine gun. European states kept these weapons
largely among themselves by refusing to sell these weapons to African
leaders.364
African germs took numerous European lives and deterred permanent
settlements. Diseases such as yellow fever, sleeping sickness, yaws, and
leprosy, made Africa a very inhospitable place for Europeans. The deadliest
germ was malaria, endemic throughout tropical Africa. In 1854, the discovery
of quinine and other medical innovations helped to make conquest and
colonization in Africa possible.365
Strong motives for conquest of Africa were at play. Raw materials were
needed for European factories. Europe in the early part of the 19th century
was undergoing its Industrial Revolution. Nationalist rivalries and prestige
were at play. Acquiring African colonies would show rivals that a nation was
powerful and significant. These factors culminated in the Scramble for
Africa.366

362Davidson (1991), pp. 274, 275.

363Shillington (2005), pp. 268-271.
364Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 268-269.
365Collins and Burns (2007), p. 269.
366Collins and Burns (2007), p. 265.
Knowledge of Africa increased. Numerous European explorers began to
explore the continent. Mungo Park traversed the Niger River. James Bruce
travelled through Ethiopia and located the source of the Blue Nile. Richard
Francis Burton was the first European at Lake Tanganyika. Samuel White
Baker explored the Upper Nile. John Hanning Speke located a source of the
Nile at Lake Victoria. Other significant European explorers included Heinrich
Barth, Henry Morton Stanley, Silva Porto, Alexandre de Serpa Pinto, Rene
Caille, Gerhard Rolfs, Gustav Nachtigal, George Schweinfurth, and Joseph
Thomson. The most famous of the explorers was David Livingstone, who
explored southern Africa and traversed the continent from the Atlantic at
Luanda to the Indian Ocean at Quelimane. European explorers made use of
African guides and servants, and old, established long-distance trading routes
were used.367368
Missionaries attempting to spread Christianity also increased European
knowledge of Africa.369
In 1884-1885, European nations met at the Berlin West Africa Conference to
discuss the partitioning of Africa. It was agreed that European claims to parts
of Africa would only be recognised if Europeans provided effective occupation.
In a series of treaties in 1890–1891, colonial boundaries were completely
drawn. All of Subsaharan Africa was claimed by European powers, except for
Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia.
The European powers set up a variety of different administrations in Africa at
this time, reflecting different ambitions and degrees of power. In some areas,
such as parts of British West Africa, colonial control was tenuous and intended
for simple economic extraction, strategic power, or as part of a long term
development plan. In other areas, Europeans were encouraged to settle,
creating settler states in which a European minority dominated. Settlers only
came to a few colonies in sufficient numbers to have a strong impact. British
settler colonies included British East Africa (now Kenya), Northern and
Southern Rhodesia, (Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively), and South Africa,
which already had a significant population of European settlers, the Boers.
France planned to settle Algeria and eventually incorporate it into the French
state on an equal basis with the European provinces. Algeria's proximity
across the Mediterranean allowed plans of this scale.
In most areas colonial administrations did not have the manpower or
resources to fully administer the territory and had to rely on local power
structures to help them. Various factions and groups within the societies
exploited this European requirement for their own purposes, attempting to
gain positions of power within their own communities by cooperating with
Europeans. One aspect of this struggle included what Terence Ranger has
termed the "invention of tradition." In order to legitimize their own claims to
power in the eyes of both the colonial administrators and their own people,
native elites would essentially manufacture "traditional" claims to power, or
ceremonies. As a result, many societies were thrown into disarray by the new
order.

367Shillington (2005), p. 295.

368Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 254-257.
369
European Colonial Territories
Belgium
•Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today's Democratic Republic of the
Congo)
•Ruanda-Urundi (comprising modern Rwanda and Burundi, between 1916 and
1960)
France

•French West Africa: •French Equatorial •French Algeria

Africa: (now Algeria)
1. Mauritania
1. Gabon
2. Senegal
2. Middle Congo
3. French Sudan
(now the
(now Mali)
Republic of the
4. French Guinea Congo)
(now Guinea)
3. Oubangi-Chari
5. Côte d'Ivoire (now the Central
6. Niger African Republic)

7. French Upper 4. Chad

Volta
(now Burkina
Faso)
8. French Dahomey
(now Benin)

•Tunisia

•French Morocco

•French Somaliland
(now Djibouti)

•Madagascar
 •Comoros

Germany
•German Kamerun (now Cameroon and part of Nigeria)
•German East Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi and most of Tanzania)
•German South-West Africa (now Namibia)
•German Togoland (now Togo and eastern part of Ghana)
Italy
Italian North Africa (now Libya)
•Eritrea
•Italian Somaliland (now part of Somalia)

Portugal

•Portuguese West Africa •Cape Verde Islands

(now Angola)
•São Tomé e Príncipe
1. Mainland Angola
1. São Tomé Island
2. Portuguese Congo
2. Príncipe Island
(now Cabinda Province of
Angola) 3. Fort of São João Baptista de
Ajudá
(now Ouidah, in Benin)
•Portuguese East Africa
(now Mozambique)
•Portuguese Guinea
(now Guinea-Bissau)

Spain

•Spanish Sahara •Spanish Morocco •Spanish Guinea

(now Western Sahara) (now Equatorial Guinea)
1. Tarfaya Strip
1. Río de Oro 1. Fernando Po
2. Ifni
2. Saguia el-Hamra 2. Río Muni
3. Annobon
United Kingdom

•Egypt •Bechuanaland (now •The Gambia

Botswana)

•Anglo-Egyptian Sudan •Southern Rhodesia (now •Sierra Leone

(now Sudan) Zimbabwe)

•British Somaliland (now •Northern Rhodesia (now •Nigeria

part of Somalia) Zambia)

•British East Africa: •British South Africa •Cameroons (now parts of

(now South Africa) Cameroon and Nigeria)
1. Kenya
1. Transvaal (now
2. Uganda
part of South
Protectorate
Africa)
(now Uganda)
2. Cape Colony
3. Tanganyika
(now part of
(1919–1961, now
South Africa)
part of Tanzania)
3. Colony of Natal
(now part of
South Africa)
4. Orange Free
State (now part
of South Africa)

•Zanzibar (now part of •British Gold Coast (now

Tanzania) Ghana)

•Nyasaland (now Malawi)

 •Basutoland (now
Lesotho)

•Swaziland

Independent states
•Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society of the United States in
1821; declared independence in 1847
•Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) had its borders re-drawn with Italian Eritrea
and French Somaliland (modern Djibouti), briefly occupied by Italy from 1936
to 1941 during the Abyssinia Crisis;
•Sudan, independent under Mahdi rule between 1885 and 1899.370

20th century: 1900-1945

Interbellum
After World War I the formerly German colonies in Africa were taken over by
France, Belgium, 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 the mystique of the "invincible" European was shattered by the
barbarities of the war. However, in most areas European control remained
relatively strong during this period.
Italy, under the government of Benito Mussolini, invaded Ethiopia, the last
independent African nation, in 1935 and occupied the country until 1941.

The postcolonial era: 1945 to 1993

370Martin, Phyllis M. and O'Meara, Patrick(1995). p. 135-138.

Decolonization
The decolonization of Africa started with Libya in 1951. (Although Liberia,
South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia were already independent.) Many countries
followed in the 50s and 60s, with a peak in 1960 with 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 last African countries to
gain formal independence were Guinea-Bissau (1974), Mozambique (1975)
and Angola (1975) from Portugal, Djibouti from France in 1977, Zimbabwe
from United Kingdom in 1980, and Namibia from South Africa in 1990. Eritrea
later split off from Ethiopia in 1993.
Because many cities were founded, enlarged and renamed by the Europeans,
after independence many place names (for example Stanleyville, Léopoldville,
Rhodesia) were renamed: see historical African place names for these.

East Africa
The Mau Mau Rebellion 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 Kenyatta served as
its first president.
The early 1990s also signaled the start of major clashes between the Hutus
and the Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi. In 1994 this culminated in the
Rwandan Genocide, a conflict in which over 800 000 people were murdered.

North Africa
Moroccan nationalism developed during the 1930s, the Istiqal Party was
formed, pushing for independence. In 1953 sultan Muhammad V called for
independence. In March 2, 1956 Morocco became independent of France.
Spain reliquished all territories Ceuta, Tangiers, and Melilla. Muhammad V
became ruler of independent Morocco. Algeria in 1954, formed the National
Liberation Front (FLN) from France. The French responded brutally but
negotiated independence in 1962. Muhammad Ahmed Ben Bella was elected
president. All French citizens left the country, crippling the economy. In 1934
'Neo-Destour'(New Constitution) party was founded by Habib Bourguiba
pushing for indepence in Tunisia. Tunisia became independent in 1955. Its
bey was dispose and Habib Bourguiba elected.371
In 1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser deposed the monarchy on Egypt and came to
power. Muammar al-Gaddafi led a coup in Libya in 1969 and has remained in
power.

371Lye, Keith(2002). pp. 97, 264.

Egypt was involved in several wars against Israel, and was allied with other
Arab countries. The first was right after the State of Israel was founded, in
1948. Egypt went to war again in 1967 and lost the Sinai Peninsula to Israel.
They went to war yet again in 1973. In 1979 Anwar Sadat and Menachem
Begin signed the Camp David Accords, which gave back the Sinai Peninsula to
Egypt in exchange for the recognition of Israel. The accords are still in effect
today. In 1981 Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist for signing the accords.

Southern Africa
In 1948 the apartheid laws were started in South Africa by the dominant
party, the National Party. These were largely a continuation of existing
policies, e.g. the Land Act of 1913. The difference was the policy of "separate
development;" Where previous policies had only been disparate efforts to
economically exploit the African Majority, Apartheid represented an entire
philosophy of separate racial goals, leading to both the divisive laws of 'petty
apartheid,' and the grander scheme of African Homelands.
In 1994 the South African government abolished Apartheid. South Africans
elected Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress in the country's first
multiracial presidential election.

West Africa
Following World War II, nationalist movements arose across West Africa, most
notably in Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah. In 1957, Ghana became the first
sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by
France's colonies; by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous.
Since independence, many West African nations have been plagued by
corruption and instability, with notable civil wars in Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and
Burkina Faso. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite
enviable natural resources, and political instability is often accompanied by
undemocratic government.
In Nigeria today, the richest fifth of the population earns 55.7 percent of
income while the poorest fifth earns just 4.4 percent and 70 percent of
Nigerians live on less than US$1 a day.

References
•Collins, Robert O. and Burns, James M. (2007). A History of Sub-Saharan
Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-68708-9.
•Davidson, Basil (1991). Africa In History, Themes and Outlines. Revised and
expanded ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-82667-4
•Ehret, Christopher (2002). The Civilizations of Africa. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia, ISBN 0-8139-2085-X.
•Iliffe, John (2007). Africans: The History of a Continent. 2nd ed. New York:
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-68297-8.
•Lye, Keith (2002). Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilization. New
York: The Diagram Group, ISBN 0-8160-4568-2.
•Martin, Phyllis M., and O'Meara, Patrick (1995). Africa. 3rd ed. Indiana:
Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20984-6.
•Page, Willie F. (2001). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture: From
Conquest to Colonization (1500-1850). New York: Learning Source Books,
ISBN 0-8160-4472-4
•Shillington, Kevin (2005). History of Africa. Revised 2nd ed. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-59957-8.
•Diamond, Jared M. (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
Societies. New York: W.W.Norton. ISBN 0-393-31755-2.
•Stearns, Peter, ed (2001). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient,
Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged.

Further reading
•Cheikh Anta Diop (1987) Precolonial Black Africa. Chicago Review Press.
•Clark, J. Desmond (1970) The Prehistory of Africa. Thames and Hudson
•Davidson, Basil (1964) The African Past. Penguin, Harmondsworth
•Freund, Bill (1998) The Making of Contemporary Africa, Lynne Rienner,
Boulder (including a substantial "Annotated Bibliography" pp. 269–316).
•Reader, John 1997 Africa: A Biography of the Continent. Hamish Hamilton.
ISBN 0-241-13047-6
•Shillington, Kevin (1989) History of Africa, New York: St. Martin's.
•UNESCO (1980–1994) General History of Africa. 8 volumes.
•Théophile Obenga (1980) Pour une Nouvelle Histoire Présence Africaine,
Paris

External links
•Worldtimelines.org.uk -Africa The British Museum. 2005
•About.com:African History.
•The Story of Africa - BBC World Service
•Wonders of the African World, PBS.
•Civilization of Africa, by Richard Hooker, Washington State University.
•African Art,(chunk of historical data), Metropolitan Museum of Art.
•African Kingdoms, by Khaleel Muhammad.
•Mapungubwe Museum at the University of Pretoria

History of North Africa

North Africa is a relatively thin strip of land between the Sahara desert and
the Mediterranean, stretching from Moroccan Atlantic coast to Egypt. The
region comprises the modern countries, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,
Mauritania, Libya and Egypt.372 The history of the region is a mix of influences
from many distinct cultures. The development of sea travel firmly brought the
region into the Mediterranean world, especially during the classical period. In
the first millennium AD the Sahara became an equally important area for
trade as the camel caravans brought goods and people from the south. The
region also has a small but crucial land link to the Middle East, and that area
has also played a central role in the history of North Africa.

Prehistory
The earliest known hominids in North Africa arrived around 200,000 BC.
Through most of the Stone Age the climate in the region was very different
than today, the Sahara being far more moist and savanna like. Home to herds
of large mammals, this area could support a large hunter-gatherer population
and the Aterian culture that developed was one of the most advanced
paleolithic societies.
Various populations of pastoralists have left paintings of abundant wildlife,
domesticated animals, chariots, and a complex culture that dates back to at
least 10,000 BC in Northern Niger and neighboring parts of Algeria and Libya.
Several former northern Nigerian villages and archaeological sites date from
the Green Sahara period of 7,500-7,000 to 3,500-3,000BCE
In the Mesolithic, the Capsian culture dominated the region with Neolithic
farmers becoming predominant by 6000 BC. Over this period, the Sahara
region was steadily drying, creating a barrier between North Africa and the
rest of the African continent.
The Nile Valley on the Eastern edge of North Africa is one of the richest
agricultural areas in the world. The desiccation of the Sahara is believed to
have increased the population density in the Nile Valley and large cities
developed. Eventually Ancient Egypt unified in one of the world's first
civilizations.

Classical period
See also: North Africa during the Classical Period, Ptolemaic Egypt, Roman
Egypt

372"A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period, Cambridge University Press, 1987.
The expanse of the Libyan Desert cut Egypt off from the rest of North Africa.
Egyptian boats, while well suited to the Nile, were not usable in the open
Mediterranean. Moreover the Egyptian merchant had far more prosperous
destinations on Crete, Cyprus and the Levant.
Greeks from Europe and the Phoenicians from Asia also settled along the
coast of Northern Africa. Both societies drew their prosperity from the sea
and from ocean-born trade. They found only limited trading opportunities with
the native inhabitants, and instead turned to colonization. The Greek trade
was based mainly in the Aegean, Adriatic, Black, and Red Seas and they only
established major cities in Cyrenaica, directly to the south of Greece. In 332
BC, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and for the next three centuries it
was ruled by the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty.
The Phoenicians developed an even larger presence in North Africa with
colonies from Tripoli to the Atlantic. One of the most important Phoenician
cities was Carthage, which grew into one of the greatest powers in the region.
At the height of its power, Carthage controlled the Western Mediterranean
and most of North Africa outside of Egypt. However, Rome, Carthage's major
rival to the north, defeated it in a series of wars known as the Punic Wars,
resulting in Carthage's destruction in 146 BC and the annexation of its empire
by the Romans. In 30 BC, Roman Emperor Octavian conquered Egypt,
officially annexing it to the Empire and, for the first time, unifying the North
African coast under a single ruler.
The Carthaginian power had penetrated deep into the Sahara ensuring the
quiescence of the nomadic tribes in the region. The Roman Empire was more
confined to the coast, yet routinely expropriated Berber land for Roman
farmers. They thus faced a constant threat from the south. A network of forts
and walls were established on the southern frontier, eventually securing the
region well enough for local garrisons to control it without broader Imperial
support.
When the Roman Empire began to collapse, North Africa was spared much of
the disruption until the Vandal invasion of 429 AD. The Vandals ruled in North
Africa until the territories were regained by Justinian of the Eastern Empire in
the 6th century. Egypt was never invaded by the Vandals because there was a
thousand mile buffer of desert.

Arrival of Islam
See also History of Arab Egypt, Rise of Islam in Algeria, Berbers and Islam,
Muslim History, Islam in Africa

The Arab Conquest

see also Umayyad conquest of North Africa, Byzantine-Arab Wars, and the
Battle of Carthage (698)
The Arab conquest of the Maghrib began in 642 AD when Amr ibn al-As, the
governor of Egypt, invaded Cyrenaica, advancing as far as the city of Tripoli
by 645 AD. Further expansion into North Africa waited another twenty years,
due to the First Islamic civil war. In 670 AD, Uqba ibn Nafi al-Fihiri invaded
what is now Tunisia in an attempt to take the region from the Byzantine
Empire but was only partially successful. He founded the town of Kairouan but
was replaced by Abul-Muhajir Dinar in 674 AD. Abul-Muhajir successfully
advanced into what is now eastern Algeria incorporating the Berber
confederation ruled by Kusaila into the Islamic sphere of influence.373
In 681 AD Uqba was given command of the Arab forces again and advanced
westward again in 682 AD, holding Kusaya as a hostage. He advanced as far
as the Atlantic Ocean in the west and penetrated the Draa River Valley and
the Sus region in what is now Morocco. However, Kusaila escaped during the
campaign and attacked Uqba up his return and killed him near Biskra in what
is now Algeria. After Uqba’s death, the Arab armies retreated from Kairouan,
which Kusaila took as his capital. He ruled there until he was defeated by an
Arab army under Zuhair ibn Kays. Zuhair himself was killed in 688 AD while
fighting against the Byzantine Empire who had reoccupied Cyrenaica while he
was busy in Tunisia.374
In 693 AD, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan sent an army of 40,000 men,
commanded by Hasan ibn al-Nu'man, into Cyrenaica and Tripolitania in order
to remove the Byzantine threat to the Umayyads in North Africa. They met no
resistance until they reached Tunisia where they captured Carthage and
defeated the Byzantine Empires and Berbers around Bizerte 375.
Soon afterwards, al-Nu'man’s forces came into conflict with Berbers of the
Jrāwa tribe under the leadership of their queen, Al-Kahina. The Berbers
defeated al-Nu'man in two engagements, the first on the river Nini and the
second near Gabis, upon which al-Nu'man’s forces retreated to Cyrenaica to
wait for reinforcements. Reinforcements arrived in 697 AD and al-Nu'man
advanced into what is now modern day Tunisia, again meeting Al-Kahina near
Gabis. This time he was successful and Al-Kahina retreated to Tubna where
her forces were defeated and she was killed.376.
al-Nu'man next recaptured Carthage from the Byzantine Empire, who had
retaken it when he retreated from Tunisia. He founded the city of Tunis
nearby and used it as the base for the Ummayad navy in the Mediterranean
Sea. The Byzantines were forced to abandon the Maghreb and retreat to their
islands of the Mediterranean Sea. However, in 705 AD he was replaced by
Musa bin Nusair, a protégé of then governor of Egypt, Abdul-Aziz ibn Marwan.
Nusair advanced into what is now Morocco, captured Tangier, and advanced
as far as the Sus river and the Tafilalt oasis in a three-year campaign.377

Kharijite Berber Rebellion

see also Berber Revolt

373
374
375
376
377
 see also Kharijites

Rustamids
See also: Rustamid

Aghlabids
See also: Aghlabid

Abbasids
See also: Abbasid

Idrisids
See also: Idrisid Dynasty

Fatimids
See also: Fatimid

Zirids
See also: Zirid

The Berber Dynasties

Almoravids
See also: Almoravid dynasty
In the 11th century, Berbers of the Sahara began a jihad to reform Islam in
North Africa. This movement created an empire encompassing parts of Spain
and North Africa. At its greatest extent, it appears to have included southern
and eastern Iberia and roughly all of present-day Morocco. This movement
seems to have assisted the southern penetration of Africa, one that was
continued by later groups.

Almohads
See also: Almohad Dynasty
The Almohads, or Almohadis, were similar to the Almoravids in that they were
similarly attacking what they saw as corruption of Islam. They managed to
conquer southern Spain, and their North African empire extended further
than that of the Almoravids, reaching to Egypt.

Marinids
See also: Marinid Dynasty

Zayyanids
See also: Zayyanid

Wattasids
See also: Wattasid Dynasty

Ottoman rule
See also History of Ottoman Egypt
After the Middle Ages, Northern Africa was loosely under the control of the
Ottoman Empire, except for the region of Morocco. Ottoman rule was
centered on the cities of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

European colonization
See also French rule in Algeria
During the 18th and 19th century, North Africa was colonized by France, the
United Kingdom, Spain and Italy. During the 1950s and '60s, and into the
1970s, all of the North African states gained independence from their colonial
European rulers, except for a few small Spanish colonies on the far northern
tip of Morocco, and parts of the Sahara region, which went from Spanish to
Moroccan rule.
In modern times the Suez canal in Egypt has caused a great deal of
controversy. The Convention of Constantinople in 1888 declared the canal a
neutral zone under the protection of the British, after British troops had
moved in to protect it in 1882. Under the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the
United Kingdom insisted on retaining control over the canal. In 1951 Egypt
repudiated the treaty, and by 1954 Great Britain had agreed to pull out.
After the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew their pledge to
support the construction of the Aswan Dam, president Gamal Abdel Nasser
nationalized the canal, which caused Britain, France and Israel to invade in
the week-long Suez War. As a result of damage and sunken ships, the canal
was closed until April, 1957, after it had been cleaned up with UN assistance.
A United Nations force (UNEF) was established to maintain the neutrality of
the canal and the Sinai Peninsula.

See also
•History of Algeria
•History of Egypt
•History of Libya
•History of Mauritania
•History of Morocco
•History of Tunisia

References

•Abun-Nasr, Jamil (1987). A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period. New
York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521331846.
•Stearns, Peter N., et al. World Civilizations: The Global Experience. AP
Edition DBQ Update. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. 174.

External links
•A Taste of Maghribi History

History of West Africa

The partial history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods:
1. Its prehistory, in which the first human settlers arrived, agriculture
developed, and contact made with the Mediterranean civilizations to the
north.
2. The Iron Age empires that consolidated trade and developed centralized
states.
 3. The slave-trading kingdoms, jihads, and colonial invaders of the 18th and
19th centuries.
4. The colonial period, in which France and Great Britain controlled nearly
the whole of the region.
5. The post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed.

Prehistory
Archaeological studies at Mejiro Cave have found that early human settlers
had arrived in West Africa around 12,000 B.C.E. Microlithic stone industries
have been found primarily in the region of the Savannah where pastoral tribes
existed using chiseled stone blades and spears. The tribesmen of Guinea and
the forested regions of the coast were without microliths for thousands of
years, but prospered using bone tools and other means. In the fifth
millennium, as the ancestors of modern West Africans began entering the
area, the development of sedentary farming began to take place in West
Africa, with evidences of domesticated cattle having been found for this
period, along with limited cereal crops. Around 3000 BCE, a major change
began to take place in West African society, with microliths becoming more
common in the Sahel region, with the invention of primitive harpoons and fish-
hooks.
Ancient West Africa included the Sahara, as the Sahara only became a desert
in around 3000 BCE.
A major migration of Sahel cattle farmers took place in the third millennium
BCE, and the pastoralists encountered the developed hunter-gatherers of the
Guinea region. Flint was considerably more available there and made the use
of microliths in hunting far easier. The migration of the Sahel farmers was
likely caused by the final desiccation of the Sahara desert in this millennium,
which contributed greatly to West Africa's isolation from cultural and
technological phenomena in Europe and the Mediterranean Coast of Africa.
Iron industry, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons, appeared in
Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BCE.378 The increased use of iron and the spread
of ironworking technology led to improved weaponry and enabled farmers to
expand agricultural productivity and produce surplus crops, which together
supported the growth of urban city-states into empires.

378Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa'
Journal of African History 35 (1994) 1–36; Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe,
'Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa' Current Anthropology 1968.
By 400 BCE, contact had been made with the Mediterranean civilizations,
including that of Carthage, and a regular trade in gold being conducted with
the Sahara Berbers, as noted by Herodotus. The trade was fairly small until
the camel was introduced, with Mediterranean goods being found in pits as
far south as Northern Nigeria. A profitable trade had developed by which
West Africans exported gold, cotton cloth, metal ornaments, and leather goods
north across the trans-Saharan trade routes, in exchange for copper, horses,
salt, textiles, and beads. Later, ivory, slaves, and kola nuts were added to the
trade.

Empires
The development of the region's economy allowed more centralized states to
form, one of the first being the Ghana Empire. The empire was founded in the
8th century by Soninke, a Mandé peoples who lived at the crossroads of this
new trade, around the city of Kumbi Saleh. After 800, the empire expanded
rapidly, coming to dominate the entire western Sudan; at its height, the
empire could field an army of 200,000 soldiers. In the tenth century, however,
Islam was steadily growing in the region, and due to various influences,
including internal dynastic struggles coupled with competing foreign interests
(namely Almoravid intervention) lead to its demise in the late 11th century.
The first successor to the Ghana Empire was that of the Sosso, a Takrur
people who built their empire on the ruins of the old. Despite initial successes,
however, the Sosso king Soumaoro Kanté was defeated by the Mandinka
prince Sundiata Keita at the Battle of Kirina in 1240, toppling the Sosso and
guaranteeing the supremacy of Sundiata's new Mali Empire.
Under Sundiata's successors, most notably his son Wali Keita (r. c. 1255–
1270) and his grand-nephew Kankou Musa I (r. c. 1312–1337), the Mali
Empire continued to expand, eventually creating a centralized state including
most of West Africa. Trade flourished, while Kankou Musa I founded a
university at Timbuktu and instituted a program of free health care and
education for Malian citizens with the help of doctors and scholars brought
back from his legendary hajj.
Kankou Musa's successors, however, weakened the empire significantly,
leading the city-state of Gao to make a bid for independence and regional
power in the 15th century. Under the leadership of Sunni Ali (r. 1464–1492),
the Songhai of Gao formed the Songhai Empire, which would fill the vacuum
left by the Mali Empire's collapse. By the end of the century, the Songhai
Empire was the dominant force in the region, and through the leadership of
Askia Mohammad (c. 1442–1538), underwent a revival in trade, education,
and Islamic religion. A civil war over succession greatly weakened the empire,
however, leading to a 1591 invasion by Moroccan Sultan Ahmed el-Mansour
that sacked Gao and crippled the empire.
Meanwhile, south of the Sudan, strong city states arose in Kingdom of Nri, Ife,
Bono, and Benin around the fourth and fifth centuries. Further east, Oyo arose
as the dominant Yoruba state and the Aro Confederacy around the 18th and
19th centuries in the far east in modern-day Nigeria.
Jihad and colonization
Following the collapse of the Songhai Empire, a number of smaller states
arose across West Africa, including the Bambara Empire of Ségou, the lesser
Bambara kingdom of Kaarta, the Peul/Malinké kingdom of Khasso (in present-
day Mali's Kayes Region), and the Kénédougou Empire of Sikasso.
European traders first became a force in the region in the 15th century, with
the 1445 establishment of a Portuguese trading post at Arguin Island, off the
coast of present-day Senegal; by 1475, Portuguese traders had reached as far
as the Bight of Benin. The African slave trade began almost immediately after,
with the Portuguese taking hundreds of captives back to their country for use
as slaves; however, it would not begin on a grand scale until Christopher
Columbus's voyage to the Americas and the subsequent demand for cheap
colonial labor. In 1510, the Spanish crown legalized the African slave trade,
followed by the English in 1562. By 1650 the slave trade was in full force at a
number of sites along the coast of West Africa, and over the coming centuries
would result in severely reduced growth for the region's population and
economy. The expanding Atlantic slave trade produced significant populations
of West Africans living in the New World, recently colonized by Europeans.
The oldest known remains of African slaves in the Americas were found in
Mexico in early 2006; they are thought to date from the late 16th century and
the mid-17th century.379
As the demand for slaves rose, African rulers sought to supply the demand by
constant war against their neighbors, resulting in fresh captives. States such
as Dahomey (in modern-day Benin) and the Bambara Empire based much of
their economy on the exchange of slaves for European goods, particularly
firearms that they then employed to capture more slaves. European and
American governments passed legislation prohibiting the Atlantic slave trade
in the 19th century, though slavery in the Americas persisted in some capacity
through the century in the Americas; the last country to abolish the institution
was Brazil in 1888. Descendants of West Africans make up large and
important segments of the population in Brazil, the Caribbean, the United
States, and throughout the New World.
In 1725, the cattle-herding Fulanis of Fouta Djallon launched the first major
reformist jihad of the region, overthrowing the local animist, Mande-speaking
elites and attempting to somewhat democratize their society. A similar
movement occurred on a much broader scale in the Hausa city-states of
Nigeria under Uthman dan Fodio; an imam influenced by the teachings of Sidi
Ahmed al-Tidjani, Uthman preached against the elitist Islam of the then-
dominant Qadiriyyah brotherhood, winning a broad base of support amongst
the common people. Uthman's Fulani Empire was soon one of the region's
largest states, and inspired the later jihads of Massina Empire founder Seku
Amadu in present-day Mali, and the cross-Sudan Toucouleur conqueror El
Hadj Umar Tall.

379"Skeletons Discovered: First African Slaves in New World" . 31 January 2006.

LiveScience.com. Accessed 27 September 2006.
At the same time, the Europeans started to travel into the interior of Africa to
trade and explore. Mungo Park (1771–1806) made the first serious expedition
into the region's interior, tracing the Niger as far as Timbuktu. French armies
followed not long after. In the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s the Europeans
started to colonize the inland of West Africa, they had previously mostly
controlled trading ports along the coasts and rivers. Samory Ture's newly-
founded Wassoulou Empire was the last to fall, and with his capture in 1898,
military resistance to French colonial rule effectively ended.

Colonialism
Though the British had long occupied the coasts of its future colonies, Sierra
Leone only became an official British Protectorate in 1896, The Gambia in
1889, Nigeria in 1901, and Ghana in 1902 following the subdual of the Ashanti
leader Yaa Asantewaa. Portugal claimed Guinea-Bissau, while Togoland
(modern-day Togo) became a German colony in 1884. Liberia managed to
retain its independence despite extensive territorial losses. Modern-day
Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger were consolidated into
the federation of French West Africa.
Though it shared in the horrors of the pre-colonial slave trade, West Africa
was in many ways better managed than other African regions of the colonial
era, enjoying small measures of self-rule in many areas. However, French and
British rule still discouraged the development of local industry, preferring to
force the exchange of raw materials for European finished goods. A number of
taxation measures were instituted, causing many difficulties for areas whose
economies were structured on subsistence agriculture. Both France and
Britain recruited troops from its colonies for World War I and World War II; at
the end of the former, the German Togoland was partitioned evenly between
France and Britain by the League of Nations.

Postcolonial West Africa

Following World War II, protests against European rule sprung up across
West Africa, most notably in Ghana under the Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah
(1909–1972). Ghana became the first country of sub-Saharan Africa to achieve
independence in 1957, with others soon to follow. After a decade of protests,
riots and clashes, French West Africa voted for autonomy in a 1958
referendum, dividing into the states of today; the British colonies gained
autonomy the following decade. In 1973, Guinea-Bissau proclaimed its
independence from Portugal, and was internationally recognized following the
1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal.
Since independence, West Africa has suffered from the same problems as
much of the African continent, particularly dictatorships, political corruption
and military coups. At the time of his death in 2005, for example, Togo's
Étienne Eyadéma was among the world's longest-serving dictators. Inter-
country conflicts have been few, with Mali and Burkina Faso's nearly
bloodless Agacher Strip War being a rare exception. The region has, however,
seen a number of bloody civil wars, including the Nigerian Civil War (1967–
1970), two civil wars in Liberia in 1989 and 1999, a decade of fighting in
Sierra Leone from 1991–2002, a Tuareg Rebellion in Niger and Mali in the
early 1990s, and an ongoing conflict in Côte d'Ivoire that began in 2002.
In the 1990s, AIDS became a significant problem for the region, particularly in
Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Nigeria.
Famine has been an occasional but serious problem in northern Mali and
Niger, particularly during the Sahel drought of the 1970s and 80s. Niger is
currently undergoing another food crisis that could develop into another
major famine.

See also
•History of Africa
•History of Benin
•History of Burkina Faso
•History of Côte d'Ivoire
•History of the Gambia
•History of Ghana
•History of Guinea
•History of Guinea-Bissau
•History of Liberia
•History of Mali
•History of Niger
•History of Nigeria
•History of Senegal
•History of Sierra Leone
•History of Songhai
•History of Togo

References
•Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN
0-684-82667-4
•Avelino Teixeira da Mota, Paul E.H. Hair, Jesuit Documents, 1989
•Paul E.H. Hair (Ed.), Francisco de Lemos Coelho, Description of the Coast of
Guinea (1684), 1985

External links
•Timeline of Western Sudan

History of Central Africa

The history of Africa begins with the first emergence of Homo sapiens in
East Africa, continuing into the present as a patchwork of diverse and
politically developing nation states.
The history of Africa has been a challenge for researchers in the field of
African studies due to the scarcity of written sources in large parts of Sub-
Saharan Africa. Scholarly techniques such as the recording of oral history,
historical linguistics, archaeology and genetics have been crucial.

Prehistory

Paleolithic
According to paleontology, early hominids' skull anatomy was similar to their
close cousins, the great African forest apes, the gorilla and chimpanzee, but
the hominids had adopted a bipedal locomotion and freed their hands. This
gave them a crucial advantage, enabling them to live in both forested areas
and on the open savanna at a time when Africa was drying up and the savanna
was encroaching on forested areas. This occurred 10 to 5 million years ago.380
By 3 million years ago, several australopithecine (southern ape) hominid
species had developed throughout southern, eastern and central Africa. They
were tool users, not makers of tools. They scavenged for meat and were
omnivores.381
By approximately 2.3 million years ago, primitive stone tools were first used to
scavenge kills made by other predators and to harvest carrion and marrow for
their bones. In hunting, Homo habilis was probably not capable of competing
with large predators, and was still more prey than hunter. H. habilis probably
did steal eggs from nests, and may have been able to catch small game, and
weakened larger prey (cubs and older animals). The tools were classed as
Oldowan.382

380Shillington, Kevin (2005), History of Africa, p. 2. Rev. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-59957-8.
381Shillington (2005), p. 2.
382
Around 1.8 million years ago Homo ergaster first appeared in the fossil record
in Africa. From Homo ergaster, Homo erectus (upright man) evolved 1.5
million years ago. Some of the earlier representatives of this species were still
fairly small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like H. habilis. The
brain later grew in size, and H. erectus eventually developed a more complex
stone tool technology called the Acheulean. Possibly the first hunters, H.
erectus mastered the art of making fire, and was the first hominid to leave
Africa, colonizing most of the Old World, and perhaps later giving rise to
Homo floresiensis. Although some recent writers suggest that Homo
georgicus was the first and most primitive hominid to ever live outside Africa,
many scientists consider H. georgicus to be an early and primitive member of
the H. erectus species.383384
The fossil record shows Homo sapiens living in southern and eastern Africa at
least 100,000 and possibly 150,000 years ago. Around 40,000 years ago, the
species' expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by
modern human beings. By 10,000 BCE, Homo sapiens has spread to all
corners of the world. Their migration is traced by linguistic, cultural and
(increasingly) computer-analyzed genetic evidence.385386387

383Shillington (2005), p. 3.
384Ehret, Christopher (2002), The Civilizations of Africa, p. 22. Charlottesville: University of
Virginia. ISBN 0-8139-2085-X.
385
386The genetic studies by Luca Cavalli-Sforza are considered pioneering in tracing the spread
of modern humans from Africa.
387Sarah A. Tishkoff,* Floyd A. Reed, Françoise R. Friedlaender, Christopher Ehret, Alessia
Ranciaro, Alain Froment, Jibril B. Hirbo, Agnes A. Awomoyi, Jean-Marie Bodo, Ogobara
Doumbo, Muntaser Ibrahim, Abdalla T. Juma, Maritha J. Kotze, Godfrey Lema, Jason H.
Moore, Holly Mortensen, Thomas B. Nyambo, Sabah A. Omar, Kweli Powell, Gideon S.
Pretorius, Michael W. Smith, Mahamadou A. Thera, Charles Wambebe, James L. Weber, Scott
M. Williams. The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. Published
30 April 2009 on Science Express.
Emergence of agriculture
Around 16,000 BCE, from the Red Sea hills to the northern Ethiopian
highlands, nuts, grasses and tubers were being collected for food. By 13,000-
11,000 BCE, people began collecting wild grains. This spread to southwest
Asia, which domesticated its wild grains, wheat and barley. Between 10,000
and 8,000 BCE, northeast Africa was cultivating wheat and barley and raising
sheep and cattle from southwest Asia. A wet climatic phase in Africa turned
the Ethiopian highlands into a mountain forest. Omotic speakers domesticated
enset around 6500-5500 BCE. Around 7000 BCE, the settlers of the Ethiopian
highlands domesticated donkeys, and by 4000 BCE domesticated donkeys had
spread to southwest Asia. Cushitic speakers, partially turning away from
cattle herding, domesticated teff and finger millet between 5500 and 3500
BCE.388389
In the steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel, the Nilo-Saharan
speakers started to collect and domesticate wild millet and sorghum between
8000 and 6000 BCE. Later, gourds, watermelons, castor beans, and cotton
were also collected and domesticated. The people started capturing wild
cattle and holding them in circular thorn hedges, resulting in domestication.390
They also started making pottery. Fishing, using bone tipped harpoons,
became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the
increased rains.
In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in expanding rainforest and wooded
savannah from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9000 and 5000 BCE, Niger-
Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Two seed plants,
black-eyed peas and voandzeia(African groundnuts) were domesticated,
followed by okra and kola nuts. Since most of the plants grew in the forest,
the Niger-Congo speakers invented polish stone axes for clearing forest.391
Most of Southern Africa was occupied by pygmy peoples and Khoisan who
engaged in hunting and gathering. Some of the oldest rock art was produced
by them.392
Just prior to Saharan desertification, the communities that developed south of
Egypt, in what is now modern day Sudan, were full participants in the
Neolithic revolution and lived a settled to semi-nomadic lifestyle, with
domesticated plants and animals.393 It has been suggested that megaliths
found at Nabta Playa are examples of the world's first known
archaeoastronomical devices, predating Stonehenge by some 1000 years.[4]
The sociocultural complexity observed at Nabta Playa and expressed by
different levels of authority within the society there has been suggested as
forming the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and
the Old Kingdom of Egypt.394

388Diamond, Jared (1997), Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, pp. 126-
127. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-03891-2.
389Ehret (2002), pp. 64-75, 80-81, 87-88.
390Ehret (2002), pp. 64-75.
391Ehret (2002), pp. 82-84.
392Ehret (2002), pp. 94, 95.
393Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith
394Late Neolithic megalithic structures at Nabta Playa - Wendorf (1998)
By 5000 BCE, Africa entered a dry phase, and the climate of the Sahara region
gradually became drier. The population trekked out of the Sahara region in all
directions, including towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract,
where they made permanent or semipermanent settlements. A major climatic
recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in central and
eastern Africa. Since then, dry conditions have prevailed in eastern Africa.

Metallurgy
The first metals to be smelted in Africa were lead, copper, and bronze in the
fourth millennium BCE.395 Smelting of copper and its alloy arose in northern
Africa, from southwest Asia ro the Aïr Mountains north of Nigeria. Copper was
already being smelted in Egypt during the predynastic period, and bronze
came into use not long after 3000 BCE at the latest396 in Egypt and Nubia.
Nubia was a major source of copper, as well as gold.397 The use of gold and
silver in Egypt also dates back to the predynastic period.398399
In the region of the Aïr Mountains in Niger, copper was being smelted
independently of developments in the Nile valley between 3000 and 2500
BCE. The process used was not well developed, indicating that it was not
brought from outside the region; it became more mature by about the 1500
BCE.400
By the 1st millennium BCE, iron-working had been introduced in northwestern
Africa, Egypt, and Nubia.401 In 670 BCE, Nubians were pushed out of Egypt by
Assyrians using iron weapons, after which the use of iron in the Nile valley
became widespread.
The notion of iron spreading to Sub-Saharan Africa via the Nubian city of
Meroe is no longer widely accepted. Metalworking in West Africa has been
dated as early as 2500 BCE at Egaro west of Termit in Niger, and iron-
working was practiced there by 1500 BCE.402
In addition, iron smelting was developed in the area between Lake Chad and
the African Great Lakes between 1000 and 600 BCE, long before it reached
Egypt. Before 500 BCE, Nok culture in the Jos Plateau was already smelting
iron.403404

Antiquity

395Nicholson, Paul T, and Ian Shaw (2000), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, p.
168. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45257-1.
396Nicholson and Shaw (2000), pp. 149–160
397http://wysinger.homestead.com/nubians.html
398Nicholson and Shaw (2000), pp. 161–165, 170.
399Ehret (2002), pp. 136-137.
400Ehret (2002), pp. 136, 137.
401Martin and O'Meara. "Africa, 3rd Ed." Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995.
402Iron in Africa: Revising the History, UNESCO Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en
Afrique, Une ancienneté méconnue: Afrique de l'Ouest et Afrique centrale.
403Shillington (2005), pp. 37-39.
404O'Brien, Patrick Karl (2002), Atlas of World History, pp. 22-23. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0-19-521921-X.
Egypt
After the desertification of the Sahara, settlement became concentrated in the
Nile Valley, where numerous sacral chiefdoms appeared. The regions with the
largest population pressure were in the delta region of lower Egypt, in upper
Egypt, and also along the second and third cataracts of the Dongola reach of
the Nile in Nubia. This population pressure and growth was brought about by
the cultivation of southwest Asian crops, including wheat and barley, and the
raising of sheep, goats, and cattle. Population growth led to competition for
farm land and the need to regulate farming. Regulation was established by the
formation of bureaucracies among sacral chiefdoms. The first and most
powerful of the chiefdoms was Ta-Seti, founded around 3500 BCE. The idea of
sacral chiefdom spread throughout upper and lower Egypt.405
Later consolidation of the chiefdoms into broader political entities began to
occur in upper and lower Egypt, culminating into the unification of Egypt into
one political entity by Narmer (Menes) in 3100 BCE. Instead being viewed as
a sacral chief, he became a divine king. The henotheism, or worship of a single
god within a polytheistic system, practiced in the sacral chiefdoms along
upper and lower Egypt, became the polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt.
Bureaucracies became more centralized under the pharaohs, run by viziers,
governors, tax collectors, generals, artists, and technicians. They engaged in
tax collecting, organizing of labor for major public works, and building
irrigation systems, pyramids, temples, and canals. During the Fourth Dynasty
(2620-2480 BCE), long distance trade was developed, with the Levant for
timber, with Nubia for gold and skins, with Punt for frankincense, and also
with the western Libyan territories. For most of the Old Kingdom, Egypt
developed her fundamental systems, institutions and culture, always through
the central bureaucracy and by the divinity of the Pharaoh.406
After the third millennium BCE, Egypt started to extend direct military and
political control over her southern and western neighbors. By 2200 BCE, the
Old Kingdom's stability was undermined by rivalry among the governors of the
nomes who challenged the power of pharaohs and by invasions of Asiatics into
the delta. The First Intermediate Period had begun, a time of political division
and uncertainty.407

405Ehret (2002), pp. 143-46.

406Davidson, Basil (1991), Africa In History: Themse and Outlines, pp. 30-33. Revised and
expanded ed. New York: Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-82667-4
407
By 2130, the period of stagnation was endedby Mentuhotep, the first Pharaoh
of the 11th dynasty, and the emergence of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramid
building resumed, long-distance trade re-emerged, and the center of power
moved from Memphis to Thebes. Connections with the southern regions of
Kush, Wawat and Irthet at the second cataract were made stronger. Then
came the Second Intermediate Period, with the invasion of the Hyksos on
horse-drawn chariots and utilizing bronze weapons, a technology not yet seen
in Egypt. Horse-drawn chariots soon spread to the west in the inhabitable
Sahara and North Africa. The Hyksos failed to hold on to their Egyptian
territories and were absorbed by Egyptian society. This eventually led to one
of Egypt's most powerful phases, the New Kingdom (1580-1080 BCE), with the
Eighteenth Dynasty. Egypt became a superpower controlling Nubia and
Palestine while exerting political influence on the Libyans to the West and on
the Mediterranean.408
As before, the New Kingdom ended with invasion from the west by Libyan
princes, leading to the Third Intermediate Period. Beginning with Shoshenq I,
the Twenty-second Dynasty was established. It ruled for two centuries.409
To the south, Nubian independence and strength was being reasserted. This
reassertion led to the conquest of Egypt by Nubia, begun by Kashta and
completed by Piye (Pianhky, 751-730 BCE) and Shabaka (716-695 BCE). This
was the birth of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The Nubians tried to re-
establish Egyptian traditions and customs. They ruled Egypt for a hundred
years. This was ended by an Assyrian invasion, with Taharqa experiencing the
full might of Assyrian iron weapons. The Nubian pharaoh Tantamani was the
last of the Twenty Fifth Dynasty.410
When the Assyrians and Nubians left, a new Twenty-sixth Dynasty emerged
from Sais. It lasted until 525 BCE, when Egypt was invaded by the Persians.
Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians stayed. In 332, Egypt was conquered by
Alexander of Macedon. This was the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
which ended with Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Pharaonic Egypt had come to
an end.411

Nubia
Around 3500 BCE, one of the first sacral kingdoms to arise in the Nile was Ta-
Seti, located in northern Nubia. Ta-Seti was a powerful sacral kingdom in the
Nile Valley at the 1st and 2nd cataracts that exerted an influence over nearby
chiefdoms. Based on its pictorial representation, it claimed to have ruled over
Upper Egypt. Ta-Seti traded as far as Syro-Palestine, as well as with Egypt.
Ta-Seti exported gold, copper, ostrich feathers, ebony and ivory to the Old
Kingdom. By the 32nd century BCE, Ta-Seti was in decline. After the
unification of Egypt by Narmer in 3100 BCE, Ta-Seti was invaded by the
Pharaoh Hor-Aha of the First Dynasty, destroying the final remnants of the
kingdom. Ta-Seti is affiliated with A-Group culture known to archaeology.412

408
409
410
411
412Ehret (2002), pp. 144, 145.
Small sacral kingdoms continued to dot the Nubian portion of the Nile for
centuries after 3000 BCE. Around the latter part of the third millennium,
there was further consolidation of the sacral kingdoms. Two kingdoms in
particular emerged: the Sai kingdom, immediately south of Egypt, and
Kingdom of Kerma at the third cataract. Sometime around the 18th century
BCE, the Kingdom of Kerma conquered the Kingdom of Sai, becoming a
serious rival to Egypt. Kerma occupied a territory from the first cataract to
the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and River Atbara. About 1575-
1550 BCE, during the later part of the Seventeenth Dynasty, the Kingdom of
Kerma invaded Egypt.413 The Kingdom of Kerma also allied itself with the
Hyksos invasion of Egypt.414
Egypt eventually re-energized under the Eigthteenth Dynasty and conquered
the Kingdom of Kerma or Kush, ruling it for almost 500 years. The Kushites
were Egyptianized during this period. By 1100 BCE, the Egyptians had
withdrawn from Kush. The region regained independence and reasserted its
culture. Kush built a new religion around Amun and made Napata its spiritual
center. In 730 BCE, the Kingdom of Kush invaded Egypt, taking over Thebes
and beginning the Nubian Empire. The empire extended from Palestine to the
confluences of the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and River Atbara.415
In 760 BCE, the Kushites were expelled from Egypt by iron-wielding
Assyrians. Later, the administrative capital was moved from Napata to Meröe,
developing into a new Nubian culture. Initially Meroites were highly
Egyptianized, but they subsequently began to take on distinctive features.
Nubia became a center of iron-making and cotton cloth manufacturing.
Egyptian writing was replaced by the Meroitic alphabet. The lion god
Apedemak was added to the Egyptian pantheon of gods. Trade links to the
Red Sea increased, linking Nubia with Mediterranean Greece and Rome. Its
architecture and art became more unique, with pictures of lions, ostriches,
giraffes, and elephants. Eventually with the rise of Aksum, Nubia's trade links
were broken and it suffered environmental degradation from the tree cutting
required for iron production. In 350 CE, the Aksumite king Ezana brought
Meröe to an end.416

413Alberge, Dalya. Tomb Reveals Ancient Egypt's Humiliating Secret, The Times{London},
28 July 2003(Monday).
414Ehret (2002), pp. 148-151.
415Shillington (2005), pp. 40-41.
416Shillington (2005), pp. 42-45.
Carthage
The Egyptians referred to the people west of the Nile, ancestral to the
Berbers, as Libyans. The Libyans were agriculturalists like the Mauri of
Morocco and the Numidians of central and eastern Algeria and Tunis. They
were also nomadic, having the horse, and occupied the arid pastures and
desert, like the Gaetuli. Berber desert nomads were typically in conflict with
Berber coastal agriculturalists.417 The Phoenicians were seamen of the
Mediterranean. They were in constant search for valuable metals like copper,
gold, tin, and lead. Soon they began to populate the North African coast with
settlements, trading and mixing with the native Berber population. In 814
BCE, Phoenicians from Tyre established the city of Carthage. By 600 BCE,
Carthage had become a major trading entity and power in the Mediterranean,
largely due to trade with tropical Africa. Carthage's prosperity fostered the
growth of the Berber kingdoms, Numidia and Mauretania. Around 500 BCE,
Carthage provided a strong impetus for trade with sub-Saharan Africa. Berber
middlemen, who had maintained contacts with sub-Saharan Africa since the
desert had desiccated, utilized pack animals to transfer products from oasis to
oasis. Danger lurked from the Garamantes of Fez, who raided caravans. Salt
and metal goods were traded for gold, slaves, beads, and ivory.418
The Carthaginians were rivals to the Greeks and Romans. Carthage fought
three wars with Rome: the First Punic War (264 to 241 BCE), over Sicily; the
Second Punic War (218 BC to 201 BCE), in which Hannibal invaded Europe;
and the Third Punic War (149 B.C to 146 BCE). Carthage lost the first two
wars, and in the third it was destroyed, becoming the Roman province of
Africa, with the Berber Kingdom of Numidia assisting Rome. The Roman
province of Africa became a major agricultural supplier of wheat, olives, and
olive oil to imperial Rome via exorbitant taxation. Two centuries later, Rome
brought the Berber kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania under its authority.
In the 420s CE, Vandals invaded North Africa and Rome lost her territories.
The Berber kingdoms subsequently regained their independence.419
Christianity gained a foothold in Africa at Alexandria in the 1st century CE
and spread to northwest Africa. By 313 CE, with the Edict of Milan, all of
Roman North Africa was Christian. Egyptians adopted Monophysite
Christianity and formed the independent Coptic Church. Berbers adopted
Donatist Christianity. Both groups refused to accept the authority of the
Roman Church. In 642 CE, Arab Muslims conquered Byzantine Egypt, and by
711 CE they had conquered all of North Africa. By the 10th century, the
majority of population of North Africa was Muslim.420

417Iliffe, John (2007), Africans: The History of a Continent, p. 30. 2nd ed. New
York:Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68297-8.
418Shillington (2005), pp. 63-65.
419Shillington (2005), pp. 65.
420Shillington (2005), pp. 65-67, 72-75.
Somalia
In antiquity, the ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the
Horn of Africa connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the ancient
world. Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense,
myrrh and spices, all of which were valuable luxuries to the Ancient
Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians.421422
In the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone,
Mosyllon and Malao competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for
the rich Indo-Greco-Roman trade.423
The birth of Islam opposite Somalia's Red Sea coast meant that Somali
merchants and sailors living on the Arabian Peninsula gradually came under
the influence of the new religion through their converted Arab Muslim trading
partners. With the migration of Muslim families from the Islamic world to
Somalia in the early centuries of Islam, and the peaceful conversion of the
Somali population by Somali Muslim scholars in the following centuries, the
ancient city-states eventually transformed into Islamic Mogadishu, Berbera,
Zeila, Barawa and Merka, which were part of the Berber (the medieval Arab
term for the ancestors of the modern Somalis) civilization.424425 The city of
Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islam,426 and controlled the East
African gold trade for several centuries.427

Aksum
Aksumite Empire

421Phoenicia, pg. 199.

422Rose, Jeanne, and John Hulburd, The Aromatherapy Book, p. 94.
423Vine, Peter, Oman in History, p. 324.
424
425I.M. Lewis, A modern history of Somalia: nation and state in the Horn of Africa, 2nd
edition, revised, illustrated, (Westview Press: 1988), p.20
426Brons, Maria (2003), Society, Security, Sovereignty and the State in Somalia: From
Statelessness to Statelessness?, p. 116.
427Morgan, W. T. W. (1969), East Africa: Its Peoples and Resources, p. 18.
The earliest state in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia was D'mt, dated around the
eighth and 7th centuries BCE. D'mt traded through the Red Sea with Egypt
and the Mediterranean, providing frankincense. By the fifth and 3rd centuries,
D'mt had declined, and several successor states took its place. Later there
was greater trade with southern Arabia, mainly with the port of Saba. Adulis
became an important commercial center in the Ethiopian highlands. The
interaction of the peoples in the two regions, the southern Arabia Sabaeans
and the northern Ethiopians, resulted in the Ge'ez culture and language and
eventual development of the Ge'ez script. Trade links increased and expanded
from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, with Egypt, Greece, and Rome, to the
Black Sea, and to Persia, India, and China. Aksum was known throughout
those lands. By the 5th century BCE, the region was very prosperous,
exporting ivory, hippopotamus hides, gold dust, spices, and live elephants. It
imported silver, gold, olive oil, and wine. Aksum manufactured glass crystal,
brass, and copper for export. A powerful Aksum emerged, unifying parts of
eastern Sudan, northern Ethiopia (Tigre), and Eritrea. Its kings built stone
palatial buildings and were buried under megalithic monuments. By 300 CE,
Aksum was minting its own coins in silver and gold.428
In 331 CE, King Ezana(320-350 CE) was converted to Monophysite
Christianity supposedly by Frumentius and Aedesius, who were stranded on
the Red Sea coast. Some scholars believed the process was more complex and
gradual than a simple conversion. Around 350, the time Ezana sacked Meroe,
the Syrian monastic tradition took root within the Ethiopian church. 429
In the 6th century, Aksum was powerful enough to add Saba on the Arabian
peninsula to her empire. At the end of the 6th century, the Persians pushed
Aksum out of peninsula. With the spread of Islam through western Asia and
northern Africa, Aksum's trading networks in the Mediterranean were closed.
The Red Sea trade diminished as it was diverted to the Persian Gulf and
dominated by Arabs, causing Aksum to decline. By 800 CE, the capital was
moved south, into the interior highlands, and Aksum was much diminished. 430

West Africa and Bantu Expansion

In the western Sahel, the rise of settled communities was largely due to the
domestication of millet and sorghum. Archaeology points to sizable urban
populations in West Africa beginning in the 2nd millenium BCE. Symbiotic
trade relations developed before the trans-Saharan trade, in response to the
opportunities afforded by north-south diversity in ecosystems across deserts,
grasslands, and forests. The salt-starved agriculturists received salt from the
desert nomads. The protein-starved desert nomads acquired meat and other
foods from pastoralists and farmers of the grasslands and from fishermen on
the Niger River. The forest dwellers provided furs and meat.431

428Collins, Robert O., and James M. Burns (2007), A History of Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 66-71.
New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68708-9.
429Iliffe (2007), p. 41.
430Shillington (2005), pp. 66-71.
431Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 79-80.
Tichit(Dhar Tichitt) was prominent among the early urban centers, dated to
2000 BCE, in present day Mauritania. About 500 hundred stone settlements
litter the region in what was once a rainier Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and
grew millet. Around 300 BCE, the region became more desiccated and the
settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. From
the type of architecture and pottery, it is believed that Tichit was related to
the subsequent Ghana Empire. Old Jenne (Djenne) began to be settled around
300 BCE, producing iron and with sizable population, evidenced in crowded
cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BCE, Jenne
was a large, thriving market town.432433
Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1000 BCE, the Nok culture
developed on the Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok
people produced miniature lifelike representations in terracotta, including
human heads, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BCE, they were smelting
iron. By 200 CE, the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities
with Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of Ife and Benin are believed to be
continuation of the tradition.434
The Bantu expansion was a critical movement of people in African history and
the settling of the continent. Bantu is a branch of the Niger-Congo family.
"Bantu" comes from the root word ntu, which means people. The expansion
began in the second millennium BCE, from Cameroon. Its first thrust was
eastward to the Great Lakes region in the second millennium BCE. In the first
millennium BCE, Bantu languages spread from the Great Lakes to southern
and east Africa. An early expansion was south to the upper Zambezi valley in
the 2nd century BCE. Then, Bantu speakers pushed westward to the
savannahs of present-day Angola and eastward into Malawi, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe in the 1st century CE. The second thrust from the Great Lakes was
eastward, 2,000 years ago, expanding to the Indian Ocean coast and Tanzania.
The eastern group eventually met the southern migrants from the Great Lakes
in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Both groups continued southward, with
eastern group continuing to Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd
century CE, and rexpanding as far as Durban. By the later first millennium
CE, the expansion had reached the Great Kei River of South Africa. Sorghum,
a major Bantu crop, could not thrive under the regime of winter rainfall of
Namibia and the western Cape. Khoisan people inhabited the remaining parts
of southern Africa. The Bantu expansion was complex, gradual, and not simply
linear in detail.435

Medieval

North Africa

432Iliffe, John (2007). pp. 49,50

433Collins and Burns (2007), p. 78.
434Shillington, Kevin (2005), p. 39.
435Iliffe (2007), pp. 34, 35.
Maghreb (the West)
By the 9th century CE, the unity brought about by the Islamic conquest of
North Africa and the expansion of Islamic culture came to an end. Conflict
arose as to who should be the successor of the prophet. The Umayyads had
initially taken control of the Caliphate, with their capital at Damascus. Later,
the Abbasids had taken control, moving the capital to Baghdad. The Berber
people, being independent in spirit and hostile to outside interference in their
affairs and to Arab exclusivity in orthodox Islam, adopted Shi'ite and Kharijite
Islam, both considered unorthodox and hostile to the authority of the Abbasid
Caliphate. Numerous Kharijite kingdoms came and fell during the eighth and
9th centuries, asserting their independence from Baghdad. In the early 10th
century, Shi'ite groups from Syria, claiming descent from Muhammad's
daughter Fatima, founded the Fatimid Dynasty in the Maghreb. By 950, they
had conquered all of the Maghreb, and by 969 all of Egypt. They had
immediately broken away from Baghdad.436
In an attempt to bring about a purer form of Islam among the Sanhaja
Berbers, Abdallah ibn Yasin founded the Almoravid movement in present-day
Mauritania and Western Sahara. The Sanhaja Berbers, like the Soninke,
practiced an indigenous religion along side Islam. Abdallah ibn Yasin found
ready converts in the Lamtuna Sanhaja, who were dominated by the Soninke
in the south and the Zenata Berbers in the north. By the 1040s, all of the
Lamtuna was converted to the Almoravid movement. With the help of Yahya
ibn Umar and his brother Abu Bakr ibn Umar, the sons of the Lamtuna chief,
the Almoravids created an empire extending from the Sahel to the
Mediterranean. After the death of Abdallah ibn Yassin and Yahya ibn Umar,
Abu Bakr split the empire in half, between himself and Yusuf ibn Tashfin,
because it was too big to be ruled by one individual. Abu Bakr took the south
to continue fighting the Soninke, and Yusuf ibn Tashfin took the north,
expanding it to southern Spain. The death of Abu Bakr in 1087 saw a
breakdown of unity and increase military dissension in the south. This caused
a re-expansion of the Soninke. The Almoravids were once held responsible for
bringing down the Ghana Empire in 1076, but this view is no longer
credited.437
During the tenth through 13th centuries, there was a large-scale movement of
bedouins out of the Arabian Peninsula. About 1050, a quarter of a million Arab
nomads from Egypt moved into the Maghreb. Those following the northern
coast were referred to as Banu Hilal. Those going south of the Atlas
Mountains were the Banu Sulaym. This movement spread the use of the
Arabic language and hastened the decline of the Berber language and the
Arabisation of North Africa. Later an Arabised Berber group, the Hawwara,
went south to Nubia via Egypt.438

436Shillington (2005), pp. 75, 76.

437Shillington, Kevin (2005). p 90.
438Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 156, 157
In the 1140s, Abd al-Mu'min declared jihad on the Almoravids, charging them
with decadence and corruption. He united the northern Berbers against the
Almoravids, overthrowing them and forming the Almohad Empire. During this
period, the Maghreb became thoroughly Islamised, and saw the spread of
literacy, the development of algebra, and the use of the number zero and
decimals. By the 13th century, the Almohad states had split into three rival
states. Muslim states were largely extinguished in Spain by the Christian
kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Around 1415, Portugal engaged in
a reconquista of North Africa by capturing Ceuta, and in later centuries Spain
and Portugal acquired other ports on the North African coast. In 1492, Spain
defeated Muslims in Granada, effectively ending eight centuries of Muslim
domination in southern Iberia.439
Portugal and Spain took the ports of Tangiers, Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis. This
put them in direct competition with the Ottoman Empire, which re-took the
ports using Turkish corsairs (pirates and privateers). The Turkish corsairs
would use the ports for raiding Christian ships, a major source of booty for the
towns. Technically, North Africa was under the control of the Ottoman
Empire, but only the coastal towns were fully under Istanbul's control. Tripoli
benefited from trade with Borno. The pashas of Tripoli traded horses,
firearms, and armor via Fez with the sultans of the Bornu Empire for slaves.440
In the 16th century, an Arab nomad tribe that claimed descent from
Muhammad's daughter, the Saadis, conquered and united Morocco. They
prevented the Ottoman Empire from reaching to the Atlantic and expelled
Portugal from Morocco's western coast. Ahmad al-Mansur brought the state to
the height of its power. He invaded Songhay in 1591, to control the gold
trade, which had been diverted to the western coast of Africa for European
ships and to the east, to Tunis. Morocco's hold on Songhay diminished in the
17th century. In 1603, after Ahmad's death, the kingdom split into the two
sultanates of Fes and Marrakesh. Later it was reunited by Moulay al-Rashid,
founder of the Alaouite Dynasty (1672–1727). His brother and successor,
Ismail ibn Sharif(1672–1727), strengthen the unity of the country by importing
slaves from the Sudan to build up the military.441

Egypt
Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate was prosperous. Dams and canals were
repaired, and wheat, barley, flax, and cotton production increased. Egypt
became a major producer of linen and cotton cloth. Its Mediterranean and Red
Sea trade increased. Egypt also minted a gold currency called the Fatimid
dinar, which was used for international trade. The bulk of revenues came from
taxing the fellahin (peasant farmers), and taxes were high. Tax collecting was
leased to Berber overlords, who were soldiers who had taken part in the
Fatimid conquest in 969 CE. The overlords paid a share to the caliphs and
retain what was left. Eventually, they became landlords and constituted a
settled land aristocracy.442

439Shillington (2005), pp. 88-92.

440Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 166,167
441Shillington (2005), pp. 167, 168.
442Shillington, Kevin (2005), p. 157.
To fill the military ranks, Mamluk Turkish slave cavalry and Sudanese slave
infantry were used. Berber freemen were also recruited. In 1150s, tax
revenues from farms diminished. The soldiers revolted and wreaked havoc in
the countryside, slowed trade, and diminished the power and authority of the
Fatimid caliphs.443
During the 1160s, Fatimid Egypt came under threat from European crusaders.
Out of this threat, a Kurdish general named Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb
(Saladin), with a small band of professional soldiers, emerged as an
outstanding Muslim defender. Saladin defeated the Christian crusaders at
Egypt's borders and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. On the death of the
Fatimid caliph in 1171, Saladin became the ruler of Egypt, ushering in the
Ayyubid Dynasty. Under his rule, Egypt returned to Sunni Islam, Cairo
became an important center of Arab Islamic learning, and Mamluk slaves
were increasingly recruited from Turkey and southern Russia for military
service. Support for the military was tied to the iqta, a form of land taxation in
which soldiers were given ownership in return for military service. 444
Over time, Mamluk slave soldiers became a very powerful landed aristocracy,
to the point of getting rid of the Ayyubid dynasty in 1250 and establishing a
Mamluk dynasty. The more powerful Mamluks were referred to as amirs. For
250 years, Mamluks controlled all of Egypt under a military dictatorship.
Egypt extended her territories to Syria and Palestine, thwarted the crusaders,
and halted a Mongol invasion in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut. Mamluk Egypt
came to be viewed as a protector of Islam, and of Medina and Mecca.
Eventually the iqta system declined and proved unreliable for providing an
adequate military. The Mamluks started viewing their iqta as hereditary and
became attuned to urban living. Farm production declined, and dams and
canal lapse into disrepair. Mamluk military skill and technology did not keep
pace with new technology of handguns and cannons.445
With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt was easily defeated. In 1517,
Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul revived the iqta system.
Trade was reestablished in the Red Sea, but it could not completely connect
with Indian Ocean trade due to growing Portuguese presence. During the 17th
century and 18th century, hereditary Mamluks regain power. The leading
Mamluks were referred to as beys. Pashas, or viceroys, represented the
Istanbul government in name only, operating independently. During the 18th
century, dynasties of pashas became established. The government was weak
and corrupt.446
In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt. The local forces had little ability to resist
the French conquest. However, Britain and the Ottoman Empire were able
remove French occupation in 1801. These events marked the beginning of
19th-century Anglo-Franco rivalry over Egypt.447

443Shillington (2005), p. 158.

444Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 158,159
445Shillington (2005), pp. 159-161.
446Shillington (2005), p. 161.
447Shillington (2005), p. 162.
Horn of Africa

Somalia
During this period, the sultanates and republics of Merca, Mogadishu,
Barawa, Hobyo and their respective ports flourished and had a lucrative
foreign commerce with ships sailing to and coming from Arabia, India,
Venice,448 Persia, Egypt, Portugal and as far away as China. Vasco da Gama,
who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city
with houses four or five storeys high and big palaces in its centre, in addition
to many mosques with cylindrical minarets.449
In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from the Kingdom
of Cambaya in modern-day India sailed to Mogadishu with cloth and spices,
for which they in return received gold, wax, and ivory. Barbosa also
highlighted the abundance of meat, wheat, barley, horses, and fruit in the
coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants. 450
Mogadishu, the center of a thriving weaving industry known as toob benadir
(specialized for the markets in Egypt and Syria),451 together with Merca and
Barawa, also served as a transit stop for Swahili merchants from Mombasa
and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa.452 Jewish merchants from the
Strait of Hormuz brought their Indian textiles and fruit to the Somali coast to
exchange for grain and wood.453
Trading relations were established with Malacca in the 15th century,454 with
cloth, ambergris, and porcelain being the main commodities of the trade.455
Giraffes, zebras, and incense were exported to the Ming Empire of China,
which established Somali merchants as leaders in the commerce between the
Asia and Africa456 and influenced the Chinese language with borrowings from
the Somali language in the process. Hindu merchants from Surat and
southeast African merchants from Pate, seeking to bypass both the
Portuguese blockade and Omani meddling, used the Somali ports of Merca
and Barawa (which were out of the two powers' jurisdiction) to conduct their
trade in safety and without interference.457

Ethiopia
The Zagwe dynasty ruled many parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea from
approximately 1137 to 1270. The name of the dynasty comes from the Cushitic
speaking Agaw people of northern Ethiopia. From 1270 AD on for many
centuries, Solomonic dynasty ruled the Ethiopian Empire.

448Journal of African History p. 50, by John Donnelly Fage and Roland Anthony Oliver.
449Da Gama's First Voyage p. 88.
450East Africa and its Invaders, p. 38.
451Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa pg.35
452The return of Cosmopolitan Capital:Globalization, the State and War, p. 22.
453The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century, by R. J. Barendse.
454Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, p. 30.
455Chinese Porcelain Marks from Coastal Sites in Kenya: aspects of trade in the Indian
Ocean, XIV-XIX centuries. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1978 p. 2.
456East Africa and its Invaders, p. 37.
457Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, p. 45.
In the early fifteenth century Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with
European kingdoms for the first time since Aksumite times. A letter from King
Henry IV of England to the Emperor of Abyssinia survives.458 In 1428, the
Emperor Yeshaq sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon, who sent return
emissaries who failed to complete the return trip. 459 The first continuous
relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal under
Emperor Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father.460
This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was
subjected to the attacks of the Adal General and Imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-
Ghazi (called "Grañ", or "the Left-handed"), Portugal assisted the Ethiopian
emperor by sending weapons and four hundred men, who helped his son
Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule.461 This Ethiopian–Adal
War was also one of the first proxy wars in the region as the Ottoman Empire
and Portugal took sides in the conflict. However, when Emperor Susenyos
converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest
followed resulting in thousands of deaths.462 The Jesuit missionaries had
offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on June 25, 1632,
Susenyos's son, Emperor Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be
Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and
other Europeans.463464

East Africa

Christian and Islamic Nubia

Christian Nubia and nile
After Ezana of Aksum sacked Meroe, people associated with the site of
Ballana moved into Nubia from the southwest and founded three kingdoms:
Makuria, Nobatia, and Alodia. They would rule for 200 years. Makuria was
above the third cataract, along the Dongola Reach with its capital at Dongola.
Nobadia was to the north with its capital at Faras, and Alodia was to the south
with its capital at Soba. Makuria would eventually absorb Nobadia. The people
of the region converted to Monophysite Christianity around 500 to 600 CE.
The church initially started writing in Coptic, then in Greek, and finally in Old
Nubian, a Nilo-Saharan language. The church was aligned with the Egyptian
Coptic Church.465466

458Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV (2007), p.111

459Girma Beshah and Merid Wolde Aregay, The Question of the Union of the Churches in
Luso-Ethiopian Relations (1500–1632) (Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar and Centro
de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1964), pp. 13–4.
460Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 25.
461Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 45–52.
462Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 91, 97–104.
463Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, p. 105.
464van Donzel, Emeri, "Fasilädäs" in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha
(Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), p. 500.
465Shillington (2005), p. 67
466Ehret (2002), p. 305.
By 641, Egypt was conquered by Muslim Arabs. This effectively blocked
Christian Nubia and Aksum from Mediterranean Christendom. In 651-652,
Arabs from Egypt invaded Christian Nubia. Nubian archers soundly defeated
the invaders. The Baqt (or Bakt) Treaty was drawn, recognizing Christian
Nubia and regulating trade. The treaty controlled relations between Christian
Nubia and Islamic Egypt for almost six hundred years.467
By the 13th century, Christian Nubia began its decline. The authority of the
monarchy was diminished by the church and nobility. Arab bedouin tribes
began to infiltrate Nubia, causing further havoc. Fakirs (holy men) practicing
Sufism introduced Islam into Nubia. By 1366, Nubia had become divided into
petty fiefdoms when she was invaded by Mamelukes. During the 15th century,
Nubia was open to Arab immigration. Arab nomads intermingled with the
population and introduced the Arabic culture and language. By the 16th
century, Makuria and Nobadia had been Islamized. During the 16th century,
Abdallah Jamma headed an Arab confederation that destroyed Soba, capital of
Alodia, the last holdout of Christian Nubian. Later Alodia would fall under the
Funj Sultanate.468
During the 15th century, Funj herders migrated north to Alodia and occupied
it. Between 1504 and 1505, the kingdom expanded, reaching its peak and
establishing its capital at Sennar under Badi II Abu Daqn (c. 1644-1680). By
end of the 16th century, the Funj had converted to Islam. They pushed their
empire westward to Kordofan. They expanded eastward, but were halted by
Ethiopia. They controlled Nubia down to the 3rd Cataract. The economy
depended on captured enemies to fill the army and on merchants travelling
through Sennar. Under Badi IV (1724–1762), the army turned on the king,
making him nothing but a figurehead. In 1821, the Funj were conquered by
Muhammad Ali (1805–1849), Pasha of Egypt.469470

467Collins and Burns (2007), p. 77.

468Collins and Burns 2007, p. 77.
469Page, Willie F.(2001). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture:From Conquest to
Colonization (1500-1850).New York:Learning Source Books, p. 88, ISBN 0-8160-4472-4.
470Lye, Keith(2002). Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilization. New York: The
Diagram Group, p. 189 ISBN 0-8160-4568-2.
Swahili Coast
Historically, the Swahili people could be found as far north as northern Kenya,
and as far south as the Ruvuma River in Mozambique. Arab geographers
referred to the Swahili coast as the land of the zanj (blacks).471 Although once
believed to be the descendants of Persian colonists, the ancient Swahili are
now recognized by most historians, historical linguists, and archaeologists as
a Bantu people who had sustained and important interactions with Muslim
merchants, beginning in the late seventh and early 8th centuries CE. Medieval
Swahili kingdoms are known to have had island trade ports, described by
Greek historians as "metropolises", and to have established regular trade
routes472 with the Islamic world and Asia.473 Famous African trade ports such
as Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Kilwa474 were known to Chinese sailors under
Zheng He and medieval Islamic geographers such as the Berber traveller Abu
Abdullah ibn Battuta.475 The main Swahili exports were ivory, slaves, and gold.
They traded with Arabia, India, Persia, and China.
The Portuguese arrived in 1498. On a mission to economically control and
Christianize the Swahili coast, the Portuguese attacked Kilwa first in 1505 and
other cities later. Due to Swahili resistance, the Portuguese attempt at
establishing commercial control was never successful. By the late 17th
century, Portuguese authority on the Swahili coast began to diminish. With
the help of Omani Arabs, by 1729 the Portuguese presence had been removed.
The Swahili coast eventually became part of the Sultinate of Oman. Trade
recovered, but it did not regain the levels of the past.476

Madagascar and Merina

Madagascar was apparently first settled by Austronesian speakers from
southeast Asia before the 6th century CE, and subsequently by Bantu
speakers from the east African mainland in the sixth or 7th century, according
to archaeological and linguistic data. The Austronesians introduced banana
and rice cultivation, and the Bantu speakers introduced cattle and other
farming practices. About 1000, Arab and Indian trade settlement were started
in northern Madagascar to exploit the Indian Ocean trade.477 By the 14th
century, Islam was introduced on the island by traders. Madagascar
functioned in the East African medieval period as a contact port for the other
Swahili seaport city-states such as Sofala, Kilwa, Mombasa, and Zanzibar.
Several kingdoms emerged after the 15th century: the Sakalava Kingdom
(16th century) on the west coast, Tsitambala Kingdom (17th century) on the
east coast, and Merina (15th century) in the central highlands. By the 19th
century, Merina controlled the whole island. In 1500, the Portuguese were the
first Europeans on the island, raiding the trading settlements.478

471Collins and Burns (2007), p. 103.

472Eastern and Southern Africa 500-1000 AD.
473Tanzanian dig unearths ancient secret by Tira Shubart .
474A History of Mozambique
475Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354.
476Page, Willie F.(2001). p. 263,264
477Shillington (2005), p. 135.
478
The British and later the French arrived. During the latter part of the 17th
century, Madagascar was a popular transit point for pirates. Radama I (1810–
1828) invited Christian missionaries in the early 19th century. Queen
Ranavalona I "the Cruel" (1828–61) banned the practice of Christianity in the
kingdom, and an estimated 150,000 Christians perished. Under Radama II
(1861–1863), Madagascar took a French orientation, with great commercial
concession given to the French. In 1895, in the second Franco-Hova War, the
French invaded Madagascar, taking over Antsiranana (Diego Suarez) and
declaring Madagascar a protectorate.479
Lake Plateau states & empires
Kitara and Bunyoro
By 1000 CE, numerous states had arisen on the Lake Plateau among the Great
Lakes of East Africa. Cattle herding, cereal growing, and banana cultivation
were the economic mainstays of these states. The Ntusi and Bigo earthworks
are representative of one of the first states, the Bunyoro kingdom, which oral
tradition stipulates was part of the Empire of Kitara that dominated the whole
lakes region. A Luo ethnic elite, from the Bito clan, ruled over the Bantu-
speaking Nyoro people. The society was essentially Nyoro in its culture, based
on the evidence from pottery, settlement patterns, and economic
specialization.480
The Bito clan claimed legitimacy by being descended from the Bachwezi clan,
who were said to have ruled the Empire of Kitara. However, very little is
known about Kitara; some scholars even question its historical existence. Most
founding leaders of the various polities in the lake region seem to have
claimed descent from the Bachwezi.481

Buganda
The Buganda kingdom was founded by the Ganda or Baganda people around
the 14th century CE. The ancestors of the Ganda may have migrated to the
northwest of Lake Victoria as early as 1000 BCE. Buganda was ruled by the
kabaka with a bataka composed of the clan heads. Over time, the kabakas
diluted the authority of the bataka, with Buganda becoming a centralized
monarchy. By the 16th century, Buganda was engaged in expansion, but
having a serious rival in Bunyoro. By the 1870s, Buganda was a wealthy
nation-state. The kabaka ruled with his kukiko (council of minister). Buganda
had a naval fleet of a hundred vessels, each manned by thirty men. Buganda
supplanted Bunyoro as the most important state in the region. However, by
the early 20th century, Buganda became a province of the British Uganda
Protectorate.482

479
480
481
482Lye, Keith(2002). p. 121,122.
Rwanda
Southeast of Bunyoro, near the Lake Kivu at the bottom of the western rift,
the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded, perhaps during the 17th century. Tutsi
(BaTutsi) pastoralist formed the elite, with a king called the mwami. The Hutu
(BaHutu) were farmers. Both groups spoke the same language, but there were
strict social norms against marrying each other and interaction. According to
oral tradition, the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded by Mwami Ruganzu II
(Ruganzu Ndori) (c. 1600-1624), with his capital near Kigali. It took 200 years
to see a truly centralized Rwanda Kingdom, under Mwami Kigeli IV (Kigeri
Rwabugiri) (1840–1895). Subjugation of the Hutu proved more difficult than
subduing the Tutsi. The last Tutsi chief gave up to Mwami Mutara II (Mutara
Rwogera) (1802–1853) in 1852, but the last Hutu holdout was only conquered
in the 1920s by Mwami Yuhi V (Yuli Musinga) (1896–1931).483

Burundi
South of the Kingdom of Rwanda was the Kingdom of Burundi. It was founded
by the Tutsi chief Ntare Rushatsi (c. 1657-1705). Like Rwanda, Burundi was
built on cattle raised by Tutsi pastoralists, crops from Hutu farmers, conquest,
and political innovations. Under Mwami Ntari Rugaamba (c. 1795-1852),
Burundi pursued an aggressive expansionist policy, but one based more on
diplomacy than on pure force.484

West Africa

Sahelian empires & states

Ghana
The Ghana Empire may have been an established kingdom as early as the 4th
century CE, founded among the Soninke by Dinge Cisse. Ghana was first
mentioned by Arab geographer Al-Farazi in the late 8th century. Ghana was
comprise of urban dwellers and rural farmers. The urban dwellers were the
administrators of the empire, who were Muslims, and the Ghana (king), who
practiced traditional religion. Two towns existed, one where the Muslim
administrators and Berber-Arabs lived, which was connected by a stone-paved
road to the king's residence. The rural dwellers lived in villages, which joined
together into broader polities that pledged loyalty to the Ghana. The Ghana
was viewed as divine, and his physical well-being reflected on the whole
society. Ghana converted to Islam around 1050, after conquering
Aoudaghost.485

483Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 123-124.

484Collins and Burns (2007), p. 124.
485Shillington (2005), pp. 80-85.
The Ghana Empire grew wealthy by taxing the trans-Saharan trade that linked
Tiaret and Sijilmasa to Aoudaghost. Ghana controlled access to the goldfields
of Bambouk, southeast of Koumbi Saleh. A percentage of salt and gold going
through its territory was taken. The empire was not involved in production. 486
By the 11th century, Ghana was in the decline. It was once thought that the
sacking of Koumbi Saleh by Berbers under the Almoravid dynasty in 1076 was
the cause. This is no longer accepted. Several alternative explanations are
cited. One important reason is the transfer of the gold trade east to the Niger
River and the Taghaza Trail, and Ghana's consequent economic decline.
Another reason cited is political instability through rivalry among the different
hereditary polities.487
The empire came to an end in 1230, when Takrur in northern Senegal took
over the capital.488489

Mali
The Mali Empire began in the 13th century CE, when a Mande (Mandingo)
leader, Sundiata(Lord Lion) of the Keita clan, defeated Soumaoro Kanté, king
of the Sosso or southern Soninke, at the Battle of Kirina in c. 1235. Sundiata
continued his conquest from the fertile forests and Niger Valley, east to the
Niger Bend, north into the Sahara, and west to the Atlantic Ocean, absorbing
the remains of the Ghana Empire. Sundiata took on the title of mansa. He
establish the capital of his empire at Niani.490
Although the salt and gold trade continued to be important to the Mali
Empire, agriculture and pastoralism was also critical. The growing of
sorghum, millet, and rice was a vital function. On the northern borders of the
Sahel, grazing cattle, sheep, goats, and camels were major activities. Mande
society was organize around the village and land. A cluster of villages was
called a kafu, ruled by a farma. The farma paid tribute to the mansa. A
dedicated army of elite cavalry and infantry maintained order, commanded by
the royal court. A formidable force could be raised from tributary regions, if
necessary.491
Conversion to Islam was a gradual process. The power of the mansa depended
on upholding traditional beliefs and a spiritual foundation of power. Sundiata
initially kept Islam at bay. Future mansas would be devout Muslims but still
acknowledged traditional deities and took part in traditional rituals and
festivals, which were important to the Mande. Islam became a court religion
under Sundiata's son Uli I (1225–1270). Mansa Uli made a pilgrimage to
Mecca, becoming recognized within the Muslim world. The court was staffed
with literate Muslims as secretaries and accountants. The great Muslim
traveller Ibn Battuta left vivid descriptions of the empire.492

486Iliffe, John(2007). p. 51-53.

487Collins and Burns (2007), p. 83.
488Davidson (1991), pp. 173, 174.
489[5]
490Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 83-84.
491
492
Mali reached the peak of its power and extent in the 14th century, when
Mansa Musa (1312–1337) made his famous hajj to Mecca with 500 slaves,
each holding a bar of gold worth 500 mitqals.493 Mansa Musa's hajj devalued
gold in Mamluk Egypt for a decade. He made a great impression on the minds
of the Muslim and European world. He invited scholars and architects like
Ishal al-Tuedjin (al-Sahili) to further integrate Mali into the Islamic world.494
The Mali Empire saw an expansion of learning and literacy. In 1285, Sakura, a
freed slave, usurped the throne. This mansa drove the Tuareg out of
Timbuktu, and established it as a center of learning and commerce. The book
trade increased, and book copying became a very respectable and profitable
profession. Timbuktu and Djenné became important centers of learning within
the Muslim world.495
After the reign of Mansa Suleyman (1341–1360), Mali began its spiral
downward. Mossi cavalry raided the exposed southern border. Tuareg
harassed the northern border, in order to retake Timbuktu. Fulani (Fulbe)
eroded Mali's authority in the west by establing the independent Kingdom of
Fouta Tooro, a successor to the kingdom of Takrur. Serer and Wolof alliances
were broken. In 1545-1546, the Songhai Empire took Niani. After 1599, the
empire lost the Bambouk goldfields and disintegrated into petty polities.496

Songhai
The Songhai people are descended from fishermen on the Middle Niger River.
They established their capital at Kukiya in the 9th century CE and at Gao in
12th century. The Songhai speak a Nilo-Saharan language.497
Sonni Ali, a Songhai, began his conquest by capturing Timbuktu in 1468 from
the Tuareg. He extended the empire to the north, deep into the desert, pushed
the Mossi further south of the Niger, and expanded southwest to Djenne. His
army consisted of cavalry and a fleet of canoes. Sonni Ali was not a Muslim,
and he was portrayed negatively by Berber-Arab scholars, especially for
attacking Muslim Timbuktu. After his death in 1492, his heirs were deposed
by a general, Muhammad Ture, a Muslim of Soninke origins.498

493Davidson, Basil (1971), Great Ages of Man: African Kingdoms, p. 83. New York:Time Life
Books. Library of Congress 66-25647.
494
495Davidson (1971), pp. 84-85.
496
497Collins and Burns (2007), p. 87.
498Shillington (2005), pp. 100, 101.
Muhammad Ture (1493–1528) founded the Askiya Dynasty, askiya being the
title of the king. He consolidated the conquests of Sonni Ali. Islam was used to
extend his authority by declaring jihad on the Mossi, reviving the trans-
Saharan trade, and having the Abbasid "shadow" caliph in Cairo declare him
as caliph of Sudan. He establish Timbuktu as a great center of islamic
learning. Muhammad Ture expanded the empire by pushing the Tuareg north,
capturing Aïr in the east, and capturing salt-producing Taghaza. He brought
the Hausa states into the Songhay trading network. He further centralized the
administration of the empire by selecting administrators from loyal servants
and families, and assigning them to conquered territories. They were
responsible for raising local militias. Centralization made Songhay very stable,
even during dynastic disputes. Leo Africanus left vivid descriptions of the
empire under Askiya Muhammad. Askiya Muhammad was deposed by his son
in 1528. After much rivalry, Muhammad Ture's last son Askiya Daoud (1529–
1582) assumed the throne.499
In 1591, Morocco invaded the Songhai Empire under Ahmad al-Mansur of the
Saadi Dynasty, in order to secure the goldfields of the Sahel. At the Battle of
Tondibi, the Songhai army was defeated. The Moroccans captured Djenne,
Gao, and Timbuktu, but they were unable to secure the whole region. Askiya
Nuhu and the Songhay army regrouped at Dendi, in the heart of Songhai
territory, where a spirited guerrilla resistance sapped the resources of the
Moroccans, who were dependent upon constant resupply from Morocco.
Songhai split into several states during the 17th century. Morocco found it
venture ultimatelt to be unprofitable. The gold trade had been diverted to
Europeans on the coast. Most of the trans-Saharan trade was now diverted
east to Bornu. Expensive equipment purchased with gold had to be sent
across the Sahara, an unsustenable scenario. The Moroccans who remained
married into the population and were referred to as Arma or Ruma. They
would established themselves at Timbuktu as a military caste with various
fiefs, independent from Morocco. Amid the chaos, other groups began to
assert themselves, including the Fulani of Futa Tooro who encroached from
the west. The Bambara Empire, one of the states that broke from Songhai,
sacked Gao. The Tuareg in 1737 massacred the Arma.500501

499Collins and Burns (2007), p. 88.

500
501Shillington (2005), pp. 100-102, 179-181.
Kanem-Bornu (Kanembu)
Around the 9th centure CE, the cenral Sudanic Empire of Kanem, with its
capital at Njimi, was founded by the Kanuri-speaking nomads. Kanem arose by
engaging in the trans-Saharan trade. It exchanged slaves, captured by raiding
the south, for horses from North Africa, which in turn aided in the acquisition
of slaves. By the late 11th century, the islamic Sayfawa (Saifawa) dynasty was
founded by Humai (Hummay) ibn Salamna. The Sayfawa Dynasty ruled for
771 years, making it one of the longest-lasting dynasties in human history.502
In addition to trade, taxation of local farms around Kanem became an source
of state income. Kanem reached its peak under Mai (king) Dunama Dibalemi
ibn Salma (1210–1248). The empire reportedly was able to field 40,000
cavalry, and it extended from Fezzan in the north to the Sao state in the south.
Islam became firmly entrenched in the empire. Pilgrimages to Mecca were
common; Cairo had hostels set aside specifically for pilgrims from Kanem.503504
Around 1400, the Sayfawa Dynasty moved its capital to Bornu, a tributary
state southwest of Lake Chad with a new capital Birni Ngarzagamu.
Overgrazing had caused the pastures of Kanem to become too dry. In addition,
political rivalry from the Bilala clan was becoming intense. Moving to Bornu
better situated the empire to exploit the trans-Saharan trade and to widen its
network in that trade. Links to the Hausa states were also established,
providing horses and salt from Bilma for Akan gold.505 Mai Ali Gazi ibn
Dunama (c. 1475-1503) defeated the Bilala, reestablishing complete control of
Kanem.506
During the early 16th century, the Sayfawa Dynasty solidify its hold on the
Bornu population after much rebellion. In the latter half of the 16th century,
Mai Idris Alooma modernized its military, in contrast to the Songhai Empire.
Turkish mercenaries were used to train the military. The Sayfawa Dynasty
were the first monarchs south of the Sahara to import firearms.507 The empire
controlled all of the Sahel from the borders of Darfur in the east to Hausaland
to the west. Friendly relationship was establish with the Ottoman Empire via
Tripoli. The Mai exchanged gifts with the Ottoman sultan.508
During the 17th century and 18th century, not much is known about Bornu.
During the 18th century, it became a center of Islamic learning. However,
Bornu's army became outdated, by not importing new arms,509 and Kamembu
had also begun its decline. The power of the mai was undermined by droughts
and famine that were becoming more intense, internal rebellion in the
pastoralist north, growing Hausa power, and the importation of firearms
which made warfare more bloody. By 1841, the last mai was deposed,
bringing to an end the long-lived Sayfawa Dynasty.510

502
503Shillington (2005), pp. 182, 183.
504Collins and Burns (2007), p. 90.
505
506
507
508Davidson (1991), p. 96.
509
510
Sokoto Caliphate
The Fulani were migratory people. They moved from Mauritania and settled in
Futa Tooro, Futa Djallon, and subsequently throughout the rest of West Africa.
By the 14th century CE, they had converted to Islam. During the 16th century,
they established themselves at Macina, in southern Mali. During the 1670s,
they declared jihads on non-Muslims. Several states were formed from these
jihadist wars, at Futa Toro, Futa Djallon, Macina, Oualia, and Bundu. The most
important of these states was the Sokoto Caliphate or Fulani Empire. In the
city of Gobir, Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817) accused the Hausa leadership of
practicing an impure version of Islam and of being morally corrupt. In 1804,
he launched the Fulani War as a jihad among a population that was restless
about high taxes and discontented with its leaders. Jihad fever swept northern
Nigeria, with strong support among both the Fulani and the Hausa. Usman
created an empire that included parts of northern Nigeria, Benin, and
Cameroon, with Sokoto as its capital. He retired to teach and write, and
handed the empire to his son, Muhammed Bello. The Sokoto Caliphate lasted
until 1903, when the British conquered northern Nigeria.511

Forest empires & states

Ashante
The origins of the Ashante (Ashanti, Asante) remain unclear. They speak the
Twi dialect of the Akan language within the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-
Congo family. When and how the Ashante got to their present location is
debatable. What is known is that by the 17th century CE Akan people were
established north of Lake Bosomtwi, trading in gold and kola nuts, and
clearing forest to plant yams. They built towns between the Pra and Ofin
rivers. They formed alliances for defense and paid tribute to Denkyira. During
the 16th century, Ashante society experienced sudden changes, including
population growth due to the cultivation of New World plants such as cassava
and maize, and an increase in the gold trade between the coast and the
north.512
By the 17th century, Osei Kofi Tutu I (c. 1695-1717), with help of Okomfo
Anokye, unified the Ashante into a confederation, with the Golden Stool as a
symbol of their unity and spirit. Osei Tutu engaged in a massive territorial
expansion. He built up the Ashante army based on the Akan state of Akwamu,
introducing new organization and turning a disciplined militia into an effective
fighting machine. In 1701, the Ashante conquered Denkyira, giving them
access to the coastal trade with Europeans, especially the Dutch. In 1717, the
year Osei died, the Ashante conquered the Akan state of Akim, an ally of
Denkyira.513

511Lye, Keith(2002). p. 188

512Collins and Burns (2007), p. 139.
513Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 139-140.
Opoku Ware I (1720–1745) engaged in further expansion, adding the southern
Akan states of Sefwi and Akwapim, allied with a revived Denkyira and Akim.
He turned north adding Techiman, Banda, Gyaaman, and Gonja, states on the
Black Volta. Between 1744 and 1745, Asantehene Opoku attacked the
powerful northern state of Dogoma, gaining control of the important middle
Niger trade routes. Kusi Obodom (1750–1764) succeeded Opoku. He solidified
all the newly won territories. Osei Kwadwo (1777–1803) impose
administrative reforms that allowed the empire to be governed effectively and
to continue its military expansion. Osei Kwame Panyin (1777–1803), Osei Tutu
Kwame (1804–1807), and Osei Bonsu (1807–1824) continued territorial
comsolidation and expansion. The Ashante Empire included all of present-day
Ghana and large parts of Ivory Coast.514
The ashantehene inherited his position from his mother. He was assisted at
the capital, Kumasi, by a civil service of men talented in trade, diplomacy, and
the military, with a head called the Gyaasehene. Men from Arabia, Sudan, and
Europe were employed in the civil service, all of them appointed by the
ashantehene. At the capital and in other towns, the ankobia or special police
were used as bodyguards to the ashantehene, as sources of intelligence, and
to suppress rebellion. Communication throughout the empire was maintained
via a network of well-kept roads from the coast to the middle Niger and
linking together other trade cities.515516
For most of the 19th century, the Ashante Empire remained powerful. It was
later destroyed in 1900, by British superior weaponry and organization
following the four Anglo-Ashanti wars.517

514Collins and Burns (2007), p. 140.

515Davidson (1991), p. 240.
516Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 140-141.
517Davidson (1991), p. 242.
Dahomey
The Dahomey Kingdom was founded in the early 17th century CE, when the
Aja people of the Allada kingdom moved northward and settled among the
Fon. They began to assert their power a few years later. In so doing they
established the Kingdom of Dahomey, with its capital at Agbome. King
Houegbadja (c. 1645-1685) organized Dahomey into a powerful centralized
state. He declared all lands to be owned of the king and subject to taxation.
Primogeniture in the kingship was establish, neutralizing all input from village
chiefs. A "cult of kingship" was established. A captive slave would be
sacrificed annually to honor the royal ancestors. During the 1720s, the slave-
trading states of Whydah and Allada were taken, giving Dahomey direct
access to the slave coast and trade with Europeans. King Agadja (1708–1740)
attempted to end the slave trade by keeping the slaves on plantations
producing palm oil, but the European profits on slaves and Dahomey's
dependency on firearms were too great. In 1730, under king Agaja, Dahomey
was conquered by the Oyo Empire, and Dahomey had to pay tribute. The
kingdom continued to expand and thrive, as a major dealer in slaves. Taxes on
slaves were mostly paid in cowrie shells. During the 19th century, palm oil
was the main trading commodity.518 France conquered Dahomey during the
Second Franco-Dahomean War (1892–1894) and established a colonial
government there. Most of the troops who fought against Dahomey were
native Africans.

Yoruba
Traditionally, the Yoruba people viewed themselves as the inhabitants of a
united empire, in contrast to the situation today, in which "Yoruba" is the
cultural-linguistic designation for speakers of a language in the Niger-Congo
family. The name comes from a Hausa word to refer to the Oyo Empire. The
first Yoruba state was Ile-Ife, said to have been founded around 1000 CE by a
supernatural figure, the first oni Oduduwa. Oduduwa's sons would be the
founders of the different city-states of the Yoruba, and his daughters would
become the mothers of the various Yoruba obas, or kings. Yoruba city-states
were usually governed by an oba and a iwarefa, a council of chiefs who
advised the oba. By the 18th century, the Yoruba city-states formed a loose
confederation, with the Oni of Ife as the head and Ife as the capital. As time
went on, the individual city-states became more powerful with their obas
assuming more powerful spiritual positions and diluting the authority of the
Oni of Ife. Rivalry became intense among the city-states.519

518Shillington (2005), pp. 191, 192.

519Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 131-132.
The 16th century saw the rise of the Oyo Empire. The Oyo state had been
conquered in 1550 by the kingdom of Nupe, which was in possession of
cavalry, an important tactical advantage. The alafin (king) of Oyo was sent
into exile. After returning, Alafin Orompoto (c. 1560-1580) built up an army
based on heavily armed cavalry and long-service troops. This made them
invincible in combat on the northern grasslands and in the thinly wooded
forests. By the end of the 16th century, Oyo had added the western region of
the Niger to the hills of Togo, the Yoruba of Ketu, Dahomey, and the Fon
nation. A governing council served the empire, with clear executive divisions.
Each acquired region was assigned a local administrator. Families served in
king-making capacities. Oyo, as a northern Yoruba kingdom, served as middle-
man in the north-south trade and connecting the eastern forest of Guinea with
the western and central Sudan, the Sahara, and North Africa. The Yoruba
manufactured cloth, ironware, and pottery, which were exchanged for salt,
leather, and, most importantly, horses from the Sudan to maintain the cavalry.
Oyo remained strong for two hundred years.520521 It became a protectorate of
Great Britain in 1888, before further fragmenting into warring factions. The
Oyo state ceased to exist as any sort of power in 1896. 522

Benin
Southwest of the Yoruba and on the western fringe of the Niger delta are the
Kwa Niger-Congo speaking Edo people. Legend has it that political
development of the Edo people began when the population got tired of their
king and requested that the Ife oni Oduduwa give them one of his sons as
ruler. Prince Oranyan was selected. By the mid 15th century, Benin was
engage in political expansion and consolidation. Under Oba (king) Ewuare (c.
1450-1480 CE), the state was organize for conquest. He solidified central
authority and initiated 30 years of war with his neighbors. At his death, the
Benin Empire, extended to Dahomey in the west, to the Niger Delta in the
east, along the west African coast, and to the Yoruba towns in the north.
Ewuare's grandson, Oba Esigie (1504–1550), eroded the power of the uzama
(state council) and increase contact and trade with Europeans, especially with
the Portuguese, who provided a new source of copper for court art.
The oba ruled with the advice from the uzama, a council consisting of chiefs of
powerful families and town chiefs of different guilds. Later its authority would
be diminished by the establishment of administrative dignitaries. Women
wielded power. The Queen Mother, who produce the future oba wielded
immense influence.523
Benin's expansion ended around the 16th century, and it ceased being a major
exporter of slaves. By the 18th century, it was wracked with dynastic disputes
and civil wars. After the 16th century, Benin mainly exported pepper, ivory,
gum, and cotton cloth to the Portuguese, who resold it to other African
societies on the coast. In 1897, the British sacked the city.524

520Davidson (1991), pp. 173-174.

521Collins and Burns (2007), p. 134.
522Stride, G.T. & C. Ifeka (1971). Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History
1000-1800. Edinburgh: Nelson. ISBN 0-17-511448-X.
523Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 134-135.
524Shillington (2005), pp. 188, 189.
Niger Delta and Igbo

Map of Igboland in southeastern Nigeria525526

Énugwú

Umuahia

Bight of Biafra

Atlantic
Ocean

Bight of Benin

Nsukka

Obolo

525Monteath, Archibald; Maureen Warner-Lewis (2007). Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican,

Moravian. University of West Indies Press. p. 26. ISBN 9-766-40197-7. .
526Chuku, Gloria (2005). Igbo women and economic transformation in southeastern Nigeria,
1900-1960. Routledge. p. 7. ISBN 0-415-97210-8. .
Abakaleke

Igrita

Elele

Ahoada

Aba

Ogu

Ihiala

Okigwe

Oka

Onicha

Owerre

Obiaruku

Agbor
Niger
River

Ugwu Ọcha

Atakpa

Idu

The Niger Delta comprised numerous city-states with numerous different

forms of government. These city-states were protected by the waterways and
thick vegetation of the delta. The region was transformed by trade in the 17th
century CE. The delta's city-states were comparable to those of the Swahili
people in East Africa. Some, like Bonny, Kalabari, and Warri, had kings.
Others, like Brass, were republics with small senates, and those at Cross River
and Old Calabar were ruled by merchants of the ekpe society. The ekpe
society regulated trade and made rules for members known as house systems.
Some of these houses, like the Pepples of Bonny, were well-known in the
Americas and Europe.527
The Igbo lived east of the Delta (but with the Anioma on the west of the Niger
River). The Kingdom of Nri rose in the 9th century CE, with the Eze Nri being
its leader. The kingdom expanded towards the Kingdom of Benin and to the
Igala Kingdom between 1100 and 1400. It was a political entity composed of
villages, and each village was autonomous and independent, with its own
territory and name, each recognized by its neighbors. Villages were
democratic, with all males and sometimes females a part of the decision-
making process. Graves at Igbo-Ukwu (800 CE) contained brass artifacts of
local manufacture and glass beads from Egypt or India, indicative of
extraregional trade.528529
Central Africa
Around 1000 BCE, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes of East
Africa. Halfway through the first millennium BCE, the Bantu had also settled
as far south as what is now Angola.

527Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 136-137.

528Martin, Phyllis M. and O'Meara, Patrick(1995). p.95
529Collins and Burns (2007), p. 137.
Luba Empire
Sometime between 1300 to 1400 CE, Kongolo Mwamba (Nkongolo) from the
Balopwe clan unified the various Luba peoples, near Lake Kisale. He founded
the Kongolo Dynasty, which was later ousted by Kalala Ilunga. Kalala
expanded the kingdom west of Lake Kisale. A new centralized political system
of spiritual kings (balopwe) with a court council of head governors and sub-
heads all the way to village heads. The balopwe was the direct communicator
with the ancestral spirits and chosen by them. Conquered states were
integrated into the system and represented in the court, with their titles. The
authority of the balopwe resided in his spiritual power rather than his military
authority. The army was relatively small. The Luba was able to control
regional trade and collect tribute for redistribution. Numerous offshoot states
would be formed with founders claiming descent from the Luba. The Luba
political system would spread throughout Central Africa, southern Uganda,
Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the western Congo. Two
major major empires claiming Luba descent were the Lunda Empire and
Maravi Empire. The Bemba people of Northern Zambia were descended from
Luba migrants who arrived in Zambia during the 17th century.530531

Lunda Empire
In the 1450s, a Luba from the royal family, Ilunga Tshibinda, married Lunda
queen Rweej and united all Lunda peoples. Their son, mulopwe Luseeng,
expanded the kingdom. His son, Naweej, expanded the empire further and is
known as the first Lunda emperor, with the title mwato yamvo (mwaant yaav ,
mwant yav),the Lord of Vipers. The Luba political system was retained, and
conquered peoples were integrated into the system. The mwato yamvo
assigned a cilool or kilolo (royal adviser) and tax collector to each state
conquered.532533
Numerous states claimed descent from the Lunda. The Imbangala of inland
Angola claimed descent from a founder, Kinguri, brother of Queen Rweej, who
could not tolerate the rule of mulopwe Tshibunda. Kinguri became the title of
kings of states founded by Queen Rweej's brother. The Luena (Lwena) and
Lozi (Luyani) in Zambia also claim descent from Kinguri. During the 17th
century, a Lunda chief and warrior called Mwata Kazembe set up an Eastern
Lunda kingdom in the valley of the Luapula River. The Lunda's western
expansion also saw claims of descent by the Yaka and the Pende. The Lunda
linked middle Africa with the western coast trade. The kingdom of Lunda
came to an end in the 19th century when it was invaded by the Chokwe, who
were armed with guns.534535

530Shillington (2005), p. 138, 139.

531Davidson (1991), p. 159, 160.
532Shillington (2005), p. 141.
533Davidson (1991), p. 161.
534Davidson (1991), p.161.
535Shillington (2005), p. 139, 141.
Maravi (Malawi)
The Maravi claimed descent from Karonga (kalonga), who took that title as
king. The Maravi connected middle Africa to the east coastal trade, with
Swahili Kilwa. By the 17th century, the Maravi Empire encompassed all the
area between Lake Malawi and the mouth of the Zambezi River. The karonga
was Mzura, who did much to extend the empire. Mzura made a pact with the
Portuguese to establish a 4,000-man army to attack the Shona, in return for
aid in defeating his rival, Lundi, a chief of the Zimba. In 1623, he turned on
the Portuguese and assisted the Shona. In 1640, he welcome back the
Portuguese for trade. The Maravi Empire did not long survive the death of
Mzura. By the 18th century, it had broken into its previous polities.536

Kongo Empire
By the 15th century CE, the farming Bakongo people (ba being the plural
prefix) were unified as the Kingdom of Kongo under a ruler called the
manikongo, residing in the fertile Pool Malebo area on the lower Congo River.
The capital was M'banza-Kongo. With superior organization, they were able to
conquer their neighbors and extract tribute. They were experts in metalwork,
pottery, and weaving raffia cloth. They stimulated interregional trade via a
tribute system controlled by the manikongo. Later, maize (corn) and cassava
(manioc) would be introduced to the region via trade with the Portuguese at
their ports at Luanda and Benguela. The maize and cassava would result in
population growth in the region and other parts of Africa, replacing millet as a
main staple. By the 16th century, the manikongo held authority from the
Atlantic in the west to the Kwango River in the east. Each territory was
assigned a mani-mpembe (provincial governor) by the manikongo. In 1506,
Afonso I (1506–1542), a Christian, took over the throne. Slave trading
increased with Afonso's wars of conquest. About 1568-1569, the Jaga invaded
Kongo, laying waste to the kingdom and forcing the manikongo into exile. In
1574, Manikongo Álvaro I was reinstated with the help of Portuguese
mercenaries. During the latter part of the 1660s, the Portuguese tried to gain
control of Kongo. Manikongo António I (1661–1665), with a Kongolese army of
5,000, was destroyed by an army of Afro-Portuguese at the Battle of Mbwila.
The empire dissolved into petty polities, fighting among each other for war
captives to sell into slavery.537538539

536Davidson (1991), pp. 164-165.

537Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 185-188
538Shillington (2005), p. 196-198
539Davidson (1991), pp. 156-157
Kongo gained captives from the Kingdom of Ndongo in wars of conquest.
Ndongo was ruled by the ngola. Ndongo would also engage in slave trading
with the Portuguese, with São Tomé being a transit point to Brazil. The
kingdom was not as welcoming as Kongo; it viewed the Portuguese with great
suspicion and as an enemy. The Portuguese in the latter part of the 16th
century tried to gain control of Ndongo, but were defeated by the Mbundu.
Ndongo experienced depopulation from slave raiding. The leaders established
another state at Matamba, affiliated with Queen Nzinga, who put up a strong
resistance to the Portuguese until coming to terms with them. The Portuguese
settled along the coast as trade dealers, not venturing on conquest of the
interior. Slavery wreaked havoc in the interior, with states initiating wars of
conquest for captives. The Imbangala formed the slave-raiding state of
Kasanje, a major source of slaves during the 17th century and 18th
century.540541

Southern Africa
Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists
and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River by the fourth
or 5th century CE (see Bantu expansion), displacing and absorbing the
original Khoisan speakers. They slowly moved south, and the earliest
ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from
around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language
incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoi-San people,
reaching the Great Fish River in today's Eastern Cape Province.

Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe

The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first state in Southern Africa, with its
capital at Mapungubwe. The state arose in the 12th century CE. Its wealth
came from controlling the trade in ivory from the Limpopo Valley, copper from
the mountains of northern Transvaal, and gold from the Zimbabwe Plateau
between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, with the Swahili merchants at
Chibuene. By the mid 13th century, Mapungubwe was abandoned.542

540Shillington (2005), p. 198, 199.

541Davidson (1991), p. 158.
542Ehret, Christopher (2002). p. 252.
After the decline of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe rose on the Zimbabwe
Plateau. Zimbabwe means stone building. Great Zimbabwe was the first city in
Southern Africa. Great Zimbabwe was the center of an empire, consolidating
lesser Shona polities. An technology of building in stone was inherited from
Mapungubwe. These building techniques were enhance and came into
maturity at Great Zimbabwe, represented by the wall of the Great Enclosure.
The drywall stone masonry technology was also used to build smaller
compounds in the area. Great Zimbabwe flourished by trading with Swahili
Kilwa and Sofala. The rise of Great Zimbabwe parallels the rise of Kilwa.
Great Zimbabwe was a major source of gold. Its royal court lived in luxury,
wore Indian cotton, surrounded themselves with copper and gold ornaments,
and ate on plates from as far away as Persia and China. Around the 1420s and
1430s, Great Zimbabwe was on the declined. The city was abandoned by
1450. Some have attributed the decline to the rise of the trading town
Ingombe Ilede.543544
African empires & states
A new chapter of Shona history ensued. Mutota, a northern Shona king of the
Karanga,, engaged in conquest. He and his son Mutope conquered the
Zimbabwe Plateau, going through Mozambique to the east coast, linking the
empire to the coastal trade. They called their empire Wilayatu 'l
Mu'anamutapah or mwanamutapa (Lord of the Plundered Lands), or the
Kingdom of Mutapa. Monomotapa was the Portuguese corruption. They did
not build stone structures; the northern Shonas had no traditions of building
in stone. After the death of Matope in 1480, the empire split into two small
empires: Torwa in the south and Mutapa in the north. The split occurred over
rivalry from two Shona lords, Changa and Togwa, with the mwanamutapa line.
Changa was able to acquire the south, forming the Kingdom of Butua, with its
capital at Khami.545546
The Mutapa Empire continued in the north under the mwanamutapa line.
During the 16th century, the Portuguese were able to establish permanent
markets up the Zambezi River in an attempt to gain political and military
control of Mutapa. They were partially successful. In 1628, a decisive battle
allowed them to put a puppet mwanamutapa named Mavura, who signed
treaties that gave favorable mineral export rights to the Portuguese. The
Portuguese were successful in destroying the mwanamutapa system of
government and undermining trade. By 1667, Mutapa was in decay. Chiefs
would not allow digging for gold because of fear of Portuguese theft, and the
population declined.547
The Kingdom of Butua was ruled by a changamire, a title derived from the
founder, Changa. Later it became the Rozwi Empire. The Portuguese tried to
gain a foothold but was thrown out of the region in 1693, by Changamire
Dombo. The 17th century were a period of peace and prosperity. The Rozwi
Empire fell into ruinsin the 1830s from invading Nguni from Natal.548

543Ehret (2002), pp. 252-254.

544
545
546
547Davidson (1991), pp. 252-154.
548
Early Namibia
By 1500 CE, most of southern Africa had established states. In northwestern
Namibia, the Ovambo engaged in farming and the Herero engaged in herding.
As cattle numbers increased, the Herero moved southward to central Namibia
for grazing land. A related group, the Mbanderu, expanded to Ghanzi in
northwestern Botswana. The Nama, a Khoi-speaking, sheep-raising group,
moved northward and came into contact with the Herero; this would set the
stage for much conflict between the two groups. The expanding Lozi states
pushed the Mbukushu, Subiya, and Yei to Botei, Okavango, and Chobe in
northern Botswana.549
By the 1850s, British and German missionaries and traders had penetrated
Namibia. Herero and Nama competed for guns and ammunition, providing
cattle, ivory, and ostrich feathers. The Germans were more firmly established
than the British in the region. By 1884, the Germans declared the coastal
region from the Orange River to the Kunene River a German protectorate.
They pursued an aggressive policy of land expansion for white settlements.
They exploited rivalry between the Nama and Herero. 550
The Herero entered into an alliance with the Germans, thinking they could get
an upper hand on the Nama. The Germans set up a garrison at the Herero
capital and started allocating Herero land for white settlements, including the
best grazing land in the central plateau, and made tax and labor demands.
The Herero and Mbanderu rebelled, but the rebellion was crushed and leaders
were executed. Between 1896 and 1897, rinderpest crippled the economic
backbone of the Herero and Nama economy, andslowed white settlement
expansion. The Germans continued the policy of making Namibia a white
settlement, by seizing not only land but Herero cattle, and even trying to
export Herero labor to South Africa.551
In 1904, the Herero rebelled. German General Lothar von Trotha implemented
an extermination policy at the Battle of Waterberg, which drove the Herero
west of the Kalahari Desert. At the end of 1905, only 16,000 Herero were
alive, out of a previous population of 80,000. Nama resistance was crushed in
1907. All Nama and Herero cattle and land were confiscated from the very
diminished population, with remaining Nama and Herero assuming a
subordinate position. Labor had to be imported from among the Ovambo.552

549Shillington (2005), p. 218.

550Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327-329, 340-342.
551Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327
552Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327.
Early South Africa and Botswana

Sotho-Tswana
By 1000-1400 CE, we see the development of Sotho-Tswana states based on
the highveld, south of the Limpopo River. The chief's power rested on cattle
and his connection to the ancestor. This can be seen in the Toutswemogala
Hill settlements with stone foundations and stone walls, north of the highveld
and south of the Vaal River. Northwest of the Vaal River, we also see the
development of early Tswana states centered around towns of thousands of
people. When disagreements or rivalry arose, different groups moved to form
their own states.553
One of the major states to emerge from the Mfecane was the Sotho Kingdom
founded at Thaba Bosiu by Moshoeshoe I around 1821-1822. It was a
confederation different polities that accepted the absolute authority of
Moshoeshoe. During the 1830s, the kingdom invited missionaries as a
strategic means of acquiring guns and horses from the Cape. Orange Free
State would slowly diminish the kingdom but never completely defeat it. In
1868, Moshoeshoe asked that the Sotho Kingdom be annexed by Britain, to
save the remnant. It became the British protectorate of Basutoland.554

Nguni and Zulu

Southeast of the Drakensberg mountains lived Nguni-speaking peoples (Zulu,
Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele). They, too, engaged in state building, with new
states developing from rivalry, disagreements, and population pressure
causing movement into new regions. They were metalworkers, cultivators of
millet, and their most prized activity, cattle herding.555
A moment of great disorder in southern Africa was the Mfecane, "the
crushing." It was started by the northern Nguni kingdoms of Mthethwa,
Ndwandwe, and Swaziland over scarce resource and famine. When
Dingiswayo of Mthethwa died, Shaka of the Zulu people took over. He
established the Zulu Kingdom, asserting authority over the Ndwandwe and
pushing the Swazi north. The scattering Ndwandwe and Swazi caused the
Mfecane to spread. During the 1820s, Shaka expanded the empire all along
the Drakensberg foothills, with tribute being paid as far south as the Tugela
and Umzimkulu rivers. He replaced the chiefs of conquered polities with
indunas, responsible to him. He introduced a centralized, dedicated, and
disciplined military force not seen in the region, with a new weapon in the
short stabbing-spear.556

553
554Shillington (2005), pp. 261, 262, 271.
555Shillington (2005), pp. 153-155
556Shillington (2005), pp. 256, 257, 270.
In 1828, Shaka was assassinated by his half brother Dingane, who lacked the
military genius and leadership skills of Shaka. Voortrekkers tried to occupy
Zulu land in 1838. In the early months they were defeated, but the survivors
regrouped at the Ncome River and soundly defeated the Zulu. However, the
Voortrekkers dared not settle Zulu land. Dingane was killed in 1840, during a
civil war. His brother, Mpande, took over and strengthened Zulu territories to
the north. In 1879, the Zulu Kingdom was invaded by Britain, in a quest to
control all of South Africa. The Zulu Kingdom was victorious at the Battle of
Isandlwana, but was defeated at the Battle of Ulundi.557558

Khoisan and Afrikaaner

The Khoisan lived in the southwestern Cape Province, where winter rainfall is
plentiful. In parts of Southern Africa here rainfall is plentiful during the
summer, earlier Khoisan populations were absorbed by Bantu peoples, such as
the Sotho and Nguni, but the Bantu expansion stopped at the region with
winter rainfall. Some Bantu languages have incorporated the click
characteristic of the Khoisan languages. The Khoisan traded with their Bantu
neighbors, providing cattle, sheep, and hunted items. In return, their Bantu
speaking neighbors traded copper, iron, and tobacco.559

557Shillington (2005), pp. 256, 257.

558Davidson (1991), pp. 274-275.
559
By the 16th century, the Dutch East India Company established a replenishing
station at Table Bay, for restocking water and purchasing meat from the
Khoikhoi. The Khoikhoi received copper, iron, tobacco, and beads in
exchange. In order to control the price of meat and stock and make service
more consistent, the Dutch established a permanent settlement at Table Bay
in 1652. They grew fresh fruit and vegetables, and established a hospital for
sick sailors. To increase produce, the Dutch decided to increase the number of
farms at Table Bay by encouraging freeburgher boers (farmers) on lands
worked initially by slaves from West Africa. The land was taken from Khoikhoi
grazing land, triggering the first Khoikhoi-Dutch war in 1659. No victors
emerged, but the Dutch assumed a "right of conquest" by which they claimed
all of the Cape. In a series of wars, pitting the Khoikhoi against each other,
the Boers would assume all Khoikhoi land and claim all their cattle. The
second Khoikoi-Dutch war (1673–1677) was a cattle raid. The Khoikhoi also
died in thousands from European diseases.560
By the 18th century, the Cape colony had grown, with slaves coming from
Madagascar, Mozambique, and Indonesia. The settlement also started to
expand northward, but Khoikhoi resistance, raids, and guerrilla warfare
slowed the expansion during the 18th century. Boers who started to practice
pastoralism were known as trekboers. A common source of trekboer labor was
orphan children who were captured during raids and whose parents had been
killed.561
By the 19th century, most of Khoikhoi territories were under Boer control. The
Khoikhoi had lost economic and political independence, and had been
absorbed into Boer society. The Boers spoke Afrikaans, a language or dialect
derived from Dutch, and no longer called themselves Boers but Afrikaner.
Some Khoikhoi were used as commandos in raids against other Khoikhoi and
later Xhosa. A mixed Khoi, slave, and European population called the Cape
Coloureds, who were outcasts within colonial society, also arose. Khoikhoi
who lived far on the frontier included the Kora, Oorlams, and Griqua. In 1795,
the British took over the Cape colony from the Dutch.562
Land in the Cape became scarce. In the 1830s, Boers embarked on a journey
of expansion, east of the Great Fish River into the Zuurveld. They were
referred to as Voortrekkers. They founded republics of the Transvaal and
Orange Free State, mostly in areas of sparse population that had been
diminished by the Mfecane/Difaqane. Unlike the Khoisan, the Bantu states
were not conquered by the Afrikaners, due to population density and greater
unity. Additionally, they began to arm themselves with guns acquired through
trade at the Cape. In some cases, as in the Xhosa/Boer Wars, Boers were
removed from Xhosa lands. It required a dedicated imperial military force to
subdue the Bantu-speaking states. In 1901, the Boer republics were defeated
by Britain in the Second Boer War. Yet, ironically, the defeat consummated
many Afrikaners' ambition: South Africa would now be under white rule. The
British placed all power—legislative, executive, administrative—in English and
Afrikaner hands.563564

560Shillington (2005), pp. 210-213.

561Shillington (2005), pp. 213, 214.
562Shillington (2005), pp. 215, 216.
563Davidson (1991), pp. 274, 275.
564Shillington (2005), pp. 268-271.
Modern

European trade, exploration, and conquest

Between 1878 and 1898, in a 20-year period, European states partitioned and
conquered most of Africa. For 400 years, European nations had mainly limited
their involvement to trading stations on the African coast. Few dared venture
inland from the coast; those that did, like the Portuguese, often met defeats
and had to retreat to the coast. Several technological innovations helped to
overcome this 400-year pattern. One was the development of repeating rifles,
which were easier and quicker to load than muskets. Artillery started to be
used increasingly. In 1885, Hiram S. Maxim developed the maxim gun, the
model of the modern-day machine gun. European states kept these weapons
largely among themselves by refusing to sell these weapons to African
leaders.565
African germs took numerous European lives and deterred permanent
settlements. Diseases such as yellow fever, sleeping sickness, yaws, and
leprosy, made Africa a very inhospitable place for Europeans. The deadliest
germ was malaria, endemic throughout tropical Africa. In 1854, the discovery
of quinine and other medical innovations helped to make conquest and
colonization in Africa possible.566
Strong motives for conquest of Africa were at play. Raw materials were
needed for European factories. Europe in the early part of the 19th century
was undergoing its Industrial Revolution. Nationalist rivalries and prestige
were at play. Acquiring African colonies would show rivals that a nation was
powerful and significant. These factors culminated in the Scramble for
Africa.567
Knowledge of Africa increased. Numerous European explorers began to
explore the continent. Mungo Park traversed the Niger River. James Bruce
travelled through Ethiopia and located the source of the Blue Nile. Richard
Francis Burton was the first European at Lake Tanganyika. Samuel White
Baker explored the Upper Nile. John Hanning Speke located a source of the
Nile at Lake Victoria. Other significant European explorers included Heinrich
Barth, Henry Morton Stanley, Silva Porto, Alexandre de Serpa Pinto, Rene
Caille, Gerhard Rolfs, Gustav Nachtigal, George Schweinfurth, and Joseph
Thomson. The most famous of the explorers was David Livingstone, who
explored southern Africa and traversed the continent from the Atlantic at
Luanda to the Indian Ocean at Quelimane. European explorers made use of
African guides and servants, and old, established long-distance trading routes
were used.568569
Missionaries attempting to spread Christianity also increased European
knowledge of Africa.570

565Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 268-269.

566Collins and Burns (2007), p. 269.
567Collins and Burns (2007), p. 265.
568Shillington (2005), p. 295.
569
570
In 1884-1885, European nations met at the Berlin West Africa Conference to
discuss the partitioning of Africa. It was agreed that European claims to parts
of Africa would only be recognised if Europeans provided effective occupation.
In a series of treaties in 1890–1891, colonial boundaries were completely
drawn. All of Subsaharan Africa was claimed by European powers, except for
Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia.
The European powers set up a variety of different administrations in Africa at
this time, reflecting different ambitions and degrees of power. In some areas,
such as parts of British West Africa, colonial control was tenuous and intended
for simple economic extraction, strategic power, or as part of a long term
development plan. In other areas, Europeans were encouraged to settle,
creating settler states in which a European minority dominated. Settlers only
came to a few colonies in sufficient numbers to have a strong impact. British
settler colonies included British East Africa (now Kenya), Northern and
Southern Rhodesia, (Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively), and South Africa,
which already had a significant population of European settlers, the Boers.
France planned to settle Algeria and eventually incorporate it into the French
state on an equal basis with the European provinces. Algeria's proximity
across the Mediterranean allowed plans of this scale.
In most areas colonial administrations did not have the manpower or
resources to fully administer the territory and had to rely on local power
structures to help them. Various factions and groups within the societies
exploited this European requirement for their own purposes, attempting to
gain positions of power within their own communities by cooperating with
Europeans. One aspect of this struggle included what Terence Ranger has
termed the "invention of tradition." In order to legitimize their own claims to
power in the eyes of both the colonial administrators and their own people,
native elites would essentially manufacture "traditional" claims to power, or
ceremonies. As a result, many societies were thrown into disarray by the new
order.
European Colonial Territories
Belgium
•Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today's Democratic Republic of the
Congo)
•Ruanda-Urundi (comprising modern Rwanda and Burundi, between 1916 and
1960)
France

•French West Africa: •French Equatorial •French Algeria

Africa: (now Algeria)
1. Mauritania
1. Gabon
2. Senegal
2. Middle Congo
3. French Sudan
(now the
(now Mali)
Republic of the
4. French Guinea Congo)
(now Guinea)
3. Oubangi-Chari
5. Côte d'Ivoire (now the Central
6. Niger African Republic)

7. French Upper 4. Chad

Volta
(now Burkina
Faso)
8. French Dahomey
(now Benin)

•Tunisia

•French Morocco

•French Somaliland
(now Djibouti)

•Madagascar
 •Comoros

Germany
•German Kamerun (now Cameroon and part of Nigeria)
•German East Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi and most of Tanzania)
•German South-West Africa (now Namibia)
•German Togoland (now Togo and eastern part of Ghana)
Italy
Italian North Africa (now Libya)
•Eritrea
•Italian Somaliland (now part of Somalia)

Portugal

•Portuguese West Africa •Cape Verde Islands

(now Angola)
•São Tomé e Príncipe
1. Mainland Angola
1. São Tomé Island
2. Portuguese Congo
2. Príncipe Island
(now Cabinda Province of
Angola) 3. Fort of São João Baptista de
Ajudá
(now Ouidah, in Benin)
•Portuguese East Africa
(now Mozambique)
•Portuguese Guinea
(now Guinea-Bissau)

Spain

•Spanish Sahara •Spanish Morocco •Spanish Guinea

(now Western Sahara) (now Equatorial Guinea)
1. Tarfaya Strip
1. Río de Oro 1. Fernando Po
2. Ifni
2. Saguia el-Hamra 2. Río Muni
3. Annobon

United Kingdom
•Egypt •Bechuanaland (now •The Gambia
Botswana)

•Anglo-Egyptian Sudan •Southern Rhodesia (now •Sierra Leone

(now Sudan) Zimbabwe)

•British Somaliland (now •Northern Rhodesia (now •Nigeria

part of Somalia) Zambia)

•British East Africa: •British South Africa •Cameroons (now parts of

(now South Africa) Cameroon and Nigeria)
1. Kenya
1. Transvaal (now
2. Uganda
part of South
Protectorate
Africa)
(now Uganda)
2. Cape Colony
3. Tanganyika
(now part of
(1919–1961, now
South Africa)
part of Tanzania)
3. Colony of Natal
(now part of
South Africa)
4. Orange Free
State (now part
of South Africa)

•Zanzibar (now part of •British Gold Coast (now

Tanzania) Ghana)

•Nyasaland (now Malawi)

•Basutoland (now
Lesotho)
 •Swaziland

Independent states
•Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society of the United States in
1821; declared independence in 1847
•Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) had its borders re-drawn with Italian Eritrea
and French Somaliland (modern Djibouti), briefly occupied by Italy from 1936
to 1941 during the Abyssinia Crisis;
•Sudan, independent under Mahdi rule between 1885 and 1899.571

20th century: 1900-1945

Interbellum
After World War I the formerly German colonies in Africa were taken over by
France, Belgium, 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 the mystique of the "invincible" European was shattered by the
barbarities of the war. However, in most areas European control remained
relatively strong during this period.
Italy, under the government of Benito Mussolini, invaded Ethiopia, the last
independent African nation, in 1935 and occupied the country until 1941.

The postcolonial era: 1945 to 1993

571Martin, Phyllis M. and O'Meara, Patrick(1995). p. 135-138.

Decolonization
The decolonization of Africa started with Libya in 1951. (Although Liberia,
South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia were already independent.) Many countries
followed in the 50s and 60s, with a peak in 1960 with 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 last African countries to
gain formal independence were Guinea-Bissau (1974), Mozambique (1975)
and Angola (1975) from Portugal, Djibouti from France in 1977, Zimbabwe
from United Kingdom in 1980, and Namibia from South Africa in 1990. Eritrea
later split off from Ethiopia in 1993.
Because many cities were founded, enlarged and renamed by the Europeans,
after independence many place names (for example Stanleyville, Léopoldville,
Rhodesia) were renamed: see historical African place names for these.

East Africa
The Mau Mau Rebellion 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 Kenyatta served as
its first president.
The early 1990s also signaled the start of major clashes between the Hutus
and the Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi. In 1994 this culminated in the
Rwandan Genocide, a conflict in which over 800 000 people were murdered.

North Africa
Moroccan nationalism developed during the 1930s, the Istiqal Party was
formed, pushing for independence. In 1953 sultan Muhammad V called for
independence. In March 2, 1956 Morocco became independent of France.
Spain reliquished all territories Ceuta, Tangiers, and Melilla. Muhammad V
became ruler of independent Morocco. Algeria in 1954, formed the National
Liberation Front (FLN) from France. The French responded brutally but
negotiated independence in 1962. Muhammad Ahmed Ben Bella was elected
president. All French citizens left the country, crippling the economy. In 1934
'Neo-Destour'(New Constitution) party was founded by Habib Bourguiba
pushing for indepence in Tunisia. Tunisia became independent in 1955. Its
bey was dispose and Habib Bourguiba elected.572
In 1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser deposed the monarchy on Egypt and came to
power. Muammar al-Gaddafi led a coup in Libya in 1969 and has remained in
power.

572Lye, Keith(2002). pp. 97, 264.

Egypt was involved in several wars against Israel, and was allied with other
Arab countries. The first was right after the State of Israel was founded, in
1948. Egypt went to war again in 1967 and lost the Sinai Peninsula to Israel.
They went to war yet again in 1973. In 1979 Anwar Sadat and Menachem
Begin signed the Camp David Accords, which gave back the Sinai Peninsula to
Egypt in exchange for the recognition of Israel. The accords are still in effect
today. In 1981 Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist for signing the accords.
Southern Africa
In 1948 the apartheid laws were started in South Africa by the dominant
party, the National Party. These were largely a continuation of existing
policies, e.g. the Land Act of 1913. The difference was the policy of "separate
development;" Where previous policies had only been disparate efforts to
economically exploit the African Majority, Apartheid represented an entire
philosophy of separate racial goals, leading to both the divisive laws of 'petty
apartheid,' and the grander scheme of African Homelands.
In 1994 the South African government abolished Apartheid. South Africans
elected Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress in the country's first
multiracial presidential election.
West Africa
Following World War II, nationalist movements arose across West Africa, most
notably in Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah. In 1957, Ghana became the first
sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by
France's colonies; by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous.
Since independence, many West African nations have been plagued by
corruption and instability, with notable civil wars in Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and
Burkina Faso. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite
enviable natural resources, and political instability is often accompanied by
undemocratic government.
In Nigeria today, the richest fifth of the population earns 55.7 percent of
income while the poorest fifth earns just 4.4 percent and 70 percent of
Nigerians live on less than US$1 a day.
References
•Collins, Robert O. and Burns, James M. (2007). A History of Sub-Saharan
Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-68708-9.
•Davidson, Basil (1991). Africa In History, Themes and Outlines. Revised and
expanded ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-82667-4
•Ehret, Christopher (2002). The Civilizations of Africa. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia, ISBN 0-8139-2085-X.
•Iliffe, John (2007). Africans: The History of a Continent. 2nd ed. New York:
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-68297-8.
•Lye, Keith (2002). Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilization. New
York: The Diagram Group, ISBN 0-8160-4568-2.
•Martin, Phyllis M., and O'Meara, Patrick (1995). Africa. 3rd ed. Indiana:
Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20984-6.
•Page, Willie F. (2001). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture: From
Conquest to Colonization (1500-1850). New York: Learning Source Books,
ISBN 0-8160-4472-4
•Shillington, Kevin (2005). History of Africa. Revised 2nd ed. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-59957-8.
•Diamond, Jared M. (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
Societies. New York: W.W.Norton. ISBN 0-393-31755-2.
•Stearns, Peter, ed (2001). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient,
Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged.
Further reading
•Cheikh Anta Diop (1987) Precolonial Black Africa. Chicago Review Press.
•Clark, J. Desmond (1970) The Prehistory of Africa. Thames and Hudson
•Davidson, Basil (1964) The African Past. Penguin, Harmondsworth
•Freund, Bill (1998) The Making of Contemporary Africa, Lynne Rienner,
Boulder (including a substantial "Annotated Bibliography" pp. 269–316).
•Reader, John 1997 Africa: A Biography of the Continent. Hamish Hamilton.
ISBN 0-241-13047-6
•Shillington, Kevin (1989) History of Africa, New York: St. Martin's.
•UNESCO (1980–1994) General History of Africa. 8 volumes.
•Théophile Obenga (1980) Pour une Nouvelle Histoire Présence Africaine,
Paris
External links
•Worldtimelines.org.uk -Africa The British Museum. 2005
•About.com:African History.
•The Story of Africa - BBC World Service
•Wonders of the African World, PBS.
•Civilization of Africa, by Richard Hooker, Washington State University.
•African Art,(chunk of historical data), Metropolitan Museum of Art.
•African Kingdoms, by Khaleel Muhammad.
•Mapungubwe Museum at the University of Pretoria
History of East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent,
variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic
regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:573

•Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi – members of the East

African Community (EAC). Burundi and Rwanda are sometimes considered
part of Central Africa
•Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia – collectively known as the Horn of
Africa574575576577578
•Mozambique and Madagascar – often considered part of Southern Africa.
Madagascar has close cultural ties to Southeast Asia and the islands of the
Indian Ocean.
•Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – often included in Southern Africa, and
formerly of the Central African Federation
•Comoros, Mauritius, and Seychelles – small island nations in the Indian
Ocean
•Réunion and Mayotte – French overseas territories also in the Indian Ocean.

