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{{Distinguish|General History of Africa}}

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Archaic humans [[Out of Africa 1|emerged]] out of [[Africa]] between 0.5 and 1.8&nbsp;million years ago. This was followed by the [[Recent African origin of modern humans|emergence]] of [[anatomically modern humans|modern humans]] (''[[Homo sapiens]]'') in [[East Africa]] around 300,000–250,000 years ago. In the 4th millennium BC [[written history]] arose in [[Ancient Egypt]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Recordkeeping and History|url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/agriculture-civilization/first-cities-appear/a/recordkeeping-and-history|access-date=2023-01-22|website=Khan Academy|language=en}}</ref> and later in [[Nubia]]'s [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]], the [[Horn of Africa]]'s [[Dʿmt]], and [[Ifrikiya]]'s [[Ancient Carthage|Carthage]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://study.com/learn/lesson/early-african-civilizations-history-culture-achievements.html#:~:text=The%20first%20civilization%20in%20Africa,a%20united%20kingdom%20of%20Egypt.|title=Early African Civilization|website=Study.com|access-date=2023-01-22}}</ref> Between around 3000 BCE and 500 CE, the [[Bantu expansion]] swept from north-western [[Central Africa]] (modern day [[Cameroon]]) across much of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, displacing or absorbing groups such as the [[Khoisan]] and [[African Pygmies|Pygmies]]. The [[Spoken word|oral word]] is revered in most African societies, and history has generally been recorded via [[oral tradition]]. This has led [[Anthropology|anthropologists]] to term them "oral civilisations".{{Efn|This characterisation has come under criticism by some African scholars, as it implies conflict between the oral and written. They instead contend that in reality, the characterisation is defined by the interaction between three ways of expression and diffusion: the oral, the written, and the printed word.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Encyclopedia of African Religions and Philosophy |chapter=Orality |year=2022 |publisher=Springer |doi=10.1007/978-94-024-2068-5_296 |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-94-024-2068-5_296 |last1=Mouralis |first1=Bernard |pages=537–539 |isbn=978-94-024-2066-1 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Bethwell Allan Ogot]] notes that images of Africa composed by Western writers have often been in terms of "opposites" and how they differ from an "us".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ogot |first=Bethwell Allan |title=Rereading the History and Historiography of Epistemic Domination and Resistance in Africa |journal=African Studies Review |year=2009 |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1353/arw.0.0127 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/rereading-the-history-and-historiography-of-epistemic-domination-and-resistance-in-africa/775F359EADE441ABC3CB3E4A68B1B679|url-access=subscription }}</ref>}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vansina |first=Jan |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000042225 |title=General History of Africa: Volume 1 |date=1981 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |chapter=Oral tradition and its methodology}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=142–143}} Traditions were crafted utilising various sources from the community, performed, and passed down through generations.

Many kingdoms and empires came and went in all [[List of regions of Africa|regions of the continent]]. Most states were created through conquest or the borrowing and assimilation of ideas and [[institution]]s, while some developed through internal, largely isolated development.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Southall|first=Aidan|title=State Formation in Africa|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|volume=3|pages=153–165|year=1974|doi=10.1146/annurev.an.03.100174.001101|jstor=2949286}}</ref> Some [[African empires|African empires and kingdoms]] include:

* Ancient Egypt, Kush, Carthage, [[Mauro-Roman Kingdom|Masuna]], [[Makuria]], the [[Fatimids]], [[Almoravids]], [[Almohads]], [[Ayyubids]], [[Mamluk Sultanate|Mamluks]], [[Marinid dynasty|Marinids]], and [[Hafsids]] in North Africa;
* [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu]], [[Mali Empire|Mali]], [[Songhai Empire|Songhai]], [[Jolof Empire|Jolof]], [[Ife Empire|Ife]], [[Oyo Empire|Oyo]], [[Benin Kingdom|Benin]], [[Bonoman]], [[Kingdom of Nri|Nri]], [[Bamana Empire|Ségou]], [[Asante Empire|Asante]], [[Fante Confederacy|Fante]], [[Massina Empire|Massina]], [[Sokoto Caliphate|Sokoto]], [[Tukulor Empire|Tukulor]], and [[Wassoulou Empire|Wassoulou]] in West Africa; 
* Dʿmt, [[Kingdom of Aksum|Aksum]], [[Ethiopian Empire|Ethiopia]], [[Kingdom of Damot|Damot]], [[Sultanate of Ifat|Ifat]], [[Adal Sultanate|Adal]], [[Ajuran Sultanate|Ajuran]], [[Funj Sultanate|Funj]], [[Kitara Empire|Kitara]], [[Kilwa Sultanate|Kilwa]], [[Sakalava empire|Sakalava]], [[Imerina]], [[Orombo|Rombo]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |publisher=Oxford University Press |title=History of the Mount Kilimanjaro Area |last=Bender |first=Matthew |year=2023 |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-1470}}</ref> [[Bunyoro]], [[Buganda]], and [[Kingdom of Rwanda|Rwanda]] in East Africa; 
* [[Kanem Empire|Kanem-Bornu]], [[Kingdom of Kongo|Kongo]], [[Tio Kingdom|Anziku]], [[Kingdom of Loango|Loango]], [[Ndongo]], [[Mwene Muji]], [[Kotoko kingdom|Kotoko]], [[Wadai Empire|Wadai]], [[Mbunda Kingdom|Mbunda]], [[Luba Empire|Luba]], [[Kingdom of Lunda|Lunda]], [[Kuba Kingdom|Kuba]], and [[Sultanate of Utetera|Utetera]] in Central Africa; and 
* [[Mapungubwe]], [[Kingdom of Zimbabwe|Great Zimbabwe]], [[Mutapa]], [[Kingdom of Butua|Butua]], [[Rozvi]], [[Maravi]], [[Oukwanyama]], [[Lozi Empire|Lozi]],<ref>{{Citation |last=Hogan |first=Jack |title=Lozi Empire |date=2016 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Empire |pages=1–2 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe053 |access-date=2025-01-23 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe053 |isbn=978-1-118-45507-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Lobedu kingdom|Lobedu]],<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Maphalle |first=Kagiso Annette |date=2017 |title=Succession in woman-to-women marriages under customary law: a study of the Lobedu Kingdom  |publisher=University of Cape Town|url=https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/26908}}</ref> [[Mthwakazi]], and [[Zulu Kingdom|amaZulu]] in Southern Africa.
Some societies were [[Heterarchy|heterarchical]] and [[egalitarian]], while others remained organised into [[chiefdoms]].{{Efn|In stateless societies, oral histories centred around clan histories.<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=Odhiambo |first=E. S. Atieno |date=2004 |title=The Usages of the past: African historiographies since independence |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-research-and-documentation/article/abs/usages-of-the-past-african-historiographies-since-independence/CBA353B3608A35A71E2536CC673C8C73 |journal=African Research and Documentation |language=en |volume=96 |pages=3–61 |doi=10.1017/S0305862X00014369 |issn=0305-862X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[John Lonsdale (historian)|John Lonsdale]] famously said that "the most distinctively African contribution to human history could be said to have been precisely the civilized art of living fairly peaceably together ''not'' in states".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/reciprocal-comparison-and-african-history-tackling-conceptual-eurocentrism-in-the-study-of-africas-economic-past/04B75AB4C085E3EA5028042A4439A45E |last=Austin |first=Gareth |title=Reciprocal Comparison and African History: Tackling Conceptual Eurocentrism in the Study of Africa's Economic Past |journal=African Studies Review |volume=50 |issue=3 |year=2007|pages=1–28 |doi=10.1353/arw.2008.0009 }}</ref>}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=González-Ruibal|first=Alfredo|date=2024-11-23|title=Traditions of Equality: The Archaeology of Egalitarianism and Egalitarian Behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa (First and Second Millennium CE)|journal=Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory|language=en|volume=32|issue=1|article-number=6|doi=10.1007/s10816-024-09678-1|issn=1573-7764|doi-access=free|hdl=10261/395172|hdl-access=free}}</ref> The continent has [[Languages of Africa|between 1250 and 2100 languages]],<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Heine|first1=Bernd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7XhcYoFxaQC|title=African Languages: An Introduction|last2=Nurse|first2=Derek|date=2000-08-03|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66629-9|language=en}}</ref> and at its peak it is estimated that Africa had around 10,000 polities, with most following [[African traditional religions|traditional religions]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meredith|first=Martin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNZ6srograIC&dq=10%2C000+states+in+africa&pg=PT15|title=The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence|date=2011-09-01|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-85720-389-2|language=en}}</ref>

From the 7th century CE, [[Islam in Africa|Islam]] spread west amid the [[Early Muslim conquests|Arab conquest of North Africa]], and by [[Islamic missionary activity|proselytization]] to the Horn of Africa, bringing with it a new [[social system]]. It later spread southwards to the [[Swahili coast]] assisted by Muslim dominance of the [[Indian Ocean trade]], and across the [[Sahara]] into the western [[Sahel]] and [[West Sudanian savanna|Sudan]], catalysed by the [[Fula jihads]] of the 18th and 19th centuries. [[Slavery in Africa|Systems of servitude and slavery]] were historically widespread and commonplace in parts of Africa, as they were in much of the [[ancient]] and [[Post-classical history|medieval world]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Stilwell|first=Sean|title=Slavery in African History|work=Slavery and Slaving in African History|year=2013|page=38|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139034999.003|isbn=978-1-139-03499-9|quote=For most Africans between 10000 BCE to 500 CE, the use of slaves was not an optimal political or economic strategy. But in some places, Africans came to see the value of slavery. In the large parts of the continent where Africans lived in relatively decentralized and small-scale communities, some big men used slavery to grab power to get around broader governing ideas about reciprocity and kinship, but were still bound by those ideas to some degree. In other parts of the continent early political centralization and commercialization led to expanded use of slaves as soldiers, officials, and workers.}}</ref> When the [[trans-Saharan slave trade|trans-Saharan]], [[Red Sea slave trade|Red Sea]], [[Indian Ocean slave trade|Indian Ocean]] and [[Atlantic slave trade|Atlantic]] slave trades began, local slave systems started supplying captives for [[slave market]]s outside Africa. This reorientated many African economies, and created [[African diaspora|various diasporas]], especially [[African diaspora in the Americas|in the Americas]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Lovejoy|first=Paul E.|title=Transformations of Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa|year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=London}}</ref><ref name="Sparks process">{{cite book|last1=Sparks|first1=Randy J.|title=Where the Negroes are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade|chapter=4. The Process of Enslavement at Annamaboe|date=2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-72487-7|pages=122–161}}</ref>

From 1870 to 1914, driven by the great force and hunger of the [[Second Industrial Revolution]], European [[colonisation of Africa]] developed rapidly, as the major European powers partitioned the continent in the 1884 [[Berlin Conference]], from one-tenth of the continent being under European imperial control to over nine-tenths in the [[Scramble for Africa]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chukwu|first1=Lawson|last2=Akpowoghaha|first2=G. N.|title=Political Economy of Colonial Relations and Crisis of Contemporary African Diplomacy|chapter=Colonialism in Africa: An Introductory Review|year=2023|pages=1–11|doi=10.1007/978-981-99-0245-3_1|isbn=978-981-99-0244-6|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-99-0245-3_1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Frankema|first=Ewout|title=An Economic Rationale for the West African Scramble? The Commercial Transition and the Commodity Price Boom of 1835–1885|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=78|issue=1|pages=231–267|year=2018|doi=10.1017/S0022050718000128|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/abs/an-economic-rationale-for-the-west-african-scramble-the-commercial-transition-and-the-commodity-price-boom-of-18351885/5A64C29764E79C75826A45F32562FB04}}</ref> European colonialism had [[Analysis of Western European colonialism and colonization|significant impacts on Africa's societies]], and colonies were maintained for the purpose of economic exploitation of human and [[Natural resources of Africa|natural]] resources. [[African historiography#Colonial historiography|Colonial historians]] deprecated oral sources, claiming that Africa had no history other than that of Europeans in Africa. Pre-colonial Christian states include Ethiopia, Makuria, and Kongo. Widespread conversion to [[Christianity in Africa|Christianity]] occurred under European rule in southern West Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa due to efficacious [[Christian mission|missions]], as people [[Christianity in Africa#Africanizing Christianity|syncretised Christianity]] with their local beliefs.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Walls|first=A|title=African Christianity in the History of Religions|journal=Studies in World Christianity|volume=2|issue=2|pages=183–203|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2011|doi=10.3366/swc.1996.2.2.183|url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/swc.1996.2.2.183|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The [[African nationalism|rise of nationalism]] facilitated struggles for independence in many parts of the continent, and, with a weakened Europe after the [[Second World War]], waves of [[decolonisation]] took place. This culminated in the 1960 [[Year of Africa]] and the establishment of the [[Organisation of African Unity]] in 1963 (the predecessor to the [[African Union]]), with countries deciding to keep their colonial borders.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hargreaves|first=John D.|title=Decolonization in Africa|date=1996|publisher=Longman|isbn=0-582-24917-1|edition=2nd|location=London|oclc=33131573}}</ref> [[List of current non-sovereign African monarchs|Traditional power structures]], which had been incorporated into the colonial regimes, remained partly in place in many parts of Africa, and their roles, powers, and influence vary greatly. Political decolonisation was mirrored by a movement to decolonise [[African historiography]] by incorporating oral sources into a multidisciplinary approach, culminating in [[UNESCO Publishing|UNESCO]] publishing the ''[[General History of Africa]]'' from 1981. Many countries have undergone the triumph and defeat of nationalistic fervour, and continue to face challenges such as internal conflict, [[neocolonialism]], and [[Climate change in Africa|climate change]].   {{TOC limit|3}}

== History in Africa ==
In accordance with [[African cosmology]], African historical consciousness viewed historical change and continuity, order and purpose within the framework of human and their environment, the gods, and their ancestors, and they believed themself part of a [[holistic]] spiritual entity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ajaegbo |first=D.I. |date=1990 |title=African Historiographical Traditions from the Earliest Times to the Second World War: An Analytical Survey |journal=Transafrican Journal of History |volume=19 |pages=139–151 |jstor=24328680 |issn=0251-0391}}</ref> In African societies, the historical process is largely a [[African communalism|communal]] one, with eyewitness accounts, [[hearsay]], reminiscences, and occasionally [[Vision (spirituality)|vision]]s, dreams, and hallucinations crafted into narrative [[oral tradition]]s which were performed and transmitted through generations.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vansina|first=Jan|url=https://archive.org/details/oraltraditionash0000vans_g5z0/page/n9/mode/2up|title=Oral tradition as history|date=1985|publisher=Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-299-10214-2}}</ref>{{Rp|page=12}}<ref name="1 1981" />{{Rp|page=48}} In oral traditions time is sometimes [[myth]]ical and social, and ancestors were considered historical actors.{{Efn|In these cases, time's duration is not as it affects the fate of the individual, but the pulse of the social group. It is not a river flowing in one direction from a known source to a known outlet. Generally, traditional African time involves [[eternity]] in both directions, unlike [[Christians]] who consider eternity to operate in one direction. In African [[animism]], time is an arena where both the group and the individual struggle for their [[vitality]]. The goal is to improve their situation, thus being dynamic. [[Ancestor veneration|Bygone generations]] remain contemporary, and as influential as they were during their lifetime, if not more so. In these circumstances causality operates in a forward direction from past to present and from present to future, however direct intervention can operate in any direction.<ref name="1 1981">{{cite book|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000042225|title=General History of Africa: Volume 1|chapter=The place of history in African society|year=1981|last1=Hama|first1=Boubou|last2=Ki-Zerbo|first2=Joseph|publisher=UNESCO Publishing}}</ref>{{rp|page=44, 49}}}}<ref name="1 1981" />{{Rp|pages=43–53}} Mind and memory shapes traditions, as events are condensed over time and crystallise into [[cliché]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Isichei |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3C2tzBSAp3MC&dq=african+history&pg=PP14 |title=A History of African Societies to 1870 |date=1997-04-13 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-45599-2 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=11}} Oral tradition can be [[wiktionary:exoteric|exoteric]] or [[wiktionary:esoteric|esoteric]]. It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bâ |first=Amadou |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000042225 |title=General History of Africa: Volume 1 |date=1981 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |chapter=The living tradition}}</ref>{{Rp|page=168}} In [[African epistemology]], the epistemic subject "experiences the epistemic object in a sensuous, emotive, intuitive, abstractive understanding, rather than through abstraction alone, as is the case in [[Epistemology|Western epistemology]]" to arrive at a "complete knowledge", and as such oral traditions, [[Music of Africa|music]], [[proverb]]s, and the like were used in the preservation and transmission of knowledge.<ref name=":022">{{Citation|last=Jimoh|first=Anselm Kole|title=An African Theory of Knowledge|date=2017|work=Themes, Issues and Problems in African Philosophy|pages=121–136|editor-last=Ukpokolo|editor-first=Isaac E.|url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-40796-8_8|access-date=2024-11-28|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-40796-8_8|isbn=978-3-319-40796-8|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Early prehistory==
{{Main|Prehistoric Africa}}

{{Further|Prehistoric North Africa|Sub-Saharan Africa#Prehistory|Prehistoric West Africa|Prehistoric Central Africa|Prehistoric East Africa|Horn of Africa#Prehistory|Prehistoric Southern Africa|African archaeology}}

[[File:Lucy (Frankfurt am Main).jpg|thumb|right|Side view of cast of "[[Lucy (Australopithecus)|Lucy]]" in the [[Naturmuseum Senckenberg]]]]
The first known [[Hominidae|hominids]] evolved in Africa. According to [[paleontology]], the early hominids' skull anatomy was similar to that of the [[gorilla]] and the [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzee]], [[great apes]] that also evolved in Africa, but the hominids had adopted a [[biped]]al locomotion which freed their hands. This gave them a crucial advantage, enabling them to live in both forested areas and on the open [[savanna]] at a time when Africa was drying up and the savanna was encroaching on forested areas. This would have occurred 10 to 5 million years ago, but these claims are controversial because biologists and genetics have humans appearing around the last 70 thousand to 200 thousand years.{{sfnp|Shillington|2005|p=2}}

The fossil record shows ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' (also known as "modern humans" or "anatomically modern humans") living in Africa by about 350,000–260,000 years ago. The earliest known ''Homo sapiens'' fossils include the [[Jebel Irhoud]] remains from Morocco ({{circa|315,000 years ago}}),<ref name="NAT-20170607a">{{cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewan|title=Oldest Homo sapiens fossil claim rewrites our species' history|url=http://www.nature.com/news/oldest-homo-sapiens-fossil-claim-rewrites-our-species-history-1.22114|date=7 June 2017|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|doi=10.1038/nature.2017.22114|access-date=11 June 2017|url-access=subscription|doi-access=free}}</ref> the [[Florisbad Skull]] from South Africa ({{circa|259,000 years ago}}), and the [[Omo remains]] from Ethiopia ({{circa|233,000 years ago}}).<ref>{{cite journal|pmid=27298468|pmc=4920294|year=2016|last1=Stringer|first1=C.|title=The origin and evolution of Homo sapiens|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences|volume=371|issue=1698|article-number=20150237|doi=10.1098/rstb.2015.0237}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/07/oldest-homo-sapiens-bones-ever-found-shake-foundations-of-the-human-story|title=Oldest ''Homo sapiens'' bones ever found shake foundations of the human story|last=Sample|first=Ian|work=The Guardian|date=7 June 2017|access-date=7 June 2017}}</ref><ref name="HublinBen-Ncer2017">{{cite journal|last1=Hublin|first1=Jean-Jacques|last2=Ben-Ncer|first2=Abdelouahed|last3=Bailey|first3=Shara E.|last4=Freidline|first4=Sarah E.|last5=Neubauer|first5=Simon|last6=Skinner|first6=Matthew M.|last7=Bergmann|first7=Inga|last8=Le Cabec|first8=Adeline|last9=Benazzi|first9=Stefano |last10=Harvati |first10=Katerina|last11=Gunz|first11=Philipp|title=New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of ''Homo sapiens''|journal=Nature|volume=546|issue=7657|year=2017|pages=289–292|doi=10.1038/nature22336|pmid=28593953|url=http://kar.kent.ac.uk/62267/1/Submission_288356_1_art_file_2637492_j96j1b.pdf|bibcode=2017Natur.546..289H|hdl=1887/74734 |s2cid=256771372}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Scerri|first1=Eleanor M. L.|last2=Thomas|first2=Mark G.|last3=Manica|first3=Andrea|last4=Gunz|first4=Philipp|last5=Stock|first5=Jay T.|last6=Stringer|first6=Chris|last7=Grove|first7=Matt|last8=Groucutt|first8=Huw S.|last9=Timmermann|first9=Axel|author-link9=Axel Timmermann |last10=Rightmire |first10=G. Philip|last11=d'Errico|first11=Francesco|date=1 August 2018|title=Did Our Species Evolve in Subdivided Populations across Africa, and Why Does It Matter?|journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution|volume=33|issue=8|pages=582–594|doi=10.1016/j.tree.2018.05.005|issn=0169-5347|pmid=30007846|pmc=6092560|bibcode=2018TEcoE..33..582S}}</ref><ref name="Vidal22">{{Cite journal|last1=Vidal|first1=Celine M.|last2=Lane|first2=Christine S.|author-link2=Christine Lane|last3=Asfawrossen|first3=Asrat|display-authors=etal|date=January 2022|title=Age of the oldest known Homo sapiens from eastern Africa|journal=Nature|volume=601|issue=7894|pages=579–583|bibcode=2022Natur.601..579V|doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04275-8|pmc=8791829|pmid=35022610}}</ref> Scientists have suggested that ''Homo sapiens'' may have arisen between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago through a merging of populations in [[East Africa]] and [[South Africa]].<ref name="NYT-20190910">{{cite news|last=Zimmer|first=Carl|author-link=Carl Zimmer|title=Scientists Find the Skull of Humanity's Ancestor – on a Computer – By comparing fossils and CT scans, researchers say they have reconstructed the skull of the last common forebear of modern humans|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/science/human-ancestor-skull-computer.html|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/science/human-ancestor-skull-computer.html|archive-date=2022-01-03|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|date=10 September 2019|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=10 September 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="NAT-20190910">{{cite journal|last1=Mounier|first1=Aurélien|last2=Lahr|first2=Marta|title=Deciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species|journal=[[Nature Communications]]|volume=10|issue=1|page=3406|doi=10.1038/s41467-019-11213-w|pmid=31506422|pmc=6736881|year=2019|bibcode=2019NatCo..10.3406M}}</ref>

Evidence of a variety of behaviors indicative of [[Behavioral modernity]] date to the African [[Middle Stone Age]], associated with early ''Homo sapiens'' and their emergence. Abstract imagery, widened subsistence strategies, and other "modern" behaviors have been discovered from that period in Africa, especially South, North, and East Africa.

