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African Manifesto authored by Elder Sabamya Jaugu

African Manifesto

The African Manifesto is based on  embracing ethnicity and economic independence concepts as advocated by Carlos Cooks in his African Nationalist Pioneer Movement. Which he  founded in 1940 that centered around Marcus Garvey’s philosophies and opinions.   Mr. Cooks  continued his work by capitalizing (Negro), which begin in the early 1920’s.  Mindfully, this is together with  many other patriots such as,  Martin Delaney,  Madam C. Walker,  Dr Carter Woodson, Hubert  Harrison  among many others. The Manifesto is a global invitation for activists, organizations, religious communities, newspapers, along with blogs to participate in this glorious  undertaking. Notably,  decedents of slavery and colonialism have  tendencies to hero worship.   They conveniently step back allowing other prominent leader  to lead them  in their  pursuit of prominent change.  A generation laps then this process start all over again.  As oppose to embracing two concepts which  is generational.   Mindfully, it only has to be modified to suit a particular time period. The doctrine’s first objective is using  “AFRICAN”  instead of “BLACK”  that identifies all its citizens regardless of their birthplace.  This lone nuance would unify descendants of slavery and colonialism into  one unified African community.   It must be recognized numerous  diversities  of Africans having over 2000 different cultures, traditions together with descendants of slavery.    

Of major importance, these two concepts would unified descendants of slavery and colonialism into one  ancestral forum.   The African Manifesto  concepts will not interfere or alter any ongoing programs in anyway.   Contrarily, it will add structure, and direction for  blogs, newsletters, websites and  organizational activities.  Notably in order to solve a problem  of this  magnitude it has to be clearly understood. To satisfy this criteria, a  brief chronological  historical outline of ancient history will be presented. Beginning with an  ancient history of North Africa is inextricably linked to that of the Ancient Near East. This is particularly true of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. In the Horn of Africa the Kingdom of Aksum ruled modern-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia and the coastal area of the western part of the Arabian Peninsula. The Ancient Egyptians established ties with the Land of Punt in 2,350 BC. Punt was a trade partner of Ancient Egypt and it is believed that it was located in modern-day Somalia, Djibouti or Eritrea. Phoenician cities such as Carthage were part of the Mediterranean Iron Age and classical antiquity. Sub-Saharan Africa developed  independently in those times.  Below is a brief  encapsulation of African kingdoms.

Ancient 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 Nile 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 chiefdom was Ta-Seti, founded around 3,500 BC. The idea of sacral chiefdom spread throughout Upper and Lower Egypt.

Later consolidation of the kingdoms 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 3,100 BC. Instead of 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 kingdoms along Upper and Lower Egypt, became the polytheistic Ancient Egyptian religion. 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 (2,620–2,480 BC), 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.

After the fourth millennium BC, Egypt started to extend direct military and political control over her southern and western neighbors. By 2,200 BC, the Old Kingdom’s stability was undermined by rivalry among the governors of the nome who challenged the power of pharaohs and by invasions of Asiatics into the Nile Delta. The First Intermediate Period had begun, a time of political division and uncertainty.

Middle Kingdom of Egypt arose when Mentuhotep II of Eleventh Dynasty unified the Egypt once again between 2041 and 2016 BC beginning with his conquering of Tenth Dynasty in 2041 BC. Pyramid building resumed, long-distance trade re-emerged, and the center of power moved from Memphis to Thebes. Connections to 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 heretofore unseen in Egypt.

Horse-drawn chariots African Kingdoms and Civilizations

Ancient Egypt pyramids of Giza, symbols of the civilization of ancient Egyptians 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 (1,580–1,080 BC), with the Eighteenth Dynasty. Egypt became a superpower controlling Nubia and Judea while exerting political influence on the Libyans to the West and on the Mediterranean.

As before, the New Kingdom ended with an 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.

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 BC) and Shabaka (716–695 BC). 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.

When the Assyrians and Nubians left, a new Twenty-sixth Dynasty emerged from Sais. It lasted until 525 BC, when Egypt was invaded by the Persians. Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians stayed. In 332, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great. This was the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ended with the Roman conquest in 30 BC. Pharaonic Egypt had come to an end.
Nubian Empire
Around 3,500 BC, 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 pictorial representation ruling 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 BC, Ta-Seti was in decline. After the unification of Egypt by Narmer in 3,100 BC, 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 the A-Group Culture known to archaeology.

Small sacral kingdoms continued to dot the Nubian portion of the Nile for centuries after 3,000 BC. Around the latter part of the third millennium, there was further consolidation of the sacral kingdoms. Two kingdoms in particular emerged: the said kingdom, immediately south of Egypt, and the Kingdom of Kerma at the third cataract. Sometime around the 18th century BC, 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 confluence of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and Atbarah River. About 1,575 to 1,550 BC, during the latter part of the Seventeenth Dynasty, the Kingdom of Kerma invaded Egypt.The Kingdom of Kerma allied itself with the Hyksos invasion of Egypt.

Egypt eventually re-energized under the Eighteenth Dynasty and conquered the Kingdom of Kerma or Kush, ruling it for almost 500 years. The Kushites were Egyptianized during this period. By 1100 BC, 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 BC, the Kingdom of Kush invaded Egypt, taking over Thebes and beginning the Nubian Empire. The empire extended from Palestine to the confluence of the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and River Atbara.

In 760 BC, the Kushites were expelled from Egypt by iron-wielding Assyrians. Later, the administrative capital was moved from Napata to Meröe, developing 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. Its architecture and art diversified, 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 AD, the Aksumite king Ezana brought Meröe to an end.

Carthaginians Empire

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.

The Phoenicians were Mediterranean seamen in constant search for valuable metals such as copper, gold, tin, and lead. They began to populate the North African coast with settlements—trading and mixing with the native Berber population. In 814 BC, Phoenicians from Tyre established the city of Carthage. By 600 BC, Carthage had become a major trading entity and power in the Mediterranean, largely through trade with tropical Africa. Carthage’s prosperity fostered the growth of the Berber kingdoms, Numidia and Mauretania. Around 500 BC, 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.

The Carthaginians were rivals to the Greeks and Romans. Carthage fought the Punic Wars, three wars with Rome: the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC), over Sicily; the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), in which Hannibal invaded Europe; and the Third Punic War (149 to 146 BC). 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 420’s AD, Vandals invaded North Africa and Rome lost her territories. The Berber kingdoms subsequently regained their independence.

Christianity gained a foothold in Africa at Alexandria in the 1st century AD and spread to Northwest Africa. By 313 AD, with the Edict of Milan, all of Roman North Africa was Christian. Egyptians adopted MonophysiteChristianity and formed the independent Coptic Church. The Berbers adopted Donatist Christianity. Both groups refused to accept the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.

Somalia

As Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and political organization supported several states. Trade links between Carthage and the Berbers in the interior grew, but territorial expansion also resulted in the enslavement or military recruitment of some Berbers and in the extraction of tribute from others. By the early 4th century BC, Berbers formed one of the largest elements, with Gauls, of the Carthaginian army. In the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berber soldiers participated from 241 to 238 BC after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. Berbers succeeded in obtaining control of much of Carthage’s North African territory, and they minted coins bearing the name Libyan, used in Greek to describe the natives of North Africa. The Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars; in 146 BC the city of Carthage was destroyed.

As Carthaginian power waned, the influence of Berber leaders in the hinterland grew. By the 2nd century BC, several large but loosely administered Berber kingdoms had emerged. Two of them were established in Numidia, behind the coastal areas controlled by Carthage. West of Numidia lay Mauretania, which extended across the Moulouya River in Morocco to the Atlantic Ocean. The high point of Berber civilization, unequaled until the coming of the Almohads and Almoravid dynasty more than a millennium later, was reached during the reign of Masinissa in the 2nd century BC. After a Masinissa’s death in 148 BC, the Berber kingdoms were divided and reunited several times. The Masinissa’s line survived until 24 AD, when the remaining Berber territory was annexed to the Roman Empire.

North Africa under Roman rule

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. In the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone, Mosylon, Cape Guardafui, and Malao competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the rich Indo–Greco-Roman trade.

Increases in urbanization and in the area under cultivation during Roman rule caused wholesale dislocations of the Berber society, forcing nomad tribes to settle or to move from their traditional rangelands. Sedentary tribes lost their autonomy and connection with the land. Berber opposition to the Roman presence was nearly constant. The Roman emperor Trajanestablished a frontier in the south by encircling the Aurès and Nemenchamountains and building a line of forts from Vescera (modern Biskra) to Ad Majores (Hennchir Besseriani, southeast of Biskra). The defensive line extended at least as far as Castellum Dimmidi (modern Messaâd, southwest of Biskra), Roman Algeria’s southernmost fort. Romans settled and developed the area around Sitifis (modern Sétif) in the 2nd century, but farther west the influence of Rome did not extend beyond the coast and principal military roads until much later

The Roman military presence of North Africa remained relatively small, consisting of about 28,000 troops and auxiliaries in Numidia and the two Mauretanianprovinces. Starting in the 2nd century AD, these garrisons were manned mostly by local inhabitants.

Aside from Carthage, urbanization in North Africa came in part with the establishment of settlements of veterans under the Roman emperors Claudius (reigned 41–54), Nerva (96–98), and Trajan (98–117). In Algeria such settlements included Tipasa, Cuicul or Curculum (modern Djemila, northeast of Sétif), Thamugadi (modern Timgad, southeast of Sétif), and Sitifis (modern Sétif). The prosperity of most towns depended on agriculture. Called the “granary of the empire”, North Africa became one of the largest exporters of grain in the empire, shipping to the provinces which did not produce cereals, like Italy and Greece. Other crops included fruit, figs, grapes, and beans. By the 2nd century AD, olive oil rivaled cereals as an export item.

The beginnings of the Roman imperial decline seemed less serious in North Africa than elsewhere. However, uprisings did take place. In 238 AD, landowners rebelled unsuccessfully against imperial fiscal policies. Sporadic tribal revolts in the Mauritanian mountains followed from 253 to 288, during the Crisis of the Third Century. The towns also suffered economic difficulties, and building activity almost ceased.
The towns of Roman North Africa had a substantial Jewish population. Some Jews had been deported from Judea or Palestine in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD for rebelling against Roman rule; others had come earlier with Punic settlers. In addition, a number of Berber tribes had converted to Judaism.

Christianity arrived in the 2nd century and soon gained converts in the towns and among slaves. More than eighty bishops, some from distant frontier regions of Numidia, attended the Council of Carthage (256) in 256. By the end of the 4th century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and some Berber tribes had converted en masse.

A division in the church that came to be known as the Donatist heresy began in 313 among Christians in North Africa. The Donatists stressed the holiness of the church and refused to accept the authority to administer the sacraments of those who had surrendered the scriptures when they were forbidden under the Emperor Diocletian (reigned 284–305). The Donatists also opposed the involvement of Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337) in church affairs in contrast to the majority of Christians who welcomed official imperial recognition.

The occasionally violent Donatist controversy has been characterized[by whom?] as a struggle between opponents and supporters of the Roman system. The most articulate North African critic of the Donatist position, which came to be called a heresy, was Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius. Augustine maintained that the unworthiness of a minister did not affect the validity of the sacraments because their true minister was Jesus Christ. In his sermons and books Augustine, who is considered a leading exponent of Christian dogma, evolved a theory of the right of orthodox Christian rulers to use force against schismatics and heretics. Although the dispute was resolved by a decision of an imperial commission in Carthage in 411, Donatist communities continued to exist as late as the 6th century.

A decline in trade weakened Roman control. Independent kingdoms emerged in mountainous and desert areas, towns were overrun, and Berbers, who had previously been pushed to the edges of the Roman Empire, returned.