573United Nations Statistics Division - Standard Country and Area Codes Classifications
574Robert Stock, Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation,
(The Guilford Press: 2004), p. 26
575IRIN Africa
576Michael Hodd, East Africa Handbook, 7th Edition, (Passport Books: 2002), p. 21: "To the
north are the countries of the Horn of Africa comprising Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and
Somalia."
577Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc, Jacob E. Safra, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica,
(Encyclopaedia Britannica: 2002), p.61: "The northern mountainous area, known as the Horn
of Africa, comprises Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia."
578Sandra Fullerton Joireman, Institutional Change in the Horn of Africa, (Universal-
Publishers: 1997), p.1: "The Horn of Africa encompasses the countries of Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Djibouti and Somalia. These countries share similar peoples, languages, and geographical
endowments."
East Africa is often used to specifically refer to the area now comprising the
countries of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda,579580581582 and (in a wider sense)
also Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and
Sudan.583584585586587588
Egypt is also in the northeastern portion of the continent,589 but it is usually
included in Northern Africa.590

Geography and climate

Some parts of East Africa have been renowned for their concentrations of wild
animals, such as the "big five" of elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and black
rhinoceros, though populations have been declining under increased stress in
recent times, particularly the rhino and elephant.
The geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic. Shaped by global
plate tectonic forces that have created the Great Rift Valley, East Africa is the
site of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the two tallest peaks in Africa. It
also includes the world's second largest freshwater lake Lake Victoria, and the
world's second deepest lake Lake Tanganyika.
The climate of East Africa is rather atypical of equatorial regions. Because of a
combination of the region's generally high altitude and the rain shadow of the
westerly monsoon winds created by the Rwenzori Mountains and Ethiopian
Highlands, East Africa is surprisingly cool and dry for its latitude.

579"East Africa". The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Judy Pearsall, ed. 2001. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press; p. 582. "The eastern part of the African continent, especially the
countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania."
580Robert M. Maxon, East Africa: An Introductory History, 2 Revised edition, (West Virginia
University: 1994), p. 1
581Mary Fitzpatrick and Tom Parkinson, Lonely Planet East Africa, 7th edition, (Lonely Planet
Publications: 2006), p. 13
582Stock, Africa South of the Sahara, Second Ed., p. 24
583"East Africa". Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. 2001. Springfield, MA:
Merriam-Webster, Inc.; p. 339. "A term often used of the area now comprising the countries of
Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Somalia; sometimes used to include also
other neighboring countries of E Africa."
584" East Africa". Encarta World English Dictionary [North American Edition] 2007. Microsoft
Corporation. "[R]egion in east central Africa, usually taken to comprise Burundi, Kenya,
Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda". Archived 2009-10-31.
585Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc, Jacob E. Safra, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica,
(Encyclopaedia Britannica: 2002), p.61
586"East Africa". Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. 2003. The Gage Group Inc. "East Africa
comprises ten countries: Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea,
Djibouti, Somalia, and Kenya."
587FAO - East Africa: "With eight countries (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, the
Sudan, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania),[31] East Africa covers a land area of
5.9 million square kilometres."
588Sandra Fullerton Joireman, Institutional Change in the Horn of Africa, (Universal-
Publishers: 1997), p.1
589Egyptian Presidency - Egypt Profile: Geography. "[Egypt is s]ituated in the Northeastern
corner of Africa, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea from the North and the Red Sea from the
East, with the Sinai Peninsula constituting a link to Southwest Asia..."
590https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html#Geo
The lower-lying lands of northern Kenya and Greater Somalia are indeed
extremely dry. In fact, on the coast of Somaliland and Puntland many years
can go by without any rain whatsoever.591 Elsewhere the annual rainfall
generally increases towards the south and with altitude, being around
400 millimetres (16 in) at Mogadishu and 1200 millimetres (47 in) at
Mombasa on the coast, whilst inland it increases from around 130 millimetres
(5 in) at Garoowe to over 1100 millimetres (43 in) at Moshi near Kilimanjaro.
Unusually, most of the rain falls in two distinct wet seasons, one centred
around April and the other in October or November. This is usually attributed
to the passage of the Intertropical Convergence Zone across the region in
those months, but it may also be analogous to the autumn monsoon rains of
parts of Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Brazilian Nordeste.
West of the Rwenzoris and Ethiopian highlands the rainfall pattern is more
typically tropical, with rain throughout the year near the equator and a single
wet season in most of the Ethiopian Highlands from June to September -
contracting to July and August around Asmara. Annual rainfall here ranges
from over 1600 millimetres (63 in) on the western slopes to around
1250 millimetres (49 in) at Addis Ababa and 550 millimetres (22 in) at
Asmara. In the high mountains rainfall can be over 2500 millimetres (98 in).
Rainfall in East Africa is influenced by El Niño events, which tend to increase
rainfall except in the northern and western parts of the Ethiopian and Eritrean
highlands, where they produce drought and poor Nile floods592.
Temperatures in East Africa, except on the hot and generally humid coastal
belt, are moderate, with maxima of around 25 °C (77 °F) and minima of 15 °C
(59 °F) at an altitude of 1500 metres (4921 ft). At altitudes of above
2500 metres (8202 ft), frosts are common during the dry season and maxima
typically about 21 °C (70 °F) or less.
The unique geography and apparent suitability for farming made East Africa a
target for European exploration, exploitation and colonialization in the
nineteenth century. Today, tourism is an important part of the economies of
Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles,and Uganda.

History

Pre history
According to the theory of recent African origin of modern humans, the
mainstream position held within the scientific community, all humans
originate from East Africa593. Some of the earliest fossilized hominid remains
have been found in East Africa, including those found in Awash Valley of
Ethiopia, Koobi Fora in Kenya and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
591Dewar, Robert E. and Wallis, James R; "Geographical patterning in interannual rainfall
variability in the tropics and near tropics: An L-moments approach"; in Journal of Climate, 12;
pp. 3457-3466
592Davis, Mike; Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the
Third World; p. 263-266. ISBN 1859847390
593Hua Liu, et al. A Geographically Explicit Genetic Model of Worldwide Human-Settlement
History. The American Journal of Human Genetics, volume 79 (2006), pages 230–237,
The southern part of East Africa was occupied until recent times by Khoisan
hunter-gatherers, whilst in the Ethiopian Highlands the donkey and such crop
plants as teff allowed the beginning of agriculture around 7,000 B.C.594
Lowland barriers and diseases carried by the tsetse fly, however, prevented
the donkey and agriculture from spreading southwards. Only in quite recent
times has agriculture spread to the more humid regions south of the equator,
through the spread of cattle, sheep and crops such as millet. Language
distributions suggest that this most likely occurred from Sudan into modern
Uganda and the African Great Lakes, since the Nilotic languages spoken by
these pre-Bantu farmers have their closest relatives in the middle Nile basin.
By 2000 years ago, Bantu-speaking peoples have spread agriculture from their
homeland in modern Cameroon and Nigeria across the Rwenzori Mountains
into those parts of East Africa either not reached previously by Nilo-Saharan
farmers or too wet for millet. During the following fifteen centuries, they
slowly intensified farming and grazing over all suitable regions of East Africa,
in the process making contact with Austronesian- and Arabic-speaking sailors
on the southern coastal areas. The latter also spread Islam to the coastal belt,
but most Bantu never had contact with the new religion and remained
animists.

Arab and Portuguese eras

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the region of current-day
Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique by sea, Vasco da Gama having visited
Mombasa in 1498. Gama's voyage was successful in reaching India and this
permitted the Portuguese to trade with the Far East directly by sea, thus
challenging older trading networks of mixed land and sea routes, such as the
spice trade routes that utilized the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and camel caravans
to reach the eastern Mediterranean.
The Republic of Venice had gained control over much of the trade routes
between Europe and Asia. After traditional land routes to India had been
closed by the Ottoman Turks, Portugal hoped to use the sea route pioneered
by Gama to break the once Venetian trading monopoly. Portuguese rule in
East Africa focused mainly on a coastal strip centred in Mombasa. The
Portuguese presence in East Africa officially began after 1505, when flagships
under the command of Don Francisco de Almeida conquered Kilwa, an island
located in what is now southern Tanzania.

594Diamond, Jared; Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies; p. 103; ISBN
0393038912
In March 1505, having received from Manuel I of Portugal the appointment of
viceroy of the newly conquered territory in India, he set sail from Lisbon in
command of a large and powerful fleet, and arrived in July at Quiloa (Kilwa),
which yielded to him almost without a struggle. A much more vigorous
resistance was offered by the Moors of Mombasa, but the town was taken and
destroyed, and its large treasures went to strengthen the resources of
Almeida. Attacks followed on Hoja (now known as Ungwana, located at the
mouth of the Tana River), Barawa, Angoche, Pate and other coastal towns
until the western Indian Ocean was a safe haven for Portuguese commercial
interests. At other places on his way, such as the island of Angediva, near Goa,
and Cannanore, the Portuguese built forts, and adopted measures to secure
the Portuguese supremacy.
Portugal's main goal in the east coast of Africa was take control of the spice
trade from the Arabs. At this stage, the Portuguese presence in East Africa
served the purposes of controlling trade within the Indian Ocean and securing
the sea routes linking Europe to Asia. Portuguese naval vessels were very
disruptive to the commerce of Portugal's enemies within the western Indian
Ocean and were able to demand high tariffs on items transported through the
sea due to their strategic control of ports and shipping lanes. The construction
of Fort Jesus in Mombasa in 1593 was meant to solidify Portuguese hegemony
in the region, but their influence was clipped by the British, Dutch and Omani
Arab incursions into the region during the 17th century.
The Omani Arabs posed the most direct challenge to Portuguese influence in
East Africa and besieged Portuguese fortresses, openly attacked naval vessels
and expelled the Portuguese from the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts by 1730.
By this time the Portuguese Empire had already lost its interest on the spice
trade sea route due to the decreasing profitability of that business. The Arabs
reclaimed much of the Indian Ocean trade, forcing the Portuguese to retreat
south where they remained in Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique) as sole
rulers until the 1975 independence of Mozambique.
Omani Arab colonization of the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts brought the
once independent city-states under closer foreign scrutiny and domination
than was experienced during the Portuguese period. Like their predecessors,
the Omani Arabs were primarily able only to control the coastal areas, not the
interior. However, the creation of clove plantations, intensification of the slave
trade and relocation of the Omani capital to Zanzibar in 1839 by Seyyid Said
had the effect of consolidating the Omani power in the region.
Arab governance of all the major ports along the East African coast continued
until British interests aimed particularly at ending the slave trade and
creation of a wage-labour system began to put pressure on Omani rule. By the
late nineteenth century, the slave trade on the open seas had been completely
outlawed by the British and the Omani Arabs had little ability to resist the
British navy's ability to enforce the directive. The Omani presence continued
in Zanzibar and Pemba until the 1964 revolution, but the official Omani Arab
presence in Kenya was checked by German and British seizure of key ports
and creation of crucial trade alliances with influential local leaders in the
1880s.
Period of European Imperialism
Between the 19th and 20th century, East Africa became a theatre of
competition between the major imperialistic European nations of the time.
During the period of the Scramble for Africa, almost every country comprising
present day East Africa to varying degrees became part of a European colonial
empire.
Portugal had first established a strong presence in southern Mozambique and
the Indian Ocean since the 15th century, while during this period their
possessions increasingly grew including parts from the present northern
Mozambique country, up to Mombasa in present day Kenya. At Lake Malawi,
they finally met the recently created British Protectorate of Nyasaland
(nowadays Malawi), which surrounded the homonymous lake on three sides,
leaving the Portuguese the control of lake's eastern coast. The British Empire
set foot in the region's most exploitable and promising lands acquiring what is
today Uganda, and Kenya. The Protectorate of Uganda and the Colony of
Kenya were located in a rich farmland area mostly appropriate for the
cultivation of cash crops like coffee and tea, as well as for animal husbandry
with products produced from cattle and goats, such as goat meat, beef and
milk. Moreover this area had the potential for a significant residential
expansion, being suitable for the relocation of a large number of British
nationals to the region. Prevailing climatic conditions and the regions'
geomorphology allowed the establishment of flourishing European style
settlements like Nairobi, Vila Pery, Vila Junqueiro, Porto Amélia, Lourenço
Marques and Entebbe.
The French settled the largest island of the Indian Ocean (and the fourth-
largest globally), Madagascar along with a group of smaller islands nearby,
namely Réunion and the Comoros. Madagascar – until then under British
control – became part of the French colonial empire being ceded in exchange
for the island of Zanzibar an important hub of spices trade, off the coast of
Tanganyika. The British as well held a number of island colonies in the region.
The Seychelles an extended archipelago and the rich farmland island of
Mauritius, previously under the French sovereignty, were as such.
The German Empire gained control of a large area named German East Africa,
comprising present-day Rwanda, Burundi and the mainland part of Tanzania
named Tanganyika. In 1922, the British gained a League of Nations mandate
over Tanganyika which it administered until Independence was granted to
Tanganyika in 1961. Following the Zanzibar Revolution of 1965, the
independent state of Tanganyika formed the United Republic of Tanzania by
creating a union between the mainland, and the island chain of Zanzibar.
Zanzibar is now a semi-autonomous state in a union with the mainland which
is collectively and commonly referred to as Tanzania. German East Africa,
though very extensive, was not of such strategic importance as the British
Crown's colonies to the north: the inhabitation of these lands was difficult and
thus limited, mainly due to climatic conditions and the local geomorphology.
Italy gained control of various parts of Somalia in the 1880s. The southern
three-fourths of Somalia became an Italian protectorate (Italian Somaliland).
Meanwhile, in 1884, a narrow coastal strip of northern Somalia came under
British control (British Somaliland). This northern protectorate was just
opposite the British colony of Aden on the Arabian Peninsula. With these
territories secured, Britain was able to serve as gatekeeper of the sea lane
leading to British India.
In 1890, beginning with the purchase of the small port town of (Asseb) from a
local sultan in Eritrea, the Italians colonized all of Eritrea.
In 1895, from bases in Somalia and Eritrea, the Italians launched the First
Italo–Ethiopian War against the Orthodox Empire of Ethiopia. By 1896, the
war had become a total disaster for the Italians and Ethiopia was able to
retain its independence. Ethiopia remained independent until 1936 when,
after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, it became part of Italian East Africa.
The Italian occupation of Ethiopia ended in 1941 during World War II as part
of the East African Campaign.
The French also staked out an East African outpost on the route to French
Indochina. Starting in the 1850s, the small protectorate of Djibouti became
French Somaliland in 1897.
Conflicts
Until recently most governments were illiberal and corrupt, and several
countries were riven with political coups, ethnic violence and oppressive
dictators. Since the end of colonialism, the region has endured the following
conflicts:
•Ethiopian Civil War
•Eritrean War of Independence
•Eritrean-Ethiopian War
•Ogaden War
•Somali Civil War
•Second Sudanese Civil War
•Uganda-Tanzania War (Liberation War)
•Ugandan Bush War (Resistance War)
•Darfur Conflict in Sudan
•Burundi Civil War
•Lord's Resistance Army insurgency in Uganda
•Rwandan Genocide
Kenya has enjoyed relatively stable governance. However, politics have been
turbulent at times, including the attempted coup d’état in 1982 and the 2007
election riots.
Tanzania has known stable government since independence although there
are significant political and religious tensions resulting from the political
union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. Zanzibar is now a semi-
autonomous state in the United Republic of Tanzania. Tanzania and Uganda
fought the Uganda-Tanzania War in 1978–1979, which led to the removal of
Uganda's despotic leader Idi Amin.
Djibouti as well as the autonomous Puntland and Somaliland regions in
northern Somalia have also seen relative stability.595596

See also
•Horn of Africa
•Aksumite Empire
•Ajuuraan State
•Land of Punt
•Arab slave trade
•German East Africa

595Canada's Africa Oil starts Somalia seismic survey - Reuters

596Economic Recovery and the Role of the State
•British East Africa
•East African Campaign (World War I)
•Italian East Africa
•East African Campaign (World War II)
•Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
•East African Community

History of Southern Africa

The history of Africa begins with the first emergence of Homo sapiens in
East Africa, continuing into the present as a patchwork of diverse and
politically developing nation states.
The history of Africa has been a challenge for researchers in the field of
African studies due to the scarcity of written sources in large parts of Sub-
Saharan Africa. Scholarly techniques such as the recording of oral history,
historical linguistics, archaeology and genetics have been crucial.

Prehistory

Paleolithic
According to paleontology, early hominids' skull anatomy was similar to their
close cousins, the great African forest apes, the gorilla and chimpanzee, but
the hominids had adopted a bipedal locomotion and freed their hands. This
gave them a crucial advantage, enabling them to live in both forested areas
and on the open savanna at a time when Africa was drying up and the savanna
was encroaching on forested areas. This occurred 10 to 5 million years ago.597
By 3 million years ago, several australopithecine (southern ape) hominid
species had developed throughout southern, eastern and central Africa. They
were tool users, not makers of tools. They scavenged for meat and were
omnivores.598
By approximately 2.3 million years ago, primitive stone tools were first used to
scavenge kills made by other predators and to harvest carrion and marrow for
their bones. In hunting, Homo habilis was probably not capable of competing
with large predators, and was still more prey than hunter. H. habilis probably
did steal eggs from nests, and may have been able to catch small game, and
weakened larger prey (cubs and older animals). The tools were classed as
Oldowan.599

597Shillington, Kevin (2005), History of Africa, p. 2. Rev. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-59957-8.
598Shillington (2005), p. 2.
599
Around 1.8 million years ago Homo ergaster first appeared in the fossil record
in Africa. From Homo ergaster, Homo erectus (upright man) evolved 1.5
million years ago. Some of the earlier representatives of this species were still
fairly small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like H. habilis. The
brain later grew in size, and H. erectus eventually developed a more complex
stone tool technology called the Acheulean. Possibly the first hunters, H.
erectus mastered the art of making fire, and was the first hominid to leave
Africa, colonizing most of the Old World, and perhaps later giving rise to
Homo floresiensis. Although some recent writers suggest that Homo
georgicus was the first and most primitive hominid to ever live outside Africa,
many scientists consider H. georgicus to be an early and primitive member of
the H. erectus species.600601
The fossil record shows Homo sapiens living in southern and eastern Africa at
least 100,000 and possibly 150,000 years ago. Around 40,000 years ago, the
species' expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by
modern human beings. By 10,000 BCE, Homo sapiens has spread to all
corners of the world. Their migration is traced by linguistic, cultural and
(increasingly) computer-analyzed genetic evidence.602603604

Emergence of agriculture
Around 16,000 BCE, from the Red Sea hills to the northern Ethiopian
highlands, nuts, grasses and tubers were being collected for food. By 13,000-
11,000 BCE, people began collecting wild grains. This spread to southwest
Asia, which domesticated its wild grains, wheat and barley. Between 10,000
and 8,000 BCE, northeast Africa was cultivating wheat and barley and raising
sheep and cattle from southwest Asia. A wet climatic phase in Africa turned
the Ethiopian highlands into a mountain forest. Omotic speakers domesticated
enset around 6500-5500 BCE. Around 7000 BCE, the settlers of the Ethiopian
highlands domesticated donkeys, and by 4000 BCE domesticated donkeys had
spread to southwest Asia. Cushitic speakers, partially turning away from
cattle herding, domesticated teff and finger millet between 5500 and 3500
BCE.605606

600Shillington (2005), p. 3.
601Ehret, Christopher (2002), The Civilizations of Africa, p. 22. Charlottesville: University of
Virginia. ISBN 0-8139-2085-X.
602
603The genetic studies by Luca Cavalli-Sforza are considered pioneering in tracing the spread
of modern humans from Africa.
604Sarah A. Tishkoff,* Floyd A. Reed, Françoise R. Friedlaender, Christopher Ehret, Alessia
Ranciaro, Alain Froment, Jibril B. Hirbo, Agnes A. Awomoyi, Jean-Marie Bodo, Ogobara
Doumbo, Muntaser Ibrahim, Abdalla T. Juma, Maritha J. Kotze, Godfrey Lema, Jason H.
Moore, Holly Mortensen, Thomas B. Nyambo, Sabah A. Omar, Kweli Powell, Gideon S.
Pretorius, Michael W. Smith, Mahamadou A. Thera, Charles Wambebe, James L. Weber, Scott
M. Williams. The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans. Published
30 April 2009 on Science Express.
605Diamond, Jared (1997), Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, pp. 126-
127. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-03891-2.
606Ehret (2002), pp. 64-75, 80-81, 87-88.
In the steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel, the Nilo-Saharan
speakers started to collect and domesticate wild millet and sorghum between
8000 and 6000 BCE. Later, gourds, watermelons, castor beans, and cotton
were also collected and domesticated. The people started capturing wild
cattle and holding them in circular thorn hedges, resulting in domestication.607
They also started making pottery. Fishing, using bone tipped harpoons,
became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the
increased rains.
In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in expanding rainforest and wooded
savannah from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9000 and 5000 BCE, Niger-
Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Two seed plants,
black-eyed peas and voandzeia(African groundnuts) were domesticated,
followed by okra and kola nuts. Since most of the plants grew in the forest,
the Niger-Congo speakers invented polish stone axes for clearing forest.608
Most of Southern Africa was occupied by pygmy peoples and Khoisan who
engaged in hunting and gathering. Some of the oldest rock art was produced
by them.609
Just prior to Saharan desertification, the communities that developed south of
Egypt, in what is now modern day Sudan, were full participants in the
Neolithic revolution and lived a settled to semi-nomadic lifestyle, with
domesticated plants and animals.610 It has been suggested that megaliths
found at Nabta Playa are examples of the world's first known
archaeoastronomical devices, predating Stonehenge by some 1000 years.[6]
The sociocultural complexity observed at Nabta Playa and expressed by
different levels of authority within the society there has been suggested as
forming the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and
the Old Kingdom of Egypt.611
By 5000 BCE, Africa entered a dry phase, and the climate of the Sahara region
gradually became drier. The population trekked out of the Sahara region in all
directions, including towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract,
where they made permanent or semipermanent settlements. A major climatic
recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in central and
eastern Africa. Since then, dry conditions have prevailed in eastern Africa.

607Ehret (2002), pp. 64-75.

608Ehret (2002), pp. 82-84.
609Ehret (2002), pp. 94, 95.
610Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith
611Late Neolithic megalithic structures at Nabta Playa - Wendorf (1998)
Metallurgy
The first metals to be smelted in Africa were lead, copper, and bronze in the
fourth millennium BCE.612 Smelting of copper and its alloy arose in northern
Africa, from southwest Asia ro the Aïr Mountains north of Nigeria. Copper was
already being smelted in Egypt during the predynastic period, and bronze
came into use not long after 3000 BCE at the latest613 in Egypt and Nubia.
Nubia was a major source of copper, as well as gold.614 The use of gold and
silver in Egypt also dates back to the predynastic period.615616
In the region of the Aïr Mountains in Niger, copper was being smelted
independently of developments in the Nile valley between 3000 and 2500
BCE. The process used was not well developed, indicating that it was not
brought from outside the region; it became more mature by about the 1500
BCE.617
By the 1st millennium BCE, iron-working had been introduced in northwestern
Africa, Egypt, and Nubia.618 In 670 BCE, Nubians were pushed out of Egypt by
Assyrians using iron weapons, after which the use of iron in the Nile valley
became widespread.
The notion of iron spreading to Sub-Saharan Africa via the Nubian city of
Meroe is no longer widely accepted. Metalworking in West Africa has been
dated as early as 2500 BCE at Egaro west of Termit in Niger, and iron-
working was practiced there by 1500 BCE.619
In addition, iron smelting was developed in the area between Lake Chad and
the African Great Lakes between 1000 and 600 BCE, long before it reached
Egypt. Before 500 BCE, Nok culture in the Jos Plateau was already smelting
iron.620621

Antiquity

612Nicholson, Paul T, and Ian Shaw (2000), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, p.
168. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45257-1.
613Nicholson and Shaw (2000), pp. 149–160
614http://wysinger.homestead.com/nubians.html
615Nicholson and Shaw (2000), pp. 161–165, 170.
616Ehret (2002), pp. 136-137.
617Ehret (2002), pp. 136, 137.
618Martin and O'Meara. "Africa, 3rd Ed." Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995.
619Iron in Africa: Revising the History, UNESCO Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en
Afrique, Une ancienneté méconnue: Afrique de l'Ouest et Afrique centrale.
620Shillington (2005), pp. 37-39.
621O'Brien, Patrick Karl (2002), Atlas of World History, pp. 22-23. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0-19-521921-X.
Egypt
After the desertification of the Sahara, settlement became concentrated in the
Nile Valley, where numerous sacral chiefdoms appeared. The regions with the
largest population pressure were in the delta region of lower Egypt, in upper
Egypt, and also along the second and third cataracts of the Dongola reach of
the Nile in Nubia. This population pressure and growth was brought about by
the cultivation of southwest Asian crops, including wheat and barley, and the
raising of sheep, goats, and cattle. Population growth led to competition for
farm land and the need to regulate farming. Regulation was established by the
formation of bureaucracies among sacral chiefdoms. The first and most
powerful of the chiefdoms was Ta-Seti, founded around 3500 BCE. The idea of
sacral chiefdom spread throughout upper and lower Egypt.622
Later consolidation of the chiefdoms into broader political entities began to
occur in upper and lower Egypt, culminating into the unification of Egypt into
one political entity by Narmer (Menes) in 3100 BCE. Instead being viewed as
a sacral chief, he became a divine king. The henotheism, or worship of a single
god within a polytheistic system, practiced in the sacral chiefdoms along
upper and lower Egypt, became the polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt.
Bureaucracies became more centralized under the pharaohs, run by viziers,
governors, tax collectors, generals, artists, and technicians. They engaged in
tax collecting, organizing of labor for major public works, and building
irrigation systems, pyramids, temples, and canals. During the Fourth Dynasty
(2620-2480 BCE), long distance trade was developed, with the Levant for
timber, with Nubia for gold and skins, with Punt for frankincense, and also
with the western Libyan territories. For most of the Old Kingdom, Egypt
developed her fundamental systems, institutions and culture, always through
the central bureaucracy and by the divinity of the Pharaoh.623
After the third millennium BCE, Egypt started to extend direct military and
political control over her southern and western neighbors. By 2200 BCE, the
Old Kingdom's stability was undermined by rivalry among the governors of the
nomes who challenged the power of pharaohs and by invasions of Asiatics into
the delta. The First Intermediate Period had begun, a time of political division
and uncertainty.624

622Ehret (2002), pp. 143-46.

623Davidson, Basil (1991), Africa In History: Themse and Outlines, pp. 30-33. Revised and
expanded ed. New York: Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-82667-4
624
By 2130, the period of stagnation was endedby Mentuhotep, the first Pharaoh
of the 11th dynasty, and the emergence of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramid
building resumed, long-distance trade re-emerged, and the center of power
moved from Memphis to Thebes. Connections with the southern regions of
Kush, Wawat and Irthet at the second cataract were made stronger. Then
came the Second Intermediate Period, with the invasion of the Hyksos on
horse-drawn chariots and utilizing bronze weapons, a technology not yet seen
in Egypt. Horse-drawn chariots soon spread to the west in the inhabitable
Sahara and North Africa. The Hyksos failed to hold on to their Egyptian
territories and were absorbed by Egyptian society. This eventually led to one
of Egypt's most powerful phases, the New Kingdom (1580-1080 BCE), with the
Eighteenth Dynasty. Egypt became a superpower controlling Nubia and
Palestine while exerting political influence on the Libyans to the West and on
the Mediterranean.625
As before, the New Kingdom ended with invasion from the west by Libyan
princes, leading to the Third Intermediate Period. Beginning with Shoshenq I,
the Twenty-second Dynasty was established. It ruled for two centuries.626
To the south, Nubian independence and strength was being reasserted. This
reassertion led to the conquest of Egypt by Nubia, begun by Kashta and
completed by Piye (Pianhky, 751-730 BCE) and Shabaka (716-695 BCE). This
was the birth of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The Nubians tried to re-
establish Egyptian traditions and customs. They ruled Egypt for a hundred
years. This was ended by an Assyrian invasion, with Taharqa experiencing the
full might of Assyrian iron weapons. The Nubian pharaoh Tantamani was the
last of the Twenty Fifth Dynasty.627
When the Assyrians and Nubians left, a new Twenty-sixth Dynasty emerged
from Sais. It lasted until 525 BCE, when Egypt was invaded by the Persians.
Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians stayed. In 332, Egypt was conquered by
Alexander of Macedon. This was the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty,
which ended with Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Pharaonic Egypt had come to
an end.628

625
626
627
628
Nubia
Around 3500 BCE, one of the first sacral kingdoms to arise in the Nile was Ta-
Seti, located in northern Nubia. Ta-Seti was a powerful sacral kingdom in the
Nile Valley at the 1st and 2nd cataracts that exerted an influence over nearby
chiefdoms. Based on its pictorial representation, it claimed to have ruled over
Upper Egypt. Ta-Seti traded as far as Syro-Palestine, as well as with Egypt.
Ta-Seti exported gold, copper, ostrich feathers, ebony and ivory to the Old
Kingdom. By the 32nd century BCE, Ta-Seti was in decline. After the
unification of Egypt by Narmer in 3100 BCE, Ta-Seti was invaded by the
Pharaoh Hor-Aha of the First Dynasty, destroying the final remnants of the
kingdom. Ta-Seti is affiliated with A-Group culture known to archaeology.629
Small sacral kingdoms continued to dot the Nubian portion of the Nile for
centuries after 3000 BCE. Around the latter part of the third millennium,
there was further consolidation of the sacral kingdoms. Two kingdoms in
particular emerged: the Sai kingdom, immediately south of Egypt, and
Kingdom of Kerma at the third cataract. Sometime around the 18th century
BCE, the Kingdom of Kerma conquered the Kingdom of Sai, becoming a
serious rival to Egypt. Kerma occupied a territory from the first cataract to
the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and River Atbara. About 1575-
1550 BCE, during the later part of the Seventeenth Dynasty, the Kingdom of
Kerma invaded Egypt.630 The Kingdom of Kerma also allied itself with the
Hyksos invasion of Egypt.631
Egypt eventually re-energized under the Eigthteenth Dynasty and conquered
the Kingdom of Kerma or Kush, ruling it for almost 500 years. The Kushites
were Egyptianized during this period. By 1100 BCE, the Egyptians had
withdrawn from Kush. The region regained independence and reasserted its
culture. Kush built a new religion around Amun and made Napata its spiritual
center. In 730 BCE, the Kingdom of Kush invaded Egypt, taking over Thebes
and beginning the Nubian Empire. The empire extended from Palestine to the
confluences of the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and River Atbara.632
In 760 BCE, the Kushites were expelled from Egypt by iron-wielding
Assyrians. Later, the administrative capital was moved from Napata to Meröe,
developing into a new Nubian culture. Initially Meroites were highly
Egyptianized, but they subsequently began to take on distinctive features.
Nubia became a center of iron-making and cotton cloth manufacturing.
Egyptian writing was replaced by the Meroitic alphabet. The lion god
Apedemak was added to the Egyptian pantheon of gods. Trade links to the
Red Sea increased, linking Nubia with Mediterranean Greece and Rome. Its
architecture and art became more unique, with pictures of lions, ostriches,
giraffes, and elephants. Eventually with the rise of Aksum, Nubia's trade links
were broken and it suffered environmental degradation from the tree cutting
required for iron production. In 350 CE, the Aksumite king Ezana brought
Meröe to an end.633

629Ehret (2002), pp. 144, 145.

630Alberge, Dalya. Tomb Reveals Ancient Egypt's Humiliating Secret, The Times{London},
28 July 2003(Monday).
631Ehret (2002), pp. 148-151.
632Shillington (2005), pp. 40-41.
633Shillington (2005), pp. 42-45.
Carthage
The Egyptians referred to the people west of the Nile, ancestral to the
Berbers, as Libyans. The Libyans were agriculturalists like the Mauri of
Morocco and the Numidians of central and eastern Algeria and Tunis. They
were also nomadic, having the horse, and occupied the arid pastures and
desert, like the Gaetuli. Berber desert nomads were typically in conflict with
Berber coastal agriculturalists.634 The Phoenicians were seamen of the
Mediterranean. They were in constant search for valuable metals like copper,
gold, tin, and lead. Soon they began to populate the North African coast with
settlements, trading and mixing with the native Berber population. In 814
BCE, Phoenicians from Tyre established the city of Carthage. By 600 BCE,
Carthage had become a major trading entity and power in the Mediterranean,
largely due to trade with tropical Africa. Carthage's prosperity fostered the
growth of the Berber kingdoms, Numidia and Mauretania. Around 500 BCE,
Carthage provided a strong impetus for trade with sub-Saharan Africa. Berber
middlemen, who had maintained contacts with sub-Saharan Africa since the
desert had desiccated, utilized pack animals to transfer products from oasis to
oasis. Danger lurked from the Garamantes of Fez, who raided caravans. Salt
and metal goods were traded for gold, slaves, beads, and ivory.635
The Carthaginians were rivals to the Greeks and Romans. Carthage fought
three wars with Rome: the First Punic War (264 to 241 BCE), over Sicily; the
Second Punic War (218 BC to 201 BCE), in which Hannibal invaded Europe;
and the Third Punic War (149 B.C to 146 BCE). Carthage lost the first two
wars, and in the third it was destroyed, becoming the Roman province of
Africa, with the Berber Kingdom of Numidia assisting Rome. The Roman
province of Africa became a major agricultural supplier of wheat, olives, and
olive oil to imperial Rome via exorbitant taxation. Two centuries later, Rome
brought the Berber kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania under its authority.
In the 420s CE, Vandals invaded North Africa and Rome lost her territories.
The Berber kingdoms subsequently regained their independence.636
Christianity gained a foothold in Africa at Alexandria in the 1st century CE
and spread to northwest Africa. By 313 CE, with the Edict of Milan, all of
Roman North Africa was Christian. Egyptians adopted Monophysite
Christianity and formed the independent Coptic Church. Berbers adopted
Donatist Christianity. Both groups refused to accept the authority of the
Roman Church. In 642 CE, Arab Muslims conquered Byzantine Egypt, and by
711 CE they had conquered all of North Africa. By the 10th century, the
majority of population of North Africa was Muslim.637

634Iliffe, John (2007), Africans: The History of a Continent, p. 30. 2nd ed. New
York:Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68297-8.
635Shillington (2005), pp. 63-65.
636Shillington (2005), pp. 65.
637Shillington (2005), pp. 65-67, 72-75.
Somalia
In antiquity, the ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the
Horn of Africa connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the ancient
world. Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense,
myrrh and spices, all of which were valuable luxuries to the Ancient
Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians.638639
In the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone,
Mosyllon and Malao competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for
the rich Indo-Greco-Roman trade.640
The birth of Islam opposite Somalia's Red Sea coast meant that Somali
merchants and sailors living on the Arabian Peninsula gradually came under
the influence of the new religion through their converted Arab Muslim trading
partners. With the migration of Muslim families from the Islamic world to
Somalia in the early centuries of Islam, and the peaceful conversion of the
Somali population by Somali Muslim scholars in the following centuries, the
ancient city-states eventually transformed into Islamic Mogadishu, Berbera,
Zeila, Barawa and Merka, which were part of the Berber (the medieval Arab
term for the ancestors of the modern Somalis) civilization.641642 The city of
Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islam,643 and controlled the East
African gold trade for several centuries.644

Aksum
Aksumite Empire

638Phoenicia, pg. 199.

639Rose, Jeanne, and John Hulburd, The Aromatherapy Book, p. 94.
640Vine, Peter, Oman in History, p. 324.
641
642I.M. Lewis, A modern history of Somalia: nation and state in the Horn of Africa, 2nd
edition, revised, illustrated, (Westview Press: 1988), p.20
643Brons, Maria (2003), Society, Security, Sovereignty and the State in Somalia: From
Statelessness to Statelessness?, p. 116.
644Morgan, W. T. W. (1969), East Africa: Its Peoples and Resources, p. 18.
The earliest state in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia was D'mt, dated around the
eighth and 7th centuries BCE. D'mt traded through the Red Sea with Egypt
and the Mediterranean, providing frankincense. By the fifth and 3rd centuries,
D'mt had declined, and several successor states took its place. Later there
was greater trade with southern Arabia, mainly with the port of Saba. Adulis
became an important commercial center in the Ethiopian highlands. The
interaction of the peoples in the two regions, the southern Arabia Sabaeans
and the northern Ethiopians, resulted in the Ge'ez culture and language and
eventual development of the Ge'ez script. Trade links increased and expanded
from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, with Egypt, Greece, and Rome, to the
Black Sea, and to Persia, India, and China. Aksum was known throughout
those lands. By the 5th century BCE, the region was very prosperous,
exporting ivory, hippopotamus hides, gold dust, spices, and live elephants. It
imported silver, gold, olive oil, and wine. Aksum manufactured glass crystal,
brass, and copper for export. A powerful Aksum emerged, unifying parts of
eastern Sudan, northern Ethiopia (Tigre), and Eritrea. Its kings built stone
palatial buildings and were buried under megalithic monuments. By 300 CE,
Aksum was minting its own coins in silver and gold.645
In 331 CE, King Ezana(320-350 CE) was converted to Monophysite
Christianity supposedly by Frumentius and Aedesius, who were stranded on
the Red Sea coast. Some scholars believed the process was more complex and
gradual than a simple conversion. Around 350, the time Ezana sacked Meroe,
the Syrian monastic tradition took root within the Ethiopian church. 646
In the 6th century, Aksum was powerful enough to add Saba on the Arabian
peninsula to her empire. At the end of the 6th century, the Persians pushed
Aksum out of peninsula. With the spread of Islam through western Asia and
northern Africa, Aksum's trading networks in the Mediterranean were closed.
The Red Sea trade diminished as it was diverted to the Persian Gulf and
dominated by Arabs, causing Aksum to decline. By 800 CE, the capital was
moved south, into the interior highlands, and Aksum was much diminished. 647

West Africa and Bantu Expansion

In the western Sahel, the rise of settled communities was largely due to the
domestication of millet and sorghum. Archaeology points to sizable urban
populations in West Africa beginning in the 2nd millenium BCE. Symbiotic
trade relations developed before the trans-Saharan trade, in response to the
opportunities afforded by north-south diversity in ecosystems across deserts,
grasslands, and forests. The salt-starved agriculturists received salt from the
desert nomads. The protein-starved desert nomads acquired meat and other
foods from pastoralists and farmers of the grasslands and from fishermen on
the Niger River. The forest dwellers provided furs and meat.648

645Collins, Robert O., and James M. Burns (2007), A History of Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 66-71.
New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68708-9.
646Iliffe (2007), p. 41.
647Shillington (2005), pp. 66-71.
648Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 79-80.
Tichit(Dhar Tichitt) was prominent among the early urban centers, dated to
2000 BCE, in present day Mauritania. About 500 hundred stone settlements
litter the region in what was once a rainier Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and
grew millet. Around 300 BCE, the region became more desiccated and the
settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. From
the type of architecture and pottery, it is believed that Tichit was related to
the subsequent Ghana Empire. Old Jenne (Djenne) began to be settled around
300 BCE, producing iron and with sizable population, evidenced in crowded
cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BCE, Jenne
was a large, thriving market town.649650
Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1000 BCE, the Nok culture
developed on the Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok
people produced miniature lifelike representations in terracotta, including
human heads, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BCE, they were smelting
iron. By 200 CE, the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities
with Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of Ife and Benin are believed to be
continuation of the tradition.651
The Bantu expansion was a critical movement of people in African history and
the settling of the continent. Bantu is a branch of the Niger-Congo family.
"Bantu" comes from the root word ntu, which means people. The expansion
began in the second millennium BCE, from Cameroon. Its first thrust was
eastward to the Great Lakes region in the second millennium BCE. In the first
millennium BCE, Bantu languages spread from the Great Lakes to southern
and east Africa. An early expansion was south to the upper Zambezi valley in
the 2nd century BCE. Then, Bantu speakers pushed westward to the
savannahs of present-day Angola and eastward into Malawi, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe in the 1st century CE. The second thrust from the Great Lakes was
eastward, 2,000 years ago, expanding to the Indian Ocean coast and Tanzania.
The eastern group eventually met the southern migrants from the Great Lakes
in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Both groups continued southward, with
eastern group continuing to Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd
century CE, and rexpanding as far as Durban. By the later first millennium
CE, the expansion had reached the Great Kei River of South Africa. Sorghum,
a major Bantu crop, could not thrive under the regime of winter rainfall of
Namibia and the western Cape. Khoisan people inhabited the remaining parts
of southern Africa. The Bantu expansion was complex, gradual, and not simply
linear in detail.652

Medieval

North Africa

649Iliffe, John (2007). pp. 49,50

650Collins and Burns (2007), p. 78.
651Shillington, Kevin (2005), p. 39.
652Iliffe (2007), pp. 34, 35.
Maghreb (the West)
By the 9th century CE, the unity brought about by the Islamic conquest of
North Africa and the expansion of Islamic culture came to an end. Conflict
arose as to who should be the successor of the prophet. The Umayyads had
initially taken control of the Caliphate, with their capital at Damascus. Later,
the Abbasids had taken control, moving the capital to Baghdad. The Berber
people, being independent in spirit and hostile to outside interference in their
affairs and to Arab exclusivity in orthodox Islam, adopted Shi'ite and Kharijite
Islam, both considered unorthodox and hostile to the authority of the Abbasid
Caliphate. Numerous Kharijite kingdoms came and fell during the eighth and
9th centuries, asserting their independence from Baghdad. In the early 10th
century, Shi'ite groups from Syria, claiming descent from Muhammad's
daughter Fatima, founded the Fatimid Dynasty in the Maghreb. By 950, they
had conquered all of the Maghreb, and by 969 all of Egypt. They had
immediately broken away from Baghdad.653
In an attempt to bring about a purer form of Islam among the Sanhaja
Berbers, Abdallah ibn Yasin founded the Almoravid movement in present-day
Mauritania and Western Sahara. The Sanhaja Berbers, like the Soninke,
practiced an indigenous religion along side Islam. Abdallah ibn Yasin found
ready converts in the Lamtuna Sanhaja, who were dominated by the Soninke
in the south and the Zenata Berbers in the north. By the 1040s, all of the
Lamtuna was converted to the Almoravid movement. With the help of Yahya
ibn Umar and his brother Abu Bakr ibn Umar, the sons of the Lamtuna chief,
the Almoravids created an empire extending from the Sahel to the
Mediterranean. After the death of Abdallah ibn Yassin and Yahya ibn Umar,
Abu Bakr split the empire in half, between himself and Yusuf ibn Tashfin,
because it was too big to be ruled by one individual. Abu Bakr took the south
to continue fighting the Soninke, and Yusuf ibn Tashfin took the north,
expanding it to southern Spain. The death of Abu Bakr in 1087 saw a
breakdown of unity and increase military dissension in the south. This caused
a re-expansion of the Soninke. The Almoravids were once held responsible for
bringing down the Ghana Empire in 1076, but this view is no longer
credited.654
During the tenth through 13th centuries, there was a large-scale movement of
bedouins out of the Arabian Peninsula. About 1050, a quarter of a million Arab
nomads from Egypt moved into the Maghreb. Those following the northern
coast were referred to as Banu Hilal. Those going south of the Atlas
Mountains were the Banu Sulaym. This movement spread the use of the
Arabic language and hastened the decline of the Berber language and the
Arabisation of North Africa. Later an Arabised Berber group, the Hawwara,
went south to Nubia via Egypt.655

653Shillington (2005), pp. 75, 76.

654Shillington, Kevin (2005). p 90.
655Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 156, 157
In the 1140s, Abd al-Mu'min declared jihad on the Almoravids, charging them
with decadence and corruption. He united the northern Berbers against the
Almoravids, overthrowing them and forming the Almohad Empire. During this
period, the Maghreb became thoroughly Islamised, and saw the spread of
literacy, the development of algebra, and the use of the number zero and
decimals. By the 13th century, the Almohad states had split into three rival
states. Muslim states were largely extinguished in Spain by the Christian
kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Around 1415, Portugal engaged in
a reconquista of North Africa by capturing Ceuta, and in later centuries Spain
and Portugal acquired other ports on the North African coast. In 1492, Spain
defeated Muslims in Granada, effectively ending eight centuries of Muslim
domination in southern Iberia.656
Portugal and Spain took the ports of Tangiers, Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis. This
put them in direct competition with the Ottoman Empire, which re-took the
ports using Turkish corsairs (pirates and privateers). The Turkish corsairs
would use the ports for raiding Christian ships, a major source of booty for the
towns. Technically, North Africa was under the control of the Ottoman
Empire, but only the coastal towns were fully under Istanbul's control. Tripoli
benefited from trade with Borno. The pashas of Tripoli traded horses,
firearms, and armor via Fez with the sultans of the Bornu Empire for slaves.657
In the 16th century, an Arab nomad tribe that claimed descent from
Muhammad's daughter, the Saadis, conquered and united Morocco. They
prevented the Ottoman Empire from reaching to the Atlantic and expelled
Portugal from Morocco's western coast. Ahmad al-Mansur brought the state to
the height of its power. He invaded Songhay in 1591, to control the gold
trade, which had been diverted to the western coast of Africa for European
ships and to the east, to Tunis. Morocco's hold on Songhay diminished in the
17th century. In 1603, after Ahmad's death, the kingdom split into the two
sultanates of Fes and Marrakesh. Later it was reunited by Moulay al-Rashid,
founder of the Alaouite Dynasty (1672–1727). His brother and successor,
Ismail ibn Sharif(1672–1727), strengthen the unity of the country by importing
slaves from the Sudan to build up the military.658

656Shillington (2005), pp. 88-92.

657Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 166,167
658Shillington (2005), pp. 167, 168.
Egypt
Egypt under the Fatimid Caliphate was prosperous. Dams and canals were
repaired, and wheat, barley, flax, and cotton production increased. Egypt
became a major producer of linen and cotton cloth. Its Mediterranean and Red
Sea trade increased. Egypt also minted a gold currency called the Fatimid
dinar, which was used for international trade. The bulk of revenues came from
taxing the fellahin (peasant farmers), and taxes were high. Tax collecting was
leased to Berber overlords, who were soldiers who had taken part in the
Fatimid conquest in 969 CE. The overlords paid a share to the caliphs and
retain what was left. Eventually, they became landlords and constituted a
settled land aristocracy.659
To fill the military ranks, Mamluk Turkish slave cavalry and Sudanese slave
infantry were used. Berber freemen were also recruited. In 1150s, tax
revenues from farms diminished. The soldiers revolted and wreaked havoc in
the countryside, slowed trade, and diminished the power and authority of the
Fatimid caliphs.660
During the 1160s, Fatimid Egypt came under threat from European crusaders.
Out of this threat, a Kurdish general named Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb
(Saladin), with a small band of professional soldiers, emerged as an
outstanding Muslim defender. Saladin defeated the Christian crusaders at
Egypt's borders and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. On the death of the
Fatimid caliph in 1171, Saladin became the ruler of Egypt, ushering in the
Ayyubid Dynasty. Under his rule, Egypt returned to Sunni Islam, Cairo
became an important center of Arab Islamic learning, and Mamluk slaves
were increasingly recruited from Turkey and southern Russia for military
service. Support for the military was tied to the iqta, a form of land taxation in
which soldiers were given ownership in return for military service. 661
Over time, Mamluk slave soldiers became a very powerful landed aristocracy,
to the point of getting rid of the Ayyubid dynasty in 1250 and establishing a
Mamluk dynasty. The more powerful Mamluks were referred to as amirs. For
250 years, Mamluks controlled all of Egypt under a military dictatorship.
Egypt extended her territories to Syria and Palestine, thwarted the crusaders,
and halted a Mongol invasion in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut. Mamluk Egypt
came to be viewed as a protector of Islam, and of Medina and Mecca.
Eventually the iqta system declined and proved unreliable for providing an
adequate military. The Mamluks started viewing their iqta as hereditary and
became attuned to urban living. Farm production declined, and dams and
canal lapse into disrepair. Mamluk military skill and technology did not keep
pace with new technology of handguns and cannons.662

659Shillington, Kevin (2005), p. 157.

660Shillington (2005), p. 158.
661Shillington, Kevin (2005), pp. 158,159
662Shillington (2005), pp. 159-161.
With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt was easily defeated. In 1517,
Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul revived the iqta system.
Trade was reestablished in the Red Sea, but it could not completely connect
with Indian Ocean trade due to growing Portuguese presence. During the 17th
century and 18th century, hereditary Mamluks regain power. The leading
Mamluks were referred to as beys. Pashas, or viceroys, represented the
Istanbul government in name only, operating independently. During the 18th
century, dynasties of pashas became established. The government was weak
and corrupt.663
In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt. The local forces had little ability to resist
the French conquest. However, Britain and the Ottoman Empire were able
remove French occupation in 1801. These events marked the beginning of
19th-century Anglo-Franco rivalry over Egypt.664

Horn of Africa

Somalia
During this period, the sultanates and republics of Merca, Mogadishu,
Barawa, Hobyo and their respective ports flourished and had a lucrative
foreign commerce with ships sailing to and coming from Arabia, India,
Venice,665 Persia, Egypt, Portugal and as far away as China. Vasco da Gama,
who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city
with houses four or five storeys high and big palaces in its centre, in addition
to many mosques with cylindrical minarets.666
In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from the Kingdom
of Cambaya in modern-day India sailed to Mogadishu with cloth and spices,
for which they in return received gold, wax, and ivory. Barbosa also
highlighted the abundance of meat, wheat, barley, horses, and fruit in the
coastal markets, which generated enormous wealth for the merchants. 667
Mogadishu, the center of a thriving weaving industry known as toob benadir
(specialized for the markets in Egypt and Syria),668 together with Merca and
Barawa, also served as a transit stop for Swahili merchants from Mombasa
and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa.669 Jewish merchants from the
Strait of Hormuz brought their Indian textiles and fruit to the Somali coast to
exchange for grain and wood.670

663Shillington (2005), p. 161.

664Shillington (2005), p. 162.
665Journal of African History p. 50, by John Donnelly Fage and Roland Anthony Oliver.
666Da Gama's First Voyage p. 88.
667East Africa and its Invaders, p. 38.
668Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa pg.35
669The return of Cosmopolitan Capital:Globalization, the State and War, p. 22.
670The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century, by R. J. Barendse.
Trading relations were established with Malacca in the 15th century,671 with
cloth, ambergris, and porcelain being the main commodities of the trade.672
Giraffes, zebras, and incense were exported to the Ming Empire of China,
which established Somali merchants as leaders in the commerce between the
Asia and Africa673 and influenced the Chinese language with borrowings from
the Somali language in the process. Hindu merchants from Surat and
southeast African merchants from Pate, seeking to bypass both the
Portuguese blockade and Omani meddling, used the Somali ports of Merca
and Barawa (which were out of the two powers' jurisdiction) to conduct their
trade in safety and without interference.674

Ethiopia
The Zagwe dynasty ruled many parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea from
approximately 1137 to 1270. The name of the dynasty comes from the Cushitic
speaking Agaw people of northern Ethiopia. From 1270 AD on for many
centuries, Solomonic dynasty ruled the Ethiopian Empire.
In the early fifteenth century Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic contact with
European kingdoms for the first time since Aksumite times. A letter from King
Henry IV of England to the Emperor of Abyssinia survives.675 In 1428, the
Emperor Yeshaq sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon, who sent return
emissaries who failed to complete the return trip. 676 The first continuous
relations with a European country began in 1508 with Portugal under
Emperor Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father.677
This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was
subjected to the attacks of the Adal General and Imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-
Ghazi (called "Grañ", or "the Left-handed"), Portugal assisted the Ethiopian
emperor by sending weapons and four hundred men, who helped his son
Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule.678 This Ethiopian–Adal
War was also one of the first proxy wars in the region as the Ottoman Empire
and Portugal took sides in the conflict. However, when Emperor Susenyos
converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest
followed resulting in thousands of deaths.679 The Jesuit missionaries had
offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on June 25, 1632,
Susenyos's son, Emperor Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be
Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and
other Europeans.680681

671Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, p. 30.

672Chinese Porcelain Marks from Coastal Sites in Kenya: aspects of trade in the Indian
Ocean, XIV-XIX centuries. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1978 p. 2.
673East Africa and its Invaders, p. 37.
674Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, p. 45.
675Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV (2007), p.111
676Girma Beshah and Merid Wolde Aregay, The Question of the Union of the Churches in
Luso-Ethiopian Relations (1500–1632) (Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar and Centro
de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1964), pp. 13–4.
677Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 25.
678Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 45–52.
679Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, pp. 91, 97–104.
680Girma and Merid, Question of the Union of the Churches, p. 105.
681van Donzel, Emeri, "Fasilädäs" in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha
(Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), p. 500.
East Africa

Christian and Islamic Nubia

Christian Nubia and nile
After Ezana of Aksum sacked Meroe, people associated with the site of
Ballana moved into Nubia from the southwest and founded three kingdoms:
Makuria, Nobatia, and Alodia. They would rule for 200 years. Makuria was
above the third cataract, along the Dongola Reach with its capital at Dongola.
Nobadia was to the north with its capital at Faras, and Alodia was to the south
with its capital at Soba. Makuria would eventually absorb Nobadia. The people
of the region converted to Monophysite Christianity around 500 to 600 CE.
The church initially started writing in Coptic, then in Greek, and finally in Old
Nubian, a Nilo-Saharan language. The church was aligned with the Egyptian
Coptic Church.682683
By 641, Egypt was conquered by Muslim Arabs. This effectively blocked
Christian Nubia and Aksum from Mediterranean Christendom. In 651-652,
Arabs from Egypt invaded Christian Nubia. Nubian archers soundly defeated
the invaders. The Baqt (or Bakt) Treaty was drawn, recognizing Christian
Nubia and regulating trade. The treaty controlled relations between Christian
Nubia and Islamic Egypt for almost six hundred years.684
By the 13th century, Christian Nubia began its decline. The authority of the
monarchy was diminished by the church and nobility. Arab bedouin tribes
began to infiltrate Nubia, causing further havoc. Fakirs (holy men) practicing
Sufism introduced Islam into Nubia. By 1366, Nubia had become divided into
petty fiefdoms when she was invaded by Mamelukes. During the 15th century,
Nubia was open to Arab immigration. Arab nomads intermingled with the
population and introduced the Arabic culture and language. By the 16th
century, Makuria and Nobadia had been Islamized. During the 16th century,
Abdallah Jamma headed an Arab confederation that destroyed Soba, capital of
Alodia, the last holdout of Christian Nubian. Later Alodia would fall under the
Funj Sultanate.685
During the 15th century, Funj herders migrated north to Alodia and occupied
it. Between 1504 and 1505, the kingdom expanded, reaching its peak and
establishing its capital at Sennar under Badi II Abu Daqn (c. 1644-1680). By
end of the 16th century, the Funj had converted to Islam. They pushed their
empire westward to Kordofan. They expanded eastward, but were halted by
Ethiopia. They controlled Nubia down to the 3rd Cataract. The economy
depended on captured enemies to fill the army and on merchants travelling
through Sennar. Under Badi IV (1724–1762), the army turned on the king,
making him nothing but a figurehead. In 1821, the Funj were conquered by
Muhammad Ali (1805–1849), Pasha of Egypt.686687

682Shillington (2005), p. 67
683Ehret (2002), p. 305.
684Collins and Burns (2007), p. 77.
685Collins and Burns 2007, p. 77.
686Page, Willie F.(2001). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture:From Conquest to
Colonization (1500-1850).New York:Learning Source Books, p. 88, ISBN 0-8160-4472-4.
687Lye, Keith(2002). Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilization. New York: The
Swahili Coast
Historically, the Swahili people could be found as far north as northern Kenya,
and as far south as the Ruvuma River in Mozambique. Arab geographers
referred to the Swahili coast as the land of the zanj (blacks).688 Although once
believed to be the descendants of Persian colonists, the ancient Swahili are
now recognized by most historians, historical linguists, and archaeologists as
a Bantu people who had sustained and important interactions with Muslim
merchants, beginning in the late seventh and early 8th centuries CE. Medieval
Swahili kingdoms are known to have had island trade ports, described by
Greek historians as "metropolises", and to have established regular trade
routes689 with the Islamic world and Asia.690 Famous African trade ports such
as Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Kilwa691 were known to Chinese sailors under
Zheng He and medieval Islamic geographers such as the Berber traveller Abu
Abdullah ibn Battuta.692 The main Swahili exports were ivory, slaves, and gold.
They traded with Arabia, India, Persia, and China.
The Portuguese arrived in 1498. On a mission to economically control and
Christianize the Swahili coast, the Portuguese attacked Kilwa first in 1505 and
other cities later. Due to Swahili resistance, the Portuguese attempt at
establishing commercial control was never successful. By the late 17th
century, Portuguese authority on the Swahili coast began to diminish. With
the help of Omani Arabs, by 1729 the Portuguese presence had been removed.
The Swahili coast eventually became part of the Sultinate of Oman. Trade
recovered, but it did not regain the levels of the past.693

Madagascar and Merina

Madagascar was apparently first settled by Austronesian speakers from
southeast Asia before the 6th century CE, and subsequently by Bantu
speakers from the east African mainland in the sixth or 7th century, according
to archaeological and linguistic data. The Austronesians introduced banana
and rice cultivation, and the Bantu speakers introduced cattle and other
farming practices. About 1000, Arab and Indian trade settlement were started
in northern Madagascar to exploit the Indian Ocean trade.694 By the 14th
century, Islam was introduced on the island by traders. Madagascar
functioned in the East African medieval period as a contact port for the other
Swahili seaport city-states such as Sofala, Kilwa, Mombasa, and Zanzibar.
Several kingdoms emerged after the 15th century: the Sakalava Kingdom
(16th century) on the west coast, Tsitambala Kingdom (17th century) on the
east coast, and Merina (15th century) in the central highlands. By the 19th
century, Merina controlled the whole island. In 1500, the Portuguese were the
first Europeans on the island, raiding the trading settlements.695

Diagram Group, p. 189 ISBN 0-8160-4568-2.

688Collins and Burns (2007), p. 103.
689Eastern and Southern Africa 500-1000 AD.
690Tanzanian dig unearths ancient secret by Tira Shubart .
691A History of Mozambique
692Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354.
693Page, Willie F.(2001). p. 263,264
694Shillington (2005), p. 135.
695
The British and later the French arrived. During the latter part of the 17th
century, Madagascar was a popular transit point for pirates. Radama I (1810–
1828) invited Christian missionaries in the early 19th century. Queen
Ranavalona I "the Cruel" (1828–61) banned the practice of Christianity in the
kingdom, and an estimated 150,000 Christians perished. Under Radama II
(1861–1863), Madagascar took a French orientation, with great commercial
concession given to the French. In 1895, in the second Franco-Hova War, the
French invaded Madagascar, taking over Antsiranana (Diego Suarez) and
declaring Madagascar a protectorate.696

Lake Plateau states & empires

Kitara and Bunyoro

By 1000 CE, numerous states had arisen on the Lake Plateau among the Great
Lakes of East Africa. Cattle herding, cereal growing, and banana cultivation
were the economic mainstays of these states. The Ntusi and Bigo earthworks
are representative of one of the first states, the Bunyoro kingdom, which oral
tradition stipulates was part of the Empire of Kitara that dominated the whole
lakes region. A Luo ethnic elite, from the Bito clan, ruled over the Bantu-
speaking Nyoro people. The society was essentially Nyoro in its culture, based
on the evidence from pottery, settlement patterns, and economic
specialization.697
The Bito clan claimed legitimacy by being descended from the Bachwezi clan,
who were said to have ruled the Empire of Kitara. However, very little is
known about Kitara; some scholars even question its historical existence. Most
founding leaders of the various polities in the lake region seem to have
claimed descent from the Bachwezi.698

Buganda
The Buganda kingdom was founded by the Ganda or Baganda people around
the 14th century CE. The ancestors of the Ganda may have migrated to the
northwest of Lake Victoria as early as 1000 BCE. Buganda was ruled by the
kabaka with a bataka composed of the clan heads. Over time, the kabakas
diluted the authority of the bataka, with Buganda becoming a centralized
monarchy. By the 16th century, Buganda was engaged in expansion, but
having a serious rival in Bunyoro. By the 1870s, Buganda was a wealthy
nation-state. The kabaka ruled with his kukiko (council of minister). Buganda
had a naval fleet of a hundred vessels, each manned by thirty men. Buganda
supplanted Bunyoro as the most important state in the region. However, by
the early 20th century, Buganda became a province of the British Uganda
Protectorate.699

696
697
698
699Lye, Keith(2002). p. 121,122.
Rwanda
Southeast of Bunyoro, near the Lake Kivu at the bottom of the western rift,
the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded, perhaps during the 17th century. Tutsi
(BaTutsi) pastoralist formed the elite, with a king called the mwami. The Hutu
(BaHutu) were farmers. Both groups spoke the same language, but there were
strict social norms against marrying each other and interaction. According to
oral tradition, the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded by Mwami Ruganzu II
(Ruganzu Ndori) (c. 1600-1624), with his capital near Kigali. It took 200 years
to see a truly centralized Rwanda Kingdom, under Mwami Kigeli IV (Kigeri
Rwabugiri) (1840–1895). Subjugation of the Hutu proved more difficult than
subduing the Tutsi. The last Tutsi chief gave up to Mwami Mutara II (Mutara
Rwogera) (1802–1853) in 1852, but the last Hutu holdout was only conquered
in the 1920s by Mwami Yuhi V (Yuli Musinga) (1896–1931).700

Burundi
South of the Kingdom of Rwanda was the Kingdom of Burundi. It was founded
by the Tutsi chief Ntare Rushatsi (c. 1657-1705). Like Rwanda, Burundi was
built on cattle raised by Tutsi pastoralists, crops from Hutu farmers, conquest,
and political innovations. Under Mwami Ntari Rugaamba (c. 1795-1852),
Burundi pursued an aggressive expansionist policy, but one based more on
diplomacy than on pure force.701

West Africa

Sahelian empires & states

Ghana
The Ghana Empire may have been an established kingdom as early as the 4th
century CE, founded among the Soninke by Dinge Cisse. Ghana was first
mentioned by Arab geographer Al-Farazi in the late 8th century. Ghana was
comprise of urban dwellers and rural farmers. The urban dwellers were the
administrators of the empire, who were Muslims, and the Ghana (king), who
practiced traditional religion. Two towns existed, one where the Muslim
administrators and Berber-Arabs lived, which was connected by a stone-paved
road to the king's residence. The rural dwellers lived in villages, which joined
together into broader polities that pledged loyalty to the Ghana. The Ghana
was viewed as divine, and his physical well-being reflected on the whole
society. Ghana converted to Islam around 1050, after conquering
Aoudaghost.702

700Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 123-124.

701Collins and Burns (2007), p. 124.
702Shillington (2005), pp. 80-85.
The Ghana Empire grew wealthy by taxing the trans-Saharan trade that linked
Tiaret and Sijilmasa to Aoudaghost. Ghana controlled access to the goldfields
of Bambouk, southeast of Koumbi Saleh. A percentage of salt and gold going
through its territory was taken. The empire was not involved in production. 703
By the 11th century, Ghana was in the decline. It was once thought that the
sacking of Koumbi Saleh by Berbers under the Almoravid dynasty in 1076 was
the cause. This is no longer accepted. Several alternative explanations are
cited. One important reason is the transfer of the gold trade east to the Niger
River and the Taghaza Trail, and Ghana's consequent economic decline.
Another reason cited is political instability through rivalry among the different
hereditary polities.704
The empire came to an end in 1230, when Takrur in northern Senegal took
over the capital.705706

Mali
The Mali Empire began in the 13th century CE, when a Mande (Mandingo)
leader, Sundiata(Lord Lion) of the Keita clan, defeated Soumaoro Kanté, king
of the Sosso or southern Soninke, at the Battle of Kirina in c. 1235. Sundiata
continued his conquest from the fertile forests and Niger Valley, east to the
Niger Bend, north into the Sahara, and west to the Atlantic Ocean, absorbing
the remains of the Ghana Empire. Sundiata took on the title of mansa. He
establish the capital of his empire at Niani.707
Although the salt and gold trade continued to be important to the Mali
Empire, agriculture and pastoralism was also critical. The growing of
sorghum, millet, and rice was a vital function. On the northern borders of the
Sahel, grazing cattle, sheep, goats, and camels were major activities. Mande
society was organize around the village and land. A cluster of villages was
called a kafu, ruled by a farma. The farma paid tribute to the mansa. A
dedicated army of elite cavalry and infantry maintained order, commanded by
the royal court. A formidable force could be raised from tributary regions, if
necessary.708
Conversion to Islam was a gradual process. The power of the mansa depended
on upholding traditional beliefs and a spiritual foundation of power. Sundiata
initially kept Islam at bay. Future mansas would be devout Muslims but still
acknowledged traditional deities and took part in traditional rituals and
festivals, which were important to the Mande. Islam became a court religion
under Sundiata's son Uli I (1225–1270). Mansa Uli made a pilgrimage to
Mecca, becoming recognized within the Muslim world. The court was staffed
with literate Muslims as secretaries and accountants. The great Muslim
traveller Ibn Battuta left vivid descriptions of the empire.709

703Iliffe, John(2007). p. 51-53.