The [[Blombos Cave]] site in South Africa, for example, is famous for rectangular slabs of [[ochre]] engraved with [[geometric]] designs. Using multiple dating techniques, the site was confirmed to be around 77,000 and 100–75,000 years old.<ref name="Henshilwood 2002">{{cite journal|last1=Henshilwood|first1=Christopher|title=Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa|journal=Science|date=2002|volume=295|issue=5558|pages=1278–1280|display-authors=etal|doi=10.1126/science.1067575|pmid=11786608|bibcode=2002Sci...295.1278H|s2cid=31169551}}</ref><ref name="Henshilwood et al. 2009">{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.01.005|pmid=19487016|title=Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|volume=57|issue=1|pages=27–47|year=2009|last1=Henshilwood|first1=Christopher S.|last2=d'Errico|first2=Francesco|last3=Watts|first3=Ian|bibcode=2009JHumE..57...27H}}</ref> Ostrich egg shell containers engraved with geometric designs dating to 60,000 years ago were found at [[Diepkloof Rock Shelter|Diepkloof]], South Africa.<ref name="Texier">{{cite journal|last1=Texier|first1=PJ|last2=Porraz|first2=G|last3=Parkington|first3=J|last4=Rigaud|first4=JP|last5=Poggenpoel|first5=C|last6=Miller|first6=C|last7=Tribolo|first7=C|last8=Cartwright|first8=C|last9=Coudenneau|first9=A |last10=Klein |first10=R|last11=Steele|first11=T|last12=Verna|first12=C|year=2010|title=A Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=107|issue=14|pages=6180–6185|doi=10.1073/pnas.0913047107|pmid=20194764|pmc=2851956|bibcode=2010PNAS..107.6180T|doi-access=free}}</ref> Beads and other personal ornamentation have been found from Morocco which might be as much as 130,000 years old; as well, the Cave of Hearths in South Africa has yielded a number of beads dating from significantly prior to 50,000 years ago,<ref name="McBrearty Brooks 2000">{{cite journal|last1=McBrearty|first1=Sally|last2=Brooks|first2=Allison|date=2000|title=The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|volume=39|issue=5|pages=453–563|doi=10.1006/jhev.2000.0435|pmid=11102266|bibcode=2000JHumE..39..453M}}</ref> and shell beads dating to about 75,000 years ago have been found at Blombos Cave, South Africa.<ref name="Henshilwood et al. 2004">{{cite journal|last1=Henshilwood|first1=Christopher S.|author-link=Christopher Henshilwood|display-authors=etal|year=2004|title=Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa|journal=Science|volume=304|issue=5669|page=404|doi=10.1126/science.1095905|pmid=15087540|s2cid=32356688}}</ref><ref name="d'Errico et al. 2005">{{cite journal|last1=d'Errico|first1=Francesco|display-authors=etal|year=2005|title=Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behaviour in the Middle Stone Age|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|volume=48|issue=1|pages=3–24|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.09.002|pmid=15656934|bibcode=2005JHumE..48....3D}}</ref><ref name="Vanhaeren et al. 2013">{{cite journal|last1=Vanhaeren|first1=Marian|display-authors=etal|year=2013|title=Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|volume=64|issue=6|pages=500–517|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001|pmid=23498114|bibcode=2013JHumE..64..500V}}</ref>

Around 65–50,000 years ago, the species' expansion [[Single-origin hypothesis|out of Africa]] launched the colonization of the planet by modern human beings.<ref name="Posth">{{Cite journal|title=Pleistocene Mitochondrial Genomes Suggest a Single Major Dispersal of Non-Africans and a Late Glacial Population Turnover in Europe|journal=Current Biology|volume=26|issue=6|pages=827–833|year=2016|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2016.01.037|pmid=26853362|vauthors=Posth C, Renaud G, Mittnik M, Drucker DG, Rougier H, Cupillard C, Valentin F, Thevenet C, Furtwängler A, Wißing C, Francken M, Malina M, Bolus M, Lari M, Gigli E, Capecchi G, Crevecoeur I, Beauval C, Flas D, Germonpré M, van der Plicht J, Cottiaux R, Gély B, Ronchitelli A, Wehrberger K, Grigorescu D, Svoboda J, Semal P, Caramelli D, Bocherens H, Harvati K, Conard NJ, Haak W, Powell A, Krause J|hdl=2440/114930|doi-access=free|bibcode=2016CBio...26..827P|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Kamin M, Saag L, Vincente M, et al.|title=A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture|journal=Genome Research|volume=25|issue=4|pages=459–466|date=April 2015|pmid=25770088|pmc=4381518|doi=10.1101/gr.186684.114}}</ref><ref name="Vai">{{cite journal|vauthors=Vai S, Sarno S, Lari M, Luiselli D, Manzi G, Gallinaro M, Mataich S, Hübner A, Modi A, Pilli E, Tafuri MA, Caramelli D, di Lernia S|date=March 2019|title=Ancestral mitochondrial N lineage from the Neolithic 'green' Sahara|journal=Sci Rep|volume=9|issue=1|article-number=3530|doi=10.1038/s41598-019-39802-1|pmc=6401177|pmid=30837540|bibcode=2019NatSR...9.3530V}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">{{cite journal|vauthors=Haber M, Jones AL, Connel BA, Asan, Arciero E, Huanming Y, Thomas MG, Xue Y, Tyler-Smith C|title=A Rare Deep-Rooting D0 African Y-chromosomal Haplogroup and its Implications for the Expansion of Modern Humans Out of Africa|journal=Genetics|volume=212|issue=4|pages=1421–1428|date=June 2019|pmid=31196864|pmc=6707464|doi=10.1534/genetics.119.302368}}</ref> By 10,000 BC, ''Homo sapiens'' had spread to most corners of [[Afro-Eurasia]]. Their dispersals are traced by linguistic, cultural and [[genetics|genetic]] evidence.{{sfnp|Shillington|2005|pp=2–3}}<ref>Genetic studies by [[Luca Cavalli-Sforza]] pioneered tracing the spread of modern humans from Africa.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans|first1=Sarah A.|last1=Tishkoff|first2=Floyd A.|last2=Reed|first3=Françoise R.|last3=Friedlaender|first4=Christopher|last4=Ehret|first5=Alessia|last5=Ranciaro|first6=Alain|last6=Froment|first7=Jibril B.|last7=Hirbo|first8=Agnes A.|last8=Awomoyi|first9=Jean-Marie|last9=Bodo |first10=Ogobara |last10=Doumbo|first11=Muntaser|last11=Ibrahim|first12=Abdalla T.|last12=Juma|first13=Maritha J.|last13=Kotze|first14=Godfrey|last14=Lema|first15=Jason H.|last15=Moore|first16=Holly|last16=Mortensen|first17=Thomas B.|last17=Nyambo|first18=Sabah A.|last18=Omar|first19=Kweli|last19=Powell |first20=Gideon S. |last20=Pretorius|first21=Michael W.|last21=Smith|first22=Mahamadou A.|last22=Thera|first23=Charles|last23=Wambebe|first24=James L.|last24=Weber|first25=Scott M.|last25=Williams|name-list-style=amp|date=22 May 2009|journal=Science|volume=324|number=5930|pages=1035–1044|doi=10.1126/science.1172257|pmid=19407144|pmc=2947357|bibcode=2009Sci...324.1035T}}</ref> Eurasian back-migrations, specifically [[Genetic history of Europe|West-Eurasian backflow]], started in the early [[Holocene]] or already earlier in the [[Paleolithic]] period, sometimes between 30 and 15,000 years ago, followed by pre-Neolithic and [[Neolithic]] migration waves from the Middle East, mostly affecting Northern Africa, the Horn of Africa, and wider regions of the Sahel zone and East Africa.<ref name="Vicente 8–15">{{Cite journal|last1=Vicente|first1=Mário|last2=Schlebusch|first2=Carina M|date=2020-06-01|title=African population history: an ancient DNA perspective|journal=Current Opinion in Genetics & Development|series=Genetics of Human Origin|language=en|volume=62|pages=8–15|doi=10.1016/j.gde.2020.05.008|pmid=32563853|s2cid=219974966|issn=0959-437X|doi-access=free}}</ref>[[File:Pre-Neolithic and Neolithic migration events in Africa (excluding Basal-West-Eurasian geneflow during the Paleolithic).jpg|thumb|Pre-Neolithic and Neolithic migration events in Africa.<ref name="Vicente 8–15"/>]]

[[Affad 23]] is an [[archaeological site]] located in the [[Affad Basin|Affad]] region of southern Dongola Reach in northern [[Sudan]],<ref name="Osypiński">{{cite journal|last1=Osypiński|first1=Piotr|last2=Osypińska|first2=Marta|last3=Gautier|first3=Achilles|title=Affad 23, a Late Middle Palaeolithic Site With Refitted Lithics and Animal Remains in the Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan|journal=Journal of African Archaeology|date=2011|volume=9|issue=2|pages=177–188|doi=10.3213/2191-5784-10186|issn=1612-1651|oclc=7787802958|jstor=43135549|s2cid=161078189}}</ref> which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of the oldest [[Natural environment|open-air]] [[hut]] in the world) and diverse [[hunting]] and [[Hunter-gatherer|gathering]] loci some 50,000 years old".<ref name="Osypiński II">{{cite web|last1=Osypiński|first1=Piotr|title=Unearthing Pan-African crossroad? Significance of the middle Nile valley in prehistory|url=https://projekty.ncn.gov.pl/opisy/480275-en.pdf|publisher=National Science Centre|date=2020}}</ref><ref name="Osypińska">{{cite book|last1=Osypińska|first1=Marta|title=From Faras to Soba: 60 years of Sudanese–Polish cooperation in saving the heritage of Sudan|date=2021|publisher=Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology/University of Warsaw|isbn=978-83-953362-5-6|oclc=1374884636|page=460|chapter-url=https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/21580/Katalog%20wystawy%20From%20Faras%20to%20Soba%20-%20ONLINE%20o2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|chapter=Animals in the history of the Middle Nile}}</ref><ref name="Osypińska II">{{cite book|last1=Osypińska|first1=Marta|last2=Osypiński|first2=Piotr|title=From Faras to Soba: 60 years of Sudanese–Polish cooperation in saving the heritage of Sudan|date=2021|publisher=Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology/University of Warsaw|isbn=978-83-953362-5-6|oclc=1374884636|pages=187–188|chapter-url=https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/handle/123456789/21580/Katalog%20wystawy%20From%20Faras%20to%20Soba%20-%20ONLINE%20o2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|chapter=Exploring the oldest huts and the first cattle keepers in Africa}}</ref>

Around 16,000 BC, from the [[Red Sea Hills]] to the northern [[Ethiopian Highlands]], nuts, grasses and tubers were being collected for food. By 13,000 to 11,000 BC, people began collecting wild grains. This spread to [[Western Asia]], which domesticated its wild grains, [[wheat]] and [[barley]]. Between 10,000 and 8,000 BC, [[Northeast Africa]] was cultivating wheat and barley and raising sheep and cattle from Southwest Asia.

A wet climatic phase in Africa turned the Ethiopian Highlands into a mountain forest. [[Omotic languages|Omotic speakers]] domesticated [[Ensete|enset]] around 6,500–5,500 BC. Around 7,000 BC, the settlers of the Ethiopian highlands domesticated [[donkey]]s, and by 4,000 BC domesticated donkeys had spread to Southwest Asia. [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] speakers, partially turning away from cattle herding, domesticated [[teff]] and [[finger millet]] between 5,500 and 3,500 BC.{{sfnmp|Diamond|1997|1pp=126–127|Ehret|2002|2pp=64–75, 80–81, 87–88}}

During the 11th millennium [[Before Present|BP]], pottery was independently invented in Africa, with the earliest pottery there dating to about 9,400 BC from central Mali.<ref name="swissinfo">{{cite web|url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_archaeologist_digs_up_West_Africas_past.html?cid=5675736|title=A Swiss-led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC|first=Simon|last=Bradley|date=18 January 2007|website=Swiss Broadcasting Corporation|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306002155/http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_archaeologist_digs_up_West_Africas_past.html?cid=5675736|archive-date=2012-03-06}}</ref> It soon spread throughout the southern [[Sahara]] and [[Sahel]].<ref name="Pottery">{{cite journal|last1=Jesse|first1=Friederike|title=Early Pottery in Northern Africa – An Overview|issue=2|pages=219–238|journal=[[Journal of African Archaeology]]|volume=8|jstor=43135518|year=2010|doi=10.3213/1612-1651-10171}}</ref> In the [[steppe]]s and [[savanna]]hs of the Sahara and Sahel in Northern West Africa, the [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan speakers]] and [[Mandé peoples]] started to collect and domesticate wild millet, [[African rice]] and [[sorghum]] between 8,000 and 6,000 BC. Later, [[gourd]]s, [[watermelon]]s, [[castor bean]]s, and [[cotton]] were also collected and domesticated. The people started capturing wild cattle and holding them in circular thorn hedges, resulting in [[domestication]].{{sfnp|Ehret|2002|pp=64–75}}

They also started making [[pottery]] and built stone settlements (e.g., [[Tichitt]], [[Oualata]]). [[Fishing]], using bone-tipped [[harpoon]]s, became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the increased rains.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/getting-food/katanda-bone-harpoon-point|title=Katanda Bone Harpoon Point|date=2010-01-22|website=The Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program|access-date=2019-02-19}}</ref> Mande peoples have been credited with the independent development of agriculture about 4,000–3,000 BC.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mande|title=Mande &#124; West African, Mali, Griot &#124; Britannica|website=britannica.com}}</ref>

[[File:Bronze ornamental staff head, 9th century, Igbo-Ukwu.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8| 9th-century bronze staff head in form of a coiled snake, [[Archaeology of Igbo-Ukwu|Igbo-Ukwu]], Nigeria]]

Evidence of the early smelting of metals{{snd}} [[lead]], [[copper]], and [[bronze]]{{snd}} dates from the fourth millennium BC.{{sfnp|Nicholson|Shaw|2000|p=168}}

Egyptians smelted copper during the [[Predynastic Egypt|predynastic period]], and bronze came into use after 3,000 BC at the latest{{sfnp|Nicholson|Shaw|2000|pp=149–160}} in Egypt and Nubia. Nubia became a major source of copper as well as of [[gold]].<ref>Swami, Bhaktivejanyana (2013), ''Ithihaasa: The Mystery of Story Is My Story of History'', p. 98. Author House. {{ISBN|1-4772-4273-2|978-1-4772-4273-5}}.</ref> The use of gold and [[silver]] in Egypt dates back to the predynastic period.{{sfnp|Nicholson|Shaw|2000|pp=161–165, 170}}{{sfnp|Ehret|2002|pp=136–137}}

In the [[Aïr Mountains]] of present-day [[Niger]] people smelted copper independently of developments in the Nile valley between 3,000 and 2,500 BC. They used a process unique to the region, suggesting that the technology was not brought in from outside; it became more mature by about 1,500 BC.{{sfnp|Ehret|2002|pp=136–137}}

By the 1st millennium BC [[iron working]] had reached [[Northwestern Africa]], Egypt, and Nubia.<ref>[http://princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/history1.htm#Irontechnology Martin and O'Meara. "Africa, 3rd Ed."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011083356/http://princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/history1.htm |date=2007-10-11 }} Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995.</ref> Zangato and Holl document evidence of iron-smelting in the [[Central African Republic]] and Cameroon that may date back to 3,000 to 2,500 BC.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zangato|first1=É.|last2=Holl|first2=A.F.C.|year=2010|title=On the Iron Front: New Evidence from North-Central Africa|url=http://www.african-archaeology.de/index.php?page_id=154&journal_id=24&pdf_id=172|journal=Journal of African Archaeology|volume=8|issue=1|pages=7–23|doi=10.3213/1612-1651-10153|url-access=subscription}}</ref> [[Assyria]]ns using iron weapons pushed Nubians out of Egypt in 670 BC, after which the use of iron became widespread in the Nile valley.<ref name="Falola 2002">{{cite book|last1=Falola|first1=Toyin|title=Key Events in African History: A Reference Guide|date=2002|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CN|isbn=0-313-31323-7|page=46}}</ref>

The theory that [[iron]] spread to [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] via the Nubian city of [[Meroe]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alpern|first=Stanley B.|date=2005|title=Did They or Didn't They Invent It? Iron in Sub-Saharan Africa|journal=History in Africa|volume=32|pages=41–94|doi=10.1353/hia.2005.0003|jstor=20065735|s2cid=162880295|issn=0361-5413}}</ref> is no longer widely accepted, and some researchers believe that sub-Saharan Africans invented iron metallurgy independently. [[Metalworking]] in West Africa has been dated as early as 2,500 BC at Egaro west of the [[Termit Massif|Termit]] in Niger, and iron working was practiced there by 1,500 BC.<ref>[http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3432&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html Iron in Africa: Revising the History, UNESCO] Aux origines de la métallurgie du fer en Afrique, Une ancienneté méconnue: Afrique de l'Ouest et Afrique centrale.</ref> Iron smelting has been dated to 2,000 BC in southeast [[Nigeria]].<ref name=Eze-Uzomaka/> [[Central Africa]] provides possible evidence of iron working as early as the 3rd millennium BC.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pringle|first1=Heather|year=2009|title=Seeking Africa's first Iron Men|journal=Science|volume=323|issue=5911|pages=200–202|doi=10.1126/science.323.5911.200|pmid=19131604|s2cid=206583802}}</ref> Iron smelting developed in the area between [[Lake Chad]] and the [[African Great Lakes]] between 1,000 and 600 BC, and in West Africa around 2,000 BC, long before the technology reached Egypt. Before 500 BC, the [[Nok culture]] in the [[Jos Plateau]] was already smelting iron.{{sfnp|Shillington|2005|pp=37–39}}<ref>O'Brien, Patrick Karl (2002), ''Atlas of World History'', pp. 22–23. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-521921-X}}.</ref><ref name=Stuiver>{{cite journal|last1=Stuiver|first1=Minze|last2=Van Der Merwe|first2=N.J.|year=1968|title=Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=9|pages=54–58|doi=10.1086/200878|s2cid=145379030}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Tylecote|first=Ronald-Frank|author-link=Ronald F. Tylecote|title=The Origin of Iron Smelting in Africa|url=https://core.tdar.org/document/416171/the-origin-of-iron-smelting-in-africa|journal=West African Journal of Archaeology|year=1975|publication-date=1975|volume=5|pages=1–9|access-date=16 May 2021}}</ref><ref name="Breunig II">{{Cite book|title=Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context|last=Eggert|first=Manfred|publisher=Africa Magna Verlag Press|year=2014|editor-last=Breunig|editor-first=P|location=Frankfurt, Germany|pages=51–59|chapter=Early iron in West and Central Africa}}</ref><ref name="Eggert 2014 53–54">{{Cite book|title=Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context|last=Eggert|first=Manfred|publisher=Africa Magna Verlag Press|year=2014|isbn=978-3-937248-46-2|editor-last=Breunig|editor-first=P|location=Frankfurt, Germany|pages=53–54|chapter=Early iron in West and Central Africa|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBn1BQAAQBAJ&q=Nok+Breunig&pg=PA38}}</ref> Archaeological sites containing iron-smelting furnaces and slag have been excavated at sites in the [[Nsukka]] region of southeast Nigeria in [[Igboland]]: dating to 2,000 BC at the site of [[Lejja]] (Eze-Uzomaka 2009)<ref name=Eze-Uzomaka>{{cite journal|last1=Eze–Uzomaka|first1=Pamela|title=Iron and its influence on the prehistoric site of Lejja|url=https://www.academia.edu/4103707|website=Academia.edu|publisher=University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria|access-date=12 December 2014}}</ref><ref name=Holl-2009>{{cite journal|last1=Holl|first1=Augustin F. C.|title=Early West African Metallurgies: New Data and Old Orthodoxy|journal=Journal of World Prehistory|date=6 November 2009|volume=22|issue=4|pages=415–438|doi=10.1007/s10963-009-9030-6|s2cid=161611760}}</ref> and to 750 BC and at the site of [[Opi (archaeological site)|Opi]] (Holl 2009).<ref name=Holl-2009/> The site of Gbabiri (in the Central African Republic) has also yielded evidence of iron metallurgy, from a reduction furnace and blacksmith workshop; with earliest dates of 896–773 BC and 907–796 BC respectively.<ref name="Eggert 2014 53–54"/>

==Ancient Africa (4000BC - 6th century)==
{{Main|Ancient Africa}}
{{Further|History of North Africa#Classical period|History of West Africa#Iron Age|History of Central Africa#Ancient history|History of East Africa#Ancient history|History of Southern Africa#Ancient history}}

===North-East Africa===
{{Main|History of North Africa|Ancient Egypt}}
[[File:Ancient Egypt map-en.svg|thumb|Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC)]]
From around 3,500 BCE, a coalition of [[Horus]]-worshipping [[Nome (Egypt)|nomes]] in the western [[Nile Delta]] conquered the [[Andjety]]-worshipping nomes of the east to form [[Lower Egypt]], whilst [[Set (deity)|Set]]-worshipping nomes in the south coalesced to form [[Upper Egypt]].<ref name="Abu Bakr 1981">{{cite book|last=Abu Bakr|first=Abdel|title=General History of Africa: Volume 2|chapter=Pharoanic Egypt|year=1981|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375}}</ref>{{rp|pages=62–3}} Egypt was first united when [[Narmer]] of [[Upper Egypt]] conquered [[Lower Egypt]], giving rise to the [[First Dynasty of Egypt|1st]] and [[Second Dynasty of Egypt|2nd]] dynasties of Egypt whose efforts presumably consisted of conquest and consolidation, with unification completed by the [[Third Dynasty of Egypt|3rd dynasty]] to form the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt]] in 2,686 BCE.<ref name="Abu Bakr 1981"/>{{rp|pages=63}} The [[Kerma culture|Kingdom of Kerma]] emerged around this time to become the dominant force in Nubia, controlling an area as large as Egypt between the 1st and 4th [[cataracts of the Nile]], with Egyptian records speaking of its rich and populous agricultural regions.<ref>{{cite book|year=2012|publisher=The Encyclopedia of Ancient History|first=J. R.|last=Anderson|doi=10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah15224|title=The Encyclopedia of Ancient History|isbn=978-1-4443-3838-6|chapter=Kerma}} She states, "To date, Kerma-culture has been found from the region of the First Cataract to upstream of the Fourth Cataract."</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=anthpubs|title=Nubian identity in the Bronze Age. Patterns of cultural and biological variation|year=2011|first=Michele|last=Buzon|access-date=30 March 2017}}</ref>

The height of the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old Kingdom]] came under the [[Fourth Dynasty of Egypt|4th dynasty]] who constructed numerous [[Egyptian pyramids|great pyramids]], however under the [[Sixth Dynasty of Egypt|6th dynasty of Egypt]] power began to decentralise to the [[nomarch]]s, culminating in anarchy exacerbated by drought and famine in 2,200 BCE, and the onset of the [[First Intermediate Period]] in which numerous nomarchs ruled simultaneously. Throughout this time, power bases were built and destroyed in [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]], and in [[Heracleopolis Magna|Heracleopolis]], when [[Mentuhotep II]] of [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] and the [[Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt|11th dynasty]] conquered all of Egypt to form the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] in 2,055 BCE. The [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt|12th dynasty]] oversaw advancements in irrigation and economic expansion in the [[Faiyum Oasis]], as well as expansion into [[Lower Nubia]] at the expense of [[Kerma culture|Kerma]]. In 1,700 BCE, Egypt fractured in two, ushering in the [[Second Intermediate Period]].<ref name="Abu Bakr 1981" />{{rp|pages=68–71}}

The [[Hyksos]], a militaristic people from [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], capitalised on this fragmentation and conquered Lower Egypt, establishing the [[Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt|15th dynasty of Egypt]], whilst [[Kerma culture|Kerma]] coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent, looting royal statues and monuments.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-7-2003_pg9_1|title=Tomb Reveals Ancient Egypt's Humiliating Secrets|date=29 July 2003|work=[[Daily Times (Pakistan)|Daily Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105214410/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-7-2003_pg9_1|archive-date=5 November 2013}}</ref> A rival power base developed in [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] with [[Ahmose I]] of the [[eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|18th dynasty]] eventually expelling the [[Hyksos]] from Egypt, forming the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] in 1,550 BCE. Utilising the military technology the [[Hyksos]] had brought, they conducted numerous campaigns to conquer the [[Levant]] from the [[Canaan#Canaanites|Canaanites]], [[Amorites]], [[Hittites]], and [[Mitanni]], and extinguish [[Kingdom of Kerma|Kerma]], incorporating [[Nubia]] into the empire, sending the [[Egyptian empire]] into its golden age.<ref name="Abu Bakr 1981" />{{rp|pages=73}} Internal struggles, drought and famine, and invasions by a [[Sea Peoples|confederation of seafaring peoples]], contributed to the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]]'s collapse in 1,069 BCE, ushering in the [[Third Intermediate Period]] which saw Egypt fractured into many pieces amid widespread turmoil.<ref name="Abu Bakr 1981" />{{rp|pages=76–7}}

[[File:GuardianStatueofAmenemhmatII.jpg|thumb|left|300x300px|A figure wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt and whose face appears to reflect the features of the reigning king, most probably [[Amenemhat II]] or [[Senwosret II]]. It functioned as a divine guardian for the [[Imiut fetish|imiut]], and it is wearing a divine kilt, which suggests that the statuette was not merely a representation of the living ruler.<ref>{{cite web |title=Guardian Figure |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/543864 |website=www.metmuseum.org |publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |access-date=9 February 2022}}</ref>]]

Egypt's disintegration liberated the more Egyptianized [[Kingdom of Kush]] in Nubia, and later in the 8th century BCE the Kushite king [[Kashta]] would expand his power and influence by manoeuvring his daughter into a position of power in [[Upper Egypt]], paving the way for his successor [[Piye]] to conquer [[Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt|Lower Egypt]] and form the [[Kushite Empire]]. The Kushites assimilated further into Egyptian society by reaffirming [[Ancient Egyptian religion|Ancient Egyptian religious traditions]], and culture, while introducing some unique aspects of Kushite culture and overseeing a [[Nubian pyramids|revival in pyramid-building]]. After a century of rule they were [[Assyrian conquest of Egypt|forcibly driven out of Egypt]] by the [[Assyrian Empire|Assyrians]] as reprisal for the Kushites agitating peoples within the [[Assyrian Empire]] in an attempt to gain a foothold in the region.<ref name="JE66">{{cite book|last1=Elayi|first1=Josette|title=Sennacherib, King of Assyria|date=2018|publisher=SBL Press|isbn=978-0-88414-318-5|pages=66–67|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVNtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66|language=en}}</ref> The Assyrians installed a [[Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt|puppet dynasty]] which later gained independence and once more [[Late period of ancient Egypt|unified Egypt]], with Upper Egypt becoming a rich agricultural region whose produce Lower Egypt then sold and traded.<ref name="Abu Bakr 1981" />{{rp|pages=77}}

In 525 BCE Egypt was conquered by the expansionist [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenids]], however later regained independence in 404 BCE until 343 BCE when it was re-annexed by the [[Achaemenid Empire]]. Persian rule in Egypt ended with the defeat of the Achaemenids by [[Alexander the Great]] in 332 BCE, marking the beginning of Hellenistic rule by the Macedonian [[Ptolemaic dynasty]] in Egypt. The Hellenistic rulers, seeking legitimacy from their Egyptian subjects, gradually Egyptianized and participated in [[Ancient Egyptian religion|Egyptian religious life]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Riad|first=Henry|title=General History of Africa: Volume 2|chapter=Egypt in the Hellenistic era|year=1981|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375}}</ref>{{rp|pages=119}} Following the [[Syrian Wars]] with the [[Seleucid Empire]], the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] lost its holdings outside Africa, but expanded its territory by conquering [[Cyrenaica]] from its respective tribes, and subjugated [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]].

