Africa is the second largest continent on Earth. It has a variety of landforms, from rugged mountains to vast river basins. A variety of civilizations and people flourished in Ancient Africa. In this lesson, we will talk about six early African civilizations.
There had been many great civilizations and empires through Africa’s history. Ancient Egyptian civilization was the oldest and longest-lasting civilization. It is still famous for its pyramids and pharaohs. However, the Egyptians weren’t the only civilization to develop in Ancient Africa. Some of the other important Early African civilizations are discussed below.
Ancient Egypt was one of the greatest and most powerful civilizations in the history of the world. It lasted for over 3000 years from 3150 BC to 30 BC. It grew for thousands of years intact because the Nile River Valley and the Mediterranean and the Red Sea border kept foreigners and their ideas away. The Nile River was very important to Egyptian civilization. The Nile provided a communication and trade route across a huge and harsh land. The yearly flooding of the Nile nourished the dry surrounding farms. People had always built their homes in towns and cities along the banks of the Nile. The Ancient Egyptian Empire began to weaken in about 700 BC. It was conquered by a number of other civilizations. The first to conquer Egypt was the Assyrian Empire, followed a hundred or so years later by the Persian Empire. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great of Greece conquered Egypt and set up his own ruling family called the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Finally, the Romans came in 30 BC and Egypt became a province of Rome.
Ancient Ghana was different from present-day Ghana. It was located in Western Africa in what is today the countries of Mauritania, Senegal, and Mali. It was known as the Wagadugu Empire and the name “Ghana” was the title given to the rulers of the kingdom. It was a huge trading empire in western Africa through the 7th to 13th centuries. It started around the same time as the Vikings invaded England. Ancient Ghana has formed around 300 AD when its first king, Dinga Cisse, united a number of tribes of the Soninke people under his rule.
There were several local kings who paid tribute to the high king but ruled their lands as they saw fit. The main source of wealth for the Kingdom of Ghana was the mining of iron and gold. Iron was used to produce strong weapons and tools for the armies; and gold was used to trade with other nations for resources like tools, cloth, livestock. They established trade relations with the Muslims of Northern Africa and the Middle East. Arabs traders crossed the Sahara Desert to enter Ghana, which they called the “Land of Gold”.
The Mali trading empire of West Africa began its rise upon the collapse of the empire of Ghana. It developed from the Kingdom of Kangaba established by the Malinke people as early as 1000. A ruler named Sundiata Keita united the tribes of Malinke people and led them to capture Kumbi, the capital of Ghana. Over time, the Mali Empire became stronger, as the king sent his armies to take over surrounding kingdoms including the Kingdom of Ghana while laying the economic foundations for the empire by taking control of the region’s gold and salt trade as well as encouraging agricultural development. In the early 14th century, under the rule of the emperor (Mansa) Musa, the Mali Empire reached its height. Mansa Musa became quite famous because of his spectacular royal pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, via Egypt, in 1324. Mecca is the holy city of the Muslims. Leading a caravan of 60,000 subjects and 80 camels loaded with gold, he gave a grand celebration on arrival in Cairo. The capital city of the empire was Niani. Other important cities included Timbuktu, Gao, Djenne, and Walata. The city of Tumbuktu was considered a center of education and learning and included the famous Sankore University. After the death of Mansa Musa in 1332, the Mali Empire began a steady decline. In the 1400s, the empire began to lose control along the edges of its borders. Then, in the 15th century the Songhai Empire rose to power. The Mali Empire came to an end in 1610 with the death of the last Mansa, Mahmud IV.
Mansa Musa's Golden Hajj
The Songhai Empire was a state that dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th centuries. It controlled trade in much of western Africa during the period. The empire was centered in what is now central Mali. The Songhai Empire lasted from 1464 to 1591. Prior to the 1400s, the Songhai were under the rule of the Mali Empire. A great Songhai warrior named Sonni Ali took power in 1464. He built the Songhai Empire by conquering Timbuktu, Dienne, and other nearby cities. The capital city of the Songhai Empire was Gao. The slave trade became an important part of the Songhai Empire. Slaves were used to transporting goods across the Sahara Desert to Morocco and the Middle East. Slaves were also sold to Europeans to work in Europe and the Americas. Slaves were usually captives of war captured during raids on nearby regions. The Songhai Empire lasted from 1464 to 1591. In 1493, Askia Muhammad became the leader of the Songhai. He brought the Songhai Empire to its height of power and founded the Askia Dynasty. Under his rule, Islam became an important part of the empire. In the mid-1500's the Songhai Empire began to weaken due to internal strife and civil war. In 1591, the Moroccan army invaded and captured the cities of Timbuktu and Gao. The empire collapsed and was divided up into a number of separate smaller states.