704Collins and Burns (2007), p. 83.
705Davidson (1991), pp. 173, 174.
706[7]
707Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 83-84.
708
709
Mali reached the peak of its power and extent in the 14th century, when
Mansa Musa (1312–1337) made his famous hajj to Mecca with 500 slaves,
each holding a bar of gold worth 500 mitqals.710 Mansa Musa's hajj devalued
gold in Mamluk Egypt for a decade. He made a great impression on the minds
of the Muslim and European world. He invited scholars and architects like
Ishal al-Tuedjin (al-Sahili) to further integrate Mali into the Islamic world.711
The Mali Empire saw an expansion of learning and literacy. In 1285, Sakura, a
freed slave, usurped the throne. This mansa drove the Tuareg out of
Timbuktu, and established it as a center of learning and commerce. The book
trade increased, and book copying became a very respectable and profitable
profession. Timbuktu and Djenné became important centers of learning within
the Muslim world.712
After the reign of Mansa Suleyman (1341–1360), Mali began its spiral
downward. Mossi cavalry raided the exposed southern border. Tuareg
harassed the northern border, in order to retake Timbuktu. Fulani (Fulbe)
eroded Mali's authority in the west by establing the independent Kingdom of
Fouta Tooro, a successor to the kingdom of Takrur. Serer and Wolof alliances
were broken. In 1545-1546, the Songhai Empire took Niani. After 1599, the
empire lost the Bambouk goldfields and disintegrated into petty polities.713

Songhai
The Songhai people are descended from fishermen on the Middle Niger River.
They established their capital at Kukiya in the 9th century CE and at Gao in
12th century. The Songhai speak a Nilo-Saharan language.714
Sonni Ali, a Songhai, began his conquest by capturing Timbuktu in 1468 from
the Tuareg. He extended the empire to the north, deep into the desert, pushed
the Mossi further south of the Niger, and expanded southwest to Djenne. His
army consisted of cavalry and a fleet of canoes. Sonni Ali was not a Muslim,
and he was portrayed negatively by Berber-Arab scholars, especially for
attacking Muslim Timbuktu. After his death in 1492, his heirs were deposed
by a general, Muhammad Ture, a Muslim of Soninke origins.715

710Davidson, Basil (1971), Great Ages of Man: African Kingdoms, p. 83. New York:Time Life
Books. Library of Congress 66-25647.
711
712Davidson (1971), pp. 84-85.
713
714Collins and Burns (2007), p. 87.
715Shillington (2005), pp. 100, 101.
Muhammad Ture (1493–1528) founded the Askiya Dynasty, askiya being the
title of the king. He consolidated the conquests of Sonni Ali. Islam was used to
extend his authority by declaring jihad on the Mossi, reviving the trans-
Saharan trade, and having the Abbasid "shadow" caliph in Cairo declare him
as caliph of Sudan. He establish Timbuktu as a great center of islamic
learning. Muhammad Ture expanded the empire by pushing the Tuareg north,
capturing Aïr in the east, and capturing salt-producing Taghaza. He brought
the Hausa states into the Songhay trading network. He further centralized the
administration of the empire by selecting administrators from loyal servants
and families, and assigning them to conquered territories. They were
responsible for raising local militias. Centralization made Songhay very stable,
even during dynastic disputes. Leo Africanus left vivid descriptions of the
empire under Askiya Muhammad. Askiya Muhammad was deposed by his son
in 1528. After much rivalry, Muhammad Ture's last son Askiya Daoud (1529–
1582) assumed the throne.716
In 1591, Morocco invaded the Songhai Empire under Ahmad al-Mansur of the
Saadi Dynasty, in order to secure the goldfields of the Sahel. At the Battle of
Tondibi, the Songhai army was defeated. The Moroccans captured Djenne,
Gao, and Timbuktu, but they were unable to secure the whole region. Askiya
Nuhu and the Songhay army regrouped at Dendi, in the heart of Songhai
territory, where a spirited guerrilla resistance sapped the resources of the
Moroccans, who were dependent upon constant resupply from Morocco.
Songhai split into several states during the 17th century. Morocco found it
venture ultimatelt to be unprofitable. The gold trade had been diverted to
Europeans on the coast. Most of the trans-Saharan trade was now diverted
east to Bornu. Expensive equipment purchased with gold had to be sent
across the Sahara, an unsustenable scenario. The Moroccans who remained
married into the population and were referred to as Arma or Ruma. They
would established themselves at Timbuktu as a military caste with various
fiefs, independent from Morocco. Amid the chaos, other groups began to
assert themselves, including the Fulani of Futa Tooro who encroached from
the west. The Bambara Empire, one of the states that broke from Songhai,
sacked Gao. The Tuareg in 1737 massacred the Arma.717718

716Collins and Burns (2007), p. 88.

717
718Shillington (2005), pp. 100-102, 179-181.
Kanem-Bornu (Kanembu)
Around the 9th centure CE, the cenral Sudanic Empire of Kanem, with its
capital at Njimi, was founded by the Kanuri-speaking nomads. Kanem arose by
engaging in the trans-Saharan trade. It exchanged slaves, captured by raiding
the south, for horses from North Africa, which in turn aided in the acquisition
of slaves. By the late 11th century, the islamic Sayfawa (Saifawa) dynasty was
founded by Humai (Hummay) ibn Salamna. The Sayfawa Dynasty ruled for
771 years, making it one of the longest-lasting dynasties in human history.719
In addition to trade, taxation of local farms around Kanem became an source
of state income. Kanem reached its peak under Mai (king) Dunama Dibalemi
ibn Salma (1210–1248). The empire reportedly was able to field 40,000
cavalry, and it extended from Fezzan in the north to the Sao state in the south.
Islam became firmly entrenched in the empire. Pilgrimages to Mecca were
common; Cairo had hostels set aside specifically for pilgrims from Kanem.720721
Around 1400, the Sayfawa Dynasty moved its capital to Bornu, a tributary
state southwest of Lake Chad with a new capital Birni Ngarzagamu.
Overgrazing had caused the pastures of Kanem to become too dry. In addition,
political rivalry from the Bilala clan was becoming intense. Moving to Bornu
better situated the empire to exploit the trans-Saharan trade and to widen its
network in that trade. Links to the Hausa states were also established,
providing horses and salt from Bilma for Akan gold.722 Mai Ali Gazi ibn
Dunama (c. 1475-1503) defeated the Bilala, reestablishing complete control of
Kanem.723
During the early 16th century, the Sayfawa Dynasty solidify its hold on the
Bornu population after much rebellion. In the latter half of the 16th century,
Mai Idris Alooma modernized its military, in contrast to the Songhai Empire.
Turkish mercenaries were used to train the military. The Sayfawa Dynasty
were the first monarchs south of the Sahara to import firearms.724 The empire
controlled all of the Sahel from the borders of Darfur in the east to Hausaland
to the west. Friendly relationship was establish with the Ottoman Empire via
Tripoli. The Mai exchanged gifts with the Ottoman sultan.725
During the 17th century and 18th century, not much is known about Bornu.
During the 18th century, it became a center of Islamic learning. However,
Bornu's army became outdated, by not importing new arms,726 and Kamembu
had also begun its decline. The power of the mai was undermined by droughts
and famine that were becoming more intense, internal rebellion in the
pastoralist north, growing Hausa power, and the importation of firearms
which made warfare more bloody. By 1841, the last mai was deposed,
bringing to an end the long-lived Sayfawa Dynasty.727

719
720Shillington (2005), pp. 182, 183.
721Collins and Burns (2007), p. 90.
722
723
724
725Davidson (1991), p. 96.
726
727
Sokoto Caliphate
The Fulani were migratory people. They moved from Mauritania and settled in
Futa Tooro, Futa Djallon, and subsequently throughout the rest of West Africa.
By the 14th century CE, they had converted to Islam. During the 16th century,
they established themselves at Macina, in southern Mali. During the 1670s,
they declared jihads on non-Muslims. Several states were formed from these
jihadist wars, at Futa Toro, Futa Djallon, Macina, Oualia, and Bundu. The most
important of these states was the Sokoto Caliphate or Fulani Empire. In the
city of Gobir, Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817) accused the Hausa leadership of
practicing an impure version of Islam and of being morally corrupt. In 1804,
he launched the Fulani War as a jihad among a population that was restless
about high taxes and discontented with its leaders. Jihad fever swept northern
Nigeria, with strong support among both the Fulani and the Hausa. Usman
created an empire that included parts of northern Nigeria, Benin, and
Cameroon, with Sokoto as its capital. He retired to teach and write, and
handed the empire to his son, Muhammed Bello. The Sokoto Caliphate lasted
until 1903, when the British conquered northern Nigeria.728

Forest empires & states

Ashante
The origins of the Ashante (Ashanti, Asante) remain unclear. They speak the
Twi dialect of the Akan language within the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-
Congo family. When and how the Ashante got to their present location is
debatable. What is known is that by the 17th century CE Akan people were
established north of Lake Bosomtwi, trading in gold and kola nuts, and
clearing forest to plant yams. They built towns between the Pra and Ofin
rivers. They formed alliances for defense and paid tribute to Denkyira. During
the 16th century, Ashante society experienced sudden changes, including
population growth due to the cultivation of New World plants such as cassava
and maize, and an increase in the gold trade between the coast and the
north.729
By the 17th century, Osei Kofi Tutu I (c. 1695-1717), with help of Okomfo
Anokye, unified the Ashante into a confederation, with the Golden Stool as a
symbol of their unity and spirit. Osei Tutu engaged in a massive territorial
expansion. He built up the Ashante army based on the Akan state of Akwamu,
introducing new organization and turning a disciplined militia into an effective
fighting machine. In 1701, the Ashante conquered Denkyira, giving them
access to the coastal trade with Europeans, especially the Dutch. In 1717, the
year Osei died, the Ashante conquered the Akan state of Akim, an ally of
Denkyira.730

728Lye, Keith(2002). p. 188

729Collins and Burns (2007), p. 139.
730Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 139-140.
Opoku Ware I (1720–1745) engaged in further expansion, adding the southern
Akan states of Sefwi and Akwapim, allied with a revived Denkyira and Akim.
He turned north adding Techiman, Banda, Gyaaman, and Gonja, states on the
Black Volta. Between 1744 and 1745, Asantehene Opoku attacked the
powerful northern state of Dogoma, gaining control of the important middle
Niger trade routes. Kusi Obodom (1750–1764) succeeded Opoku. He solidified
all the newly won territories. Osei Kwadwo (1777–1803) impose
administrative reforms that allowed the empire to be governed effectively and
to continue its military expansion. Osei Kwame Panyin (1777–1803), Osei Tutu
Kwame (1804–1807), and Osei Bonsu (1807–1824) continued territorial
comsolidation and expansion. The Ashante Empire included all of present-day
Ghana and large parts of Ivory Coast.731
The ashantehene inherited his position from his mother. He was assisted at
the capital, Kumasi, by a civil service of men talented in trade, diplomacy, and
the military, with a head called the Gyaasehene. Men from Arabia, Sudan, and
Europe were employed in the civil service, all of them appointed by the
ashantehene. At the capital and in other towns, the ankobia or special police
were used as bodyguards to the ashantehene, as sources of intelligence, and
to suppress rebellion. Communication throughout the empire was maintained
via a network of well-kept roads from the coast to the middle Niger and
linking together other trade cities.732733
For most of the 19th century, the Ashante Empire remained powerful. It was
later destroyed in 1900, by British superior weaponry and organization
following the four Anglo-Ashanti wars.734

731Collins and Burns (2007), p. 140.

732Davidson (1991), p. 240.
733Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 140-141.
734Davidson (1991), p. 242.
Dahomey
The Dahomey Kingdom was founded in the early 17th century CE, when the
Aja people of the Allada kingdom moved northward and settled among the
Fon. They began to assert their power a few years later. In so doing they
established the Kingdom of Dahomey, with its capital at Agbome. King
Houegbadja (c. 1645-1685) organized Dahomey into a powerful centralized
state. He declared all lands to be owned of the king and subject to taxation.
Primogeniture in the kingship was establish, neutralizing all input from village
chiefs. A "cult of kingship" was established. A captive slave would be
sacrificed annually to honor the royal ancestors. During the 1720s, the slave-
trading states of Whydah and Allada were taken, giving Dahomey direct
access to the slave coast and trade with Europeans. King Agadja (1708–1740)
attempted to end the slave trade by keeping the slaves on plantations
producing palm oil, but the European profits on slaves and Dahomey's
dependency on firearms were too great. In 1730, under king Agaja, Dahomey
was conquered by the Oyo Empire, and Dahomey had to pay tribute. The
kingdom continued to expand and thrive, as a major dealer in slaves. Taxes on
slaves were mostly paid in cowrie shells. During the 19th century, palm oil
was the main trading commodity.735 France conquered Dahomey during the
Second Franco-Dahomean War (1892–1894) and established a colonial
government there. Most of the troops who fought against Dahomey were
native Africans.

735Shillington (2005), pp. 191, 192.

Yoruba
Traditionally, the Yoruba people viewed themselves as the inhabitants of a
united empire, in contrast to the situation today, in which "Yoruba" is the
cultural-linguistic designation for speakers of a language in the Niger-Congo
family. The name comes from a Hausa word to refer to the Oyo Empire. The
first Yoruba state was Ile-Ife, said to have been founded around 1000 CE by a
supernatural figure, the first oni Oduduwa. Oduduwa's sons would be the
founders of the different city-states of the Yoruba, and his daughters would
become the mothers of the various Yoruba obas, or kings. Yoruba city-states
were usually governed by an oba and a iwarefa, a council of chiefs who
advised the oba. By the 18th century, the Yoruba city-states formed a loose
confederation, with the Oni of Ife as the head and Ife as the capital. As time
went on, the individual city-states became more powerful with their obas
assuming more powerful spiritual positions and diluting the authority of the
Oni of Ife. Rivalry became intense among the city-states.736
The 16th century saw the rise of the Oyo Empire. The Oyo state had been
conquered in 1550 by the kingdom of Nupe, which was in possession of
cavalry, an important tactical advantage. The alafin (king) of Oyo was sent
into exile. After returning, Alafin Orompoto (c. 1560-1580) built up an army
based on heavily armed cavalry and long-service troops. This made them
invincible in combat on the northern grasslands and in the thinly wooded
forests. By the end of the 16th century, Oyo had added the western region of
the Niger to the hills of Togo, the Yoruba of Ketu, Dahomey, and the Fon
nation. A governing council served the empire, with clear executive divisions.
Each acquired region was assigned a local administrator. Families served in
king-making capacities. Oyo, as a northern Yoruba kingdom, served as middle-
man in the north-south trade and connecting the eastern forest of Guinea with
the western and central Sudan, the Sahara, and North Africa. The Yoruba
manufactured cloth, ironware, and pottery, which were exchanged for salt,
leather, and, most importantly, horses from the Sudan to maintain the cavalry.
Oyo remained strong for two hundred years.737738 It became a protectorate of
Great Britain in 1888, before further fragmenting into warring factions. The
Oyo state ceased to exist as any sort of power in 1896. 739

736Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 131-132.

737Davidson (1991), pp. 173-174.
738Collins and Burns (2007), p. 134.
739Stride, G.T. & C. Ifeka (1971). Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History
1000-1800. Edinburgh: Nelson. ISBN 0-17-511448-X.
Benin
Southwest of the Yoruba and on the western fringe of the Niger delta are the
Kwa Niger-Congo speaking Edo people. Legend has it that political
development of the Edo people began when the population got tired of their
king and requested that the Ife oni Oduduwa give them one of his sons as
ruler. Prince Oranyan was selected. By the mid 15th century, Benin was
engage in political expansion and consolidation. Under Oba (king) Ewuare (c.
1450-1480 CE), the state was organize for conquest. He solidified central
authority and initiated 30 years of war with his neighbors. At his death, the
Benin Empire, extended to Dahomey in the west, to the Niger Delta in the
east, along the west African coast, and to the Yoruba towns in the north.
Ewuare's grandson, Oba Esigie (1504–1550), eroded the power of the uzama
(state council) and increase contact and trade with Europeans, especially with
the Portuguese, who provided a new source of copper for court art.
The oba ruled with the advice from the uzama, a council consisting of chiefs of
powerful families and town chiefs of different guilds. Later its authority would
be diminished by the establishment of administrative dignitaries. Women
wielded power. The Queen Mother, who produce the future oba wielded
immense influence.740
Benin's expansion ended around the 16th century, and it ceased being a major
exporter of slaves. By the 18th century, it was wracked with dynastic disputes
and civil wars. After the 16th century, Benin mainly exported pepper, ivory,
gum, and cotton cloth to the Portuguese, who resold it to other African
societies on the coast. In 1897, the British sacked the city.741

740Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 134-135.

741Shillington (2005), pp. 188, 189.
Niger Delta and Igbo

Map of Igboland in southeastern Nigeria742743

Énugwú

Umuahia

Bight of Biafra

Atlantic
Ocean

Bight of Benin

Nsukka

Obolo

742Monteath, Archibald; Maureen Warner-Lewis (2007). Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican,

Moravian. University of West Indies Press. p. 26. ISBN 9-766-40197-7. .
743Chuku, Gloria (2005). Igbo women and economic transformation in southeastern Nigeria,
1900-1960. Routledge. p. 7. ISBN 0-415-97210-8. .
Abakaleke

Igrita

Elele

Ahoada

Aba

Ogu

Ihiala

Okigwe

Oka

Onicha

Owerre

Obiaruku

Agbor
Niger
River

Ugwu Ọcha

Atakpa

Idu

The Niger Delta comprised numerous city-states with numerous different

forms of government. These city-states were protected by the waterways and
thick vegetation of the delta. The region was transformed by trade in the 17th
century CE. The delta's city-states were comparable to those of the Swahili
people in East Africa. Some, like Bonny, Kalabari, and Warri, had kings.
Others, like Brass, were republics with small senates, and those at Cross River
and Old Calabar were ruled by merchants of the ekpe society. The ekpe
society regulated trade and made rules for members known as house systems.
Some of these houses, like the Pepples of Bonny, were well-known in the
Americas and Europe.744
The Igbo lived east of the Delta (but with the Anioma on the west of the Niger
River). The Kingdom of Nri rose in the 9th century CE, with the Eze Nri being
its leader. The kingdom expanded towards the Kingdom of Benin and to the
Igala Kingdom between 1100 and 1400. It was a political entity composed of
villages, and each village was autonomous and independent, with its own
territory and name, each recognized by its neighbors. Villages were
democratic, with all males and sometimes females a part of the decision-
making process. Graves at Igbo-Ukwu (800 CE) contained brass artifacts of
local manufacture and glass beads from Egypt or India, indicative of
extraregional trade.745746

744Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 136-137.

745Martin, Phyllis M. and O'Meara, Patrick(1995). p.95
746Collins and Burns (2007), p. 137.
Central Africa
Around 1000 BCE, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes of East
Africa. Halfway through the first millennium BCE, the Bantu had also settled
as far south as what is now Angola.

Luba Empire
Sometime between 1300 to 1400 CE, Kongolo Mwamba (Nkongolo) from the
Balopwe clan unified the various Luba peoples, near Lake Kisale. He founded
the Kongolo Dynasty, which was later ousted by Kalala Ilunga. Kalala
expanded the kingdom west of Lake Kisale. A new centralized political system
of spiritual kings (balopwe) with a court council of head governors and sub-
heads all the way to village heads. The balopwe was the direct communicator
with the ancestral spirits and chosen by them. Conquered states were
integrated into the system and represented in the court, with their titles. The
authority of the balopwe resided in his spiritual power rather than his military
authority. The army was relatively small. The Luba was able to control
regional trade and collect tribute for redistribution. Numerous offshoot states
would be formed with founders claiming descent from the Luba. The Luba
political system would spread throughout Central Africa, southern Uganda,
Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the western Congo. Two
major major empires claiming Luba descent were the Lunda Empire and
Maravi Empire. The Bemba people of Northern Zambia were descended from
Luba migrants who arrived in Zambia during the 17th century.747748

Lunda Empire
In the 1450s, a Luba from the royal family, Ilunga Tshibinda, married Lunda
queen Rweej and united all Lunda peoples. Their son, mulopwe Luseeng,
expanded the kingdom. His son, Naweej, expanded the empire further and is
known as the first Lunda emperor, with the title mwato yamvo (mwaant yaav ,
mwant yav),the Lord of Vipers. The Luba political system was retained, and
conquered peoples were integrated into the system. The mwato yamvo
assigned a cilool or kilolo (royal adviser) and tax collector to each state
conquered.749750

747Shillington (2005), p. 138, 139.

748Davidson (1991), p. 159, 160.
749Shillington (2005), p. 141.
750Davidson (1991), p. 161.
Numerous states claimed descent from the Lunda. The Imbangala of inland
Angola claimed descent from a founder, Kinguri, brother of Queen Rweej, who
could not tolerate the rule of mulopwe Tshibunda. Kinguri became the title of
kings of states founded by Queen Rweej's brother. The Luena (Lwena) and
Lozi (Luyani) in Zambia also claim descent from Kinguri. During the 17th
century, a Lunda chief and warrior called Mwata Kazembe set up an Eastern
Lunda kingdom in the valley of the Luapula River. The Lunda's western
expansion also saw claims of descent by the Yaka and the Pende. The Lunda
linked middle Africa with the western coast trade. The kingdom of Lunda
came to an end in the 19th century when it was invaded by the Chokwe, who
were armed with guns.751752

Maravi (Malawi)
The Maravi claimed descent from Karonga (kalonga), who took that title as
king. The Maravi connected middle Africa to the east coastal trade, with
Swahili Kilwa. By the 17th century, the Maravi Empire encompassed all the
area between Lake Malawi and the mouth of the Zambezi River. The karonga
was Mzura, who did much to extend the empire. Mzura made a pact with the
Portuguese to establish a 4,000-man army to attack the Shona, in return for
aid in defeating his rival, Lundi, a chief of the Zimba. In 1623, he turned on
the Portuguese and assisted the Shona. In 1640, he welcome back the
Portuguese for trade. The Maravi Empire did not long survive the death of
Mzura. By the 18th century, it had broken into its previous polities.753

751Davidson (1991), p.161.

752Shillington (2005), p. 139, 141.
753Davidson (1991), pp. 164-165.
Kongo Empire
By the 15th century CE, the farming Bakongo people (ba being the plural
prefix) were unified as the Kingdom of Kongo under a ruler called the
manikongo, residing in the fertile Pool Malebo area on the lower Congo River.
The capital was M'banza-Kongo. With superior organization, they were able to
conquer their neighbors and extract tribute. They were experts in metalwork,
pottery, and weaving raffia cloth. They stimulated interregional trade via a
tribute system controlled by the manikongo. Later, maize (corn) and cassava
(manioc) would be introduced to the region via trade with the Portuguese at
their ports at Luanda and Benguela. The maize and cassava would result in
population growth in the region and other parts of Africa, replacing millet as a
main staple. By the 16th century, the manikongo held authority from the
Atlantic in the west to the Kwango River in the east. Each territory was
assigned a mani-mpembe (provincial governor) by the manikongo. In 1506,
Afonso I (1506–1542), a Christian, took over the throne. Slave trading
increased with Afonso's wars of conquest. About 1568-1569, the Jaga invaded
Kongo, laying waste to the kingdom and forcing the manikongo into exile. In
1574, Manikongo Álvaro I was reinstated with the help of Portuguese
mercenaries. During the latter part of the 1660s, the Portuguese tried to gain
control of Kongo. Manikongo António I (1661–1665), with a Kongolese army of
5,000, was destroyed by an army of Afro-Portuguese at the Battle of Mbwila.
The empire dissolved into petty polities, fighting among each other for war
captives to sell into slavery.754755756
Kongo gained captives from the Kingdom of Ndongo in wars of conquest.
Ndongo was ruled by the ngola. Ndongo would also engage in slave trading
with the Portuguese, with São Tomé being a transit point to Brazil. The
kingdom was not as welcoming as Kongo; it viewed the Portuguese with great
suspicion and as an enemy. The Portuguese in the latter part of the 16th
century tried to gain control of Ndongo, but were defeated by the Mbundu.
Ndongo experienced depopulation from slave raiding. The leaders established
another state at Matamba, affiliated with Queen Nzinga, who put up a strong
resistance to the Portuguese until coming to terms with them. The Portuguese
settled along the coast as trade dealers, not venturing on conquest of the
interior. Slavery wreaked havoc in the interior, with states initiating wars of
conquest for captives. The Imbangala formed the slave-raiding state of
Kasanje, a major source of slaves during the 17th century and 18th
century.757758

754Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 185-188

755Shillington (2005), p. 196-198
756Davidson (1991), pp. 156-157
757Shillington (2005), p. 198, 199.
758Davidson (1991), p. 158.
Southern Africa
Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists
and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River by the fourth
or 5th century CE (see Bantu expansion), displacing and absorbing the
original Khoisan speakers. They slowly moved south, and the earliest
ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from
around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language
incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoi-San people,
reaching the Great Fish River in today's Eastern Cape Province.

Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe

The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first state in Southern Africa, with its
capital at Mapungubwe. The state arose in the 12th century CE. Its wealth
came from controlling the trade in ivory from the Limpopo Valley, copper from
the mountains of northern Transvaal, and gold from the Zimbabwe Plateau
between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, with the Swahili merchants at
Chibuene. By the mid 13th century, Mapungubwe was abandoned.759
After the decline of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe rose on the Zimbabwe
Plateau. Zimbabwe means stone building. Great Zimbabwe was the first city in
Southern Africa. Great Zimbabwe was the center of an empire, consolidating
lesser Shona polities. An technology of building in stone was inherited from
Mapungubwe. These building techniques were enhance and came into
maturity at Great Zimbabwe, represented by the wall of the Great Enclosure.
The drywall stone masonry technology was also used to build smaller
compounds in the area. Great Zimbabwe flourished by trading with Swahili
Kilwa and Sofala. The rise of Great Zimbabwe parallels the rise of Kilwa.
Great Zimbabwe was a major source of gold. Its royal court lived in luxury,
wore Indian cotton, surrounded themselves with copper and gold ornaments,
and ate on plates from as far away as Persia and China. Around the 1420s and
1430s, Great Zimbabwe was on the declined. The city was abandoned by
1450. Some have attributed the decline to the rise of the trading town
Ingombe Ilede.760761
African empires & states

759Ehret, Christopher (2002). p. 252.

760Ehret (2002), pp. 252-254.
761
A new chapter of Shona history ensued. Mutota, a northern Shona king of the
Karanga,, engaged in conquest. He and his son Mutope conquered the
Zimbabwe Plateau, going through Mozambique to the east coast, linking the
empire to the coastal trade. They called their empire Wilayatu 'l
Mu'anamutapah or mwanamutapa (Lord of the Plundered Lands), or the
Kingdom of Mutapa. Monomotapa was the Portuguese corruption. They did
not build stone structures; the northern Shonas had no traditions of building
in stone. After the death of Matope in 1480, the empire split into two small
empires: Torwa in the south and Mutapa in the north. The split occurred over
rivalry from two Shona lords, Changa and Togwa, with the mwanamutapa line.
Changa was able to acquire the south, forming the Kingdom of Butua, with its
capital at Khami.762763
The Mutapa Empire continued in the north under the mwanamutapa line.
During the 16th century, the Portuguese were able to establish permanent
markets up the Zambezi River in an attempt to gain political and military
control of Mutapa. They were partially successful. In 1628, a decisive battle
allowed them to put a puppet mwanamutapa named Mavura, who signed
treaties that gave favorable mineral export rights to the Portuguese. The
Portuguese were successful in destroying the mwanamutapa system of
government and undermining trade. By 1667, Mutapa was in decay. Chiefs
would not allow digging for gold because of fear of Portuguese theft, and the
population declined.764
The Kingdom of Butua was ruled by a changamire, a title derived from the
founder, Changa. Later it became the Rozwi Empire. The Portuguese tried to
gain a foothold but was thrown out of the region in 1693, by Changamire
Dombo. The 17th century were a period of peace and prosperity. The Rozwi
Empire fell into ruinsin the 1830s from invading Nguni from Natal.765

762
763
764Davidson (1991), pp. 252-154.
765
Early Namibia
By 1500 CE, most of southern Africa had established states. In northwestern
Namibia, the Ovambo engaged in farming and the Herero engaged in herding.
As cattle numbers increased, the Herero moved southward to central Namibia
for grazing land. A related group, the Mbanderu, expanded to Ghanzi in
northwestern Botswana. The Nama, a Khoi-speaking, sheep-raising group,
moved northward and came into contact with the Herero; this would set the
stage for much conflict between the two groups. The expanding Lozi states
pushed the Mbukushu, Subiya, and Yei to Botei, Okavango, and Chobe in
northern Botswana.766
By the 1850s, British and German missionaries and traders had penetrated
Namibia. Herero and Nama competed for guns and ammunition, providing
cattle, ivory, and ostrich feathers. The Germans were more firmly established
than the British in the region. By 1884, the Germans declared the coastal
region from the Orange River to the Kunene River a German protectorate.
They pursued an aggressive policy of land expansion for white settlements.
They exploited rivalry between the Nama and Herero. 767
The Herero entered into an alliance with the Germans, thinking they could get
an upper hand on the Nama. The Germans set up a garrison at the Herero
capital and started allocating Herero land for white settlements, including the
best grazing land in the central plateau, and made tax and labor demands.
The Herero and Mbanderu rebelled, but the rebellion was crushed and leaders
were executed. Between 1896 and 1897, rinderpest crippled the economic
backbone of the Herero and Nama economy, andslowed white settlement
expansion. The Germans continued the policy of making Namibia a white
settlement, by seizing not only land but Herero cattle, and even trying to
export Herero labor to South Africa.768
In 1904, the Herero rebelled. German General Lothar von Trotha implemented
an extermination policy at the Battle of Waterberg, which drove the Herero
west of the Kalahari Desert. At the end of 1905, only 16,000 Herero were
alive, out of a previous population of 80,000. Nama resistance was crushed in
1907. All Nama and Herero cattle and land were confiscated from the very
diminished population, with remaining Nama and Herero assuming a
subordinate position. Labor had to be imported from among the Ovambo.769

Early South Africa and Botswana

766Shillington (2005), p. 218.

767Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327-329, 340-342.
768Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327
769Shillington (2005), pp. 218, 327.
Sotho-Tswana
By 1000-1400 CE, we see the development of Sotho-Tswana states based on
the highveld, south of the Limpopo River. The chief's power rested on cattle
and his connection to the ancestor. This can be seen in the Toutswemogala
Hill settlements with stone foundations and stone walls, north of the highveld
and south of the Vaal River. Northwest of the Vaal River, we also see the
development of early Tswana states centered around towns of thousands of
people. When disagreements or rivalry arose, different groups moved to form
their own states.770
One of the major states to emerge from the Mfecane was the Sotho Kingdom
founded at Thaba Bosiu by Moshoeshoe I around 1821-1822. It was a
confederation different polities that accepted the absolute authority of
Moshoeshoe. During the 1830s, the kingdom invited missionaries as a
strategic means of acquiring guns and horses from the Cape. Orange Free
State would slowly diminish the kingdom but never completely defeat it. In
1868, Moshoeshoe asked that the Sotho Kingdom be annexed by Britain, to
save the remnant. It became the British protectorate of Basutoland.771

Nguni and Zulu

Southeast of the Drakensberg mountains lived Nguni-speaking peoples (Zulu,
Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele). They, too, engaged in state building, with new
states developing from rivalry, disagreements, and population pressure
causing movement into new regions. They were metalworkers, cultivators of
millet, and their most prized activity, cattle herding.772
A moment of great disorder in southern Africa was the Mfecane, "the
crushing." It was started by the northern Nguni kingdoms of Mthethwa,
Ndwandwe, and Swaziland over scarce resource and famine. When
Dingiswayo of Mthethwa died, Shaka of the Zulu people took over. He
established the Zulu Kingdom, asserting authority over the Ndwandwe and
pushing the Swazi north. The scattering Ndwandwe and Swazi caused the
Mfecane to spread. During the 1820s, Shaka expanded the empire all along
the Drakensberg foothills, with tribute being paid as far south as the Tugela
and Umzimkulu rivers. He replaced the chiefs of conquered polities with
indunas, responsible to him. He introduced a centralized, dedicated, and
disciplined military force not seen in the region, with a new weapon in the
short stabbing-spear.773

770
771Shillington (2005), pp. 261, 262, 271.
772Shillington (2005), pp. 153-155
773Shillington (2005), pp. 256, 257, 270.
In 1828, Shaka was assassinated by his half brother Dingane, who lacked the
military genius and leadership skills of Shaka. Voortrekkers tried to occupy
Zulu land in 1838. In the early months they were defeated, but the survivors
regrouped at the Ncome River and soundly defeated the Zulu. However, the
Voortrekkers dared not settle Zulu land. Dingane was killed in 1840, during a
civil war. His brother, Mpande, took over and strengthened Zulu territories to
the north. In 1879, the Zulu Kingdom was invaded by Britain, in a quest to
control all of South Africa. The Zulu Kingdom was victorious at the Battle of
Isandlwana, but was defeated at the Battle of Ulundi.774775

Khoisan and Afrikaaner

The Khoisan lived in the southwestern Cape Province, where winter rainfall is
plentiful. In parts of Southern Africa here rainfall is plentiful during the
summer, earlier Khoisan populations were absorbed by Bantu peoples, such as
the Sotho and Nguni, but the Bantu expansion stopped at the region with
winter rainfall. Some Bantu languages have incorporated the click
characteristic of the Khoisan languages. The Khoisan traded with their Bantu
neighbors, providing cattle, sheep, and hunted items. In return, their Bantu
speaking neighbors traded copper, iron, and tobacco.776
By the 16th century, the Dutch East India Company established a replenishing
station at Table Bay, for restocking water and purchasing meat from the
Khoikhoi. The Khoikhoi received copper, iron, tobacco, and beads in
exchange. In order to control the price of meat and stock and make service
more consistent, the Dutch established a permanent settlement at Table Bay
in 1652. They grew fresh fruit and vegetables, and established a hospital for
sick sailors. To increase produce, the Dutch decided to increase the number of
farms at Table Bay by encouraging freeburgher boers (farmers) on lands
worked initially by slaves from West Africa. The land was taken from Khoikhoi
grazing land, triggering the first Khoikhoi-Dutch war in 1659. No victors
emerged, but the Dutch assumed a "right of conquest" by which they claimed
all of the Cape. In a series of wars, pitting the Khoikhoi against each other,
the Boers would assume all Khoikhoi land and claim all their cattle. The
second Khoikoi-Dutch war (1673–1677) was a cattle raid. The Khoikhoi also
died in thousands from European diseases.777
By the 18th century, the Cape colony had grown, with slaves coming from
Madagascar, Mozambique, and Indonesia. The settlement also started to
expand northward, but Khoikhoi resistance, raids, and guerrilla warfare
slowed the expansion during the 18th century. Boers who started to practice
pastoralism were known as trekboers. A common source of trekboer labor was
orphan children who were captured during raids and whose parents had been
killed.778

774Shillington (2005), pp. 256, 257.

775Davidson (1991), pp. 274-275.
776
777Shillington (2005), pp. 210-213.
778Shillington (2005), pp. 213, 214.
By the 19th century, most of Khoikhoi territories were under Boer control. The
Khoikhoi had lost economic and political independence, and had been
absorbed into Boer society. The Boers spoke Afrikaans, a language or dialect
derived from Dutch, and no longer called themselves Boers but Afrikaner.
Some Khoikhoi were used as commandos in raids against other Khoikhoi and
later Xhosa. A mixed Khoi, slave, and European population called the Cape
Coloureds, who were outcasts within colonial society, also arose. Khoikhoi
who lived far on the frontier included the Kora, Oorlams, and Griqua. In 1795,
the British took over the Cape colony from the Dutch.779
Land in the Cape became scarce. In the 1830s, Boers embarked on a journey
of expansion, east of the Great Fish River into the Zuurveld. They were
referred to as Voortrekkers. They founded republics of the Transvaal and
Orange Free State, mostly in areas of sparse population that had been
diminished by the Mfecane/Difaqane. Unlike the Khoisan, the Bantu states
were not conquered by the Afrikaners, due to population density and greater
unity. Additionally, they began to arm themselves with guns acquired through
trade at the Cape. In some cases, as in the Xhosa/Boer Wars, Boers were
removed from Xhosa lands. It required a dedicated imperial military force to
subdue the Bantu-speaking states. In 1901, the Boer republics were defeated
by Britain in the Second Boer War. Yet, ironically, the defeat consummated
many Afrikaners' ambition: South Africa would now be under white rule. The
British placed all power—legislative, executive, administrative—in English and
Afrikaner hands.780781

Modern

European trade, exploration, and conquest

Between 1878 and 1898, in a 20-year period, European states partitioned and
conquered most of Africa. For 400 years, European nations had mainly limited
their involvement to trading stations on the African coast. Few dared venture
inland from the coast; those that did, like the Portuguese, often met defeats
and had to retreat to the coast. Several technological innovations helped to
overcome this 400-year pattern. One was the development of repeating rifles,
which were easier and quicker to load than muskets. Artillery started to be
used increasingly. In 1885, Hiram S. Maxim developed the maxim gun, the
model of the modern-day machine gun. European states kept these weapons
largely among themselves by refusing to sell these weapons to African
leaders.782

779Shillington (2005), pp. 215, 216.

780Davidson (1991), pp. 274, 275.
781Shillington (2005), pp. 268-271.
782Collins and Burns (2007), pp. 268-269.
African germs took numerous European lives and deterred permanent
settlements. Diseases such as yellow fever, sleeping sickness, yaws, and
leprosy, made Africa a very inhospitable place for Europeans. The deadliest
germ was malaria, endemic throughout tropical Africa. In 1854, the discovery
of quinine and other medical innovations helped to make conquest and
colonization in Africa possible.783
Strong motives for conquest of Africa were at play. Raw materials were
needed for European factories. Europe in the early part of the 19th century
was undergoing its Industrial Revolution. Nationalist rivalries and prestige
were at play. Acquiring African colonies would show rivals that a nation was
powerful and significant. These factors culminated in the Scramble for
Africa.784
Knowledge of Africa increased. Numerous European explorers began to
explore the continent. Mungo Park traversed the Niger River. James Bruce
travelled through Ethiopia and located the source of the Blue Nile. Richard
Francis Burton was the first European at Lake Tanganyika. Samuel White
Baker explored the Upper Nile. John Hanning Speke located a source of the
Nile at Lake Victoria. Other significant European explorers included Heinrich
Barth, Henry Morton Stanley, Silva Porto, Alexandre de Serpa Pinto, Rene
Caille, Gerhard Rolfs, Gustav Nachtigal, George Schweinfurth, and Joseph
Thomson. The most famous of the explorers was David Livingstone, who
explored southern Africa and traversed the continent from the Atlantic at
Luanda to the Indian Ocean at Quelimane. European explorers made use of
African guides and servants, and old, established long-distance trading routes
were used.785786
Missionaries attempting to spread Christianity also increased European
knowledge of Africa.787
In 1884-1885, European nations met at the Berlin West Africa Conference to
discuss the partitioning of Africa. It was agreed that European claims to parts
of Africa would only be recognised if Europeans provided effective occupation.
In a series of treaties in 1890–1891, colonial boundaries were completely
drawn. All of Subsaharan Africa was claimed by European powers, except for
Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia.
The European powers set up a variety of different administrations in Africa at
this time, reflecting different ambitions and degrees of power. In some areas,
such as parts of British West Africa, colonial control was tenuous and intended
for simple economic extraction, strategic power, or as part of a long term
development plan. In other areas, Europeans were encouraged to settle,
creating settler states in which a European minority dominated. Settlers only
came to a few colonies in sufficient numbers to have a strong impact. British
settler colonies included British East Africa (now Kenya), Northern and
Southern Rhodesia, (Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively), and South Africa,
which already had a significant population of European settlers, the Boers.

783Collins and Burns (2007), p. 269.

784Collins and Burns (2007), p. 265.
785Shillington (2005), p. 295.
786
787
France planned to settle Algeria and eventually incorporate it into the French
state on an equal basis with the European provinces. Algeria's proximity
across the Mediterranean allowed plans of this scale.
In most areas colonial administrations did not have the manpower or
resources to fully administer the territory and had to rely on local power
structures to help them. Various factions and groups within the societies
exploited this European requirement for their own purposes, attempting to
gain positions of power within their own communities by cooperating with
Europeans. One aspect of this struggle included what Terence Ranger has
termed the "invention of tradition." In order to legitimize their own claims to
power in the eyes of both the colonial administrators and their own people,
native elites would essentially manufacture "traditional" claims to power, or
ceremonies. As a result, many societies were thrown into disarray by the new
order.
European Colonial Territories
Belgium
•Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today's Democratic Republic of the
Congo)
•Ruanda-Urundi (comprising modern Rwanda and Burundi, between 1916 and
1960)
France

•French West Africa: •French Equatorial •French Algeria

Africa: (now Algeria)
1. Mauritania
1. Gabon
2. Senegal
2. Middle Congo
3. French Sudan
(now the
(now Mali)
Republic of the
4. French Guinea Congo)
(now Guinea)
3. Oubangi-Chari
5. Côte d'Ivoire (now the Central
6. Niger African Republic)

7. French Upper 4. Chad

Volta
(now Burkina
Faso)
8. French Dahomey
(now Benin)

•Tunisia

•French Morocco

•French Somaliland
(now Djibouti)

•Madagascar
 •Comoros

Germany
•German Kamerun (now Cameroon and part of Nigeria)
•German East Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi and most of Tanzania)
•German South-West Africa (now Namibia)
•German Togoland (now Togo and eastern part of Ghana)
Italy
Italian North Africa (now Libya)
•Eritrea
•Italian Somaliland (now part of Somalia)

Portugal

•Portuguese West Africa •Cape Verde Islands

(now Angola)
•São Tomé e Príncipe
1. Mainland Angola
1. São Tomé Island
2. Portuguese Congo
2. Príncipe Island
(now Cabinda Province of
Angola) 3. Fort of São João Baptista de
Ajudá
(now Ouidah, in Benin)
•Portuguese East Africa
(now Mozambique)
•Portuguese Guinea
(now Guinea-Bissau)

Spain

•Spanish Sahara •Spanish Morocco •Spanish Guinea

(now Western Sahara) (now Equatorial Guinea)
1. Tarfaya Strip
1. Río de Oro 1. Fernando Po
2. Ifni
2. Saguia el-Hamra 2. Río Muni
3. Annobon

United Kingdom
•Egypt •Bechuanaland (now •The Gambia
Botswana)

•Anglo-Egyptian Sudan •Southern Rhodesia (now •Sierra Leone

(now Sudan) Zimbabwe)

•British Somaliland (now •Northern Rhodesia (now •Nigeria

part of Somalia) Zambia)

•British East Africa: •British South Africa •Cameroons (now parts of

(now South Africa) Cameroon and Nigeria)
1. Kenya
1. Transvaal (now
2. Uganda
part of South
Protectorate
Africa)
(now Uganda)
2. Cape Colony
3. Tanganyika
(now part of
(1919–1961, now
South Africa)
part of Tanzania)
3. Colony of Natal
(now part of
South Africa)
4. Orange Free
State (now part
of South Africa)

•Zanzibar (now part of •British Gold Coast (now

Tanzania) Ghana)

•Nyasaland (now Malawi)

•Basutoland (now
Lesotho)
 •Swaziland

Independent states
•Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society of the United States in
1821; declared independence in 1847
•Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) had its borders re-drawn with Italian Eritrea
and French Somaliland (modern Djibouti), briefly occupied by Italy from 1936
to 1941 during the Abyssinia Crisis;
•Sudan, independent under Mahdi rule between 1885 and 1899.788

20th century: 1900-1945

Interbellum
After World War I the formerly German colonies in Africa were taken over by
France, Belgium, 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 the mystique of the "invincible" European was shattered by the
barbarities of the war. However, in most areas European control remained
relatively strong during this period.
Italy, under the government of Benito Mussolini, invaded Ethiopia, the last
independent African nation, in 1935 and occupied the country until 1941.

The postcolonial era: 1945 to 1993

788Martin, Phyllis M. and O'Meara, Patrick(1995). p. 135-138.

Decolonization
The decolonization of Africa started with Libya in 1951. (Although Liberia,
South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia were already independent.) Many countries
followed in the 50s and 60s, with a peak in 1960 with 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 last African countries to
gain formal independence were Guinea-Bissau (1974), Mozambique (1975)
and Angola (1975) from Portugal, Djibouti from France in 1977, Zimbabwe
from United Kingdom in 1980, and Namibia from South Africa in 1990. Eritrea
later split off from Ethiopia in 1993.
Because many cities were founded, enlarged and renamed by the Europeans,
after independence many place names (for example Stanleyville, Léopoldville,
Rhodesia) were renamed: see historical African place names for these.

East Africa
The Mau Mau Rebellion 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 Kenyatta served as
its first president.
The early 1990s also signaled the start of major clashes between the Hutus
and the Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi. In 1994 this culminated in the
Rwandan Genocide, a conflict in which over 800 000 people were murdered.

North Africa
Moroccan nationalism developed during the 1930s, the Istiqal Party was
formed, pushing for independence. In 1953 sultan Muhammad V called for
independence. In March 2, 1956 Morocco became independent of France.
Spain reliquished all territories Ceuta, Tangiers, and Melilla. Muhammad V
became ruler of independent Morocco. Algeria in 1954, formed the National
Liberation Front (FLN) from France. The French responded brutally but
negotiated independence in 1962. Muhammad Ahmed Ben Bella was elected
president. All French citizens left the country, crippling the economy. In 1934
'Neo-Destour'(New Constitution) party was founded by Habib Bourguiba
pushing for indepence in Tunisia. Tunisia became independent in 1955. Its
bey was dispose and Habib Bourguiba elected.789
In 1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser deposed the monarchy on Egypt and came to
power. Muammar al-Gaddafi led a coup in Libya in 1969 and has remained in
power.

789Lye, Keith(2002). pp. 97, 264.

Egypt was involved in several wars against Israel, and was allied with other
Arab countries. The first was right after the State of Israel was founded, in
1948. Egypt went to war again in 1967 and lost the Sinai Peninsula to Israel.
They went to war yet again in 1973. In 1979 Anwar Sadat and Menachem
Begin signed the Camp David Accords, which gave back the Sinai Peninsula to
Egypt in exchange for the recognition of Israel. The accords are still in effect
today. In 1981 Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist for signing the accords.

Southern Africa
In 1948 the apartheid laws were started in South Africa by the dominant
party, the National Party. These were largely a continuation of existing
policies, e.g. the Land Act of 1913. The difference was the policy of "separate
development;" Where previous policies had only been disparate efforts to
economically exploit the African Majority, Apartheid represented an entire
philosophy of separate racial goals, leading to both the divisive laws of 'petty
apartheid,' and the grander scheme of African Homelands.
In 1994 the South African government abolished Apartheid. South Africans
elected Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress in the country's first
multiracial presidential election.

West Africa
Following World War II, nationalist movements arose across West Africa, most
notably in Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah. In 1957, Ghana became the first
sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by
France's colonies; by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous.
Since independence, many West African nations have been plagued by
corruption and instability, with notable civil wars in Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and
Burkina Faso. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite
enviable natural resources, and political instability is often accompanied by
undemocratic government.
In Nigeria today, the richest fifth of the population earns 55.7 percent of
income while the poorest fifth earns just 4.4 percent and 70 percent of
Nigerians live on less than US$1 a day.

References
•Collins, Robert O. and Burns, James M. (2007). A History of Sub-Saharan
Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-68708-9.
•Davidson, Basil (1991). Africa In History, Themes and Outlines. Revised and
expanded ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-82667-4
•Ehret, Christopher (2002). The Civilizations of Africa. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia, ISBN 0-8139-2085-X.
•Iliffe, John (2007). Africans: The History of a Continent. 2nd ed. New York:
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-68297-8.
•Lye, Keith (2002). Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilization. New
York: The Diagram Group, ISBN 0-8160-4568-2.
•Martin, Phyllis M., and O'Meara, Patrick (1995). Africa. 3rd ed. Indiana:
Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20984-6.
•Page, Willie F. (2001). Encyclopedia of African History and Culture: From
Conquest to Colonization (1500-1850). New York: Learning Source Books,
ISBN 0-8160-4472-4
•Shillington, Kevin (2005). History of Africa. Revised 2nd ed. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-59957-8.
•Diamond, Jared M. (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
Societies. New York: W.W.Norton. ISBN 0-393-31755-2.
•Stearns, Peter, ed (2001). The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient,
Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged.

Further reading
•Cheikh Anta Diop (1987) Precolonial Black Africa. Chicago Review Press.
•Clark, J. Desmond (1970) The Prehistory of Africa. Thames and Hudson
•Davidson, Basil (1964) The African Past. Penguin, Harmondsworth
•Freund, Bill (1998) The Making of Contemporary Africa, Lynne Rienner,
Boulder (including a substantial "Annotated Bibliography" pp. 269–316).
•Reader, John 1997 Africa: A Biography of the Continent. Hamish Hamilton.
ISBN 0-241-13047-6
•Shillington, Kevin (1989) History of Africa, New York: St. Martin's.
•UNESCO (1980–1994) General History of Africa. 8 volumes.
•Théophile Obenga (1980) Pour une Nouvelle Histoire Présence Africaine,
Paris

External links
•Worldtimelines.org.uk -Africa The British Museum. 2005
•About.com:African History.
•The Story of Africa - BBC World Service
•Wonders of the African World, PBS.
•Civilization of Africa, by Richard Hooker, Washington State University.
•African Art,(chunk of historical data), Metropolitan Museum of Art.
•African Kingdoms, by Khaleel Muhammad.
•Mapungubwe Museum at the University of Pretoria
Ancient African history

Ancient history

↑ Prehistory

Ancient Near East

Sumer · Elam · Akkad · Babylonia · Hittite Empire · Syro-Hittite states · Neo-

Assyrian Empire · Urartu

Ancient Africa

Egypt · Nubia · Land of Punt · Axum · Nok · Kingdom of Kush · Carthage ·

Ancient Ghana

Classical Antiquity

Archaic Greece · Median Empire . Classical Greece · Achaemenid Empire ·

Seleucid Empire · Dacia · Thrace · Scythia · Macedon · Roman Republic ·
Roman Empire · Parthia . Parthian Empire · Sassanid Empire · Late Antiquity

East Asia

Shang Dynasty · Qin Dynasty · Han Dynasty · Jin Dynasty · Gojoseon

South Asia

Vedic India · Maha Janapadas · Mauryan India · Chola India · Satavahana

India · Gupta India

Pre-Columbian Americas

Paleo-Indians, Incas · Aztecs · Wari · Tiahuanaco · Moche · Teotihuacan ·

Chavín · Mayas · Norte Chico · Olmecs · Poverty Point · Hopewell ·
Mississippians
see also: World history · Ancient maritime history · Protohistory · Axial Age ·
Iron Age · Historiography · Ancient literature · Ancient warfare · Cradle of
civilization
↓Middle Ages
Ancient African history is the study of the documented past from the
beginning of recorded history until the Early Middle Ages.790 The breadth of
ancient history includes centuries of human activity on the continent of Africa.
The Ancient history of North Africa participates in the sphere of the Ancient
Near East, notably with Ancient Egypt, and to a lesser extent with Nubia and
Ethiopia (Axumite Kingdom). Phoenician cities such as Carthage participate in
the Mediterranean Iron Age and Classical Antiquity.
Sub-Saharan Africa in the meantime largely remains in the prehistoric stage
until the European exploration of Africa from the 15th century (see prehistoric
Africa).

North Africa
By the 1st millennium BC, iron working had been introduced in Northern
Africa and quickly began spreading across the Sahara.791 In Central Africa,
there is evidence that Iron working was practiced as early as the 3rd
millennium BCE.792 Metalworking had been practiced in Western Africa by at
least the 3rd millennium BCE; and iron working dated earlier than 1,500
BCE.793 Iron working was fully established by roughly 500 BC in areas of East
and West Africa, though other regions didn't begin iron working until the early
centuries AD. Some copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and
Ethiopia have been excavated in West Africa dating from around 500 BC time
period, suggesting that trade networks had been established by this time. 794
Greeks founded the city of Cyrene in Ancient Libya around 631 BC. Cyrenaica
became a flourishing colony, though being hemmed in on all sides by absolute
desert it had little or no influence on inner Africa. The Greeks, however,
exerted a powerful influence in Egypt. To Alexander the Great the city of
Alexandria owes its foundation (332 BC), and under the Hellenistic dynasty of
the Ptolemies attempts were made to penetrate southward, and in this way
was obtained some knowledge of Ethiopia.
From around 500 B.C. to around 500 A.D., the civilization of the Garamantes
(probably the ancestors of the Tuareg) existed in what is now the Libyan
desert.

790ancient-history, historyofworld.net
791Martin and O'Meara. "Africa, 3rd Ed." Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995.
http://princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/history1.htm#Irontechnology
792Heather Pringle, Seeking Africa's first Iron Men. Science 323:200-202. 2009.
793Iron in Africa: Revising the History, UNESCO Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en
Afrique, Une ancienneté méconnue: Afrique de l'Ouest et Afrique centrale.
794O'Brien, Patrick K. (General Editor). Oxford Atlas of World History. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005. pp.22-23
The three powers of Cyrenaica, Egypt and Carthage were eventually
supplanted by the Romans. After centuries of rivalry with Rome, Carthage
finally fell in 146 BC. Within little more than a century Egypt and Cyrene had
become incorporated in the Roman empire. Under Rome the settled portions
of the country were very prosperous, and a Latin strain was introduced into
the land. Though Fezzan was occupied by them, the Romans elsewhere found
the Sahara an impassable barrier. Nubia and Ethiopia were reached, but an
expedition sent by the emperor Nero to discover the source of the Nile ended
in failure. The utmost extent of Mediterranean geographical knowledge of the
continent is shown in the writings of Ptolemy (2nd century), who knew of or
guessed the existence of the great lake reservoirs of the Nile, of trading posts
along the shores of the Indian Ocean as far south as Rhapta in modern
Tanzania, and had heard of the river Niger.
Interaction between Asia, Europe and North Africa during this period was
significant, major effects include the spread of classical culture around the
shores of the Mediterranean; the continual struggle between Rome and the
Berber tribes; the introduction of Christianity throughout the region, and the
cultural effects of the churches in Tunisia, Egypt and Ethiopia. The classical
era drew to a close with the invasion and conquest of Rome's African
provinces by the Vandals in the 5th century. Power passed back in the
following century to the Byzantine Empire.

Kush
Kush civilization centered in the region of Nubia, located in what is today
northern Sudan. One of the earliest civilizations to develop in the Nile River
Valley, Kushite states rose to power before a period of Egyptian incursion into
the area.
The first cultures arose in Nubia before the time of a unified Egypt. Around
2500 BC, Egyptians began moving south, and it is through them that most of
our knowledge of Kush (Cush) comes. But this expansion was halted by the fall
of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, at which time an independent kingdom
developed. About 1500 BC Egyptian expansion resumed, but this time
encountered organized resistance. Historians are not sure whether this
resistance came from multiple city states or a single unified empire, and
debate whether the notion of statehood was indigenous or borrowed from the
Egyptians. The Egyptians prevailed, and the region became a colony of Egypt
under the control of Thutmose I, whose army ruled from a number of sturdy
fortresses. The region supplied Egypt with resources.
In the eleventh century BC internal disputes in Egypt caused colonial rule to
collapse and an independent kingdom arose based at Napata in Nubia. This
kingdom was ruled by locals who overthrew the colonial regime. Kush was a
good example of cultural diffusion with Egypt. There were many of the same
beliefs and gods.
Ancient Egypt
In about 3100 B.C. Egypt was united under the first known Narmer, 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 power
of the pharaonic religion and state. The Great Pyramid, the tomb of Pharaoh
Khufu (also known as Cheops), is the only surviving monument of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World. Ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power,
wealth, and territorial extent in the period called the New Empire (1567–1085
B.C.).
The importance of Ancient Egypt to the development of the rest of Africa has
been debated. The earlier generation of Western academia generally saw
Egypt as a Mediterranean civilization with little impact on the rest of Africa.
Recent scholarship however, has begun to discredit this notion. Some have
argued that various early Egyptians like the Badarians probably migrated
northward from Nubia, while others see a wide-ranging movement of peoples
across the breadth of the Sahara before the onset of desiccation. Whatever
may be the origins of any particular people or civilization, however, it seems
reasonably certain that the Predynastic communities of the Nile valley were
essentially indigenous in culture, drawing little inspiration from sources
outside the continent during the several centuries directly preceding the onset
of historical times... (Robert July, Pre-Colonial Africa, 1975, p. 60-61)795

Carthage
Carthage was founded by Phoenician settlers from the city of Tyre, bringing
with them the city-god Melqart. Philistos of Syracuse dates the founding of
Carthage around 1215 BC, while Appian dates the founding 50 years prior to
the Trojan War, but it is most likely that the city was founded sometime
between 846 and 813 BC.796

Axumite Kingdom
The Aksumite Empire was an important trading nation in eastern Africa,
growing from the proto-Aksumite period ca. 4th century BC to achieve
prominence by the 1st century AD. It is also the alleged resting place of the
Ark of the Covenant and the home of the Queen of Sheba.

795July, Robert, Pre-Colonial Africa, 1975, Charles Scribners and Sons, New York, p. 60-61
796Lancel, Serge, Carthage A History, pp 21-31 ISBN 1-57718-103-4
Arab slave trade
The Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab World, mainly
Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa and certain parts of Europe (such as
Iberia and southern Italy) during their period of domination by Arab leaders.
The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North
Africa. People traded were not limited to a certain color, ethnicity, or religion
and included Arabs and Berbers, especially in its early days.
Later, during the 8th and 9th centuries of the Islamic Caliphate, most of the
slaves were Slavic Eastern Europeans (called Saqaliba), people from
surrounding Mediterranean areas, Persians, Turks, peoples from the Caucasus
mountain regions (such as Georgia, Armenia and Circassia) and parts of
Central Asia and Scandinavia, Berbers from North Africa, and various other
peoples of varied origins as well as those of African origins.
Later, toward the 18th and 19th centuries, slaves increasingly came from East
Africa, until slavery was officially abolished by the end of the 19th
century.797798799800

797Historical survey > The international slave trade

798Arabs and Slave Trade
799Should The Islamic World Apologize For Slavery?
800Trudy Ring, Robert M. Salkin, K. A. Berney, Paul E. Schellinger (1996), International
dictionary of historic places, Volume 4: Middle East and Africa, Taylor and Francis, p. 116
Scope of the trade
Historians agree millions of Africans were enslaved by Arab slave traders and
taken across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara desert between 650 and
1900,801802803 compared to 9.4 to 14 million Africans brought to the Americas in
the Atlantic slave trade804 from 15th century to the early 19th century.
Periodic Arab raiding expeditions were sent from Islamic Iberia to ravage the
Christian Iberian kingdoms, bringing back booty and slaves. In a raid against
Lisbon in 1189, for example, the Almohad caliph Yaqub al-Mansur took 3,000
female and child captives, while his governor of Córdoba, in a subsequent
attack upon Silves in 1191, took 3,000 Christian slaves.805
Arabs also enslaved substantial numbers of Europeans. According to Robert
Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary
corsairs, who were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, and sold as slaves between
the 16th and 19th centuries.806807 These slaves were captured mainly from
seaside villages from Italy, Spain, Portugal and also from more distant places
like France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland. The impact
of these attacks was devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost
thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were
almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. Pirate raids discouraged
settlement along the coast until the 19th century.808809
The Ottoman wars in Europe and Tatar raids brought large numbers of
European Christian slaves into the Muslim world too.810811812

801Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History

802Focus on the slave trade
803The Unknown Slavery: In the Muslim world, that is — and it's not over
804"Quick guide: The slave trade". BBC News. 2007-03-15. . Retrieved 2010-04-25.
805Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic
Frontier
806When europeans were slaves: Research suggests white slavery was much more common
than previously believed
807Davis, Robert. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the
Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800.Based on "records for 27,233 voyages that set out to
obtain slaves for the Americas". Stephen Behrendt, "Transatlantic Slave Trade", Africana: The
Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (New York: Basic Civitas Books,
1999), ISBN 0-465-00071-1.
808BBC - History - British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
809"Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates" by Christopher Hitchens, City Journal Spring 2007
810Supply of Slaves
811Soldier Khan
812The living legacy of jihad slavery
The 'Oriental' or 'Arab' slave trade is sometimes called the 'Islamic' slave
trade, but a religious imperative was not the driver of the slavery, Patrick
Manning, a professor of World History, states. However, if a non-Muslim
population refuses to adopt Islam or pay the jizya protection/subjugation tax,
that population is considered to be at war with the Muslim "ummah" and
therefore it becomes legal under Islamic law to take slaves from that non-
Muslim population. Usage of the terms "Islamic trade" or "Islamic world" has
been disputed by some Muslims as it treats Africa as outside of Islam, or a
negligible portion of the Islamic world.813 Propagators of Islam in Africa often
revealed a cautious attitude towards proselytizing because of its effect in
reducing the potential reservoir of slaves.814
From a Western point of view, the subject merges with the Oriental slave
trade, which followed two main routes in the Middle Ages:
•Overland routes across the Maghreb and Mashriq deserts (Trans-Saharan
route)815
•Sea routes to the east of Africa through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean
(Oriental route)816817

The Arab slave trade originated before Islam and lasted more than a
millennium. It continues today in some places.818819820 Arab traders brought
Africans across the Indian Ocean from present-day Kenya, Mozambique,
Tanzania, Sudan, Eritrea, western Ethiopia and elsewhere in East Africa to
present-day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Turkey and other parts of the Middle East 821
and South Asia (mainly Pakistan and India). Unlike the trans-Atlantic slave
trade to the New World, Arabs supplied African slaves to the Muslim world,
which at its peak stretched over three continents from the Atlantic (Morocco,
Spain) to India and eastern China.

Sources and historiography of the slave trade

813Manning (1990) p.10

814Murray Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World New Amsterdam Press, New York, 1989.
Originally published in French by Editions Robert Laffont, S.A. Paris, 1987, page 28.
815Battuta's Trip: Journey to West Africa (1351 - 1353)
816The blood of a nation of Slaves in Stone Town
817BBC Remembering East African slave raids
818"Know about Islamic Slavery in Africa"
819"The Forgotten Holocaust: The Eastern Slave Trade" . Archived from the original on 2009-
10-25. .
820Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Dumbarton Oaks, 2002, p.
364 documents; Ghassanid Arabs seizing and selling 20,000 Jewish Samaritans as slaves in
the year 529, before the rise of Islam.
821A Legacy Hidden in Plain Sight
A recent and controversial topic
The history of the slave trade has given rise to numerous debates amongst
historians. For one thing, specialists are undecided on the number of Africans
taken from their homes; this is difficult to resolve because of a lack of reliable
statistics: there was no census system in medieval Africa. Archival material for
the transatlantic trade in the 16th to 18th centuries may seem useful as a
source, yet these record books were often falsified. Historians have to use
imprecise narrative documents to make estimates which must be treated with
caution: Luiz Felipe de Alencastro states that there were 8 million slaves
taken from Africa between the 8th and 19th centuries along the Oriental and
the Trans-Saharan routes.822
Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau has put forward a figure of 17 million African
people enslaved (in the same period and from the same area) on the basis of
Ralph Austen's work.823 Paul Bairoch suggests a figure of 25 million African
people subjected to the Arab slave trade, as against 11 million that arrived in
the Americas from the transatlantic slave trade.824 Owen Alik Shahadah,
author of the dedicated Arabslavetrade.com and historian on African slavery
claims that the Arab slave trade was a "trickle trade" until the 19th century
and that the new focus on Arab slave trade has political implications linked to
the rise of Islamphobia as well as serving to redistribute blame for the
European-run Atlantic slave trade.825826
Another obstacle to a history of the Arab slave trade is the limitations of
extant sources. There exist documents from non-African cultures, written by
educated men in Arabic, but these only offer an incomplete and often
condescending look at the phenomenon. For some years there has been a
huge amount of effort going into historical research on Africa. Thanks to new
methods and new perspectives, historians can interconnect contributions from
archaeology, numismatics, anthropology, linguistics and demography to
compensate for the inadequacy of the written record.
The Arab slave trade from East Africa is one of the oldest slave trades,
predating the European transatlantic slave trade by 700 years.827 Male slaves
who were often made eunuchs were employed as servants, soldiers, or
laborers by their owners, while female slaves, including those from Africa,
were long traded to the Middle Eastern countries and kingdoms by Arab and
Oriental traders, as concubines and servants. Arab, African and Oriental
traders were involved in the capture and transport of slaves northward across
the Sahara desert and the Indian Ocean region into the Middle East, Persia,
and the Indian subcontinent].