During the Vandalic War, Belisarius, general of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I based in Constantinople, landed in North Africa in 533 with 16,000 men and within a year destroyed the Vandal Kingdom. Local opposition delayed full Byzantine control of the region for twelve years, however, and when imperial control came, it was but a shadow of the control exercised by Rome. Although an impressive series of fortifications were built, Byzantine rule was compromised by official corruption, incompetence, military weakness, and lack of concern in Constantinople for African affairs, which made it an easy target for the Arabs during the Early Muslim conquests . As a result, many rural areas reverted to Berber rule.

Aksumite Empire

The earliest state in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, Dʿmt, dates from around the 8th and 7th centuries BC. D’mt traded through the Red Sea with Egypt and the Mediterranean, providing frankincense. By the 5th and 3rd centuries, D’mt had declined, and several successor states took its place. Later there was greater trade with South 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 BC, 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 AD, Aksum was minting its own coins in silver and gold.

In 331 AD, King Ezana (320–350 AD) was converted to Monophysite Christianity, supposedly by Frumentius and Aedesius, who became 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.

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 Sasanian Empirepushed Aksum out of the peninsula. With the spread of Islam through Western Asia and Northern Africa, Aksum’s trading networks in the Mediterranean faltered. The Red Sea trade diminished as it was diverted to the Persian Gulf and dominated by Arabs, causing Aksum to decline. By 800 AD, the capital was moved south into the interior highlands, and Aksum was much diminished.

In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum. Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in the 2nd millennium BC. 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 agriculturists received salt from the desert nomads. The 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.

Dhar Tichitt and Oualata in present-day Mauritania figure prominently among the early urban centers, dated to 2,000 BC. About 500 stone settlements litter the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found[by whom?] that the Soninke of the Mandé peoples were responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent Ghana Empire. Djenné-Djenno (in present-day Mali) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable Iron Agepopulation, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC Djenné-Djenno had become a large, thriving market town.[

Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1,000 BC, the Nok culture developed on the Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in terracotta, including human heads, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC they were smelting iron. By 200 AD the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the Yoruba kingdom of Ife and those of the Bini kingdom of Benin are now[when?] believed[by whom?] to be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nokite culture.

West Africa & Bantu expansion

People speaking Bantu languages (a branch of the Niger–Congo family) began in the second millennium BC to spread from Cameroon eastward to the Great Lakes region. In the first millennium BC, Bantu languages spread from the Great Lakes to southern and east Africa. One early movement headed south to the upper Zambezi valley in the 2nd century BC. Then Bantu-speakers pushed westward to the savannahs of present-day Angola and eastward into Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in the 1st century AD. The second thrust from the Great Lakes was eastward, 2,000 years ago, expanding to the Indian Ocean coast, Kenya 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 groups continuing to Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd century AD, and expanding as far as Durban. By the late first millennium AD, the expansion had reached the Great Kei River in present-day South Africa. Sorghum, a major Bantu crop, could not thrive under the winter rainfall of Namibia and the western Cape. The Khoisan people inhabited the remaining parts of southern Africa.
Sao civilization

The Sao civilization flourished from ca. The sixth century BC to as late as the 16th century AD in Central Africa. The Sao lived by the Chari River south of Lake Chad in territory that later became part of Cameroon and Chad. They are the earliest people to have left clear traces of their presence in the territory of modern Cameroon. Today, several ethnic groups of northern Cameroon and southern Chad but particularly the Sara people claim descent from the civilization of the Sao. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper, and iron.Finds include bronze sculptures and terra cotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewelry, highly decorated pottery, and spears. The largest Sao archaeological finds have been made south of Lake Chad.

Kanem Empire

The Kanem Empire was centered in the Chad Basin. It was known as the Kanem Empire from the 9th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1893. At its height it encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad, but also parts of modern southern Libya, eastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria, northern Cameroon, parts of South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The history of the Empire is mainly known from the Royal Chronicle or Girgam discovered in 1851 by the German traveler Heinrich Barth. Kanem arose in the 8th century in the region to the north and east of Lake Chad. The Kanem empire went into decline, shrank, and in the 14th century was defeated by Bilalainvaders from the Lake Fitri region.

Around the 9th century AD, the central 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.In addition to trade, taxation of local farms around Kanem became a 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 Saostate 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.
Bornu Empire

The Kanuri people led by the Sayfuwa migrated to the west and south of the lake, where they established the Bornu Empire. By the late 16th century the Bornu empire had expanded and recaptured the parts of Kanem that had been conquered by the Bulala.[Satellite states of Bornu included the Damagaram in the west and Baguirmi to the southeast of Lake Chad. 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.Mai Ali Gazi ibn Dunama (c. 1475–1503) defeated the Bilala, reestablishing complete control of Kanem. During the early 16th century, the Sayfawa Dynasty solidified 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. The empire controlled all of the Sahel from the borders of Darfur in the east to Hausaland to the west. Friendly relationship was established with the Ottoman Empire via Tripoli. The Mai exchanged gifts with the Ottoman sultan.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, 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, 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. In its place, the al-Kanemi dynasty of the shehu rose to power.

Shilluk Kingdom

The Shilluk Kingdom was centered in South Sudan from the 15th century from along a strip of land along the western bank of the White Nile, from Lake No to about 12° north latitude. The capital and royal residence was in the town of Fashoda. The kingdom was founded during the mid-15th century AD by its first ruler, Nyikang. During the 19th century, the Shilluk Kingdom faced decline following military assaults from the Ottoman Empire and later British and Sudanese colonization in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

Baguirmi Kingdom & Luba Empire

The Kingdom of Baguirmi existed as an independent state during the 16th and 17th centuries southeast of Lake Chad in what is now the country of Chad. Baguirmi emerged to the southeast of the Kanem-Bornu Empire. The kingdom’s first ruler was Mbang Birni Besse. Later in his reign, the Bornu Empire conquered and made the state a tributary.

The Wadai Empire was centered on Chad and the Central African Republic  from the 17th century. The Tunjur people founded the Wadai Kingdom to the east of Bornu in the 16th century. In the 17th century there was a revolt of the Maba people who established a Muslim dynasty.

At first Wadai paid tribute to Bornu and Durfur, but by the 18th century Wadai was fully independent and had become an aggressor against its neighbors.To the west of Bornu, by the 15th century the Kingdom of Kano had become the most powerful of the Hausa Kingdoms, in an unstable truce with the Kingdom of Katsina to the north. Both were absorbed into the Sokoto Caliphate during the Fulani Jihad of 1805, which threatened Bornu itself.

Sometime between 1300 and 1400 AD, 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 balopweresided 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 were formed with founders claiming descent from the Luba. The Luba political system spread throughout Central Africa, southern Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the western Congo. Two major empires claiming Luba descent were the Lunda Empire and Maravi Empire. The Bemba people and Basimba people of northern Zambia were descended from Luba migrants who arrived in Zambia during the 17th century.

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.

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 Kazembeset 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 Central 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.

Kingdom of Kongo  in 1711

By the 15th century AD, 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.

Horn of Africa

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 to 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.

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 and 18th centuries.

Ethiopia
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 scholarsin 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.[ The city of Mogadishu came to be known as the City of Islamand controlled the East African gold trade for several centuries.

During this period, sultanates such as the Ajuran Empire and the Sultanate of Mogadishu, and republics like Barawa, Merca and Hobyo and their respective ports flourished and had a lucrative foreign commerce with ships sailing to and coming from Arabia, India, Venice,[98] 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 stories high and big palaces in its centre, in addition to many mosques with cylindrical minarets.

In the 16th century, Duarte Barbosa noted that many ships from the Kingdom of Cambaya in modern-day India sailed to Mogadishu with clothand 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.[ Mogadishu, the center of a thriving weaving industry known as toob benadir (specialized for the markets in Egypt and Syria), together with Merca and Barawa, served as a transit stop for Swahilimerchants from Mombasa and Malindi and for the gold trade from Kilwa. Jewish merchants from the Strait of Hormuz brought their Indian textiles and fruit to the Somali coast to exchange for grain and wood.

Trading relations were established with Malacca in the 15th century, with cloth, ambergris, and porcelain being the main commodities of the trade.[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 Africa 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 any problems.

In the early 15th 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. In 1428, the Emperor Yeshaq I sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon, who sent return emissaries who failed to complete the return trip.

The first continuous relations with a European country began in 1508 with the Kingdom of Portugal under Emperor Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father. This proved to be an important development, for when the empire was subjected to the attacks of the Adalgeneral and imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim 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. This Abyssinian–Adal War was also one of the first proxy wars in the region as the Ottoman Empire, and Portugal took sides in the conflict.[citation needed]

When Emperor Susenyos converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths.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.

North Africa

Almohad Empire, c. 1200

The Great Mosque of Kairouan (also known as the Mosque of Uqba), first built in 670 by the Umayyad general Uqba Ibn Nafi, is the oldest and most prestigious mosque in the Maghreb and North Africa, located in the city of Kairouan, Tunisia

By 711 AD, the Umayyad Caliphate had conquered all of North Africa. By the 10th century, the majority of the population of North Africa was Muslim. By the 9th century AD, 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 Abbasidshad 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 8th and 9th centuries, asserting their independence from Baghdad. In the early 10th century, Shi’ite groups from Syria, claiming descent from Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah, 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.

In an attempt to bring about a purer form of Islam among the SanhajaBerbers, Abdallah ibn Yasin founded the Almoravid movement in present-day Mauritania and Western Sahara. The Sanhaja Berbers, like the Soninke, practiced an indigenous religion alongside 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.

The Almohad minaret in Safi

During the 10th through 13th centuries, there was a large-scale movement of bedouinsout 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.

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 AlmohadEmpire. 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 the Iberian Peninsula 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, at the end of the Granada War, Spain defeated Muslims in the Emirate of Granada, effectively ending eight centuries of Muslim domination in southern Iberia.

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.

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), strengthened the unity of the country by importing slaves from the Sudan to build up the military.

Fatimid Caliphate
In 642 AD, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered Byzantine 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 AD. The overlords paid a share to the caliphs and retained what was left. Eventually, they became landlords and constituted a settled land aristocracy.

To fill the military ranks, Mamluk Turkish slave cavalry and Sudanese slave infantry were used. Berber freemen were also recruited. In the 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.

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 Al-Adid, the last 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.[125]

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 canals lapsed into disrepair. Mamluk military skill and technology did not keep pace with new technology of handguns and cannons.

With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt was easily defeated. In 1517, at the end of an Ottoman–Mamluk War, Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire. The Istanbul government revived the iqta system. Trade was reestablished in the Red Sea, but it could not completely connect with the Indian Ocean trade because of growing Portuguese presence. During the 17th and 18th centuries, hereditary Mamluks regained 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.

In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt. The local forces had little ability to resist the French conquest. However, the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire were able to remove French occupation in 1801. These events marked the beginning of a 19th-century Anglo-Franco rivalry over Egypt.

Sudan
Christian Nubia and the Nile cataracts

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 eventually absorbed Nobadia. The people of the region converted to Monophysite Christianityaround 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.

By 641, Egypt was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate. 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

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 it was invaded by Mamluks. During the 15th century, Nubia was open to Arab immigration. Arab nomads intermingled with the population and introduced the Arab culture and the Arabiclanguage. 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 Nubia. Later Alodia would fall under the Funj Sultanate

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 the 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.

Southern Africa

Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen were present south of the Limpopo River by the 4th or 5th century CE, 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
Namibia

The Kingdom of Mapungubwewas 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 Zambezirivers, with the Swahilimerchants at Chibuene. By the mid-13th century, Mapungubwe was abandoned.