Beginning in the mid second century BCE, dynastic strife and a series of foreign wars weakened the kingdom, and it became increasingly reliant on the [[Roman Republic]]. Under [[Cleopatra VII]], who sought to restore Ptolemaic power, Egypt became entangled in a [[Caesar's Civil War|Roman civil war]], which ultimately led to its [[Roman Egypt|conquest by Rome]] in 30 BCE. The [[Crisis of the Third Century]] in the [[Roman Empire]] freed the Levantine city state of [[Palmyra]] who [[Palmyrene invasion of Egypt|conquered Egypt]], however their rule lasted only a few years before Egypt was reintegrated into the [[Roman Empire]]. In the midst of this, [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]] regained total independence from Egypt, and they would persist as a major regional power until, having been weakened from internal rebellion amid worsening climatic conditions, invasions by both the [[Aksumite Empire|Aksumites]] and the [[Noba]] caused their disintegration into [[Makuria]], [[Alodia]], and [[Nobatia]] in the 5th century CE. The Romans managed to [[Roman Egypt|hold on to Egypt]] for the rest of the ancient period.

=== Horn of Africa ===
{{Main|History of East Africa}}
[[File:The Kingdom of Aksum.png|thumb|The [[Kingdom of Aksum]] in the 6th century AD.]]
In the [[Horn of Africa]] there was the [[Land of Punt]], a kingdom on the [[Red Sea]], likely located in modern-day [[Eritrea]] or northern [[Somaliland]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25634170-800-we-have-finally-found-the-land-of-punt-where-pharaohs-got-their-gifts/|title=We have finally found the land of Punt, where pharaohs got their gifts|date=2022-12-14|access-date=2023-10-28|website=New Scientist}}</ref> The Ancient Egyptians initially traded via middle-men with Punt until in 2,350 BCE when they established direct relations. They would become close trading partners for over a millennium, with Punt exchanging [[gold]], aromatic [[resin]]s, [[Dalbergia melanoxylon|blackwood]], [[ebony]], [[Ivory trade|ivory]] and wild animals. Towards the end of the ancient period, northern [[Ethiopia]] and [[Eritrea]] bore the Kingdom of [[D'mt]] beginning in 980 BCE, whose people developed irrigation schemes, used [[plough]]s, grew [[millet]], and made [[Iron Age|iron tools and weapons]]. In modern-day [[Somalia]] and [[Djibouti]] there was the [[Macrobians|Macrobian Kingdom]], with archaeological discoveries indicating the possibility of other unknown sophisticated civilisations at this time.<ref name="Nthos">{{cite book|last=Njoku|first=Raphael Chijioke|title=The History of Somalia|year=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-37857-7|pages=29–31|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FlL2vE_qRQ8C}}</ref><ref name="Titthtw">{{cite book|last=Dalal|first=Roshen|title=The Illustrated Timeline of the History of the World|year=2011|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4488-4797-6|page=131|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RO4kS1IR71sC}}</ref>

After D'mt's fall in the 5th century BCE the [[Ethiopian Highlands|Ethiopian Plateau]] came to be ruled by numerous smaller unknown kingdoms who experienced strong [[Sabaeans|south Arabian influence]], until the growth and expansion of [[Kingdom of Aksum|Aksum]] in the 1st century BCE.<ref>Pankhurst, Richard K.P. ''Addis Tribune'', "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060109162335/http://www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm Let's Look Across the Red Sea I]", January 17, 2003 (archive.org mirror copy)</ref> Along the Horn's coast there were many [[ancient Somali city-states]] which thrived off of the [[Maritime history of Somalia|wider Red Sea trade]] and transported their cargo via [[beden]], exporting [[myrrh]], [[frankincense]], [[spice]]s, [[Natural gum|gum]], [[incense]], and [[ivory]], with freedom from Roman interference causing Indians to give the cities a lucrative monopoly on [[cinnamon]] from [[History of India#Iron Age (c. 1800 – 200 BCE)|ancient India]].<ref>Eric Herbert Warmington, ''The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India'', p. 187.</ref>

The [[Kingdom of Aksum]] grew from a [[principality]] into a major power on the [[Indo-Roman trade relations|trade route between Rome and India]] through conquering its unfortunately unknown neighbours, gaining a monopoly on [[Indian Ocean trade]] in the region. Aksum's rise had them rule over much of the regions from the [[Lake Tana]] to the valley of the [[Nile]], and they further conquered parts of the ailing [[Kingdom of Kush]], led campaigns against the [[Noba]] and [[Beja people|Beja]] peoples, and [[GDRT|expanded into South Arabia]].<ref>George Hatke, ''Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa'' (New York University Press, 2013), pp. 44. {{ISBN|0-7486-0106-6}}</ref><ref name="dx.doi.org2">{{Cite journal|date=August 1910|title=The Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes|url=https://archive.org/details/christiantopogra00cosmuoft|journal=Nature|volume=84|issue=2127|pages=133–134|bibcode=1910Natur..84..133.|doi=10.1038/084133a0|issn=0028-0836|s2cid=3942233|hdl-access=free|hdl=2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t07w6zm1b}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Uhlig|first1=Siegbert|title=Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C|page=175}}</ref> This led the Persian prophet [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]] to consider Aksum as one of the four [[great power]]s of the 3rd century CE alongside [[Sassanian Empire|Persia]], [[Roman Empire|Rome]], and [[Three Kingdoms|China]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Munro-Hay|first=Stuart|title=Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity|date=1991|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=0-7486-0106-6|location=Edinburgh|page=17}}</ref> In the 4th century CE [[Ezana of Axum|Aksum's king]] converted to Christianity and Aksum's population, who had followed [[Traditional African religions|syncretic mixes of local beliefs]], slowly followed.

In the early 6th century CE, [[Cosmas Indicopleustes]] later described his visit to the city of [[Axum|Aksum]], mentioning rows of throne monuments, some made out of ''"excellent white marble"'' and ''"entirely...hewn out of a single block of stone"'', with large inscriptions attributed to various kings, likely serving as victory monuments documenting the wars waged. The turn of the 6th century saw Aksum balanced against the [[Himyarite Kingdom]] in southwestern Arabia, as part of the wider [[Roman-Persian Wars|Byzantine-Sassanian conflict]]. In 518, [[Aksumite invasion of Himyar|Aksum invaded Himyar]] against the persecution of the [[Christian community of Najran|Christian community]] by [[Dhu Nuwas]], the [[Himyarite Kingdom#Religion|Jewish Himyarite]] king. Following the capture of [[Najran]], the Aksumites implanted a [[puppet state|puppet]] on the Himyarite throne, however a [[coup d'etat|coup d'état]] in 522 brought [[Dhu Nuwas]] back to power who again began [[Christian community of Najran#Reign of Dhu Nuwas|persecuting Christians]]. The Aksumites invaded again in 525, and with Byzantine aid conquered the kingdom, incorporating it as a [[vassal state]] after some [[Aksumite invasion of Himyar#Aftermath|minor internal conflict]]. In the late 6th century the Aksumites were [[Ancient history of Yemen#Sassanid period (570–630 CE)|driven out of Yemen]] by the [[Saif ibn Dhi Yazan|Himyarite king]] with the aid of the [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanids]].

===North-West Africa===
{{Main|History of North Africa}}
[[File:Carthage 323 BC.png|thumb|[[Carthaginian Empire]] in 323 BC]]
Further north-west, the [[Maghreb]] and [[Ifriqiya]] were mostly cut off from the [[cradle of civilisation]] in Egypt by the [[Libyan desert]], exacerbated by [[Ancient Egyptian royal ships|Egyptian boats]] being tailored to the [[Nile]] and not coping well in the open [[Mediterranean Sea]]. This caused its societies to develop contiguous to those of [[Southern Europe]], until [[Phoenician settlement of North Africa|Phoenician settlement]]s came to dominate the most lucrative trading locations in the [[Gulf of Tunis]], initially searching for sources of [[metal]].<ref name="Warmington 1981">{{cite book|last=Warmington|first=Brian|title=General History of Africa: Volume 2|chapter=The Carthaginian Period|year=1981|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375}}</ref>{{rp|pages=247}} Phoenician settlements subsequently grew into [[Ancient Carthage]] after gaining independence from [[Phoenicia]] in the 6th century BCE, and they would build an [[Ancient Carthage#Independence, expansion and hegemony|extensive empire]], countering [[Ancient Greece|Greek influence in the Mediterranean]], as well as a strict [[Trade|mercantile]] network reaching as far as [[west Asia]] and [[northern Europe]], distributing an array of [[Commodity|commodities]] from all over the [[ancient world]] along with locally produced goods, all secured by one of the largest and most powerful navies in the [[Classical antiquity|ancient Mediterranean]].<ref name="Warmington 1981" />{{rp|pages=251–3}}

Carthage's political institutions received rare praise from both Greeks and Romans, with its constitution and aristocratic council providing stability, with birth and wealth paramount for election.<ref name="Warmington 1981" />{{rp|pages=251–3}} In 264 BCE the [[First Punic War]] began when Carthage came into conflict with the expansionary [[Roman Republic]] on the island of [[Sicily]], leading to what has been described as the greatest [[naval war]] of antiquity, causing heavy casualties on both sides, but ending in Carthage's eventual defeat and loss of Sicily.<ref name="Warmington 1981" />{{rp|pages=255–6}} The [[Second Punic War]] broke out when the Romans opportunistically took [[Sardinia]] and [[Corsica]] whilst the Carthaginians were putting down a ferocious [[Mercenary War|Libyan revolt]], with Carthage initially experiencing considerable success following [[Hannibal]]'s infamous [[Hannibal's crossing of the Alps|crossing of the alps]] into northern [[Italy]]. In a 14 year long campaign Hannibal's forces conquered much of [[Italian peninsula|mainland Italy]], only being recalled after the Romans conducted a bold naval invasion of the [[History of Tunisia|Carthaginian homeland]] and then defeated him in [[Battle of Zama|climactic battle]] in 202 BCE.<ref name="Warmington 1981" />{{rp|pages=256–7}}
[[File:Map depicting the Romano-Berber Kingdoms.png|thumb|Romanised-Berber kingdoms: [[Kingdom of Altava|Altava]], [[Kingdom of Ouarsenis|Ouarsenis]], [[Kingdom of Hodna|Hodna]], [[Kingdom of the Aures|Aures]], [[Nemencha]], [[Kingdom of Capsus|Capsus]], [[Kingdom of Dorsale|Dorsale]], [[Cabaon]].]]
Carthage was forced to give up their fleet, and the subsequent collapse of their empire would produce two further polities in the Maghreb; [[Numidia]], a polity made up of two [[Numidians|Numidian]] tribal federations until the [[Massylii]] conquered the [[Masaesyli]], and assisted the Romans in the Second Punic War; [[Mauretania]], a [[Mauri]] [[chiefdom|tribal kingdom]], home of the legendary [[Atlas (mythology)#King of Mauretania|King Atlas]]; and various tribes such as [[Garamantes]], [[Musulamii]], and [[Bavares]]. The [[Third Punic War]] would result in Carthage's total defeat in 146 BCE and the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] established the province of [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]], with [[Numidia]] assuming control of many of Carthage's African ports. Towards the end of the 2nd century BCE [[Mauretania]] fought alongside Numidia's [[Jugurtha]] in the [[Jugurthine War]] against the Romans after he had usurped the Numidian throne from a Roman ally. Together they inflicted heavy casualties that quaked the [[Roman Senate]], with the war only ending inconclusively when Mauretania's [[Bocchus I]] sold out the [[Jugurtha]] to the Romans.<ref name="Warmington 1981"/>{{rp|pages=258}}

At the turn of the millennium they both would face the same fate as Carthage and be conquered by the Romans who established [[Mauretania#Roman province(s)|Mauretania]] and [[Numidia (Roman province)|Numidia]] as provinces of their empire, whilst [[Musulamii]], led by [[Tacfarinas]], and [[Garamantes]] were eventually defeated in war in the 1st century CE however weren't conquered.<ref name="UNESCO Publishing">{{cite book|last1=Mahjoubi|first1=Ammar|last2=Salama|first2=Pierre|title=General History of Africa: Volume 2|chapter=The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa|year=1981|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375}}</ref>{{rp|pages=261–2}} In the 5th century CE the [[Vandal conquest of Roman Africa|Vandals conquered north Africa]] precipitating the [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|fall of Rome]]. Swathes of [[Berbers|indigenous peoples]] would regain self-governance in the [[Mauro-Roman Kingdom]] and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, namely the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Ouarsenis|Ouarsenis]], [[Kingdom of the Aurès|Aurès]], and [[Kingdom of Altava|Altava]]. The [[Vandal Kingdom|Vandals]] ruled [[Ifriqiya]] for a century until [[Vandalic War|Byzantine's reconquest]] in the early 6th century CE. The Byzantines and the Berber kingdoms fought minor inconsequential conflicts, such as in the case of [[Garmul]], however largely coexisted.<ref name="UNESCO Publishing" />{{rp|pages=284}} Further inland to the Byzantine [[Exarchate of Africa]] were the [[Sanhaja]] in modern-day [[Algeria]], a broad grouping of three groupings of [[Confederation|tribal confederations]], one of which is the [[Masmuda]] grouping in modern-day [[Morocco]], along with the nomadic [[Zenata]]; their composite tribes would later go onto shape much of North African history.

===West Africa===
{{Main|History of West Africa|History of the Soninke people}}
[[File:Nok sculpture Louvre 70-1998-11-1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|[[Nok culture|Nok]] sculpture]]
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 4th millennium BCE, which had crucially developed [[Iron metallurgy in Africa|iron metallurgy]] by 1,200 BCE, in both [[smelting]] and [[forging]] for tools and weapons.<ref>Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa' ''Journal of African History'' 35 (1994) 1–36; Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa' ''Current Anthropology'' 1968.</ref> Extensive east-west belts of [[Sahel|deserts]], [[West Sudanian savanna|grasslands]], and [[Guinean forest–savanna mosaic|forests]] from north to south were crucial in the moulding of their respective societies and meant that prior to the accession of [[Trans-Saharan trade|trans-Saharan trade routes]], symbiotic trade relations developed in response to the opportunities afforded by north–south diversity in ecosystems,<ref name="Collins 2007">{{cite book|last1=Collins|first1=Robert O.|author1-link=Robert O. Collins|last2=Burns|first2=James M.|year=2007|title=A History of Sub-Saharan Africa|location=NY|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-68708-9|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofsubsaha0000coll}}</ref>{{rp|pages=79–80}} trading [[West African cuisine#Meat|meat]]s, [[copper]], [[iron]], [[salt]], and [[gold]].

Various civilisations prospered in this period. From 4,000 BCE, the [[Tichitt culture]] in modern-day [[Mauritania]] and [[Mali]] was the oldest known [[Complex society|complexly organised society]] in West Africa, with a four tiered [[hierarchical]] social structure.<ref name="Holl 1985 73–115">{{cite journal|last=Holl|first=Augustine|year=1985|title=Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (mauritania)|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0278416585900054|journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology|volume=4|issue=2|pages=73–115|doi=10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Other civilisations include the [[Kintampo Complex|Kintampo culture]] from 2,500 BCE in modern-day [[Ghana]],<ref name="anquandah1995">Anquandah, James (1995) The Kintampo Complex: a case study of early sedentism and food production in sub-Sahelian west Africa, pp. 255–259 in Shaw, Thurstan, Andah, Bassey W and Sinclair, Paul (1995). The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-11585-X}}</ref> the [[Nok culture]] from 1,500 BCE in modern-day [[Nigeria]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Eggert|first=Manfred|title=Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context|publisher=Africa Magna Verlag Press|year=2014|editor-last=Breunig|editor-first=P|location=Frankfurt, Germany|pages=51–59|chapter=Early iron in West and Central Africa}}</ref> the [[Daima|Daima culture]] around [[Lake Chad]] from 550 BCE, and [[Djenné-Djenno]] from 250 BCE in modern-day [[Mali]].

Towards the end of the 3rd century CE, a [[Monsoon#Africa (West African and Southeast African)|wet period]] in the Sahel opened areas for human habitation and exploitation which had not been habitable for the better part of a millennium. Based on [[Tumulus#Africa|large tumuli]] scattered across West Africa dating to this period, it has been proposed that there were several contemporaneous kingdoms which have unfortunately been lost to history.<ref>{{cite book|last=Posnansky|first=Merrick|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000184265&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_976b4f2f-4e7c-44ec-a92e-2014aa9d86f0%3F_%3D184265engo.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000184265/PDF/184265engo.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A2903%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D|title=General History of Africa: Volume 2|publisher=UNESCO|year=1981|page=729|chapter=The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age}}</ref><ref name="Holl 1985 73–115" /> Some important polities likely founded in the early-to-middle 1st millennium who did make it into the historical record include [[Mema]], [[Takrur]], [[Silla (Senegal River Valley)|Silla]], and [[Wagadu]] (commonly called the Ghana Empire).

[[Oral traditions of the Soninke people|Soninke traditions]] mention four previous foundings of [[Wagadu (mythology)|Wagadu]], and hold that the final founding of Wagadu occurred after their first king did a deal with {{ill|Bida (mythology)|fr|Bida (mythologie)|italic=yes|lt=Bida}}, a serpent deity who was guarding a well, to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for assurance regarding plenty of rainfall and gold supply.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Conrad|first1=David|last2=Fisher|first2=Humphrey|year=1983|title=The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/conquest-that-never-was-ghana-and-the-almoravids-1076-ii-the-local-oral-sources/01C98BFDB91C78BFAC421A8F42C02407|journal=History in Africa|volume=10|pages=53–78|doi=10.2307/3171690|jstor=3171690|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Soninke tradition portrays early Ghana as warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population, although details of their expansion are extremely scarce.<ref name="Gestrich 2019">{{cite book|last=Gestrich|first=Nikolas|title=Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African history|chapter=Ghana Empire|year=2019|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.396|isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-396}}</ref>

===Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa===
{{Main|Bantu expansion}}
[[File:Bantu Phillipson.png|thumb|<br />'''1''' = 2000–1500 BC origin<br /><br />'''2''' = {{Circa|1500 BC}} first dispersal<br />{{nbsp|4}} '''2.a''' = Eastern Bantu<br />{{nbsp|4}} '''2.b''' = Western Bantu<br /><br />'''3''' = 1000–500 BC [[Urewe]] nucleus of Eastern Bantu<br /><br />'''4'''–'''7''' = southward advance<br /><br />'''9''' = 500–1 BC Congo nucleus<br /><br />'''10''' = AD 1–1000 last phase<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.txstate.edu/anthropology/cas/journal_articles/herder.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021249/http://www.txstate.edu/anthropology/cas/journal_articles/herder.pdf|title=The Chronological Evidence for the Introduction of Domestic Stock in Southern Africa|archive-date=25 March 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thuto.org/ubh/bw/bhp1.htm|title=Botswana History Page 1: Brief History of Botswana|access-date=13 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://elaine.ihs.ac.at/~isa/diplom/node59.html|title=5.2 Historischer Überblick|access-date=13 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016165014/http://elaine.ihs.ac.at/~isa/diplom/node59.html|archive-date=16 October 2007}}</ref>]]
In the 4th millennium BCE the [[Congo Basin]] was inhabited by the [[Bambenga]], [[Bayaka]], [[Bakoya]], and [[Bongo people (Gabon)|Babongo]] in the west, the [[Mbuti people|Bambuti]] in the [[Ituri Rainforest|east]], and the [[Twa|Batwa]] who were widely scattered and also present in the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes region]]; together they are grouped as [[African Pygmies|Pygmies]].<ref>"Mbuti, Twa, and Mbenga". In Stokes (ed.) 2009. ''Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East'', Volume 1</ref> On the later-named [[Swahili coast]] there were [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]]-speaking peoples, and the [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]] (a [[neologism]] for the [[Khoekhoe]] and [[San people|San]]) in the continent's south. Early San society left a [[San rock art|rich legacy of cave paintings]] across Southern Africa.<ref name=":14">{{Cite book|last=Mlambo|first=A. S.|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofzimbabw0000mlam/mode/2up?view=theater|title=A history of Zimbabwe|date=2014|publisher=New York, NY : Cambridge University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-1-107-02170-9}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=11–2}}

The [[Bantu expansion]] constituted a major series of migrations of [[Bantu languages|Bantu]]-speaking peoples from Central Africa to Eastern and Southern Africa and was substantial in the settling of the continent.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Amazing Bantu Migration and the Fascinating Bantu People|url=https://www.south-africa-tours-and-travel.com/bantu.html|website=south-africa-tours-and-travel.com|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref> Commencing in the 2nd millennium BCE, the Bantu began to migrate from [[Cameroon]] to the [[Congo Basin]], and eastward to the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes region]] to form the [[Urewe|Urewe culture]] from the 5th century BC.<ref>{{cite book|last=Buchanan|first=Carole|title=The Kitara Complex: The Historical Tradition of Western Uganda to the 16th century|publisher=Indiana University|year=1974|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70U1cAAACAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Robertshaw|first=Peter|title=Archaeological survey, ceramic analysis, and state formation in western Uganda|journal=The African Archaeological Review|volume=12|pages=105–131|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1007/BF01953040|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01953040|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In the 7th century AD, Bantu spread to the [[Upemba Depression]], forming the {{ill|Upemba culture|es|Cultura Upemba}}.<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Dlamini|first=Nonhlanhla|title=The early inhabitants of the Upemba depression, the Democratic Republic of Congo|year=2014|publisher=University of Cape Town|url=https://open.uct.ac.za/items/ef05c1ab-8f65-4656-bd3b-9a656cddd8fa}}</ref>

During the 1st millennium BCE the Bantu spread further from the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes]] to Southern and East Africa. One early movement headed south to the upper [[Zambezi basin]] in the 2nd century BCE. The Bantu then split westward to the savannahs of present-day [[Angola]] and eastward into [[Malawi]], [[Zambia]], and [[Zimbabwe]] in the 1st century CE, forming the [[Gokomere|Gokomere culture]] in the 5th century CE.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Vogel|first=Joseph|title=The Gokomere Tradition|journal=The South African Archaeological Bulletin|volume=33|issue=127|pages=12–17|year=1978|publisher=South African Archaeological Society|doi=10.2307/3888249|jstor=3888249}}</ref> The second thrust from the Great Lakes was eastward, also in the 1st century AD, expanding to [[Kenya]], [[Tanzania]], and the [[Swahili coast]].