822Luiz Felipe de Alencastro, "Traite", in Encyclopædia Universalis (2002), corpus 22, page
902.
823Ralph Austen, African Economic History (1987)
824Paul Bairoch, Mythes et paradoxes de l'histoire économique, (1994). See also: Economics
and World History: Myths and Paradoxes (1993)
825"Arab Slave Trade: [[Owen Alik Shahadah]"]. African Holocaust Society. . Retrieved 2007-
01-04.
826http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/42249 Pambazuka African Agency
827Mintz, S. Digital History Slavery, Facts & Myths
20th century
From approximately 650 until around the 1960s the Arab slave trade
continued in one form or another. The Moroccan Sultan Ismail Ibn Sharif "the
Bloodthirsty" (1672–1727) raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his
Black Guard, who coerced the country into submission.828 Historical accounts
and references to slave-owning nobility in Arabia, Yemen and elsewhere are
frequent into the early 1920s.829 In 1953, sheikhs from Qatar attending the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II included slaves in their retinues, and they did
so again on another visit five years later.830
As recently as the 1950s, Saudi Arabia's slave population was estimated at
450,000 — approximately 20% of the population.831832 It is estimated that as
many as 200,000 black Sudanese children and women had been taken into
slavery in Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War.833834 Slavery in
Mauritania was legally abolished by laws passed in 1905, 1961, and 1981.835 It
was finally criminalized in August 2007.836 It is estimated that up to 600,000
black Mauritanians, or 20% of Mauritania's population, are currently
enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.837
The Arab slave trade in the Indian Ocean, Red, and Mediterranean Seas long
pre-dated the arrival of any significant number of Europeans on the African
continent.838839
Descendants of the African slaves brought to the Middle East during the slave-
trade still exist there today, and are aware of their African origins. 840841

Medieval Arabic sources

These are given in chronological order. Scholars and geographers from the
Arab world had been travelling to Africa since the time of Muhammad in the
7th century.
•Al-Masudi (died 957), Muruj adh-dhahab or The Meadows of Gold, the
reference manual for geographers and historians of the Muslim world. The
author had travelled widely across the Arab world as well as the Far East.
•Ya'qubi (9th century), Kitab al-Buldan or Book of Countries

828Lewis. Race and Slavery in the Middle East. Oxford Univ Press 1994.
829
830"The Unknown Slavery: In the Muslim world, that is -- and it's not over" John J. Miller,
National Review, May 20, 2002
831Slavery in Islam
832£400 for a Slave
833War and Genocide in Sudan
834"The Lost Children of Sudan"
835"Slavery still exists in Mauritania"
836Mauritanian MPs pass slavery law
837The Abolition season on BBC World Service
838
839Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, in Les Collections de l'Histoire (April 2001) says:"la traite
vers l'Océan indien et la Méditerranée est bien antérieure à l'irruption des Européens sur le
continent"
840Labb¿, Theola (2004-01-11). "A Legacy Hidden in Plain Sight". The Washington Post. .
Retrieved 2010-04-25.
841Dr Susan
•Al-Bakri, author of Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik or Book of Roads and
Kingdoms, published in Córdoba around 1068, gives us information about the
Berbers and their activities; he collected eye-witness accounts on Saharan
caravan routes.
•Muhammad al-Idrisi (died circa 1165), Description of Africa and Spain
•Ibn Battuta (died circa 1377), Marinid geographer who travelled to sub-
Saharan Africa, to Gao and to Timbuktu. His principal work is called A Gift to
Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling.
•Ibn Khaldun (died in 1406), historian and philosopher from North Africa.
Sometimes considered as the historian of Arab, Berber and Persian societies.
He is the author of Muqaddimah orHistorical Prolegomena and History of the
Berbers.
•Al-Maqrizi (died in 1442), Egyptian historian. His main contribution is his
description of Cairo markets.
•Leo Africanus (died circa 1548), author of Descrittione dell’ Africa or
Description of Africa, a rare description of Africa.
•Rifa'a el-Tahtawi (1801–1873), who translated medieval works on geography
and history. His work is mostly about Muslim Egypt.
•Joseph Cuoq, Collection of Arabic sources concerning Western Africa
between the 8th and 16th centuries (Paris 1975)

European texts (16th-19th centuries)

•João de Castro, Roteiro de Lisboa a Goa (1538)
•James Bruce, (1730–1794), Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790)
•René Caillié, (1799–1838), Journal d'un voyage à Tombouctou
•Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, (1784–1817), Travels in Nubia (1819)
•Henry Morton Stanley, (1841–1904), Through the Dark Continent (1878)

Other sources
•African Arabic and Ajam Manuscripts
•African oral tradition
•Kilwa Chronicle (16th century fragments)
•Numismatics: analysis of coins and of their diffusion
•Archaeology: architecture of trading posts and of towns associated with the
slave trade
•Iconography: Arab and Persian miniatures in major libraries
•European engravings, contemporary with the slave trade, and some more
modern
•Photographs from the 19th century onward
•Ethiopian (Ge'ez and Amharic) historical texts

Historical and geographical context of the Arab

slave trade
A brief review of the region and era in which the Oriental and trans-Saharan
slave trade took place should be useful here. It is not a detailed study of the
Arab world, nor of Africa, but an outline of key points which will help with
understanding the slave trade in this part of the world.

The Islamic world

The religion of Islam appeared in the 7th century CE, and in the next hundred
years it was quickly diffused throughout the Mediterranean area, spread by
Arabs after they conquered the Sassanid Persian Empire and many territories
from the Byzantine Empire, including the Levant, Armenia and North Africa;
they invaded the Iberian peninsula where they displaced the Visigothic
Kingdom. These regions therefore had a diverse range of different peoples. To
some extent, these regions were unified by an Islamic culture built on both
religious and civic foundations. For example, they used the Arabic language
and the dinar (currency) in commercial transactions. Mecca in Arabia, then as
now, was the holy city of Islam and center of pilgrimages for all Muslims,
whatever their origins.
According to Bernard Lewis, the Arab Empire was the first "truly universal
civilization," which brought together for the first time "peoples as diverse as
the Chinese, the Indians, the people of the Middle East and North Africa,
black Africans, and white Europeans."842
The conquests of the Arab armies and the expansion of the Islamic state that
followed have always resulted in the capture of war prisoners who were
subsequently set free or turned into slaves or Raqeeq (‫ )رقيق‬and servants
rather than taken as prisoners as was the Islamic tradition in wars. Once
taken as slaves, they had to be dealt with in accordance with the Islamic law
which was the law of the Islamic state, especially during the Umayyad and
Abbasid eras. According to that law, slaves are allowed to earn their living if
they opted for that, otherwise it is the owner’s (master) duty to provide for
that. They also can’t be forced to earn money for their masters unless with an
agreement between the slave and the master. This concept is called ‫ مخارجة‬in
the Islamic jurisprudence. If the slave agrees to that and he would like the
money s/he earns to be counted toward his/her emancipation then this has to
be written in the form of a contract between the slave and the master. This is
called ‫( مكاتبة‬mukataba) in the Islamic jurisprudence. Muslims believe that
slave owners in Islam are strongly encouraged to perform mukataba with their
slaves as directed by the Qur'an:

842Bernard Lewis (2003), "From Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry",
in Kevin Reilly, Stephen Kaufman, Angela Bodino, Racism: A Global Reader, M.E. Sharpe,
pp. 52–8, ISBN 0765610604
... And if any of your slaves ask for a deed in writing (to enable them to earn their freedom for a
certain sum), give them such a deed if ye know any good in them: yea, give them something
yourselves out of the means which Allah has given to you. ...

—Qur'an, Sura An-Nur843

The framework of Islamic civilisation was a well-developed network of towns

and oasis trading centres with the market (souq, bazaar) at its heart. These
towns were inter-connected by a system of roads crossing semi-arid regions or
deserts. The routes were travelled by convoys, and black slaves formed part of
this caravan traffic.
In contrast to the Atlantic slave trade where the male-female ratio was 2:1 or
3:1, the Arab slave trade usually had a higher female:male ratio instead,
suggesting a general preference for female slaves. Concubinage and
reproduction served as incentives for importing female slaves (often
Caucasian), though many were also imported mainly for performing household
tasks.844

843Qur'an 24:33 (Translated by Yusuf Ali)

844Ehud R. Toledano (1998), Slavery and abolition in the Ottoman Middle East, University of
Washington Press, pp. 13–4, ISBN 029597642X
Arabic views on black people
The Qur'an, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the overwhelming majority
of Islamic jurists and theologians, all stated that humankind has a single
origin and rejected the idea of certain ethnic groups being superior to
others.845 According to the hadiths, Muhammad declared:

There is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab and for a non-Arab over an Arab, nor for the
white over the black nor for black over the white except in piety.

—Amyn B. Sajoo, The Islamic Ethos and the Spirit of Humanism846

Despite this, some ethnic prejudices later developed among Arabs due to
several reasons: their extensive conquests and slave trade;847 the influence of
Aristotle's idea of certain ethnic groups being slaves by nature, echoed by
Muslim philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Avicenna, particularly in regards
to Turkic and black peoples;848 and the influence of the early mediaeval Geonic
Academies ideas regarding divisions among mankind between the three sons
of Noah, with the Babylonian Talmud stating that "the descendants of Ham
are cursed by being black, and [it] depicts Ham as a sinful man and his
progeny as degenerates."849 However, ethnic prejudice among some elite
Arabs was not limited to darker-skinned black people, but was also directed
towards fairer-skinned "ruddy people" (including Persians, Turks and
Europeans), while Arabs referred to themselves as "swarthy people". 850 It
should also be noted that the concept of an Arab identity itself did not exist
until modern times.851 According to Arnold J. Toynbee: "The extinction of race
consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements of
Islam and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for
the propagation of this Islamic virtue."852

845
846Sajoo, Amyn B. (June 1995), "The Islamic Ethos and the Spirit of Humanism",
International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society (Springer Netherlands) 8 (4): 579–596
[582], doi:10.1007/BF02142469
847
848
849El Hamel, Chouki (2002), "'Race', slavery and Islam in Maghribi Mediterranean thought:
the question of the Haratin in Morocco", The Journal of North African Studies 7 (3): 29–52
[39–40], "Neither in the Qur'an nor in the Hadith is there any indication of racial difference
among humankind. But as a consequence of the Arab conquest, a mutual assimilation between
Islam and the cultural and the scriptural traditions of Christian and Jewish populations
occurred. Racial distinction between humankind with reference to the sons of Noah is found
in the Babylonian Talmud, a collection of rabbinic writings that dates back to the sixth
century."
850Bernard Lewis (1992), Race and slavery in the Middle East: an historical enquiry, Oxford
University Press, pp. 18–9, ISBN 0195053265
851Lindsay, James E. (2005), Daily Life in the Medieval Islamic World, Greenwood Publishing
Group, pp. 12–5, ISBN 0313322708
852A. J. Toynbee, Civilization on Trial, New York, 1948, p. 205
The famous 9th century Muslim author Al-Jahiz, an Afro-Arab and the
grandson of a Zanj (Bantu)853854855 slave, wrote a book entitled Risalat
mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan (Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over
Whites), in which he stated that Blacks:

...have conquered the country of the Arabs as far as Mecca and have governed them. We defeated
Dhu Nowas (Jewish King of Yemen) and killed all the Himyarite princes, but you, White people,
have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zenghs (Negroes) revolted forty times in the
Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes and making Oballah a bath of blood.

—Joel Augustus Rogers and John Henrik Clarke, World's Great Men of Color856

And that:

Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift
stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between
them. [...] They are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of
wickedness.

—Yosef Ben-Jochannan, African Origins of Major Western Religions857

Al-Jahiz also stated in his Kitab al-Bukhala ("Avarice and the Avaricious") that:

"We know that the Zanj (blacks) are the least intelligent and the least discerning of mankind, and
the least capable of understanding the consequences of their actions."858

Jahiz' criticism however, was limited to the Zanj and not blacks in totality,
likely as a result of the Zanji revolts in his native Iraq.859
This sentiment was echoed in the following passage from Kitab al-Bad' wah-
tarikh (vol.4) by the medieval Arab writer Al-Muqaddasi:

853F.R.C. Bagley et al., The Last Great Muslim Empires, (Brill: 1997), p.174
854Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Press: 2001),
p.13
855Bethwell A. Ogot, Zamani: A Survey of East African History, (East African Publishing
House: 1974), p.104
856Joel Augustus Rogers, John Henrik Clarke, World's Great Men of Color, (Simon &
Schuster: 1996), p.166
857Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan (1991), African Origins of Major Western Religions, p. 231, 238.
Black Classic Press, ISBN 0-933121-29-6.
858West Asian views on black Africans during the medieval era - ColorQ, Retrieved November
27, 2008
859
As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or
intelligence.860

Al-Dimashqi (Ibn al-Nafis), the Arab polymath, also described the inhabitants
of Sudan and the Zanj coast, among others, as being of "dim" intelligence and
that:

...the moral characteristics found in their mentality are close to the instinctive characteristics found
naturally in animals.

—Andrew Reid and Paul J. Lane, African Historical Archaeologies861

By the 14th century, an overwhelming number of slaves came from sub-

Saharan Africa, leading to prejudice against black people in the works of
several Arabic historians and geographers. For example, the Egyptian
historian Al-Abshibi (1388–1446) wrote: "It is said that when the [black] slave
is sated, he fornicates, when he is hungry, he steals."862
Mistranslations of Arab scholars and geographers from this time period have
lead many to attribute certain racist attitudes that weren't prevalent until the
18th and 19th century to writings made centuries ago.863 Although bias
against those of very black complexion existed in the Arab world in the 15th
century it didn't have as much stigma as it later would. Older translations of
Ibn Khaldun, for example in The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and
Explained864 which was written in 1841 gives excerpts of older translations
that were not part of later colonial propaganda and show black Africans in a
generally positive light.
In 14th century North Africa, the Arab sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, wrote in his
Muqaddimah:

When the conquest of the West (by the Arabs) was completed, and merchants began to penetrate
into the interior, they saw no nation of the Blacks so mighty as Ghanah, the dominions of which
extended westward as far as the Ocean. The King's court was kept in the city of Ghanah, which,
according to the author of the Book of Roger (El Idrisi), and the author of the Book of Roads and
Realms (El Bekri), is divided into two parts, standing on both banks of the Nile, and ranks among
the largest and most populous cities of the world. The people of Ghanah had for neighbours, on the
east, a nation, which, according to historians, was called Susu; after which came another named
Mali; and after that another known by the name of Kaukau ; although some people prefer a different
orthography, and write this name Kagho. The last-named nation was followed by a people called
Tekrur. The people of Ghanah declined in course of time, being overwhelmed or absorbed by the
860
861Andrew Reid, Paul J. Lane, African Historical Archaeologies, (Springer: 2004), p.166
862Lewis, Bernard (2002), Race and Slavery in the Middle East, Oxford University Press,
p. 93, ISBN 0195053265
863Translation and the Colonial Imaginary: Ibn Khaldun Orientalist , by Abdelmajid Hannoum
2003 Wesleyan University.
864Cooley, William Desborough (1966), The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and Explained,
London: Routledge, p. 143 Pages, ISBN 0-71461-799-7,
Molaththemun (or muffled people;that is, the Morabites), who, adjoining them on the north towards
the Berber country, attacked them, and, taking possession of their territory, compelled them to
embrace the Mohammedan religion. The people of Ghanah, being invaded at a later period by the
Susu, a nation of Blacks in their neighbourhood, were exterminated, or mixed with other Black
nations.

—William Desborough Cooley, The Negroland of the Arabs Examined and

Explained865

Ibn Khaldun suggests a link between the decline of Ghana and rise of the
Almoravids. However, there is little evidence of there actually being an
Almoravid conquest of Ghana 866867 aside from the parallel conflict with Tekrur,
which was allied with the Almoravid and eventually absorbed by them.
Ibn Khaldun attributed the "strange practices and customs" of certain black
African tribes to the hot climate of sub-Saharan Africa and made it clear that
it was not due to any curse in their lineage, dismissing the Hamitic theory as a
myth.868
His critical attitude towards Arabs has led the scholar Mohammad A. Enan to
suggest that Ibn Khaldun may have been a Berber pretending to be an Arab in
order to gain social status, but Muhammad Hozien has responded to this claim
stating that Ibn Khaldun or anyone else in his family never claimed to be
Berber even when the Berbers were in power.869
The 14th-century North African Berber geographer and traveller, Ibn Battuta,
on his trip to western Sudan, was impressed with occasional aspects of life.
Battuta later visited the Zanj-inhabited portions of East Africa and held more
positive views of its black people.870

We ... traveled by sea to the city of Kulwa (Kilwa in Tanzania)...Most of its people are Zunuj,
extremely black...The city of Kulwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities and most elegantly
built... Their uppermost virtue is religion and righteousness and they are Shafi'i in rite.

[The people of Mombasa in Kenya] are a religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their
mosques are made of wood, expertly built.

865
866Not Quite Venus from the Waves: The Almoravid Conquest of Ghana in the Modern
Historiography of Western Africa by Pekka Masonen; Humphrey J. Fisher 1996
867The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The External Arabic
Sources, by David Conrad and Humphrey Fisher 1982 African Studies Association
868El Hamel, Chouki (2002), "'Race', slavery and Islam in Maghribi Mediterranean thought:
the question of the Haratin in Morocco", The Journal of North African Studies 7 (3): 29–52
[41–2]
869"Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Work" by Muhammad Hozien
870
Ibn Battuta was also impressed with aspects of the Mali Empire of West
Africa, which he visited in 1352, writing that the people there:

...possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of
injustice than any other people. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor
inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence.

—Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354871

In addition, he wrote many other positive comments on the people of the Mali
Empire, including the following:872

I met the qadi of Malli... he is a black, has been on a pilgrimage, and is a noble person with good
qualities of character... I met the interpreter Dugha, a noble black and a leader of theirs... They
performed their duty towards me [as a guest] most perfectly; may God bless and reward them for
their good deeds!

Another of [the Malli blacks'] good qualities is their concern for learning the sublime Qur'an by
heart...One day I passed a handsome youth from them dressed in fine clothes and on his feet was a
heavy chain. I said to the man who was with me, 'What has this youth done -- has he killed
someone?' The youth heard my remark and laughed. It was told me, 'He has been chained so that he
will learn the Qu'ran by heart.'

[the people of Iwalatan in West Africa] were generous to me and entertained me...and as for their
women -- they are extremely beautiful and are more important than the men...

Ibn Battuta's remarks contrasted greatly to that of many other comments from
Arab authors concerning blacks. However, many of the exaggerated accounts
are noted to have been based on hearsay and even perpetuated by Africans
themselves in an attempt to keep their states and economies isolated, in
addition to Ibn Battuta having been the only medieval Muslim scholar
referenced here to have actually traveled to both east and west Africa.873

871Sir Hamilton Gibb (translator, 1929), Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354, p.
329, Routledge, ISBN 0-7100-9568-6
872
873
Africa: 8th through 19th centuries
In April 1998, Elikia M’bokolo, wrote in Le Monde diplomatique. "The African
continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the
Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the
Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim
countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth)." He continues: "Four million
slaves exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili
ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-
Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the
author) across the Atlantic Ocean"874
In the 8th century, Africa was dominated by Arab-Berbers in the north: Islam
moved southwards along the Nile and along the desert trails.
•The Sahara was thinly populated. Nevertheless, since antiquity there had
been cities living on a trade in salt, gold, slaves, cloth, and on agriculture
enabled by irrigation: Tiaret, Oualata, Sijilmasa, Zaouila, and others. They
were ruled by Arab, Berber, Fulani, Hausa and Tuaregs. Their independence
was relative and depended on the power of the Maghrebi and Egyptian states.
•In the Middle Ages, sub-Saharan Africa was called bilad -ul-Sûdân in Arabic,
meaning land of the Blacks. It provided a pool of manual labour for North
Africa and Saharan Africa. This region was dominated by certain states: the
Ghana Empire, the Empire of Mali, the Kanem-Bornu Empire.
•In eastern Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean were
controlled by native Muslims, and Arabs were important as traders along the
coasts. Nubia had been a "supply zone" for slaves since antiquity. The
Ethiopian coast, particularly the port of Massawa and Dahlak Archipelago,
had long been a hub for the exportation of slaves from the interior, even in
Aksumite times. The port and most coastal areas were largely Muslim, and the
port itself was home to a number of Arab and Indian merchants.875
The Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia often exported Nilotic slaves from their
western borderland provinces, or from newly conquered or reconquered
Muslim provinces.876 The Somali and Afar Muslim sultanates, such as the Adal
Sultanate, exported slaves as well.877 Arabs also set up slave-trading posts
along the southeastern coast of the Indian Ocean, most notably in the
archipelago of Zanzibar, along the coast of present-day Tanzania. East Africa
and the Indian Ocean continued as an important region for the Oriental slave
trade up until the 19th century. Livingstone and Stanley were then the first
Europeans to penetrate to the interior of the Congo Basin and to discover the
scale of slavery there. The Arab Tippu Tip extended his influence and made
many people slaves. After Europeans had settled in the Gulf of Guinea, the
trans-Saharan slave trade became less important. In Zanzibar, slavery was
abolished late, in 1897, under Sultan Hamoud bin Mohammed.

874Please note : The numbers occurring in the source, and repeated here on Wikipedia
include both Arab and European trade. The impact of the slave trade on Africa
875Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient
Times to the End of the 18th Century (Asmara, Eritrea: Red Sea Press, 1997), pp.416
876Pankhurst. Ethiopian Borderlands, pp.432
877Pankhurst. Ethiopian Borderlands, pp.59
Geography of the slave trade

"Supply" zones
Merchants of slaves for the Orient stocked up in Europe. Danish merchants
had bases in the Volga region and dealt in Slavs with Arab merchants.
Circassian slaves were conspicuously present in the harems and there were
many odalisques (from the Turkish odalık, meaning "chambermaid") from that
region in the paintings of Orientalists. Non-Muslim slaves were valued in the
harems, for all roles (gate-keeper, servant, odalisque, musician, dancer, court
dwarf, concubine). In the Ottoman Empire, the last black slave sold in
Ethiopia named Hayrettin Effendi, was freed in 1918. The slaves of Slavic
origin in Al-Andalus came from the Varangians who had captured them. They
were put in the Caliph's guard and gradually took up important posts in the
army (they became saqaliba), and even went to take back taifas after the civil
war had led to an implosion of the Western Caliphate. Columns of slaves
feeding the great harems of Córdoba, Seville and Grenada were organised by
Jewish merchants (mercaderes) from Germanic countries and parts of
Northern Europe not controlled by the Carolingian Empire. These columns
crossed the Rhone valley to reach the lands to the south of the Pyrenees.
There are also historical evidence of North African Muslim slave raids all
along the Mediterranean coasts across Christian Europe and beyond to even
as far north as the British Isles and Iceland (see the book titled White Gold by
Giles Milton).878 The majority of slaves traded across the Mediterranean
region were predominantly of European origin from the 7th to 15th
centuries.879 The Barbary pirates continued to capture slaves from Europe
and, to an extent, North America, from the 16th to 19th centuries.
Slaves were also brought into the Arab world via Central Asia, mainly of
Turkic or Tartar origin. Many of these slaves later went on to serve in the
armies forming an elite rank.
•At sea, Barbary pirates joined in this traffic when they could capture people
by boarding ships or by incursions into coastal areas, mainly in Southern
Europe as well as Western European coasts.
•Nubia and Ethiopia were also "exporting" regions: in the 15th century,
Ethiopians sold slaves from western borderland areas (usually just outside of
the realm of the Emperor of Ethiopia) or Ennarea,880 which often ended up in
India, where they worked on ships or as soldiers. They eventually rebelled and
took power (dynasty of the Habshi Kings in Bengal 1487-1493).
•The Sudan region and Saharan Africa formed another "export" area, but it is
impossible to estimate the scale, since there is a lack of sources with figures.

878Conlin, Joseph (2009). The American Past: A Survey of American History. Boston, MA:
Wadsworth. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-495-57288-6. . Retrieved 10 October 2010.
879McDaniel, Antonio (1995), Swing low, sweet chariot: the mortality cost of colonizing
Liberia in the nineteenth century, University of Chicago Press, p. 11, ISBN 0226557243
880Emery Van Donzel, "Primary and Secondary Sources for Ethiopian Historiography. The
Case of Slavery and Slave-Trade in Ethiopia," in Claude Lepage, ed., Études éthiopiennes, vol
I. France: Société française pour les études éthiopiennes, 1994, pp.187-88.
•Finally, the slave traffic affected eastern Africa, but the distance and local
hostility slowed down this section of the Oriental trade.
Routes
Caravan trails, set up in the 9th century, went past the oasis of the Sahara;
travel was difficult and uncomfortable for reasons of climate and distance.
Since Roman times, long convoys had transported slaves as well as all sorts of
products to be used for barter. To protect against attacks from desert nomads,
slaves were used as an escort. Any who slowed down the progress of the
caravan were killed.
Historians know less about the sea routes. From the evidence of illustrated
documents, and travellers' tales, it seems that people travelled on dhows or
jalbas, Arab ships which were used as transport in the Red Sea. Crossing the
Indian Ocean required better organisation and more resources than overland
transport. Ships coming from Zanzibar made stops on Socotra or at Aden
before heading to the Persian Gulf or to India. Slaves were sold as far away as
India, or even China: there was a colony of Arab merchants in Canton. Serge
Bilé cites a 12th century text which tells us that most well-to-do families in
Canton had black slaves whom they regarded as savages and demons because
of their physical appearance. Although Chinese slave traders bought slaves
(Seng Chi i.e. the Zanj881) from Arab intermediaries and "stocked up" directly
in coastal areas of present-day Somalia, the local Somalis—referred to as
Baribah and Barbaroi (Berbers) by medieval Arab and ancient Greek
geographers, respectively (see Periplus of the Erythraean Sea),882883884 and no
strangers to capturing, owning and trading slaves themselves885 -- were not
among them886:

One important commodity being transported by the Arab dhows to Somalia was slaves from other
parts of East Africa. During the nineteenth century, the East African slave trade grew enormously
due to demands by Arabs, Portuguese, and French. Slave traders and raiders moved throughout
eastern and central Africa to meet the rising demand for enslaved men, women, and children.
Somalia did not supply slaves -- as part of the Islamic world Somalis were at least nominally
protected by the religious tenet that free Muslims cannot be enslaved -- but Arab dhows loaded with
human cargo continually visited Somali ports.

—Catherine Lowe Besteman, Unraveling Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of
Slavery887

881Roland Oliver, Africa in the Iron Age: c.500 BC-1400 AD, (Cambridge University Press:
1975), p.192
882
883
884James Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 12: V. 12, (Kessinger Publishing,
LLC: 2003), p.490
885Henry Louis Gates, Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American
Experience, (Oxford University Press: 1999), p.1746
886David D. Laitin, Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience, (University Of
Chicago Press: 1977), p.52
887Catherine Lowe Besteman, Unraveling Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of Slavery,
(University of Pennsylvania Press: 1999), p. 51
Slave labor in East Africa was drawn exclusively from the Zanj, who were
Negroid Bantu-speaking peoples that lived along the East African coast in an
area roughly comprising modern-day Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi.888889
The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the
countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs
recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as AD 696, we learn of
slave revolts of the Zanj against their Arab enslavers in Iraq (see Zanj
Rebellion). Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java
presenting the Chinese emperor with two Seng Chi (Zanj) slaves as gifts, and
Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the Hindu kingdom of Srivijaya in
Java.890

888
889
890
Barter
Slaves were often bartered for objects of various different kinds: in the Sudan,
they were exchanged for cloth, trinkets and so on. In the Maghreb, they were
swapped for horses. In the desert cities, lengths of cloth, pottery, Venetian
glass slave beads, dyestuffs and jewels were used as payment. The trade in
black slaves was part of a diverse commercial network. Alongside gold coins,
cowrie shells from the Indian Ocean or the Atlantic (Canaries, Luanda) were
used as money throughout black Africa (merchandise was paid for with sacks
of cowries).
Slave markets and fairs
Enslaved Africans were sold in the towns of the Muslim world. In 1416, al-
Maqrizi told how pilgrims coming from Takrur (near the Sénégal River) had
brought 1,700 slaves with them to Mecca. In North Africa, the main slave
markets were in Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli and Cairo. Sales were held in public
places or in souks. Potential buyers made a careful examination of the
"merchandise": they checked the state of health of a person who was often
standing naked with wrists bound together. In Cairo, transactions involving
eunuchs and concubines happened in private houses. Prices varied according
to the slave's quality.
Towns and ports involved in the slave trade

•North Africa: •East Africa: •Arabian Peninsula

1. Tangier 1. Bagamoyo 1. Zabīd (Yemen)
(Morocco) (Tanzania)
2. Muscat (Oman)
2. Marrakech 2. Zanzibar
3. Aden (Yemen)
(Morocco) (Tanzania)
4. Socotra (Indian
3. Algiers (Algeria) 3. Kilwa (Tanzania)
Ocean)
4. Tripoli (Libya) 4. Sofala (Beira,
Mozambique)
5. Cairo (Egypt)
6. Aswan (Egypt)
•Indian Ocean
1. Debal (Sindh)
•Horn of Africa
2. Janjira (India)
1. Assab (Eritrea)
•West Africa
3. Surat (India)
2. Massawa
1. Aoudaghost
(Eritrea)
(Mauritania)
3. Nefasit (Eritrea)
2. Timbuktu (Mali)
4. Zeila (Somalia)
3. Gao (Mali)
5. Mogadishu
4. Bilma (Niger)
(Somalia)
5. Kano (Nigeria)
See also

•Slavery in antiquity •Slavery in Libya

•Christianity and slavery •Afro-Arab
•Judaism and slavery •Black orientalism
References
This article was initially translated from the featured French wiki article
"Traite musulmane" on 19 May 2006.

•Digital History/Slavery Facts & Myths Mintz, S.

Bibliography

Books in English
•Edward A. Alpers, The East African Slave Trade (Berkeley 1967)
•Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, trans. F. Rosenthal, ed. N. J. Dawood
(Princeton 1967)
•Murray Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World (New York 1989)
•Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East (OUP 1990)
•Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African
Slave Trades (Cambridge 1990)
•Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa
(Cambridge 2000)
•Allan G. B. Fisher, Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa, ed. C. Hurst
(London 1970, 2nd edition 2001)
•The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam (Princeton Series
on the Middle East) by Eve Troutt Powell (Editor), John O. Hunwick (Editor)
(Princeton 2001)
•Ronald Segal, Islam's Black Slaves (Atlantic Books, London 2002)
•Robert C. Davis, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the
Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan,
London 2003) ISBN 978-1-4039-4551-8

Audio material
•Owen 'Alik Shahadah, African Holocaust Audio Documentary

Books and articles in French

•Serge Daget, De la traite à l'esclavage, du Ve au XVIIIe siècle, actes du
Colloque international sur la traite des noirs (Nantes, Société française
d'histoire d'Outre-Mer, 1985)
•Jacques Heers, Les Négriers en terre d'islam (Perrin, Pour l'histoire
collection, Paris, 2003) (ISBN 2-262-01850-2)
•Murray Gordon, L'esclavage dans le monde arabe, du VIIe au XXe siècle
(Robert Laffont, Paris, 1987)
•Bernard Lewis, Race et esclavage au Proche-Orient, (Editions Gallimard,
collection Bibliothèque des histoires, Paris, 1993) (ISBN 2-07-072740-8)
•Olivier Petré-Grenouilleau, Les traites négrières (La Documentation
Française, Paris, 2003)
•Jean-Claude Deveau, Esclaves noirs en Méditerranée in Cahiers de la
Méditerranée, vol. 65, Sophia-Antipolis
•Olivier Petré-Grenouilleau, La traite oubliée des négriers musulmans in
L'Histoire, special number 280 S (October 2003), pages 48–55.
•Tidiane N'Diaye, Le génocide voilé. Enquête historique (Editions Gallimard,
Paris, 2008)

External links
•Arab Slave Trade
•BBC - History - British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
•BBC - Islam and Slavery
•Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History
•iAbolish.ORG! American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) - particular focus on
North African slaves
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was
the enslavement and transportation, primarily of African people, to the
colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It
lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Most enslaved people were shipped
from West Africa and Central Africa and taken to North and South America891
to labor on sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton plantations, in gold and silver
mines, in rice fields, the construction industry, timber, and shipping892 or in
houses to work as servants. The shippers were, in order of scale, the
Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the North
Americans.893 European and American-owned fortresses and ships obtained
enslaved people from African slave-traders, though some were captured by
European slave traders through raids and kidnapping.894895 Most contemporary
historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12 million896897 Africans arrived in
the New World,898899 although the actual number of people taken from their
homestead is considerably higher.900901902
The slave trade is sometimes called the Maafa by African and African-
American scholars, meaning "holocaust" or "great disaster" in Swahili. Some
scholars, such as Marimba Ani and Maulana Karenga use the terms African
Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement. Slavery was one element of a
three-part economic cycle — the triangular trade and its Middle Passage —
which ultimately involved four continents, four centuries and millions of
people.903

891Thomas, Hugh.The Slave Trade. Simon and Schuster, 1997.

892Narrative of Frederick Douglass
893
894King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa . Houghton
Mifflin Books. 1998. ISBN 0618001905. .
895Klein, Herbert S. and Jacob Klein. The Atlantic Slave Trade. Cambridge University Press,
1999. pp. 103–139.
896BBC Quick guide: The slave trade
897Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History
898Migration Simulation
899Ronald Segal, The Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside Africa
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995), ISBN 0-374-11396-3, page 4. "It is now
estimated that 11,863,000 slaves were shipped across the Atlantic. [Note in original: Paul E.
Lovejoy, "The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature", in
Journal of African History 30 (1989), p. 368.]"
900Eltis, David and Richardson, David. The Numbers Game. In: Northrup, David: The Atlantic
Slave Trade, 2nd edition, Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002. p. 95.
901Basil Davidson. The African Slave Trade.
902"African Holocaust How Many". African Holocaust Society. . Retrieved 2007-01-04. "While
traditional studies often focus on official French and British records of how many Africans
arrived in the “New World” these studies neglect the death from raids, the fatalities onboard
the ships, introduced European diseases, the victims from the consequences of enslavement,
the trauma of refugees displaced by slaving activities. The numbers of arrivals also neglects
the volume of Africans who arrived via pirate ships who for obvious reasons wouldn’t have
kept records."
903"African Holocaust Special". African Holocaust Society. . Retrieved 2007-01-04.
Origins
Slavery was practiced in some parts of Africa,904 Europe,905 Asia906 and the
Americas before the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade. There is evidence
that enslaved people from some African states were exported to other states
in Africa, Europe and Asia prior to the European invasion of the Americas.907
The African slave trade provided a large number of slaves to Europeans.908909
The Atlantic slave trade is customarily divided into two eras, known as the
First and Second Atlantic Systems.
The First Atlantic system was the trade of enslaved Africans to, primarily,
South American colonies of the Portuguese and Spanish empires; it accounted
for only slightly more than 3% of all Atlantic slave trade. It started (on a
significant scale) in about 1502910 and lasted until 1580, when Portugal was
temporarily united with Spain. While the Portuguese traded enslaved people
themselves, the Spanish empire relied on the asiento system, awarding
merchants (mostly from other countries) the license to trade enslaved people
to their colonies. During the first Atlantic system most of these traders were
Portuguese, giving them a near-monopoly during the era, although some
Dutch, English, Spanish and French traders also participated in the slave
trade.911 After the union, Portugal was weakened, with its colonial empire
being attacked by the Dutch and British.
The Second Atlantic system was the trade of enslaved Africans by mostly
British, Portuguese, French and Dutch traders. The main destinations of this
phase were the Caribbean colonies, Brazil, and North America, as a number of
European countries built up economically slave-dependent colonies in the
New World. Amongst the proponents of this system were Francis Drake and
John Hawkins.
Only slightly more than 3% of the enslaved people exported were traded
between 1450 and 1600, 16% in the 17th century. More than half of them
were exported in the 18th century, the remaining 28.5% in the 19th
century.912

904Historical survey > Slave societies

905Historical survey > Slave societies
906Historical survey > Slave societies
907Ferro, Mark (1997). Colonization: A Global History. Routledge. p. 221, ISBN
9780415140072.
908Adu Boahen, Topics In West African History, p. 110.
909Kwaku Person-Lynn, African Involvement In Atlantic Slave Trade.
910Anstey, Roger: The Atlantic Slave Trade and British abolition, 1760–1810. London:
Macmillan, 1975,p.5.
911Emmer, P.C.: The Dutch in the Atlantic Economy, 1580–1880. Trade, Slavery and
Emancipation. Variorum Collected Studies Series CS614, 1998, pp.17.
912Lovejoy, Paul E.:The Volume of the Atlantic Slave Trade. A Synthesis. In: Northrup, David
(ed.): The Atlantic Slave Trade. D.C. Heath and Company 1994.
Triangular trade
European colonists initially practiced systems of both bonded labour and
"Indian" slavery, enslaving many of the natives of the New World. For a
variety of reasons, Africans replaced Native Americans as the main population
of enslaved people in the Americas. In some cases, such as on some of the
Caribbean Islands, warfare and diseases such as smallpox eliminated the
natives completely. In other cases, such as in South Carolina, Virginia, and
New England, the need for alliances with native tribes coupled with the
availability of enslaved Africans at affordable prices (beginning in the early
18th century for these colonies) resulted in a shift away from Native American
slavery.
A burial ground in Campeche, Mexico, suggests slaves had been brought there
not long after Hernán Cortés completed the subjugation of Aztec and Mayan
Mexico. The graveyard had been in use from approximately 1550 to the late
17th century.913
The first side of the triangle was the export of goods from Europe to Africa. A
number of African kings and merchants took part in the trading of enslaved
people from 1440 to about 1833. For each captive, the African rulers would
receive a variety of goods from Europe. These included guns, ammunition and
other factory made goods. The second leg of the triangle exported enslaved
Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and the Caribbean Islands.
The third and final part of the triangle was the return of goods to Europe from
the Americas. The goods were the products of slave-labour plantations and
included cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum.
However, Brazil (the main importer of slaves) manufactured these goods in
South America and directly traded with African ports, thus not taking part in a
triangular trade.

Labor and slavery

The Atlantic Slave Trade was the result of, among other things, labor
shortage. Native peoples were at first utilized as slave labor by Europeans,
until a large number died from overwork and Old World diseases.914
Alternative sources of labor, such as indentured servitude, failed to provide a
sufficient workforce. Many crops could not be sold for profit, or even grown,
in Europe. Exporting crops and goods from the New World to Europe often
proved to be more cost effective than producing them on the European
mainland. A vast amount of labor was needed for the plantations in the
intensive growing, harvesting and processing of these prized tropical crops.
Western Africa (part of which became known as 'the Slave Coast'), and later
Central Africa, became the source for enslaved people to meet the demand for
labor.

913Skeletons Discovered: First African Slaves in New World. January 31, 2006.
LiveScience.com. Accessed September 27, 2006.
914"Smallpox Through History". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. .
The basic reason for the constant shortage of labor was that, with large
amounts of cheap land available and lots of landowners searching for workers,
free European immigrants were able to become landowners themselves after a
relatively short time, thus increasing the need for workers.915

African slave market

The Atlantic slave trade was not the only slave trade taking a toll on Africa,
although it was the largest in volume and intensity. As Elikia M’bokolo wrote
in Le Monde diplomatique: "The African continent was bled of its human
resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea,
from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of
slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the
nineteenth). ... Four million enslaved people exported via the Red Sea, another
four million916 through the Swahili ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many
as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty
million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean."917
According to John K. Thornton, Europeans usually bought enslaved people
who were captured in endemic warfare between African states.918 There were
also Africans who had made a business out of capturing Africans from
neighboring ethnic groups or war captives and selling them.919 Thornton says
that Europeans provided a large new market for an already existing trade. 920
And while an African held in slavery in his own region of Africa might escape,
a person shipped away was sure never to return. People living around the
Niger River were transported from these markets to the coast and sold at
European trading ports in exchange for muskets and manufactured goods
such as cloth or alcohol.921

915Solow, Barbara (ed.). Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1991.
916http://www.afbis.com/analysis/slave.htm
917Elikia M’bokolo, April 2, 1998, The impact of the slave trade on Africa, Le Monde
diplomatique[8]
918Thornton, page 112
919Thornton, page 310
920Thornton, page 94
921Thornton, page 45
African participation in the slave trade
Africans did play a role in the slave trade to a certain extent. The Africans that
participated in the slave trade would sell their captive or prisoners of war to
European buyers.922 Selling captives or prisoners was common practice
amongst Africans and Arabs during that era. The prisoners and captives that
were sold were usually from neighboring or enemy ethnic groups.923 These
captive slaves were not considered as part of the ethnic group or 'tribe' and
kings held no particular loyalty to them. At times, Kings and businessmen
would sell the criminals in their society to the buyers so that they could no
longer commit crimes in that area. Most other slaves were obtained from
kidnappings, or through raids that occurred at gunpoint through joint
ventures with the Europeans.924 Some Africans Kings refused to sell any of
their captives or criminals. King Jaja of Opobo refused to do business with the
slavers completely.925 For this, he was captured along with his people. Ashanti
King Agyeman Prempeh (Ashanti king, b. 1872) also sacrificed his own
freedom so that his people would not face collective slavery.926

European participation in the slave trade

Although Europeans were the market for slaves, Europeans rarely entered the
interior of Africa, due to fear of disease and fierce African resistance.927 The
enslaved people would be brought to coastal outposts where they would be
traded for goods. Enslavement became a major by-product of internal war in
Africa as nation states expanded through military conflicts in many cases
through deliberate sponsorship of benefiting Western European nations.
During such periods of rapid state formation or expansion (Asante or
Dahomey being good examples), slavery formed an important element of
political life which the Europeans exploited: As Queen Sara's plea to the
Portuguese courts revealed, the system became "sell to the Europeans or be
sold to the Europeans". In Africa, convicted criminals could be punished by
enslavement, a punishment which became more prevalent as slavery became
more lucrative. Since most of these nations did not have a prison system,
convicts were often sold or used in the scattered local domestic slave
market.928

922
923http://www.the4thworld.net/node/15
924
925
926
927Historical survey > The international slave trade
928"Transatlantic Slave Trade". "Hakim Adi". .
The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the last two decades of the 18th century, 929
during and following the Kongo Civil War.930 Wars amongst tiny states along
the Niger River's Igbo-inhabited region and the accompanying banditry also
spiked in this period.931 Another reason for surplus supply of enslaved people
was major warfare conducted by expanding states such as the kingdom of
Dahomey,932 the Oyo Empire and Asante Empire.933
The majority of European conquests, raids and enslavements occurred toward
the end or after the transatlantic slave trade. One exception to this is the
conquest of Ndongo in present day Angola where Ndongo's slaves, warriors,
free citizens and even nobility were taken into slavery by the Portuguese
conquerors after the fall of the state.

929Thornton, page 304

930Thornton, page 305
931
932Thornton, page 311
933Thornton, page 122
Slavery in Africa and the New World contrasted
Forms of slavery varied both in Africa and in the New World. In general,
slavery in Africa was not heritable – that is, the children of slaves were free –
while in the Americas slaves' children were legally enslaved at birth. This was
connected to another distinction: slavery in West Africa was not reserved for
racial or religious minorities, as it was in European colonies.934
The treatment of slaves in Africa was more variable than in the Americas. At
one extreme, the kings of Dahomey routinely slaughtered slaves in hundreds
or thousands in sacrificial rituals, and the use of slaves as human sacrifices
was also known in Cameroon.935 On the other hand, slaves in Ghana were
often treated as part of the family, "adopted children," with significant rights
including the right to marry without their masters' permission.936 In the
Americas, slaves were denied the right to marry freely and even humane
masters did not accept them as equal members of the family; however, while
grisly executions of slaves convicted of revolt or other offenses were
commonplace in the Americas, New World slaves were not subject to arbitrary
ritual sacrifice.937

Slave market regions and participation

There were eight principal areas used by Europeans to buy and ship slaves to
the Western Hemisphere. The number of enslaved people sold to the new
world varied throughout the slave trade. As for the distribution of slaves from
regions of activity, certain areas produced far more enslaved people than
others. Between 1650 and 1900, 10.24 million enslaved Africans arrived in the
Americas from the following regions in the following proportions:938
•Senegambia (Senegal and The Gambia): 4.8%
•Upper Guinea (Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone): 4.1%
•Windward Coast (Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire): 1.8%
•Gold Coast (Ghana and east of Côte d'Ivoire): 10.4%
•Bight of Benin (Togo, Benin and Nigeria west of the Niger Delta): 20.2%
•Bight of Biafra (Nigeria east of the Niger Delta, Cameroon, Equatorial
Guinea and Gabon): 14.6%
•West Central Africa (Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and
Angola): 39.4%
•Southeastern Africa (Mozambique and Madagascar): 4.7%

934Howard Winant (2001) , The World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II,
Basic Books, p. 58.
935Kevin Shillington, ed., (2005), Encyclopedia of African History, CRC Press, vol. 1, p. 333-
34; Nicolas Argenti (2007), The Intestines of the State: Youth, Violence and Belated Histories
in the Cameroon Grassfields, University of Chicago Press, p. 42.
936http://www.accessgambia.com/information/slave-treatment-rights-privileges.html
937http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/negroplot/plotchronology.html
938Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in Slavery. Cambridge University Press, 2000
African kingdoms of the era
There were over 173 city-states and kingdoms in the African regions affected
by the slave trade between 1502 and 1853, when Brazil became the last
Atlantic import nation to outlaw the slave trade. Of those 173, no fewer than
68 could be deemed nation states with political and military infrastructures
that enabled them to dominate their neighbors. Nearly every present-day
nation had a pre-colonial predecessor, sometimes an African Empire with
which European traders had to barter and eventually battle.

Ethnic groups
The different ethnic groups brought to the Americas closely corresponds to
the regions of heaviest activity in the slave trade. Over 45 distinct ethnic
groups were taken to the Americas during the trade. Of the 45, the ten most
prominent according to slave documentation of the era are listed below.939
1. The Gbe speakers of Togo, Ghana and Benin (Adja, Mina, Ewe, Fon)
2. The Akan of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire
3. The Mbundu of Angola (includes Ovimbundu)
4. The BaKongo of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola
5. The Igbo of southeastern Nigeria
6. The Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria
7. The Mandé of Upper Guinea
8. The Wolof of Senegal and The Gambia
9. The Chamba of Cameroon
10. The Makua of Mozambique

Human toll
The transatlantic slave trade resulted in a vast and as yet still unknown loss of
life for African captives both in and outside of America. Approximately 1.2 –
2.4 million Africans died during their transport to the New World940 More died
soon upon their arrival. The amount of life lost in the actual procurement of
slaves remains a mystery but may equal or exceed the amount actually
enslaved.941
The savage nature of the trade, in which most of the enslaved people were
prisoners from African wars, led to the destruction of individuals and cultures.
The following figures do not include deaths of enslaved Africans as a result of
their actual labor, slave revolts or diseases they caught while living among
New World populations.

939Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo: Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the
Links. The University of North Carolina Press, 2006
940Quick guide: The slave trade; Who were the slaves? BBC News
941
A database compiled in the late 1990s put the figure for the transatlantic slave
trade at more than 11 million people. For a long time an accepted figure was
15 million, although this has in recent years been revised down. Most
historians now agree that at least 12 million slaves left the continent between
the 15th and 19th century, but 10 to 20% died on board ships. Thus a figure of
11 million enslaved people transported to the Americas is the nearest
demonstrable figure historians can produce.942

African conflicts
According to Dr. Kimani Nehusi, the presence of European slavers affected
the way in which the legal code in African societies responded to offenders.
Crimes traditionally punishable by some other form of punishment became
punishable by enslavement and sale to slave traders.943 According to David
Stannard's American Holocaust, 50% of African deaths occurred in Africa as a
result of wars between native kingdoms, which produced the majority of
slaves.944 This includes not only those who died in battles, but also those who
died as a result of forced marches from inland areas to slave ports on the
various coasts.945 The practice of enslaving enemy combatants and their
villages was widespread throughout Western and West Central Africa,
although wars were rarely started to procure slaves. The slave trade was
largely a by-product of tribal and state warfare as a way of removing potential
dissidents after victory or financing future wars.946 However, some African
groups proved particularly adept and brutal at the practice of enslaving such
as Oyo, Benin, Igala, Kaabu, Asanteman, Dahomey, the Aro Confederacy and
the Imbangala war bands.947 By the end of this process, no fewer than 18.3
million people would be herded into "factories" to await shipment to the New
World.
In letters written by the Manikongo, Nzinga Mbemba Affonso, to the King João
III of Portugal, he writes that Portuguese merchandise flowing in is what is
fueling the trade in Africans. He requests the King of Portugal to stop sending
merchandise but should only send missionaries. In one of his letter he writes:
"Each day the traders are kidnapping our people—children of this country,
sons of our nobles and vassals, even people of our own family. This
corruption and depravity are so widespread that our land is entirely
depopulated. We need in this kingdom only priests and schoolteachers, and
no merchandise, unless it is wine and flour for Mass. It is our wish that this
Kingdom not be a place for the trade or transport of slaves."

942
943"African Holocaust: Kimani Nehusi How Many" . African Holocaust Society. . Retrieved
2005-01-04.
944
945Gomez, Michael A. Exchanging Our Country Marks. Chapel Hill, 1998
946Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800
Cambridge University Press, 1998
947Stride, G.T. and C. Ifeka. Peoples ad Empires of West Africa: West Africa in History 1000–
1800. Nelson, 1986
 Many of our subjects eagerly lust after Portuguese merchandise that your
subjects have brought into our domains. To satisfy this inordinate appetite,
they seize many of our black free subjects.... They sell them. After having
taken these prisoners [to the coast] secretly or at night..... As soon as the
captives are in the hands of white men they are branded with a red-hot
iron.948
Before the arrival of the Portuguese, slavery had already existed in Kongo.
Despite its establishment within his kingdom, Afonso believed that the slave
trade should be subject to Kongo law. When he suspected the Portuguese of
receiving illegally enslaved persons to sell, he wrote in to King João III in 1526
imploring him to put a stop to the practice.949
The kings of Dahomey sold their war captives into transatlantic slavery, who
otherwise would have been killed in a ceremony known as the Annual
Customs. As one of West Africa's principal slave states, Dahomey became
extremely unpopular with neighbouring peoples.950951952 Like the Bambara
Empire to the east, the Khasso kingdoms depended heavily on the slave trade
for their economy. A family's status was indicated by the number of slaves it
owned, leading to wars for the sole purpose of taking more captives. This
trade led the Khasso into increasing contact with the European settlements of
Africa's west coast, particularly the French.953 Benin grew increasingly rich
during the 16th and 17th centuries on the slave trade with Europe; slaves
from enemy states of the interior were sold, and carried to the Americas in
Dutch and Portuguese ships. The Bight of Benin's shore soon came to be
known as the "Slave Coast".954
King Gezo of Dahomey said in the 1840s:
The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the
glory of their wealth…the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of
triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery…955
In 1807, the UK Parliament passed the Bill that abolished the trading of
slaves. The King of Bonny (now in Nigeria) was horrified at the conclusion of
the practice:
We think this trade must go on. That is the verdict of our oracle and the
priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade
ordained by God himself.956

948
949African Political Ethics and the Slave Trade
950Museum Theme: The Kingdom of Dahomey
951Dahomey (historical kingdom, Africa)
952Benin seeks forgiveness for role in slave trade
953Le Mali précolonial
954The Story of Africa
955West is master of slave trade guilt
956African Slave Owners
Port factories
After being marched to the coast for sale, enslaved people waited in large
forts called factories. The amount of time in factories varied, but Milton
Meltzer's Slavery: A World History states this process resulted in or around
4.5% of deaths during the transatlantic slave trade.957 In other words, over
820,000 people would have died in African ports such as Benguela, Elmina
and Bonny reducing the number of those shipped to 17.5 million.958

Atlantic shipment
After being captured and held in the factories, slaves entered the infamous
Middle Passage. Meltzer's research puts this phase of the slave trade's overall
mortality at 12.5%.959 Around 2.2 million Africans died during these voyages
where they were packed into tight, unsanitary spaces on ships for months at a
time. Measures were taken to stem the onboard mortality rate such as
enforced "dancing" (as exercise) above deck and the practice of force-feeding
enslaved people who tried to starve themselves.960 The conditions on board
also resulted in the spread of fatal diseases. Other fatalities were the result of
suicides by jumping over board by slaves who could no longer endure the
conditions.961 The slave traders would try to fit anywhere from 350 to 600
slaves on one ship. Before the shipping of enslaved people was completely
outlawed in 1853, 15.3 million enslaved people had arrived in the Americas.
Raymond L. Cohn, an economics professor whose research has focused on
economic history and international migration,962 has researched the mortality
rates among Africans during the voyages of the Atlantic slave trade. He found
that mortality rates decreased over the history of the slave trade, primarily
because the length of time necessary for the voyage was declining. "In the
eighteenth century many slave voyages took at least 2½ months. In the
nineteenth century, 2 months appears to have been the maximum length of
the voyage, and many voyages were far shorter. Fewer slaves died in the
Middle Passage over time mainly because the passage was shorter." 963

957Meltzer, Milton. Slavery: A World History. Da Capo Press, 1993

958
959
960
961
962Raymond L. Cohn
963Cohn, Raymond L. "Deaths of Slaves in the Middle Passage", Journal of Economic History,
September 1985.
Seasoning camps
Meltzer also states that 33% of Africans would have died in the first year at
seasoning camps found throughout the Caribbean.964 Many slaves shipped
directly to North America bypassed this process; however most slaves
(destined for island or South American plantations) were likely to be put
through this ordeal. The enslaved people were tortured for the purpose of
"breaking" them (like the practice of breaking horses) and conditioning them
to their new lot in life. Jamaica held one of the most notorious of these camps.
All in all, 5 million Africans died in these camps reducing the final number of
Africans to about 10 million.965

European competition
The trade of enslaved Africans in the Atlantic has its origins in the
explorations of Portuguese mariners down the coast of West Africa in the 15th
century. Before that, contact with African slave markets was made to ransom
Portuguese that had been captured by the intense North African Barbary
pirate attacks on Portuguese ships and coastal villages, frequently leaving
them depopulated.966 The first Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New
World were the Spaniards who sought auxiliaries for their conquest
expeditions and laborers on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola, where the
alarming decline in the native population had spurred the first royal laws
protecting the native population (Laws of Burgos, 1512–1513). The first
enslaved Africans arrived in Hispaniola in 1501.967 After Portugal had
succeeded in establishing sugar plantations (engenhos) in northern Brazil ca.
1545, Portuguese merchants on the West African coast began to supply
enslaved Africans to the sugar planters there. While at first these planters
relied almost exclusively on the native Tupani for slave labor, a titanic shift
toward Africans took place after 1570 following a series of epidemics which
decimated the already destabilized Tupani communities. By 1630, Africans
had replaced the Tupani as the largest contingent of labor on Brazilian sugar
plantations, heralding equally the final collapse of the European medieval
household tradition of slavery, the rise of Brazil as the largest single
destination for enslaved Africans and sugar as the reason that roughly 84% of
these Africans were shipped to the New World.

964
965
966BBC – History – British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
967HEALTH IN SLAVERY
Merchants from various European nations were later involved in the Atlantic
Slave trade: Portugal, Spain, France, England, Scotland, Brandenburg-
Prussia, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden.968 As Britain rose in naval
power and settled continental North America and some islands of the West
Indies, they became the leading slave traders. At one stage the trade was the
monopoly of the Royal Africa Company, operating out of London, but following
the loss of the company's monopoly in 1689,969 Bristol and Liverpool
merchants became increasingly involved in the trade.970 By the late 17th
century, one out of every four ships that left Liverpool harbour was a slave
trading ship.971 Other British cities also profited from the slave trade.
Birmingham, the largest gun producing town in Britain at the time, supplied
guns to be traded for slaves. 75% of all sugar produced in the plantations
came to London to supply the highly lucrative coffee houses there.972

968La traite négrière à Saint-Barthélemy . Source: 'Comité de Liaison et d'Application des

Sources Historiques', Saint-Barthélemy.
969Elkins, Stanley: Slavery. New York: Universal Library, 1963. p.48
970Rawley, James: London, Metropolis of the Slave Trade 2003
971Anstey, Roger: The Atlantic Slave Trade and British abolition, 1760–1810. London:
Macmillan, 1975.
972
New World destinations
The first slaves to arrive as part of a labor force appeared in 1502 on the
island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Cuba received
its first four slaves in 1513. Slave exports to Honduras and Guatemala started
in 1526. The first enslaved Africans to reach what would become the US
arrived in January of 1526 as part of a Spanish attempt at colonizing South
Carolina near Jamestown. By November the 300 Spanish colonists were
reduced to a mere 100 accompanied by 70 of their original 100 slaves. The
enslaved people revolted and joined a nearby native population while the
Spanish abandoned the colony altogether. Colombia received its first enslaved
people in 1533. El Salvador, Costa Rica and Florida began their stint in the
slave trade in 1541, 1563 and 1581 respectively.
The 17th century saw an increase in shipments with enslaved people arriving
in the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Irish immigrants brought
slaves to Montserrat in 1651, and in 1655, slaves arrived in Belize.
Distribution of slaves (1519–1867)973

Destination Percentage
Portuguese America 38.5%
British America (minus North America) 18.4%
Spanish Empire 17.5%
French Americas 13.6%
British North America 6.45%
English Americas 3.25%
Dutch West Indies 2.0%
Danish West Indies 0.3%
The number of the Africans arrived in each area can be easily calculated
taking into consideration that the total number of slaves was close to
10,000,000.974

973Stephen D. Behrendt, David Richardson, and David Eltis, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for
African and African-American Research, Harvard University. Based on "records for 27,233
voyages that set out to obtain slaves for the Americas". Stephen Behrendt (1999).
"Transatlantic Slave Trade". Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American
Experience. New York: Basic Civitas Books. ISBN 0-465-00071-1.
974The Atlantic slave trade. By Philip D. Curtin, 1972. P.88
Economics of slavery
The plantation economies of the New World were built on slave labor. Seventy
percent of the enslaved people brought to the new world were used to
produce sugar, the most labor-intensive crop. The rest were employed
harvesting coffee, cotton, and tobacco, and in some cases in mining. The West
Indian colonies of the European powers were some of their most important
possessions, so they went to extremes to protect and retain them. For
example, at the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, France agreed to cede
the vast territory of New France (now Eastern Canada) to the victors in
exchange for keeping the minute Antillean island of Guadeloupe.
In France in the 18th century, returns for investors in plantations averaged
around 6%; as compared to 5% for most domestic alternatives, this
represented a 20% profit advantage. Risks—maritime and commercial—were
important for individual voyages. Investors mitigated it by buying small shares
of many ships at the same time. In that way, they were able to diversify a
large part of the risk away. Between voyages, ship shares could be freely sold
and bought.975
By far the most financially profitable West Indian colonies in 1800 belonged to
the United Kingdom. After entering the sugar colony business late, British
naval supremacy and control over key islands such as Jamaica, Trinidad, the
Leeward Islands and Barbados and the territory of British Guiana gave it an
important edge over all competitors; while many British did not make gains, a
handful of individuals made small fortunes. This advantage was reinforced
when France lost its most important colony, St. Dominigue (western
Hispaniola, now Haiti), to a slave revolt in 1791976 and supported revolts
against its rival Britain, after the 1793 French revolution in the name of
liberty. Before 1791, British sugar had to be protected to compete against
cheaper French sugar.
After 1791, the British islands produced the most sugar, and the British
people quickly became the largest consumers. West Indian sugar became
ubiquitous as an additive to Indian tea. It has been estimated that the profits
of the slave trade and of West Indian plantations created up to one-in-twenty
of every pound circulating in the British economy at the time of the Industrial
Revolution in the latter half of the 18th century.977

Effects
World population (in millions)978

Year 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 1999

World 791 978 1,262 1,650 2,521 5,978
Africa 106 107 111 133 221 767

975Daudin 2004
976Slave Revolt in St. Domingue (Haiti)
977Digital History
978UN report
Asia 502 635 809 947 1,402 3,634
Europe 163 203 276 408 547 729
Latin 16 24 38 74 167 511
America
and the
Caribbean
Northern 2 7 26 82 172 307
America
Oceania 2 2 2 6 13 30
World population (by percentage distribution)

Year 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 1999

World 100 100 100 100 100 100
Africa 13.4 10.9 8.8 8.1 8.8 12.8
Asia 63.5 64.9 64.1 57.4 55.6 60.8
Europe 20.6 20.8 21.9 24.7 21.7 12.2
Latin 2.0 2.5 3.0 4.5 6.6 8.5
America
and the
Caribbean
Northern 0.3 0.7 2.1 5.0 6.8 5.1
America
Oceania 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.5
Historian Walter Rodney has argued that at the start of the slave trade in the
16th century, even though there was a technological gap between Europe and
Africa, it was not very substantial. Both continents were using Iron Age
technology. The major advantage that Europe had was in ship building.
During the period of slavery the populations of Europe and the Americas grew
exponentially while the population of Africa remained stagnant. Rodney
contended that the profits from slavery were used to fund economic growth
and technological advancement in Europe and the Americas. Based on earlier
theories by Eric Williams, he asserted that the industrial revolution was at
least in part funded by agricultural profits from the Americas. He cited
examples such as the invention of the steam engine by James Watt, which was
funded by plantation owners from the Caribbean.979

979[9] How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Walter RodneyISBN 0950154644

Other historians have attacked both Rodney's methodology and factual
accuracy. Joseph C. Miller has argued that the social change and demographic
stagnation (which he researched on the example of West Central Africa) was
caused primarily by domestic factors. Joseph Inikori provided a new line of
argument, estimating counterfactual demographic developments in case the
Atlantic slave trade had not existed. Patrick Manning has shown that the slave
trade did indeed have profound impact on African demographics and social
institutions, but nevertheless criticized Inikori's approach for not taking other
factors (such as famine and drought) into account and thus being highly
speculative.980

Effect on the economy of Africa

No scholars dispute the harm done to the enslaved people themselves, but the
effect of the trade on African societies is much debated due to the apparent
influx of goods to Africans. Proponents of the slave trade, such as Archibald
Dalzel, argued that African societies were robust and not much affected by the
ongoing trade. In the 19th century, European abolitionists, most prominently
Dr. David Livingstone, took the opposite view arguing that the fragile local
economy and societies were being severely harmed by the ongoing trade.
Historian Walter Rodney estimates that by c.1770, the King of Dahomey was
earning an estimated £250,000 per year by selling captive African soldiers and
enslaved people to the European slave-traders.

Effects on the economy of Europe

Eric Williams tried to show the contribution of Africans on the basis of profits
from the slave trade and slavery, and the employment of those profits to
finance England's industrialization process. He argues that the enslavement of
Africans was an essential element to the Industrial Revolution, and that
British wealth is a result of slavery. However, he argued that by the time of its
abolition it had lost its profitability and it was in Britain's economic interest to
ban it. On the other hand, Seymour Drescher and Robert Anstey have both
presented evidence that the slave trade remained profitable until the end, and
that reasons other than economics led to its cessation.
Karl Marx in his influential economic history of capitalism Das Kapital
claimed that '...the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting
of black-skins, signaled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.' He
argued that the slave trade was part of what he termed the 'primitive
accumulation' of European capital, the 'non-capitalist' accumulation of wealth
that preceded and created the financial conditions for Britain's
industrialisation.981

980Manning, Patrick: Contours of Slavery and Social change in Africa. In: Northrup, David
(ed.): The Atlantic Slave Trade. D.C. Heath & Company, 1994, pp.148–160.
981Marx, K. "Chapter Thirty-One: Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist" Das Kapital: Volume 1,
1867.,[10]
Demographics
The demographic effects of the slave trade are some of the most controversial
and debated issues. More than 12 million people were removed from Africa
via the slave trade, and what effect this had on Africa is an important
question.
Walter Rodney argued that the export of so many people had been a
demographic disaster and had left Africa permanently disadvantaged when
compared to other parts of the world, and largely explains the continent's
continued poverty.982 He presented numbers showing that Africa's population
stagnated during this period, while that of Europe and Asia grew dramatically.
According to Rodney, all other areas of the economy were disrupted by the
slave trade as the top merchants abandoned traditional industries to pursue
slaving, and the lower levels of the population were disrupted by the slaving
itself.
As Joseph E. Inikori argues, the history of the region shows that the effects
were still quite deleterious. He argues that the African economic model of the
period was very different from the European, and could not sustain such
population losses. Population reductions in certain areas also led to
widespread problems. Inikori also notes that after the suppression of the slave
trade Africa's population almost immediately began to rapidly increase, even
prior to the introduction of modern medicines.983 Owen Alik Shahadah also
states that the trade was not only of demographic significance in aggregate
population losses but also in the profound changes to settlement patterns,
exposure to epidemics, and reproductive and social development potential. 984

Legacy of racism
Professor Maulana Karenga states that the effects of slavery were that "the
morally monstrous destruction of human possibility involved redefining
African humanity to the world, poisoning past, present and future relations
with others who only know us through this stereotyping and thus damaging
the truly human relations among peoples." He states that it constituted the
destruction of culture, language, religion and human possibility. 985
The Atlantic slave trade was without question a long-standing system which
displaced many African people from their native lands, tribes, and families.
The evidence of the populations of descendant Africans is most clear in the
continents of North America and South America.