After the decline of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe rose on the Zimbabwe Plateau. Zimbabwemeans stone building. Great Zimbabwe was the first city in Southern Africa and was the center of an empire, consolidating lesser Shona polities. Stone building was inherited from Mapungubwe. These building techniques were enhanced and came into maturity at Great Zimbabwe, represented by the wall of the Great Enclosure. The dry-stack 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 decline. The city was abandoned by 1450. Some have attributed the decline to the rise of the trading town Ingombe Ilede.[

A new chapter of Shona history ensued. Nyatsimba 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.[

The Mutapa Empire continued in the north under the mwenemutapa 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.

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 were thrown out of the region in 1693, by Changamire Dombo. The 17th century was a period of peace and prosperity. The Rozwi Empire fell into ruins in the 1830s from invading Nguni from Natal.

Herero and Nama territories

By 1500 AD, 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 Ovambanderu, 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.

South African ethnic groups
Nguni peoples

The development of Sotho–Tswana states based on the highveld, south of the Limpopo River, began around 1000 CE. The chief’s power rested on cattle and his connection to the ancestor. This can be seen in the Toutswemogala Hillsettlements with stone foundations and stone walls, north of the highveld and south of the Vaal River. Northwest of the Vaal River developed early Tswana states centered on towns of thousands of people. When disagreements or rivalry arose, different groups moved to form their own states.

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. This 19th-century process of warfare, state building and migration later became known as the Mfecane (Nguni) or Difaqane (Sotho). Its major catalyst was the consolidation of the Zulu Kingdom. They were metalworkers, cultivators of millet, and cattle herders.
Khoisan and Afrikaaner

The Khoisan lived in the southwestern Cape Province, where winter rainfall is plentiful. 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 consonant 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.

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 assumed all Khoikhoi land and claimed all their cattle. The second Khoikoi-Dutch war (1673–1677) was a cattle raid. The Khoikhoi also died in thousands from European diseases.[

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 warfareslowed 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.
Southeast Africa
Prehistory

According to the theory of recent African origin of modern humans, the mainstream position held within the scientific community, all humans originate from either Southeast Africa or the Horn of Africa.During the first millennium CE, Nilotic and Bantu-speaking peoples moved into the region.[citation needed]

Swahili coast

Following the Bantu Migration, on the coastal section of Southeast Africa, a mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab and Persian traders, leading to the development of the mixed Arab, Persian and African Swahili City States.[146] The Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people. With its original speech community centered on the coastal parts of Tanzania (particularly Zanzibar) and Kenya—a seaboard referred to as the Swahili Coast—the Bantu Swahili language contains many Arabic language loan-words as a consequence of these interactions.

The earliest Bantu inhabitants of the Southeast coast of Kenya and Tanzania encountered by these later Arab and Persian settlers have been variously identified with the trading settlements of Rhapta, Azania and Menouthiasreferenced in early Greek and Chinese writings from 50 AD to 500 AD,ultimately giving rise to the name for Tanzania.These early writings perhaps document the first wave of Bantu settlers to reach Southeast Africa during their migration.

Historically, the Swahili peopleould 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).[

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 important interactions with Muslim merchants, beginning in the late 7th and early 8th centuries AD

Medieval Swahili kingdoms are known to have had island trade ports, described by Greek historians as “metropolises”, and to have established regular trade routes[with the Islamic world and Asia.[Ports such as Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Kilwa were known to Chinese sailors under Zheng He and medieval Islamic geographers such as the Berber traveller Abu Abdullah ibn Battuta. 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. Because of 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 Sultanate of Oman. Trade recovered, but it did not regain the levels of the past.
Urewe

The Urewe culture developed and spread in and around the Lake Victoriaegion of Africa during the African Iron Age. The culture’s earliest dated artifacts are located in the Kagera Region of Tanzania, and it extended as far west as the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as far east as the Nyanza and Western provinces of Kenya, and north into Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Sites from the Urewe culture date from the Early Iron Age, from the 5th century BC to the 6th century AD.

The origins of the Urewe culture are ultimately in the Bantu expansion  originating in Cameroon. Research into early Iron Age civilizations in Sub-Saharan Africa has been undertaken concurrently with studies on African linguistics on Bantu expansion. The Urewe culture may correspond to the Eastern subfamily of Bantu languages, spoken by the descendants of the first wave of Bantu peoples to settle East Africa. At first sight, Urewe seems to be a fully developed civilization recognizable through its distinctive, stylish earthenware and highly technical and sophisticated iron working techniques. Given our current level of knowledge, neither seems to have developed or altered for nearly 2,000 years. However, minor local variations in the ceramic ware can be observed.

Urewe is the name of the site in Kenya brought to prominence through the publication in 1948 of Mary Leakey’s archaeological findings. She described the early Iron Age period in the Great Lakes region in Central East Africa around Lake Victoria.
Madagascar and Merina
Madagascar was apparently first settled by Austronesian speakers from Southeast Asia before the 6th century AD and subsequently by Bantuspeakers from the east African mainland in the 6th 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 the year 1000, Arab and Indian trade settlement were started in northern Madagascar to exploit the Indian Ocean trade. 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.[citation needed]

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.

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.
Kitara and Bunyoro

By 1000 AD, 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 Bigoearthworks 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.

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. There are now 13 million Tara who are part of the second African loss,(Nafi and Uma are two losses).

Buganda

The Buganda kingdom was founded by Kato Kintu around the 14th century AD. Kato Kintu may have migrated to the northwest of Lake Victoria as early as 1000 BC. 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 had a serious rival in Bunyoro. By the 1870s, Buganda was a wealthy nation-state. The kabaka ruled with his Lukiko (council of ministers). 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.

Rwanda

Southeast of Bunyoro, near Lake Kivu at the bottom of the western rift, the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded, perhaps during the 17th century. Tutsi(BaTutsi) pastoralists 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 attain a truly centralized 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 conquered in the 1920s by Mwami Yuhi V (Yuli Musinga) (1896–1931).

Burundi
Maravi Kingdom

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, one based more on diplomacy than force.[

The Maravi claimed descent from Karonga (kalonga), who took that title as king. The Maravi connected Central 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 welcomed 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.

West Africa
Ghana at its greatest extent

The Ghana Empire may have been an established kingdom as early as the 8th century AD, founded among the Soninke by Dinge Cisse. Ghana was first mentioned by Arab geographer Al-Farazi in the late 8th century. Ghana was inhabited by 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

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.

By the 11th century, Ghana was in 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. The empire came to an end in 1230, when Takrur in northern Senegal took over the capital.

Mali & Songhai

The Mali Empire began in the 13th century AD, 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 established the capital of his empire at Niani.

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.

Conversion to Islam was a gradual process. The power of the mansadepended on upholding traditional beliefs and a spiritual foundation of power. Sundiata initially kept Islam at bay. Later mansas were 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. Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta left vivid descriptions of the empire.

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. Mansa Musa’s hajjdevalued 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.

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 Islamic world.

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 establishing the independent Imamate of Futa Toro, a successor to the kingdom of Takrur. Serer and Wolofalliances were broken. In 1545 to 1546, the Songhai Empire took Niani. After 1599, the empire lost the Bambouk goldfields and disintegrated into petty polities.

Sokoto Caliphate & The Songhai Empire, c. 1500

The Songhai people are descended from fishermen on the Middle Niger River. They established their capital at Kukiya in the 9th century AD and at Gao in the 12th century. The Songhai speak a Nilo-Saharan language.

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 General Muhammad Ture, a Muslim of Soninke origins[

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 established 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.

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 its venture 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 unsustainable scenario. The Moroccans who remained married into the population and were referred to as Arma or Ruma. They 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. In 1737, the Tuareg massacred the Arma.

Forest Empires and States

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.

Ashanti Kente cloth patterns
The Akan speak a Kwa language. The speakers of Kwa languages are believed to have come from East/Central Africa, before settling in the Sahel.  By the 12th century, the Akan Kingdom of Bonoman(Bono State) was established. During the 13th century, when the gold mines in modern-day Mali started to dry up, Bonoman and later other Akan states began to rise to prominence as the major players in the Gold trade. It was Bonoman and other Akan kingdoms like Denkyira, Akyem, Akwamu which were the predecessors to what became the all-powerful Empire of Ashanti. When and how the Ashante got to their present location is debatable. What is known is that by the 17th century an Akan people were identified as living in a state called Kwaaman. The location of the state was north of Lake Bosomtwe. The state’s revenue was mainly derived from 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 one of the more powerful Akan states at that time along with Adansi and Akwamu. During the 16th century, Ashante society experienced sudden changes, including population growth because of cultivation of New World plants such as cassava and maize and an increase in the gold trade between the coast and the north.

By the 17th century, Osei Kofi Tutu I (c. 1695–1717), with help of Okomfo Anokye, unified what became 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. Opoku Ware I (1720–1745) engaged in further expansion, adding other southern Akan states to the growing empire. 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 Dagomba, 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) imposed 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 consolidation and expansion. The Ashante Empire included all of present-day Ghana and large parts of the Ivory Coast.

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.

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.

Dahomey
The Dahomey Kingdom was founded in the early 17th century when the Aja people of the Alladakingdom 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 established, 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. Taxes on slaves were mostly paid in cowrie shells. During the 19th century, palm oil was the main trading commodity.[197] Franceconquered 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 AD 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 an 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 obasassuming more powerful spiritual positions and diluting the authority of the Oni of Ife. Rivalry became intense among the city-states.

The Oyo Empire rose in the 16th century. 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 Guineawith 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. 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.

Benin & Niger Delta and Igbo

The Kwa Niger–Congospeaking Edo people had established the Benin Empireby the middle of the 15th century. It was engaged in political expansion and consolidation from its very beginning. Under Oba (king) Ewuare (c. 1450–1480 AD), the state was organized 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.[citation needed]

Ewuare’s grandson Oba Esigie (1504–1550) eroded the power of the uzama(state council) and increased 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 of the uzama, a council consisting of chiefs of powerful families and town chiefs of different guilds. Later its authority was diminished by the establishment of administrative dignitaries. Women wielded power. The queen mother who produced the future oba wielded immense influence.

Benin was never a significant exporter of slaves, as Alan Ryder’s book Benin and the Europeans showed. By the early 18th century, it was wrecked with dynastic disputes and civil wars. However, it regained much of its former power in the reigns of Oba Eresoyen and Oba Akengbuda. After the 16th century, Benin mainly exported pepper, ivory, gum, and cotton cloth to the Portuguese and Dutch who resold it to other African societies on the coast. In 1897, the British sacked the city

The Niger Delta comprised numerous city-states with numerous 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. 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.

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, with the Eze Nri being its leader. 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 AD) contained brass artifacts of local manufacture and glass beads from Egypt or India, indicative of extraregional trade.
19th century Southern Africa
By the 1850s, British and German missionaries and traders had penetrated present-day 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 Germansdeclared the coastal region from the Orange River to the Kunene River a German protectorate, part of German South West Africa. They pursued an aggressive policy of land expansion for white settlements. They exploited rivalry between the Nama and Herero.

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 Ovambanderu 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 and slowed white expansion. The Germans continued the policy of making Namibia a white settlement by seizing land and cattle, and even trying to export Herero labor to South Africa.

In 1904, the Herero rebelled. German General Lothar von Trothaimplemented 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.

Nguniland
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 Tugelaand 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.

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.

One of the major states to emerge from the Mfecane was the Sotho Kingdom founded at Thaba Bosiu by Moshoeshoe I around 1821 to 1822. It was a confederation of 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. The Orange Free State slowly diminished the kingdom but never completely defeated it. In 1868, Moshoeshoe asked that the Sotho Kingdom be annexed by Britain, to save the remnant. It became the British protectorate of Basutoland.