Prior to this migration, the northern part of the [[Swahili coast]] was home to the elusive [[Azania]], most likely a [[Southern Cushitic language|Southern Cushitic]] polity, extending southwards to modern-day [[Tanzania]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hilton |first=John |title=Peoples of Azania |journal=Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics |date=October 1993 |volume=1 |issue=5 |url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N5/hilton.html |access-date=June 29, 2025 |issn=1320-3606}}</ref> The Bantu populations crowded out [[Azania]], with [[Rhapta]] being its last stronghold by the 1st century CE,<ref name="Fage2526">{{cite book|last1=Fage|first1=John|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXa4AQAAQBAJ|title=A History of Africa|date=23 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-79727-2|pages=25–26|access-date=20 January 2015}}</ref> and traded via the [[Indian Ocean trade]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheriff|first=Abdul|title=General History of Africa: Volume 2|chapter=The East African coast and its role in maritime trade|page=555|publisher=UNESCO|year=1981|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000184265&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_976b4f2f-4e7c-44ec-a92e-2014aa9d86f0%3F_%3D184265engo.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000184265/PDF/184265engo.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A2734%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D}}</ref> [[History of Madagascar|Madagascar]] was possibly first settled by [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]]s from 350 BC-550 CE, termed the ''[[Vazimba]]'' in [[Malagasy people|Malagasy]] oral traditions, although there is considerable academic debate.<ref>{{cite web|last=Blench|first=Robert|title=Was a migration of foragers from the African mainland responsible for the grassy biomes of highland Madagascar?|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2021|url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/68195931/Blench_grassy_biomes_2021_full_paper-libre.pdf?1626715803=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DWas_a_migration_of_foragers_from_the_Afr.pdf&Expires=1720102314&Signature=RrjGoX4QBQiK9qVEHOubCcacWfxMD-XaWl5x7G2N~DZitfD7Sy9TlmXILqV8w-40DZ9DO5zXR36qn4Tgb4ibgv8bAFxdh~QSN~m98rPKtyXz0o4g3p~nxa71OI6j6ip~c7pB~PIRU39egT6wo5ONxENuDv35~ON7fPP9xMcESPLiqGx4yhBuoS2fGOweClWkgXbtwF75yrteLEsm6Hn-iC1XCG8wHqmokurd9oLWorwiRftlzUJlYHvHKdaxHcX2B5GEcZCevVRfk0PRhY-hKz05uZQ2ZrjyJgz5doqREfWOi93oOWur9YOl97Tinkhbv9o4NrjSKKK18vpa3bXJKg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Voarintsoa|first=Ny Riavo|title='Malagasy' or 'Madagascan'? Which English term best reflects the people, the culture, and other things from Madagascar?|journal=Scientific African|volume=4|year=2019|article-number=e00091|doi=10.1016/j.sciaf.2019.e00091|bibcode=2019SciAf...400091V|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The eastern Bantu group would eventually meet with the southern migrants from the Great Lakes in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and both groups continued southward, with eastern groups continuing to [[Mozambique]] and reaching [[Maputo]] in the 2nd century CE. Further to the south, settlements of Bantu peoples who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen were well established south of the [[Limpopo River]] by the 4th century CE, displacing and assimilating the [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]].

By the [[Chari River]] south of [[Lake Chad]] the [[Sao civilisation]] flourished for over a millennium beginning in the 6th century BCE, in territory that later became part of present-day [[Cameroon]] and [[Chad]]. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in [[bronze]], [[copper]], and [[iron]],<ref name="Fanso">{{cite book|last=Fanso|first=Verkijika G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dqUPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP1|title=Cameroon History for Secondary Schools and Colleges|publisher=Macmillan|year=1989|isbn=978-0-333-47121-0|volume=1}}</ref>{{rp|page=19}} with finds including bronze sculptures, terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears.<ref name="Fanso" />{{rp|page=19}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hudgens|first1=Jim|title=The Rough Guide to West Africa|last2=Trillo|first2=Richard|date=1999|publisher=Rough Guides|edition=3rd}}</ref>{{rp|pages=1051}} Nearby, around [[Lake Ejagham]] in south-west [[Cameroon]], the [[Ekoi people#History|Ekoi civilisation]] rose circa 2nd century CE, and are most notable for constructing the [[Ikom monoliths]] and developing the [[Nsibidi|Nsibidi script]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ikom Monoliths of Cross River State|url=https://www.wmf.org/project/ikom-monoliths-cross-river-state|access-date=2024-09-11|website=World Monuments Fund|language=en}}</ref>

==Early Medieval Africa (600-1250)==
{{Main|Medieval and early modern Africa}}
{{Further|History of North Africa#Arrival of Islam|History of West Africa#Sahelian kingdoms|History of Central Africa#Post-classical history|History of East Africa#Post-classical history|History of Southern Africa#Post-classical history}}

===North Africa===
{{Main|History of North Africa|Muslim conquest of the Maghreb}}

====Northern Africa====
The turn of the 7th century saw much of North Africa controlled by the [[Byzantine Empire]]. Christianity was the [[state religion]] of the empire, and [[Semitic people|Semitic]] and [[Copts|Coptic]] subjects in [[Roman Egypt]] faced persecution due to their 'heretical' [[Miaphysitism|Miaphysite]] churches, paying a heavy tax. The [[Exarchate of Africa]] covered much of [[Ifriqiya]] and the eastern [[Maghreb]], surrounded by numerous [[Mauretania#Roman-Moorish kingdoms|Berber kingdoms]] that followed Christianity heavily syncretised with [[traditional Berber religion]]. The interior was dominated by various groupings of tribal confederations, namely the nomadic [[Zenata]], the [[Masmuda]] of Sanhaja in modern-day [[Morocco]], and the other two [[Sanhaja]] in the Sahara in modern-day [[Algeria]], who all mainly followed [[traditional Berber religion]]. In 618 the [[Sasanian conquest of Egypt|Sassanids conquered Egypt]] during the [[Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628|Byzantine-Sasanian War]], however the province was reconquered three years later.<ref name="UNESCO" />{{rp|pages=56}}
[[File:Umayyad Caliphate 720 AD (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|The [[Umayyad Caliphate]] at its greatest extent, under Caliph [[Umar II]], c. 720]]
The early 7th century saw the [[History of Islam#Origins of Islam|inception of Islam]] and the beginning of the [[Early Muslim conquests|Arab conquests]] intent on converting peoples to [[Islam]] and [[monotheism]].<ref name="UNESCO">{{cite book|last1=al-Fasi|first1=Muhammad|last2=Hrbek|first2=Ivan|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|chapter=Stages in the development of Islam and its dissemination in Africa|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=56}} The nascent [[Rashidun Caliphate]] won a series of crucial victories and expanded rapidly, forcing the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]] to evacuate Syria. With [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] regional presence shattered, Egypt was quickly conquered by 642, with the [[Copts|Egyptian Copts]] odious of [[Roman Egypt|Byzantine rule]] generally putting up little resistance. The Muslims' attention then turned west to the Maghreb where the [[Exarchate of Africa]] had declared independence from Constantinople under [[Gregory the Patrician]]. The Muslims conquered [[Ifriqiya]] and in 647 defeated and killed Gregory and his army decisively in [[Battle of Sufetula (647)|battle]]. The [[Berbers]] of the Maghreb proposed payment of annual tribute, which the Muslims, not wishing to annex the territory, accepted. After a [[First Fitna|brief civil war]] in the Muslim empire, the [[Rashidun]] were supplanted by the [[Umayyad dynasty]] in 661 and the capital moved from [[Medina]] to [[Damascus]].<ref name="unesdoc.unesco.org" />{{rp|pages=47–8}}

With intentions to expand further in all directions, the Muslims returned to the Maghreb to find the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]] had reinforced the [[Exarchate of Africa|Exarchate]] and allied with the Berber [[Kingdom of Altava]] under [[Kusaila]], who was approached prior to battle and convinced to convert to Islam. Initially having become neutral, Kusaila objected to integration into the empire and in 683 destroyed the poorly supplied Arab army and conquered the newly-found [[Kairouan]], causing an epiphany among the Berber that this conflict was not just against the Byzantines. The Arabs returned and defeated Kusaila and [[Altava]] in 690, and, after a set-back, expelled the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]] from North Africa. To the west, [[Kahina]] of the [[Kingdom of the Aurès]] declared opposition to the Arab invasion and repelled their armies, securing her position as the uncontested ruler of the Maghreb for five years. The Arabs received reinforcements and in 701 Kahina was killed and the [[Kingdom of the Aurès|kingdom]] defeated. They completed their conquest of the rest of the Maghreb, with large swathes of Berbers embracing Islam, and the combined Arab and Berber armies would use this territory as a springboard [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|into Iberia]] to expand the Muslim empire further.<ref name="unesdoc.unesco.org">{{cite book|last1=al-Fasi|first1=Muhammad|last2=Hrbek|first2=Ivan|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|chapter=The coming of Islam and the expansion of the Muslim empire|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=47–8}}

Large numbers of [[Berber peoples|Berber]] and [[Coptic people|Coptic]] people willingly converted to Islam, and followers of [[Abrahamic religions]] ("[[People of the Book]]") constituting the [[Dhimmi]] class were permitted to practice their religion and exempted from military service in exchange for a [[Jizya|tax]], which was improperly extended to include converts.<ref name="Talbi 1988">{{cite book|last=Talbi|first=Mohamed|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|chapter=The independence of the Maghrib|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=247}} Followers of [[traditional Berber religion]], which were mostly those of tribal confederations in the interior, were violently oppressed and often given the ultimatum to convert to Islam or face captivity or enslavement.<ref name="unesdoc.unesco.org" />{{rp|pages=46}} Converted natives were permitted to participate in the governing of the Muslim empire in order to quell the enormous administrative problems owing to the Arabs' lack of experience governing and rapid expansion.<ref name="unesdoc.unesco.org" />{{rp|pages=49}} Unorthodox sects such as the [[Kharijites|Kharijite]], [[Ibadism|Ibadi]], [[Isma'ilism|Isma'ili]], [[Nukkari]]te and [[Sufri]]te found fertile soil among many Berbers dissatisfied with the oppressive [[Umayyad rule in North Africa|Umayyad regime]], with religion being utilised as a political tool to foster organisation.<ref name="UNESCO" />{{rp|pages=64}} In the 740s the [[Berber Revolt]] rocked the caliphate and the Berbers took control over the Maghreb, whilst revolts in [[Ifriqiya]] were suppressed.

The [[Abbasid dynasty]] came to power [[Abbasid Revolution|via revolution]] in 750 and attempted to reconfigure the caliphate to be multi-ethnic rather than Arab exclusive, however this wasn't enough to prevent gradual disintegration on its peripheries. Various short-lived native dynasties would form states such as the [[Barghawata]] of [[Masmuda]], the [[Emirate of Tlemcen|Ifranid dynasty]], and the [[Midrarid dynasty]], both from the [[Zenata]]. The [[Idrisid dynasty]] would come to rule most of modern-day [[Morocco]] with the support of the [[Masmuda]], whilst the growing [[Ibadism|Ibadi movement]] among the [[Zenata]] culminated in the [[Rustamid dynasty|Rustamid Imamate]], centred on [[Tiaret|Tahert]], modern-day [[Algeria]].<ref name="Talbi 1988" />{{rp|pages=254}} At the turn of the 9th century the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids']] sphere of influence would degrade further with the [[Aghlabids]] controlling [[Ifriqiya]] under only nominal [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] rule and in 868 when the [[Tulunids]] wrestled the independence of Egypt for four decades before again coming under [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]] control.<ref>{{cite book|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=172, 260}} Late in the 9th century, a [[Zanj Rebellion|revolt by East African slaves]] in the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid's]] homeland of [[Iraq]] diverted its resources away from its other territories, devastating important ports in the [[Persian Gulf]], and was eventually put down after decades of violence, resulting in between 300,000 and 2,500,000 dead.{{sfn|Al-Mas'udi|1861–1917|loc=v. 8: pp. 58, 61}}{{sfn|McKinney|2004|pp=468–69}}{{rp|pages=714}}
[[File:Fatimid Caliphate.PNG|thumb|Evolution of the [[Fatimid Caliphate]]]] [[File:Almoravid dynasty-en.svg|thumb|upright=0.5|The [[Almoravid empire]] in the 12th century.]]
This gradual bubbling of disintegration of the caliphate boiled over when the [[Fatimid dynasty]] rose out of the [[Bavares]] tribal confederation and in 909 conquered the [[Aghlabids]] to gain control over all of [[Ifriqiya]]. Proclaiming [[Isma'ilism]], they established a [[caliphate]] rivalling the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]], who followed [[Sunni Islam]].<ref name="Hrbek 1988">{{cite book|last=Hrbek|first=Ivan|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|chapter=The emergence of the Fatimids|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=320}} The nascent caliphate quickly conquered the ailing [[Rustamid dynasty|Rustamid Imamate]] and fought a [[proxy war]] against the remnants of the [[Caliphate of Córdoba|Umayyad dynasty centred in Cordoba]], resulting the eastern Maghreb coming under the control of the vassalized [[Zirid dynasty]], who hailed from the [[Sanhaja]].<ref name="Hrbek 1988"/>{{rp|pages=323}} In 969 the [[Fatimid conquest of Egypt|Fatimids finally conquered Egypt]] against a weakened [[Abbasid Caliphate]] after decades of attempts, moving their capital to [[Cairo]] and deferring [[Ifriqiya]] to the [[Zirids]]. From there they conquered up to modern-day [[Syria]] and [[Hejaz]], securing the holy cities of [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]]. The [[Fatimids]] became absorbed by the eastern realms of their empire, and in 972, after encouragement from [[Fakir|faqir]]s, the [[Zirid dynasty|Zirids]] changed their allegiance to recognise the [[Abbasid Caliphate]].<ref name="Hrbek 1988" />{{rp|pages=329}}

In retaliation the [[Fatimids]] commissioned an [[Hilalian invasion of Ifriqiya|invasion by nomadic Arab tribes]] to punish them, leading to their disintegration with the [[Banu Khurasan|Khurasanid dynasty]] and Arab tribes ruling [[Ifriqiya]], to be later displaced by the [[Norman people|Norman]] [[Kingdom of Africa]].<ref name="Hrbek 1988" />{{rp|pages=329}} In the late 10th and early 11th centuries the [[Fatimids]] would lose the Maghreb to the [[Hammadid dynasty|Hammadids]] in modern-day [[Algeria]] and the [[Maghrawa]] in modern-day [[Morocco]], both from [[Zenata]]. In 1053 the Saharan [[Sanhaja]], spurred on by puritanical [[Sunni Islam]], conquered [[Sijilmasa]] and captured [[Aoudaghost]] from the [[Ghana Empire]] to control the affluent [[trans-Saharan trade|trans-Saharan trade routes]] in the [[Western Sahara]], forming the [[Almoravids|Almoravid empire]] before conquering [[Maghrawa]] and intervening in the [[Reconquista|reconquest of Iberia]] by the Christian powers on the side of the endangered Muslim [[taifa]]s, which were produced from the fall of the remnant [[Caliphate of Cordoba|Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba]]. The [[Almoravids]] incorporated the [[taifa]]s into their empire, enjoying initial success, until a devastating ambush crippled their military leadership, and throughout the 12th century they gradually lost territory to the Christians.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hrbek|first1=Ivan|last2=Devisse|first2=Jean|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|chapter=The Almoravids|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=351–4}}

To the east, the [[Fatimids]] saw their empire start to collapse in 1061, beginning with the loss of the holy cities to the [[Sharifate of Mecca]] and exacerbated by rebellion in [[Cairo]]. The [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk Turks]], who saw themselves as the guardian of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], capitalised and conquered much of their territories in the east, however the [[Fatimids]] repelled them from encroaching on Egypt. Amid the Christians' [[First Crusade]] against the [[Seljuks]], the [[Fatimids]] opportunistically took back [[Jerusalem]], but then lost it again to the Christians in [[Battle of Ascalon|decisive defeat]]. The [[Fatimids]]' authority collapsed due to intense internal struggle in political rivalries and religious divisions, amid [[Crusader invasions of Egypt, 1163–1169|Christian invasions of Egypt]], creating a [[power vacuum]] in North Africa. The [[Zengid dynasty]], nominally under Seljuk [[suzerainty]], invaded on the pretext of defending Egypt from the Christians, and usurped the position of [[vizier]] in the caliphate.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bianquis|first=Thierry|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|chapter=Egypt from the Arab conquest until the end of the Fatimid state (1171)|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=186–9}}
[[File:Marinids Zayyanids and Hafsids c1360.png|thumb|The [[Marinids]], [[Zayyanids]], and [[Hafsids]] c. 1360]]
Following the assassination of the previous holder, the position of [[vizier]] passed onto [[Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub]] (commonly referred to as Saladin). After a joint [[Zengid]]-[[Fatimid]] effort repelled the Christians and after he had put down a [[Battle of the Blacks|revolt from the Fatimid army]], Saladin eventually deposed the [[al-Adid|Fatimid caliph]] in 1171 and established the [[Ayyubid dynasty]] in its place, choosing to recognise the [[Abbasid Caliphate]]. From there the [[Ayyubids]] captured [[Cyrenaica]], and went on a [[Ayyubid dynasty#Expansion|prolific campaign]] to conquer Arabia from the [[Zengid dynasty|Zengids]] and the [[Hamdanids (Yemen)|Yemeni Hamdanids]], Palestine from the Christian [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]], and [[Syria]] and [[Upper Mesopotamia]] from [[Seljuk Empire#Conquest by Khwarezm and the Ayyubids|other Seljuk successor states]].<ref name="Garcin 1984">{{cite book|last=Garcin|first=Jean-Claude|title=General History of Africa: Volume 4|chapter=Egypt and the Muslim world|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|year=1984|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134377}}</ref>{{rp|pages=148–50}} To the west, there was a new domestic threat to [[Almoravid]] rule; a religious movement headed by [[Ibn Tumart]] from the [[Masmuda]] tribal grouping, who was considered by his followers to be the true [[Mahdi]]. Initially fighting a [[guerilla war]] from the [[Atlas Mountains]], they descended from the mountains in 1130 but were [[Battle of al-Buhayra|crushed in battle]], with Ibn Tumart dying shortly after.<ref name=":2" />{{rp|pages=8–23}}

The movement consolidated under the leadership of self-proclaimed [[caliph]] [[Abd al-Mu'min]] and, after gaining the support of the [[Zenata]], swept through the Maghreb, conquering the [[Hammadids]], the [[Battle of Sétif|Hilalian Arab tribes]], and the [[Norman people|Norman]] [[Kingdom of Africa]], before gradually conquering the Almoravid remnant in [[Al-Andalus]], proclaiming the [[Almohad Caliphate]] and extending their rule from the western Sahara and Iberia to Ifriqiya by the turn of the 13th century. Later, the Christians capitalised on internal conflict within the [[Almohads]] in 1225 and conquered Iberia by 1228, with the [[Emirate of Granada]] assuming control in the south. Following this, the embattled [[Almohads]] faced [[Banu Ghaniya invasion of North Africa|invasions from an Almoravid remnant]] in the [[Balearic Islands|Balearics]] and gradually lost territory to the [[Marinids]] in modern-day [[Morocco]], the [[Zayyanids]] in modern-day [[Algeria]], both of [[Zenata]], and the [[Hafsids]] of [[Masmuda]] in modern-day [[Tunisia]], before finally being extinguished in 1269.<ref name=":2">{{cite book|last=Saidi|first=O.|title=General History of Africa: Volume 4|chapter=The unification of the Maghreb under the Alhomads|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|year=1984|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134377}}</ref>{{rp|pages=8–23}} Meanwhile, after defeating the Christians' [[Fifth Crusade]] in 1221, internal divisions involving Saladin's descendants appeared within the [[Ayyubid dynasty]], crippling the empire's unity. In the face of [[Mongol conquests|Mongol expansion]], the [[Ayyubids]] became increasingly reliant on [[Mamluk]] generals.

====Nubia====
{{Main|Makuria|Alodia|Nobatia|Kingdom of Fazughli|Funj Sultanate|Banu Kanz|Kingdom of al-Abwab}}{{Expand section|date=July 2025}}

===East Africa===
====Horn of Africa====
{{Main|History of East Africa|History of Ethiopia|History of Somalia}}

At the end of the 6th century, the [[Kingdom of Aksum]] ruled over much of modern-day [[Ethiopia]] and [[Eritrea]], with the [[Harla Kingdom]] to its east, while [[ancient Somali city-states]] such as [[Mosylon]], [[Opone]], [[Sarapion]], [[Avalites]], and [[Aromata]] on the [[Somali Peninsula]] continued to thrive off of the lucrative [[Indian Ocean trade]] and their preferential relations with India.

