Africa

Illuminating the “Dark Continent”

Geography of Africa

• Northern Mediterranean

• The Sahara• The Sahel• The Niger, Congo, and

Nile Systems• The Rift Valleys and

the Great Lakes• South Africa

The Dawn of Humanity

• The “Out of Africa” thesis and Leakey’s “3 Firsts”

• The Rise of Homo Sapiens

• The Rift Valleys• Agriculture and

Sedentary Society• The Green Sahara

The Bantu Migrations

• The Khoi and the San• Iron Age technology

and the Nok• Hiving-off and

linguistic derivation• Leaving the cows

behind: the Tsetse belt

• The Indonesian Connection

Early African Empires

• Egypt: African or Near Eastern?

• Kush and the domination of Egypt

• Meroe and Ironworking• Kleptocracy and

underdevelopment• Axum and the Lion of

Judah• Adulis and Hellenistic

trade

African Social Life

• The primacy of states• Kinship structures• Informal relations of

gender• The role of religion

and African shamanism

• The “Big Man” system of rule

• Varieties of state formation

African Proto-states

• Ghana: Land of Gold

• Islam in Africa• Swahili Culture• Mali• Mansa Musa• Songhai• Sunni Ali

Summary

• The History of Africa, long-neglected and misunderstood by the West, is only now being understood in more clarity and rigor. The demographic and climactic challenges faced by the peoples of Africa led to a unique path of social construction, one that often revealed unity within its apparent division. Nonetheless, the notion that Africa was isolated and disengaged from the wider world has been decisively relegated to the past.