982Rodney, Walter. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle-L'Ouverture

Publications, 1972
983Ideology versus the Tyranny of Paradigm: Historians and the Impact of the Atlantic Slave
Trade on African Societies, by Joseph E. Inikori African Economic History. 1994.
984"African Holocaust: Dark Voyage audio CD". "Owen 'Alik Shahadah". .
985"Effects on Africa". "Ron Karenga". .
End of the Atlantic slave trade
In Britain, Portugal and in some other parts of Europe, opposition developed
against the slave trade. Led by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and
establishment Evangelicals such as William Wilberforce, the movement was
joined by many and began to protest against the trade, but they were opposed
by the owners of the colonial holdings.986 Denmark, which had been active in
the slave trade, was the first country to ban the trade through legislation in
1792, which took effect in 1803. Britain banned the slave trade (but not
slavery itself) in 1807, imposing stiff fines for any slave found aboard a British
ship (see Slave Trade Act 1807). The Royal Navy, which then controlled the
world's seas, moved to stop other nations from filling Britain's place in the
slave trade and declared that slaving was equal to piracy and was punishable
by death. The United States outlawed the importation of slaves on January 1,
1808, the earliest date permitted by the constitution for such a ban.
On Sunday 28 October 1787, William Wilberforce wrote in his diary: "God
Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave
trade and the Reformation of society." For the rest of his life, William
Wilberforce dedicated his life as a Member of Parliament to opposing the
slave trade and working for the abolition of slavery throughout the British
Empire. On 22 February 1807, twenty years after he first began his crusade,
and in the middle of Britain's war with France, Wilberforce and his team's
labors were rewarded with victory. By an overwhelming 283 votes for to 16
against, the motion to abolish the slave trade was carried in the House of
Commons.987

986Library of Society of Friends Subject Guide: Abolition of the Slave Trade

987William Wilberforce (1759–1833)
After the British ended their own slave trade, they felt forced by economics to
press other nations to do the same, or else the British colonies would become
uncompetitive. With peace in Europe from 1815, and British supremacy at sea
secured, the Navy turned its attention back to the challenge and established
the West Coast of Africa Station, known as the 'preventative squadron', which
for the next 50 years operated against the slavers. By the 1850s, around 25
vessels and 2,000 officers and men were on the station, supported by nearly
1,000 'Kroomen'—experienced fishermen recruited as sailors from what is
now the coast of modern Liberia. Service on the West Africa Squadron was a
thankless and overwhelming task, full of risk and posing a constant threat to
the health of the crews involved. Contending with pestilential swamps and
violent encounters, the mortality rate was 55 per 1,000 men, compared with
10 for fleets in the Mediterranean or in home waters.988 Between 1807 and
1860, the West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 ships involved in
the slave trade and took custody of 150,000 Africans who were aboard these
vessels.989 However, most of these people were then transported by the navy
to the British colony of Sierra Leone, where they were made to serve as
'apprentices' in the colonial economy.990 The last recorded slave ship to land
on American soil was the Clotilde, which in 1859 illegally smuggled a number
of Africans into the town of Mobile, Alabama.991 The Africans on board were
sold as slaves; however, slavery was abolished 5 years later following the end
of the American Civil War. The last survivor of the voyage was Cudjoe Lewis
who died in 1935.992
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British
treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against 'the usurping King of Lagos',
deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African
rulers.993 The British campaign against the slave trade by other nations was an
unprecedented foreign policy effort.
Although the slave trade had become illegal, slavery remained a reality in
British colonies. Wilberforce himself was privately convinced that the
institution of slavery should be entirely abolished, but understood that there
was little political will for emancipation. In parliament, the Emancipation Bill
gathered support and received its final commons reading on 26 July 1833.
Slavery would be abolished, but the planters would be heavily compensated,
and slaves on plantations were required to remain as slaves on the plantations
for a further six years. Thank God, said William Wilberforce, that I have lived
to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling
for the Abolition of Slavery. After several years of peaceful protests, full
emancipation for all was legally granted in Trinidad ahead of schedule on 1
August 1838, making it the first British colony with slaves to completely
abolish slavery.994

988The Royal Navy and the Battle to End Slavery. By Huw Lewis-Jones
989Sailing against slavery. By Jo Loosemore BBC
990Britain forces 'freed slaves' into colonial labour
991Question of the Month – Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University
992Diouf, Sylvianne (2007). Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the
Story of the Last Africans Brought to America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195311043. .
993The West African Squadron and slave trade
994Dryden, John. 1992 "Pas de Six Ans!" In: Seven Slaves & Slavery: Trinidad 1777–1838, by
Anthony de Verteuil, Port of Spain, pp. 371–379.
The last country to ban the Atlantic slave trade was Brazil in 1831. However, a
vibrant illegal trade continued to ship large numbers of enslaved people to
Brazil and also to Cuba until the 1860s, when British enforcement and further
diplomacy finally ended the Atlantic trade.995996

Abolition argument
The Abolitionists argued that the slave trade changed the face of Africa,
pushing them into constant wars as a result of the Europeans' ever-growing
demands for slaves. They argued that even in Africa, the Africans' lives
revolved around the slave trade's needs through the constant wars and battles
to secure enough slaves for the Europeans. Although people avoided
mentioning the horrid living conditions of slave trade ships out of fear of the
animosity it could cause, the abolitionists incorporated the high mortality
rates in their argument against slavery. Even though the abolitionists
incorporated the idea of European superiority in their platform, they argued
the slave trade hindered the progress of African race. They, however, had to
contend with those who invested in the slave trade, who argued that the slave
trade was essential for the survival of the economy. Others argued that
despite the cruel conditions on the ships, the overall conditions of Africa were
worse. The debate over slavery went on for decades before abolition was
finalized.997

Apologies
In 1998, UNESCO designated August 23 as International Day for the
Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Since that occurrence, a
number of events surrounding the recognition of the effect of slavery on both
the enslaved and enslavers have come to pass.
On 9 December 1999 Liverpool City Council passed a formal motion
apologising for the City's part in the slave trade. It was unanimously agreed
that Liverpool acknowledges its responsibility for its involvement in three
centuries of the slave trade. The City Council has made an unreserved apology
for Liverpool's involvement and the continual effect of slavery on Liverpool's
Black communities.998

995Anstey, Roger: The Atlantic Slave Trade and British abolition, 1760–1810. London:
Macmillan, 1975.
996Timeline – What happened after 1807?
997The African slave trade from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century: reports and papers of
the meeting of experts / organized by Unesco at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 31 January to 4
February 1978.
998[11]. National Museums Liverpool, Accessed 31 August 2010.
At the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa,
African nations demanded a clear apology for slavery from the former slave-
trading countries. Some nations were ready to express an apology, but the
opposition, mainly from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, the
Netherlands, and the United States blocked attempts to do so. A fear of
monetary compensation might have been one of the reasons for the
opposition. Another factor is that the descendants of the slaves, living in the
United States and in the European countries mentioned, are generally much
better off, economically, than the descendants of those who remained and who
are living in Africa. Apologies on behalf of African nations, for their role in
trading their countrymen into slavery, also remains an open issue, as the slave
trade could not have existed or have been maintained without the cooperation
of these African nations. As of 2009, efforts are underway to create a UN
Slavery Memorial as a permanent remembrance of the victims of the atlantic
slave trade.
On January 30, 2006, Jacques Chirac (the then French President) said that 10
May would henceforth be a national day of remembrance for the victims of
slavery in France, marking the day in 2001 when France passed a law
recognising slavery as a crime against humanity.999
On November 27, 2006, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a partial
apology for Britain's role in the African slavery trade. However African rights
activists denounced it as "empty rhetoric" that failed to address the issue
properly. They feel his apology stopped shy to prevent any legal retort. 1000 Mr
Blair again apologized on March 14, 2007.1001
On February 24, 2007 the Virginia General Assembly passed House Joint
Resolution Number 7281002 acknowledging "with profound regret the
involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans,
and call for reconciliation among all Virginians." With the passing of that
resolution, Virginia became the first of the 50 United States to acknowledge
through the state's governing body their state's involvement in slavery. The
passing of this resolution came on the heels of the 400th anniversary
celebration of the city of Jamestown, Virginia, which was the first permanent
English colony to survive in what would become the United States. Jamestown
is also recognized as one of the first slave ports of the American colonies.
On May 31, 2007, the Governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, signed a resolution
expressing "profound regret" for Alabama's role in slavery and apologizing for
slavery's wrongs and lingering effects. Alabama is the fourth Southern state to
pass a slavery apology, following votes by the legislatures in Maryland,
Virginia, and North Carolina.1003

999"Chirac names slavery memorial day". BBC News, 30 January 2006. Accessed 22 July
2009.
1000"Blair 'sorrow' over slave trade". BBC News, November 27, 2006. Accessed March 15,
2007.
1001"Blair 'sorry' for UK slavery role". BBC News, March 14, 2007. Accessed March 15, 2007.
1002House Joint Resolution Number 728. Commonwealth of Virginia. Accessed 22 July 2009.
1003Associated Press. "Alabama Governor Joins Other States in Apologizing For Role in
Slavery". Fox News, May 31, 2007. Accessed 22 July 2009.
On August 24, 2007, Ken Livingstone (then Mayor of London) apologized
publicly for London's role in the slave trade. "You can look across there to see
the institutions that still have the benefit of the wealth they created from
slavery", he said pointing towards the financial district, before breaking down
in tears. He claimed that London was still tainted by the horrors of slavery.
Jesse Jackson praised Mayor Livingstone, and added that reparations should
be made.1004
On July 30, 2008, the United States House of Representatives passed a
resolution apologizing for American slavery and subsequent discriminatory
laws. The language included a reference to the "fundamental injustice,
cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow" segregation. 1005
On June 18, 2009, the United States Senate issued an apologetic statement
decrying the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of
slavery". The news was welcomed by President Barack Obama, the nation's
first President of African descent.1006

1004"Livingstone breaks down in tears at slave trade memorial". Daily Mail, 24 August 2007.
Accessed 22 July 2009.
1005Fears, Darryl. "House Issues An Apology For Slavery". The Washington Post, July 30,
2008, p. A03. Accessed 22 July 2009.
1006Agence France-Presse. "Obama praises 'historic' Senate slavery apology". Google News,
June 18, 2009. Accessed 22 July 2009.
See also
•List of topics related to Black and African people
•Abolitionism
•African American history
•African Diaspora
•African slave trade
•Afro-Brazilians
•Afro-Latinos
•Arab slave trade
•Bandeirantes
•Christianity and slavery
•European colonization of the Americas
•History of slavery
•History of slavery in the United States
•Plantation economy
•Triangular trade
Further reading
•Anstey, Roger: The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition, 1760–1810.
London: Macmillan, 1975. ISBN 0333148460.
•Clarke, Dr. John Henrik: Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust:
Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism. Brooklyn, N.Y.: A & B Books,
1992. ISBN 1881316149.
•Curtin, Philip D: Atlantic Slave Trade. University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
•Daudin, Guillaume: "Profitability of slave and long distance trading in
context: the case of eighteenth century France", Journal of Economic History,
2004.
•Diop, Er. Cheikh Anta: Precolonial Black Africa: A Comparative Study of the
Political and Social Systems of Europe and Black Africa. Harold J. Salemson,
trans. Westport, Conn.: L. Hill, 1987. ISBN 088208187X, ISBN 0882081888.
•Doortmont, Michel R.; Jinna Smit (2007). Sources for the mutual history of
Ghana and the Netherlands. An annotated guide to the Dutch archives
relating to Ghana and West Africa in the Nationaal Archief, 1593–1960s.
Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15850-4.
•Drescher, Seymour: From Slavery to Freedom: Comparative Studies in the
Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery. London: Macmillan Press, 1999. ISBN
0333737482.
•Emmer, Pieter C.: The Dutch in the Atlantic Economy, 1580–1880. Trade,
Slavery and Emancipation. Variorum Collected Studies Series CS614.
Aldershot [u.a.]: Variorum, 1998. ISBN 0860786978.
•Franklin, John Hope: From Slavery to Freedom, 3rd ed. New York: Knopf,
1967.
•Gomez, Michael Angelo: Exchanging Our Country Marks (The
Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and AnteBellum South).
Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998. ISBN
0807846945.
•Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo: Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas:
Restoring the Links. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press,
2006. ISBN 0807829730.
•Horne, Gerald: The Deepest South: The United States, Brazil, and the African
Slave Trade. New York, NY : New York Univ. Press, 2007. ISBN
9780814736883, ISBN 9780814736890.
•James, E. Wyn: "Welsh Ballads and American Slavery", Welsh Journal of
Religious History, 2 (2007), pp. 59–86. ISSN 0967-3938.
•Klein, Herbert S.: The Atlantic Slave Trade. Cambridge University Press,
1999. ISBN 0521460204, ISBN 0521465885.
•Lindsay, Lisa A. "Captives as Commodities: The Transatlantic Slave Trade".
Prentice Hall, 2008. ISBN 9780131942158
•Meltzer, Milton: Slavery: A World History. New York: Da Capo Press, 1993.
ISBN 0306805367.
•Northrup, David: The Atlantic Slave Trade, 2nd edition. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 2002. ISBN 0618116249.
•Rodney, Walter: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington, D.C.:
Howard University Press; Revised edition, 1981. ISBN 0882580965.
•Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the
Transatlantic World. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2007. ISBN 9780765612571.
•Solow, Barbara (ed.). Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN 0521400902.
•Thomas, Hugh: The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade
1440–1870. London: Picador, 1997. ISBN 033035437X.
•Thornton, John: Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World,
1400–1800, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0521622174,
ISBN 0521627249, ISBN 0521593700, ISBN 0521596491.
•Williams, Chancellor: Destruction of Black Civilization Great Issues of a Race
from 4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D., 3rd ed. Chicago: Third World Press, 1987. ISBN
0883780305, ISBN 0883780429.
•Williams, Eric: Capitalism & Slavery. Chapel Hill: The University of North
Carolina Press, 1994 (first published 1944). ISBN 0807821756, ISBN
0807844888.
External links
•Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
•African Holocaust: The legacy of Slavery remembered
•BBC | Africa | Quick guide: The slave trade
•Teaching resources about Slavery and Abolition on blackhistory4schools.com
•International Slavery Museum
•Mémoire St Barth | History of St Barthélemy (archives & history of slavery,
slave trade and their abolition), Comité de Liaison et d'Application des
Sources Historiques.
Colonization of Africa
The colonisation of Africa has a long history, the most famous phase being
the European Scramble for Africa of the nineteenth century.

Ancient colonisation
North Africa experienced colonisation from Europe and Western Asia in the
early historical period, particularly Greeks and Phoenicians.
Under Egypt's Pharaoh Amasis (570-526 BCE) a Greek mercantile colony was
established at Naucratis, some fifty miles from the later Alexandria.1007 Greeks
also colonised Cyrenaica around the same time.1008 There was also an attempt
in 513 BCE to establish a Greek colony between Cyrene and Carthage that
resulted in the combined local and Carthaginian expulsion two years later of
the Greek colonists.1009
Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) founded Alexandria during his conquest of
Egypt. This became one of the major cities of Hellenistic and Roman times.
Phoenicians founded a number of colonies along the North African coast.
Some of these were founded relatively early. Utica, for example, was founded
c. 1100 BCE. Carthage, which means New City, has a traditional foundation
date of 801 BCE. It was established in what is now Tunisia and became a
major power in the Mediterranean by the 4th century BC. The Carthaginians
themselves sent out expeditions to explore and establish colonies along
Africa's Atlantic coast. A surviving account of such is that of Hanno which
Harden who quotes it places at c. 425 BCE.1010
Carthage encountered and struggled with the Romans. After the third and
final war between them, the Third Punic War (150-146 BCE), Rome completely
destroyed Carthage. Scullard (p. 37, 150, 216) mentions plans by such as
Gaius Gracchus in the late Second Century BCE, Julius Caesar and Augustus
in the mid and late First Century BCE to establish a new Roman colony near
the same site. This was established and under Augustus served as the capital
city of the Roman province of Africa.1011
Gothic Vandals briefly established a kingdom there in the 5th century, which
shortly thereafter fell to the Romans again, this time the Byzantines. The
whole of Roman/Byzantine North Africa eventually fell to the Arabs in the 7th
century, who brought the Islamic religion and Arabic language (see History of
Islam).

1007Boardman, The Greeks Overseas, Penguin, Harmondsworth 1973 (1964) p. 114

1008Boardman op. cit. p. 151f
1009Boardman op. cit. p. 208
1010Harden, Donald, The Phoenicians, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1971 (1962) pp 163-168
1011Scullard, H.H. From the Gracchi to Nero, Methuen, London, 1976 (1963) pp. 37, 150,
216
Early modern period
From the seventh century, Arab trade with sub-Saharan Africa led to a
gradual colonisation of East Africa, around Zanzibar and other bases.
Although trans-Saharan trade led to a small number of West African cities
developing Arab quarters, these were not intended as colonies, and while
Morocco attempted to conquer areas of the Sahel in the Moroccan war, it was
soon forced to withdraw its troops after pillaging the area.
Early European expeditions concentrated on colonising previously uninhabited
islands such as the Cape Verdes and Sao Tome Island, or establishing coastal
forts as a base for trade. These forts often developed areas of influence along
coastal strips, but (with the exception of the River Senegal), the vast interior
of Africa was not colonised and indeed little-known to Europeans until the late
nineteenth century.
Vincent Khapoya mentions Ali Masrui's three interrelated broad reasons for
European exploration of Africa: to increase knowledge, to spread Christianity
and to increase national esteem.1012 Khapoya continues with a listing of
reasons ("political/strategic, cultural and economic") for colonialism. 1013

The Scramble for Africa

Established empires, notably Britain, Portugal and France, had already
claimed for themselves vast areas of Africa and Asia, and emerging imperial
powers like Italy and Germany had done likewise on a smaller scale. With the
dismissal of the aging Chancellor Bismarck by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the relatively
orderly colonisation became a frantic scramble. The 1885 Berlin Conference,
initiated by Bismarck to establish international guidelines for the acquisition
of African territory, formalised this "New Imperialism". Between the Franco-
Prussian War and the Great War, Europe added almost 9 million square miles
(23,000,000 km²) — one-fifth of the land area of the globe — to its overseas
colonial possessions.
Vincent Khapoya notes the great self esteem some European states felt at
possessing territory many times larger than themselves. He adds the
significant contribution made by Africans to struggle among the great powers.
He states that one million people of African descent fought for the Allies in
World War One and two million in World War Two.1014

1012Khapoya, Vincent B., The African Experience, Prentice Hall, 1998 (1994) p. 112
1013Khapoya, op. cit. p. 114
1014Khapoya op. cit. p. 115f
The Europeans possessed attitudes of superiority and a sense of mission.
Khapoya compares and contrasts three colonial powers: the French, the
British and the Portuguese. The French were able to accept an African as
French, if they gave up their African culture and adopted French ways, even
including marriage with a (white) French person. The British did not accept
full equality even for an African adopting British ways, and disapproved of
interracial marriage. The Portuguese were more tolerant than the British
concerning mixed marriages, though still viewing full blooded Portuguese as
superior. Knowledge of Portuguese language and culture and abandonment of
traditional ways defined one as civilised.
Khapoya considers the colonisers' administrative styles. "The French, the
Portuguese, the Germans and the Belgians exercised a highly centralized type
of administration called 'direct rule.'" The British sought to rule by identifying
local power holders and encouraging or forcing these to administer for the
British Empire. This was indirect rule.1015
France ruled from France, appointing chiefs individuals without considering
traditional criteria, but rather loyalty to France. France established two large
colonial federations in Africa, French West Africa and French Equatorial
Africa. France appointed officials, passed laws and had to approve any
measures passed by colonial assemblies.
East Africans resisted German enforced labour and taxation. The Germans
were almost driven out of the area in 1888.1016 A decade later the colony
seemed conquered, though, "It had been a long drawn-out struggle and inland
administration centres were in reality little more than a series of small
military fortresses." In 1905 the Germans were astonished by a widely
supported uprising. At first this was successful. Within a year this was
suppressed by reinforcing troops armed with machine guns. German attempts
to seize control in Southwest Africa also produced ardent resistance which
was very forcefully put down.1017
King Leopold II of Belgium called his vast private colony the Congo Free
State. Effectively this meant those exploiting the area were free of all restraint
and answerable only to the Belgian king.1018 The treatment of the Africans
under this system was harsh enough to cause the other colonial powers to
plead with the Belgian king to exercise some moderating influence. Eventually
the Belgian government annexed the territory as a Belgian colony. 1019
"Belgian colonial rule saw massive transfers of wealth from Zaire [the Belgian
Congo] to Belgium. Africans received only limited education, which would
allow them to read the Bible, take orders efficiently from the missionaries, and
function, at best, as clerks in the colonial bureaucracy." (p. 132) Khapoya
notes that in 1960 Zaire had a relatively high literacy rate and one college
graduate.1020

1015Khapoya, op. cit. p. 126f

1016Shillington, Kevin, History of Africa, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1995 (1989)
1017Shillington, Kevin, op. cit. p. 340f
1018Khapoya, op. cit. p. 131
1019ibid
1020Khapoya, op. cit. p. 132
As Khapoya discusses (pp. 134–143) all colonial powers exercised significant
attention to the economics of the situation. This included: acquisition of land,
enforced labour, introduction of cash crops, even to the neglect of food crops,
halting inter-African trading patterns of pre-colonial times, introduction of
labourers from India, etc. and the continuation of Africa as a source of raw
materials for European industry, therefore a continent not to be
industrialised.1021

1021Khapoya, op. cit. pp. 134-143

Decolonisation
Vincent Khapoya (p. 148f) notes the significant resistance imperialist powers
faced to their domination in Africa. Technical superiority enabled conquest
and control. Africans recognized the value of European education in dealing
with Europeans in Africa. They noticed the discrepancy between Christian
teaching of universal brotherhood and the treatment they received from
missionaries. Some established their own churches. Africans also noticed the
unequal evidences of gratitude they received for their efforts to support
Imperialist countries during the world wars:1022
"Many British veterans were rewarded for their part in saving Britain and her
empire with generous pensions and offers of nearly free land in the colonies.
The African soldiers were given handshakes and train tickets for the journey
back home. They could keep their khaki uniforms and nothing else. These
African soldiers, after returning home, were willing to use their new skills to
assist nationalist movements fighting for freedom that were beginning to take
shape in the colonies." (p. 158)1023
Vincent Khapoya notes that while European imposed borders did not
correspond to traditional territories, such new territories provided entities to
focus efforts by movements for increased political voice up to independence.
Among local groups so concerned were professionals such as lawyers and
doctors, the petite bourgeoisie (clerks, teachers, small merchants), urban
workers, cash crop farmers, peasant farmers, etc. Trade unions and other
initially non political associations evolved into political movements.
Khapoya (p. 177f) describes the differences in gaining independence by
British and French colonies. Britain sought to follow a process of gradual
transfer of power. The French policy of assimilation faced some resentment,
especially in North Africa.1024 Shillington (p. 380f) describes the granting of
independence in March 1956 to Morocco and Tunisia to allow concentration
on Algeria where there was a long (1954–1962) and bloody armed struggle to
achieve independence.1025 Khapoya writes (p. 183) that when President de
Gaulle in 1958 held a referendum in its African colonies on the issue, only
Guinea voted for outright independence. Nevertheless in 1959 France
amended the constitution to allow other colonies this option.
As Shillington describes (p. 385f) farmers in British East Africa were upset by
attempts to take their land and to impose agricultural methods against their
wishes and experience. In Tanganyika, Julius Nyerere exerted influence not
only among Africans, united by the common Swahili language, but also on
some White leaders whose disproportionate voice under a racially weighted
constitution was significant. He became leader of an independent Tanganyika
in 1961. In Kenya Whites had evicted African tenant farmers in the 1930s.
Since the 40s there had been conflict. This intensified in 1952. By 1955
Britain had suppressed the revolt. By 1960 Britain accepted the principle of
African majority rule. Kenya became independent three years later.1026

1022Khapoya, op. cit. p. 148f

1023Khapoya, op. cit. p. 158
1024Khapoya, op. cit. p. 177f
1025Shillington, op. cit. p. 380f
1026Shillington, op. cit. p. 385f
Shillington (p. 391f) vividly portrays Belgium's initial opposition to
independence, the demands by some urban Africans, the 1957 and 1958 local
elections meant to calm this dissatisfaction, the general unrest that swept the
colony, the rapid granting of independence and the civil strife that ensued.1027
The main period of decolonisation in Africa began after World War II. Growing
independence movements, indigeneous political parties and trade unions
coupled with pressure from within the imperialist powers and from the United
States ensured the decolonisation of virtually the whole of the continent by
1980. While some areas, in particular South Africa, retain a large population
of European descent, only the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and the
islands of Réunion, the Canary Islands and Madeira remain under European
control.

See also
•Colonialism
•European exploration of Africa
•Neocolonialism
•New Imperialism
•Third world
•White African

References

•John Boardman, The Greeks Overseas, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1973

(1964)
•Michael Crowther, The Story of Nigeria, Faber and Faber, London, 1978
(1962)
•Basil Davidson, The African Past, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1966 (1964)
•Donald Harden, The Phoenicians, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1971 (1962)
•Vincent B. Khapoya, The African Experience, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, NJ, 1998 (1994)
•H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero, Methuen and Co., London, 1976
(1959)
•Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1995
(1989)

1027Shillington, oop. cit. p. 391f

External links
•Germany Refuses to Apologize for Herero Holocaust - from Africana.com
•Belgium exhumes its colonial demons - from guardian.co.uk
•An article on the continuing effects of the colonisation of Africa

Scramble for Africa

The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or African
fever,1028 was a process of invasion, attack, occupation, and annexation of
African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period,
between 1881 and World War I in 1914.
As a result of the heightened tension between European states in the last
quarter of the 19th century, the partitioning of Africa may be seen as a way
for the Europeans to eliminate the threat of a Europe-wide war over Africa.1029
Popular European ideas in the 19th century also aided the partitioning of
Africa. The eugenics movement and racism helped to foster European
expansionist policy.
The last 20 years of the nineteenth century saw transition from ‘informal
imperialism’ of control through military influence and economic dominance to
that of direct rule.1030 Attempts to mediate imperial competition, such as the
Berlin Conference (1884–1885), failed to establish definitively the competing
powers' claims.
Many African people, states and rulers (such as Ashanti and Abyssinia) sought
to resist this wave of European aggression.1031 However, the industrial
revolution had provided the European armies with advanced weapons such as
machine guns, which African armies found difficult to resist.1032 Also, unlike
their European counterparts, African rulers, states and people did not at first
form a continental united front (although within a few years, a Pan-African
movement did emerge).1033

1028McKay, John P.; Hill, Bennett D.; Buckler, John; Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Beck, Roger B.;
Crowston, Clare Haru; Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. A History of World Societies: From 1775 to
Present . Eighth edition. Volume C - From 1775 to the Present. (2009). Bedford/St. Martin's:
Boston/New York. ISBN 978-0-312-68298-9. ISBN 0-312-68298-0. "By 1883 Europe had
caught 'African fever,' and the race for territory was on." (McKay 738).
1029R, Robinson, J.Gallagher and A. Denny, Africa and the Victorians, London, 1965, Page.
175.
1030Kevin Shillington, History of Africa: Revised Second Edition, (New York: Macmillian
Publishers Limited, 2005), 301
1031"| The Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-Year War For Africa's Gold Coast" .
Amazon.co.uk. . Retrieved 2010-08-08.
1032"The Matabele Campaign: being a narrative of the campaign in suppressing the native
rising in Matabeleland and Mashonaland, 1896". Amazon.co.uk. . Retrieved 2010-08-08.
1033"Pan-Africanism and nationalism in West Africa, 1900–1945; a study in ideology and
social classes, by J. Ayodele Langley". Catalogue.nla.gov.au. . Retrieved 2010-08-08.
Background
This article is part of
the New Imperialism
series.
Origins of New Imperialism
Imperialism in Asia
The Scramble for Africa
Theories of New Imperialism

Exploration of Africa
The Portuguese had been the first Europeans to firmly establish settlements,
trade posts, permanent fortifications and ports of call along the oceanic coasts
of the African continent, from the beginning of the Age of Discovery, in the
15th century.
European exploration of the African interior began in earnest at the end of the
18th century. By 1835, Europeans had mapped most of northwestern Africa.
In the middle decades of the 19th century, the most famous of the European
explorers were David Livingstone and Serpa Pinto, both of whom mapped vast
areas of Southern Africa and Central Africa. Arduous expeditions in the 1850s
and 1860s by Richard Burton, John Speke and James Grant located the great
central lakes and the source of the Nile. By the end of the 19th century,
Europeans had charted the Nile from its source, traced the courses of the
Niger, Congo and Zambezi Rivers, and realized the vast resources of Africa.
Even as late as the 1870s, European states still controlled only 10 percent of
the African continent, all their territories being near the coast. The most
important holdings were Angola and Mozambique, held by Portugal; the Cape
Colony, held by the United Kingdom; and Algeria, held by France.
Technological advancement facilitated overseas expansionism.
Industrialisation brought about rapid advancements in transportation and
communication, especially in the forms of steam navigation, railways, and
telegraphs. Medical advances also were important, especially medicines for
tropical diseases. The development of quinine, an effective treatment for
malaria, enabled vast expanses of the tropics to be accessed by Europeans.

Causes
Africa and global markets
Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the last regions of the world largely untouched by
'informal imperialism', was also attractive to Europe's ruling elites for
economic and racial reasons. During a time when Britain's balance of trade
showed a growing deficit, with shrinking and increasingly protectionist
continental markets due to the Long Depression (1873–1896), Africa offered
Britain, Germany, France, and other countries an open market that would
garner them a trade surplus: a market that bought more from the colonial
power than it sold overall.1034 Britain, like most other industrial countries, had
long since begun to run an unfavourable balance of trade (which was
increasingly offset, however, by the income from overseas investments).
As Britain developed into the world's first post-industrial nation, financial
services became an increasingly important sector of its economy. Invisible
financial exports, as mentioned, kept Britain out of the red, especially capital
investments outside Europe, particularly to the developing and open markets
in Africa, predominantly white settler colonies, the Middle East, South Asia,
Southeast Asia, and Oceania.
In addition, surplus capitals was often more profitably invested overseas,
where cheap materials, limited competition, and abundant raw materials
made a greater premium possible. Another inducement for imperialism arose
from the demand for raw materials unavailable in Europe, especially copper,
cotton, rubber, palm oil, cocoa, diamonds, tea, and tin, to which European
consumers had grown accustomed and upon which European industry had
grown dependent. Additionally, Britain wanted the southern and eastern
coasts of Africa for stopover ports on the route to Asia and its empire in
India.1035
However, in Africa – exclusive of the area which became the Union of South
Africa in 1909 – the amount of capital investment by Europeans was relatively
small, compared to other continents. Consequently, the companies involved in
tropical African commerce were relatively small, apart from Cecil Rhodes's De
Beers Mining Company. Rhodes had carved out Rhodesia for himself; Léopold
II of Belgium later, and with considerably greater brutality, exploited the
Congo Free State. These events might detract from the pro-imperialist
arguments of colonial lobbies such as the Alldeutscher Verband, Francesco
Crispi and Jules Ferry, who argued that sheltered overseas markets in Africa
would solve the problems of low prices and over-production caused by
shrinking continental markets.

1034
1035Lynn Hunt, The Making of the west: volume C, Bedford/ St. Martin 2009
According to the classic thesis of John A. Hobson exposed in Imperialism
(1902), which influenced authors such as Lenin,1036 Trotsky and Hannah
Arendt,1037 this shrinking of continental markets was a main factor of the
global New Imperialism period. Later historians have noted that such
statistics only obscured the fact that formal control of tropical Africa had
great strategic value in an era of imperial rivalry, while the Suez Canal has
remained a strategic location. According to Hannah Arendt, the 1886
Witwatersrand Gold Rush, (which led to the foundation of Johannesburg and
was a major factor of the Second Boer War in 1899), accounted for the
"conjunction of the superfluous money and the superfluous manpower", which
gave the Europeans "their hand to quit together the country".
William Easterly of New York University, however, disagrees with the link
made between capitalism and imperialism, arguing that colonialism is used
mostly to promote state-led development rather than 'corporate' development.
He has stated that "imperialism is not so clearly linked to capitalism and free
markets... historically there has been a closer link between
colonialism/imperialism and state-led approaches to development."1038

1036Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin (1916)

1037The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, (1951)
1038Easterly, William (September 17, 2009). "The Imperial Origins of State-Led
Development". New York University Blogs. . Retrieved 2009-09-23.
Strategic rivalry
While tropical Africa was not a large zone of investment, other regions
overseas were. The vast interior between the gold and diamond-rich Southern
Africa and Egypt, had, however, key strategic value in securing the flow of
overseas trade. Britain was thus under intense political pressure to secure
lucrative markets such as British Raj India, Qing Dynasty China, and Latin
America from encroaching rivals. Thus, securing the key waterway between
East and West – the Suez Canal – was crucial. The rivalry between the UK,
France, Germany and the other European powers account for a large part of
the colonization. Thus, while Germany, which had been unified under
Prussia's rule only after the 1866 Battle of Sadowa and the 1870 Franco-
Prussian War, was hardly a colonial power before the New Imperialism period,
it would eagerly participate in the race. A rising industrial power close on the
heels of Britain, it had not yet had the chance to control overseas territories,
mainly due to its late unification, its fragmentation in various states, and its
absence of experience in modern navigation. This would change under
Bismarck's leadership, who implemented the Weltpolitik (World Politics) and,
after putting in place the basis of France's isolation with the Dual Alliance
with Austria-Hungary and then the 1882 Triple Alliance with Italy, called for
the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference which set the rules of effective control of a
foreign territory. Germany's expansionism would lead to the Tirpitz Plan,
implemented by Admiral von Tirpitz, who would also champion the various
Fleet Acts starting in 1898, thus engaging in an arms race with Britain. By
1914, they had given Germany the second largest naval force in the world
(roughly 40% smaller than the Royal Navy). According to von Tirpitz, this
aggressive naval policy was supported by the National Liberal Party rather
than by the conservatives, thus demonstrating that the main supports of the
European nation states' imperialism were the rising bourgeoisie classes.1039
The scramble for African territory also reflected a concern for the acquisition
of military and naval bases for strategic purposes and the exercise of power
on an international scene. The ability to influence international events
depended largely upon new weapons – steel ships driven by steam power –
and for the maintenance of these growing navies, coaling sations and ports of
call were required. Defence bases were also needed for the protection of sea
routes and communication lines, particularly of expensive and vital
international waterways such as the Suez Canal.1040
Colonies were also seen as important aspects of 'balance of power'
negotiations – useful as items of exchange at times of international
bargaining. Colonies carrying a heavy native population were also important
as a source of military power; Britain and France used large numbers of
Indian and North African soldiers respectively in many of their colonial wars.
In the great age of nationalism there was strong pressure for a nation to
acquire an empire as a status symbol; the idea of 'greatness' became
inextricably linked with the sense of 'duty' that many European nations used
to justify their imperialistic ambitions.1041
1039Alfred von Tirpitz, Erinnerungen (1919), quoted by Hannah Arendt, The Origins of
Totalitarianism, section on Imperialism, chapter I, part 3
1040H.R. Cowie, Imperialism and Race Relations – Revised Edition, Nelson Publishing:
Volume 5, 1982
1041
Bismarck's Realpolitik
Germany began its world expansion in the 1880s under Bismarck's leadership,
encouraged by the national bourgeoisie. Some of them, claiming themselves of
Friedrich List's thought, advocated expansion in the Philippines and in Timor;
others proposed to set themselves in Formosa (modern Taiwan), etc. At the
end of the 1870s, these isolated voices began to be relayed by a real
imperialist policy, known as the Weltpolitik (‘World Politics’), which was
backed by mercantilist thesis. In 1881, Hübbe-Schleiden, a lawyer, published
Deutsche Kolonisation, according to which the ‘development of national
consciousness demanded an independent overseas policy’.1042 Pan-germanism
was thus linked to the young nation's imperialist drives. In the beginning of
the 1880s, the Deutscher Kolonialverein was created, and got its own
magazine in 1884, the Kolonialzeitung. This colonial lobby was also relayed by
the nationalist Alldeutscher Verband.
Germany thus became the third largest colonial power in Africa. Nearly all of
its overall empire of 2.6 million square kilometres and 14 million colonial
subjects in 1914 was found in its African possessions of Southwest Africa,
Togoland, the Cameroons, and Tanganyika. The scramble for Africa led
Bismarck to propose the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference. Following the 1904
Entente cordiale between France and the UK, Germany tried to isolate France
in 1905 with the First Moroccan Crisis. This led to the 1905 Algeciras
Conference, in which France's influence on Morocco was compensated by the
exchange of other territories, and then to the 1911 Agadir Crisis. Along with
the 1898 Fashoda Incident between France and the UK, this succession of
international crises reveals the bitterness of the struggle between the various
imperalist nations, which ultimately led to World War I.

Clash of rival imperialisms

While de Brazza was exploring the Kongo Kingdom for France, Stanley also
explored it in the early 1880s on behalf of Léopold II of Belgium, who would
have his personal Congo Free State. While pretending to advocate
humanitarianism and denounce slavery, Leopold II used the most inhumane
tactics to exploit his newly acquired lands. His crimes were revealed by 1905,
but he remained in control until 1908, when he was forced to turn over control
to the Belgian government.
France occupied Tunisia in May 1881 (and Guinea in 1884), which partly
convinced Italy to adhere in 1882 to the German-Austrian Dual Alliance, thus
forming the Triple Alliance. The same year, Britain occupied the nominally
Ottoman Egypt, which in turn ruled over the Sudan and parts of Somalia. In
1870 and 1882, Italy took possession of the first parts of Eritrea, while
Germany declared Togoland, the Cameroons and South West Africa to be
under its protection in 1884. French West Africa (AOF) was founded in 1895,
and French Equatorial Africa (AEF) in 1910.

1042German colonial imperialism: a late and short-term phenomenon (PDF) by Bernard

Poloni, in ‘Imperialism, hegemony, leadership’, March 26, 2004 Conference in the Sorbonne
University, Paris (French)
Italy continued its conquest to gain its ‘place in the sun’. Following the defeat
of the First Italo–Ethiopian War (1895–1896), it acquired Italian Somaliland in
1889–1890 and the whole of Eritrea (1899). In 1911, it engaged in a war with
the Ottoman Empire, in which it acquired Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (modern
Libya). Enrico Corradini, who fully supported the war, and later merged his
group in the early fascist party (PNF), developed in 1919 the concept of
Proletarian Nationalism, supposed to legitimise Italy's imperialism by a
mixture of socialism with nationalism: ‘We must start by recognizing the fact
that there are proletarian nations as well as proletarian classes; that is to say,
there are nations whose living conditions are subject...to the way of life of
other nations, just as classes are. Once this is realised, nationalism must insist
firmly on this truth: Italy is, materially and morally, a proletarian nation.’1043
The Second Italo-Abyssinian War (1935–1936), ordered by Mussolini, would
actually be one of the last colonial wars (that is, intended to colonize a foreign
country, opposed to wars of national liberation), occupying Ethiopia which had
remained the last African independent territory apart from Liberia, for five
years. The Spanish Civil War, marking a new phase of what some call the
European Civil War, began in 1936.
On the other hand, the British abandoned their "splendid isolation" in 1902
with the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, which would enable the Empire of Japan to
be victorious during the war against Russia (1904–1905). The UK then signed
the Entente cordiale with France in 1904, and, in 1907, the Triple Entente
which included Russia, thus pitted against the Triple Alliance which Bismarck
had patiently assembled.

1043Enrico Corradini, Report to the First Nationalist Congress: Florence, December 3, 1919.
American Colonization Society and foundation of Liberia
The United States took part, marginally, in this enterprise, through the
American Colonization Society (ACS), established in 1816 by Robert Finley.
The ACS offered emigration to Liberia (‘Land of the Free’), a colony founded
in 1820, to free black slaves; emancipated slave Lott Carey actually became
the first American Baptist missionary in Africa. This colonisation attempt was
resisted by the native people.
The ACS was led by Southerners, and its first president was James Monroe,
from Virginia, who became the fifth president of the United States from 1817
to 1825. Thus, ironically one of the main proponents of American colonisation
of Africa was the same man who proclaimed, in his 1823 State of the Union
address, the US opinion that European powers should no longer colonise the
Americas or interfere with the affairs of sovereign nations located in the
Americas. In return, the US planned to stay neutral in wars between European
powers and in wars between a European power and its colonies. However, if
these latter type of wars were to occur in the Americas, the U.S. would view
such action as hostile toward itself. This famous statement became known as
the Monroe Doctrine and was the base of United States isolationism during
the nineteenth century.
Although the Liberia colony never became quite as big as envisaged, it was
only the first step in the American colonisation of Africa, according to its early
proponents. Thus, Jehudi Ashmun, an early leader of the ACS, envisioned an
American empire in Africa. Between 1825 and 1826, he took steps to lease,
annex, or buy tribal lands along the coast and along major rivers leading
inland. Like his predecessor Lt. Robert Stockton, who in 1821 established the
site for Monrovia by ‘persuading’ a local chief referred to as ‘King Peter’ to
sell Cape Montserado (or Cape Mesurado) by pointing a pistol at his head,
Ashmun was prepared to use force to extend the colony's territory. In a May
1825 treaty, King Peter and other native kings agreed to sell land in return for
500 bars of tobacco, three barrels of rum, five casks of powder, five
umbrellas, ten iron posts, and ten pairs of shoes, among other items. In March
1825, the ACS began a quarterly, The African Repository and Colonial Journal,
edited by Rev. Ralph Randolph Gurley (1797–1872), who headed the Society
until 1844. Conceived as the Society's propaganda organ, the Repository
promoted both colonisation and Liberia.
The Society controlled the colony of Liberia until 1847 when, under the
perception that the British might annex the settlement, Liberia was
proclaimed a free and independent state, thus becoming the first African
decolonised state. By 1867, the Society had sent more than 13,000 emigrants.
After the American Civil War (1861–1865), when many blacks wanted to go to
Liberia, financial support for colonisation had waned. During its later years
the society focused on educational and missionary efforts in Liberia rather
than further emigration.

Crises prior to the First World War

Colonization of the Congo
David Livingstone's explorations, carried on by Henry Morton Stanley, excited
European imaginations. But at first, Stanley's grandiose's ideas for
colonisation found little support owing to the problems and scale of action
required, except from Léopold II of Belgium, who in 1876 had organised the
International African Association. From 1869 to 1874, Stanley was secretly
sent by Léopold II to the Congo region, where he made treaties with several
African chiefs along the Congo River and by 1882 had sufficient territory to
form the basis of the Congo Free State. Léopold II personally owned the
colony from 1885 and used it as a source of ivory and rubber.
While Stanley was exploring Congo on behalf of Léopold II of Belgium, the
Franco-Italian marine officer Pierre de Brazza travelled into the western
Congo basin and raised the French flag over the newly founded Brazzaville in
1881, thus occupying today's Republic of the Congo. Portugal, which also
claimed the area due to old treaties with the native Kongo Empire, made a
treaty with Britain on February 26, 1884 to block off the Congo Society's
access to the Atlantic.
By 1890 the Congo Free State had consolidated its control of its territory
between Leopoldville and Stanleyville and was looking to push south down the
Lualaba River from Stanleyville. At the same time the British South Africa
Company of Cecil Rhodes (who once declared, ‘all of these stars... these vast
worlds that remain out of reach. If I could, I would annex other planets’1044)
was expanding north from the Limpopo River. Attention was drawn to the land
where their expansions would meet Katanga, site of the Yeke Kingdom of
Msiri. As well as being the most powerful ruler militarily in the area, Msiri
traded large quantities of copper, ivory and slaves, and rumours of gold
reached European ears. The scramble for Katanga was a prime example of the
period. Rhodes and the BSAC sent two expeditions to Msiri in 1890 led by
Alfred Sharpe, who was rebuffed, and Joseph Thomson who failed to reach
Katanga. In 1891 Leopold sent four CFS expeditions. The Le Marinel
Expedition could only extract a vaguely worded letter. The Delcommune
Expedition was rebuffed. The well-armed Stairs Expedition had orders to take
Katanga with or without Msiri's consent; Msiri refused, was shot, and the
expedition cut off his head and stuck it on a pole as a 'barbaric lesson' to the
people. The Bia Expedition finished off the job of establishing an
administration of sorts and a 'police presence' in Katanga.
The half million square kilometres of Katanga came into Leopold's possession
and brought his African realm up to 2300000 square kilometres ( sq mi), about
75 times larger than Belgium. The Congo Free State imposed such a terror
regime on the colonised people, including mass killings with millions of
victims, and slave labour, that Belgium, under pressure from the Congo
Reform Association, ended Leopold II's rule and annexed it in 1908 as a colony
of Belgium, known as the Belgian Congo.

1044S. Gertrude Millin, Rhodes, London, 1933, p.138

Belgian brutality in their former colony of the Congo Free State,10451046 now the
DRC, was well-documented; up to 8 million of the estimated 16 million native
inhabitants died between 1885 and 1908.1047 According to the former British
diplomat Roger Casement, this depopulation had four main causes:
"indiscriminate war", starvation, reduction of births and diseases.1048 Sleeping
sickness ravaged the country and must also be taken into account for the
dramatic decrease in population.
Estimates of the total death toll vary considerably. As the first census did not
take place until 1924, it is difficult to quantify the population loss of the
period. Casement's report set it at three million.1049 See Congo Free State for
further details including numbers of victims.
A similar situation occurred in the neighbouring French Congo. Most of the
resource extraction was run by concession companies, whose brutal methods
resulted in the loss of up to 50 percent of the indigenous population.1050 The
French government appointed a commission, headed by de Brazza, in 1905 to
investigate the rumoured abuses in the colony. However, de Brazza died on
the return trip, and his "searingly critical" report was neither acted upon nor
released to the public.1051 In the 1920s, about 20,000 forced labourers died
building a railroad through the French territory.1052

1045Bourne, Henry Richard Fox (1903). Civilisation in Congoland: A Story of International

Wrong-doing. London: P. S. King & Son. p. 253. . Retrieved 2007-09-26.
1046Forbath, Peter (1977). The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of
the World's Most Dramatic Rivers. [Harper & Row]. p. 374. ISBN 0-06-122490-1.
1047The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/08/30/daily/leopold-book-
review.html.
1048Hochschild p. 226–232
1049http://www.urome.be/fr2/reflexions/casemrepo.pdf
1050Vansina, Jan (1966). Paths in the Rainforest. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
p. 239.
1051Hochschild, Adam (1998). King Leopold's Ghost. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 280–281.
1052Coquéry-Vidrovitch, Catherine (1971). Le Congo au temps des grandes compagnies
concessionaires 1898–1930. Paris: Mouton. p. 195.
Suez Canal
Ferdinand de Lesseps had obtained many concessions from Isma'il Pasha, the
ruler of Egypt, in 1854–1856, to build the Suez Canal. Some sources estimate
the workforce at 30,000,1053 but others estimate that 120,000 workers died
over the ten years of construction due to malnutrition, fatigue and disease,
especially cholera.1054 Shortly before its completion in 1869, Isma'il Pasha, the
Khedive of Egypt, borrowed enormous sums from French and English bankers
at high rates of interest. By 1875, he was facing financial difficulties and was
forced to sell his block of shares in the Suez Canal. The shares were snapped
up by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, who
sought to give his country practical control in the management of this
strategic waterway. When Isma'il Pasha repudiated Egypt's foreign debt in
1879, Britain and France assumed joint financial control over the country,
forcing the Egyptian ruler to abdicate. The Egyptian ruling classes did not
relish foreign intervention. The Urabi Revolt broke out against the Khedive
and European influence in 1882, a year after the Mahdist revolt. Muhammad
Ahmad, who had proclaimed himself the Mahdi, redeemer of Islam, in 1881,
led the rebellion and was defeated only by Kitchener in 1898. Britain then
assumed responsibility for the administration of the country.

Berlin Conference
The occupation of Egypt and the acquisition of the Congo were the first major
moves in what came to be a precipitous scramble for African territory. In
1884, Otto von Bismarck convened the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference to
discuss the Africa problem. The diplomats put on a humanitarian façade by
condemning the slave trade, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages and
firearms in certain regions, and by expressing concern for missionary
activities. More importantly, the diplomats in Berlin laid down the rules of
competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies.
They also agreed that the area along the Congo River was to be administered
by Léopold II of Belgium as a neutral area, known as the Congo Free State, in
which trade and navigation were to be free. No nation was to stake claims in
Africa without notifying other powers of its intentions. No territory could be
formally claimed prior to being effectively occupied. However, the competitors
ignored the rules when convenient and on several occasions war was only
narrowly avoided.

1053L'Aventure Humaine: Le canal de Suez, Article de l'historien Uwe Oster.

1054BBC News website:The Suez Crisis — Key maps.
Britain's occupation of Egypt and South Africa
Britain's occupations of Egypt and the Cape Colony contributed to a
preoccupation over securing the source of the Nile River. Egypt was occupied
by British forces in 1882 (although not formally declared a protectorate until
1914, and never a colony proper); Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda were
subjugated in the 1890s and early 1900s; and in the south, the Cape Colony
(first acquired in 1795) provided a base for the subjugation of neighbouring
African states and the Dutch Afrikaner settlers who had left the Cape to avoid
the British and then founded their own republics. In 1877, Theophilus
Shepstone annexed the South African Republic (or Transvaal – independent
from 1857 to 1877) for the British. The UK consolidated its power over most of
the colonies of South Africa in 1879 after the Anglo-Zulu War. The Boers
protested and in December 1880 they revolted, leading to the First Boer War
(1880–1881). British Prime Minister William Gladstone signed a peace treaty
on March 23, 1881, giving self-government to the Boers in the Transvaal. The
Second Boer War was about control of the gold and diamond industries and
was fought between 1899 to 1902; the independent Boer republics of the
Orange Free State and of the South African Republic (Transvaal) were this
time defeated and absorbed into the British empire.

Fashoda Incident
The 1898 Fashoda Incident was one of the most crucial conflicts on Europe's
way to consolidating holdings in the continent. It brought Britain and France
to the verge of war but ended in a major strategic victory for Britain, and
provided the basis for the 1904 Entente Cordiale between the two rival
countries. It stemmed from battles over control of the Nile headwaters, which
caused Britain to expand in the Sudan.
The French thrust into the African interior was mainly from West Africa
(modern day Senegal) eastward, through the Sahel along the southern border
of the Sahara, a territory covering modern day Senegal, Mali, Niger, and
Chad. Their ultimate aim was to have an uninterrupted link between the Niger
River and the Nile, thus controlling all trade to and from the Sahel region, by
virtue of their existing control over the Caravan routes through the Sahara.
The British, on the other hand, wanted to link their possessions in Southern
Africa (modern South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, and
Zambia), with their territories in East Africa (modern Kenya), and these two
areas with the Nile basin. Sudan (which in those days included modern day
Uganda) was obviously key to the fulfilment of these ambitions, especially
since Egypt was already under British control. This 'red line' through Africa is
made most famous by Cecil Rhodes. Along with Lord Milner (the British
colonial minister in South Africa), Rhodes advocated such a ‘Cape to Cairo’
empire linking by rail the Suez Canal to the mineral-rich Southern part of the
continent. Though hampered by German occupation of Tanganyika until the
end of World War I, Rhodes successfully lobbied on behalf of such a sprawling
East African empire.
If one draws a line from Cape Town to Cairo (Rhodes' dream), and one from
Dakar to the Horn of Africa (now Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia), (the
French ambition), these two lines intersect somewhere in eastern Sudan near
Fashoda, explaining its strategic importance. In short, Britain had sought to
extend its East African empire contiguously from Cairo to the Cape of Good
Hope, while France had sought to extend its own holdings from Dakar to the
Sudan, which would enable its empire to span the entire continent from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
A French force under Jean-Baptiste Marchand arrived first at the strategically
located fort at Fashoda soon followed by a British force under Lord Kitchener,
commander in chief of the British army since 1892. The French withdrew after
a standoff, and continued to press claims to other posts in the region. In
March 1899 the French and British agreed that the source of the Nile and
Congo Rivers should mark the frontier between their spheres of influence.

Moroccan Crisis
Although the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference had set the rules for the scramble
for Africa, it had not weakened the rival imperialisms. The 1898 Fashoda
Incident, which had seen France and the UK on the brink of war, ultimately
led to the signature of the 1904 Entente cordiale, which reversed the
influence of the various European powers. As a result, the new German power
decided to test the solidity of the influence, using the contested territory of
Morocco as a battlefield.
Thus, on 31 March 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Tangiers and made a speech
in favor of Moroccan independence, challenging French influence in Morocco.
France's influence in Morocco had been reaffirmed by Britain and Spain in
1904. The Kaiser's speech bolstered French nationalism and with British
support the French foreign minister, Théophile Delcassé, took a defiant line.
The crisis peaked in mid-June 1905, when Delcassé was forced out of the
ministry by the more conciliation minded premier Maurice Rouvier. But by
July 1905 Germany was becoming isolated and the French agreed to a
conference to solve the crisis. Both France and Germany continued to posture
up until the conference, with Germany mobilizing reserve army units in late
December and France actually moving troops to the border in January 1906.
The 1906 Algeciras Conference was called to settle the dispute. Of the
thirteen nations present the German representatives found their only
supporter was Austria-Hungary. France had firm support from Britain, Russia,
Italy, Spain, and the U.S. The Germans eventually accepted an agreement,
signed on May 31, 1906, where France yielded certain domestic changes in
Morocco but retained control of key areas.
However, five years later the second Moroccan crisis (or Agadir Crisis) was
sparked by the deployment of the German gunboat Panther, to the port of
Agadir on July 1, 1911. Germany had started to attempt to surpass Britain's
naval supremacy – the British navy had a policy of remaining larger than the
next two naval fleets in the world combined. When the British heard of the
Panther's arrival in Morocco, they wrongly believed that the Germans meant
to turn Agadir into a naval base on the Atlantic.
The German move was aimed at reinforcing claims for compensation for
acceptance of effective French control of the North African kingdom, where
France's pre-eminence had been upheld by the 1906 Algeciras Conference. In
November 1911 a convention was signed under which Germany accepted
France's position in Morocco in return for territory in the French Equatorial
African colony of Middle Congo (now the Republic of the Congo).
France subsequently established a full protectorate over Morocco (March 30,
1912), ending what remained of the country's formal independence.
Furthermore, British backing for France during the two Moroccan crises
reinforced the Entente between the two countries and added to Anglo-German
estrangement, deepening the divisions which would culminate in World War I.

Colonial encounter

Colonial consciousness and exhibitions

Colonial lobby
In its earlier stages, imperialism was generally the act of individual explorers
as well as some adventurous merchantmen. The colonial powers were a long
way from approving without any dissent the expensive adventures carried out
abroad. Various important political leaders such as Gladstone opposed
colonisation in its first years. However, during his second premiership in
1880–1885 he could not resist the colonial lobby in his cabinet, and thus did
not execute his electoral promise to disengage from Egypt. Although
Gladstone was personally opposed to imperialism, the social tensions caused
by the Long Depression pushed him to favor jingoism: the imperialists had
become the ‘parasites of patriotism’ (Hobson1055). In France, then Radical
politician Georges Clemenceau also adamantly opposed himself to it: he
thought colonisation was a diversion from the ‘blue line of the Vosges’
mountains, that is revanchism and the patriotic urge to reclaim the Alsace-
Lorraine region which had been annexed by the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt.
Clemenceau actually made Jules Ferry's cabinet fall after the 1885 Tonkin
disaster. According to Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951),
this expansion of national sovereignty on overseas territories contradicted the
unity of the nation state which provided citizenship to its population. Thus, a
tension between the universalist will to respect human rights of the colonised
people, as they may be considered as ‘citizens’ of the nation state, and the
imperialist drives to cynically exploit populations deemed inferior began to
surface. Some, in colonising countries, opposed what they saw as unnecessary
evils of the colonial administration when left to itself; as described in Joseph
Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) – contemporary of Kipling's The White
Man's Burden – or in Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Journey to the End of the Night
(1932).

1055John A. Hobson, Imperialism, 1902, p.61 (quoted by Arendt)

Thus, colonial lobbies were progressively set up to legitimise the Scramble for
Africa and other expensive overseas adventures. In Germany, in France, in
Britain, the bourgeoisie began to claim strong overseas policies to insure the
market's growth. In 1916, Lenin would publish Imperialism, the Highest Stage
of Capitalism describing this phenomenon. Even in lesser powers, voices like
Corradini began to claim a ‘place in the sun’ for so-called ‘proletarian nations’,
bolstering nationalism and militarism in an early prototype of fascism.

Colonial propaganda and jingoism

Colonial exhibitions
However, by the end of World War I the colonial empires had become very
popular almost everywhere in Europe: public opinion had been convinced of
the needs of a colonial empire, although most of the metropolitans would
never see a piece of it. Colonial exhibitions had been instrumental in this
change of popular mentalities brought about by the colonial propaganda,
supported by the colonial lobby and by various scientists. Thus, the conquest
of territories were inevitably followed by public displays of the indigenous
people for scientific and leisure purposes. Karl Hagenbeck, a German
merchant in wild animals and future entrepreneur of most Europeans zoos,
thus decided in 1874 to exhibit Samoa and Sami people as ‘purely natural’
populations. In 1876, he sent one of his collaborators to the newly conquered
Egyptian Sudan to bring back some wild beasts and Nubians. Presented in
Paris, London and Berlin, these Nubians were very successful. Such ‘human
zoos’ could be found in Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Milan, New
York, Warsaw, etc., with 200,000 to 300,000 visitors attending each
exhibition. Tuaregs were exhibited after the French conquest of Timbuktu
(discovered by René Caillé, disguised as a Muslim, in 1828, thereby winning
the prize offered by the French Société de Géographie); Malagasy after the
occupation of Madagascar; Amazons of Abomey after Behanzin's mediatic
defeat against the French in 1894. Not used to the climatic conditions, some
of the indigenous exposed died, such as some Galibis in Paris in 1892.1056
Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire, director of the Parisian Jardin d'acclimatation,
decided in 1877 to organise two ‘ethnological spectacles’, presenting Nubians
and Inuit. The public of the Jardin d'acclimatation doubled, with a million
paying entrances that year, a huge success for these times. Between 1877 and
1912, approximatively thirty ‘ethnological exhibitions’ were presented at the
Jardin zoologique d'acclimatation.1057 ‘Negro villages’ would be presented in
Paris's 1878 and 1879 World's Fair; the 1900 World's Fair presented the
famous diorama ‘living’ in Madagascar, while the Colonial Exhibitions in
Marseilles (1906 and 1922) and in Paris (1907 and 1931) would also display
human beings in cages, often nudes or quasi-nudes.1058 Nomadic ‘Senegalese
villages’ were also created, thus displaying the power of the colonial empire to
all the population.

1056From human zoos to colonial apotheoses: the era of exhibiting the Other , by Pascal
Blanchard, Nicolas Bancel, and Sandrine Lemaire
1057‘These human zoos of the Colonial Republic’, Le Monde diplomatique, August 2000,
(French) ( Translation (English))
1058"February 2003, the end of an era". Discoverparis.net. . Retrieved 2010-08-08.
In the U.S., Madison Grant, head of the New York Zoological Society, exposed
Pygmy Ota Benga in the Bronx Zoo alongside the apes and others in 1906. At
the behest of Grant, a prominent scientific racist and eugenicist, zoo director
Hornaday, placed Ota Benga in a cage with an orangutan and labeled him
‘The Missing Link’ in an attempt to illustrate Darwinism, and in particular that
Africans like Ota Benga are closer to apes than were Europeans.
Such colonial exhibitions, which include the 1924 British Empire Exhibition
and the successful 1931 Paris Exposition coloniale, were doubtlessly a key
element of the colonisation project and legitimised the ruthless Scramble for
Africa. In the same way, the popular comic-strip The Adventures of Tintin, full
of clichés, were an obvious carrier of an ethnocentric and racist ideology,
reflecting the masses' consent to the imperialist phenomenon; see Hergé's
Tintin in the Congo (1930–1931) or The Broken Ear (1935).
While comic-strips played the same role as westerns to legitimise the Indian
Wars in the United States, colonial exhibitions were both popular and
scientific, being an interface between the crowds and serious scientific
research. Thus, anthropologists such as Madison Grant or Alexis Carrel built
their pseudo-scientific racism, inspired by Gobineau's An Essay on the
Inequality of the Human Races (1853–1855). Human zoos provided both a
real-size laboratory for these racial hypotheses and a demonstration of their
validity: by labelling Ota Benga as the ‘missing link’ between apes and
Europeans—as was done in the Bronx Zoo—social Darwinism and the pseudo-
hierarchy of races were ‘proved’, and the layman could observe this ‘scientific
truth.’

Anthropology
Anthropology, the daughter of colonisation, participated in this so-called
scientific racism based on social Darwinism by supporting, along with social
positivism and scientism, the claims of the superiority of the Western
civilisation over ‘primitive cultures’. However, the discovery of ancient
cultures would dialectically lead anthropology to criticise itself and revalue
the importance of foreign cultures. Thus, the 1897 Punitive Expedition led by
the British Admiral Harry Rawson captured, burned, and looted the city of
Benin, incidentally bringing to an end the highly sophisticated West African
Kingdom of Benin. However, the sack of Benin distributed the famous Benin
bronzes and other works of art into the European art market, as the British
Admiralty auctioned off the confiscated patrimony to defray costs of the
Expedition. Most of the great Benin bronzes went first to purchasers in
Germany, though a sizable group remain in the British Museum. The Benin
bronzes then catalysed the beginnings of a long reassessment of the value of
West African culture, which had strong influences on the formation of
modernism.
Several contemporary studies have focused on the construction of the racist
discourse in the nineteenth century and its propaganda as a precondition of
the colonisation project and of the Scramble of Africa, made with total
disconcern for the local population, as exemplified by Stanley, according to
whom ‘the savage only respects force, power, boldness, and decision.’
Anthropology thrived on these explorations, as had geography before them
and ethnology would afterwards. According to several historians, the
formulation of this racist discourse and practices would also be a precondition
of ‘state racism’ (Michel Foucault) as incarnated by the Holocaust (see also
Olivier LeCour Grandmaison's description of the conquest of Algeria and Sven
Lindqvist, as well as Hannah Arendt).

Extermination of the Namaqua and the Herero

In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report recognised Germany's turn of
the century attempt to exterminate the Herero and Namaqua people of South-
West Africa as one of the earliest attempts at genocide in the 20th century. In
total, some 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population), and
10,000 Namaqua (50 percent of the total Namaqua population) were killed
between 1904 and 1907. Characteristic of this genocide was death by
starvation and the poisoning of the population's wells whilst they were
trapped in the Namib Desert.

Conclusions
During the New Imperialism period, by the end of the century, Europe added
almost 9000000 square miles ( km2) – one-fifth of the land area of the globe –
to its overseas colonial possessions. Europe's formal holdings now included
the entire African continent except Ethiopia, Liberia, and Saguia el-Hamra,
the latter of which would be integrated into Spanish Sahara. Between 1885
and 1914 Britain took nearly 30% of Africa's population under its control; 15%
for France, 11% for Portugal, 9% for Germany, 7% for Belgium and 1% for
Italy. Nigeria alone contributed 15 million subjects, more than in the whole of
French West Africa or the entire German colonial empire. It was paradoxical
that Britain, the staunch advocate of free trade, emerged in 1914 with not
only the largest overseas empire thanks to its long-standing presence in India,
but also the greatest gains in the ‘scramble for Africa’, reflecting its
advantageous position at its inception. In terms of surface area occupied, the
French were the marginal victors but much of their territory consisted of the
sparsely populated Sahara.
The political imperialism followed the economic expansion, with the ‘colonial
lobbies’ bolstering chauvinism and jingoism at each crisis in order to
legitimise the colonial enterprise. The tensions between the imperial powers
led to a succession of crises, which finally exploded in August 1914, when
previous rivalries and alliances created a domino situation that drew the
major European nations into the war. Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia to
avenge the murder by Serbian agents of Austrian crown prince Francis
Ferdinand, Russia would mobilise to assist its Slavic brothers in Serbia,
Germany would intervene to support Austria-Hungary against Russia. Since
Russia had a military alliance with France against Germany, the German
General Staff, led by General von Moltke decided to realise the well prepared
Schlieffen Plan to invade France and quickly knock her out of the war before
turning against Russia in what was expected to be a long campaign. This
required an invasion of Belgium which brought Britain into the war against
Germany, Austria-Hungary and their allies. German U-Boat campaigns against
ships bound for Britain eventually drew the United States into what had
become World War I. Moreover, using the Anglo-Japanese Alliance as an
excuse, Japan leaped onto this opportunity to conquer German interests in
China and the Pacific to become the dominating power in Western Pacific,
setting the stage for the Second Sino-Japanese War (starting in 1937) and
eventually World War II.

African colonies listed by colonizing power

Belgium
•Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today's Democratic Republic of the
Congo)
•Ruanda-Urundi (comprising modern Rwanda and Burundi, 1922–1962)

France

•French West Africa: •French Equatorial •French Algeria

Africa:
1. Mauritania
1. Gabon
2. Senegal
2. Middle Congo
3. French Sudan
(now the
(now Mali)
Republic of the
4. French Guinea Congo)
(now Guinea)
3. Oubangi-Chari
5. Côte d'Ivoire (now the Central
6. Niger African Republic)

7. French Upper 4. Chad

Volta
 (now Burkina
Faso)
8. French Dahomey
(now Benin)

•Tunisia

•French Morocco

•French Togoland (1916–

1960, now Togo)

•French Cameroun
(1922–1960)

•French Somaliland
(now Djibouti)

•Madagascar

•Comoros

Germany
•German Kamerun (now Cameroon and part of Nigeria, 1884–1916)
•German East Africa (now Rwanda, Burundi and most of Tanzania, 1885–
1919)
•German South-West Africa (now Namibia, 1884–1915)
•German Togoland (now Togo and eastern part of Ghana, 1884–1914)
Italy
•Italian North Africa (now Libya)
•Italian Eritrea
•Italian Somaliland (now part of Somalia)

Portugal

•Portuguese West Africa •Cape Verde Islands

(now Angola)
•São Tomé e Príncipe
1. Mainland Angola
1. São Tomé Island
2. Portuguese Congo
2. Príncipe Island
(now Cabinda Province of
Angola) 3. Fort of São João Baptista de
Ajudá
(now Ouidah, in Benin)
•Portuguese East Africa
(now Mozambique)
•Portuguese Guinea
(now Guinea-Bissau)

Spain

•Spanish Sahara •Spanish Morocco •Spanish Guinea

(now Western Sahara) (now Equatorial Guinea)
1. Tarfaya Strip
1. Río de Oro 1. Fernando Po
2. Ifni
2. Saguia el-Hamra 2. Río Muni
3. Annobon

United Kingdom
The British were primarily interested in maintaining secure communication
lines to India, which led to initial interest in Egypt and South Africa. Once
these two areas were secure, it was the intent of British colonialists such as
Cecil Rhodes to establish a Cape-Cairo railway. It is also important to stress
that the United Kingdom had perhaps the most valuable possession in Africa:
the Nile.
•Egypt •Bechuanaland (now •The Gambia
Botswana)

•Anglo-Egyptian Sudan •Southern Rhodesia (now •Sierra Leone

(1899–1956) Zimbabwe)

•British Somaliland (now •Northern Rhodesia (now •Nigeria

part of Zambia)
Somalia/Somaliland)

•British East Africa: •British South Africa •British Togoland (1916–

1956, today part of
1. Kenya Colony 1. Transvaal Colony
Ghana)
2. Uganda 2. Cape Colony
Protectorate
3. Colony of Natal
3. Tanganyika
4. Orange River
Territory (1919–
Colony
1961, now part
of Tanzania) 5. South-West
Africa (from
1915, now
Namibia)

•Zanzibar (now part of •Cameroons (1922–1961,

Tanzania) now parts of Cameroon
and Nigeria)

•British Gold Coast (now

Ghana)

•Nyasaland (now Malawi)

 •Basutoland (now
Lesotho)

•Swaziland

Independent states
•Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society of the United States in
1821; declared independence in 1847
•Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) had its borders re-drawn with Italian Eritrea
briefly occupied by Italy from 1936–1941 during the Abyssinia Crisis;
•Sudan, independent under Mahdi rule between 1885 and 1899.