Following the [[History of Islam|birth of Islam]] in the early 7th century, the north-central [[Harar|Harar Plateau]] was settled by [[early Muslims]] fleeing [[Persecution of Muslims by Meccans|persecution]], intermingling with the [[Somali people|Somali]] who became some of the first non-Arabs to convert to [[Islam]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Akou|first=Heather|title=The Politics of Dress in Somali Culture (African Expressive Cultures)|publisher=Indiana University Press; 1st Paperback Edition|year=2011}}</ref> Muslim-Aksumite relations were initially positive with Aksum [[Migration to Abyssinia|giving refuge to early Muslims]] in 613, however relations soured after Aksum made incursions along the Arab coast and [[Sultanate of Dahlak|Muslims settled the Dahlak archipelago]].<ref name="Mekouria">{{cite book|last=Mekouria|first=Tekle-Tsadik|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|chapter=The Horn of Africa|publisher=UNESCO|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282}}</ref>{{rp|pages=560}} Despite having ancient roots, the [[Red Sea slave trade]] expanded and flourished following the [[Early Muslim conquests|Muslim conquests]] with [[Beja people|Bejas]], [[Nubians]], and [[Ethiopians]] exported to [[Hejaz]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Miran|first=Jonathan|title=Red Sea Slave Trade|date=2022-04-20|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History|url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-868|access-date=2024-09-08|language=en|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.868|isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Aksum gradually lost their control of the [[Red Sea]], and the expulsion of the Byzantines from the region isolated them, causing their society to become introspective, drawing inspiration from biblical traditions of the [[Old Testament]].<ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=Tamrat|first=Taddesse|title=Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn|date=1977|work=The Cambridge History of Africa: Volume 3: From c.1050 to c.1600|volume=3|pages=98–182|editor-last=Oliver|editor-first=Roland|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-africa/ethiopia-the-red-sea-and-the-horn/1518583A70723220B77296C39BC0F570|access-date=2024-09-03|series=The Cambridge History of Africa|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-20981-6}}</ref>{{rp|pages=108}}

Meanwhile, during the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries [[Spread of Islam|Islam spread]] through the [[Somali Peninsula]], largely via [[Dawah|''da'wah'']]. The [[Harla Kingdom]] of [[Hubat]] also converted to Islam circa 700. The Somalis were organised into [[Somali people#Clans|various clans]], and relations with Arabs led [[Oral tradition|tradition]] to hold their lineages to [[Samaale]], [[Abdirahman bin Isma'il al-Jabarti|Daarood]] or [[Ishaaq bin Ahmed|Sheikh Ishaaq]], traditionally descendants of [[Family tree of Muhammad|Muhammad's cousins]]. To the west from the 7th to 15th century, [[Islamization of the Sudan region|Arab tribes migrated into the Sudan]], during which time the [[Beja people|Beja]] Islamised and [[Arabization|adopted Arab customs]]. In the 8th century, [[Beja people|Beja]] nomads invaded [[Kingdom of Aksum|Aksum]]'s northern territories and occupied the [[Eritrean Highlands]], leading punitive raids into Aksum, with the Beja establishing [[Beja kingdoms|various kingdoms]]. The Aksumite population migrated further inland into the [[Ethiopian Highlands]], moving their capital from [[Axum|Aksum]] to [[Kubar]], and later in the 9th century expanded southwards.<ref name="Mekouria" />{{rp|pages=563–4}}<ref name="Henze" />

The history becomes murky, however [[Oral tradition|tradition]] holds that Aksum's expansion brought it into conflict in 960 with the Jewish [[Kingdom of Simien|Kingdom of Beta Israel]], led by queen [[Gudit]] and located in the [[Simien Mountains]]. Accordingly, Gudit defeated and killed [[Dil Na'od|Aksum's king]], and burnt their churches.<ref name="Henze">{{Cite book|last=Henze|first=Paul B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gzwoedwOkQMC&pg=PA49|title=Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia|date=2000|publisher=Hurst & Company|isbn=978-1-85065-393-6|language=en}}</ref> It's possible that Gudit was a pagan queen who led resistance to Aksum's southward expansion.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|pages=108}} To the east in the 9th and 10th centuries, the Somali clans such as the [[Dir (clan)|Dir]] and other groups formed states in the [[Harar|Harar Plateau]], including [[Fatagar]], [[Dawaro]], [[Sultanate of Bale|Bale]], [[Hadiya Sultanate|Hadiya]], [[Hargaya]], [[Mora (historical region)|Mora]], [[Kwelgora]], and [[Adal (historical region)|Adal]], with the latter centred on the port city of [[Zeila]] (previously [[Avalites]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=I. M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eK6SBJIckIsC&pg=PA17|title=A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa|date=1999-01-01|publisher=James Currey Publishers|isbn=978-0-85255-280-3|language=en|access-date=12 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123104930/https://books.google.com/books?id=eK6SBJIckIsC&pg=PA17|archive-date=23 January 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> They neighboured the [[Sultanate of Shewa]] to their south, whose dynasty hailed from the Meccan [[Banu Makhzum]]. On the Horn's southeast coast the [[Tunni|Tunni clan]] established the [[Tunni Sultanate]], and the clans of [[Sarapion]] formed the [[Sultanate of Mogadishu]].

Traditionally, Gudit's dynasty reigned until 1137 when they were overthrown or conquered by [[Mara Takla Haymanot]] who established the [[Zagwe dynasty]], with traditions differing on whether he was an Aksumite general or relative of Gudit. In Ethiopia tradition holds that prior to his accession to the throne, [[Gebre Meskel Lalibela]] was guided by [[Jesus|Christ]] on a tour of [[Jerusalem]], and instructed to build a second Jerusalem in Ethiopia.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=115}} Accordingly, this led to the commissioning of [[Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela|eleven rock-hewn churches]] outside the capital in Roha, which was renamed [[Lalibela]] in his honour, and quickly became a [[holy city]] in [[Christianity in Ethiopia|Ethiopian Christianity]]. Possibly formed in the 10th century, the [[Kingdom of Damot]], following a [[Traditional African religions|traditional religion]], had become a powerful state by the 13th century (and is possibly synonymous with the [[Kingdom of Wolaita]] founded by [[Motolomi Sato]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tedla |first1=Solomon |last2=Reddy |first2=B. |date=2018 |title=The Kingdom of Wolaita (Ethiopia): Military Organization and War, To 1894 |url=https://www.gijash.com/GIJASH_Vol.2_Issue.2_April2018/GIJASH002.pdf |journal=Galore International Journal of Applied Sciences and Humanities |volume=2 |issue=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=González-Ruibal |first=Alfredo |date=2024-03-01 |title=Landscapes of Memory and Power: The Archaeology of a Forgotten Kingdom in Ethiopia |journal=African Archaeological Review |language=en |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=71–95 |doi=10.1007/s10437-024-09575-8 |issn=1572-9842 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=10261/361960}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aalen |first=Lovise |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zeJ5DwAAQBAJ |title=The Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia: Actors, Power and Mobilisation under Ethnic Federalism |date=2011-06-24 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-20937-4 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=59}}

The history continues to be murky, however [[Hegemony|regional hegemony]] was contested between the [[Kingdom of Damot]], the [[Zagwe dynasty|Zagwe]], and the [[Sultanate of Shewa]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Tamrat|first=Taddesse|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184287|title=General History of Africa: Volume 4|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|year=1984|chapter=The Horn of Africa: The Solomonids in Ethiopia and the states of the Horn of Africa}}</ref>{{rp|pages=431}} [[Kingdom of Damot|Damot]] likely drew its economic power from gold production, which was exported to Zeila.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bouanga|first=Ayda|date=2014|title=The kingdom of Damot: An Inquiry into Political and Economic Power in the Horn of Africa (13th c.)|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ethio_0066-2127_2014_num_29_1_1572|journal=Annales d'Éthiopie|volume=29|issue=1|pages=261–264|doi=10.3406/ethio.2014.1572}}</ref> The [[Zagwe dynasty|Zagwe]] and [[Makhzumi dynasty|Shewa]] were forced into a conditional alliance to counter [[Kingdom of Damot|Damot]], with [[Makhzumi dynasty|Shewa]] at times forced to pay tribute to the pagans.<ref name="Hassen 1983">{{cite thesis|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/29226/1/10731321.pdf|last=Hassen|first=Mohammed|title=THE OROMO OF ETHIOPIA, 1500–1850: WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE GIBE REGION|year=1983|publisher=University of London}}</ref> In the 13th century the [[Ajuran (clan)|Ajuran clan]] established the [[Ajuran Sultanate]] on the eastern coast of the Horn and expanded, conquering the [[Tunni Sultanate|Tunni]] and vassalising [[Sultanate of Mogadishu|Mogadishu]], coming to dominate the [[Indian Ocean trade]], while the [[Warsangali|Warsangali clan]] formed the [[Warsangali Sultanate]] on the Horn's north-eastern coast.

====Swahili coast, Madagascar, and the Comoro Islands====
{{Main|History of East Africa|History of Madagascar|History of the Comoros}}

The turn of the 7th century saw the [[Swahili coast]] continue to be inhabited by the [[Zanj|Swahili civilisation]], whose economies were primarily based on [[:Category:Agriculture in Africa|agriculture]], however they traded via the [[Indian Ocean trade]] and later developed local industries, with their [[Swahili architecture|iconic stone architecture]].<ref name="Masao">{{cite book|title=General History of Africa: Volume 3|year=1988|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184282|chapter=The East African coast and the Comoro Islands|last1=Masao|first1=Fidelis|last2=Mutoro|first2=Henry}}</ref>{{rp|pages=587, 607–8}}<ref name="Ichumbaki">{{cite book|title=Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Anthropology|chapter=The Swahili Civilization in Eastern Africa|last1=Ichumbaki|first1=Elgidius|last2=Pollard|first2=Edward|year=2021|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.267|isbn=978-0-19-085458-4|url=https://oxfordre.com/anthropology/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.001.0001/acrefore-9780190854584-e-267}}</ref> [[Kaya (Mijikenda)|Forested]] river estuaries created natural harbours whilst the yearly monsoon winds assisted trade,<ref name="Swahili Coast">{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Swahili_Coast/|title=Swahili Coast|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|date=April 2019 |access-date=2019-11-14}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Int'l Commerce, Snorkeling Camels, and The Indian Ocean Trade: Crash Course World History #18|date=24 May 2012|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6XtBLDmPA0|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191107143627/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6XtBLDmPA0|archive-date=2019-11-07|url-status=bot: unknown|language=en|access-date=2019-10-30}}</ref> and the Swahili civilisation consisted of [[List of Swahili settlements of the East African coast|hundreds of settlements]] and linked the societies and kingdoms of the interior, such as those of the [[Zambezi basin]] and the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes]], to the wider [[Indian Ocean trade]].<ref name="Masao" />{{rp|pages=614–5}} There is much debate around the chronology of the settlement of [[History of Madagascar|Madagascar]], although most scholars agree that the island was further settled by [[Austronesian peoples]] from the 5th or 7th centuries AD who had proceeded through or around the [[Indian Ocean]] by [[Samudra Raksa|outrigger boats]], to also settle the [[Comoro Islands|Comoros]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Allibert|first1=Claude|title=Austronesian Migration and the Establishment of the Malagasy Civilization: Contrasted Readings in Linguistics, Archaeology, Genetics and Cultural Anthropology|journal=Diogenes|date=May 2008|volume=55|issue=2|pages=7–16|doi=10.1177/0392192108090734}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tofanelli|first1=S.|last2=Bertoncini|first2=S.|last3=Castri|first3=L.|last4=Luiselli|first4=D.|last5=Calafell|first5=F.|last6=Donati|first6=G.|last7=Paoli|first7=G.|title=On the Origins and Admixture of Malagasy: New Evidence from High-Resolution Analyses of Paternal and Maternal Lineages|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution|date=1 September 2009|volume=26|issue=9|pages=2109–2124|doi=10.1093/molbev/msp120|pmid=19535740}}</ref> This second wave possibly found the island of Madagascar sparsely populated by descendants of the first wave a few centuries earlier, with the ''[[Vazimba]]'' of the [[Central Highlands (Madagascar)|interior's highlands]] being represented as primitive dwarves in [[Malagasy people|Malagasy]] [[oral tradition]]s and revered.<ref name="Randrianja 2009" />{{rp|pages=71}}
[[File:Sultanate of Kilwa.png|thumb| The [[Kilwa Sultanate]] in 1310]]
The wider region underwent a trade expansion from the 7th century, as the [[Swahili people|Swahili]] engaged in the flourishing [[Indian Ocean trade]] following the [[early Muslim conquests]].<ref name="Masao" />{{rp|pages=612–5}} Settlements further centralised and some major states included [[Ruins of Gedi|Gedi]], [[Ungwana (archaeological site)|Ungwana]] [[:de:Ungwana|<small>[de]</small>]], [[Pate Island|Pate]], [[Malindi]], [[Mombasa]], and [[Tanga, Tanzania|Tanga]] in the north, [[Unguja Ukuu]] on [[Unguja|Zanzibar]], [[Kaole]], [[Dar es Salaam]], [[Kilwa]], {{ill|Kiswere|de|Kiswere}}, [[Monapo]], [[Island of Mozambique|Mozambique]], and [[Angoche]] in the middle, and [[Quelimane]], [[Sofala]], [[Chibuene]], and [[Inhambane]] in the south.<ref name="Ichumbaki" /> Via {{ill|mtumbwi|uk|Мтумбві}}, [[mtepe]] and later [[ngalawa]] they exported [[gold]], [[iron]], [[copper]], [[ivory]], [[Slavery in Africa|slaves]], [[:Category:African pottery|pottery]], [[cotton cloth]], [[Khaya anthotheca|wood]], [[grain]], and [[Oryza glaberrima|rice]], and imported [[silk]], [[History of glass in sub-Saharan Africa|glassware]], [[jewellery]], [[Islamic pottery]], and [[Chinese ceramics|Chinese porcelain]].<ref name="Swahili Coast"/> Relations between the states fluctuated and varied, with [[Mombasa]], [[Pate Island|Pate]], and [[Kilwa]] emerging as the strongest. This prosperity led some Arab and Persian merchants to settle and assimilate into the various societies, and from the 8th to the 14th century the region gradually Islamised due to the increased trading opportunities it brought, with some [[oral tradition]]s having rulers of [[Shirazi people|Arab or Persian descent]].<ref name="Masao" />{{rp|pages=605–7}}

The [[Kilwa Chronicle]], supposedly based on [[oral tradition]], holds that a [[Ali ibn al-Hassan Shirazi|Persian prince]] from [[Shiraz]] arrived and acquired the island of Kilwa from the local inhabitants, before quarrel with the Bantu king led to the severing Kilwa's [[land bridge]] to the mainland. Settlements in northern Madagascar such as {{ill|Mahilaka|de|Mahilaka}}, [[Irodo River|Irodo]], and [[Iharana]] also engaged in the trade, attracting [[Omani Arabs|Arab]] immigration.<ref name="Ichumbaki" />  Bantu migrated to Madagascar and the Comoros from the 9th century, when [[zebu]] were first brought. From the 10th century [[Kilwa Sultanate|Kilwa]] expanded its influence, coming to challenge the dominance of [[Somalis|Somalian]] [[Mogadishu]] located to its north, however details of [[Kilwa Sultanate|Kilwa's]] rise remain scarce.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} In the late 12th century [[Kilwa Sultanate|Kilwa]] wrestled control of [[Sofala]] in the south, a key trading city linking to [[Great Zimbabwe]] in the interior and famous for its Zimbabwean gold, which was substantial in the usurpation of [[Mogadishu]]'s hegemony, while also conquering [[Pemba Island|Pemba]] and [[Zanzibar]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} [[Kilwa Sultanate|Kilwa]]'s administration consisted of representatives who ranged from governing their assigned cities to fulfilling the role of ambassador in the more powerful ones.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} Meanwhile, the {{ill|Pate Chronicle|fr|Chronique de Pate}} has [[Pate Island|Pate]] conquering [[Shanga, Pate Island|Shanga]], [[Faza]], and prosperous [[Manda Island|Manda]], and was at one time led by the popular [[Fumo Liyongo]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chittick|first=Neville|title=A New Look at the History of Pate|journal=Journal of African History|volume=10|issue=3|pages=375–391|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1969|doi=10.1017/S0021853700036331|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/F1A3CC8C912F9BE0F2F9E2C9C10F2F67/S0021853700036331a.pdf/a-new-look-at-the-history-of-pate.pdf}}</ref> The islands of [[Pemba Island|Pemba]], [[Unguja|Zanzibar]], [[Lamu Island|Lamu]], [[Mafia Island|Mafia]] and the [[Comoro Islands|Comoros]] were further settled by [[Shirazi people|Shirazi]] and grew in importance due to their geographical positions for trade.

By 1100, all regions of Madagascar were inhabited, although the total population remained small.<ref name="Randrianja 2009">{{cite book|last=Randrianja|first=Solofo|title=Madagascar: A short history|year=2009|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/madagascarshorth0000rand/page/42/mode/2up|publisher=University of Chicago Press|chapter=Transforming the island (1100–1599)}}</ref>{{Rp|page=48}} Societies organised at the behest of ''[[hasina (Madagascar)|hasina]],'' which later evolved to embody kingship, and competed with one another over the [[List of rivers of Madagascar|island's estuaries]], with oral histories describing bloody clashes and earlier settlers often pushed along the coast or inland.<ref name="Randrianja 2009" />{{rp|pages=43, 52–3}} An Arab geographer wrote in 1224 that the island consisted of a great many towns and kingdoms, with kings making war on each other.<ref name="Randrianja 2009" />{{rp|pages=51–2}} Assisted by climate change, the peoples gradually transformed the island from [[Madagascar lowland forests|dense forest]] to grassland for cultivation and zebu [[pastoralism]].<ref name="Randrianja 2009" />{{rp|pages=71}} From the 13th century [[Zafiraminia|Muslim settlers]] arrived, integrating into the respective societies, and held high status owing to Islamic trading networks.

====Northern Great Lakes====
{{Main|Urewe|Empire of Kitara|Luo peoples#Uganda|Buganda|Nkore|Rwanda|Busoga|Bunyoro}}{{Expand section|date=July 2025}}

===West Africa===
====The western Sahel and Sudan====
{{Main|History of West Africa|Sahelian kingdoms}}
[[File:Ghana empire map.png|thumb|left|The [[Ghana Empire]] at its greatest extent]]
The 7th to 13th centuries in West Africa were a period of relatively abundant rainfall that saw the explosive growth of trade, particularly across the [[Sahara desert]], and the flourishing of numerous important states.<ref name = Brooks>{{cite journal|last1=Brooks|first1=George E.|title=WESTERN AFRICA TO c1860 A.D. A PROVISIONAL HISTORICAL SCHEMA BASED ON CLIMATE PERIODS|journal=Indiana University African Studies Program|date=August 1985|page=36}}</ref> The introduction of the [[Dromedary|camel]] to the western Sahel was a watershed moment, allowing more merchandise to move more easily.<ref name="Gestrich 2019"/> These desert-side states are the first to appear in the written record, with Arab and Berber merchants from North Africa leaving descriptions of their power and wealth.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000}} Nevertheless, there remain big gaps in the historical record, and many details are speculative and/or based on much later traditions.

One of the most powerful and well known of these states was [[Wagadu]], commonly called the Ghana Empire, likely the dominant player in the western Sahel from the 6th century onwards.<ref name = Abney>{{cite thesis|last=Abney|first=Graham|title=Sundiata Keita's Invention of Latin Purgatory: The West African Gold Trade's Influence on Western European Society (ca.1050–1350)|year=2021|publisher=University of New Mexico|url=https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1295&context=hist_etds}}</ref> Wagadu was the most powerful of a constellation of states stretching from [[Takrur]] on the [[Senegal river]] valley to [[Mema]] in the Niger valley, all of whom were subservient to Ghana at least some of the time.<ref name=":0"/> Like Wagadu, the [[Gao Empire]] which rose in the 7th century had at least seven kingdoms accepting their suzerainty. Both [[Gao]] and [[Kumbi Saleh]] (capital of Wagadu) grew fabulously rich through the [[trans-Saharan trade]] routes linking these cities with [[Tadmekka]], [[Kairouan]], and [[Sijilmassa]] in [[North Africa]] along which flowed trade in salt, gold, slaves, and more.<ref>{{cite book|last=McIntosh|first=Susan|title=The Encyclopedia of Empire|chapter=Gao Empire|year=2016|pages=1–3|publisher=Wiley|doi=10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe312|isbn=978-1-118-44064-3|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe312}}</ref><ref name = Levtzion>{{citation|author-link=Nehemia Levtzion|last=Levtzion|first=Nehemia|title=Ancient Ghana and Mali|publisher=Methuen|place=London|year=1973|isbn=0-8419-0431-6}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last=McIntosh|first=Susan|title=Reconceptualizing Early Ghana|journal=Canadian Journal of African Studies|volume=43|issue=2|pages=347–373|year=2008|publisher=Taylor and Francis|jstor=40380172}}</ref><ref name="Gestrich 2019"/>

[[File:Ghana successor map 1200-es.svg|thumb|Map of the western [[Sahel]] and [[West Sudanian savanna|Sudan]] (northern West Africa) c. 1200. (''Songhai'' is [[Gao Empire|Gao]]) <br />Kingdoms in this era were centred around cities and cores, with variations of influence radiating out from these points, borders here are estimates.]]

The arrival of Islam in West Africa had seismic consequences for the history of the entire region. By the 10th century, the king of [[Gao]] had converted, possibly to [[Ibadi]] Islam.{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=25}} In 1035 king [[War Jabi]] of Takrur became the first ruler to adopt Sunni Islam.<ref name="Colvin">Colvin, Lucie Gallistel, ''Historical dictionary of Senegal'', Scare Crow Press Inc. (1981), p. 18, {{ISBN|0-8108-1369-6}}</ref> The rise of the [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravid]] [[Sanhaja]] in the 1050s, perhaps inspired and supported by Muslims in Takrur, pushed the leaders of Sahelian states to institutionalize Islam in the subsequent decades.<ref>Levtzion N. The Sahara and the Sudan from the Arab conquest of the Maghrib to the rise of the Almoravids. In: Fage JD, ed. The Cambridge History of Africa. The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge University Press; 1979:637–684.</ref> Historians debate whether the Almoravids conquered Wagadu or merely dominated them politically but not militarily. In any case the period saw significant upheaval and a shift in trade patterns as previously important cities like [[Awdaghost]] and [[Tadmekka]] fell victim to the Almoravids and their allies.{{Efn|Soninke oral traditions hold that, intent on invading Ghana, the Almoravid army found the king respectful of Islam, and that he willingly adopted Islam with the exchange of gold for an [[imam]] relocating to [[Koumbi Saleh]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Conrad|first1=David|last2=Fisher|first2=Humphrey|title=The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. I. The External Arabic Sources|journal=History in Africa|volume=10|year=1983|doi=10.2307/3171690|jstor=3171690|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/conquest-that-never-was-ghana-and-the-almoravids-1076-i-the-external-arabic-sources/4C43B158FD3D74BE744D8634781A4E0A|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{rp|pages=23–24}}}}{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=73, 98}} In the confusion, some vassals achieved independence such as [[Mema]], [[Sosso Empire|Sosso]], and [[Kingdom of Diarra|Diarra/Diafunu]], with the last two being especially powerful.<ref name = Abney/> Despite Wagadu regaining full independence and power throughout the 12th century, this could not counteract the worsening climate and shifts in trade south and east. Around the turn of the 13th century, the [[Sosso Empire]] united the region and conquered a weakened [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]] from its south, spurring large-scale Soninke out-migration.{{efn|According to some traditions, [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu's]] fall is caused when a nobleman attempts to save a maiden from sacrifice against her wishes and kills ''Bida'' before escaping the population's ire on horseback, annulling [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu]] and Bida's prior assurance and unleashing a curse causing drought and famine, sometimes causing gold to be discovered in [[Siguiri|Bure]]. The Soninke generation that survived the drought were called "it has been hard for them" (''"a jara nununa"'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Conrad |first1=David |last2=Fisher |first2=Humphrey |year=1983 |title=The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/conquest-that-never-was-ghana-and-the-almoravids-1076-ii-the-local-oral-sources/01C98BFDB91C78BFAC421A8F42C02407 |journal=History in Africa |volume=10 |pages=53–78 |doi=10.2307/3171690 |jstor=3171690|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{rp|pages=56, 64}}}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fall|first1=Mamadou|editor1-last=Fall|editor1-first=Mamadou|editor2-last=Fall|editor2-first=Rokhaya|editor3-last=Mane|editor3-first=Mamadou|title=Bipolarisation du Senegal du XVIe – XVIIe siécle|date=2021|publisher=HGS Editions|location=Dakar|pages=14–39|language=French|chapter=Les Terroirs Historiques et la Poussée Soninké}}</ref>

[[Sosso Empire|Sosso]]'s [[Soumaoro Kante]] conquered [[Diarra]], [[Gajaaga]], and the [[Manding region]].<ref>POLLET Eric, WINTER Grace, La Société Soninké (Dyahunu, Mali), Bruxelles, Editions de l'Institut de Sociologie de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1971.</ref> According to the oral [[Epic of Sundiata]], [[Sundiata Keita]], a [[Mandinka people|Mandinka]] prince in exile, returned to [[Pre-imperial Mali|Manden]] to save his people of the tyrannical Sosso king. Sundiata unified the [[Twelve Doors of Mali|Mandinka clans]], allied with [[Mema]], and defeated [[Soumaoro Kante]] at the [[Battle of Kirina]] in the early 13th century. He then proclaimed the ''[[Kouroukan Fouga]]'' of the nascent [[Mali Empire]].<ref name="Niane 1984" /> Allied kingdoms, including [[Mema]] and [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu]], retained leadership of their province, while conquered leaders were assigned a ''[[Mali Empire#Government|farin]]'' subordinate to the ''[[Mansa (title)|mansa]]'' (emperor), with provinces retaining a great deal of autonomy.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cissoko|first1=Sekene Mody|title=Formations sociales et État en Afrique précoloniale: Approche historique|journal=Présence Africaine|date=1983|volume=COLLOQUE SUR « LA PROBLÉMATIQUE DE L'ÉTAT EN AFRIQUE NOIRE »|issue=127/128|pages=50–71|doi=10.3917/presa.127.0050|jstor=24350899}}</ref>
[[File:The Mali Empire.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Mali Empire]] in 1337 CE, with major gold fields, of [[Bambuk]], [[Siguiri|Bure]], [[Gaoua|Lobi]] (tended by the [[Ga-Adangbe people|Gan]] and later [[Lobi people]]), and [[Tarkwa|Akan]], and [[Trans-Saharan trade|trade routes]], outlined. The desert should extend further south to [[Koumbi Saleh|Koumbi]]. The [[Mossi Kingdoms]] are located north of Lobi.]]