Voortrekkers

By the 19th century, most Khoikhoi territory was 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 Afrikaners. 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.

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, because of 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. The defeat however consummated many Afrikaners’ ambition: South Africa would be under white rule. The British placed all power—legislative, executive, administrative—in English and Afrikaner hands.

European trade, exploration and conquest
1895 .303 tripod mounted Maxim machine gun

Between 1878 and 1898, 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 was being 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.

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 disease 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.

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.

David Livingstone, early European explorer of the interior of Africa

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 (coiner of the term “Dark Continent” for Africa in an 1878 book), Silva Porto, Alexandre de Serpa Pinto, Rene Caille, Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs, 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 established long-distance trading routes were used.

Missionaries attempting to spread Christianity also increased European knowledge of Africa. Between 1884 and 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 recognized if Europeans provided effective occupation. In a series of treaties in 1890–1891, colonial boundaries were completely drawn. All of Sub-Saharan Africa was claimed by European powers, except for Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and Liberia.

The European powers set up a variety of different administrations in Africa, 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.[citation needed]

Following the Scramble for Africa, an early but secondary focus for most colonial regimes was the suppression of slavery and the slave trade. By the end of the colonial period they were mostly successful in this aim, though slavery is still very active in Africa.

France versus Britain: the Fashoda crisis of 1898
Central and east Africa, 1898, during the Fashoda Incident.
European colonial territories

As a part of the Scramble for Africa, France had the establishment of a continuous west-east axis of the continent as an objective, in contrast with the British north-south axis. Tensions between Britain and France reached tinder stage in Africa. At several points war was possible, but never happened. The most serious episode was the Fashoda Incident of 1898. French troops tried to claim an area in the Southern Sudan, and a much more powerful British force purporting to be acting in the interests of the Khedive of Egypt arrived to confront them. Under heavy pressure the French withdrew securing British control over the area. The status quo was recognised by an agreement between the two states acknowledging British control over Egypt, while France became the dominant power in Morocco, but France suffered a humiliating defeat overall.

The World Wars

In the 1880s the European powers had divided up almost all of Africa (only Ethiopia and Liberia were independent). They ruled until after World War II when forces of nationalism grew much stronger. In the 1950s and 1960s the colonial holdings became independent states. The process was usually peaceful but there were several long bitter bloody civil wars, as in Algeria, Kenyaand elsewhere. Across Africa the powerful new force of nationalism drew upon the organizational skills that natives learned in the British and French and other armies in the world wars. It led to organizations that were not controlled by or endorsed by either the colonial powers not the traditional local power structures that were collaborating with the colonial powers. Nationalistic organizations began to challenge both the traditional and the new colonial structures and finally displaced them. Leaders of nationalist movements took control when the European authorities exited; many ruled for decades or until they died off. These structures included political, educational, religious, and other social organizations. In recent decades, many African countries have undergone the triumph and defeat of nationalistic fervor, changing in the process the loci of the centralizing state power and patrimonial state.]

Post-war Africa: decolonization

With the vast majority of the continent under the colonial control of European governments, the World Wars were significant events in the geopolitical history of Africa. Africa was a theater of war and saw fighting in both wars. More important in most regions, the total war footing of colonial powers impacted the governance of African colonies, through resource allocation, conscription, and taxation. In World War I there were several campaigns in Africa, including the Togoland Campaign, the Kamerun Campaign, the South West Africa campaign, and the East African campaign. In each, Allied forces, primarily British, but also French, Belgian, South African, and Portuguese, sought to force the Germans out of their African colonies. In each, German forces were badly outnumbered and, due to Allied naval superiority, were cut off from reinforcement or resupply. The Allies eventually conquered all German colonies; German forces in East Africa managed to avoid surrender though out the war, though they could not hold any territory after 1917. After World War I, former German colonies in Africa were taken over by France, Belgium, and the British Empire.

After World War I, colonial powers continued to consolidate their control over their African territories. In some areas, particularly in Southern and East Africa, large settler populations were successful in pressing for additional devolution of administration, so-called “home rule” by the white settlers. In many cases, settler regimes were harsher on African populations, tending to see them more as a threat to political power, as opposed to colonial regimes which had generally endeavored to coopt local populations into economic production. The Great Depression strongly affected Africa’s non-subsistence economy, much of which was based on commodity production for Western markets. As demand increased in the late 1930s, Africa’s economy rebounded as well.

Africa was the site of one of the first instances of fascist territorial expansions in the 1930s. Italy had attempted to conquer Ethiopia in the 1890s but had been rebuffed in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Ethiopia lay between two Italian colonies, Italian Somaliland and Eritrea and was invaded in October 1935. With an overwhelming advantage in armor and aircraft, by May 1936, Italian forces had occupied the capital of Addis Ababa and effectively declared victory. Ethiopia and their other colonies were consolidated into Italian East Africa.  Areas controlled by European powers in 1939. British (red) and Belgian (Orange) colonies fought with the Allies. Italian (green) with the Axis. French colonies (dark blue) fought with the Allies until the Fall of France after which some supported Vichy and some the Free French. Portuguese (brown) and Spanish (teal) colonies remained neutral.

Since Germany had lost its African colonies following World War I, World War II did not reach Africa until Italy joined the war on June 10, 1940, controlling Libya and Italian East Africa. With the fall of Franceon June 25, most of France’s colonies in North and West Africa were controlled by the Vichy government, though much of Central Africa fell under Free French control after some fighting between Vichy and Free French forces at the Battle of Dakar and the Battle of Gabon. After the fall of France, Africa was the only active theater for ground combat until the Italian invasion of Greece in October. In the Western Desert campaign Italian forces from Libya sought to overrun Egypt, controlled by the British. Simultaneously, in the East African campaign, Italian East African forces overran British Somalilandand some British outposts in Kenya and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. When Italy’s efforts to conquer Egypt (including the crucial Suez Canal) and Sudan fell short, they were unable to reestablish supply to Italian East Africa.

Without the ability to reinforce or resupply and surrounded by Allied possessions, Italian East Africa was conquered by mainly British and South African forces in 1941. In North Africa, the Italians soon requested help from the Germans who sent a substantial force under General Rommel. With German help, the Axis forces regained the upper hand but were unable to break through British defenses in two tries at El Alamein. In late 1942, Allied forces, mainly Americans and Canadians, invaded French North Africa in Operation Torch, where Vichy French forces initially surprised them with their resistance but were convinced to stop fighting after three days. The second front relieved pressure on the British in Egypt who began pushing west to meet up with the Torch forces, eventually pinning German and Italian forces in Tunisia, which was conquered by May 1943 in the Tunisia campaign, ending the war in Africa. The only other significant operations occurred in the French colony of Madagascar, which was invaded by the British in May 1942 to deny its ports to the Axis (potentially the Japanese who had reached the eastern Indian Ocean). The French garrisons in Madagascar surrendered in November 1942.

East Africa

The decolonization of Africa started with Libya in 1951, although Liberia, South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia were already independent. Many countries followed in the 1950s and 1960s, with a peak in 1960 with the Year of Africa, which saw 17 African nations declare independence, including 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 the United Kingdom in 1980; and Namibia from South Africa in 1990. Eritrea later split off from Ethiopia in 1993

The Mau Mau Uprising took place in Kenya from 1952 until 1956 but was put down by British and local forces. A state of emergency remained in place until 1960. Kenya became independent in 1963, and Jomo Kenyatta served as its first president.

The early 1960s 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
Southern Africa

Moroccan nationalism developed during the 1930s; the Istiqlal Party was formed, pushing for independence. In 1953 sultan Mohammed V of Morocco  called for independence. On March 2, 1956, Morocco became independent of France. Mohammed V became ruler of independent Morocco.

In 1954, Algeria formed the National Liberation Front (FLN) as it split from France. This resulted in the Algerian War, which lasted until independence negotiations in 1962. Muhammad Ahmed Ben Bella was elected President of Algeria. Over a million French nationals, predominantly Pied-Noirs, left the country, crippling the economy.

In 1934, the “Neo Destour” (New Constitution) party was founded by Habib Bourguiba pushing for independence in Tunisia. Tunisia became independent in 1955. Its bey was deposed and Habib Bourguiba elected as President of Tunisia.

In 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser deposed the monarchy of Egypt in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and came to power as Prime Minister of Egypt.  Muammar Gaddafi led the 1969 Libyan coup d’état which deposed Idris of Libya. Gaddafi remained in power until his death in the Libyan Civil War of 2011.[240]

Egypt was involved in several wars against Israel and was allied with other Arab countries. The first was the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, right after the state of Israel was founded. Egypt went to war again in the Six-Day War of 1967 and lost the Sinai Peninsula to Israel. They went to war yet again in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In 1979, President of Egypt Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister of Israel 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 members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad under Khalid Islambouli. The assassins were Islamists who targeted Sadat for his signing of the Accords.

West Africa

In 1948 the apartheid laws were started in South Africa by the dominant National Party. These were largely a continuation of existing policies; the difference was the policy of “separate development” (Apartheid). 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 South African general election, 1994, the country’s first multiracial presidential election.

Historiography of British 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 Ivory Coast, 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.

World War II diverted most scholars to wartime projects and accounted for a pause in scholarship during the 1940s.
The first historical studies in English appeared in the 1890s, and followed one of four approaches. 1) The territorial narrative was typically written by a veteran soldier or civil servant who gave heavy emphasis to what he had seen. 2) The “apologia” were essays designed to justify British policies. 3) Popularizers tried to reach a large audience. 4) Compendia appeared designed to combine academic and official credentials. Professional scholarship appeared around 1900, and began with the study of business operations, typically using government documents and unpublished archives.[citation needed]

The economic approach was widely practiced in the 1930s, primarily to provide descriptions of the changes underway in the previous half-century. In 1935, American historian William L. Langer published The Diplomacy of Imperialism: 1890–1902, a book that is still widely cited. In 1939, Oxford professor Reginald Copeland published The Exploitation of East Africa, 1856–1890: The Slave Trade and the Scramble, another popular treatment.

History of Africa

By the 1950s many African students were studying in British universities, and they produced a demand for new scholarship, and started themselves to supply it as well. Oxford University became the main center for African studies, with activity as well at Cambridge University and the London School of Economics. The perspective of British government policymakers or international business operations slowly gave way to a new interest in the activities of the natives, especially nationalistic movements and the growing demand for independence. The major breakthrough came from Ronald Robinson and John Andrew Gallagher, especially with their studies of the impact of free trade on Africa. In 1985 The Oxford History of South Africa (2 vols.) was published, attempting to synthesize the available materials. In 2013, The Oxford Handbook of Modern African History was published, bringing the scholarship up to date.

Beginning  with Africans migrating, populating,  developing,   organizing,   becoming  fathers and  mothers of mankind.  They shared their knowledge of  farming, domestication of animals and organized fishing. African were first to build huge permanent statues and monuments along with,  developing civilizations for  the rest of humanity. Which  started with kingdoms of   Nubian, Kush, Songhai,  among other numerous   empires.  Notably, there is a false allegation  Arab’s  are indigenous to North Africa.   This misconception began with their invasion  in 652 creating  Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, and Sudan.  Consequently, there is a  misguided belief, they are indigenous to north Africa.  On the contrary,   they are conquerors.  An interesting historical fact is present-day Spain and Portugal  were  conquered by African Moors in 711.     It centuries before  Portugal gained their independence  in 1239,  which was followed by Spain in 1492.    Shortly afterward they were major players in the  Transatlantic slave trade.

