African Writing (3200 BC – 1500 AD)
9 African writing systems which predate Latin; and 15 writing systems which predate Modern English.
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Civilisations
Africa’s Independence Dates
Europe often claims that it is an advocate of democracy. It is claimed that the Athenian constitution and the British Parliament are the earliest examples of democracy but written history says otherwise. Africa has Meroe, Carthage, the Gada system of the Oromo and the Kalenji system to point to for evidence of pre-colonial democracy. Furthermore,
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Origin of the Fulani (also called the Fula, Fulbe, Peuls) of West Africa (4th millennium BC to Present)
The Fulani people, numbering about 38 million, are found mostly in the western part of Africa. They are also known as the Fulbe or Peuls and in the Middle Ages (covering the 5th to the 15th century of the Common Era) were very reliant on cattle herding. The Fulani people trace their origin far back
The Christian Kingdom of Altava (578 AD – 708 AD), Algeria
The Kingdom of Altava was a Berber Kingdom, with the city of Altava as its capital. It existed from the year 578 AD to 708 AD. It was located in Northern Africa, in present-day Algeria. It was called a Berber kingdom as its majority population belonged to the Berber ethnicity, which is an ethnic group
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Food series: Africa’s domestication of 2000+ foods
During the history of mankind, there was a point when humans began planting and growing their foods, there was a shift from hunting animals and gathering food sources to farming and animal domestication. This period is referred to as the Neolithic revolution. With the Neolithic revolution came inevitable changes in the social life of humans.
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Myths about Africa: the Suez Canal was first built by France myth
Africa is an ancient and great continent, the first home of humans. A continent in which its ancient peoples through numerous foundational inventions opened the doors of advancement to the world. Over time a great many of her contributions to human development and advancement has been lost, forgotten or unjustly denied credit. Some of the
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Myths about Africa: the “Europeans and Arabs brought Africa agriculture” myth
When you look up world history as it is currently taught, the narrative is often misleading when it comes to development of agriculture. While certain crops were domesticated in the Near East and Asia between 10,000 BCE and 3,000 BCE – such as wheat and barley in the Near East, and Oryza sativa (Asian rice)
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Myths about African HISTORY
There are a few myths about African history and a few reasons why some European writers – not all – felt the need to malign brown-skinned people and claim Africans came from a continent without history. It probably gave them moral peace of mind to believe that they were not committing physical, mental and moral
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Ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom (key events from 1550 BCE to 1075 BCE)
Specialists in Egyptian History have divided the time period of Ancient Egypt, covering 4,500 BCE to 664 BCE, into eight periods: Badarian culture, Naqada (prewriting), Old kingdom, First Intermediate kingdom, Middle kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, New kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. In this article we look at the key events of the New Kingdom.
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Tools of African History: the Lukasa Memory Board of the Luba Kingdom
The Kingdom of Luba is an ancient African Kingdom which was based in current day Democratic Republic of Congo. It was founded in the Upemba depression, which is a large area of marshes, and comprises of over 50 lakes. The Kingdom was founded by King Kongolo (also called Nkongolo) in 1585 and would last over
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Africa’s inventions: algorithms
“During the 19th century, many European writers, limited by ethnocentrism and racism, decided that black Africa could have had nothing to do with Europe’s rise to greatness,” wrote Gloria Dickson, A professor of African-American studies at The College of New Jersey.