In addition to campaigns in the north to subdue [[Kingdom of Diarra|Diafunu]], Mali established suzerainty over the highlands of [[Fouta Djallon]].<ref>Bühnen, Stephan. "In Quest of Susu." History in Africa, vol. 21, 1994, pp. 1–47. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3171880. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.</ref> After being insulted by the [[Wolof people|Wolof]] king of [[Kita, Mali|Kita]], Sundiata sent [[Tiramakhan Traore]] west at the head of a large army, ultimately bringing most of [[Senegambia]] under the empire's control and, after defeating the [[Bainuk people|Bainuk]] king, established dozens of Mandinka vassal kingdoms in the [[Gambia river|Gambia]] and [[Casamance river|Casamance]] basins, a region known as [[Kaabu]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Niane|first=Djibril Tamsir|title=Histoire des Mandingues de l'Ouest: le royaume du Gabou|publisher=KARTHALA Editions|year=1989|pages=221 Pages|isbn=978-2-86537-236-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHCgAnkySJwC&q=Kikikor&pg=PA22}}</ref>

====Within the Niger bend and the forest region====
{{Main|History of West Africa|Kingdom of Nri|Ife Empire|Oyo Empire|Bonoman|Kingdom of Dagbon|Benin Empire|Denkyira}}
<!-- Unsourced section that I think is also wrong - to be worked on.-->
<!-- Meanwhile in the 11th century, [[Mossi people|Mossi]] traditions hold that a [[Yennenga|princess]] left [[Kingdom of Dagbon|Dagbon]] in the [[Guinean forest–savanna mosaic|forest region]] to the south to found [[Ouagadougou]], with her children founding the [[Mossi Kingdoms|kingdoms]] of [[Tenkodogo]], [[Fada N'Gourma]], and [[Zondoma]]. Circa 1170, internal conflict within the [[Mossi Kingdoms|Ouagadougou dynasty]] induced the founding of [[Yatenga]] to the north, which later conquered [[Zondoma]]. -->{{Expand section|date=July 2025}}

While the precise timeline is unknown, archaeological evidence points to settlements in [[Ile-Ife]] being one of the earliest south of the Niger river, dating back as early as the 10th to 6th century BCE. The city gradually transitioned into a more urban center around the 4th to 7th centuries CE. By the 8th century, a powerful city-state had formed,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Horton|first=Robin|title=Ancient Ife: A Reassessment|journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria|volume=9|issue=4|pages=69–149|date=June 1979|publisher=Historical Society of Nigeria}}</ref> laying the foundation for the eventual rise of the [[Ife Empire]] (circa 1200–1420).<ref name="Akinwumi">{{cite book|last=akinwumi|first=ogundiran|author-link=Akinwumi Ogundiran|date=2020|title=The Yoruba: A New History|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-05150-9}}</ref>
Under figures like the now defied figures such as [[Oduduwa]], revered as the first divine king of the Yoruba, the Ife Empire grew. Ile-Ife, its capital, rose to prominence, its influence extending across a vast swathe of what is now southwestern Nigeria.

The period between 1200 and 1400 is often referred to as the "golden age" of Ile-Ife, marked by exceptional artistic production, economic prosperity, and urban development. The city's artisans excelled in crafting exquisite sculptures from bronze, terracotta, and stone. These works, renowned for their naturalism and technical mastery, were not only objects of aesthetic appreciation but also likely held religious significance, potentially reflecting the cosmology and belief systems of the Ife people.<ref name="Blier">{{cite book|last=blier|first=suzanne|date=2014|title=art and risk in ancient yoruba: ife history, power, and identity, c. 1300|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/CBO9781139128872|isbn=978-1-107-02166-2|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/art-and-risk-in-ancient-yoruba/1D8136F1682FC0244F690903B437653D |archive-date=2022-08-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827035513/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/art-and-risk-in-ancient-yoruba/1D8136F1682FC0244F690903B437653D|url-status=live}}</ref>

This artistic tradition coincided with Ile-Ife's role as a major commercial hub. The Ife Empire's strategic location facilitated its participation in extensive trade networks that spanned West Africa. Of note is the evidence of a thriving glass bead industry in Ile-Ife. Archaeological excavations have unearthed numerous glass beads, indicating local production and pointing to the existence of specialized knowledge and technology. These beads, particularly the [[dichroic glass|dichroic]] beads known for their iridescent qualities, were highly sought-after trade items, found as far afield as the [[Sahel]] region, demonstrating the far-reaching commercial connections of the Ife Empire.<ref name="Akinwumi" />

===Central Africa===
====The central Sahel and Cameroon====
{{Main|Kanem Empire|Bilala people#History|Wadai Empire|Sao civilisation|Tikar people#History|Bamileke people#History}}{{Expand section|date=July 2025}}
In northern modern-day [[Nigeria]], [[Kano Chronicle|Hausa tradition]] holds that [[Bayajidda]] came to [[Daura]] in the 9th century, and his descendants founded the [[Hausa Kingdoms|kingdoms]] of [[Daura]], [[Kingdom of Kano|Kano]], [[Rano]], [[History of Katsina|Katsina]], [[Gobir]], [[Kingdom of Zazzau]], and [[Hadejia|Biram]] in the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries, with his bastard descendants founding [[Hausa Kingdoms|various others]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Administration|date=2020-01-10|title=Bayajidda HAUSA Historical Legend Myth or Reality|url=https://www.csan-niger.com/bayajidda-hausa-historical-legend-myth-or-reality.php|access-date=2024-07-07|website=CSAN Niger|language=French}}</ref> While the historical validity of these legends is unknowable, the Arab geographer [[al-Yaqubi]], writing in 872/873 CE (AH 259), describes a kingdom called "HBShH" with a city named "ThBYR" located between the Niger and the [[Kanem–Bornu Empire]] which may refer to Hausa.{{sfn|Levtzion|Hopkins|2000|p=21}}

====The Congo Basin====
{{See also|History of Central Africa}}{{Expand section|date=July 2025}}
Following the Bantu migrations, a period of state and class formation began circa 700 with four centres; one in the west around [[Pool Malebo]], one south around the [[Geography of Angola|highlands of Angola]], a third north-central around [[Lake Mai-Ndombe]], and a fourth in the far southeast in the [[Upemba Depression]].<ref name=":02">{{Citation|title=The Development of States in West Central Africa to 1540|date=2020|work=A History of West Central Africa to 1850|pages=16–55|editor-last=Thornton|editor-first=John K.|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/history-of-west-central-africa-to-1850/development-of-states-in-west-central-africa-to-1540/CE71122CF8DFD7B4B188BA34F8F65BFC|access-date=2024-09-21|series=New Approaches to African History|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-56593-7}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=17–18}}

In the Upemba Depression social stratification and governance began to form after the 10th century based on villages.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=18–19}}

===Southern Africa===
====Southern Great Lakes and the Zambezi and Limpopo basins====
By the 4th century, [[Bantu peoples]] had established farming villages south of the [[Zambezi River]]. The [[San people|San]], having inhabited the region for around 100,000 years,{{Efn|Some scholars contest that cultures and identities can't be considered fixed or invariable, especially over such a long time period.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/primordialism-and-the-pleistocene-san-of-southern-africa/45D6E61597C34A496AB5A0B6FA1C7632|last1=Pargeter|first1=Justin|last2=Mackay|first2=Alex|last3=Mitchell|first3=Peter|last4=Shea|first4=John|last5=Stewart|first5=Brian|title=Primordialism and the 'Pleistocene San' of southern Africa|year=2016|journal=Antiquity|volume=90|issue=352}}</ref>}} were driven off their ancestral lands or incorporated by Bantu speaking groups.<ref name=":14"/>{{Rp|pages=11–12}} The Zambezi Plateau came to be dotted with the agricultural chiefdoms of the [[Zhizo people]] and [[Leopard's Kopje]] people, in which cattle was the primary identifier of wealth. External trade began around the 7th century, primarily exporting gold and ivory.<ref name=":14" />{{Rp|page=14}} Around 900, motivated by the [[ivory trade]], some Zhizo moved south to settle the [[Limpopo River|Limpopo]]-[[Shashe River|Shashe]] Basin. Their capital and most populated settlement was [[Schroda, South Africa|Schroda]], and via the coastal [[Swahili people|Swahili]] city-state [[Chibuene]] they engaged in the [[Indian Ocean trade]].<ref name=":07">{{Cite book|last=Huffman|first=Thomas N.|url=https://archive.org/details/mapungubweancien0000huff/mode/2up?view=theater|title=Mapungubwe: ancient African civilisation on the Limpopo|date=2005|publisher=Johannesburg : Wits University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-1-86814-408-2}}</ref>{{Rp|page=10–14}}

The 10th century saw increased global demand for gold as various Muslim, European, and Indian states began issuing gold coinage.<ref name=":56">{{Cite book|last1=Chirikure|first1=Shadreck|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pa7CgAAQBAJ&dq=kingdom+of+mapungubwe&pg=PT6|title=Mapungubwe Reconsidered: A Living Legacy: Exploring Beyond the Rise and Decline of the Mapungubwe State|last2=Delius|first2=Peter|last3=Esterhuysen|first3=Amanda|last4=Hall|first4=Simon|last5=Lekgoathi|first5=Sekibakiba|last6=Maulaudzi|first6=Maanda|last7=Neluvhalani|first7=Vele|last8=Ntsoane|first8=Otsile|last9=Pearce|first9=David|date=2015-10-01|publisher=Real African Publishers Pty Ltd.|isbn=978-1-920655-06-8|language=en}}</ref> Around 1000, some Leopard's Kopje people moved south to settle [[Bambandyanalo]] (known as K2), as the Zhizo moved west to settle [[Toutswe]] in modern-day Botswana. Some scholars believe their relations to have been hostile, however others insist they were more complex, both socially and politically.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Calabrese|first=John A.|date=2000-12-01|title=Interregional Interaction in Southern Africa: Zhizo and Leopard's Kopje Relations in Northern South Africa, Southwestern Zimbabwe, and Eastern Botswana, AD 1000 to 1200|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1006796925891|journal=African Archaeological Review|language=en|volume=17|issue=4|pages=183–210|doi=10.1023/A:1006796925891|issn=1572-9842|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The San, who were believed to have closer connections to the old spirits of the land, were often turned to by other societies for [[Rainmaking (ritual)|rainmaking]]. The community at K2 chose the San rather than the Zhizo, their political rivals, because the San did not believe in ancestors, and by not acknowledging the Zhizo's ancestors they would not be held to ransom by them.<ref name=":56"/>

Northwest, the community at [[Mapela, Zimbabwe|Mapela Hill]] had possibly developed [[sacral kingship]] by the 11th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Huffman|first=Thomas N.|date=2015|title=Mapela, Mapungubwe and the Origins of States in Southern Africa|journal=The South African Archaeological Bulletin|volume=70|issue=201|pages=15–27|issn=0038-1969|jstor=24643605}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chirikure|first1=Shadreck|last2=Manyanga|first2=Munyaradzi|last3=Pollard|first3=A. Mark|last4=Bandama|first4=Foreman|last5=Mahachi|first5=Godfrey|last6=Pikirayi|first6=Innocent|date=2014-10-31|title=Zimbabwe Culture before Mapungubwe: New Evidence from Mapela Hill, South-Western Zimbabwe|journal=PLOS ONE|language=en|volume=9|issue=10|article-number=e111224|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0111224|issn=1932-6203|pmc=4215987|pmid=25360782|doi-access=free|bibcode=2014PLoSO...9k1224C }}</ref> To the east, an early settlement was [[Gumanye]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chirikure|first1=Shadreck|last2=Manyanga|first2=Munyaradzi|last3=Pikirayi|first3=Innocent|last4=Pollard|first4=Mark|date=2013-12-01|title=New Pathways of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-013-9142-3|journal=African Archaeological Review|language=en|volume=30|issue=4|pages=339–366|doi=10.1007/s10437-013-9142-3|issn=1572-9842|hdl=2263/41780|hdl-access=free|url-access=subscription}}</ref> [[Great Zimbabwe]] was founded around 1000 AD,<ref name=":42">{{Cite journal|last1=Delius|first1=Peter|last2=Chewins|first2=Linell|last3=Forssman|first3=Tim|date=2024|title=Turning South African History Upside Down: Ivory and Gold Production, the Indian Ocean Trading System and the Shaping of Southern African Society, 600–1900 AD|journal=Journal of Southern African Studies|volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=499–520 |doi=10.1080/03057070.2024.2436329|issn=0305-7070|doi-access=free|bibcode=2024JSAfS..50..499D }}</ref> and construction on the city's iconic [[Dry stone|dry-stone]] walls began in the 11th century. From the 12th century Great Zimbabwe wrestled with other settlements, such as [[Chivowa]], for economic and political dominance in the [[Southern Zambezi Escarpment]].<ref name=":15">{{Citation|last=Pikirayi|first=Innocent|title=Great Zimbabwe, 1100–1600 AD, Rise, Development, and Demise of|date=2020|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology|pages=4696–4709|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=Claire|url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666|access-date=2024-12-20|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666|isbn=978-3-030-30018-0|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Further south by 1200, K2 had a population of 1500.<ref name=":07" />{{Rp|pages=26–29}} The large wealth generated by the [[Indian Ocean trade]] created unprecedented inequalities, evolving over time from a society based on social ranking to one based on [[social classes]]. K2's spatial arrangement became unsuited to this development.<ref name=":07" />{{Rp|page=30}}
[[File:MapungubweHill.jpg|thumb|[[Mapungubwe Hill]], which features some ancient [[San art]] in a rock shelter on the east side.<ref name=":522">{{Cite book |last1=Chirikure |first1=Shadreck |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pa7CgAAQBAJ&dq=kingdom+of+mapungubwe&pg=PT6 |title=Mapungubwe Reconsidered: A Living Legacy: Exploring Beyond the Rise and Decline of the Mapungubwe State |last2=Delius |first2=Peter |last3=Esterhuysen |first3=Amanda |last4=Hall |first4=Simon |last5=Lekgoathi |first5=Sekibakiba |last6=Maulaudzi |first6=Maanda |last7=Neluvhalani |first7=Vele |last8=Ntsoane |first8=Otsile |last9=Pearce |first9=David |date=2015-10-01 |publisher=Real African Publishers Pty Ltd. |isbn=978-1-920655-06-8 |language=en}}</ref>]]
Amid a harsh drought which likely troubled the society,<ref name=":56" /> royal elites moved the capital to [[Mapungubwe Hill]] and settled its flat-topped summit around 1220, while most people settled below, surrounding the sacred leader in a protective circle. Mapungubwe Hill became the sole rainmaking hill, and its habitation by the leader emphasised a link between himself and rainmaking, which was substantial in the development of [[sacral kingship]].<ref name=":07" />{{Rp|pages=32–4}} The first king had their palace on the western part of the hill, and is called "[[Shiriyadenga]]" in [[Venda people|Venda]] oral traditions.<ref name="Loubser 2024">{{Citation |last=Loubser |first=Jannie |title=The Venda-Speaking People |date=2024-08-21 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-1215 |access-date=2025-02-06 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.1215 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref> His entourage included soldiers and [[praise singer]]s, along with musicians who played [[mbira]]s and [[xylophone]]s. [[Kingdom of Mapungubwe|The state]] likely covered 30,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (12,000 square miles). They traded locally with [[Toutswe]] and [[Eiland, Limpopo, South Africa|Eiland]] among others. High global demand saw gold and ivory exported to the [[Indian Ocean trade]] via [[Sofala]].<ref name=":56" /><ref name=":07" />{{Rp|pages=38–51}} It is unclear to what extent coercion and conflict played in Mapungubwe's growth and dominance due to this being challenging to recognise archaeologically, however the stone walls likely served a defensive purpose, indicating warfare was conventional.<ref name=":63">{{Cite journal |last1=Kim |first1=Nam C. |last2=Kusimba |first2=Chapurukha M. |last3=Keeley |first3=Lawrence H. |date=2015 |title=Coercion and Warfare in the Rise of State Societies in Southern Zambezia |journal=The African Archaeological Review |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=1–34 |doi=10.1007/s10437-015-9183-x |issn=0263-0338 |jstor=43916844}}</ref>

====South of the Zambezi Basin====
{{Main|History of Southern Africa|Mpondo people#History|Tswana people#History|Xhosa people#History}}{{Expand section|date=July 2025}}

==Medieval Africa (1250-1800)==
{{Main|Medieval and early modern Africa}}

{{Further|History of West Africa#Sahelian kingdoms|History of Central Africa#Post-classical history|History of East Africa#Post-classical history|History of Southern Africa#Post-classical history}}

=== North Africa ===

==== Northern Africa ====

===== c. 1250–1500 =====
[[File:Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo 1317 AD.jpg|thumb|Extent of the [[Mamluk Sultanate]] under Sultan [[Al-Nasir Muhammad]]]]The [[Ayyubids]] were in a precarious position. In 1248, the Christians began the [[Seventh Crusade]] with intent to conquer Egypt, but were [[Battle of Fariskur (1250)|decisively defeated]] by the embattled [[Ayyubids]] who had relied on [[Mamluk]] generals. The [[Al-Muazzam Turanshah|Ayyubid sultan]] attempted to alienate the victorious Mamluks, who revolted, killing him and seizing power in Egypt, with rule given to a military caste of [[Mamluk]]s headed by the [[Bahri Mamluks|Bahri dynasty]], whilst the remaining [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid empire]] was destroyed in the [[Mongol invasions of the Levant]]. Following the [[Mongol Empire|Mongol]] [[Siege of Baghdad]] in 1258, the [[Mamluks]] re-established the [[Abbasid Caliphate#Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo (1261–1517)|Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo]], and over the next few decades conquered the [[Crusader states]] and, assisted by [[Mongol Empire#Mongol Civil War|civil war in the Mongol Empire]], defeated the [[Ilkhanate|Mongols]], before consolidating their rule over the [[Levant]] and Syria.<ref name="Garcin 1984" />{{rp|pages=150–8}} To the west, the three dynasties vied for supremacy and control of the [[trans-Saharan trade]].<ref name=":3" />{{rp|pages=34–43}}

Following the collapse of the [[Abbasids]], the [[Hafsids]] were briefly recognised as caliphs by the [[Sharifate of Mecca|sharifs of Mecca]] and the [[Mamluks]]. Throughout the 14th century, the [[Marinids]] intermittently occupied the [[Zayyanids]] several times, and devastated the [[Hafsids]] in 1347 and 1357. The [[Marinids]] then succumbed to internal division, exacerbated by plague and financial crisis, culminating in the rise of the [[Wattasid dynasty]] from [[Zenata]] in 1472, with the [[Hafsids]] becoming the dominant power.<ref name=":3">{{cite book|last=Hrbek|first=Ivan|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134377|title=General History of Africa: Volume 4|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|year=1984|chapter=The disintegration of the political unity of the Maghreb}}</ref>{{rp|pages=34–43}} Throughout the 15th century, the [[Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands|Spanish colonised the Canary Isles]] in the first example of modern [[settler colonialism]], causing the genocide of the [[Guanches|native Berber population]] in the process. To the east, the turn of the 15th century saw the [[Mamluks]] oppose the expansionist [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] and [[Timurids]] in the Middle East, with plague and famine eroding Mamlukian authority, until internal conflict was reconciled. The following decades saw the [[Mamluks]] reach their greatest extent with efficacious economic reforms, however the threat of the growing [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] and [[Portuguese maritime exploration#Indian Ocean explorations (1497–1542)|Portuguese trading practices in the Indian Ocean]] posed great challenges to the empire at the turn of the 16th century.

=== East Africa ===

==== Horn of Africa ====

===== c. 1250–1500 =====
The 13th century saw power balanced between the [[Zagwe dynasty]], [[Sultanate of Shewa]], and [[Kingdom of Damot]], with the Ajuran Sultanate on the Horn's eastern coast.