See also
•Banana Wars
•African Atlantis
•Civilizing mission
•Chronology of colonialism
•Decolonization of Africa
•List of former sovereign states#Pre-colonial Africa
•List of largest empires
•Impact and evaluation of colonialism and colonization
•Scientific racism
•White African

Further reading
•Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951, second section on
imperialism) ISBN 0-15-670153-7
•Sections of The Age of Empire Eric Hobsbawm
•Lindqvist, Sven. Exterminate All the Brutes (Utrota varenda jävel, 1992)
•Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa. Abacus, 1991 ISBN 0-349-
10449-2
•Maria Petringa. Brazza, A Life for Africa. AuthorHouse, 2006. ISBN 978-1-
4259-1198-0
•Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L'Ouverture
Publications, London and Tanzanian Publishing House, Dar-Es-Salaam 1973.
•Primm, JT. ‘Causes/Effects of Imperialism’ DK Publications, 1999.
•Wesseling, Henk Divide and Rule. The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914.
Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1996 (Translation of Verdeel en Heers: De
Deling van Afrika, 1880–1914. 1991)

External links
•Belgium exhumes its colonial demons

Geography of Africa
Africa is a continent comprising 62 political territories, representing the
largest of the great southward projections from the main mass of Earth's
surface. It includes, within its remarkably regular outline, an area of
30368609 km2 ( sq mi), including adjacent islands. Africa is in the field of
Geography usually divided into 4 main following parts: a)Northern Africa
-predominantly Muslim, Arabic with dry and arid/semiarid climate conditions;
mainly French speaking b)Western Africa -mixed Christian/Muslim population
with higher level of precipitation in the average than the North Africa
c)Eastern Africa -mixed Christian/Muslim population, very attractive for
tourism (especially Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Mozambique) d)Southern
Africa -majority of the population Christian with The Republic of South Africa
being the center of tourism. Mainly English spoken. Separated from Europe by
the Mediterranean Sea and from much of Asia by the Red Sea, Africa is joined
to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (which is transected
by the Suez Canal), 130 km (81 mi) wide. For geopolitical purposes, the Sinai
Peninsula of Egypt – east of the Suez Canal – is often considered part of
Africa. From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia, in 37°21′ N,
to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa, 34°51′15″ S, is a
distance approximately of 8000 km (5000 mi); from Cape Verde, 17°33′22″ W,
the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27′52″ E, the most
easterly projection, is a distance (also approximately) of 7400 km (4600 mi).
The length of coast-line is 26000 km (16000 mi) and the absence of deep
indentations of the shore is shown by the fact that Europe, which covers only
10400000 km2 ( sq mi), has a coastline of 32000 km (20000 mi).
The main structural lines of the continent show both the east-to-west direction
characteristic, at least in the eastern hemisphere, of the more northern parts
of the world, and the north-to-south direction seen in the southern peninsulas.
Africa is thus composed of two segments at right angles, the northern running
from east to west, the southern from north to south, the subordinate lines
corresponding in the main to these two directions.
Plateau Region
The high southern and eastern plateaus, rarely falling below 600 m (2000 ft),
have a mean elevation of about 1000 m (3300 ft). The South African plateau,
as far as about 12° S, is bounded east, west and south by bands of high
ground which fall steeply to the coasts. On this account South Africa has a
general resemblance to an inverted saucer. Due south the plateau rim is
formed by three parallel steps with level ground between them. The largest of
these level areas, the Great Karoo, is a dry, barren region, and a large tract of
the plateau proper is of a still more arid character and is known as the
Kalahari Desert.
The South African plateau is connected towards East African plateau, with
probably a slightly greater average elevation, and marked by some distinct
features. It is formed by a widening out of the eastern axis of high ground,
which becomes subdivided into a number of zones running north and south
and consisting in turn of ranges, tablelands and depressions. The most
striking feature is the existence of two great lines of depression, due largely to
the subsidence of whole segments of the Earth's crust, the lowest parts of
which are occupied by vast lakes. Towards the south the two lines converge
and give place to one great valley (occupied by Lake Nyasa), the southern part
of which is less distinctly due to rifting and subsidence than the rest of the
system.
Farther north the western depression, known as the Great Rift Valley is
occupied for more than half its length by water, forming the Great Lakes of
Tanganyika, Kivu, Lake Edward and Lake Albert, the first-named over 400
miles (600 km) long and the longest freshwater lake in the world. Associated
with these great valleys are a number of volcanic peaks, the greatest of which
occur on a meridional line east of the eastern trough. The eastern depression,
known as the East African trough or rift-valley, contains much smaller lakes,
many of them brackish and without outlet, the only one comparable to those of
the western trough being Lake Turkana or Basso Norok.
At no great distance east of this rift-valley is Mount Kilimanjaro - with its two
peaks Kibo and Mawenzi, the latter being 5889 m (19321 ft), and the
culminating point of the whole continent — and Mount Kenya, which is
5184 m (17008 ft). Hardly less important is the Ruwenzori Range, over
5060 m (16600 ft), which lies east of the western trough. Other volcanic peaks
rise from the floor of the valleys, some of the Kirunga (Mfumbiro) group, north
of Lake Kivu, being still partially active.
The third division of the higher region of Africa is formed by the Ethiopian
Highlands, a rugged mass of mountains forming the largest continuous area of
its altitude in the whole continent, little of its surface falling below 1500 m
(4900 ft), while the summits reach heights of 4600 m to 4900 m (15,000 to
16,000 ft). This block of country lies just west of the line of the great East
African Trough, the northern continuation of which passes along its eastern
escarpment as it runs up to join the Red Sea. There is, however, in the centre
a circular basin occupied by Lake Tsana.
Both in the east and west of the continent the bordering highlands are
continued as strips of plateau parallel to the coast, the Ethiopian mountains
being continued northwards along the Red Sea coast by a series of ridges
reaching in places a height of 2000 m (6600 ft). In the west the zone of high
land is broader but somewhat lower. The most mountainous districts lie inland
from the head of the Gulf of Guinea (Adamawa, etc.), where heights of 1800 m
to 2400 m (6000 to 8000 ft) are reached. Exactly at the head of the gulf the
great peak of the Cameroon, on a line of volcanic action continued by the
islands to the south-west, has a height of 4075 m (13369 ft), while Clarence
Peak, in Fernando Po, the first of the line of islands, rises to over 2700 m
(8900 ft). Towards the extreme west the Futa Jallon highlands form an
important diverging point of rivers, but beyond this, as far as the Atlas chain,
the elevated rim of the continent is almost wanting.

Plains
The area between the east and west coast highlands, which north of 17° N is
mainly desert, is divided into separate basins by other bands of high ground,
one of which runs nearly centrally through North Africa in a line
corresponding roughly with the curved axis of the continent as a whole. The
best marked of the basins so formed (the Congo basin) occupies a circular
area bisected by the equator, once probably the site of an inland sea.
Running along the south of desert is the plains region known as the Sahel.
The arid region, the Sahara — the largest desert in the world, covering
9000000 km2 ( sq mi) — extends from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Though
generally of slight elevation it contains mountain ranges with peaks rising to
2400 m (7900 ft) Bordered N.W. by the Atlas range, to the northeast a rocky
plateau separates it from the Mediterranean; this plateau gives place at the
extreme east to the delta of the Nile. That river (see below) pierces the desert
without modifying its character. The Atlas range, the north-westerly part of
the continent, between its seaward and landward heights encloses elevated
steppes in places 160 km (99 mi) broad. From the inner slopes of the plateau
numerous wadis take a direction towards the Sahara. The greater part of that
now desert region is, indeed, furrowed by old water-channels.
The following table gives the approximate altitudes of the chief mountains and
lakes of the continent:
Mountain ft m
Mount Rungwe 9,711 2960
Drakensberg 11,422 3482
Sattima (Aberdare Range) 13,120 4001
Cameroon 13,435 4095
Jbel Toubkal (Atlas) 13,671 4167
Elgon 14,178 4321
Karisimbi (Virunga 14,787 4507
Mountains)
Simens, Ethiopia 14,872 4533
Meru 14,980 4566
Ruwenzori 16,763 5109
Kenya 17,058 5199
Kilimanjaro 19,340 5895
Lake ft m
Chad 850 259
Mai-Ndombe 1100 335
Rudolf 1250 381
Nyasa 1645 501
Albert 2028 618
Tanganyika 2624 800
Ngami 2950 899
Mweru 3000 914
Edward 3004 916
Bangweulu 3700 1128
Victoria 3720 1134
Abaya 4200 1280
Kivu 4829 1472
Tsana 5690 1734
Naivasha 6135 1870

Hydrology
From the outer margin of the African plateaus, a large number of streams run
to the sea with comparatively short courses, while the larger rivers flow for
long distances on the interior highlands, before breaking through the outer
ranges. The main drainage of the continent is to the north and west, or
towards the basin of the Atlantic Ocean.
To the main African rivers belong: Nile (the longest river of Africa), Congo
(river with the highest water discharge on the continent) and the Niger, which
flows half of its length through the arid areas. The largest lake are the
following: Lake Victoria (Lake Ukerewe), Lake Chad, in the centre of the
continent, Lake Tanganika laying between the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Burundi, Tanzania & Zambia. There is also a considerably large lake Malawi
stretching along the eastern border of 1 of the poorest countries in the world
-Malawi etc.. There are also numerous waterdams throughout the continent:
Kariba on the river of Zambezi, Asuan in Egypt on the river of Nile and the
biggest dam of the continent laying completely in The republic of Ghana is
called Akosombo on the Volta river (Fobil 2003). The high lake plateau of East
Africa contains the headwaters of both the Nile and the Congo.
The upper Nile receives its chief supplies from the mountainous region
adjoining the Central African trough in the neighbourhood of the equator.
From there, streams pour eastward into Lake Victoria, the largest African lake
(covering over 26,000 square m.), and to the west and north into Lake Edward
and Lake Albert. To the latter of these, the effluents of the other two lakes add
their waters. Issuing from there, the Nile flows northward, and between the
latitudes of 7 and 10 degrees N. it traverses a vast marshy level, where its
course is liable to being blocked by floating vegetation. After receiving the
Bahr-el-Ghazal from the west and the Sobat, Blue Nile and Atbara from the
Ethiopian highlands (the chief gathering ground of the flood-water), it
separates the great desert with its fertile watershed, and enters the
Mediterranean at a vast delta.
The most remote head-stream of the Congo is the Chambezi, which flows
southwest into the marshy Lake Bangweulu. From this lake issues the Congo,
known in its upper course by various names. Flowing first south, it afterwards
turns north through Lake Mweru and descends to the forest-clad basin of west
equatorial Africa. Traversing this in a majestic northward curve, and receiving
vast supplies of water from many great tributaries, it finally turns southwest
and cuts a way to the Atlantic Ocean through the western highlands.
North of the Congo basin, and separated from it by a broad undulation of the
surface, is the basin of Lake Chad - a flat-shored, shallow lake filled principally
by the Chari coming from the southeast.
West of this is the basin of the Niger, the third major river of Africa. With its
principal source in the far west, it reverses the direction of flow exhibited by
the Nile and Congo, and ultimately flows into the Atlantic — a fact that eluded
European geographers for many centuries. An important branch, however —
the Benue - flows from the southeast.
These four river-basins occupy the greater part of the lower plateaus of North
and West Africa — the remainder consisting of arid regions watered only by
intermittent streams that do not reach the sea.
Of the remaining rivers of the Atlantic basin, the Orange, in the extreme
south, brings the drainage from the Drakensberg on the opposite side of the
continent, while the Kunene, Kwanza, Ogowe and Sanaga drain the west
coastal highlands of the southern limb; the Volta, Komoe, Bandama, Gambia
and Senegal the highlands of the western limb. North of the Senegal, for over
1000 miles (1600 km) of coast, the arid region reaches to the Atlantic. Farther
north are the streams, with comparatively short courses, reaching the Atlantic
and Mediterranean from the Atlas mountains.
Of the rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean, the only one draining any large part
of the interior plateaus is the Zambezi, whose western branches rise in the
western coastal highlands. The main stream has its rise in 11°21′3″ S 24°22′
E, at an elevation of 5000 ft (1500 m) It flows to the west and south for a
considerable distance before turning eastward. All the largest tributaries,
including the Shire, the outflow of Lake Nyasa, flow down the southern slopes
of the band of high ground stretching across the continent from 10 deg. to 12
deg. S. In the southwest, the Zambezi system interlaces with that of the
Taukhe (or Tioghe), from which it at times receives surplus water. The rest of
the water of the Taukhe, known in its middle course as the Okavango, is lost
in a system of swamps and saltpans that was formerly centred in Lake Ngami,
now dried up.
Farther south, the Limpopo drains a portion of the interior plateau, but breaks
through the bounding highlands on the side of the continent nearest its
source. The Rovuma, Rufiji, Tana, Jubba and Webi Shebeli principally drain
the outer slopes of the East African highlands, the last of these losing itself in
the sands in proximity to the sea. Another large stream, the Hawash, rising in
the Ethiopian mountains, is lost in a saline depression near the Gulf of Aden.
Lastly, between the basins of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, there is an area
of inland drainage along the centre of the East African plateau, directed
chiefly into the lakes in the great rift valley. The largest river is the Omo,
which, fed by the rains of the Ethiopian highlands, carries down a large body
of water into Lake Rudolf. The rivers of Africa are generally obstructed either
by bars at their mouths, or by cataracts at no great distance upstream. But
when these obstacles have been overcome, the rivers and lakes afford a vast
network of navigable waters.
The calculation of the areas of African drainage systems, made by Dr A.
Bludau (Petermanns Mitteilungen, 43, 1897, pp. 184–186) yields the following
general results:
mi² Mm²
Basin of the Atlantic 4,070,000 10.541
Basin of the 1,680,000 4.351
Mediterranean
Basin of the Indian Ocean 2,086,000 5.403
Inland drainage area 3,452,000 8.941
The areas of individual river basins are:
mi² Mm²
Congo, length over 1,425,000 3.691
3000 mi (4800 km)
Nile, length fully 4000 mi 1,082,000 2.802
(6500 km)
Niger, length about 808,000 2.093
2600 mi (4200 km)
Zambezi, length about 513,500 1.330
2000 mi (3200 km)
Lake Chad 394,000 1.020
Orange, length about 370,505 0.9596
1300 mi (2100 km)
Orange (actual drainage 172,500 0.447 and 0.467
area)
The area of the Congo basin is greater than that of any other river except the
Amazon, while the African inland drainage area is greater than that of any
continent but Asia, where the corresponding area is 4,000,000 square miles
(10 Mm²).
The principal African lakes have been mentioned in the description of the East
African plateau, but some of the phenomena connected with them may be
spoken of more particularly here. As a rule, the lakes found within the great
rift-valleys have steep sides and are very deep. This is the case with the two
largest of the type, Tanganyika and Nyasa, the latter with depths of 430
fathoms (790 m).
Others, however, are shallow, and hardly reach the steep sides of the valleys
in the dry season. Such are Lake Rukwa, in a subsidiary depression north of
Nyasa, and Eiassi and Manyara in the system of the eastern rift-valley. Lakes
of the broad type are of moderate depth, the deepest sounding in Lake
Victoria being under 50 fathoms (90 m).
Besides the East African lakes, the principal are: - Lake Chad, in the northern
inland watershed; Bangweulu and Mweru, traversed by the head-stream of the
Congo; and Lake Mai-Ndombe and Ntomba (Mantumba), within the great
bend of that river. All, except possibly Mweru, are more or less shallow, and
Lake Chad appears to be drying up.
Divergent opinions have been held as to the mode of origin of the East African
lakes, especially Tanganyika, which some geologists have considered to
represent an old arm of the sea, dating from a time when the whole central
Congo basin was under water; others holding that the lake water has
accumulated in a depression caused by subsidence. The former view is based
on the existence in the lake of organisms of a decidedly marine type. They
include jellyfish, molluscs, prawns, crabs, etc.
Islands
With the exception of Madagascar the African islands are small. Madagascar,
with an area of 229820 square miles ( km2), is, after Greenland, New Guinea
and Borneo, the fourth largest island on the Earth. It lies in the Indian Ocean,
off the S.E. coast of the continent, from which it is separated by the deep
Mozambique channel, 250 miles (400 km) wide at its narrowest point1059.
Madagascar in its general structure, as in flora and fauna, forms a connecting
link between Africa and southern Asia. East of Madagascar are the small
islands of Mauritius and Réunion. There are also islands in the Gulf of Guinea
on which lies the Republic of Sao Tomé and Príncipe (islands of São Tomé and
Príncipe). Part of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea is laying on the island of
Bioko (with the capital Malabo and the town of Lubu) and the island of
Annobón. Socotra lies E.N.E. of Cape Guardafui. Off the north-west coast are
the Canary and Cape Verde archipelagoes. which, like some small islands in
the Gulf of Guinea, are of volcanic origin.

Climate and Health

Africa mean annual temperature Africa mean annual precipitation

Lying almost entirely within the tropics, and equally to north and south of the
equator, Africa does not show excessive variations of temperature.
Great heat is experienced in the lower plains and desert regions of North
Africa, removed by the great width of the continent from the influence of the
ocean, and here, too, the contrast between day and night, and between
summer and winter, is greatest. (The rarity of the air and the great radiation
during the night cause the temperature in the Sahara to fall occasionally to
freezing point.)
Farther south, the heat is to some extent modified by the moisture brought
from the ocean, and by the greater elevation of a large part of the surface,
especially in East Africa, where the range of temperature is wider than in the
Congo basin or on the Guinea coast.
In the extreme north and south the climate is a warm temperate one, the
northern countries being on the whole hotter and drier than those in the
southern zone; the south of the continent being narrower than the north, the
influence of the surrounding ocean is more felt.

1059Physical map of Africa by National Geographic

The most important climatic differences are due to variations in the amount of
rainfall. The wide heated plains of the Sahara, and in a lesser degree the
corresponding zone of the Kalahari in the south, have an exceedingly scanty
rainfall, the winds which blow over them from the ocean losing part of their
moisture as they pass over the outer highlands, and becoming constantly drier
owing to the heating effects of the burning soil of the interior; while the
scarcity of mountain ranges in the more central parts likewise tends to
prevent condensation. In the inter-tropical zone of summer precipitation, the
rainfall is greatest when the sun is vertical or soon after. It is therefore
greatest of all near the equator, where the sun is twice vertical, and less in the
direction of both tropics.
The rainfall zones are, however, somewhat deflected from a due west-to-east
direction, the drier northern conditions extending southwards along the east
coast, and those of the south northwards along the west. Within the equatorial
zone certain areas, especially on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea and in the
upper Nile basin, have an intensified rainfall, but this rarely approaches that
of the rainiest regions of the world. The rainiest district in all Africa is a strip
of coastland west of Mount Cameroon, where there is a mean annual rainfall
of about 390 in (9906 mm) as compared with a mean of 458 in (11600 mm) at
Cherrapunji, in Meghalaya, India.
The two distinct rainy seasons of the equatorial zone, where the sun is vertical
at half-yearly intervals, become gradually merged into one in the direction of
the tropics, where the sun is overhead but once. Snow falls on all the higher
mountain ranges, and on the highest the climate is thoroughly Alpine.
The countries bordering the Sahara are much exposed to a very dry wind, full
of fine particles of sand, blowing from the desert towards the sea. Known in
Egypt as the khamsin, on the Mediterranean as the sirocco, it is called on the
Guinea coast the harmattan. This wind is not invariably hot; its great dryness
causes so much evaporation that cold is not infrequently the result. Similar
dry winds blow from the Kalahari Desert in the south. On the eastern coast
the monsoons of the Indian Ocean are regularly felt, and on the southeast
hurricanes are occasionally experienced.

Extreme Points
This is a list of the extreme points of Africa, the points that are farther
north, south, east or west than any other location on the continent.
Africa

•Northernmost Point — Galite Islands, Tunisia (37°32'N)

•Southernmost Point — Cape Agulhas, South Africa (34°51'15"S)1060
•Westernmost Point — Santo Antão, Cape Verde Islands (25°25'W)
•Easternmost Point — Rodrigues, Mauritius (63°30'E)

1060If the Prince Edward Islands are included in Africa, then Marion Island is the
southernmost point at 46°54'S.
•African pole of inaccessibility is close to the border of Central African
Republic, Sudan and Congo, near the town Obo.

Africa (mainland)

•Northernmost Point — Ras ben Sakka (Ra's al Abyad) (Cape Blanc), Tunisia
•Southernmost Point — Cape Agulhas, South Africa
•Westernmost Point — Pointe des Almadies, Cap Vert Peninsula, Senegal
(17°33'22"W)
•Easternmost Point — Ras Hafun (Raas Xaafuun), Somalia (51°27'52"E)

The highest point in Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro, 5891.8 m (19330 ft)1061 in

Tanzania. The lowest point is Lake Asal, 153 m (502 ft) below sea level, in
Djibouti.

See also
•List of national parks in Africa

External links
•Wikimedia Atlas of Africa
•Africa: The Human Footprint. Interactive map of human impact on Africa by
National Geographic.
•Africa - Interactive Map with demographics and geopolitical information
from the United States Army Africa

Economy of Africa

Economy of Africa
During 2003 unless otherwise stated

Population: 922 million (14%)

GDP (PPP): US$ 2.200 trillion
(2009)
GDP (Currency): US$1.184 trillion
(2009)
GDP/capita (PPP): US$1,968 (2009)

1061,the Kilimanjaro 2008 Precise Height Measurement Expedition. "Precise Determination

of the Orthometric Height of Mt. Kilimanjaro". . Retrieved May 16, 2009.
GDP/capita US$1200 (2009)
(Currency):
Annual growth in 5.16% (2004-2006)
per capita GDP:
Income of top 10%: 44.7%
Millionaires (US$): 100,000 (0.01%)
Population living 36.2%
on under $1 per
day:
External debt as 60.7% (1998)
a percent of GDP 25.5% (2007) IMF
External debt 4.2%
payments 3.0% (2007) IMF
a as percent of
GDP
Foreign aid 3.2% (2001)
revenue as
a percent of GDP
Estimated female 51.8% of male
income
*Numbers from the UNDP and AfDB.
Most numbers exclude some countries
for lack of information. Since these
tend to be the poorest nations, these
numbers tend to have an upwards bias.
Numbers are mostly from 2002.
See also: Economy of the world – Economy of
Africa – Economy of Asia – Economy of Europe –
Economy of North America – Economy of
Oceania – Economy of South America

[12]
The economy of Africa consists of the trade, industry, and resources of the
people of Africa. As of 2006, approximately 922 million people1062 were living
in 54 different countries. Africa is the world's poorest inhabited continent.
Though parts of the continent have made significant gains over the last few
years, of the 175 countries reviewed in the United Nations' Human
Development Report 2003, 25 African nations ranked lowest amongst the
nations of the world. This is partly due to its turbulent history. The
decolonization of Africa was fraught with instability aggravated by cold war
conflict. Since mid-20th century, the Cold War and increased corruption and
despotism have also contributed to Africa's poor economy.

1062"World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision" United Nations (Department of

Economic and Social Affairs, population division)
The biggest contrast in terms of development has been between Africa and
the economy of Europe. The African Economic Outlook report specifically
mentions that Africa’s trade with China has multiplied by 10 since 2001,
reaching over USD 100 billion in 2008. The economies of China and India
have grown rapidly, while Latin America has also experienced moderate
growth, lifting millions above subsistence living. By contrast, much of Africa
has stagnated and even regressed in terms of foreign trade, investment, per
capita income, and other economic growth measures.1063 Poverty has had
widespread effects, including low life expectancy, violence, and instability,
which in turn have perpetuated the continent's growth problems. Over the
decades, there have been many unsuccessful attempts to improve the
economies of individual African countries. However, recent data suggest some
parts of the continent are experiencing faster growth. The World Bank reports
the economy of Sub-Saharan African countries grew at rates that match global
rates.10641065 The economies of the fastest growing African nations experienced
growth significantly above the global average rates. The top nations in 2007
include Mauritania with growth at 19.8%, Angola at 17.6%, Sudan at 9.6%,
Mozambique at 7.9% and Malawi at 7.8%.1066 Many international agencies are
gaining increasing interest in emerging modernizing African economies1067,
especially as Africa continues to maintain high economic growth despite
current global economic recession.1068

Regional variation
While no African nation has joined the ranks of the developed nations in the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) yet, the
entire continent is not utterly impoverished and there is considerable
variation in its wealth. Arab North Africa has long been closely linked to the
economies of Europe and the Middle East. South Africa is by far the
continent's wealthiest state, both in GDP per capita and in total GDP, and its
neighbors have shared in this wealth. The small but oil-rich states of Gabon
and Equatorial Guinea round out the list of the ten wealthiest states in Africa.
The temperate northern and southern ends of the continent are wealthier than
tropical sub-Saharan Africa. Within the tropics, East Africa, with its long pre-
colonial history of trade and development, has tended to be wealthier and
more stable than elsewhere. Islands such as the Seychelles, Réunion,
Mauritius, and Cape Verde have remained wealthier than the continental
nations, although the unstable Comoros remains poor.

1063Industry and Enterprise: an International Survey of Modernization and Development, ISR

Publications, 2nd edition, 2003, Chapter 12: "Industry and Enterprise Development In Africa".
ISBN 978-0-906321-27-0. Google Books abridged version: [13]
1064'Fast economic growth' in Africa
1065African economy 'to expand 6.2%'
1066African growth 'steady but frail'
1067Economic Growth and Trade
1068Africa’s economic growth continues upward trend
The poorest states are those engaged in or just emerging from civil wars.
These include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and
Burundi. In recent times, the poorest region has been the Horn of Africa,
although it had historically been one of the wealthiest regions of sub-Saharan
Africa. Ethiopia in particular had a long and successful history. The current
poverty of the region, and the associated famines and wars, have been a
problem for decades.
There is considerable internal variation within countries. Urban areas,
especially capital cities, are generally wealthier than rural zones. Inequality is
pronounced in most African countries; an upper class has a much higher
income than the majority of the population.
Country Total GDP GDP (PPP) per HDI in 20051071
(nominal) in capita in 20051070
20061069 (US$)
(billion US$)
Algeria 114.73 5985 0.733

Angola 44.03 3533 0.446

Benin 4.78 1390 0.437

Botswana 10.33 12057 0.654

Burkina Faso 6.21 1140 0.370

Burundi 0.81 699 0.413

Cameroon 18.32 1995 0.532

Cape Verde 1.14 2831 0.736

Central African 1.49 675 0.384

Republic
Chad 6.54 1749 0.388

Comoros 0.40 1063 0.561

Democratic 8.54 264 0.411

Republic of the
Congo

1069Source
1070Source
1071Source
 Congo 7.39 3621 0.548

Côte d'Ivoire 17.48 1575 0.432

Djibouti 0.76 1964 0.516

Egypt 107.48 5051 0.708

Equatorial 8.56 11999 0.642

Guinea
Eritrea 1.09 689 0.483

Ethiopia 13.32 591 0.406

Gabon 9.55 12742 0.677

Gambia 0.51 726 0.502

Ghana 12.91 1225 0.553

Guinea 3.32 946 0.456

Guinea-Bissau 0.30 569 0.374

Kenya 21.19 1359 0.521

Lesotho 1.48 1415 0.549

Liberia 0.63 383 0.? N/A

Libya 50.32 10727 0.818

Madagascar 5.50 988 0.533

Malawi 2.23 691 0.437

Mali 5.93 1027 0.380

 Mauritania 2.66 1691 0.550

Mauritius 6.45 10155 0.804

Morocco 72.851072 4800 0.646

Mozambique 7.61 743 0.384

Namibia 6.37 4547 0.650

Niger 3.54 613 0.374

Nigeria 114.69 1892 0.470

Réunion 15.981073 19233 (nominal)1074 0.850 (in 2003)1075

(France)
Rwanda 2.49 813 0.452

São Tomé and 0.12 1460 0.654

Príncipe
Senegal 8.94 1676 0.499

Seychelles 0.75 13887 0.843

Sierra Leone 1.44 790 0.336

Somalia 0.061076 199 0.? N/A

South Africa 254.99 8477 0.674

Sudan 37.57 2249 0.526

Swaziland 2.65 4384 0.547

Tanzania 12.78 1018 0.467

Togo 2.21 888 0.512

1072
1073(French) INSEE Réunion. "11.1 - RÉSULTATS ÉCONOMIQUES" (PDF). . Retrieved 2008-
04-09.
1074
1075Source
1076
 Tunisia 30.30 6461 0.766

Uganda 9.32 991 0.505

Zambia 10.91 1175 0.434

Zimbabwe 5.01 538

0.513

History
Ancient Egypt was one of the world's most prosperous and advanced
civilizations, which began around 3150 BC with the political unification of
Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the
next three millennia. The port of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great
in 334 BC, was a hub for Mediterranean trade for centuries. Well into the 19th
century, Egypt remained one of the most developed regions in the world.
Prosperity in the rest of Africa existed in nation states and kingdoms such as
the Ghana Empire , Nubia, Ethiopia, and Mali, which had trade routes north to
the Mediterranean world and Middle East.
Africans have historically built structures from stone mainly in the Nile Valley
in cities like Meroe, Napata, Axum by former Nubian and Ethiopian kingdoms.
Most other Sub Saharan African pre-colonial civilizations built mainly out of
mud brick, leaving few lasting ruins except Great Zimbabwe. Finding no
architectural monuments in most parts of the region, some European
explorers and historians long concluded that pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa
was devoid of civilization (see Sub-Saharan Africa critic of the term). It must
be noted that racism also blinded some of the European explorers and
historians to conclude that pre-colonial Africa was devoid of civilization for
example J. Theodore Bent, who researched the origins of Great Zimbabwe
stated in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1891) that the ruins revealed
either the Phoenicians or the Arabs as builders. Other European researcher
favored a legend that the structures were built to replicate the palace of the
Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem.1077 Other theories as to their origin abounded
among white settlers and academics, with one racist element in common: they
were probably not made by Africans.

1077"Vast Ruins in South Africa- The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland". The New York Times:
p. 19. 1892-12-18.
New technologies and increasing scales of production made trading easier.
For most of the first millennium AD, the Axumite Kingdom had a prosperous
trade empire on the eastern horn, where the modern states of Ethiopia and
Eritrea lie. Axum had a powerful navy and traded as far as the Byzantine
Empire, India, and possibly China. The introduction of the camel by North
African Arab conquerors in the 10th century opened trade across the Sahara
for the first time. The profits from the gold and salt trades created powerful
empires in the western Sahel including the Kingdom of Ghana and the Mali
and Kanem-Bornu Empires, where travellers reported vast wealth. Arabs
helped build a maritime trade along Africa's east coast, which prospered as
Swahili traders exported ivory and slaves across the Indian Ocean.
Further south empires were less common, with the notable exception of Great
Zimbabwe. In the Great Lakes region, states such as Rwanda, Burundi, and
Buganda became strongly centralized, due to its high population and
agricultural surplus.
In the 15th century, Portuguese traders circumvented the Saharan trade route
and began to trade directly with Guinea. Other European traders followed,
rapidly boosting prosperity in Western Africa. States flourished, including the
Kingdom of Benin, Dahomey, and the Ashanti Confederacy. Loose federations
of city states such as those of the Yoruba and Hausa were common. However,
this wealth was principally based on the slave trade, which collapsed following
the abolition of slavery and later European colonization.
Although Europeans were ostensibly committed to developing their colonies,
colonial rulers employed a laissez-faire strategy during the first decades. It
was hoped that European companies would prosper if given a secure
operating environment. This only occurred in a few areas with rich resources;
the colonial economies hardly grew from the 1890s through the 1920s. The
colonies had to pay their own way, receiving little or no development money
from Europe. Only in the 1930s, with the rise of Keynesian economics, did the
colonial administrations seriously encourage development. However, new
projects could not transpire until after the Great Depression and the Second
World War.
African economies boomed during the 1950s as growth and international
trade multiplied beyond their pre-war levels. The insatiable demand for raw
materials in the rebuilding economies of Asia and Europe and the strong
growth in North America inflated the price of raw materials. By the end of the
colonial era in the 1960s, there was great hope for African self-sufficience and
prosperity. However, sporadic growth continued as the newly independent
nations borrowed heavily from abroad.
The world economic decline of the 1970s, rising oil prices, corruption, and
political instability hit Africa hard. In subsequent decades Africa has steadily
become poorer compared to the rest of the world; South America experienced
solid growth, and East Asia spectacular growth, during that same period.
According to the World Economic Forum, ten percent of the world's poor were
African in 1970; by 2000, that figure had risen to 50 percent. Between 1974
and 2000 the average income declined by $200. Beginning in 1976, the Lomé
Convention and Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and ACP
countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa, have structured economic relations
between the two regions.
Sectors
It is through the sectors of Africa's work industry that the economy can be
maintained. Most of this is contributed to exporting of goods. This is due to
the smaller amount of secondary industries available in the continent. In 2009,
87% of Africa's economy was from exportation alone.

Agriculture
Around 60 percent of African workers are employed by the agricultural sector,
with about three-fifths of African farmers being subsistence farmers.
Subsistence farms provide a source of food and a relatively small income for
the family, but generally fail to produce enough to make re-investment
possible. Larger farms tend to grow cash crops such as coffee, cotton, cocoa,
and rubber. These farms, normally operated by large corporations, cover tens
of square kilometres and employ large numbers of labourers.
The situation whereby African nations export crops to the West while millions
on the continent starve has been blamed on developed countries including
Japan, the European Union and the United States. These countries protect
their own agricultural sectors with high import tariffs and offer subsidies to
their farmers, which many contend leads the overproduction of such
commodities as grain, cotton and milk. The result of this is that the global
price of such products is continually reduced until Africans are unable to
compete, except for cash crops that do not grow easily in a northern
climate.1078
Because of these market forces, in Africa excess capacity is devoted to
growing crops for export. Thus, when civil unrest or a bad harvest occurs,
there is often very little food saved and many starve. Ironically, excess
foodstuffs grown in developed nations are regularly destroyed, as it is not
economically viable to transport it across the oceans to a market poor in
capital. Although cash crops can expand a nation's wealth, there is often a risk
that focusing on them rather than staples will lead to food shortages and
hunger.

1078Farm Subsidies: Devastating the World's Poor and the Environment

In modern years countries such as Brazil, which has experienced great
progress in agricultural production, have agreed to share technology with
Africa to greatly increase agricultural production in Africa to make it a more
viable trade partner.1079 Increased investment in African agricultural
technology in general has the potential to greatly decrease poverty in
Africa.1080 The demand market for African cocoa is currently experiencing an
enjoyable price boom.1081 The South African1082 and Ugandan governments
have targeted policies to take advantage of the increased demand for certain
agricultural products1083 and plan to stimulate agricultural sectors.1084 The
African Union has plans to heavily invest in African agriculture 1085 and the
situation is closely monitored by the UN.1086

Mining and drilling

Oil production by country
(with other key actors of African or oil economy)

Rank Area bb/day Year Like...

_ W: World 85540000 2007 est.
01 E: Russia 9980000 2007 est.
02 Ar: Saudi Arb 9200000 2008 est.
05 As: China 3725000 2008 est. Iran
13 Af: Nigeria 2352000 2007 est. Norway
15 Af: Algeria 2173000 2007 est.
16 Af: Angola 1910000 2008 est.
17 Af: Libya 1845000 2007 est.
27 Af: Egypt 664000 2007 est. Australia
31 Af: Sudan 466100 2007 est. Ecuador
33 Af: Eq.Guinea 368500 2007 est. Vietnam
38 Af: DR Congo 261000 2008 est.
39 Af: Gabon 243900 2007 est.
40 Af: Sth Africa 199100 2007 est.
45 Af: Chad 156000 2008 est. Germany
53 Af: Cameroon 87400 2008 est. France
56 E: France 71400 2007

1079AGRICULTURE: Brazil Shares Technology with Africa

1080Targeted agricultural investments will slash poverty in Africa
1081African cocoa enjoying price boom
1082South Africa: Commodities lead boom
1083Yara's GroHow sees 2008 profit stable - [[Reuters]]
1084Govt targets agricultural boom - Daily Monitor
1085African Union support crucial for agricultural progress
1086Though making ‘very good progress,’ Africa still faces challenges, says UN official
60 Af: Ivory Coast 54400 2008 est.
_ Af: Africa 10780400 2007-2008 Russia
Source: CIA.gov, World Facts Book > Oil exporters.
Africa's most valuable exports are minerals and petroleum. A few countries
possess and export the vast majority of these resources. The southern nations
have large reserves of gold, diamonds, and copper. Petroleum is concentrated
in Nigeria, its neighbors, and Libya.
While mining and drilling produce most of Africa's revenues each year, these
industries only employ about two million people, a tiny fraction of the
continent's population. Profits normally go either to large corporations or to
the governments. Both have been known to squander this money on luxuries
for the elite or on mega-projects that return little value.
In some cases, these resources have turned out to be detrimental to economic
development. Although Congo is rich in minerals, the country remains one of
the poorest countries in the world. This is historically due to ownership fights
over these minerals, tracing back to the early 1900s. After Congo's
independence from Belgium, the colonial government hesitated to leave
behind these resources. Congo solicited UN help against Belgium, but that
turned out to be a bad idea. In an attempt to get out of the quagmire, Congo
sought Soviet assistance. This led the country into deeper trouble, as the
country separated into two and a long proxy war between the West and East
began. However, countries such as Angola1087 and Uganda1088 are experiencing
booms in drilling and oil drilling and manufacture.

Manufacturing
Africa is the least industrialized continent; only South Africa, Egypt, Morocco
and Tunisia in general have substantial manufacturing sectors. Despite readily
available cheap labour, nearly all of the continent's natural resources are
exported for secondary refining and manufacturing. According to the AFDB,
about 15% of workers are employed in the industrial sector.
The multinational corporations that control most of the world's major
industries and their financiers require political stability before erecting an
expensive factory and risk losing that investment through nationalization. An
educated populace, good infrastructure and a stable source of electricity are
essential to investments. These factors are rare in most countries in Africa.
Other developing regions of the world such as India and China have been
more attractive to companies looking to build a new factory or invest in a local
enterprise.

1087Angola oil tiger plans investment in Europe

1088Kenya ill-prepared for Uganda oil boom
Many African states used to limit foreign investment to ensure local majority
ownership. Close governmental control over industry further discouraged
international investment. Attempts to foster local industry have been
hampered by insufficient technology, training, and investment money. The
paucity of local markets and the difficulty of transporting goods from major
African centres to world markets contribute to the lack of manufacturing
outside of South Africa and Egypt.
Both the African Union and the United Nations have outline plans in modern
years on how Africa can help itself industrialize and develop significant
manufacturing sectors to levels proportional to the African economy in the
1960s with 21st century technology.1089 This focus on growth and
diversification of manufacturing and industrial production, as well as
diversification of agricultural production, has fueled hopes that 21st century
will prove to be a century of economic and technological growth for Africa.
This hope coupled with the rise of new leaders in Africa in the future inspired
the term "the African Century" referring to the 21st century potentially being
the century when Africa's vast untapped labor, capital and resource potentials
might become a world player. This hope in manufacturing and industry is
helped by the boom in communications technology10901091 and local mining
industry1092 in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Namibia has attracted industrial
investments in recent years1093 and South Africa has begun offering tax
incentives to attract foreign direct investment projects in manufacturing. 1094
Countries such as Mauritius have plans for developing new "green
technology" for manufacturing.1095 Developments such as this have huge
potential to open new markets for African countries as the demand for
alternative "green" and clean technology is predicted to soar in the future as
global oil reserves dry up and fossil fuel-based technology becomes more
economically nonviable.10961097

1089Africa strives to rebuild its domestic industries

1090Mobile boom in Africa a boon to ad agencies - International Herald Tribune
1091Rural Africa new frontier for mobile phone boom
1092Resources Boom Represents Development Potential in Africa
1093Namibia: Congo Copper Giant to Invest in Country
1094Tax breaks for big investment projects
1095ECONOMY-MAURITIUS: Textile Manufacturing Goes Green and Clean
1096Market for renewable energy expected to boom in Africa
1097Africa Could Profit from Global Economic Crisis
Investment and banking
Banking in Africa has long been problematic. Because local banks are often
unstable and corrupt, governments and industry rely on international banks.
South Africa and Egypt alone have a thriving banking sector, aided by the
international sanctions of the apartheid era, which forced out the once-
dominant British banks for the former. In the years after independence,
African governments heavily regulated the banking sector and placed strict
limits on international competition. In recent decades, banking reform has
been a priority of the IMF and World Bank. One important reform was
obtaining permission for increased penetration by foreign banks. South Africa
and Egypt have been the most successful in attracting local operation of
foreign banks. In 2007, Egypt surpassed South Africa as the biggest recipient
of FDI recording $11.1 bn. This trend continued in 2008, where Egypt
attracted $13.2 bn in FDI. <Source?>
Encouraging foreign investment in Africa has been difficult. Even Africans are
reluctant to invest locally; about forty percent of sub-Saharan African savings
are invested in other markets. The IMF and World Bank only lend money after
imposing stringent and controversial conditions such as austerity policies.
However, China and India1098 have showed exponentially increasing interest in
emerging African economies in the 21st century. Investment in Africa by
China and African trade with China has increased dramatically in recent
years10991100, even regardless of the current world financial crisis.1101 The
increased investment in Africa by China has attracted the attention of the
European Union and has provoked talks of competitive investment by the
EU.1102 Members of the African diaspora abroad, especially in the EU and the
United States, have increased efforts to use their businesses to invest in Africa
and encourage African investment abroad in the European economy.1103
Remittances from the African diaspora and rising interest in investment from
the West will especially be helpful for Africa's least developed and most
devastated economies, such as Burundi, Togo and Comoros. 1104
Angola has announced interests in investing in the EU, Portugal in
particular.1105 South Africa has attracted increasing attention from the United
States as a new frontier of investment in manufacture, financial markets and
small business1106, as has Liberia in recent years with new leadership.1107
There are two African currency unions: the West African Banque Centrale des
États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) and the Central African Banque des
États de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC). Both use the CFA franc as their legal
tender.

1098India to Step Up Trade and Investment in Africa

1099China in Africa: Developing ties
1100Chinese investment in Africa soars
1101China to maintain aid, investment in Africa "regardless of financial crisis" - Xinhuanet
1102China outwits the EU in Africa
1103TRADE-AFRICA: Europe Looks to Encourage Diaspora Investment
1104The global remittances boom: billions pour into Africa
1105
1106Minnesota: Investment opportunities abound in South Africa
1107Liberian Leaders Predict Boom for Poor West African Country
Communication and information technology
Mobile telephony in Africa has the largest growth rate of subscribers in the
world.1108 African markets are expanding nearly twice as fast as Asian
markets.1109 The African cell phone has created a base for cellular banking.1110
Namibia has attracted international attention with new phone services 1111 and
liberalization of regulatory controls in Kenya are producing a boom in Internet
services demand1112 and demand for modern communication technology.1113

Determinants
The seemingly intractable nature of Africa's poverty runs counter to modern
economic theory, leading to debate concerning its root causes. Endemic
warfare and unrest, widespread corruption, and despotic regimes are both
causes and effects of the continued economic problems.

Geography
Variations of the controversial theory of geographic determinism date back to
Montesquieu, though these theories have been simplistic and unscientific until
they have recently been revived and refined by academics such as William
Masters and Jeffrey Sachs and popular writers such as Jared Diamond.
Africa has the largest hot desert and the second largest tropical forest in the
world that hinder building transcontinental means of transportations,
hampering its economy. In the centre of the continent, on the western side, an
almost impenetrable rainforest impedes the transit of people and goods. The
Sahara creates an obvious barrier to trade from the north. Although Africa has
great river systems such as the Nile, Niger, Congo, and Zambezi, they do not
link the continent into trade routes effectively as happens in Europe and
China. Rapids and cataracts block African rivers, requiring development
projects to allow navigation. The wet terrain of the interior complicates
transport. Few roads are paved and during the wet season unpaved tracks
become impassable mud.
Countries in Africa are cut off from the sea more than those on other
continents. Africa has more landlocked nations than any other continent,
which support a high population density compared to the steppes or plains of
North America and Asia. The ridge running from Zimbabwe to Ethiopia has
superb volcanic soils and the higher altitude produces a more temperate
climate. These enable more interior settlement, but the lack of access to the
sea makes international trade harder.

1108"Mobile growth fastest in Africa". BBC News. 2005-03-09. . Retrieved 2010-01-03.

1109Rice, Xan (2006-03-04). "Phone revolution makes Africa upwardly mobile". The Times
(London). . Retrieved 2010-05-01.
1110Itano, Nicole (2005-08-25). "Africa's cell phone boom creates a base for low-cost
banking". USA Today. . Retrieved 2010-05-01.
1111New operator to improve Namibian phone services
1112Kenya’s Internet Boom
1113IT boom expected in Kenya by 2009
The majority of the world's population and wealth is found in the temperate
zone. Historically the vast expanse of Eurasia, almost entirely in the
temperate zone (except for the vast tracts that are dry and hot such as the
Arabian Peninsula; cold tundra such as in North Asia, and tropical such as
subcontinental India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia,
Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore) was linked by land routes, allowing
technologies and ideas to spread from one area over time, aiding innovation.
The agricultural techniques and medicines designed to work in the northern
climes may fail in the tropics. This theory could partly explain why temperate
South Africa is by far the wealthiest part of Africa, and why other tropical
areas in South America and Indonesia share Africa's poverty. Exceptions exist,
Singapore and Brunei among them, however these are isolated spots of
wealth. There are no tropical countries in the OECD, apart from Mexico and
Australia which have significant tropical sections, and only a handful have a
GDP per capita above the world average, again apart from Mexico, Australia,
Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand. Globally there is a correlation
between wealth and climate although it does not fully explain all instances of
poverty in Africa.
Africa is well-endowed with natural resources, including gold, diamonds, and
oil reserves, but due to several factors including poor governance and global
trade policies which place tariffs on finished goods from Africa, few African
countries have materially benefited from their mineral wealth. Africa is as well
suited to agriculture as any other continent; the volcanic soils of the Great
Lakes region are—by some measures—the best in the world.

Disease
Closely linked to geography is the problem of disease in Africa. The tropics
are more hospitable to disease than the colder climates. The most significant
illness has long been malaria. Since the tropical regions are poorer,
pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to invest in curing the diseases of the
region. Disease reduces productivity and creates a health care cost burden.
A new problem of vast magnitude is the rise of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan
Africa.1114 AIDS, whose spread correlates with poverty, has nevertheless hit
hardest in some of the wealthiest African countries, including Botswana,
Swaziland, and South Africa. AIDS has decimated or will decimate the
working-age population of many states. As parents die or become unable to
work, their children must find care elsewhere, adding to the burden of already
struggling families and states.
The costs of HIV/AIDS, including importation of anti-retroviral AIDS drugs
from the West, is a new burden on many African states, leading to the
challenging of drug prices and the manufacture of cheap generic alternatives.
Animal diseases can also harm agriculture and transportation, as most forms
of livestock cannot survive the diseases of the region. Historically, sub-
Saharan Africans could not use pack animals for trade or work horses for
labor, limiting the continent's development.

1114FAO. "AIDS - a threat to rural Africa". Focus on the issues. . Retrieved 26 August 2006.
Colonialism
The economic impact of the colonization of Africa has been debated. Africa
acquired its greatest relative wealth in the 1960s, just prior to decolonization.
African countries have yet to return to those levels of wealth. Some see this as
evidence that colonialism helped local economies by creating a cyclical
economic link with the ruling colonial power, and with independence this link
was broken.
To achieve wealth during the colonial period, imperial overseers geared the
economies of Africa towards exporting raw materials. Egypt produced cotton,
Ruanda-Urundi was almost completely dedicated to growing coffee, and
Upper Volta specialized in palm oil. Basing an entire nation's wealth on one
commodity in this way would have debilitating effects later. These
monocultures left national economies extremely vulnerable to price swings,
making economic planning difficult. Some writers, such as Walter Rodney in
his influential book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, argue that these
colonial policies are directly responsible for many of Africa's modern
problems. Other post-colonial scholars, most notably Frantz Fanon, have
argued that the true effects of colonialism are psychological and that
domination by a foreign power creates a lasting sense of inferiority and
subjugation that creates a barrier to growth and innovation.
Once independent, African states saw an exodus of European administrators
and consequently lacked individuals with the training or education to operate
the government they had inherited. For instance, the massive area of French
Equatorial Africa was divided into four independent nations, but was home to
only five locals who were university graduates.
One method of gauging the effects of colonialism on the economies of Africa is
to compare the results of different colonial policies implemented by the
European powers. Regions where the economy was plundered, such as the
Raubwirtschaft policies of Leopold II in the Congo Free State, have not
prospered. The long reluctance of Portugal to surrender its colonies, leading
to long wars of independence, had an obvious negative effect on Mozambique
and Angola. The countries formerly under French control have fared much
better, and those under British dominion were the most successful. This
inequality may be due to other factors than economic policy. Britain, at the
time of the Scramble for Africa, was the world's greatest power and could
thus cherry-pick the wealthiest parts of the continent. The French, with their
mighty navy, could also occupy prosperous areas, while the Belgians were
forced to take the economically disadvantaged interior.
Africa as a whole has not prospered compared with other colonised regions in
Asia and the Americas. At the end of the Second World War the Americas
were economically the strongest of the colonised regions; in the span of one
generation, former colonies in Asia have become economic powerhouses.
Borders
In the Scramble for Africa, national boundaries in sub-Saharan Africa were
established by Europeans using latitude and longitude rather than natural
borders. This separated population centres from their supplies of food and
natural resources. The artificial borders of modern African states cut across
cultural, tribal, linguistic and religious boundaries, creating ethnic and
religious cleavages which impede national unity and induce internal violence.
However, those states that preserved pre-colonial boundaries have been no
more successful. Few countries in Africa have more troubled recent histories
than Rwanda and Burundi, although their borders are almost identical to
those of the prosperous kingdoms from which they are descended. The ancient
and only briefly occupied state of Ethiopia is one of the poorest on the
continent. Elsewhere, the Americas were also divided up by Europeans along
arbitrary borders and yet those continents remain economically far more
successful than Africa.
Africa is a much divided continent with many small countries. Successful
economic growth requires regional cooperation, which political tensions make
difficult. To be effective, foreign aid must be multilateral, making it harder to
base aid upon the performance of local governments.

Language diversity
African countries suffer from communication difficulties caused by language
diversity. Greenberg's diversity index is the chance that two randomly
selected people would have different mother tongues. Out of the most diverse
25 countries according to this index, 18 (72%) are African.1115 This includes 12
countries for which Greenberg's diversity index exceeds 0.9, meaning that a
pair of randomly selected people will have less than 10% chance of having the
same mother tongue. The primary language of government, political debate,
academic discourse, and administration is often the language of the former
colonial powers—English, French, or Portuguese. Only an elite minority speak
these European languages fluently enough to participate in these institutions
without intermediaries, further disenfranchising the majority population.

1115[14]
Governance
The political situation in Africa perpetuates the intractable nature of African
poverty. Democracy in Africa has not been historically successful, almost
always supplanted by centralized authoritarian rule such as military
dictatorships. Although some rulers worked to improve the lot of their nation's
citizens, others used power purely for their own benefit. Among the most
notorious was Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire, whose regime has been called a
kleptocracy due to its looting of the nation's wealth. According to international
measures, the economies of Africa generally rank among the most corrupt.
Bribery and graft abound, due to poverty and poorly handled de-colonization,
and the superpowers' (Soviet Union and United States) practice during the
Cold War of supporting any ruler with the desired political alignment,
regardless of their managerial practices or human rights records.
Dependency theory asserts that the wealth and prosperity of the superpowers
and their allies in Europe, North America and East Asia is dependent upon the
poverty of the rest of the world, including Africa. Economists who subscribe to
this theory believe that poorer regions must break their trading ties with the
developed world in order to prosper.1116
Less radical theories suggest that economic protectionism in developed
countries hampers Africa's growth. When developing countries have harvested
agricultural produce at low cost, they generally do not export as much as
would be expected. Abundant farm subsidies and high import tariffs in the
developed world, most notably those set by Japan, the European Union's
Common Agricultural Policy, and the United States Department of
Agriculture, are thought to be the cause. Although these subsidies and tariffs
have been gradually reduced, they remain high.
Local conditions also affect exports. In addition to lack of mechanization or
other infrastructure, state over-regulation in several African nations can
prevent their own exports from becoming competitive. Research in Public
Choice economics such as that of Jane Shaw suggest that protectionism
operates in tandem with heavy State intervention combining to depress
economic development. Farmers subject to import and export restrictions
cater to localized markets, exposing them to higher market volatility and
fewer opportunities. When subject to uncertain market conditions farmers
press for governmental intervention to suppress competition in their markets,
resulting in competition being driven out of the market. As competition is
driven out of the market farmers innovate less and grow less food further
undermining economic performance.11171118

1116See, for example, Frank, A. G. (1979), Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment,

New York: Monthly Review Press.; Köhler, G. and Tausch, A. (2001), Global Keynesianism:
unequal exchange and global exploitation, Nova Publishers; Amin, S. (1976), Unequal
Development: An Essay on the Social Formations of Peripheral Capitalism, New York: Monthly
Review Press.
1117Shaw, Jane (April 2004). "Overlooking the Obvious in Africa" (PDF). Econ Journal
Watch. . Retrieved 2008-10-01.
1118Pasour, E.C. (April 2004). "Intellectual Tyranny of the Status Quo" (PDF). Econ Journal
Watch. . Retrieved 2008-10-01.
Although Africa and Asia had similar levels of income in the 1960s, Asia has
since outpaced Africa. One school of economists argues that Asia's superior
economic development lies in local investment. Corruption in Africa consists
primarily of extracting economic rent and moving the resulting financial
capital overseas instead of investing at home; the stereotype of African
dictators with Swiss bank accounts is often accurate. Asian dictators such as
Suharto often take a cut on everything, necessitating bribery, but enable
development through infrastructure investment and the social stability
created by law and order. University of Massachusetts researchers estimate
that from 1970 to 1996, capital flight from 30 sub-Saharan countries totalled
$187bn, exceeding those nations' external debts.1119 This disparity in
development is consistent with the model theorized by economist Mancur
Olson. Because governments were politically unstable and new governments
often confiscated their predecessors' assets, officials would stash their wealth
abroad, out of reach of any future expropriation.
Corruption encouraged social inequality, because the wealthy elite not only
avoided investing at home, but also imported most of its consumption.
Desirable luxury goods were generally not locally available. This hindered the
development of national markets. Historically, economic development is
closely linked to the creation of a middle class with enough income to save
and invest but limited influence on governance. In countries without such a
middle class, development is all but impossible, beyond resource extraction..

War
Since independence, Africa has seen dozens of wars, both civil and
international. This has contributed to poverty because states have spent their
scarce resources on military equipment and supplies. Development has
suffered, since warfare has scared off foreign investors, destroyed
infrastructure, and created lasting animosities.
Much conflict was enabled by the Cold War. The countries of the Western and
Eastern blocs leveraged foreign aid money to coax countries into their camp.
Aid was tied to the purchase of military weapons, and donor countries ignored
misappropriation of the funds. Corruption became endemic, hampering
economic development. Proxy conflicts erupted in Africa when each bloc
would fund and assist rebel or sectarian groups under the control of the
opposing bloc.
Violence in Africa has increased following the Cold War, despite the slashing
of foreign aid spending in developed countries. Civil wars have raged
throughout the African Great Lakes region, Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique,
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Guinea-Bissau. International wars
include the First and Second Congo Wars between the Democratic Republic of
the Congo and its neighbours, and conflict between Ethiopia and its former
province Eritrea.

1119Wrong, Michela (2005-03-14). "When the money goes west". New Statesman. . Retrieved
2006-08-28.
Effects of widespread poverty
Africa's economic malaise is self-perpetuating, as it engenders more of the
disease, warfare, misgovernment, and corruption that created it in the first
place. Other effects of poverty have similar consequences. The most direct
consequence of low GDP is Africa's low standard of living and quality of life.
Except for a wealthy elite and the more prosperous peoples of South Africa
and the Maghreb, Africans have very few consumer goods. Quality of life does
not correlate exactly with a nation's wealth. Angola, for instance, reaps large
sums annually from its diamond mines, but after years of civil war, conditions
there remain poor. Radios, televisions, and automobiles are rare luxuries.
Most Africans are on the far side of the Digital Divide and are cut off from
communications technology and the Internet. Quality of life and human
development are also low. African nations dominate the lower reaches of the
UN Human Development Index. Infant mortality is high, while life expectancy,
literacy, and education are all low. The UN also lowers the ranking of African
states because the continent sees greater inequality than any other region.
The best educated often choose to leave the continent for the West or the
Persian Gulf to seek a better life.
Catastrophes cause deadly periods of great shortages. The most damaging are
the famines that have regularly hit the continent, especially the Horn of
Africa. These have been caused by disruptions due to warfare, years of
drought, and plagues of locusts.
An average African faced annual inflation of over 60% from 1990 until 2002 in
those few countries that account for inflation. At the high end, Angola and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo both saw triple-digit inflation throughout
the period. Most African states saw inflation of around 10% per year.
There are no reliable numbers for unemployment in most African nations, but
it is an important problem. Major cities like Lagos, Kinshasa, and Nairobi
notably have large slums of the unemployed and underemployed.
Environmental degradation occurs on many fronts. Farmers on the verge of
starvation are unlikely to be concerned about the fate of the rainforest in their
pursuit of new land, and starving people do not often consider the rarity of an
animal before eating it (see bushmeat). Along the length of the Sahel,
deforestation and overgrazing has caused increased desertification as the
Sahara spreads south. Profits from the sale in the West of rare animals, ivory
from elephants, and timber encourage illegal poaching. Local governments
have little money to devote to protecting the environment.

Attempts at promoting growth

The relative economic failure of Africa has long been an important issue both
in Africa and abroad. Many attempts at solving Africa's poverty have been
attempted, but few have had any great degree of success.
Socialism
In the years immediately after independence many nations saw the rapid
industrialisations of the Soviet Union and China under communism as models
to follow. This led to command economies and major investment in heavy
industries such as coal and steel production to stimulate growth, but this
approach had little success. Only a handful of states formally adopted
socialism and even fewer turned to outright Marxism. Everywhere
government intervention in the economy was seen as necessary for growth,
especially since private companies and investors were unlikely to invest in the
region.
Often the approach of governments in Africa was to borrow heavily from
abroad and use this aid to grow the economy to a level that the loans could be
paid off. Sporadic growth during the years after independence continued. The
countries focused on exports to pay for these development efforts. The 1973
energy crisis hit sub-Saharan Africa as hard as anywhere in the world. While
some nations were net exporters, most were heavily reliant on imported fuels.
Economies quickly began to falter and events such as famines hit Africa in the
1980s. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which had supported socialist and
collectivist projects throughout the continent, undermined the legitimacy of
such an approach, while it also meant that there were no longer any sources
of international aid to help pursue this approach. However, there are a few
successful socialist endeavors in Africa which have led to growth or increasing
wealth in a small handful of African countries such as Libya and Angola.

Liberalism
Thus in the 1980s, socialist ideas were discarded throughout almost the entire
continent as capitalism became seen as the route to salvation in what became
known as the Washington Consensus. By 1990, forty of the nations of Sub-
Saharan Africa had agreed to follow rigorous IMF restructuring plans. IMF
recommendations saw the continent's currencies drop by an average of 50%,
the selling off of government-owned industries, and the slashing of
government spending. After twenty years, however, these methods have seen
as little success as the socialist approaches of the previous era. Average
growth increased from 2.3% per annum to 2.8%. Only a handful of African
states reached new levels of wealth, and many others became poorer over the
course of the 1990s. Today there is a great deal of controversy on why this
failed. One school of thought is that the reforms failed because they were only
economic in nature and without democracy and the rule of law development
cannot occur.
Yet another school of thought attributes some of Africa's problems to
insufficient liberalization. It has been pointed out that while the developed
world has insisted that Africa open its markets and eliminate public subsidies,
this has been one-sided as the developed world has not opened its markets to
agricultural goods from Africa nor has it eliminated agricultural subsidies . At
the GATT free trade talks, the African leaders repeatedly request that the
developed nations abolish the subsidies they provide their farmers and open
their markets to African agricultural goods. It has been argued that the
abolition of the subsidy would have three beneficial effects for the developing
world and Africa:
•The developed nations would produce less food locally, therefore providing a
larger export market for developing countries.
•Food prices would rise without the artificial subsidy and therefore would
increase profits for food exports from the developing world.
•The developing nations could adopt a more balanced agriculture policy,
producing food and grain for export; this would provide a surplus that would
shield countries from famine.

Autarky
The pursuit of self-sufficiency as advocated by dependency theory has been
given limited trials in several African countries. In the 1980s, Nigeria banned
the importation of many foodstuffs to stimulate domestic production. The
Lagos Plan of Action of 1982 called for Africa as a whole to block imports from
the rest of the world, but few countries followed through on the idea.
Eventually even Nigeria agreed to limited liberalization.
Foreign aid
Since independence there has been a constant flow of foreign aid into Africa.
The benefits of this aid have been mixed. In many cases much of this aid was
misappropriated by unscrupulous leaders. During the Cold War the main goal
of much of the aid money was to win the allegiance of these rulers, and so
their misappropriation of the aid was at the very least overlooked. Since the
end of the Cold War almost all developed countries have slashed foreign aid
spending. Many also allege that the aid that was not stolen was long
misdirected. For many decades the leading notion of development was
government supervised mega-projects; today many believe that small grants
to local businesses would be more effective. One example of foreign aid which
has come under considerable criticism is food aid. In some circles, it is
believed that food aid does not solve any fundamental problems and can also
lead to a dependency on outside assistance, as well as hindering the
development of indigenous industries. Food shipments in case of dire local
shortage are generally uncontroversial; but as Amartya Sen has shown, most
famines involve a local lack of income rather than of food. In such situations,
food aid - as opposed to financial aid - has the effect of destroying local
agriculture and serves mainly to benefit Western agribusiness which are
vastly overproducing food as a result of agricultural subsidies. Historically,
food aid is more highly correlated with excess supply in Western countries
than with the needs of developing countries.

Debt relief
Advocacy for debt relief has become widespread. Each year Africa ,sends
more money to Western bankers in interest on its debts than it receives in
foreign aid from these countries. Debt relief is not a panacea, but relieving
some of the burden, especially of debts that were run up by regimes for their
own benefit, may help the economies of Africa grow and prosper.
Arguments against full and unconditional debt relief include:
•Debt relief punishes nations which have managed borrowing well and do not
need debt relief.
•Unconditional debt relief will not necessarily cause nations to spend more in
social programs and services, on the one hand, or to solve their financial
problems without stifling the economy with the need for more taxes, on the
other hand.
•Debt relief may make it more difficult for nations to receive credit in the
future.

It has been suggested that any debt relief policy be conditional upon a
commensurate reduction in aid.
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative was launched in 1996; in the
2000s, eligible countries began receiving debt relief. Future foreign aid is
planned to be more heavily weighted toward grants than loans.
International unions
The African Union is the largest international economic grouping on the
continent. The confederation's goals include the creation of a free trade area,
a customs union, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency (see
African Monetary Union), thereby establishing economic and monetary union.
The current plan is to establish an African Economic Community with a single
currency by 2023.1120 The African Investment Bank is meant to stimulate
development. The AU plans also include a transitional African Monetary Fund
leading to an African Central Bank. Some parties support development of an
even more unified United States of Africa.
International monetary and banking unions include:
•Central Bank of West African States
•Bank of Central African States
•Common Monetary Area

Major economic unions are shown in the chart below.

African Economic Community
Pillars Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member
regional states
blocs
(REC)1
in millions per capita

AEC 29,910,442 853,520,010 2,053,706 2,406 53

ECOWAS 5,112,903 251,646,263 342,519 1,361 15
ECCAS 6,667,421 121,245,958 175,928 1,451 11
SADC 9,882,959 233,944,179 737,335 3,152 15
EAC 1,817,945 124,858,568 104,239 1,065 5
COMESA 12,873,957 406,102,471 735,599 1,811 20
IGAD 5,233,604 187,969,775 225,049 1,197 7
Other Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member
African states
blocs
in millions per capita

CEMAC 2
3,020,142 34,970,529 85,136 2,435 6
SACU 2
2,693,418 51,055,878 541,433 10,605 5
UEMOA 2
3,505,375 80,865,222 101,640 1,257 8
UMA 3
5,782,140 84,185,073 491,276 5,836 5
GAFTA 4
5,876,960 166,259,603 635,450 3,822 5

1120"Profile: African Union". BBC News. 2006-07-01. . Retrieved 2006-07-10.

1
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is a signatory to the AEC, but not participating
in any bloc yet
2
Economic bloc inside a pillar REC
3
Proposed for pillar REC, but objecting participation
4
Non-African members of GAFTA are excluded from figures
smallest value among the blocs compared largest value among the blocs
compared During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database

References
•Fage, J.D. A History of Africa (Routledge, 4th edition, 2001 ISBN 0-415-
25247-4) (Hutchinson, 1978, ISBN 0-09-132851-9) (Knopf 1st American
edition, 1978, ISBN 0-394-32277-0)
•Kayizzi-Mugerwa, Steve The African Economy: Policy, Institutions and the
Future (Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0-415-18323-5)
•Moshomba, Richard E. Africa in the Global Economy (Lynne Rienner, 2000,
ISBN 1-55587-718-4)
•OECD. African Economic Outlook 2006/2007 (OECD, 2007, ISBN 978-92-64-
03313-9)
•Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. (Washington: Howard
UP, 1982, ISBN 0-88258-096-5)
•Sahn, David E., Paul A. Dorosh, Stephen D. Younger Structural Adjustment
Reconsidered: Economic Policy and Poverty in Africa (Cambridge University
Press, 1997, ISBN 0-521-58451-5)

External links
•Economy of Africa at the Open Directory Project
•The Age of the Dragon: China's Conquest of Africa
•Africa in the World Economy: the national, regional and international
challenges by Jan Joost Teunissen and Age Akkerman
•Africa: Living on the Fringe - Monthly Review. Samir Amin offers a Marxist
analysis of Africa's continued economic crisis.
•BBC: Africa's Economy
•OECD work on African economy
•Africa Economic Analysis
•World Economic Forum - Africa
•African Development Bank Group
•IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) -- September 2003 -- Public Debt in
Emerging Markets
•Language and Africa
•Africa's economy: A glimmer of light at last? - The Economist
•Africa and the Knowledge Economy - World Bank Institute report.
•Economic analysis of Middle Africa
•From Aid to Trade with Africa News and analysis by Inter Press Service
•African Development Hindered by Vast US Corporate Interests in Continent’s
Resources - video report by Democracy Now!

African people
The term African people refers to citizens of countries in Africa, or to the
members of the African diaspora.

The peoples of Africa

The African continent is home to many different ethnic groups and people of
wide-ranging phenotypical traits, both indigenous and foreign to the
continent. Many of these populations have diverse origins, with differing
cultural, linguistic and social traits and mores. Distinctions within Africa's
geography, such as the varying climates across the continent, have also
served to nurture diverse lifestyles among its various populations. The
continent's inhabitants live amidst deserts and jungles, as well as in modern
cities across the continent.