A contributing factor occurred  after   Portugal   modified their  caravel’s triangular sails into a rectangle one.  Which allowed them    to cross the Indian Ocean very easily. Profoundly, they had a huge navigational  advantage when utilizing this technique during their “Voyages of Discovery.”     Which allowed  them to explore  lands unknown to Europeans which they eventually exploited. Consequently, at the end of the fifteenth century, Portugal’s grew into a world power. Portugal  built Elmira Castle in 1481, in  modern Ghana, which was their slave trading headquarters.  At that time, they sent four million  slaves to  Brazil.  Which is four time the amount sent anywhere else.    Notably the city of Lisbon, was a major port involved in the Portuguese slave trade. Their ships went to West Africa exporting  Africans across the Atlantic  to Bahia,  Brazil. Returning to Portugal which completed the transatlantic slave trade. Another  equally important historical event  occurred  in 1453.  On April 6  is   when Turkey  successfully captured  Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). Which was blocking Europe’s main source for spices, silks, paper, porcelain, glass, as well as other luxury goods produced in India, China, Japan, along with the spice islands (Indonesia). Which was also known as the “Silk Road.”

Much to the dismay of Europe’s aristocrats,  their East Indies passage was blocked  by Turkey who controlled their overland path to the Orient.  .  At the other end of this spectrum,  it  was a great opportunity for Portugal. This allowed them to become  a world power during their  ” Age of Discovery “.   They focused  on colonizing Brazil along with slaving trading  with African kingdoms.  At first a few slaves were sent to Europe as servants.  Once Columbus open up his so-called New World, those few slaves grew into millions.  Which were essential in  developing both   South and North  America.

Moreover, when the Portuguese arrived in Brazil in the early 1500s, their situation as colonialist was very different from Spain arriving in an  establish Aztec and Mayan empires.  Contrarily,   there were no  established civilization with hoards of precious metals for plunder, or discipline organizations for them to plunder.   Of major importance,  they were unable  to use indigenous inhabitants  as slaves. Not only, they had a high mortality rate when exposed to Western diseases.   It easy for them to seek refuge  into  their natural habitat. At the same time the indigenous population were deliberately   destroyed.  The Treaty of Tordesillas  (June 7, 1494), agreement between Spain and Portugal aimed at settling conflicts over lands newly discovered or explored by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers.

Consequently, Portugal   sent their captive  directly to Brazil, and  Spain’s colonies. Notably, these  plantations were managed by single young white men who created an assortment of mulattoes.   This was similar to  Moorish occupation of Iberia whose sexual needs were satisfied by their female captives. And also, Portugal gains came from exporting  commodities  to other countries.  During this transition,   slavery removed African customs and traditions.  Those  whom have victimized been victimized are speaking Portuguese in Brazil,   Spanish in Latin America and English in North America without any knowledge of  their African heritage, customs nor traditions.    In today’s contemporary world,   African is very seldom used.    Instead,  it is negro or black.    African is never used describing all of its people.   Unfortunately,  it is a self-imposed dichotomy.

Spain’s Conquest
Spain’s conquest  was quite different from Portugal’s.   It was orchestrated  by  Christopher Columbus so-called   “New-World” discovery.   Whose  idea  was different from Portugal’s   navigating around African shorelines crossing the Indian ocean to the  fame Silk Road.  By contrast   Columbus’s  theory was  sailing west  was quicker.   However, his theory was not popular which meant  he was unable to get sponsoring.     However, by happen chance after Spain defeated the Moors in 1492,  King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain sponsored his voyages.

They accepted his new found idea  and  outfitted him with three ships, Two of them were caravels the Niña and Pinta along with his flagship the Santa Maria, which was a larger Carrack ship that   was captained by Columbus. For the record,  his first voyage was  a miserable  failure.  Mindfully, he beached his flagship the Santa Ana and was force to leave  a third of his crew behind with orders to form a colony in the name of the Spanish Monarchy.    Nevertheless, upon his arrival in Europe this was good news for the peasants, and serfs whom were oppressed by landlords for centuries. For them, this was  an opportunity for a new beginning with thoughts of acquiring wealth and land they couldn’t obtain in Europe. This was  a watershed moment in history was the beginning of the European conquest. Which began with Columbus’s second voyage on September 23, 1493. Which is obviously because their sole purpose was to conquer.

This was Spain’s transformation from being conquered by the Moors for over 700 years  into becoming a conqueror themselves.  Noteworthy, this voyage  was  mandated by Queen Isabella and King Fernando with a blessing of the Pope. The evidence is when  Columbus was given a flotilla of 17 ships, domesticated animals, along with 1,200 men, attack dogs, as well as canons with several priests. His orders were to colonize Hispaniola, then continue his journey to locate mainland India.  Although he died  on May 20, 1506, his  conquering initiative was carried out by  Conquistadors, who pillaged,  and robbed to make Spain an envy of the western world. The indigenous population was no match against these strangers who had horses, giving them mobility along with their weapon superiority. Even more devastating was their lack of immunity from Europeans diseases such as smallpox, measles or a common cold causing millions of them to die.  Within a few short decades after Columbus landed   on the Caribbean shores, Spain created one of the most formidable empires in European history by conquering and colonizing vast stretches of the Americas. In 1508, about 16 years after he  first stumbled upon his so-called New World. There was a total of 45 ships that  had crossed the Atlantic  bringing settlers and supplies.

They introduced crops, especially sugarcane, and animals, including cattle, mules, sheep, horses, along with pigs. At first, slavery begins with a trickle into Brazil by  Portugal.  This was in conjunction with  Spain’s colonies, especially when gold was found in Mexico,  and Peru along with silver discovered in Bolivia. Slavery is an old business that has been since the dawn of humanity. In Europe, by the sixteenth century, there was a tremendous demand for laborers in their newly discovered colonies. The Spanish and Portuguese led the way, that was followed a century later by England, who also imported  slaves from Africa.   Trading for slaves was an ancient practice among Africans as well as other cultures. Although, many societies recognized them merely as property, but others saw them as dependents, which eventually might be integrated into the families of the slave owners. Still, other societies allowed slaves to attain positions of military or administrative power. Most often, both owners and also, the slaves themselves were Africans, although they were frequently of different micro-nations (known in western societies as tribes).

Traditionally, African slaves were brought to perform menial or domestic labor, to serve as wives or concubines, or to enhance statuses of the slave owner. However, treatment of slaves was vastly different and less cruel than the treatment of slaves by Arabs and  Protestants. European traders took refuge in the fact that Arab’s and even the Africans themselves had already sold slaves before them.  Which gave them an opportunity to justify their slave institutions. When Christopher Columbus accidental arrived on a Caribbean island that he called Hispaniola, he planted a flag declaring it a protectorate of Spain. This was the first colony outside of Europe. What followed was King Ferdinand together with Queen Isabella sending conquistadors across the Atlantic to claim land for their kingdom.  This is another piece of evidence of their conquering intentions. This accusation cannot be denied because of the Spanish Requirement of 1513 that was a declaration by the monarchy of its divinity. Giving the conquistadors or mercenaries an ordained right to take possession of the territories of the New World and to subjugate, exploit and to fight the indigenous people by the name of God.   The Requirement was read in Spanish to inform them of Spain’s rights to conquer them. The Spaniards thus considered those who resisted as defying God’s plan, and so used Catholic theology to justify their conquests. Using this rationale, Hernan Cortez  in 1519 arrived in Mexico with horses along with 500 soldiers. These Aztecs were not sure what to think about these strangers because they had never seen men dressed in metal armor let alone riding horses. They thought Cortes was their Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, and they welcomed him as if he was a great god, but soon realized their mistake.

Which later led to a devastation of its people with a major help of epidemic diseases which they had no immunity. The conquistadors had brought with them smallpox, which killed huge numbers of Aztec warriors. Consequently,   Aztecs were unable to fight off Cortes, who also was  helped  by surrounding indigenous foes, who hated Aztec rulers. He could conquer Aztecs and other empires.  The Inca Empire met the same fate as the Aztecs. Smallpox would also help another Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro; who conquered Incas in South America. His  victory would be easy,  smallpox had reached Peru many months before him. The disease killed thousands of Incas leaving this empire under populated.  He captures Inca’s ruler, Atahualpa, easily. Pizarro promised that he would release Atahualpa if they gave him gold. The Incas complied in order to save their ruler, but he never kept his promise. Once he received this gold and silver, Pizarro killed him.

Another great empire fell. Spain would continue to conquer most of South America growing from an insignificant country in Europe into a world power. It was because of their stolen gold artifacts as well as silver along with everything else of value. Noteworthy, more than a few of these ships were so overloaded with treasure a few of them sunk.    Simultaneously, more  artifacts were stolen from Spain’s treasure ships at sea by pirates. This was in conjunction with England, who commissioned Sir Frances Drake, vice admiral who was a sea captain, pirate privateer, slaver, and politician all in the service of Queen Elizabeth. Soon afterward, other European nations hired pirates on their behalf.

Spanish  Armada 1588

Initially, Spain and England had cordial relations; however, that slowly deteriorated. Especially, when Spain’s monarchy got tired of them pirating their treasury ships. Mindfully, these stolen artifacts were results of Spain plundering and destroying Aztec’s, Inca’s,  and Maya’s civilizations. Another thorn in Spain’s side is England was Protestant and Spain  Catholic.  Which  gave them more reason to destroy  England.  In order to accomplish this feat Spain  built a fleet of ships or Spanish Armada. Notably, this was the first time in the western culture that a fleet of this magnitude was built. The Armada was new technology and supposedly invincible. However, that was not the case at all.  This so-called indestructible fleet was decisively defeated in 1588. This was done by a little bit of luck with the weather and Spain’s lack of navigational skills by Spain.   The defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the most famous events in English history.

At the other end of the spectrum,   it was arguably Queen Elizabeth’s finest hour. England was victorious, which catapult them into a world sea power which they have maintained until this day.  Using their new status, that gave them fortitude  to colonize areas not yet occupied by Spain or Portugal.    In 1606, King James I of England gave the Virginia Company of London the charter to establish a new colony in North America. They financed an expedition of 144 men (105 settlers and 39 crewmen) to travel to America aboard three ships named the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. They set sail on December 20, 1606. This settlement would be named James town in honor of its King. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America.

It was founded on May 14,  1607 and served as the capital of the Virginia colony for over 80 years. Mindfully,  all of  settlers of Jamestown were  men. Most of them were aristocrats looking for gold. They hoped to get rich quick and then return to England as millionaires. Done of them were used to the hardships of hard work. They didn’t know how to fish, hunt, or farm. Their lack of basic survival skills would make the initial years virtually  impossible.   The evidence is more than half of the original settlers died during a harsh winter. Most of them died from diseases, germs from the water, and starvation. It wasn’t until Captain John Smith took over the colony leadership  that relationships improved. When Smith attempted to visit the Powhatan Chief, he was taken captive. Smith was saved when the chief’s daughter, Pocahontas, intervened and saved his life. After this event, this relationship between the two groups improved, and the settlers could trade with the Powhatan for much-needed goods. It was in the summer of 1608 that Captain John Smith became the president of the colony. Unlike the other leaders, Smith was not an “aristocrats”, but an experienced seaman and a soldier. Smith’s leadership gave the colony a chance to survive.

The winter after John Smith left (1609-1610) turned out to be the worst year in the history of the settlement. It is often called the ” starving time ” because only 60 of the 500 settlers living in Jamestown survived that winter.  After a harsh winter, these few settlers left were determined to abandon the colony. When fresh supplies and colonists arrived from England in the spring, they decided to stay. Things began to turn around. This is when John Rolfe introduced tobacco. It became a cash crop for Virginia and helped the colony to grow rapidly over the next several years.  At first,   white indenture servants  develop this colony.  The indentured  European men and women who signed a contract by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia. Once they arrived, food, clothing, along with shelter was supplied. Adults usually served for four to seven years and children sometimes for much longer, with most working in the colony’s tobacco fields. With a long history in England, indentured servitude occurred, during most of the seventeenth century, a primary means by which Virginia planters filled their inexhaustible need for labor.