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African Pre-Colonial Democracies: The Ibinda System of the Kalenji
Democracy has been flourishing under different systems in parts of Africa since ancient times. One example of a pre-colonial political and social system devised within Africa is the Kalenji’s Ibinda system practiced by the Kalenji in Kenya. It is an ancient system that is democratic in nature. The Kalenjin People The Kalenjin are a group
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The Borana Calendar and How it works (Existing from 300 BC until Today)
Many non-Africans sometimes wonder, “Did Africa invent anything?” The unambiguous answer is yes: a lot of things. One of these inventions was a calendar system by Borana people of Ethiopia at a date as old as when Greece invented the Athenian calendar (an ancient calendar also known as the Attic Calendar). Unlike the Athenian calendar,
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Africa’s influence on modern art
AFRICAN ARTWORKS AND EARLY EUROPEAN CONTACT African arts today have come to be admired by art aficionados from all over the world, but it has not always been this way. There was a time when artworks from Africa was not considered worthy enough to be even displayed in European art museums. The Europeans at the
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History of Ancient Egypt (4,500 BCE to 664 BCE in 10 mins)
Ancient Egypt is known for many things: its monuments, its inventions, and its extensive historical records. Its historical records are among the oldest top 2 in the world. MONUMENTS Five of the most visited monuments in Egypt are: The Great Sphinx The great sphinx is carved out of limestone, believed to be built over 4,000
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Africa’s 15 Pre-Colonial Political Systems
African political systems In the time before the 19th century from 4,000 BCE to 1800 CE, African societies developed no fewer than fifteen unique political systems of government and property rights. In this article we look at what those systems were, examples of states that used them and over what length of time. Fundamentally political
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Myths about Africa: the hunter gatherers were not smart (200 BCE – 1950 CE)
Myths about Africa: the hunter gatherers were not smart Travellers, anthropologists and historians from 1500 CE to 1800 CE that wrote about Africa sometimes recounted that some African people lived as hunter gatherers, when Europeans came across them. It must be remembered that not all Africans lived this way; based on the eye-witness accounts of
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African Pre-Colonial Democracies: The Gada System of the Oromo
Democracy literally means Rule by the people and is seen as a relatively recent Western phenomenon. However, democracy has been practiced in parts of Africa for many millenia. One such example is the Oromo Gada system practiced by the Oromo people in Ethiopia. It is an ancient system that is democratic in nature. Oromo Nation
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Kingdom of Mauretania
The Kingdom of Mauretania came into existence around 225 BC, in the third century. Its inhabitants come from Berber ancestry, based on modern day ethnic taxonomies, and currently it belongs to the Western part of present day Algeria. Formation Mauretania was a kingdom of the Berber Mauri people, who would become renowned in history. It
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Africa’s Religions
One cannot generalize about the nature of African religions as he would be prone to making the mistake of homogeneity among all African cultures. Africa, in truth, is vast both in cultural diversity and geographical variation. This has brought about different languages and customs that have different belief systems. With the different histories associated with
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Role of Ancient Africa in Defining Literary Critique and Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work. It is one of the most frowned upon practices in writing and is often akin to a crime in the field of research. However, this was
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Africa’s Art in Foreign Museums
Ever wondered what ancient Africa was like? Their tools, objects of arts, weapons, man-made artefacts, musical instruments, fabrics, deities, etc. Although much of it has been lost to time, some part of ancient African history is preserved; to experience it then look no further than American and European museums. If you want to sneak a
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Africa’s Diversity
INTRODUCTION Africa, the second largest continent in the world and second most populous continent on earth, is blessed in manifold ways; in language, culture, art, monuments, vegetation, religious ideas, physical quality, natural resources, and many more areas. Though there have been many concepts and definitions regarding the idea of diversity, the indigenous ideas of Africans
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Africans in Roman London (48AD – 410AD): what DNA tests of 22 Londoners found
There have often been wrong assumptions regarding ancient relationships between Africans and the rest of the world, particularly Europe. For example; people wrongly assume that it was Europeans that travelled to Africa, first, or that the age of discovery between the early 15th century and 17th century was the first point of contact between Africans
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Yakut Khan: the Indian Admiral of African ancestry, story of the 1690 CE defeat of the East India Company
Yakut Khan, whose real name was Siddi Qasim Khan and also known as Sidi Yaqub, was an Indian of the Siddi ethnicity (also referred to Sheedi or Habshi)[1]. The Siddi ethnic group is a social grouping for the identifiable descendants of East Africans that migrated to India during the second millennium of our era. They
The Garamantes: The Civilisation that mined Fossil Water from the Sahara for 1,000 Years
700 miles south from the Mediterranean coast, there, stretches a sub-beaten arid African desert, with temperatures that can rise up to 55 ºC in the summer, an average annual rainfall that is less than half an inch, and sometimes even it doesn’t see rain for years. One would never imagine that a lost 3,000-year-old-African civilization
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Alessandro De Medici, Duke of Florence, Sponsor of Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Galileo
The history and accounts of the Renaissance is remembered by the public as a purely European phenomenon that was centered on a largely homogeneous ethnicity. At the same time, it reduced the presence of people of African descents to the role of servants or slaves. Neither of these two theories was true, for they both
The Zulu Kingdom
The Zulu kingdom of the 19th Century was ruled by a monarchy and extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north. It had an estimated population of 250,000. It covered 30,000 square kilometres (11,500 square miles). Its main currency was cattle. The
Africa’s inventions: the Earliest Sea-Faring Vessels
Sometimes the question is asked, “What did Africa ever invent?” We take a look at the earliest Sea-faring vessels.
