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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Early boats: A person in a boat (Barramiya, Upper Egypt, ca. 4000 BC) Early boats: When did people invent boats? African sailing has a long history. People were probably using [...]
Mansa Musa of Mali After the 400s AD, the Bantu expansion slowed down. They had already settled most of the good farmland in southern Africa. What was left was mainly desert [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Copper sculpture from Medieval West Africa (Tada, Nigeria ca. 1300 AD). Djenne-Djeno's walls By 800 AD, the people of Djenne-Djeno had built a tall wall of mud-bricks around their town. The wall would protect [...]
Medieval African food: an olive orchard in Tunisia The Romans grow olive oil in North Africa The foods people ate in Africa didn't just stay the same. Instead, they changed [...]
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 [...]