In 1270, supported by the [[Kebra Nagast]] painting the [[Zagwe dynasty|Zagwe]] as illegitimate usurpers, [[Yekuno Amlak]] rebelled with assistance from [[Shewa]] and defeated the [[Yetbarak|Zagwe king]] in [[Battle of Ansata|battle]], establishing the [[Solomonic dynasty]] of the nascent [[Ethiopian Empire]].<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=131}} In accordance with the Kebra Negast, they claimed their descent from the [[Dil Na'od|last king of Aksum]], and ultimately from Aksumite queen [[Queen of Sheba|Makeda]] and the [[Israelites|Israelite]] king [[Solomon]]. Fifteen years later, in the [[Sultanate of Shewa]], which was exhausted following wars with [[Kingdom of Damot|Damot]] and suffering internal strife, was conquered by [[Umar Walasma]] of the [[Walashma dynasty]], who established the [[Sultanate of Ifat]].<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=143}} Over the following decades [[Sultanate of Ifat|Ifat]] incorporated the polities of [[Adal (historical region)|Adal]], [[Gidaya]], [[Sultanate of Bale|Bale]], [[Mora (historical region)|Mora]], [[Hargaya]], [[Hubat]], and [[Fatagar]] among others.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cerulli|first1=Enrico|year=1941|title=Il Sultanato dello Scioa nel Secondo XIII Secondo un Nuovo Documento Storico|journal=Rassegna di Studi Etiopici|volume=1|issue=1|page=26|jstor=41460159}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mukhtar|first1=Mohamed Haji|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPwOsOcNy5YC&dq=Sultanate+of+Ifat&pg=PR27|title=Mukhtar Haji|date=25 February 2003|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6604-1}}</ref> In the 13th century the [[Afar people|Afar]] founded the [[Dankali Sultanate]] north of Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia [[Amda Seyon I]] came to the throne in 1314 and conquered [[Harla Kingdom|Harla]], [[Gojjam]], [[Hadiya Sultanate|Hadiya]], and crucially [[Kingdom of Damot|Damot]], with [[Ennarea]] splitting from the latter.<ref>Taddesse, ''Church and State'', pp. 135ff.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Walker|first1=Bethany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCsDEAAAQBAJ&dq=amda+seyon+harla&pg=PA427|title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology|date=2020|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-998787-0|page=427}}</ref> He also campaigned in the north where [[Beta Israel]] had been gaining prominence, and reconquered the Tigrayan [[Enderta Province]].<ref name="Pankhurst 1997">{{Cite book|last=Pankhurst|first=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zpYBD3bzW1wC|title=The Ethiopian Borderlands: Essays in Regional History from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century|date=1997|publisher=The Red Sea Press|isbn=978-0-932415-19-6|language=en}}</ref> In 1321, a religious dispute between Amda Seyon and the [[Al-Nasir Muhammad|Mamluk sultan]] which involved threats to tamper with the [[Nile]] gave [[Sultanate of Ifat|Ifat's]] [[Haqq ad-Din I]] pretext to invade and execute an Ethiopian envoy. Seven years later, Amda Seyon's forces overwhelmed Ifat's outposts, defeated Ifat's armies and killed Haqq ad-Din, with lack of unity among the Muslims proving fatal.<ref name="Trimingham 2013" />

The Ethiopian emperor raided the Muslim states and made them tributaries.<ref name="Trimingham 2013">{{Cite book|last=Trimingham|first=J. Spencer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UfrcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA71|title=Islam in Ethiopia|date=2013-09-13|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-97022-1|language=en}}</ref> Following this, sultan [[Sabr ad-Din I]] led a [[Sultanate of Ifat#Ifat rebellion|rebellion]] and ''[[jihad]]'' in 1332 seeking to restore prestige and rule a Muslim Ethiopia, garnering widespread support in the early stages from the Muslim states and even from nomads.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=145}} They were defeated by Amda Seyon, ushering in a golden age for the [[Ethiopian Empire]].<ref>Pankhurst, Richard K.P. ''The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles.'' Addis Ababa: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1967, p. 15.</ref> Ethiopia incorporated [[Ifat (historical region)|Ifat]], [[Hadiya (historical region)|Hadiya]], [[Dawaro]], [[Fatagar]], and [[Shewa]] as one vassal headed by the [[Walashma dynasty]].<ref name="Trimingham 2013" /> The Ethiopian emperor ruled the Muslim states by [[divide and rule]], and had the final say on succession, with various sultans and [[sheikh]]s drawn to his court.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=148}}

Successive sultans rebelled and struggled to shake off Ethiopian vassalage, moving Ifat's capital to [[Adal (historical region)|Adal]] in an attempt to escape Ethiopia's sphere of control. To the south-west according to oral traditions,  Amda Seyon expanded into the [[Gurage people|Gurage]].<ref name="Pankhurst 1997" />{{Rp|pages=75–6}} According to oral traditions, the [[Kingdom of Kaffa]] was established in 1390 after "ousting a dynasty of 32 kings".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Orent|first=Amnon|date=1970|title=Refocusing on the History of Kafa prior to 1897: A Discussion of Political Processes|journal=African Historical Studies|volume=3|issue=2|pages=263–293|doi=10.2307/216217|issn=0001-9992|jstor=216217}}</ref> In the late 14th century the sultans began to expand eastwards into the decentralised Somali interior. [[Sa'ad ad-Din II]] propagated insecurity on Ethiopia's eastern frontier, however was defeated by [[Dawit I]]. The sultan was repeatedly pursued by the Ethiopian emperor to [[Zeila]] on the coast and killed in 1415, leaving the former [[Sultanate of Ifat]] fully occupied.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=150–4}}

In 1415 [[Sabr ad-Din III]] of the [[Walashma dynasty]] returned to the region from exile to establish the [[Adal Sultanate]]. The Ethiopian armies were defeated, and he and his successors expanded to regain the territory of the former sultanate. [[Jamal ad-Din II]]'s reign saw a sharp rise in the slave trade, with [[India]], [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]], [[Hormuz Island|Hormuz]], [[Hejaz]], [[Egypt]], [[Syria]], [[Greece]], [[Iraq]], and [[Iran|Persia]] reportedly becoming "full of Abyssinian slaves".<ref name="Pankhurst 1997" />{{Rp|page=59}} In 1445 [[Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din|Badlay]] attempted an invasion into the Ethiopian Highlands, supported by [[Sultanate of Mogadishu|Mogadishu]], however he was defeated by [[Zara Yaqob]], with the successor sultan securing peace between the two states.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=154–6}}

In the 1440s Ethiopia conquered much of the [[Tigray Province|Tigray]], placing the land under a [[Medri Bahri|vassal]] ruled by the [[Bahr Negus]].<ref name="Henze" />{{Rp|page=71}} [[Baeda Maryam I]] campaigned against the [[Dobe'a]] with the support of [[Dankali Sultanate|Dankalia]], resulting in their defeat and incorporation into the empire.<ref name="Pankhurst 1997" />{{Rp|pages=106–11}} In 1471, a [[Harari people|Harari]] [[emir]] leading a militant faction seized power in [[Adal Sultanate|Adal]] with the [[Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din|sultan]] retaining a ceremonious role. [[Mahfuz|His successor]] raided the Ethiopian frontier against the sultan's wishes, and was defeated by the emperors in 1507 and finally in 1517.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=166–7}} For the Ethiopians, the end of the 15th century saw a period of conquest and expansion come to close, and one of defence begin.

=== West Africa ===

==== The western Sahel and Sudan ====

===== c. 1250–1500 =====
Mali continued its expansion after the death of Sundiata. [[Uli I of Mali|His son]] conquered [[Gajaaga]] and [[Takrur]], and brought the key [[trans-Saharan trade|Saharan trading centres]] under his rule. The cessation of his reign culminated in a destructive civil war, only reconciled with a [[Mansa Sakura|militaristic coup]], after which [[Gao Empire|Gao]] was conquered and the [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]] subdued, cementing [[Mali Empire|Mali]]'s dominance over the [[trans-Saharan trade]].<ref name="Niane 1984">{{cite book |last=Izard |first=Michel |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184287 |title=General History of Africa: Volume 4 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |year=1984 |chapter=The peoples and kingdoms of the Niger Bend and the Volta basin from the 12th to 16th century}}</ref>{{rp|pages=126–47}} In the 13th century [[Al-Hajj Salim Suwari]], a Soninke Islamic scholar, pioneered the [[Al-Hajj Salim Suwari#Suwarian tradition|Suwarian tradition]] which sought to tolerate [[Traditional African religions|traditional religions]], gaining popularity among West African Muslims.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ngom |first1=Fallou |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Go__DwAAQBAJ&dq=suwarian+tradition&pg=PA266 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Islam in Africa |last2=Kurfi |first2=Mustapha H. |last3=Falola |first3=Toyin |date=2020-09-26 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-45759-4 |language=en}}</ref> [[Mossi people|Mossi]] oral traditions tie the origins of the [[Mossi Kingdoms]] (located south of the [[Niger River]]) to the [[Mamprusi kingdom|Mamprusi]] and [[Kingdom of Dagbon|Dagomba]] kingdoms in the [[Guinean forest–savanna mosaic|forest regions]], involving the [[Dagomba people|Dagomba]] princess [[Yennenga]].<ref name="Niane 1984" />{{Rp|page=217, 224}} [[Ouagadougou]] and [[Yatenga Kingdom|Yatenga]] were the most powerful.

In 1312 [[Mansa Musa]] came to power in [[Mali Empire|Mali]] after [[Atlantic voyage of the predecessor of Mansa Musa|his predecessor had set out on an Atlantic voyage]]. Musa supposedly spent much of his early campaign preparing for his infamous ''[[hajj]]'' or pilgrimage to [[Mecca]]. Between 1324 and 1325 his entourage of over 10,000, and hundreds of camels, all carrying around 12 tonnes of gold in total,{{sfn|Gomez|2018|p=106}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Samuel|first=isaac|title=The myth of Mansa Musa's enslaved entourage|url=https://www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-myth-of-mansa-musas-enslaved|access-date=2024-08-12|website=africanhistoryextra.com|language=en}}</ref> travelled 2700 miles, giving gifts to the poor along the way, and fostered good relations with the [[Al-Nasir Muhammad|Mamluk sultan]], garnering widespread attention in the [[Muslim world]]. On Musa's return, his general reasserted dominance over [[Gao Empire|Gao]] and he commissioned a large construction program, building [[mosque]]s and [[madrasa]]s, with Timbuktu becoming a centre for trade and [[Islamic sciences|Islamic scholarship]], however Musa features comparatively less than his predecessors in [[Mandingo people|Mandinka]] [[oral tradition]]s than in modern histories.<ref name="Niane 1984" />{{rp|pages=147–52}} Despite [[Mali Empire|Mali's]] fame being attributed to its riches in gold, its prosperous economy was based on [[Arable land|arable]] and [[pastoral farming]], as well as crafts, and they traded commonly with the [[Akan people|Akan]], [[Dyula people|Dyula]], and with [[Benin Empire|Benin]], [[Ife Empire|Ife]], and [[Kingdom of Nri|Nri]] in the [[Guinean forest–savanna mosaic|forest regions]].<ref name="Niane 1984" />{{rp|pages=164–71}}

Amid a [[Mansa Sulayman|Malian mansa's]] attempt to coerce the empire back into financial shape after the lacklustre premiership of [[Maghan I|his predecessor]], Mali's northwestern-most province broke away to form the [[Jolof Empire]] and the [[Serer history|Serer kingdoms]]. [[Wolof people|Wolof]] tradition holds that the empire was founded by the wise [[Ndiadiane Ndiaye]], and it later absorbed neighbouring kingdoms to form a confederacy of the Wolof kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Jolof|Jolof]], [[Cayor]], [[Baol]], and [[Waalo]], and the Serer kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Sine|Sine]] and [[Kingdom of Saloum|Saloum]]. In [[Mali Empire|Mali]] after the death of [[Musa II (mansa)|Musa II]] in 1387, vicious conflict ensued within the [[Keita dynasty]]. In the 14th century [[Yatenga Kingdom|Yatenga]] attacked and sacked [[Timbuktu]] and [[Oualata]].<ref name="UNESCO" />{{Rp|page=80}} The internal conflict weakened [[Mali Empire|Mali's]] central authority. This provided an opportunity for the previously subdued [[Tuareg people|Tuareg tribal confederations]] in the Sahara to rebel. Over the next few decades they captured the main trading cities of Timbuktu, Oualata, [[Néma|Nema]], and possibly [[Gao]], with some tribes forming the north-eastern [[Sultanate of Agadez]], and with them all usurping Mali's dominance over the [[trans-Saharan trade]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Ly-Tall|first=Madina|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184287|title=General History of Africa: Volume 4|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|year=1984|chapter=The decline of the Mali empire}}</ref>{{rp|pages=174}}

In the 15th century, the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]], following the development of the [[caravel]], set up [[Factory (trading post)|trading posts]] along the Atlantic coast, with [[Mali Empire|Mali]] establishing formal commercial relations, and the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] soon following. In the early 15th century [[Kingdom of Diarra|Diarra]] escaped Malian rule.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ajayi|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestafr0000ajay_q6f4/page/130/mode/2up|title=History of West Africa|last2=Ade|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-231-04103-4}}</ref>{{rp|pages=130}} Previously under Malian suzerainty and under pressure from the expansionist [[Jolof Empire]], a [[Tenguella|Fula chief]] migrated to [[Futa Toro]], founding [[Empire of Great Fulo#Tenguella (1464–1512)|Futa Kingui]] in the lands of [[Kingdom of Diarra|Diarra]] circa 1450.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} [[Yatenga]] capitalised on Mali's decline and conquered [[Sultanate of Massina|Macina]], and the old province of [[Ghana Empire|Wagadu]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} Meanwhile [[Gao]], ruled by the [[Sonni dynasty]], expanded, conquering [[Mema]] from [[Mali Empire|Mali]],{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} and launched a ''[[jihad]]'' against [[Yatenga Kingdom|Yatenga]],<ref name="UNESCO" />{{Rp|page=81}} in a struggle over the crumbling empire.

=== Central Africa ===

==== The central Sahel ====

===== c. 1250-1500 =====
{{Expand section|date=July 2025}}
In northern Nigeria, the reign of [[Kingdom of Kano|Kano]]'s [[Yaji I]] in the 14th century saw the introduction of Islam to the region via [[Soninke Wangara|Wangara]], and his conquest of [[Rano]], after which the state continued to exist but never regained its sovereignty.<ref name="Niane 1984" />{{rp|pages=171}}

==== West Congo Basin ====

===== c. 1250–1500 =====
By the 13th century there were three main confederations of states in the western Congo Basin around [[Pool Malebo]]. The [[Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza]], considered to be the oldest and most powerful, likely included [[Nsundi]], [[Mbata Kingdom|Mbata]], [[Mpangu]], and possibly [[Kundi kingdom|Kundi]] and [[Okanga]]. South of these was [[Mpemba]] which stretched from its capital in northern Angola 200&nbsp;km north to the [[Congo River]]. It included various kingdoms such as [[Mpemba Kasi]], its northernmost and remotest component, and [[Vunda]]. To its west across the [[Congo River]] was a confederation of three small states; [[Vungu]] (its leader), [[Kakongo]], and [[Ngoyo]].<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=24–5}}

The formation of the [[Kingdom of Kongo]] began in the late 13th century. [[Kongo people|Kongo]] oral traditions hold that [[Ntinu Wene]] (lit. "King of the Kingdom") crossed the Congo River from [[Vungu]] to conquer [[Mpemba Kasi]], known as the "Mother of Kongo".{{Efn|The choice of a title over a personal name indicates that this is more representative of symbolic relationships and rights of rulership rather than real events.}} The first kings ruled from [[Nsi Kwilu|Nsi a Kwilu]], a valley and old religious centre, which produced iron and steel, and linked the copper and [[Kuba textiles|textile-producing]] north to the south.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=25–6}} Around the 1350s [[Nimi Nzima]] established an alliance with the rulers of [[Mbata Kingdom|Mbata]], who were looking to break away from the [[Seven Kingdoms of Kongo dia Nlaza|Seven Kingdoms]], and agreed to secure each other's dynasties, making them known as the "Grandfather of Kongo".<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=27–9}}

Tradition holds that Nimi Nzima's son, [[Lukeni lua Nimi]], wishing to aggrandise himself, built a fortress and blocked and taxed commerce. One day his pregnant aunt refused to pay the toll, and in a rage he killed her. While reprehensible, his action won him followers due to his determination and valour and allowed him to embark on conquests. To the south the market town of [[Mpangala]], itself a sub unit of [[Vunda]], was absorbed, with Vunda also styled as a Grandfather. This weakening of the [[Mpemba]] confederation precipitated its conquest and integration into the Kingdom of Kongo.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=27–9}} Lukeni lua Nimi also conquered [[Kabunga]] in the west, whose leaders were regional religious leaders, not dissimilar from [[pope]]s. From there [[Soyo]] and [[Mbamba]] were conquered.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=29–30}}

The power and resources gained from these conquests allowed Kongo to expand north into [[Nsundi]], which had multiple sub-units. Traditionally, a governor on Nsundi's western border forebode entry until they had fought a symbolic battle. Kongo conquered Nsundi and delegated it to a royal governor, who greatly expanded the territory, conquering [[Nsanga]] and [[Masinga (kingdom)|Masinga]].<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=29–30}} Northeast, [[Teke people|Teke]] oral tradition holds that [[Mabiala Mantse|Mabiala Mantsi]] united the Bateke tribes, centralised his governance, and expanded using militaristic and diplomatic skill.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2024-09-16|title=▷ Who is the founder of the Téké kingdom? {{!}}|url=https://visitfranceguide.com/who-is-the-founder-of-the-teke-kingdom/|access-date=2024-10-23|website=visitfranceguide.com|language=es}}</ref> Kongo's conquests eastward brought it into conflict with the formidable [[Teke Kingdom]] which halted their expansion. This expansion had primarily been done by allying and co-opting polities. By the late 15th century,  Kongo had developed a new administrative system which would increase its centralisation, and after integrating [[Vunda]], they set about conquering these polities and converting them into royal provinces.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=30}}

Small confederations, like [[Kisama]], often put up spirited and successful resistance to either internal consolidation by aggressive components, or external conquest and integration.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=23}} To the south around the [[Geography of Angola|highlands of Angola]] the [[Ambundu]] kingdoms of [[Ndongo]] and [[Matamba]] formed. The [[Dembos]] confederation sat between them and Kongo. Ndongo had come under tributary status to Kongo by the 16th century, and oral traditions collected in the 17th century hold their founder, [[Ngola Mussuri]] or [[Ngola Bumbambula|Bumbambula]], to be a blacksmith who came there from Kongo, and was elected king ([[Ngola (title)|''Ngola'']]) due to his benevolence.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Struggle for Ambundu and the Founding of Angola|date=2020|work=A History of West Central Africa to 1850|pages=56–88|editor-last=Thornton|editor-first=John K.|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/history-of-west-central-africa-to-1850/struggle-for-ambundu-and-the-founding-of-angola/0293CB3B48977422888301A3B23B2084|access-date=2024-10-27|series=New Approaches to African History|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-56593-7}}</ref>{{Rp|page=57}}

To its east around [[Lake Mai-Ndombe]], there emerged [[Mwene Muji]], likely around 1400. Their 'empire' status is pending on further archaeological research. With a powerful riverine navy, they expanded along the [[Kasai River|Kasai]], [[Lukenie River|Lukenie]], [[Kamtsha River|Kamtsha]], [[Kwilu River|Kwilu]], and [[Wamba River|Wamba]] rivers, without venturing much into the interior, coming to dominate trade.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thornton|first=John|date=2024|title=Mwene Muji: A Medieval Empire in Central Africa?|journal=The Journal of African History|language=en|volume=65|issue=1|pages=30–46|doi=10.1017/S0021853724000161|issn=0021-8537|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In the late 15th century, Kongo came into contact with the Portuguese. A Kongo delegation was invited to [[Lisbon]] in 1487, and relations were initially warm. A Portuguese priest mastered [[Kikongo]] and his input led to the [[baptism]] of [[João I of Kongo|Kongo's king]] and royal court.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|pages=37–9}} At the same time commercial relations developed. Trade in slaves was the most lucrative.<ref name=":02" />{{Rp|page=52}}

==== East Congo Basin ====

===== c. 1250–1500 =====
Further southeast in the [[Upemba Depression]], "Lords of the land" held priestly roles due to their special relationship with the spirits of the land and were widely recognised, holding sway over multiple villages and essentially ruling embryonic kingdoms. As lineages grew in size, authority was opportunistically incorporated diplomatically or by force, leading to the formation of states.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Vansina|first=Jan|url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184287|title=General History of Africa: Volume 4|date=1984|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|chapter=Equatorial Africa and Angola: Migrations and the emergence of the first states}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=557–8}} Some of those of the [[Southern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic|southern savanna]], such as the [[Luba-Katanga language|Luba-Katanga]] and [[Songye people|Songye]], had transitioned from being matrilineal to [[Patrilineality|patrilineal]] by 1500, while others such as the [[Hemba people|Luba-Hemba]] and [[Chokwe people|Chokwe]] remained so, making up the [[matrilineal belt]]. An early state formed between the [[Lualaba River|Lualaba]] and [[Lomami River|Lomami]] rivers among the Luba-Katanga, around the 15th century, known as the [[Kingdom of Luba]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118455074|title=The Encyclopedia of Empire|date=2016-01-11|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-118-44064-3|editor-last=Dalziel|editor-first=Nigel|edition=1|pages=1–6|language=en|chapter=Luba-Lunda states|doi=10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe060|editor-last2=MacKenzie|editor-first2=John M}}</ref> [[Luba Empire#Oral traditions|Their oral traditions]] account their people's history and hold their first king, [[Kongolo Mwamba|Nkongolo]], as a conqueror.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Reefe|first=Thomas Q.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNZ9EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|title=The Rainbow and the Kings: A History of the Luba Empire to 1891|date=2022-08-19|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-33490-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Gordon|first=David M.|title=Kingdoms of South-Central Africa: Sources, Historiography, and History|date=2018-09-26|url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-146|access-date=2024-10-29|language=en|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.146|isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|doi-access=free|encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History}}</ref>

=== Southern Africa ===

==== Southern Great Lakes and the Zambezi and Limpopo basins ====

===== c. 1250-1500 =====
By 1250, [[Kingdom of Mapungubwe|Mapungubwe]] had a population of 5000, and produced [[textiles]] and [[ceramic]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Antonites |first=Alexander |date=2019-03-01 |title=Fiber Spinning During the Mapungubwe Period of Southern Africa: Regional Specialism in the Hinterland |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-018-09323-9 |journal=African Archaeological Review |language=en |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=105–117 |doi=10.1007/s10437-018-09323-9 |issn=1572-9842|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":82">{{Cite book |last1=Wingfield |first1=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5lOTzgEACAAJ |title=The Pasts and Presence of Art in South Africa: Technologies, Ontologies and Agents |last2=Giblin |first2=John |last3=King |first3=Rachel |date=2020 |publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research |isbn=978-1-913344-01-6 |language=en}}</ref> The centre of the settlement was the domain of men, and had an area for resolving disputes and making political decisions, while the outer zone was the domain of women, containing domestic complexes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Huffman |first1=Thomas N. |last2=du Piesanie |first2=Justin |date=2011 |title=Khami and the Venda in the Mapungubwe Landscape |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=189–206 |doi=10.3213/2191-5784-10197 |issn=1612-1651 |jstor=43135550}}</ref> The second king had their palace in the middle of the hill, and is called "[[Tshidziwelele]]" in [[Venda people|Venda]] oral traditions.<ref name="Loubser 2024"/> The king had many wives, with some living outside of the capital to help maintain the network of alliances.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Huffman |first=Thomas N. |url=https://archive.org/details/mapungubweancien0000huff/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Mapungubwe: ancient African civilisation on the Limpopo |date=2005 |publisher=Johannesburg : Wits University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-86814-408-2}}</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=38–51}} The economy was based on agriculture, and to make more productive use of the land, cattle (previously held as the primary identifier of wealth) were herded away from the capital and permitted to graze on other communities' land, forming social and political ties and increasing Mapungubwe's influence. A large amount of wealth was accumulated via tributes, which were paid in crops, animals, and sometimes rarer goods.<ref name=":72">{{Cite journal |last1=Delius |first1=Peter |last2=Chewins |first2=Linell |last3=Forssman |first3=Tim |date=2024 |title=Turning South African History Upside Down: Ivory and Gold Production, the Indian Ocean Trading System and the Shaping of Southern African Society, 600–1900 AD |journal=Journal of Southern African Studies |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=499–520 |doi=10.1080/03057070.2024.2436329 |issn=0305-7070 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2024JSAfS..50..499D }}</ref><ref name=":82"/>{{Rp|page=163}}

Meanwhile, at [[Great Zimbabwe]] agriculture and cattle played a key role in developing a vital social network, and served to "enfranchise management of goods and services distributed as benefits within traditional political and social institutions", while long-distance trade was crucial for the transformation of localised organisations into regional ones. This process rapidly advanced during the 13th century, which saw large [[Dry stone|dry masonry stone walls]] raised, and by 1250 Great Zimbabwe had become an important trade centre.<ref name=":122">{{Citation |last=Pikirayi |first=Innocent |title=Great Zimbabwe, 1100–1600 AD, Rise, Development, and Demise of |date=2020 |pages=4696–4709 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Claire |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666 |access-date=2024-12-20 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666 |isbn=978-3-030-30018-0 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The events around Mapungubwe's collapse are unknown.{{Efn|It has previously been attributed to drastic climatic change amid the [[Little Ice Age]], however this has since been disproven.}} It is plausible confidence was lost in the leadership amid the deepening material and spiritual divide between commoners and the king, and a breakdown in common purpose, provoking people to "vote with their feet".<ref name=":522"/> By 1300, trade routes had shifted north as merchants bypassed the [[Limpopo River|Limpopo]] and Mapungubwe by travelling the [[Save River (Africa)|Save River]] into the gold-producing interior, precipitating Mapungubwe's rapid decline and the dominance of Great Zimbabwe.<ref name=":522"/> Mapungubwe was abandoned as people scattered northwest and south. They didn't regroup.<ref name=":03"/>{{Rp|page=55}}
[[File:Great-zim-aerial-looking-West.JPG|thumb|Aerial view of the Great Enclosure and Valley Complex at [[Great Zimbabwe]], looking west]]
Great Zimbabwe's wealth was derived from cattle rearing, agriculture, and the domination of trade routes from the goldfields of the Zimbabwean Plateau to the [[Swahili coast]]. The kingdom taxed other rulers throughout the region and was composed of over 150 smaller zimbabwes, and likely covered 50,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal |last=Chirikure |first=Shadreck |date=2020-06-01 |title=New Perspectives on the Political Economy of Great Zimbabwe |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |language=en |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=139–186 |doi=10.1007/s10814-019-09133-w |issn=1573-7756 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Owomoyela 2002">{{Cite book |last=Oyekan Owomoyela |url=https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00owom |title=Culture and customs of Zimbabwe |date=2002 |publisher=Greenwood Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-313-31583-1}}</ref>{{Rp|page=7}} The large cattle herd that supplied the city moved seasonally and was managed by the court,<ref name="Garlake 2002 158">Garlake (2002) 158</ref> and salt, cattle, grain, and copper were traded as far north as the [[Kundelungu National Park|Kundelungu Plateau]] in present-day [[DR Congo]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Mugabe |first=Bedone |title=Circulation of copper and copper alloys in hinterland southern Africa: material evidence from Great Zimbabwe (1000-1700CE) |date=2022 |url=https://open.uct.ac.za/items/ea51b7a0-190a-41fa-bbd3-9f0296539ddc |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Mlambo |first=A. S. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofzimbabw0000mlam/mode/2up?view=theater |title=A history of Zimbabwe |date=2014 |publisher=New York, NY : Cambridge University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-107-02170-9}}</ref>{{Rp|page=17}} At Great Zimbabwe's centre was the Great Enclosure which housed royalty and had demarcated spaces for rituals. Commoners' homes were [[Mudbrick|built out of mud]] on wooden frame structures,<ref name=":152">{{Citation |last=Pikirayi |first=Innocent |title=Great Zimbabwe, 1100–1600 AD, Rise, Development, and Demise of |date=2020 |pages=4696–4709 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Claire |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666 |access-date=2024-12-20 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666 |isbn=978-3-030-30018-0 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":63"/> and within the second perimeter wall they surrounded the royalty.<ref name=":132">{{Citation |last=Pikirayi |first=Innocent |title=Great Zimbabwe, 1100–1600 AD, Rise, Development, and Demise of |date=2020 |pages=4696–4709 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Claire |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666 |access-date=2024-12-20 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2666 |isbn=978-3-030-30018-0 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The institutionalisation of Great Zimbabwe's politico-religious ideology served to legitimise the position of the king ([[Mambo (title)|''mambo'']]), with a link between leaders, their ancestors, and [[Mwari|God]].<ref name=":63"/><ref name=":72" /> The community incorporated [[dhaka pit]]s into a complex water management system.<ref name=":84">{{Cite journal |last=Pikirayi |first=Innocent |date=2024-05-01 |title=Granite Landforms and Water Storage at Great Zimbabwe |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/09719458241258551 |journal=The Medieval History Journal |language=en |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=254–279 |doi=10.1177/09719458241258551 |issn=0971-9458|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