In 1619, twenty Africans were bartered for tobacco at Jamestown. It was not aboard a Dutch ship as reported by John Rolfe, but an English warship, White Lion. Some time later, a shipment of 100 white women indentured servants was bought to expand its population. Jamestown began to grow and its early days, Africans together with European indentured servants fraternize with each other without any racial issues. Moreover, they ate, work alongside each other having babies among themselves. However, the status of Africans in colonial America underwent a rapid revolutionary change.
One early judicial decision signaled the change in European attitudes toward Africans. In 1640, three Virginia servants—John Punch, James Gregory, along with a man named Victor, were all indentured servants contracted to Virginia’s planter Hugh Gwyn. Upon recapture, these three men each performed a similar task as slaves, each suffered unimaginable cruelty was willingly escaping  in pursuit of freedom. John, James, along with Victor ran away but were captured within days.  Though fleeing similar circumstances, the fates of these runaways differed under the court’s interpretation. A judge sentenced all three to whippings. He then added four years to the indenture terms of James and Victor, both white Europeans. However, John Punch an  African was condemned to lifelong servitude with harsher treatment. This lone historical event was a precursor to chattel slavery.

Bacon Rebellion 1676

Forty years later was Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 which covers a wide range of events that was a precursor to America’s Revolution against England. Early colonies had a difficult time surviving under England’s rule using indenture servants along with African slaves to develop their settlements. In order to fill this endless need, prisons were emptied along with brothels together with children from orphan homes. As  a matter of historical importance, resistance to  English rule  was exhibited by desertions,   rebellions, mutinies on seas, as well as work slowdowns. There were strikes by bakers, porters, truckers, and carriers. Court records from Virginia in 1671 inform us that Governor Berkeley had reported in previous years, that four out of five servants died of disease after their arrival.

This was the year when births and deaths were recorded by color giving  birth to the WHITE RACE. Finally, the worst fears of the plantation’s elite crystallized in Virginia in 1676 by Nathaniel Bacon. Who formed an anti-aristocratic movement symbolizing a mass resentment against the Virginia establishment. This began when hundreds of European freedmen, bond-servants joined by African slaves staged an armed insurrection against Virginia’s colonial elite.color giving  birth to the WHITE RACE. Finally, the worst fears of the plantation’s elite crystallized in Virginia in 1676 by Nathaniel Bacon. Who formed an anti-aristocratic movement symbolizing a mass resentment against the Virginia establishment. This began when hundreds of European freedmen, bond-servants joined by African slaves staged an armed insurrection against Virginia’s colonial elite.freedmen, bond-servants joined by African slaves staged an armed insurrection against Virginia’s colonial elite.

Noteworthy, white European and African slaves  were forced into servitude are now united with each other in his army. Prior to the Beacon Rebellion they  ate, work, stole hogs and often times ran away together as well as socialized and had babies between each other. Notably,  the freed Africans could vote, participate in the colonies, politics, militia as well as owning indenture servants. Most disturbing was they fought in removing Aristocrats from power. This ended with burning Jamestown by Bacon’s rebels, in 1676, gave the ruling class reasons for concern.

Which eventually caused a creation of institutionalized racism based on color that eliminates Europeans  fraternizing together with Africans.  In the early days of Jamestown, the  slaves and indenture servants form friendships among themselves. Subsequently, Britain soldiers defeated Bacon’s forces, eventually, restored royal rule over Virginia’s Jamestown colony. Bacon’s Rebellion was a famous event, but uprisings occurred throughout the colonies. Notably, before this colony was restored, the Aristocrats were forced to live on ships for a year until England could send reinforcements to put down the rebellion. Surprisingly,  there was never any reference to race by color until 1691.

What followed was a plethora of slave codes involving discipline together with its punishment were passed, by the Virginia Assembly with “benefits” for their European brethren. The Law of 1705 required masters to provide White servants whose indenture were up to 10 bushels of corn, 3 shillings, and a gun plus 50 acres of land; women servants got 15 bushels of corn and 40 shillings. The African servant got a lifetime of servitude together with harsher treatments. Moreover, in 1705, the law forbid any African from owning an indentured servant. In 1721, free Africans were deprived of their voting rights. By 1727, Virginia, established slave patrols all Europeans were required as their duty to hunt down Africans whom escape.

Contrary to what history teaches, the American Revolution was not ignited by taxation on tea. According to Benjamin Franklin, it was because ” the conditions [became] so reversed that the era of prosperity ended. ” In the mid-1700s the American Colonies were prospering, in part because they were issuing their own money called ” Colonial Scrip, ” which was strictly regulated and did not require the payment of any interest. When the bankers in Great Britain heard this, they turned to the British Parliament, which passed a law prohibiting the Colonial Scrip, forcing the colonists to accept the “Debt ” or ” Fiat ” money issued by the Bank of England.

Notably, poor Europeans were rewarded, giving them a financial incentive. By the 1760s the colonial rulers, the rich elite, had 150 years of ruling experience, and had formulated various tactics to deal with their different fears. And we have seen that the biggest fear among these wealthy plantation owners was the potential combination of European and African slaves. In response, over half a century, the elite passed codes, forcing Africans to be slaves as opposed Europeans. The elite had discovered that if they constructed a race-based system of slavery, and gave the European servants just a bit more than the African servants received, they could effectively “buy-off” the Europeans. However, they had to create “white racism” in order to reach this goal.

Contemporary History

Contemporary history begins with  England conquering Australia which occurred a few years before America’s revolution.  Once again,  Europeans utilized their conquering concept only this time. Its victims were defined as aborigines. According to them, they were less than human. Actually, it was to justify their annihilation. In reality, they were Africans who migrated to Australia and its surrounding islands hundred of thousands of years before their arrival.  It would be remiss not to include the arrival of Lt James Cook in 1770. This is   another aspect of colonialism but this time in was in Australia. When his voyages of exploration sailed under instructions to take possession of the Southern Continent. Upon his arrival, Lt Cook declared the land New South Wales to be the property of Britain’s King George III, but as always ignored the inconvenient truth  that all of  the land was already well populated.

Known as the First Fleet the ships sailed from England on the 13th of May 1787. All told, the British First Fleet carried 1,500 people comprised of convicts, crew, and guards. Along with six convict ships sailed with 568 male and 191 female prisoners – a total of 759 convicts. A century after Beacons Rebellion was the British invasion of Australia on January the 26th, 1788 eleven ships under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, first Governor of the new colony, anchored on the east coast of Australia at Sydney Cove and raised the British Flag.  The reasons that led the British to invade Australia were simple. The prisons in Britain had become unbearably overcrowded, a situation worsened by the refusal of America to take any more convicts after the American War of Independence in 1783. Crime rates were rising across the nation while large numbers of people were moving away from rural areas to the increasingly industrialized cities where unemployment ran high as machines replaced man power. An estimated one million people in Britain were below the breadline in 1788.

Following the direction of the prevailing trade winds and ocean currents, the route took the First Fleet from England to the Canary Islands, then southwards across the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to take on supplies, by crossing the Atlantic to the African Cape and finally from there across the Indian and Southern Oceans to their destination. It would be fair to say that sending the First Fleet out to New South Wales was a calculated risk; that the colony survived and progressed is due almost entirely to the arrival of the Second Fleet in June 1790. The arrival of these ships saved the colony from starvation and certain death. From then onward, as ships came out regularly with convict labor and supplies on board, the colony flourished and the gradual exploration and settlement across the continent began.

Britain looked at other geographical areas with regard to establishing penal colonies such as the West Coast of Africa. This option was deemed unattainable as the waters were extremely dangerous coast; Britain had no proper foothold in the area, and it was concluded that the risk of escape was high. Early contact had revealed that the kingdoms in West Africa were warlike. For them, this was not a good scenario for a penal colony.

During much of the 20th century, outright killings were replaced by a policy of removing children from their parents and giving them to white families or placing them in mission schools, to eradicate traces of Aboriginal culture and language. Next is the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), was between Great Britain and their thirteen colonies on the North American shores. The war was the culmination of the political American Revolution, whereby the colonists overthrew their rule. In 1775, Revolutionaries seized control of each of the thirteen colonial governments, set up the Second Continental Congress, and formed a Continental Army. The Colonies would gladly have paid a little tax on tea, and other matters had it not been the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament. The Bank of England viewed America’s monetary policies as a threat to their imperial power. Parliament had to do something.

They decided to pass the currency act of 1776, that regulated paper money issued by the colonies of British America. The Act sought to protect British merchants and creditors from being paid in depreciated colonial currency. The policy created tension between the colonies and Great Britain, and was cited as a grievance by colonists early in the American Revolution. This restricted them from printing their own money and thereby forced payment of colonial taxes to England in gold or silver coins. The problem with that request is that the Post-Revolutionary colonies were very poor and did not have sufficient gold and silver to make the payments. This gold standard caused a severe economic depression, and ultimately rebellion in the colonies.

The next year, they formally declared their independence as a new nation, the United States of America. From 1778 onward, other European powers would fight on the American side during the war. Meanwhile, population along with African slaves fought on both sides. Throughout this war, the British would use their naval superiority to capture and occupy coastal cities, but control throughout the countryside (where 90% of the population lived) largely eluded them due to their relatively small land army.

In early 1778, shortly after an American victory at Saratoga, New York, France entered the war against Britain; Spain and The Netherlands joined as allies of France over the next two years. French involvement proved decisive, with their naval victory in the Chesapeake Bay leading to the surrender of a British army at Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the war and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.

African Economic Independence

The early days of the American economy were filled with trade routes stretching across the Atlantic in seemingly all directions. As with trade between European countries, goods coming into and out of the Americas tended to be a pattern. The money paid for one set of goods would be used for another and so on. A typical shipment of goods from Europe would consist of beads, cloth, hardware, rum, salt, or weapons. The shipment would go to Africa, where goods would be traded for slaves. A ship leaving Africa for America would contain hundreds of enslaved people, tightly packed in horrific conditions during the journey to an auction block somewhere in America.

Once in America, ships would unload slaves for molasses, rum, sugar, or tobacco then headed to Great Britain, completing their trip. Profits’ traders made were used to buy more slaves from Africa. Slavery in these New England colonies started later than it did in South America. During that time period, buying plus selling slaves became a lucrative business. Europeans were the buyers’ African themselves were the sellers.

Because the Europeans were unable to penetrate Africa until the late eighteenth century. As a matter of fact, the massive amount of slaves from the interior would have been impossible without the collaboration of African Kingdoms of Benin, Ashanti, and Dahomey among other kingdoms. However, we must remind ourselves, if there were no buyers for slaves than they are no need to purchase or sell them.

Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco. Slavery was practiced throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the central importance of slavery to the South’s economy. By the mid-19th century, America’s westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American Civil War (1861-65). Though the Union victory freed the nation’s 4 million slaves, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, from the tumultuous years of Reconstruction (1865-77) to the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1960s, a century after Emancipation Proclamation.

The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the central importance of slavery to the South’s economy. By the mid-19th century, America’s westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American Civil War (1861-65). Though the Union victory freed the nation’s 4 million slaves, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, from the tumultuous years of Reconstruction (1865-77) to the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1960s, a century after the Emancipation Proclamations.

