Africa

All about the continent of Africa, from prehistory to modern times, with maps, environment, history, art, architecture, food, clothing, and more. A good choice for reports in school or for homeschoolers.

A first section on history runs from the first evolution of primates in Africa, through the early empires in Egypt and Sudan, to the medieval empires in West Africa and East Africa. We make clear the high cost of European domination of trade, but also that actual European colonization was mostly a late nineteenth century phenomenon, and that African countries are again independent today. Climate change plays a major role in the collapse at the end of the Bronze Age, and in a late medieval collapse associated with the Little Ice Age, as well as increasingly today with global warming.

A second section deals with daily life in Africa: food, clothing, tools, the use of bronze and iron, music and dance, the kind of games kids played, the history of swimming in Africa, and what kinds of houses, temples, chuches and mosques they built.

In a third section, there are many articles about African trade and economics. African people domesticated donkeys and sorghum, and figured out how to incubate chicken eggs. They exported high quality iron ore, dried fish, hardwoods, acacia gum, copper, and gold to India and Iran.

Finally, there are a series of fun activities to encourage active learning. Most of these require little or no special materials. Some are intended to be done in groups, and others can be done alone.

3 10, 2017

Early African warfare – mercenaries and catapults

By |2019-08-21T09:18:19-07:00October 3rd, 2017|Africa|Comments Off on Early African warfare – mercenaries and catapults

Early African warfare: Nubian archers in the Middle Kingdom (from the Nubian museum in Aswan, Egypt) The beginnings of war There has been fighting in Africa since the early Stone [...]

3 10, 2017

Science in Islamic Africa – medieval African science

By |2019-08-21T09:21:51-07:00October 3rd, 2017|Africa|Comments Off on Science in Islamic Africa – medieval African science

Medieval African science: The walls of Timbuktu, in Mali, West Africa Medieval African science In the 700s AD, the Islamic Empire conquered North Africa and began to trade a lot with East Africa. Islamic government did [...]

3 10, 2017

African map project – al Idrisi and Ptolemy’s maps

By |2019-08-21T09:22:35-07:00October 3rd, 2017|Africa|Comments Off on African map project – al Idrisi and Ptolemy’s maps

African map project: Al-Idrisi's map of the world (1100s AD) What's new about al Idrisi's map? Check out this copy of al-Idrisi's map of the world, created in the 1100s AD. Who was [...]

3 10, 2017

Islamic North Africa – caravans across the Sahara

By |2019-08-21T09:31:54-07:00October 3rd, 2017|Africa|Comments Off on Islamic North Africa – caravans across the Sahara

Islamic North Africa: Kairouan mosque (ca. 800 AD) The Eastern Roman reconquest of North Africa in the 530s AD ended the Vandal kingdom there. But trade declined until the Islamic invasions of North [...]

3 10, 2017

Roman North Africa – Carthage to Augustine

By |2019-08-21T09:32:16-07:00October 3rd, 2017|Africa|Comments Off on Roman North Africa – Carthage to Augustine

Roman North Africa: This is the amphitheater in ancient Carthage where Romans killed Christians during the Decian persecution. Carthage controls the Mediterranean By the 300s BC, the North African port of [...]

2 10, 2017

African clothing history – weaving, knitting, embroidery

By |2019-08-21T09:33:22-07:00October 2nd, 2017|Africa|Comments Off on African clothing history – weaving, knitting, embroidery

African clothing history:  An Egyptian painting of Nubians (from modern Sudan), about 1300 BC Weaving comes to Africa By about 2500 BC, some people in Africa started to weave their cloth instead of pounding [...]

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