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African Rulers in Indian History: Janjira, Maharashtra, India (1622-Present)
The princely state of Janjira fluttered its red flag with the crescent moon until India won independence in 1947 and merged all the princely states with the union by the following year. The state of Janjira is noted as being among the smallest of the princely States in Menon’s “The Story of Integration of Indian Princely States.” However, compared
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African exports: the origin of the 365-day calendar
What is a day? Many would think the answer is obvious. Many would say 24 hours. But the scientific truth is you have ask a particular question first, “On what planet?” You see: on Venus a day is 5,832 hours; a day on Mercury lasts 1,408 hours; on Mars a day is 25 hours; and
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African Rulers in Indian History: Sachin, Gurjarat
Africa and India have had a long history and relationship together in areas like trade, religion, music, arts, and architecture, dating far back as the 1st century, but their historical link is rarely discussed.
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Aniba Fortress: A look at 1961-1917 BCE African Defenses and Engineering
Illustrated by Brian Delf Aniba was a very significant fortress in the twelfth dynasty. It was located in Nubia and was about 230Km south of Aswan. Though the place is today flooded by the Lake Nasser, it was deemed a very important town at that time. It was popularly called Miam and was located around
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Ivory Bangle Lady: The face of an African in York’s High Society (4th Century)
There have been many misconceptions when it comes to the status of Africans who lived at much earlier times like the 13th to 18th century and even earlier in the 1st to 6th centuries, particularly Africans that happen to live overseas in what is today Europe and the USA. There is a wrong assumption that
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(Architecture Series) Fasil Ghebbi: the 20-palace complex of 17th Century Ethiopia
BEFORE THE FASIL GHEBBI Up until the 17th century, notably between the 13th and 17th century, Ethiopian emperors did not have any permanent location or structure within their territory in which they resided. They were always on the move with their royal camps referred to as “Katama[1]” Living off the proceeds of their subjects where
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Loan systems among the Precolonial Yoruba
Many of us are engaged in different struggles: some to survive, some to find purpose, some to love and be loved, some to enjoy life, and some to become filthy rich, and work out what to do with that money later. Those who have charitable or political goals rely on donations and book sales to
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Queen Hatshepsut: African Proof that a Woman Can Rule the Most Powerful Nation on Earth, Competently
Granite statue of Queen Hatshepsut It is common knowledge that Pharaohs of ancient Egypt excelled in building incredible monuments and temples both for the gods they worshipped and for themselves as a display of power and to ensure that they would be remembered forever throughout the Egyptian Pharaonic Empire. Today, tourists from all parts of
African Inventions: Domestication and Spinning of Cotton 5000 BC
On a hot summer day, you can’t do without a number of comfy cotton shirts. They get stronger when they are wet which makes them ideal in the summer since they need to be washed frequently. Even in winter, nothing keeps your feet and toes warm like a cozy cotton sock that traps in the
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Kingdom of Numidia (202BC – 46BC)
What kingdoms existed in Africa before the Scramble for Africa of the late 19th century and its well known recent period of colonisation by Europe? We look at the Kingdom of Numidia (202 BC – 46BC). Numidia were crucial in the crushing defeat of Rome during the Battle of Cannae that wiped out the ruling class of Rome and their betrayal of Carthage to back Rome contributed to the downfall of the Carthaginian republic during the 3rd Punic War.
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African Genes in Scottish DNA Study
Map of medieval Scotland The history that was taught at school says that Scots were originally Irish and Celtic people who migrated to Scotland and that Europe in general was the ancestral home of white people. Many people including Scots themselves have a long-held belief that the ethnic make-up of Scotland is strictly Scots, Irish,
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