The Kingdom of Kush was located in Northeast Africa just south of Ancient Egypt. Today, the land of Kush is the country of Sudan. It is often referred to as Nubia and had close ties to Ancient Egypt. It lasted for over 1400 years. Sometimes the region was called the "Land of the Bow" because of its famous archers. Kush was under the rule of Egypt for hundreds of years. After Egypt’s power weakened, Kushite Kings became Pharaohs of Egypt’s 25th dynasty. A man named Kashta was the first Kushite King in 150 BC and the first to take the Egyptian throne. Kush adopted Egyptian customs, religion, hieroglyphs, and architecture. Later, Kush conquered Egypt. The two cultures influenced each other. There was a time Ancient Egypt was ruled by black pharaohs. These pharaohs came from the renowned Kingdom of Kush.
In 1070 BC, Kush gained independence from Egypt. It quickly became a major power and ruled until the Assyrians arrived. The Kingdom of Kush had two capital cities – Napata and Meroe. Meroe was a center for ironworking, an important resource for the kingdom. Women played a key role within the governance of the kingdom, almost unique in the ancient world. A rich and vibrant trading culture, it lived for centuries at peace with neighbors almost certainly due to its role in commerce and in the transportation of goods. An invasion by the Aksumites of the Kingdom of Aksum took over the capital. The Aksumites destroyed Meroe and toppled the kingdom. The capital only survived another 20 years after their rule ended.
This was the ancient African Kingdom situated on the confluence of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan. It is sometimes called the Kingdom of Axum or Ancient Ethiopia. Ruled by the Aksumites, it existed from approximately 80BC to AD 825. Its territory stretched across modern-day Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Dibouti, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. The capital of Aksum called Axum, was in Tigray. This is in the modern-day country of Ethiopia in the northeast of Africa. The culture of modern Ethiopia is rooted in the kingdom of Aksum or Axum. The kingdom imported iron and steel, cloth, glassware, jewelry, olive oil, and wine while exporting gold, ivory, tortoiseshell, obsidian, frankincense, and myrrh. Merchants conducted business using coins minted by the kingdom. Its language, Geʿez, was written in a modified South Arabian alphabet, and Aksumites mostly worshipped Middle Eastern gods, though here and there a traditional African deity survived. By the 6th century, its decline had already begun with the fall of the Roman Empire and the accompanying decrease in trade. The spread of Islam throughout North Africa in the 7th century further isolated Aksum and weakened its trading position. The weakened kingdom retreated southward, where power gradually shifted to the local Agew people.
Carthage, was an ancient city in North Africa located on the eastern side of Lake Tunis, across from the center of modern Tunis in Tunisia. It was founded by the Phoenicians on the north coast of Africa in about 800 BC. It was the trading center of the western Mediterranean Sea until 146 BC when it was overthrown by Rome. The Carthaginians were seafarers and traders. They traded in foodstuffs, textiles, slaves, and metals such as silver, gold, iron and tin. They established their colonies in North Africa, southern Spain, and the Mediterranean. Carthage was a rival for Mediterranean Sea power for the Roman Republic, who wanted to take over the whole western Mediterranean Sea. So, Carthage and Rome fought a series of wars called the Punic Wars, after the Poeni, the name by which the Romans called the Phoenicians. In the First Punic War, from 264 to 241 bc, Carthage lost the island of Sicily. In the second, from 218 to 201 bc, a Carthaginian army led by Hannibal crossed the Alps by elephant to defeat the Romans.
However, Hannibal was later defeated in North Africa. In the third, from 149 to 146 BC, Rome attacked and conquered the city of Carthage, thus bringing an end to the Empire of Carthage. The cities allied with Carthage became part of the Roman Republic. Carthage was looted and burned. It was later rebuilt by Julius Caesar of Rome and the city became a major part of the Roman Empire.