Mindfully, slavery financed this revolution that created advanced techniques not only for commodities. but for weapons as well. This advancement in weapons along with divide and conquer strategy, together with the Christian bible was an integral part of their conquering toolbox. This was a major cause of Europe along with America’s rapid growth into the 20th century. To take advantage of their victims they jealously guarded these industrial secrets and used their superiority of weapons to conquer a large percentage of the world. This is not a frivolous accusation when considering three continents is the results of Europeans’ conquest, which is South, and North America together with Australia.

Consequently, western European descendants constitute a major portion of these three continents. Well as their presence in Africa, which has been heavily influenced by a Berlin Conference in 1884-85.  The Industrial Revolution was another watershed moment in a history of changing from hand and home production to manufacturing. That was important for inventions of spinning and weaving machines operated by water power, which was eventually replaced by steam. This helped increase Europe’s and America’s growth that truly changed these societies and economy into what it is today.

This Revolution was a driving force behind a social change between the 18th and 19th centuries. It affected nearly all aspects of life through inventions, legislation, that  spawned a new economy. Due to many inventions such as the steam engine, locomotive and powered looms’ production and transportation of goods radically changed. With mechanized machinery, factories were built and used to mass produce goods at a rate than human labor never achieved. Western culture was the main recipients enjoying a comfort at no time before in their history. This was at the expense of other cultures whom they destroyed and replaced with  themselves in three continents, South, and North America along with Australia. Today’s contemporary world is living evidence of these continents who are dominated by European descendants.

American Civil War
After the America’s Civil War in 1865 when Southern infrastructures were completely destroyed is a good example of African reliance Despite these harsh conditions the former slaves built communities in central, west, south and north America. Which were (known as Colored Towns, or “Little Africa’s .” These communities were self-contained. Which is when Africans farmed, raised cattle, operated general stores, stables, barber shops, beauty parlors and so forth? This is as a result, over 100 Little Africa’s sprung up all over America.

Their success was envied by jealous white people whom destroyed these prosperous communities in 1919. Which was known as the “Red Summer.” This was immediately followed by destroying Little Africa in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 1, 1921, followed with, the destruction of Rosewood, Florida in 1923. The carnage of African communities continued with urbanization of interstate highways nationwide. Which was accomplished by deliberately building highways though vibrant communities from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast.

For the brevity sake, only two examples will be given. . The first was Over-town, Florida on Interstate 95 in the heart of Miami’s’ historic neighborhood; Several years later, Rondo Avenue at the center of St. Paul’s largest African neighborhood. That was a victim of an Interstate 94 being built. Which bisected the city’s historic neighborhood in St. Paul, Minneapolis in the 1960.
Economic Responsibilty
There are an assortment of reasons among Europe’s for the most deadliest of wars in the annuals of mankind.  However, from an African perspective, World War II was  Germany, Italy and Japan fighting  for control of English and French African and Asian colonies.   Which ended colonialism after 500 years of colonial domination.   Consequently,   England, France, Belgium and Portugal lost  their colonies in Africa as well as, Asia.   Which was led  by Mahatma Gandhi in India that was slowly followed by African colonies. In a little over a decade, the world geography was reshaped by  new Asia and African countries.

Which put an end to colonialism  making World War II biggest blunder in western history.  At the end of the war, the former colonialist expected their colonies to return to its status quo. Obviously, this silly notion was ignored. Especially, Asia and Africans did most of the fighting; At the same time, witnessing the former colonialist poor military performance during the war. As a result,  all of Europe’s infrastructure was reduced  to shambles.  Consequently,   Africans within English, French, Belgium, Portugal or Germany’s colonies gained their independence by negotiation or fought for it on the battlefield. Consequently, ended over 500 years of colonialism;  Back then Africans on both sides of the Atlantic return home with a mindset. Now they are demanding independence in Africa along with social changes in America.

However, there was a considerable amount of social change but very little economically.   Considering, African countries did not develop any industries of their own. Whether it was agricultural  on top or minerals under the ground.  Africans in American became and still is decaded consumers.   In today’s contemporary world, there is a misguide focus on Civil Rights, along with social acceptance, integration and an assortment of activities. Which has nothing to economic development. Sadly, the previous practice of self-help or resiliency has been ignored.

In today’s contemporary world, instead of developing economic independence, There is a misguide belief focusing  on  Civil Rights, along with social acceptance,   integration  an assortment of activities, which has nothing to  economic development. Sadly, the practice of self-help or resiliency has been ignored.   Instead, the focus is on begging for jobs,  instead of developing industries that would provide employment.

There never is  on building industries as oppose to seeking employment.  Or  complexes own and operated by Africans instead of looking for apartments or adequate housing  rent.   African people should build and develop their own housing complexes.   Unfortunately,  economic self-reliance initiatives are not part of any discussion.

First, to be recognized is a large percentage of African people are in debt.     This  is from buying every widget imaginable, along with paying off  student  or  car loans or some fade or widget.   This is  along with celebrating  a plethora of holidays that corresponds wotj  spending money on  every holiday imaginable.   Like,    Valentines Day,   Halloween,  Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Consequently, Africans  are engulfed into a revolving door fueled by a credit quandary under international control.

It is incompant that  African countries as well as individuals to become economically responsible among themselves.   As individuals they have to duty to spend their money wisely by circulating between each other.     Additionally,   African countries must add value to their raw resources by processing them into finish commodities before exporting.

In today’s contemporary,   Africans  are descendants of slavery as well as those victimized by colonialism must economically collaborate among each other.   Along with ethnicity be  addressing each other as Africans regardless of birthplace.   The African Manifesto addresses these  issues, however to get better comprehension a brief synopsis of history is appropriate.      We shall begin with  Christopher Columbus second voyage which  was one of conquest.   The evidence is that the  Spanish Monarchy of Queen Isabella and King Fernando outfitted him with 17 ships accompanies by 1000 conquistadors,   chickens, pigs, horses, mules and five priests.   Giving him a mandate to colonize Hispaniola in his so-called New World.   This water shed moment in history was a precusor of Slavery and Colonialism with the blessing of the pope.

In today’s contemporary world,  most importantly taking  charge of Africa’s economic destiny by controling their agricultural and mineral resources.    This is followed  which is using African to describe all of its people regards of birth place.    In other words,  Africans will be used universally without any apologizes putting in on par with other cultures.   This lone nuance would unifiy all of its people in an unverisal consortium.

Of course,   social and economic changes cannot occur overnight.   At the same time,  it has to be generational.  The  African  its origin from the philosophy and opinions of the Honorable Marcus A. Garvey as taught by Carlos Cooks of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement  (ANPM).   Notably, Mr.  prominent member was  Elombe Brath.     Who continued these two great patriots  unlike his  he was able to spread African nationals among the descendants as well as those victimized by colonialism in Africa.
“Elombe (née Cecil) Brathwaite was born to Cecil T. Brathwaite and Etelka Margaret Maloney-Brathwaite in Brooklyn, New York on September 30, 1936. He was the oldest of three children. His brother Kwame (née Ronald) Brathwaite is the middle sibling and his brother John Edward Brathwaite is the youngest.

After emigrating from Barbados in the 1920s, his father quickly established himself as a tailor, opening two stores in Harlem, both on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard at 134th and 137th Streets respectively. Elombe grew up in the Hunt’s Point section of The Bronx, which then included a diverse mix of cultures, including Caribbean, Itlian, Chinese and Jewish families.

A cousin of Bajan Pan-African journalist Clennell Wickham, who was exiled from Barbados in the 1930s for writing about socialism, Elombe credited his early interest in political affairs to conversations his family would have about Wickham, and about Marcus Garvey’s philosophy and activities in Harlem in the 1920s. Elombe would later become a dedicated student of Carlos A. Cooks and Professor  Williams, two of the most dynamic teachers of Garvey’s African Fundamentalism and Dialectic Materialism as applied to African Nationalist argumentation.

Along with his early interest in political science, Elombe showed a talent for art. Following in the footsteps of his father, himself a gifted painter, he attended the High School of Industrial Art (now Art and Design), later winning a college scholarship to the School of Visual Arts.

In 1956, he, along with his brother Kwame, Robert Gumbs, Chris Acemendeses Hall and others founded the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios to reclaim jazz as the music of contemporary African traditions that should be controlled by black artists. Several years later in 1959, Elombe participated in a convention to do away with the term “negro” because he believed it was a disparaging term that created distance between African descendants in the United States and their brothers and sisters on the African continent.

One year after that conference in 1960, Elombe joined the South West African Relief Committee to assist SWAPO President Sam Nujoma in getting aid to the country of Namibia, which was then suffering under the yoke of the racist apartheid regime. This marked the beginning of his numerous relationships with African freedom fighters, struggling to liberate their countries from colonial and White minority rule. They included leaders such as Samora Machel of Mozambique, Thomas Sankara of Burkina-Faso, Kanyama Chiume of Malawi, and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Agostinho Neto of Angola. In 1973, he was awarded the Croix de Chivalry by President Ahmed Seke Ture of Guinea for continuous work toward the African Democratic Revolution.

Elombe was committed to both providing a platform for our people who were engaging in freedom and anti-imperialist struggles around the world while educating countless others with priceless insight to their struggles. Through Elombe you learned about amazing Freedom Fighters such as Amilcar Cabral and the revolutionary efforts of our people in Guinea-Bissau and the truths behind the rise and fall of one our people’s greatest heroes; Pan-African Martyr, Patrice Emery Lumumba of the now Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He taught the significance of and connection between our people’s current conditions, globally and the  we receive of these struggles for freedom whether past or contemporary. With Elombe, you learned, in detail, how distractions away from understanding the African Independence movements of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana, Gamal Abdel with Nasser’s Egypt, Dedan Kimathi and Jomo Kenyatta’s Mau-Mau of Kenya and their Pan-African and African-Internationalist solidarity examples, are calculated attempts by the corrupt superpowers to keep our people and global oppressed communities from being inspired and thus providing the global support required.

He believed that these forms of struggle are elementary in us realizing our true social, cultural, political and economic potential for true independence and freedom through the continuity of world African unification. Back on the domestic front in 1962, Elombe helped to found the Naturally shows that featured the Grandassa Models, a group of young black women who all wore their hair in its natural, glorious African state, sparking the “Black is Beautiful” movement in New York that would spread to the rest of the country and world.

As a family man, Elombe was the proud father of seven children; a daughter, Amber Ann Nzingha Lyons, and six sons. He married  Helene (née White), the former president of the Grandassa models, on August 23, 1964.  Elombe began working as a graphic artist for ABC television in 1962 and remained there until his retirement in 1999. For 17 years, he was a Consultant on African Affairs for the award-winning show “Like It Is” with Gil Noble.

While working at ABC, Elombe emerged as a key figure in the Pan-African movement, co-founding the Patrice Lumumba Coalition in 1975 with the late Irving Davis and organizing protests against the South African government. Elombe was also involved in the anti-slavery movement of the Sudan and Mauritania, the fight against the atrocities of Shell oil and the Abacha regime in Nigeria, and the fight against the atrocities of the Mobutu regime in Zaire which is now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Elombe used his platform at WBAI-FM, 99.5 for over 30 years, broadcasting his show AfriKalidescope to make people aware of injustices around the globe. He exposed the truth about the Sandinistas’ struggle in Nicaragua, the atrocities committed in East Timor, and provided platforms for representatives of Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica and Cuba, who were fighting for freedom in their countries.

In 1987, he co-founded the December 12th Movement in response to police brutality following the 1986 murder of Michael Griffith in Howard Beach. In 1989, he organized and mobilized for the Central Park Five, believing in their innocence decades before the truth came to light.

In 1990, he was one of the organizers responsible for bringing Nelson and Winnie Mandela to Harlem where over 200,000 people gathered. His keen insight into domestic and international affairs earned him a Revson Fellowship at Columbia University, where he taught for several years despite never having done formal academic graduate work.

