History of Africa

By: Brittany, Matthew, and Sarah

First humans

The history of Africa begins with the emergence of Homo sapiens in East,
Africa and continues into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically
developing nation states.

Trade kingdoms

The African trading kingdoms consist of three main cultures, Ghana, Mali, and
Songhai, which are all located in West Africa.
All three kingdoms maintained vast trading networks across the Sahara
desert and into the Middle East and North Africa.
The main export was gold, which made each kingdom very wealthy and
strong, and provided them with the conditionals necessary for cultural and
intellectual achievement.

Slavery

There were many differents types of slavery. There was chattel slavery,
Domestic slavery, Military slavery, slaves for sacrifice, and local slave trade.
These all took place during the times in the 1780s.
Now having this be a while back it still shows that slavery was a big thing also
in other countries besides America.

Wars

The South African Boer War begins between the British Empire and the Boers
(Afrikaners) of the Transvaal and Orange Free state.
Britain took possession of the Dutch Cape colony in 1806 starting a
disagreement in the independent mind Boers, who resented the Anglicization
of South Africa and Britain's anti slavery policies.
Also in 1899 a full-scale war ensued. British forces had captured most major
Boer cities and formally annexed their territories, but the Boers launched a
guerrilla war that frustrated British occupiers.
British began a strategy of systematically searching out and destroying these
guerrilla units, while herding the families of the Boer soldiers into
concentration camps. May 31 that year the peace of Vereeniging was signed,
ending hostilities.

Iron smelting

Iron smelting is known here, as in other sites in the strip below the Sahara, by
the middle of the 1st Millennium BC.
The fascinating but still mysterious Nok culture, lasting from the 5th century
BC to the 2nd century AD, provides magnificent pottery figures which stand at
the beginning of a recognizably African sculptural tradition.