As with Mapungubwe, it is unclear to what extent coercion and conflict facilitated Great Zimbabwe's dominance. While the Great Enclosure served to display prestige and status, and to reinforce inequalities between elites and commoners, it likely also served to deter contestation for political power amid the close linkage between wealth accumulation and political authority, with rivals for power, such as district chiefs and regional governors, located outside the settlement in prestige enclosures.<ref name=":74">{{Cite journal |last=Huffman |first=Thomas N. |date=2014-04-01 |title=Ritual Space in the Zimbabwe Culture |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1944289013Z.0000000008 |journal=Journal of Archaeological, Ethnographic and Experimental Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=4–39 |doi=10.1179/1944289013z.0000000008 |issn=1944-2890|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The perimeter walls also likely served a defensive purpose, indicating warfare was conventional.<ref name=":63"/>
[[File:Zimbabwe_states_and_trade_map.png|thumb|Map of trade centres and routes in precolonial Zimbabwe.]]
It is unclear what caused Great Zimbabwe's decline. [[Shona people|Shona]] [[oral tradition]] attributes Great Zimbabwe's demise to a salt shortage, which may be a figurative way of speaking of land depletion for agriculturalists or of the depletion of critical resources for the community.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book |last=Silva |first=Alberto da Costa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLTrAAAAMAAJ |title=A enxada e a lança: a África antes dos Portugueses |publisher=Editora Nova Fronteira Participações S.A. |isbn=978-85-209-3947-5 |location=Rio de Janeiro |publication-date=2009 |page= |language=Portuguese |trans-title=The Hoe and the Spear: Africa before the Portuguese |chapter=15. Zimbabué}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pikirayi |first=Innocent |title=Cities in the World: 1500-2000: v. 3 |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |chapter=The Demise of Great Zimbabwe, ad 1420–1550: An Environmental Re-Appraisal |doi=10.4324/9781315095677 |isbn=978-1-315-09567-7 |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315095677-3/demise-great-zimbabwe-ad-1420%E2%80%931550-environmental-re-appraisal-innocent-pikirayi}}</ref>{{Rp|page=10}} It is plausible the [[aquifer]] Great Zimbabwe sat on top of ran out of water, or the growing population contaminated the water.<ref name=":84"/> From the early 15th century, international trade began to decline amid a global economic downturn, reducing demand for gold, which adversely affected Great Zimbabwe. In response to this, elites expanded regional trading networks, resulting in greater prosperity for other settlements in the region.<ref name=":16">{{Citation |last=Newitt |first=Malyn |title=Southern Zambezia States and Indian Ocean Trade, 1450–1900 |date=2018-05-24 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-289 |access-date=2025-02-18 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.289 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

By the late 15th century, the consequences of this decision began to manifest, as offshoots from Great Zimbabwe's royal family formed new dynasties, possibly as a result of losing succession disputes.<ref name=":16" /> According to oral tradition, [[Nyatsimba Mutota]], a member of Great Zimbabwe's royal family, led part of the population north in search for salt to found the [[Mutapa Empire]].{{Efn|According to tradition, the move came about because the king was tired of eating salt made from goat's dung.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huffman |first=T. N. |date=1972 |title=The Rise and Fall of Zimbabwe |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/abs/rise-and-fall-of-zimbabwe/DF9B15B96E63ADFFC62967F9F2801703 |journal=The Journal of African History |language=en |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=353–366 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700011683 |issn=1469-5138|url-access=subscription }}</ref>}}<ref name=":16" /> It was believed that only their most recent ancestors would follow them, with older ancestors staying at Great Zimbabwe and providing protection there.<ref name=":74"/> Mutota is said to have found salt in the lands of the [[Tavara people|Tavara]],<ref name=":32" />{{Rp|page=204}} and settled around the [[Ruya River|Ruya]]-[[Mazowe River|Mazowe]] Basin, conquering and incorporating the pre-existing chiefdoms to control agricultural production and strategic resources. This placed the state at a key position in the gold and ivory trade.<ref name=":9">{{cite encyclopedia |year=2005 |title=Mutapa state, 1450-1884 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of African History |publisher=Routledge |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203483862/encyclopedia-african-history-3-volume-set-kevin-shillington |last=Pirikayi |first=Innocent |editor-last1=Shillington |editor-first1=Kevin |doi=10.4324/9780203483862 |isbn=978-1-135-45670-2|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Angoche Sultanate|Angoche]] traders opened a new route along the [[Zambezi]] via Mutapa and [[Ingombe Ilede]] to reach the goldfields west of Great Zimbabwe, precipitating its decline and the rise of [[Khami]] (previously a [[Leopard's Kopje]]'s chiefdom located close to the goldfields), the capital of the [[Kingdom of Butua]].<ref name=":122" />{{Rp|page=50}} Butua's first ''mambo'' was Madabhale of the Torwa dynasty, who had the [[praise name]] ''Chibundule'' (meaning "sounding of the war horn").{{Efn|Kalanga [[oral tradition]]s collected in 1922 compress the history of the Torwa dynasty into that of one ruler called Chibundule, such that the story of Chibundule represents that of Butua. In a [[praise poem]], Chibundule is said to have given refuge to the elephant (the totem of the Mutapa dynasty) and the rhinoceros (possibly the totem of [[Mapungubwe]]'s dynasty due to the [[Golden Rhinoceros of Mapungubwe]]).<ref name=":1"/>{{rp|page=51}}}}<ref name=":17">{{Cite book |last=Van Waarden |first=Catrien |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u1SqMwEACAAJ |title=Butua and the End of an Era: The Effect of the Collapse of the Kalanga State on Ordinary Citizens: an Analysis of Behaviour Under Stress |date=2012 |publisher=Archaeopress |isbn=978-1-4073-1019-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=50–1}}

In Mutapa, Mutota's son and successor, [[Nyanhewe Matope]], moved the capital to [[Mount Fura]] and extended this new kingdom into an empire encompassing most of the lands between Tavara and the [[Indian Ocean]].<ref name="Oliver, page 2042">Oliver, page 204</ref> Matope's armies overran the [[Manyika people|Manyika]] and [[Tonga people (Zambia and Zimbabwe)|Tonga]] as well as the coastal [[Teve people|Teve]] and [[Madanda people|Madanda]].<ref name="Oliver, page 2042">Oliver, page 204</ref> Meanwhile, Butua rapidly grew in size and wealth, and came to border the Mutapa Empire along the [[Sanyati River]].{{Efn|Portuguese records from 1520 state that Butua was a vassal of Mwenemutapa, however this is likely to have been falsified in order to portray Portuguese commercial dealings with Mutapa as more important than they were.<ref name=":18"/>{{rp|page=49}}}}<ref name=":03" /> There appear to have intermarriages between the Nembire dynasty of Mutapa and the Torwa dynasty of Butua.<ref name=":22" /> According to oral traditions, Changamire was likely a descendant of both dynasties.<ref name=":22" /> He had been appointed governor (''amir'') of the southern portion of the Mutapa Empire (''Guruhuswa'').<ref name=":0222">{{Cite book |last1=Lipschutz |first1=Mark R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYoPkk04Yp4C&dq=mutapa+empire&pg=PA46 |title=Dictionary of African Historical Biography |last2=Rasmussen |first2=R. Kent |date=1986 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06611-3 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=46}} In 1490, Changamire I rebelled against the ''Mwenemutapa'', his elder brother Nyahuma, and deposed him, reportedly with help from the Torwa. He ruled Mutapa for four years until he was killed by the rightful heir to the throne, reportedly his nephew. His son Changamire II continued the conflict,<ref name=":18">{{Cite book |last=Waarden |first=Catrien Van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u1SqMwEACAAJ |title=Butua and the End of an Era: The Effect of the Collapse of the Kalanga State on Ordinary Citizens: an Analysis of Behaviour Under Stress |date=2012 |publisher=Archaeopress |isbn=978-1-4073-1019-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=54}} ruling the southern portion which broke away from the Mutapa Empire.<ref name=":0222"/>{{Rp|page=46}} Whether this breakaway state maintained independence or came back under the rule of the ''Mwenemutapa'' is unclear, as we don't hear of the Changamire dynasty again until the 17th century.<ref name=":18" />{{Rp|page=54}}

==Early Modern Africa (1800-1935)==
{{Main|Colonial Africa}}
{{Further|History of West Africa#Slave trade|History of Central Africa#Slave trade|History of East Africa#Slave trade|History of Southern Africa#Slave trade|History of North Africa#European colonial period|History of West Africa#Colonial period|History of Central Africa#Colonial period|History of East Africa#Colonial period|History of Southern Africa#Colonial period}}

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, with few daring to venture inland. The [[Second Industrial Revolution|Industrial Revolution]] in Europe produced several technological innovations which assisted them in overcoming this 400-year pattern. One was the development of [[repeating rifle]]s, which were easier and quicker to load than [[musket]]s. [[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.<ref name="Collins 2007"/>{{rp|pages=268–269}}

African germs took numerous European lives and deterred [[Settler colonialism|permanent settlements]]. Diseases such as [[yellow fever]], [[African trypanosomiasis|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.<ref name="Collins 2007"/>{{rp|pages=269}}

There were strong motives for conquest of Africa. [[Natural resources of Africa|Raw materials]] were needed for European factories. Prestige and imperial rivalries were at play. Acquiring African colonies would show rivals that a nation was powerful and significant. These contextual factors forged the [[Scramble for Africa]].<ref name="Collins 2007"/>{{rp|pages=265}}

In the 1880s the European powers had carved up almost all of Africa (only [[Ethiopia]] and [[Liberia]] were independent). The Europeans were captivated by the philosophies of [[eugenics]] and [[Social Darwinism]], and some attempted to justify all this by branding it [[civilizing mission|civilising missions]]. Traditional leaders were incorporated into the colonial regimes as a form of indirect rule to extract human and natural resources and curb organized resistance.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Kyed|first1=Helene Maria|title=Introduction: Traditional Authority and Democratization in Africa|date=2007|work=State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Dawn for Traditional Authorities?|pages=1–28|editor-last=Buur|editor-first=Lars|url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230609716_1|access-date=2024-12-07|place=New York|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|language=en|doi=10.1057/9780230609716_1|isbn=978-0-230-60971-6|last2=Buur|first2=Lars|editor2-last=Kyed|editor2-first=Helene Maria|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Colonial borders were drawn unilaterally by the Europeans, often cutting across bonds of kinship, language, culture, and established routes, and sometimes incorporating groups who previously had little in common. The threat to trade routes was mitigated by poor policing and African entrepreneurs (viewed as smugglers) who exploited the differing tax and legal schemes.<ref name=":85">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Boundaries, colonial |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of African History |publisher=[[Fitzroy Dearborn]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umyHqvAErOAC&pg=PA636 |last=Hargreaves |first=John |date=2005 |editor-last1=Shillington |editor-first1=Kevin |pages= |isbn=1-57958-245-1 }}</ref>

[[File:Map of Africa in 1939.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.25|Areas controlled by European powers in 1939. British (red) and Belgian (marroon) colonies fought with the Allies. Italian (light green) with the Axis. French colonies (dark blue) fought alongside the Allies until the Fall of France in June 1940. Vichy was in control until the Free French prevailed in late 1942. Portuguese (dark green) and Spanish (yellow) colonies remained neutral.]]

==Contemporary Africa (1935-present)==
{{Main|Postcolonial Africa}}
{{Further|History of North Africa#Post-colonial period|History of West Africa#Post-colonial period|History of Central Africa#Post-colonial period|History of East Africa#Post-colonial period|History of Southern Africa#Post-colonial period}}
{{See also|Decolonisation of Africa|Neocolonialism|CFA franc|Status of forces agreement|Historical African place names}}

[[File:African nations order of independence 1950-1993.gif|upright=1.25|thumb|Order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011|alt=An animated map showing the order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011]]

[[Imperialism]] ruled until after World War II when forces of [[African nationalism]] grew 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,<ref>Alistair Horne, ''A savage war of peace: Algeria 1954–1962'' (1977).</ref> Kenya,<ref>David Anderson, ''Histories of the hanged: The dirty war in Kenya and the end of empire'' (2005).</ref> and elsewhere. Across Africa the powerful new force of [[nationalism]] drew upon the [[modern warfare|advanced militaristic skills]] that natives learned during the world wars serving in the British, French, and other armies. It led to organizations that were not controlled by or endorsed by either the colonial powers nor the [[List of current non-sovereign African monarchs|traditional local power structures]] who were viewed as collaborators. 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 evacuated; many ruled for decades or until they died. In recent decades, many African countries have undergone the triumph and defeat of nationalistic fervour, changing in the process the loci of the centralizing state power and patrimonial state.<ref>Gabriel Almond and James S. Coleman, ''The Politics of the Developing Areas'' (1971)</ref><ref>Festus Ugboaja Ohaegbulam, ''Nationalism in colonial and post-colonial Africa'' (University Press of America, 1977).</ref><ref>Thomas Hodgkin, ''Nationalism in Colonial Africa'' (1956)</ref>

The wave of [[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.<ref>Henry S. Wilson, ''African decolonization'' (E. Arnold, 1994).</ref> The nascent countries, despite some prior talk of redrawing borders, decided to keep their colonial borders in the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU) conference of 1964 due to fears of civil wars and regional instability, and placed emphasis on [[Pan-Africanism]], with the OAU later developing into the [[African Union]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Touval|first=Saadia|title=The Organization of African Unity and African Borders|journal=International Organization|volume=21|issue=1|pages=102–127|date=1967|doi=10.1017/S0020818300013151|jstor=2705705}}</ref> During the 1990s and early 2000s there were the [[First Congo War|First]] and [[Second Congo War|Second]] Congo Wars, often termed the African World Wars.{{sfnp|Prunier|2009|p=72}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Prunier|first=Gerard|url=https://archive.org/details/africasworldwarc0000prun|title=Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe|publisher=Barnes & Noble|year=2014|isbn=978-0-19-537420-9|access-date=20 October 2014|url-access=registration}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Africa|History}}
* [[Architecture of Africa]]
* [[History of science and technology in Africa]]
* [[Military history of Africa]]
* [[Genetic history of Africa]]
* [[Economic history of Africa]]
* [[African historiography]]
* {{section link|List of history journals|Africa}}
* [[List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history]]
* [[List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book|title=Les Prairies D'Or|others=Ed. and Trans. Charles Barbier de Meynard and [[Abel Pavet de Courteille]]|last=Al-Mas'udi|first=Ali ibn al-Husain|author-link=Al-Masudi|year=1861–1917|volume=9 vols.|publisher=Imprimerie Nationale|location=Paris}}
* {{cite book|last1=Collins|first1=Robert O.|author1-link=Robert O. Collins|last2=Burns|first2=James M.|year=2007|title=A History of Sub-Saharan Africa|location=NY|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-68708-9}}
* {{cite book|last1=Diamond|first1=Jared M.|author-link=Jared Diamond|title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies|date=1997|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-03891-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kLKTa_OeoNIC|language=en}}
* {{cite book|author-link=Christopher Ehret|last=Ehret|first=Christopher|year=2002|title=The Civilizations of Africa|location=Charlottesville, Virginia|publisher=University of Virginia|isbn=0-8139-2085-X}}
* {{cite book|last1=Gomez|first1=Michael|title=African dominion: a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa|date=2018|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=978-0-691-17742-7}}
* {{cite book|editor-link1=Nehemia Levtzion|editor1-last=Levtzion|editor1-first=Nehemia|editor2-last=Hopkins|editor2-first=John F.P.|title=Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa|publisher=Marcus Weiner Press|place=New York, NY|year=2000|isbn=1-55876-241-8}}
* {{cite book|title=The Case of Rhyme versus Reason: Ibn al-Rumi and His Poetics in Context|first=Robert C.|last=McKinney|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden and Boston|year=2004|isbn=90-04-13010-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfjbp__dVNYC}}
* {{Cite book|last=Mamdani|first=Mahmood|date=1996|title=Citizen and subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism|publisher=Fountain Publishers|isbn=978-0-85255-399-2|location=Kampala|oclc=35445018}}
* {{cite book|last1=Nicholson|first1=Paul T.|first2=Ian|last2=Shaw|year=2000|title=Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-45257-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Prunier|first=Gérard|year=2009|title=Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kp93kUfdhC0C|isbn=978-0-19-970583-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Shillington|first=Kevin|author-link=Kevin Shillington|year=2005|title=History of Africa|edition=Revised 2nd|location=New York City|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=0-333-59957-8}}

==Further reading==
* [[UNESCO Publishing]] (1981–2024) ''[[General History of Africa]]''
* [[Cambridge University Press]] (1975–1986) ''[[The Cambridge History of Africa]]''
* [[Kevin Shillington|Shillington, Kevin]] (1989) ''History of Africa'' (4th edition, 2019)
* [[John Desmond Clark|Clark, J. Desmond]] (1970). ''The Prehistory of Africa''. Thames and Hudson
* [[Basil Davidson|Davidson, Basil]] (1964). ''The African Past''. Penguin, Harmondsworth
* [[Falola, Toyin]]. ''Africa'', Volumes 1–5.
* FitzSimons, William. "Sizing Up the 'Small Wars' of African Empire: An Assessment of the Context and Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Colonial Warfare". ''Journal of African Military History'' 2#1 (2018): 63–78. {{doi|10.1163/24680966-0020100}}
* {{Cite book|last=French|first=Howard|year=2021|title=Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War|location=New York|publisher=Liveright Publishing Company|isbn=978-1-63149-582-3|oclc=1268921040}}
* [[Bill Freund (historian)|Freund, Bill]] (1998). ''The Making of Contemporary Africa'', Lynne Rienner, Boulder (including a substantial "Annotated Bibliography" pp.&nbsp;269–316).
* July, Robert (1998). ''A History of the African People'', (Waveland Press, 1998).
* Lamphear, John, ed. ''African Military History'' (Routledge, 2007).
* Reader, John (1997). ''Africa: A Biography of the Continent''. Hamish Hamilton. {{ISBN|0-241-13047-6}}
* [[John Thornton (historian)|Thornton, John K]]. ''Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500–1800'' (Routledge, 1999).

===Atlases===
* Ajayi, A.J.F. and Michael Crowder. ''Historical Atlas of Africa'' (1985); 300 color maps.
* Fage, J.D. ''Atlas of African History'' (1978)
* Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P. ''The New Atlas of African History'' (1991).
* Kwamena-Poh, Michael, et al. ''African history in Maps'' (Longman, 1982).
* McEvedy, Colin. ''The Penguin Atlas of African History'' (2nd ed. 1996). [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140513213/ excerpt]

===Historiography===

* Afolayan, Funso (2005). "Historiography of Africa" ''Encyclopedia of African History''
* Falola, Toyin (2011). "African Historical Writing" ''The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 5: Historical Writing Since 1945''
* Fage, John D. "The development of African historiography." ''General history of Africa'' 1 (1981): 25–42. [http://repository.out.ac.tz/403/1/Vol_1._Methodology_&_African_Prehistory_editor_J.KI-ZERBO(FILEminimizer).pdf#page=48 online]
* Odhiambo, E.S. Atieno (2004). "The Usages of the past: African historiographies since independence" ''African Research and Documentation'' 96 
* {{citation|url=http://www.manning.pitt.edu/pdf/2013.Manning.JAH.pdf|doi=10.1017/S0021853713000753|title=African and World Historiography|journal=The Journal of African History|volume=54|issue=3|pages=319–330|year=2013|last1=Manning|first1=Patrick|s2cid=33615987}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Manning|first1=Patrick|year=2016|title=Locating Africans on the World Stage: A Problem in World History|journal=Journal of World History|volume=27|issue=3|pages=605–637}}
* [[John Edward Philips|Philips, John Edward, ed.]] ''Writing African History'' (2005)
* Whitehead, Clive. "The historiography of British Imperial education policy, Part II: Africa and the rest of the colonial empire." ''History of Education'' 34.4 (2005): 441–454. [http://www.worldpece.org/sites/default/files/artifacts/media/pdf/2005_whitehead_the_historiography_of_british_imperial_education.pdf online]
* Zimmerman, Andrew. "Africa in Imperial and Transnational History: multi-sited historiography and the necessity of theory." ''Journal of African History'' 54.3 (2013): 331–340. [https://histoire.ens.fr/IMG/pdf/zimmerman_-_africa-in-imperial-and-transnational-history-.pdf online]

==External links==
* "[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-evolution-and-the-science-of-human-origins/ Race, Evolution and the Science of Human Origins]" by Allison Hopper, ''[[Scientific American]]'' (5 July 2021).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100815022804/http://www.worldtimelines.org.uk/world/africa Worldtimelines.org.uk – Africa] [[The British Museum]]. 2005
* [http://historyscoper.com/africahistoryscope.html The Historyscoper].
* [http://africanhistory.about.com/od/countryhistoryatoz/u/PeoplePlaces.htm About.com:African History] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213144544/http://africanhistory.about.com/od/countryhistoryatoz/u/PeoplePlaces.htm |date=2007-12-13 }}.
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index.shtml The Story of Africa] BBC World Service.
* [https://www.pbs.org/wonders/fr_wn.htm Wonders of the African World], [[PBS]].
* [http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CIVAFRCA/ABOUT.HTM#Purpose Civilization of Africa by Richard Hooker], [[Washington State University]].
* [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/te_index.asp?i=Africa African Art] Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190519102901/http://www.africankingdoms.com/ African Kingdoms, by Khaleel Muhammad].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120401181050/http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=12651%2F Mapungubwe Museum] at the [[University of Pretoria]]
* [http://www.omarviktor.com/project-diaspora Project Diaspora] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018021941/https://www.omarviktor.com/project-diaspora |date=2021-10-18 }}.
* [http://www.kushcom.co.uk/history-of-africa/programme-information/ Kush Communications |Media Production Company London].

{{History of Africa}}
{{Africa topics}}
{{History by continent|state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Successor states to the Ghana Empire|some of Ghana's vassals]]
[[Category:History of Africa| ]]
[[Category:Archaeology in Africa| ]]