Elombe has received over 200 recognition and awards in his work. In May of 2013, Elombe was immortalized in the history of America when he was enshrined with a Congressional Record by the 112th Congress.

Elombe Brath, a man of enormous wit and charm, won you over with a quiet intensity, rather than bombast in his telling of the African experience. His encyclopedic knowledge of the history of African peoples based on his involvement in struggles around the world from the Caribbean and South America to the countries of Africa and, of course, the United States, was astounding.

Counted among his many friends and admirers were jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Max Roach and Jimmy Owens, political and cultural greats such as Presidents Hage Geingob, Fidel and Raul Castro, the late Amiri Baraka, and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure).   A committed and courageous fighter until the end, Elombe eventually succumbed to illness on Monday, May 19, 2014.”

The IMF, WB & WTO

The end of colonialism  gave birth to neocolonialism with the creation of  a World Bank along with an International Monetary Fund (IMF), jointly known as, Bretton Woods  were created in 1944 with an aim to help rebuild the economies that had been greatly affected by World War II. The original plans included a world  trade organization. However, it was not until 1995 that it was formed.
The IMF would supposedly create a stable climate for international trade by harmonizing its members’ monetary policies; Meanwhile, maintaining exchange stability. It would be able to provide temporary financial assistance to countries encountering difficulties with their balance of payments. The World Bank, on the other hand, would serve to improve the capacity of countries to trade by lending money to war-ravaged and impoverished countries for reconstruction and development projects. By 1944, none of the colonized countries in Africa had  independence and hence were neither members nor intended beneficiaries of this grand plan.

However, this was merely a new form of colonialism, called “Neocolonialism”.    Which was a  the same western countries, masked under the pretext of so-called economic support for   That  by the World Bank, along with  International Monetary Fund (IMF) and later joined  the WTO. Their  policies of structural adjustment programs which was used to have these African were enforced on poor African countries through these organizations have chained their economies to mere subsistence, by preventing self-help to the continent’s socioeconomic problems. Moreover, the same policies seem to favor a trade imbalance to the already wealthy Western economies over the struggling ones in Africa. The World Bank is best known for financing big projects like dams, roads, and power plants, supposedly designed to assist in economic development, which has often been associated with the monumental environmental devastation and social dislocation. In recent years, about half of its lending has gone to programs indistinguishable from the IMF’s: austerity plans that ” reform ” economic policies by suffocating the poor and inviting corporate exploitation.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) along with a World Bank is the major cause of poverty in African countries today; Despite claims that they will reduce poverty. It is widely accepted that most of the debts are due to their policies. The IMF, in particular, was originally formed to promote steady growth and full employment by offering unconditional loans to economies in crises and establishing mechanisms to stabilize exchange rates and facilitate currency exchange. Much of these visions never came to reality. Pressure from the US government made IMF start offering loans based on strict conditions. Critics have said that these policies have reduced the level of social safety and worsened labor and environmental standards in developing countries.

These two institutions require borrowing countries to implement certain policies in order to obtain new loans (or lower interest rates on existing ones. ) Factually, many African countries are in poverty partly due to these programs. This duo has been heavily criticized for many years by an overwhelming majority of countries, which receive this aid. Profoundly, their poverty level has always increased. This is despite these institution’s claims otherwise. Notably, they are privately owned that is supposedly helping to develop these so-called third-world countries. The clauses attached to the loans have been criticized because of their detrimental effects on Africa. Moreover, these are  institution’s dictating governmental affairs. For the most part, their recommendation is counterproductive. According to many credible studies, there is no evidence of any meaningful change initiated from either program.

These powerful conspirators are an assortment of international bankers, along with an Illuminati, which is a consortium of well-financed organizations, that heavily influence mainstream media, workforce, educational systems, companies, banks, energy suppliers with  western governments. The IMF and World Bank are largely controlled and owned by the developed nations such as USA, Germany, UK, Japan, among other industrial countries. The US, for example, controls 17 to 18% of the voting right at the IMF. When an 85% majority is required before a decision, the US effectively has veto power. In addition, the World Bank is 51% funded by the US treasury. This Bank, as well as IMF, loaned money in return for structural adjustment of their economies. This means  direction of each country would be planned, monitored, and controlled in Washington. Consequently, Africa’s infant industries fail to take off under extensive trade liberalization. This is also very critical with respect to imported food such as rice, wheat, milk, and so forth.

Privatization, on the other hand, and its effects on government enterprises that do not function well cannot be challenged. Nevertheless, wholesale privatization of everything that is government owned cannot also be justified. In any case, there are few difficulties such as the limited indigenous business to take over government enterprises; the shortages of local private capital to pay for the running cost of privatized enterprises. Another important factor is the devaluation of currencies, which is supposed to increase self-sufficiency by making imported products’ more expensive and African exports cheaper. Since most countries do not produce these commodities so it is impossible to replace them with locally produced ones. On the other hand, most of the countries that buy African products have set certain amounts on how much can be imported or have fixed prices. If they shelter their own products, it would not make an impact because no single country can compete globally. It can be said without successful contradiction, these two institutions are another form of colonialism.

African Economic Group

Of course,  there are some African countries that are engaged in   Civil Wars, rapes, robberies, along with a multitude of other negativeness. On the other hand,  the keys to Africa’s future is their own   self-reliance focusing on internal development among themselves.  However, in order to complete agains the worlds industrial complexes it is important individual African countries  organize into  into one unified economic group without relinquishing their sovereignty.    At the same time, being inclusive of all Africans scatter globally.    Notably,   they are great economic positive activities worldwide and should be among Africans themselves.  Which  will present  endless possibilities for Africa’s agricultural products as well as those beneath the ground to be  developed among Africans themselves .   Along with taking advantage of new technologies.  For  example  Uganda,   Nigeria, and  Tanzania  have  built their  own car and trucks industries.   Additionally,  Africans countries are participating  in in 3-D printing,  and also, drones.   The other end of   western institutions such as the IMF, World  and International Monterrey Fund.   Which is the tool of Neocolonialism that is counter productive to African   Instead, Africans must rely on themselves for their economic progress.  The main function is building industries to supply their own goods and services.

Africa  build industries among themselves that is based on supplying their everyday goods and services.   Most importantly,  by building their own industries it would  millions and millions of jobs for its own people.     No longer would they have to seek jobs from other cultures.  For the sake of its own survival  self-sufficiency is  a prime source of addressing African socioeconomic issues

Now is a  good time for Africans to assess new strategies to take charge of their own future. To make these feasible Africans must   among themselves. At the same time, become more internationally competitive — in manufacturing  as clothing, footwear, apparel and so forth.   They have to raise and lower tariffs in favor of their own development.

By the same token, they have   their business environments by investing  themselves.   This is along  hunger in Africa once and for all. For instance, between the Congo, Zimbabwe, together with Cote Ivoire has enough agricultural capacity to grow sufficient crops to feed all the continents.

Another, economic element on top of the Manifestos agenda is reclaiming the hair care industry. Mindfully, African nappy hair is unique to them. Therefore, there is no reason another culture should control their hair care industry. Since it is an eight-billion-dollar industry formerly controlled by Africans.

Now is time for African consumers to pay attention to their spending habits. It is a  learn European holidays from their own perspective. These holidays have been accepted and celebrated without any questions for centuries. This has been reinforced by generations of slave masters, delivering church services every Sunday on .

Presently, when a descendant is born, he or she is taught Portuguese, Spanish, French or English along with western traditions and holidays. This stems from generations of parents repeating a story which was told to them by their parents. Consequently, a plethora of holidays is still celebrated without any question having been institutionalized. Among them are Easter Sunday, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving along with Christmas and many others.

Reflecting back to  period there were some Africans  spoke against this alienation of their culture.   These ideas reflect the Marcus Garvey’s movement of universal racial pride,  united communities around the world. This is along with, protesting the ill treatment in America.

Which is heavily influenced by marketing on television, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines along with an Internet presence? That encourages driving an expensive car, wearing designer clothes, living in luxurious homes, and ordering a costly bottle of wine, creating a particular image of themselves to present throughout the world.
Appropriately, Africans  with countries on the continent have to reflect on their economic behavior. As a person, they must know where their money is being spent along with refraining from buying every widget that comes on the market.   Common economic prudence is essential for Individuals as well as countries.
A prime example is the African hair care market is controlled by the Asians. Another, an example is there are over 25 million cell phone users in Ghana. Among the other millions scatter around the world. Guess what? Africans do own or control the cell phone industry. As a matter of fact, there is not one single global commodity that is controlled by Africans. As countries, for the most part, the value is not being added to resources which are a recipe for financial failure.

At the other end of the spectrum, Africa is a continent full of paradoxes, especially as it relates to processing natural materials. These conditions will remain the same unless African people recognize and change their economic habits. The following is a few examples:

African in America project income for 2015 is 1.1 trillion dollars. However, for the most part, when that money left their hands, it was spent on cars, appliances, clothes and so on to enrich other cultures. One thing can be said with certainty, the overwhelming majority of the money did not return to them in any way shape or form.

From a positive perspective, diamond-rich Botswana has been praised as a country doing things right, experiencing relatively stable and transparent economic growth for decades. It has also managed to retain some of the profits from processing its raw materials – something most African countries have failed to do.

Among the 20 poorest countries across the world, 18 are African.  This is according to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is a  primary indicator used to gauge a countries productivy.   It is suffice to Africans are heavly influence  by other cultures.   The first and most important is for Africans divocing themselves from  other cultures.  Notably,  they are only looking out for their own best interest.      We must remember  one of our  greatest historians quotes  “No one is your friend.”   Mindfully, that was generations ago.    Guess what?   It still holds true,  even more so.

It would be economically responsible for individual to monitor how they spend their money.  As African countries manage  their resources  among themselves collectively into some sort of economic corstium among themselves.   Whic would allow individual African countries  to particapate as equals globally.    Which is controled by Western and Asian interest.  Each individually,  must become more knowledgeable  how they well earn money is being spent.    Mindfully,  making sure it exchanges hands several times  with global Africans interest.    Which still have long way to go in building industires among Africans globally.

As oppose to our current helta selkta altude of being any and every widget adveristed on television.;
as oppose to becoming  knowing why you are spending your money. Profoundly, once you know the actual origin. You can make an informed decision on whether or not to celebrate them. More importantly, children must learn early on there is no such thing as a tooth fairy, Santa Claus nor Tarzan. As a matter of fact, a matter of fact, not one country produces a commodity to compete in the global marketplace. Just think, when an African shop for clothes, food, utilities it’s always from another culture.

Embracing economic empowerment would erase African   inequalities that are prevalent around the world.  For the most part, it is not mention in any meaningful conversation among our leaders.   As a result,   there is not one global commodity that has its origin within African communities.   In other words,  Africans depend on other cultures for their commodities along with mean of employment.    Sadly,  we  have depended on other cultures for their survival. Last and most importantly, Africans must add value to their resources along with creating, marketing and distributing   goods and service between Africa themselves. Just think, if these industries are created by Africans will a principal avenue for them to employ themselves.  Instead of begging for jobs from other cultures.

Mindfully, the self-help initiatives visions of the honorable Marcus Garvey a century ago when Africa was completely colonized.   Surely,  with Africa’s political autonomy along with descendants education, and wealth they should be able to more and duplicate Mr. Garvey’s accomplishments.   Especially, when he had absolutely nothing to work with.

 

Sabamya Jaugu

Administrator

African Manifesto

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Followed by an economic initiative of   processing and  adding value to  raw resources before exporting.  This will allow Africans to build industries and economies among themselves.
Dawkins 2004
Find Time of Divergence: Hominidae versus Hylobatidae”. TimeTree. Retrieved 2015-04-18.