Prehistoric populations
Perhaps it is a function of the number of excavations actually performed in
given areas, but it is at least suggestive that the five very earliest out of the
twelve of earliest archaeological discoveries of Homo sapiens sapiens have
been in Africa and the adjacent Arabian peninsula.1121
As early as 1964, A. W. F. Edwards and others had discovered that three
populations in Africa were related but distinguishable on the basis of a
relatively small set of genetic information (20 alleles). Those populations were
called Tigre (Ethiopians), Bantu (in southern Africa), and Ghanaian (West
Africa).
When general anthropometrics were taken as the criteria for grouping, the
African population was split into a different three groups: the more closely
related Pygmy (such as the Mbuti) and Bushmen (such as the Khoisan) and the
Bantu.1122

1121Cavalli-Sforza et al., The History and Geography of Human Genes, Fig. 2.1.4, p. 63
1122Cavalli-Sforza, op cit., Fig. 2.2.3, p. 71.
By 1988 more genetic detail were known, more groups could be distinguished
on the basis of genetic information, but the relationships among these groups
were accounted as different depending on which was the data was construed.
The groups analyzed at this time were Bantu, Berber and North African,
Ethiopian, Mbuti Pygmy, Nilotic, San (Bushman), West African.1123
In his recent book, Spencer Wells traces the migration of the early Africans
beyond their own continent by noting the appearance of new genetic markers
on the Y-chromosome as the migrations progressed.1124
Studies of mitochondrial DNA conducted within the continent of Africa have
shown that the indigenous population has diverged into three divergent main
lines of descent.
A number of scholars such as Alan Templeton hold that support is found for
traditional racial categories because many studies use the pre-defined
categories to begin with, and subsequently insert data into those categories
rather than let data speak for itself.1125 Templeton uses modern DNA analysis
to argue that human "races" were never "pure", and that human evolution is
based on "many locally differentiated populations coexisting at any given
time" - a single lineage with many locally gradated variants, all sharing a
common fate.
Researchers such as Richard Lewontin maintain that most of the variation
within human population is found within local geographic groups and
differences attributable to traditional "race" groups are a minor part of human
genetic variability.1126 Several other researchers (Barbajuni, Latter, Dean, et
al.) have replicated Lewontin's results.1127 According to a study by researcher
L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza:

1123Cavalli-Sforza, op cit., Fig. 2.3.2.A and Fig. 2.3.2.B, p. 78.

1124Spencer Wells, The Journey of Man,Random House, 2003, ISBN 0-8129-7146-9
1125Human Races: A Genetic and Evolutionary Perspective, Alan R. Templeton. American
Anthropologist, 1998, 100:632-650; Apportionment of Racial Diversity: A Review, Ryan A.
Brown and George J. Armelagos, 2001, Evolutionary Anthropology, 10:34-40
1126Richard Lewontin, "The Apportionment of Human Diversity," Evolutionary Biology, vol. 6
(1972) pp. 391-398
1127Apportionment of Racial Diversity: A Review, Ryan A. Brown and George J. Armelagos,
2001, Evolutionary Anthropology, 10:34-40
webfile:http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant275/reader/apportionment.pdf
 It is often taken for granted that the human species is divided in rather
homogeneous groups or races, among which biological differences are
large. Studies of allele frequencies do not support this view, but they have
not been sufficient to rule it out either. We analyzed human molecular
diversity at 109 DNA markers, namely 30 microsatellite loci and 79
polymorphic restriction sites (restriction fragment length polymorphism
loci) in 16 populations of the world. By partitioning genetic variances at
three hierarchical levels of population subdivision, we found that
differences between members of the same population account for 84.4% of
the total, which is in excellent agreement with estimates based on allele
frequencies of classic, protein polymorphisms. Genetic variation remains
high even within small population groups. On the average, microsatellite
and restriction fragment length polymorphism loci yield identical estimates.
Differences among continents represent roughly 1/10 of human molecular
diversity, which does not suggest that the racial subdivision of our species
reflects any major discontinuity in our genome.1128

In the wake of this research, a number of writers question the classification of

African peoples like Ethiopians into "Caucasian" groups, holding that given
the minor proportion of human genetic diversity attributable to "race",
grouping of such African peoples is arbitrary and flawed, and that DNA
analysis points to a range or gradation of types rather than distinct racial
categories. Rather than arbitrarily allocating such African groups to a
European "race", the range of physical characteristics like skin colour, hair or
facial features are more than adequately covered by the differentiation within
local geographic groupings.1129

Indigenous peoples and ancient settlers

Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger-Congo language family) are
the majority in southern, central and east Africa proper, due to the Bantu
expansion from West Africa. However, there are several Nilotic groups in East
Africa, and a few remaining indigenous Khoisan ('San' or 'Bushmen') and
Pygmy peoples in southern and central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking
Africans also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in
parts of southern Cameroon and southern Somalia. In the Kalahari Desert of
Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San",
closely related to, but distinct from "Hottentots") have long been present. The
San are physically distinct from other Africans and are the pre-Bantu
indigenous people of southern Africa. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous
peoples of central Africa.

1128Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 94, pp. 4516-4519, April 1997, Barbujani,
Magagnidagger , MinchDagger, and L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza
1129Rick Kitties, and S. O. Y. Keita, "Interpreting African Genetic Diversity", African
Archaeological Review, Vol. 16, No. 2,1999, p. 1-5
The population of North Africa in ancient times consisted predominantly of
Berbers in the West and Egyptians in the East. The Semitic Phoenicians and
Jews, the Iranian Alans, and the European Greeks, Romans and Vandals
settled in North Africa as well. The indigenous Berbers still constitute the
majority in Morocco, while they are a significant minority within Algeria which
is now a predominantly Arabic-speaking country. They are also still present in
small numbers in Tunisia and Libya. The Tuareg and other often-nomadic
peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa.
Nubians are a Nilo-Saharan-speaking group (though many also speak Arabic
now), who developed an ancient civilization in Northeast Africa.
In the Horn of Africa, most populations speak Afro-Asiatic languages. Certain
Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively
known as "Habesha") speak Semitic languages. The Oromo, Afar, Beja and
Somali peoples speak Cushitic languages, but some Somali clans claim Arab
descent.1130

Colonisation

Arab
The Arabs arrived from Asia in the seventh century, introducing the Arabic
language and Islam to North Africa. The people of North Africa are today
largely Arabic-speaking although Berbers still predominate in certain areas.
Sudan and Mauritania are divided between a mostly Arabized north and a
Nilotic south. The Nubians have also been partly Arabized although their
original language is still in use.
In East Africa, some areas, particularly the island of Zanzibar and the Kenyan
island of Lamu, received Arab Muslim and Southwest Asian settlers and
merchants throughout the Middle Ages and even in antiquity. This gave birth
to the Swahili civilization.

1130Robin Hallett, Africa to 1875: a modern history, (University of Michigan Press: 1970),
p.105
European
Despite having presence in Africa since Greek and Roman times, in the
sixteenth century, Europeans such as the Portuguese and Dutch began to
establish trading posts and forts along the coasts of western and southern
Africa. Eventually, a large number of Dutch augmented by French Huguenots
and Germans settled in what is today South Africa. Their descendants, the
Afrikaners and the Coloureds, are the largest European-descended groups in
Africa today. In the nineteenth century, a second phase of colonisation
brought a large number of French and British settlers to Africa. The
Portuguese settled mainly in Angola, but also in Mozambique. The Italians
settled in Libya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The French settled in large
numbers in Algeria where they became known collectively as pieds-noirs, and
on a smaller scale in other areas of North and West Africa as well as in
Madagascar. The British settled chiefly in South Africa as well as the colony of
Rhodesia, and in the highlands of what is now Kenya. Germans settled in what
is now Tanzania and Namibia, and there is still a population of German-
speaking white Namibians. Smaller numbers of European soldiers,
businessmen, and officials also established themselves in administrative
centers such as Nairobi and Dakar. Decolonisation during the 1960s often
resulted in the mass emigration of European-descended settlers out of Africa
— especially from Algeria, Angola, Kenya and Rhodesia. However, in South
Africa and Namibia, the white minority remained politically dominant after
independence from Europe, and a significant population of Europeans
remained in these two countries even after democracy was finally instituted at
the end of the Cold War. South Africa has also become the preferred
destination of white Anglo-Zimbabweans, and of migrants from all over
southern Africa.

Indian
European colonisation also brought sizable groups of Asians, particularly
people from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Indian
communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya,
Tanzania, and some other southern and east African countries. The large
Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972,
though many have since returned. The islands in the Indian Ocean are also
populated primarily by people of South Asian origin, often mixed with Africans
and Europeans.1131
The Malagasy people of Madagascar are an Austronesian people, but those
along the coast are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and European
origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also important components in the
group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with origins
in two or more races and continents). In Mauritius Indian people forms
majority which is a tiny island country in Indian Ocean which is included in
African continent.

1131Réunion Island
Other
During the past century or so, small but economically important colonies of
Lebanese1132 and Chinese1133 have also developed in the larger coastal cities of
West and East Africa, respectively.1134

Decolonisation
Decolonisation has left some nations in power and marginalized others.
Conflicts with ethnic aspects taking place in Africa since Decolonisation
include
•Lord's Resistance Army insurgency (since 1987)
•Somali Civil War (since 1988)
•Casamance Conflict (since 1990)
•Conflict in the Niger Delta (since 1990)
•Insurgency in Ogaden (since 1995)
•Second Congo War (1998–2003)
•War in Darfur (since 2003)
•Kivu conflict (since 2004)
•Civil war in Chad (2005–present)
•Second Tuareg Rebellion (since 2007)

Contemporary demographics
Total population of Africa is estimated at 888 million as of 2006, projected to
reach 1 billion by 2015.
The demographics of Africa is characterized by high population growth, high
infant mortality, low life expectancy (partly due to malnutrition and HIV) and
poverty (low Human development index).
These characteristics mostly apply to Central and sub-Saharan Africa, with the
Mediterranean (Arabic) North and South Africa showing different patterns.

See also
•List of African ethnic groups
•List of topics related to Black and African people
•White Africans
•African human genetic diversity

1132Ivory Coast - The Levantine Community

1133Chinese flocking in numbers to a new frontier: Africa
1134Lebanese Immigrants Boost West African Commerce
•African diaspora
•Pan-Africanism

External links
•People of Africa
•Africa Interactive Map from the United States Army Africa

Demographics of Africa
The population of Africa has grown exponentially over the past century, and
consequently shows a large youth bulge, further reinforced by a low life
expectancy of below 50 years in most African countries.1135 The population
doubled in the period 1982–20091136 and quadrupled from 1955–2009,
according to United Nations estimates.1137
The total population of Africa is estimated at 1 billion (as of November
2009.)1138 The most populous African country is Nigeria with 148 million (as of
2006), followed by Egypt (79 million) and Ethiopia (78 million). Among other
populations, there is also a significant European population and Asian
population in Africa.
Liberia, Burundi, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar
and Burkina Faso have annual population growth rates above 3%.
Thirty-four out of fifty-three African countries are counted among the world's
Least Developed Countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa
More than 40% of the population of are below 15 years in most sub-Saharan
countries, as well as the Sudan but with the exception of South Africa,1139 in
Uganda as many as 50% (as compared to 20% in the USA). Infant mortality is
high, with as many as 190 deaths per 1,000 live births in Angola, and between
25% and 50% malnourished in Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Mozambique,
Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola and other countries.

1135See List of countries by life expectancy; according to the 2006 CIA Factbook, 28 of 53
countries show a life expectancy at birth below 50 years, 43 of 53 below 60 years; in Lesotho,
Botswana and Swaziland below 35 years.
1136"Africa population tops a billion". BBC. 2009-11-18. .
1137"World Population Prospects: The 2004 Revision" United Nations (Department of
Economic and Social Affairs, population division)
1138
1139According to the CIA Factbook: Angola, Benin, Burundi, Burkina Faso, the Central
African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-
Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia,
Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda,
and Zambia
HIV/AIDS is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, with some 11% of adult
population infected and an estimated 2 million deaths caused by AIDS in 2005.

Ethnicity
Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger-Congo family) are the majority
in southern, central and east Africa proper. This is due to the massive Bantu
expansion from West Africa. But there are also several Nilotic groups in East
Africa, and a few remaining indigenous Khoisan ('San' or 'Bushmen') and
Pygmy peoples in southern and central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking
Africans also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in
parts of southern Cameroon and southern Somalia. In the Kalahari Desert of
Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San",
closely related to, but distinct from "Hottentots") have long been present. The
San are physically and genetically distinct from other Africans and are the
pre-Bantu indigenous people of southern and eastern Africa. Pygmies are the
pre-Bantu indigenous people of central Africa.
South Africa has the largest populations of Europeans, Indians and Coloureds
in Africa. The term "Coloured" is used by persons of mixed race in South
Africa and Namibia to describe their ethnicity (In Africa this term does not
carry the derogatory connotations that it does in North America). People of
European descent in South Africa include the Afrikaners and a sizable
populations of Anglo-Africans and Portuguese Africans. Madagascar's
population is predominantly of mixed Austronesian (Pacific Islander) and
African origin. The area of southern Sudan is inhabited by the Nilotic people.

Major languages
List of major languages of Sub-Saharan Africa by region, family and total
number of native speakers in millions
East Africa West Africa Southern Africa Central Africa

•Afro-Asiatic •Niger-Congo •Niger-Congo, •Niger-Congo,

Narrow Bantu Narrow Bantu
1. Semitic 1. Benue-
Congo 1. Zulu: 10 1. Kinyarwan
1. Amhari
da
c: 15+ 1. Ibibio 2. Xhosa: 8
(Rwanda)
(Nigeri
3. Shona: 7 7
a): 8–
2. Cushitic 12 4. Sotho: 5 2. Kongo: 7
1. Somali: 5. Tswana: 4 3. Tshiluba:
10–15 6
2. Volta- 6. Umbundu
2. Oromo: Niger (Angola): 4. Kirundi: 5
30–35 4
1. Igbo
(Nigeri 7. Northern
a): 30- Sotho: 4
35
•Niger-Congo,
Narrow Bantu: 2. Yoruba: •Indo-European
25-30
1. Swahili: 5– 1. Germanic
10
1. Afrikaa
2. Chichewa: 3. Kwa ns: 6–7
9 1. Akan
3. Gikuyu (Ghana
): 9 2. Romance
(Kenya): 5
1. Portug
4. Luhya: 4
uese: 8
4. Gur

•Austronesian 1. More: 5

1. Malagasy:
20+1140 5. Senegamb
ian
1. Fula
(West
Africa):
10–16
2. Wolof:
3

•Afro-Asiatic,

1140Ethnologue, most of them are native speakers

 Chadic
1. Hausa: 24

•Saharan
1. Kanuri: 4

North Africa
The peoples of North Africa comprise two main groups; Berber and Arabic-
speaking peoples in the west, and Egyptians in the east. The Arabs, who
arrived from Asia in the seventh century, introduced the Arabic language and
Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians, the European Greeks,
Romans, Vandals and Pied-noir settled in North Africa as well. The indigenous
Berbers still make up the majority in Morocco, while they are a significant
minority within Algeria, which is now a majority Arabic-speaking country.
They are also still present in small numbers in Tunisia and Libya. The Tuareg
(a group of Berbers) and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal
inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. Nubians are originally a
Nilo-Saharan-speaking group (though many also speak Arabic now), who
developed an ancient civilisation in northeast Africa.
During the past century or so, small but economically important colonies of
Lebanese, Indians and Chinese have also developed in the larger coastal cities
of West and East Africa, respectively.
Some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans,
collectively known as "Habesha") speak Semitic languages. The Oromo and
Somali peoples speak Cushitic languages, but some Somali clans trace their
founding to legendary Arab founders. Sudan and Mauritania are divided
between a mostly Arabized north and a native African south (although the
"Arabs" of Sudan clearly have a predominantly native African ancestry
themselves). Some areas of East Africa, particularly the island of Zanzibar and
the Kenyan island of Lamu, received Arab Muslim and Southwest Asian
settlers and merchants throughout the Middle Ages and in antiquity.

See also

•African people
•African Jews
•Black people
•Linguistic demographics of Africa
•List of countries by fertility rate
•Poverty in Africa
•World population
Religion:
•Religion in Africa
•Christianity in Africa
•Islam in Africa
•African traditional religions
Genetics:
•Y-DNA haplogroups by populations of Sub-Saharan Africa

African languages
There are an estimated 2,000 languages spoken in Africa1141 in several
major linguistic families:
•Afroasiatic stretches from North Africa to the Horn of Africa and Southwest
Asia
•Nilo-Saharan is centered on Sudan and Chad (questionable validity)
•Niger-Congo covers West, Central, and Southeast Africa
•Khoe is concentrated in the deserts of Namibia and Botswana
•Austronesian on Madagascar.
•Indo-European on the Southern tip of the continent.
There are several other small families and language isolates, as well as
obscure languages that have yet to be classified. In addition, Africa has a wide
variety of sign languages, many of which are language isolates.
Several African languages are whistled or drummed to communicate over long
distances.
About a hundred of the languages of Africa are widely used for inter-ethnic
communication. Berber, Arabic, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Amharic, and Yoruba
are spoken by tens of millions of people. If clusters of up to a hundred similar
languages are counted together, twelve are spoken by 75%, and fifteen by
85%, of Africans as a first or additional language.1142

1141=September 2010 "Error: no | t i t l e = specified when using {{[[Template:Cite web|Cite

web]}}"]. =September 2010.
1142"HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2004". United Nations Development Programme.
2004. .
The high linguistic diversity of many African countries (Nigeria alone has 250
languages, one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the
world) has made language policy a vital issue in the post-colonial era. In
recent years, African countries have become increasingly aware of the value
of their linguistic inheritance. Language policies being developed nowadays
are mostly aimed at multilingualism. For example, all African languages are
considered official languages of the African Union (AU). 2006 was declared by
the African Union as the "Year of African Languages".1143 However, although
many mid-sized languages are used on the radio, in newspapers, and in
primary-school education, and some of the larger ones are considered national
languages, only a few are official at the national level.

Language groups
Most languages spoken in Africa belong to one of three large language
families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger-Congo. Another hundred belong
to small families such as Ubangian and the various families called Khoisan, or
the Indo-European and Austronesian language families which originated
outside Africa; the presence of the latter two dates to 2,600 and 1,000 years
ago, respectively. In addition, African languages include several unclassified
languages and sign languages.

Afroasiatic languages
Afroasiatic languages are spoken across North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and
the Middle East. There are approximately 375 Afroasiatic languages spoken
by 300 million people. The main subfamilies of Afroasiatic are the Semitic
languages, the Cushitic languages, Berber, and the Chadic languages. The
Afroasiatic language family is believed to have originated in East Africa,
though its most famous sub-branch, the Semitic languages (including Arabic,
Amharic and Hebrew among others), seems to have developed in the Arabian
peninsula. The Semitic languages are the only branch of the Afro-Asiatic
family of languages that is spoken outside of Africa.
Some of the most widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include Arabic (A
Semitic language, and a recent arrival from West Asia), Amharic (Semitic),
Somali (Cushitic), Oromo (Cushitic), Tamazight (Berber), and Hausa (Chadic).
Of the world's surviving language families, Afroasiatic has the longest written
history, as both Ancient Egyptian and the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia
are members.

1143African Union Summit 2006 Khartoum, Sudan. SARPN

Nilo-Saharan languages
Nilo-Saharan is extremely diverse and thus a somewhat controversial
grouping uniting over a hundred languages from southern Egypt to northern
Tanzania and into Nigeria and DR Congo, with the Songhay languages along
the middle reaches of the Niger River as a geographic outlier. The languages
share some unusual morphology, but if they are related, most of the branches
must have undergone major restructuring since diverging from their common
ancestor. The inclusion of the Songhay languages is questionable, and doubts
have been raised over the Koman, Gumuz, and Kadu branches.
Some of the more better known Nilo-Saharan languages are Kanuri, Songhay,
Nubian, and the widespread Nilotic family, which includes Luo, Dinka, and
Maasai. The Nilo-Saharan languages are tonal.

Niger-Congo languages
The Niger-Congo language family is the largest group of Africa (and probably
of the world) in terms of the number of languages. One of its salient features
is an elaborate noun class system with grammatical concord. The vast
majority of languages of this family are tonal such as Yoruba and Igbo. A
major branch of Niger-Congo languages is the Bantu family, which covers a
greater geographic area than the rest of the family put together (see Niger-
Congo B (Bantu) in the map above).
The Niger-Kordofanian language family, joining Niger-Congo with the
Kordofanian languages of south-central Sudan, was proposed in 1950s by
Joseph Greenberg. Today, linguists often use "Niger-Congo" to refer to this
entire family, including Kordofanian as a subfamily. One reason for this is that
it is not clear whether Kordofanian was the first branch to diverge from rest of
Niger-Congo. Mande has been claimed to be equally or more divergent. Niger-
Congo is generally accepted by linguists, though a few question the inclusion
of Mande and Dogon, and there is no real evidence for the inclusion of
Ubangian.

Khoisan languages
Khoisan is a term of convenience covering some 30 languages spoken by
about 300,000 - 400,000 people. There are five Khoisan families which have
not been shown to be related to each other. They are found mainly in Namibia
and Botswana. Two geographic outliers are Sandawe and Hadza of Tanzania,
which are language isolates.
A striking and unusual feature of Khoisan languages is their use of click
consonants. Some neighbouring Bantu languages (notably Xhosa and Zulu)
have clicks as well, but these were adopted from Khoisan languages. The
Khoisan languages are also tonal.

Other language families

Austronesian
Several languages spoken in Africa belong to language families concentrated
or originating outside of the African continent: Malagasy, the language of
Madagascar, is an Austronesian language.

Arabic
The Arabic language came to Africa with the Islamic Expansion, although the
greater Afroasiatic language family does appear to have African origins. Today
several Arabic-based creoles are widespread in countries like Sudan.

Indo-European
Afrikaans is Indo-European, as are the lexifiers of most African creoles
(Afrikaans is the only Indo-European language known to have developed in
Africa).
Since the colonial era, Indo-European languages such as Afrikaans, English,
French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish have held official status in many
countries, and are widely spoken, generally as lingua francas. (See African
French and African Portuguese.) Indian languages such as Gujarati are spoken
by South Asian expatriates exclusively. In earlier historical times, other Indo-
European languages could be found in various parts of the continent, such as
Old Persian and Greek in Egypt, Latin in North Africa, and Modern Persian in
the Horn of Africa.

Small families
Besides the three small Khoisan families of southern Africa, the following have
not been shown to be related to the major families of Africa:
•Mande, including the major languages of Mali and Guinea
•Ubangian, including the languages of the Central African Republic
•Songhai along the middle Niger River
•Kadu of the Nuba Hills in Sudan
•Koman of Sudan-Ethiopia (poorly attested, possibly Nilo-Saharan)
Creole languages
Due partly to its multilingualism and its colonial past, a substantial proportion
of the world's creole languages are to be found in Africa. Some are based on
Indo-European languages (e.g. Krio from English in Sierra Leone and the very
similar Pidgin in Cameroon and Nigeria, Cape Verdean Creole in Cape Verde
and Guinea-Bissau Creole in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal both from
Portuguese, Seychellois Creole from French in the Seychelles, or Mauritian
Creole in Mauritius); some are based on Arabic (e.g., Juba Arabic in the
southern Sudan, or Nubi in parts of Uganda and Kenya); some are based on
local languages (e.g., Sango, the main language of the Central African
Republic.)

Unclassified languages
A fair number of unclassified languages are reported in Africa; many remain
unclassified simply for lack of data, but among the better-investigated ones
may be listed:
•possibly Afroasiatic: Ongota
•possibly Nilo-Saharan: Shabo
•possibly Niger-Congo: Bangi-me, Laal, and Jalaa.
•possibly Khoe: Kwadi
Less well investigated ones include Bete, Bung, Kujarge, Lufu, Mpre, Oropom,
and Weyto. Several of these are extinct, and adequate comparative data is
thus unlikely to be forthcoming.

Sign languages
Many African countries have national sign languages, such as Algerian Sign
Language, Tunisian Sign Language, Ethiopian Sign Language, while other
sign languages are restricted to small areas or single villages, such as
Adamorobe Sign Language in Ghana. Tanzania has seven, one for each of its
schools for the Deaf, all of which are discouraged. Not much is known since
little has been published on these languages.

Language in Africa
Throughout the long multilingual history of the African continent, African
languages have been subject to phenomena like language contact, language
expansion, language shift, and language death. A case in point is the Bantu
expansion, in which Bantu-speaking peoples expanded over most of Sub-
Saharan Africa, displacing Khoi-San speaking peoples from much of East
Africa and Southern Africa. Another example is the Islamic expansion in the
7th century AD, which led to the extension of Arabic from its homeland in
Asia, into much of North Africa.
Trade languages are another age-old phenomenon in the African linguistic
landscape. Cultural and linguistic innovations spread along trade routes and
languages of peoples dominant in trade developed into languages of wider
communication (linguae francae). Of particular importance in this respect are
Jula (western West Africa), Fulfulde (West Africa, mainly across the Sahel),
Hausa (eastern West Africa), Lingala (Congo), Swahili (East Africa) and Arabic
(North Africa and the Horn of Africa).
After gaining independence, many African countries, in the search for national
unity, selected one language (generally the former colonial language) to be
used in government and education. In recent years, African countries have
become increasingly aware of the importance of linguistic diversity. Language
policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at
multilingualism.

Official languages
Besides the former colonial languages of English, French, Portuguese, and
Spanish, only a few languages are official at the national level. These are:
•Arabic, in Algeria, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya,
Mauritania,1144 Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, and Tunisia
•Swahili in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda
•Chichewa in Malawi
•Amharic in Ethiopia
•Somali in Somalia
•Tigrinya in Eritrea (technically a working language)
•Kinyarwanda in Rwanda and the closely related Kirundi in Burundi
•Sango in the CAR
•Swazi in Swaziland and South Africa
•Malagasy in Madagascar
•Seychellois Creole in the Seychelles
•Shona in Zimbabwe
•Afrikaans, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, Pedi, Sotho, Tswana, Swazi, Venda, and
Tsonga in South Africa, the only multilingual country with widespread official
status for its indigenous languages, in addition to English.1145

1144CIA - The World Factbook

1145[16]
Cross-border languages
The colonial borders established by European powers following the Berlin
Conference in 1884-5 divided a great many ethnic groups and African
language speaking communities. In a sense, then, "cross-border languages" is
a misnomer. Nevertheless it describes the reality of many African languages,
which has implications for divergence of language on either side of a border
(especially when the official languages are different), standards for writing
the language, etc.
Some prominent Africans such as former Malian president and current
Chairman of the African Commission, Alpha Oumar Konaré, have referred to
cross-border languages as a factor that can promote African unity. 1146

Language change and planning

Language is not static in Africa any more than in other world regions. In
addition to the (probably modest) impact of borders, there are also cases of
dialect levelling (such as in Igbo and probably many others), koinés (such as
N'Ko and possibly Runyakitara), and emergence of new dialects (such as
Sheng). In some countries there are official efforts to develop standardized
language versions.
There are also many less widely spoken languages that may be considered
endangered languages.

Demographics
Of the 890 million Africans (as of 2005), about 17% speak an Arabic dialect.
About 10% speak Swahili, the lingua franca of Eastern Africa, about 5% speak
a Berber dialect, and about 5% speak Hausa, a West African lingua franca.
Other important West African languages are Yoruba, Igbo and Fula. Major
Northeast African languages are Oromo and Somali. Important South African
languages are Zulu and Afrikaans (related to Dutch). English, French,
Portuguese and Spanish are becoming important African languages: 130, 115,
20, 10 million Africans speak them as either native or secondary languages.
Through (among other factors) sheer demographic weight, Africans are
increasingly taking ownership of these three world languages and having an
ever greater influence on their development and growth.
List of major African languages (by total number of speakers in millions):
Arabic (North Africa, Horn of Africa, 170 native (mostly in Asia) + 30
and including Asia) secondary
Berber (North Africa) 40 native + 4 secondary
Swahili (East Africa) 10 native + 80 secondary
Hausa (West Africa) 24 native + 15 secondary
Oromo (Northeast Africa) 25

1146African languages for Africa's development ACALAN (French & English)

Zulu (South Africa) 9 native + 16 secondary
Somali (Horn of Africa) 18-21
Yoruba (West Africa) 21 native + 5 secondary
Igbo (West Africa) 20 native + 5 secondary
Kinyarwanda-Kirundi (East Africa) 18
Amharic (Northeast Africa) 14 native + 3 secondary
Shona (Zimbabwe / Southeast Africa) 15 native + 2 secondary
Bambara (West Africa) 3 native + 10 secondary
Twi 8 native + 2 secondary
Ibibio Language (Ibibio/Annang/Efik, 8-12
Nigeria)
Fula (West Africa) 10-16
Malagasy (Madagascar) 17
Afrikaans (South Africa and Namibia) 6-7 native + 6-7 secondary
Lingala (Democratic Republic of the 2 native + 10 secondary
Congo)
Chichewa (Southeast Africa) 10
Xhosa (South Africa) 7
Kongo 7
Tigrinya 7
Luo (Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad, East 12-16
Africa)
Gbe 7
Tshiluba (Democratic Republic of the 6
Congo)
Wolof 3 native + 3 secondary
Gikuyu (Kenya) 5
More (West Africa) 5
Sotho (South Africa) 5
Luhya 4
Tswana (Southern Africa) 4
Kanuri (West Africa) 4
Umbundu (Angola) 4
Northern Sotho (South Africa) 4
Linguistic features
Some linguistic features are particularly common among languages spoken in
Africa, whereas others seem less common. Such shared traits probably are not
due to a common origin of all African languages. Instead, some may be due to
language contact (resulting in borrowing) and specific idioms and phrases
may be due to a similar cultural background.

Phonological
Some phonetic features include:
•certain phoneme types, such as implosives
•doubly articulated labial-velar stops like /kp/ and /ɡb/
•prenasalized consonants
•clicks
•the lower high (or 'near close') vowels /ʊ/ and /ɪ/

Phoneme types that are relatively uncommon in African languages include

uvular consonants, diphthongs, and front rounded vowels.
Tonal languages are found throughout the world but are especially numerous
in Africa. Both the Nilo-Saharan and the Khoi-San phyla are fully tonal. The
large majority of the Niger-Congo languages is also tonal. Tonal languages are
also found in the Omotic, Chadic, and South & East Cushitic branches of
Afroasiatic. The most common type of tonal system opposes two tone levels,
High (H) and Low (L). Contour tones do occur, and can often be analysed as
two or more tones in succession on a single syllable. Tone melodies play an
important role, meaning that it is often possible to state significant
generalizations by separating tone sequences ('melodies') from the segments
that bear them. Tonal sandhi processes like tone spread, tone shift, and
downstep and downdrift are common in African languages.

Syntactic
Widespread syntactical structures include the common use of adjectival verbs
and the expression of comparison by means of a verb 'to surpass'.

Semantic
Quite often, only one term is used for both animal and meat; the word nama or
nyama for animal/meat is particularly widespread in otherwise widely
divergent African languages.

See also
General
•Languages of the African Union
•Writing systems of Africa
•Journal of West African Languages

Works
•Polyglotta Africana
•The Languages of Africa

Classifiers
•Karl Lepsius
•Wilhelm Bleek
•Carl Meinhof
•Diedrich Westermann
•Joseph Greenberg

References
•Childs, G. Tucker (2003). An Introduction to African Languages. Amsterdam:
John Benjamin.
•Chimhundu, Herbert (2002). Language Policies in Africa. (Final report of the
Intergovernmental Conference on Language Policies in Africa.) Revised
version. UNESCO.
•Cust, Robert Needham (1883). Modern Languages of Africa.
•Ellis, Stephen (ed.) (1996). Africa Now: People - Policies - Institutions. The
Hague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS).
•Elugbe, Ben (1998) "Cross-border and major languages of Africa." In K.
Legère (editor), Cross-border Languages: Reports and Studies, Regional
Workshop on Cross-Border Languages, National Institute for Educational
Development (NIED), Okahandja, 23–27 September 1996. Windhoek:
Gamsberg Macmillan.
•Ethnologue.com's Africa: A listing of African languages and language
families.
•Greenberg, Joseph H. (1983). 'Some areal characteristics of African
languages.' In Ivan R. Dihoff (editor), Current Approaches to African
Linguistics, Vol. 1 (Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, Vol. 1),
Dordrecht: Foris, 3-21.
•Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966). The Languages of Africa (2nd edition with
additions and corrections). Bloomington: Indiana University.
•Heine, Bernd and Derek Nurse (editors) (2000). African Languages: An
Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
•Webb, Vic and Kembo-Sure (editors) (1998). African Voices: An Introduction
to the Languages and Linguistics of Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University
Press Southern Africa.
•Wedekind, Klaus ( Oxford University Press.

External links
•Web resources for African languages
•Linguistic maps of Africa from Muturzikin.com
•Online Dictionaries, e-books, and other online fulltexts in or on African
languages

Culture of Africa
The Culture of Africa encompasses and includes all cultures which were
ever in the continent of Africa.
The main split is between North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, which is in
turn divided into a great number of ethnic and tribal cultures. The main ethno-
linguistic divisions are Afro-Asiatic (North Africa, Chad, Horn of Africa),
Niger-Congo (mostly Bantu) in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, Nilo-Saharan in
parts of the Sahara and the Sahel and parts of Eastern Africa, and Khoisan
(indigenous minorities of Southern Africa). Also including parts of Oceania,
and India.
The notion of a "Pan-African" culture was discussed in seriousness during the
1960s and 1970s in the context of the Négritude movement, but has fallen out
of fashion in African studies. The wide distribution of Bantu peoples across
Sub-Saharan Africa, encompassing parts of Western Africa, Eastern Africa,
Central Africa as well as Southern Africa is a result of the Bantu expansions of
the 1st millennium AD. The wide use of Swahili as a lingua franca further
establishes the Bantu peoples as a nearly "Pan-African" cultural influence.

People
Africa is home to innumerable tribes, ethnic and social groups, some
representing very large populations consisting of millions of people, others are
smaller groups of a few thousand. Some countries have over 20 different
ethnic groups, and also are greatly diverse in beliefs.
African Art and Crafts
Africa has a rich tradition of arts and crafts. African arts and crafts find
expression in a variety of woodcarvings, brass and leather art works. African
arts and crafts also include sculpture, paintings, pottery, ceremonial and
religious headgear and dress.
African culture has always placed emphasis on personal appearance and
jewelry has remained an important personal accessory. Many pieces of such
jewellery are made of cowry shells and similar materials. Similarly, masks are
made with elaborate designs and are important part of African culture. Masks
are used in various ceremonies depicting ancestors and spirits, mythological
characters and deities.
In most of traditional art and craft of Africa, certain themes significant to
African culture recur, including a couple, a woman with a child, a male with a
weapon or animal, and an outsider or a stranger. Couples may represent
ancestors, community founder, married couple or twins. The couple theme
rarely exhibit intimacy of men and women. The mother with the child or
children reveals intense desire of the African women to have children. The
theme is also representative of mother mars and the people as her children.
The man with the weapon or animal theme symbolizes honor and power. A
stranger may be from some other tribe or someone from a different country,
and more distorted portrayal of the stranger indicates proportionately greater
gap from the stranger.

Folklore and traditional religion

Like all human cultures, African folklore and folktales represent a variety of
social facets of African culture [17]. Like almost all civilizations and cultures,
flood myths have been circulating in different parts of Africa. For example,
according to a Pygmy myth, Chameleon hearing a strange noise in a tree cut
open its trunk and water came out in a great flood that spread all over the
land. The first human couple emerged with the water. Similarly, a
mythological story from Côte d'Ivoire states that a charitable man gave away
everything he had. The God Ouende rewarded him with riches, advised him to
leave the area, and sent six months of rains to destroy his selfish neighbors.

Languages
The continent of Africa speaks hundreds of languages, and if dialects spoken
by various ethnic groups are also included, the number is much higher. These
languages and dialects do not have the same importance: some are spoken by
only few hundred persons, others are spoken by millions. Among the most
prominent languages spoken are Arabic, Swahili and Hausa. Very few
countries of Africa use any single language and for this reason several official
languages coexist, African and European. Some Africans may also speak
different languages such as Malagasy, English, French, Spanish, Bambara,
Sotho, and many more.
The language of Africa present a unity of character as well as diversity, as is
manifest in all the dimensions of Africa. Four prominent language families of
Africa are:
•Afro-Asiatic
•Nilo-Saharan
•Niger-Kordofanian
•Khoisan
An early center of literature was the "African Ink Road".
By most estimates, Africa contains well over a thousand languages. There are
four major language families native to Africa.
•The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and
285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa,
Southwest Asia, and parts of the Sahel.
•The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred
languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are mainly
spoken in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and northern Tanzania.
•The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is
probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different
languages. A substantial number of them are the Bantu languages spoken in
much of sub-Saharan Africa.
•The Khoisan languages number about 50 and are spoken in Southern Africa
by approximately 120 000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are
endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants
of this part of Africa.

With a few notable exceptions in East Africa, nearly all African countries have
adopted official languages that originated outside the continent and spread
through colonialism or human migration. For example, in numerous countries
English and French are used for communication in the public sphere such as
government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese,
Afrikaans and Malagasy are other examples of originally non-African
languages that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and
private spheres.

Cuisine
Africa is a huge continent and the food and drink of Africa reflect local
influences, as also glimpses of colonial food traditions, including use of food
products like peppers, peanuts and maize introduced by the colonizers. The
African cuisine is a combination of traditional fruits and vegetables, milk and
meat products. The African village diet is often milk, curds and whey. Exotic
game and fish are gathered from Africa's vast area.
Traditional African cuisine is characterized by use of starch as a focus,
accompanied by stew containing meat or vegetables, or both. Cassava and
yams are the main root vegetables. Africans also use steamed greens with hot
spices. Dishes of steamed or boiled green vegetables, peas, beans and cereals,
starchy cassava, yams and sweet potatoes are widely consumed. In each
African locality, there are numerous wild fruits and vegetables which are used
as food. Watermelon, banana and plantain are some of the more familiar
fruits.
Differences are also noticeable in eating and drinking habits across the
continent of Africa. Thus, North Africa, along the Mediterranean from
Morocco to Egypt has different food habits than Saharan Africans who
consume subsistence diet. Nigeria and coastal parts of West Africa love chilies
in food. The non-Muslim population of Africa uses alcoholic beverages, which
go well with most African cuisine. The most familiar alcoholic drink in the
interior Africa is the Ethiopian honey wine called Tej.
Cooking techniques of West Africa often combine fish and meat, including
dried fish. The cuisine of South Africa and neighboring countries have largely
become polyglot cuisines, having influences of several immigrants which
include Indians who brought lentil soups (dals) and curries, Malays who came
with their curries with spices, and Europeans with "mixed grills" that now
include African game meats. Traditionally, East African cuisine is distinctive in
the sense that meat products are generally absent. Cattle, sheep and goats
were regarded as a form of currency, and are not generally consumed as food.
Arabic influences are also reflected in East African cuisine – rice cooked with
spices in style, use of cloves, cinnamons, several other spices, and juice.
Ethiopians lay claim to first regular cultivation of coffee, and they have a sort
of coffee ceremony, like Japanese tea ceremony. From Ethiopia, coffee spread
to Yemen, from there it spread to Arabia, and from there to the rest of the
World.

Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical
traditions. Most importantly, the music of north Africa (red region on map)
has a different history from that of Sub-Saharan African music.1147
•North Africa is the seat of the Mediterranean culture that built Egypt and
Carthage before being ruled successively by Greeks, Romans and Goths and
then becoming the Maghreb of the Arab world. Like the musical genres of the
Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa (sky-blue and dark green region on map),
its music has close ties with Middle Eastern music.
•East Africa and the offshore islands in the Indian Ocean (light green regions
on map) have been slightly influenced by Arabic music and also by the music
of India, Indonesia and Polynesia. However, the region's indigenous musical
traditions are primarily in the mainstream of the sub-Saharan Niger Congo-
speaking peoples.

1147GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page
34, quoting examination board syllabus.
•Southern, Central and West Africa (brown, dark blue and yellow regions on
map) are similarly in the broad sub-Saharan musical tradition, but draw their
ancillary influences from Western Europe and North America. The music and
dance forms of the African diaspora, including African American music and
many Caribbean genres like soca, calypso and Zouk; and Latin American
music genres like the rumba, salsa; and other clave (rhythm)-based genres,
were founded to varying degrees on the music of African slaves, which has in
turn influenced African popular music.

North African music

The music of North Africa has a considerable range, from the music of ancient
Egypt to the Berber and the Tuareg music of the desert nomads. The region's
art music has for centuries followed the outline of Arab and Andalusian
classical music: its popular contemporary genres include the Algerian Raï. For
further details see: Music of Egypt, Music of Libya, Music of Tunisia, Music of
Algeria, Music of Morocco and Music of Mauritania.
With these may be grouped the music of Sudan and of the Horn of Africa,
including the music of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia.

Sub-Saharan music
African traditional music is frequently functional in nature. Performances may
be long and often involve the participation of the audience.1148 There are, for
example, many different kinds of work songs, songs accompanying childbirth,
marriage, hunting and political activities, music to ward off evil spirits and to
pay respects to good spirits, the dead and the ancestors. None of this is
performed outside its intended social context and much of it is associated with
a particular dance. Some of it, performed by professional musicians, is sacral
music or ceremonial and courtly music performed at royal courts.

Sub-Saharan rhythm
The ethnomusicological pioneer Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) observed
that the shared rhythmic principles of Sub-Saharan African music traditions
constitute one main system.1149 Similarly, master drummer and scholar C.K.
Ladzekpo affirms the profound homogeneity of sub-Saharan African rhythmic
principles.1150
Cross-Rhythm

1148GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page
36.
1149Jones, A.M. (1959). Studies in African Music. London: Oxford University Press. 1978
edition: ISBN 0-19-713512-9.
1150Ladzekpo, C.K. (1996). Cultural Understanding of Polyrhythm.
http://home.comcast.net/~dzinyaladzekpo/PrinciplesFr.html.
Polyrhythm is the joining of two or more rhythms. The regular and systematic
superimposition of cross-beats over main beats creates a specific sub-set of
polyrhythm called cross-rhythm.

From the philosophical perspective of the African musician, cross-beats can

symbolize the challenging moments or emotional stress we all encounter.
Playing cross-beats while fully grounded in the main beats, prepares one for
maintaining a life-purpose while dealing with life’s challenges. Many sub-
Saharan languages do not have a word for rhythm, or even music. From the
African viewpoint, the rhythms represent the very fabric of life itself; they are
an embodiment of the people, symbolizing interdependence in human
relationships.—Peñalosa (2009: 21)1151

Cross-rhythm is the basis for much of the music of the Niger-Congo peoples,
the largest linguistic group in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Cross-rhythm
was first explained as the basis of sub-Saharan rhythm in lectures by C.K.
Ladzekpo and the writings of David Locke.
Cross-rhythm pervades southern Ewe music.—Locke (1982: 231)1152

At the center of a core of rhythmic traditions within which the composer

conveys his ideas is the technique of cross-rhythm. The technique of cross-
rhythm is a simultaneous use of contrasting rhythmic patterns within the
same scheme of accents or meter. . .

By the very nature of the desired resultant rhythm, the main beat scheme
cannot be separated from the secondary beat scheme. It is the interplay of the
two elements that produces the cross-rhythmic texture."—Ladzekpo (1995) 1153

The cross-rhythm three-over-two (3:2), hemiola, is the most significant

rhythmic ratio found in sub-Saharan rhythm.
. . .the 3:2 relationship (and [its] permutations) is the foundation of most
typical polyrhythmic textures found in West African musics.— Novotney
(1998: 201)1154

3:2 is the generative or theoretic form of sub-Saharan rhythmic principles.

Victor Kofi Agawu states very succinctly:

1151Peñalosa, David (2009: 21). The Clave Matrix; Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and
African Origins. Redway, CA: Bembe Inc. ISBN 1-886502-80-3.
1152Locke, David (1982). "Principles of Off-Beat Timing and Cross-Rhythm in Southern Ewe
Dance Drumming” Society for Ethnomusicology Journal Nov. 11.
1153Ladzekpo, C.K. (1995: webpage). "The Myth of Cross-Rhythm", Foundation Course in
African Dance-Drumming.
1154Novotney, Eugene D. (1998). "The Three Against Two Relationship as the Foundation of
Timelines in West African Musics", UnlockingClave.com. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.
 [T]he resultant [3:2] rhythm holds the key to understanding... there is no
independence here, because 2 and 3 belong to a single Gestalt.—Agawu
(2003: 92)1155

Key Patterns
Musics organized around key patterns [also known as bell patterns,
timeline patterns, guide patterns and phrasing referents] convey a two-
celled (binary) structure, a complex level of African cross-rhythm.—
Peñalosa (2009: 53)1156

[Key patterns] express the rhythm’s organizing principle, defining rhythmic

structure, as scales or tonal modes define harmonic structure. . . Put simply,
key patterns epitomize the complete rhythmic matrix.

Key patterns are typically clapped or played on idiophones, for example a bell,
a piece of bamboo [or wooden claves in Cuban music]. In some ensembles,
such as iyesá and batá drums, a key pattern may be played on a high-pitched
drumhead.— Peñalosa (2009: 51)1157

Gerhard Kubik. . .claims that a timeline [key] pattern 'represents' the

structural core of a musical piece, something like a condensed and
extremely concentrated expression of the motional possibilities open to the
participants (musicians and dancers).— Agawu (200-6: 1)1158

At the broadest level, the African asymmetrical timeline patterns are all
interrelated….— Kubik (1999: 54)1159

The Standard Pattern

The most commonly used key pattern in sub-Saharan Africa is the seven-
stroke figure known in ethnomusicology as the standard pattern.1160 The
standard pattern is expressed in both a triple-pulse (12/8 or 6/8) and duple-
pulse (4/4 or 2/2) structure.1161

1155Agawu, Kofi (2003: 92). Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries,
Positions New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94390-6.
1156Peñalosa (2009: 53).
1157Peñalosa (2009: 51).
1158Agawu, Kofi (2006: 1-46). “Structural Analysis or Cultural Analysis? Comparing
Perspectives on the ‘Standard Pattern’ of West African Rhythm” Journal of the American
Musicological Society v. 59, n. 1.
1159Kubik, Gerhard (1999: 54). Africa and the Blues. Jackson, MI: University Press of
Mississippi. ISBN 0-4-415-94390-6.
1160Jones, A.M. (1959: 210-213). King, Anthony (1960). “The Employment of the Standard
Pattern in Yoruba Music” American Music Society Journal.
1161
Musically Africa may be divided into four regions
•The eastern region includes the music of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi,
Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well as the islands of
Madagascar, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Comor.
•The southern region includes the music of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland,
Botswana, Namibia and Angola.
•The central region includes the music of Chad, the Central African Republic,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, including Pygmy music.
•The western region includes the music of Senegal and the Gambia, of
Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia, of the inland plains of
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the coastal nations of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana,
Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo as well
as islands such as Sao Tome and Principe. Snare drums were made in Africa

Musical instruments
Besides using the voice, which has been developed to use various techniques
such as complex hard melisma and yodel, a wide array of musical instruments
are used. African musical instruments include a wide range of drums, slit
gongs, rattles, double bells as well as melodic instruments like string
instruments, (musical bows, different types of harps and harp-like instruments
such as the Kora as well as fiddles), many types of xylophone and
lamellophone like the mbira, and different types of wind instrument like flutes
and trumpets.
Drums used in African traditional music include talking drums, bougarabou
and djembe in West Africa, water drums in Central and West Africa, and the
different types of ngoma drums (or engoma) in Central and Southern Africa.
Other percussion instruments include many rattles and shakers, such as the
kosika, rain stick, bells and wood sticks. Also has lots of other types of drums,
and lots of flutes, and lots of stringed instruments, and blowing instruments.
Many modern instruments, such as flute, double reed, trumpet-type horns,
stringed instruments and percussion of all kinds can trace their origin to
Africa.

Relationship to language
African languages are tonal languages leading to a close connection between
music and language in many African cultures. In singing, the tonal pattern or
the text puts some constraints on the melodic patterns. On the other hand, in
instrumental music a native speaker of a language can often perceive a text or
texts in the music. This effect also forms the basis of drum languages (talking
drums).1162

1162GCSE Music - Edexcel Areas of Study, Coordination Group Publications, UK, 2006, page
35, quoting examination board syllabus.
Influences on African Music
Historically, several factors have influenced the tribal music of Africa: the
environment, various cultures, politics, and population movement. All of these
factors essentially go hand in hand. Each African tribe evolved in a different
area of the continent, which means that they ate different foods, faced
different weather conditions, and came in contact with different tribes than
the other societies did. Each tribe moved at different rates and to different
places than the others, and thus they were influenced by different people and
circumstances. Furthermore, each society did not necessarily operate under
the same government, which also significantly influenced their music
styles.1163

Popular music
African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most
contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with
western popular music. Many genres of popular music like blues, jazz and
rumba derive to varying degrees from musical traditions from Africa, taken to
the Americas by African slaves. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently
been adapted by newer genres like rock, rhythm and blues. Likewise, African
popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and
recording studio techniques of western music.1164
The appealing Afro-Euro hybrid the Cuban son (music) influenced popular
music in Africa. The first African guitar bands played Cuban covers.1165 The
early guitar-based bands from the Congo called their music rumba (although it
was son rather than rumba-based). The Congolese style eventually evolved
into what became known as soukous.

Influence on North African music

African music has been a major factor in the shaping of what we know today
as blues and jazz. These styles have all borrowed from African rhythms and
sounds, brought over the Atlantic ocean by slaves. On his album Graceland,
the American folk musician Paul Simon employs African bands, rhythms and
melodies, especially Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as a musical backdrop for his
own lyrics. In the early 1970's, Remi Kabaka, an Afro-rock avant-garde
drummer, laid the initial drum patterns that created the Afro-rock sounds in
bands such as Ginger Baker's Airforce, the Rolling Stones, and Steve
Winwood's Traffic. He continued to work with Winwood, Paul McCartney, and
Mick Jagger throughout the decade.1166

1163Nketia, J.H. Kwabena. The Music of Africa. New York: Norton and Company, 1974. Print.
1164Scaruffi, Piero (2007). A History of Popular Music before Rock Music. ISBN 978-0-
9765531-2-0
1165Roberts, John Storm (1986: cassette) Afro-Cuban Comes Home: The Birth and Growth of
Congo Music, Original Music.
1166Azam, O.A. (1993). The recent influence of African Music on the American music scene
and music market
http://azam.org/archives/geocities/www.geocities.com/omarazam/papers/afrMusic.htm
As the rise of rock'n'roll music is often credited as having begun with 1940s
American blues, and with so many genres having branched off from rock - the
myriad subgenres of heavy metal, punk rock, pop music and many more - it
can be argued that African music has been at the root of a very significant
portion of all recent popular or vernacular music.
African music has also had a significant impact on such well-known pieces of
work as Disney's The Lion King and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, which
blend traditional tribal music with modern culture. Songs such as Circle of
Life and He Lives in You blend a combination of Zulu and English lyrics, as
well as traditional African styles of music with more modern western styles.
Additionally, the Disney classic incorporates numerous words from the Bantu
Swahili language. The phrase "hakuna matata," for example, is an actual
Swahili phrase that does in fact mean "no worries." Characters such as Simba,
Kovu, and Zira are also Swahili words which mean "Lion," "scar," and "hate,"
respectively.1167[18]

See also
•Paul Berliner
•Gerhard Kubik
•International Library of African Music
•Ashenafi Kebede
•African popular music
•List of African guitarists
•Clave (rhythm)
•Victor Kofi Agawu
•Arthur Morris Jones

External links

•African Music
•Glossary of African music styles
•International Library of African Music at Rhodes University
•[19] Mapouka and other African genres
•Radio Kriola - traditonal and modern african and creole music
Department of Music And Musicology
•Rhythms of the Continent from the BBC
•Historical Notes on African Melodies

1167"The Characters." Lion King Pride. 2008. Disney, 1997-2008. Web. 01 February, 2010.
•Music of Africa at the Open Directory Project

Religion in Africa

A map of the Africa, showing the major

religions distributed as of today. Map
shows only the religion as a whole
excluding denominations or sects of
the religions, and is colored by how
the religions are distributed not by
main religion of country. Where
overlap, majority is displayed except
for traditional religions practiced in a
syncretic fashion.

Religions by country

Religion Portal
Religion in Africa is multifaceted. Most Africans adhere to either
Christianity or Islam. Christianity and Islam contest which is larger, but many
people that are adherents of both religions also practice African traditional
religions, with traditions of folk religion or syncretism practised alongside an
adherent's Christianity or Islam. 1168 Judaism also has roots in Africa, due to
the time the Israelites spent in Egypt before the Exodus.1169 Around 15% of
Africans follow one of the traditional African religions and a small minority of
Africans are non-religious.
The original religions of Africa have been declining over the past century due
to the influences of colonialism, acculturation and increasing proselytizing by
Christianity and Islam. However, in the Americas and Caribbean, syncretistic
religions involving African religions are growing.1170 Religious adherents in
Africa are often of a syncretic nature.1171

African traditional religion

Traditional African religions encompass a wide variety of traditional beliefs.
Traditional religious customs are sometimes shared by many African societies,
but they are usually unique to specific ethnic groups. Traditional African
religions used to be adhered to by the majority of Africa's population, however
since the rapid expansion of Christianity and Islam they have become a
minority across much of their own continent. Many African Christians and
Muslims maintain some aspects of their original traditional religions.
Some indigenous African religions worship a single God (Chukwu, Nyame,
Olodumare, Ngai etc.), and some recognize a dual or complementary twin God
such as Mawu-Lisa. Obeisance can be paid to the primary God through lesser
deities (Ogoun, Da, Agwu, Esu, Mbari, etc.). Some societies also deify entities
like the earth, the sun, the sea, lightning, or Nature. Each deity can have its
own priest or priestess. The Ndebele and Shona ethnic groups of Zimbabwe
have a trinity - a fundamental family group - made up of God the Father, God
the Mother, and God the Son. Among the Fon of West Africa and Benin, God,
who is called "Vondu", is androgynous, with both male and female traits.

1168Encyclopedia Britannica. Britannica Book of the Year 2003. Encyclopedia Britannica,

(2003) ISBN 9780852299562 p.306
According to the Encyclopedia Britanica, as of mid-2002, there were 376,453,000 Christians,
329,869,000 Muslims and 98,734,000 people who practiced traditional religions in Africa. Ian
S. Markham,(A World Religions Reader. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.) is cited
by Morehouse University as giving the mid 1990s figure of 278,250,800 Muslims in Africa, but
still as 40.8% of the total spaggetti These numbers are estimates, and remain a matter of
conjecture. See Amadu Jacky Kaba. The spread of Christianity and Islam in Africa: a survey
and analysis of the numbers and percentages of Christians, Muslims and those who practice
indigenous religions. The Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol 29, Number 2, June 2005.
Discusses the estimations of various almanacs and encyclopedium, placing Britannica's
estimate as the most agreed figure. Notes the figure presented at the World Christian
Encyclopedia, summarized here, as being an outlier. On rates of growth, Islam and
Pentecostal Christianity are highest, see: The List: The World’s Fastest-Growing Religions,
Foreign Policy, May 2007.
1169"Moses." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
1170http://www.religioustolerance.org/ifa.htm
1171Restless Spirits: Syncretic Religion Yolanda Pierce, Ph.D. Associate Professor of African
American Religion & Literature
The Ewe people of southern Ghana have a conception of the high God as a
female-male partnership. Mawu who is female is often spoken of as gentle and
forgiving. Lisa who is male renders judgment and punishes. Among the Ewe it
is believed that when Lisa punishes, Mawu may grant forgiveness. Here we
see the complementarity or "supplementarity" (Derrida's term) of male and
female that characterizes many of the traditional African religions.
The only example in Africa of a female high Goddess is among the Southern
Nuba of Sudan, whose culture has matriarchal traits. The Nuba conceive of
the creator Goddess as the "Great Mother" who gave birth to earth and to
mankind. (Mbiti, J.S., Introduction to African Religion, Oxford, 1975, p. 53.)
Polytheism in Africa has developed several times independently and in very
different ways. For example in the case of ancient Egypt where a pantheon
was worshipped or in the case of the Orisha religion in West Africa.

Abrahamic religions
The majority of Africans are adherents of
or
. Both religions are widespread throughout Africa. They have both spread at
the expense of indigenous African religions, but are often adapted to African
cultural contexts and belief systems. It was estimated in 2002 that Christians
form 40% of Africa's population, with Muslims forming 45%.

Christianity
Although Christianity existed far before the rule of King Ezana the Great of
the Kingdom of Axum, the religion took a strong foot hold when it was
declared a state religion in 330 AD. The earliest and best known reference to
the introduction of Christianity to Africa is mentioned in the Christian Bible's
Acts of the Apostles, and pertains to the evangelist Phillip's conversion of an
Ethiopian traveler in the 1st Century AD. Although the bible refers to them as
Ethiopians, scholars have argued that Ethiopia was a common term
encompassing the area South-Southeast of Egypt.
Other traditions have the convert as a Jew who was a steward in the Queen’s
court. All accounts do agree on the fact that the traveler was a member of the
royal court who successfully succeeded in converting the Queen, which in turn
caused a church to be built.
Rufinus of Tyre, a noted church historian, also has recorded a personal
account as do other church historians such as Socrates and Sozemius.1172

1172Hansberry, William Leo. Pillars in Ethiopian History; the William Leo Hansberry African
History Notebook. Washington: Howard University Press, 1934.
After being shipwrecked and captured at an early age, Frumentius was
carried to Axum where he was treated well with his companion Edesius. At the
time, there was a small population of Christians living there who sought
refuge from Roman persecution. Once of age, Frumentius and Edesius were
allowed to return to their homelands, however they chose to stay at the
request of the queen. In doing so, they began to secretly promote Christianity
through the lands.
During a trip to meet with church elders, Frumentius met with Athanasius,
Archbishop of Alexandria who was second in line to the pope. After
recommending that a bishop be sent to proselytize, a council decided that
Frumentius be appointed as a bishop to Ethiopia.
By 430 AD, Frumentius returned to Ethiopia, he was welcomed with open
arms by the rulers who were at the time not Christian. Ten years later,
through the support of the kings, the majority of the kingdom was converted
and Christianity was declared the official state religion.
Rastafari
There are also Rasta communities in Africa. In the Ivory Coast presidential
candidates tried to reach out to voters in the Rasta village of Port Bouet.11731174

Islam
According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in
Africa1175, with 47% of the population being Muslim. Its historic roots in Africa
stem from the time Muhammad whose relatives and the epic followers
migrated on a hijra to Abyssinia in fear of persecution from the pagan Arabs.
The main spread of Islam came with the invasion of Egypt under Caliph Umar,
through the Sinai Peninsula - followed by the rapid conquest of North Africa
by the Arab armies - as well as through Islamic Arab and Persian traders and
sailors.

1173"spokesman for Ivorian President speaks to the Rastafari community in the Rasta village
of Port Bouet, Abidjan". Daylife.com. 2010-01-06. . Retrieved 2010-02-01.
1174"drawing of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie at Rasta village of Port Bouet" .
Daylife.com. 2010-01-06. . Retrieved 2010-02-01.
1175Encyclopedia Britannica. Britannica Book of the Year 2003. Encyclopedia Britannica,
(2003) ISBN 9780852299562 p.306
According to the Encyclopedia Britanica, as of mid-2002, there were 480,453,000 Christians,
329,869,000 Muslims and 98,734,000 people who practiced traditional religions in Africa. Ian
S. Markham,(A World Religions Reader. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.) is cited
by Morehouse University as giving the mid 1990s figure of 278,250,800 Muslims in Africa, but
still as 40.8% of the total spaggetti These numbers are estimates, and remain a matter of
conjecture. See Amadu Jacky Kaba. The spread of Christianity and Islam in Africa: a survey
and analysis of the numbers and percentages of Christians, Muslims and those who practice
indigenous religions. The Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol 29, Number 2, June 2005.
Discusses the estimations of various almanacs and encyclopedium, placing Britannica's
estimate as the most agreed figure. Notes the figure presented at the World Christian
Encyclopedia, summarized here, as being an outlier. On rates of growth, Islam and
Pentecostal Christianity are highest, see: The List: The World’s Fastest-Growing Religions,
Foreign Policy, May 2007.
Islam is the dominant religion in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, and it
has also become the predominant and historical religion of the West African
interior and the far west coast of the continent as well as the coast of East
Africa. There have been several Muslim empires in Western Africa which
exerted considerable influence, notably the Mali Empire, which flourished for
several centuries and the Songhai Empire, under the leadership of Sonni Ali
and Askia Mohammed. Islam continued a rapid growth into the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries - expanding mainly at the expense of traditional African
religions. Islamic values are seen to have much in common with traditional
African life: its emphasis on communal living, its clear and distinct roles for
men and women, its tolerance of polygamy. Muslims sometimes argue that
Christianity is alien to most Africans, despite it having a longer history on the
continent.1176 A notable example includes Rwanda where, according to reports,
the percentage of Muslims in Rwanda has doubled1177 or tripled1178 since the
genocide, due to Muslim protection of Tutsis and to Hutus wanting to distance
themselves from those who committed genocide. The Ahmadiyya Muslim
Community is relatively modern community which is progressing relatively
rapidly, particularly in West Africa.

Judaism
Adherents of Judaism too can be found scattered across Africa. Perhaps not as
well known as the history of Christianity and Islam in Africa to the outside
observer, Judaism has an ancient and rich history on the African continent.
Today, there are Jewish communities in many countries; including the Beta
Israel of Ethiopia, the Abayudaya of Uganda, the House of Israel in Ghana, the
Igbo Jews of Nigeria and the Lemba of Southern Africa.

Baha'i
Baha'i Faith is the 3rd most widespread organized Abrahamic religion in
Africa after Islam and Christianity.1179 African Bahá'í Community statistics are
also hard to come by. However, Africans have a long history with the Bahá'í
Faith; several of the earliest followers of both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh were
reportedly African. From 1924 to 1960 the religion was declared one of the
legally sanctioned faiths in Egypt, but has since then been subject to
restrictions and outright persecution by authorities and others

1176Rising Muslim Power in Africa Causing Unrest in Nigeria and Elsewhere , New York
Times.
1177Emily Wax (2002-11-23). "Islam Attracting Many Survivors of Rwanda Genocide".
Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post. p. A10. . Retrieved 2007-12-04.
1178Rwanda - International Religious Freedom Report 2003
1179http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/bhpapers/vol1/africa1.htm
Hinduism
The history of Hinduism in Africa is, by most accounts, very short in
comparison to that of Islam, Christianity, or Judaism. However, the presence
of its practitioners in Africa dates back to pre-colonial times and even
medieval times. There are sizable of Hindu populations in South Africa and the
East African coastal nations.

See also

•Africa

External links
•Theology in Africa
•BBC
•Afrikaworld.net
•Text of "Atoms and Ancestors", considered a classic study
•Stanford Page
•African Religions at Africa Missions Resource Center
•"Bwiti: An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa", James
Fernandez, Princeton University Press, 1982
•http://www.scn.org/rdi/kw-gods.htm
•The Meaning of Peace in African Traditional Religion and Culture
•Introduction to Afro-American Studies

Regions of Africa
The continent of Africa can be conceptually subdivided into a number of
regions or subregions.

Physiographic approach
Another common approach divides Africa by using features such as landforms,
climatic regions, or vegetation types:
•The Sahara Desert is the massive but largely empty region in North Africa
that contains the world's second largest desert (after Antarctica).
•The Maghreb is a region of northwest Africa encompassing the coastlands
and Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
•The Sahel region covers a belt of grasslands south of the Sahara stretching
from Senegal to Sudan.
•The Sudan region lies just below the Sahel but is slightly more humid and
arable.
•The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts for hundreds of
kilometers into the Arabian Sea, and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of
Aden. It encompasses Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti.
•Sub-Saharan Africa is the area of the African continent which lies south of
the Sahara.
•The Guinea region is distinguished from the neighboring Sudan region by its
rainforests and runs along the Atlantic coast from Guinea to Nigeria.
•The Congo is the rainforest region
•Great Rift Valley. The region contains Uganda.

Linguistic approach

By official language
•Anglophone Africa includes five countries in West Africa (The Gambia, Sierra
Leone, Liberia, Ghana, and the most populous African country Nigeria, as well
as a part of Cameroon) that are separated by Francophone countries, and a
large contiguous area in Southern Africa and East Africa.
•Arabophone Africa includes the four most populous Arabic-speaking
countries (Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Algeria) as well as Tunisia and Mauritania,
and includes a majority of both the population and the area of the Arabic-
speaking countries. French has also kept a strong role in the Maghreb
countries, though this has receded somewhat with official Arabization.
•Francophone Africa is a contiguous area in West Africa and Central Africa,
plus Madagascar and Djibouti.
•Lusophone Africa consists of the widely separated countries of Cabo Verde,
Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, and Mozambique.
•Equatorial Guinea is the only African country where the Spanish language is
official, though French and more recently Portuguese have also been added as
official languages.
•Swahili is widely used as an interlanguage in East Africa; its use for official
and educational functions is greatest in Tanzania.
•Ethiopia and Somalia use the Afro-Asiatic Amharic and Somali languages,
respectively, as their official languages, although Arabic also serves as a
secondary language in Somalia. Eritrea uses the Tigrinya language and Arabic
language as working languages.
By indigenous language family
•Niger-Congo languages and Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken in most of
Sub-Saharan Africa. Nilo-Saharan occupies a smaller area but is highly
diverse, and may be related as a parent or sibling of Niger-Congo.
•Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken in all of North and Northeast Africa as
well as parts of the Sahel.
•Khoisan languages are spoken in desert areas of Southern Africa, but were
formerly spoken over a larger area, and are thought to include two small
languages in East Africa.
•Austronesian languages originating from Southeast Asia are spoken in
Madagascar.