Precolonial history

The ancient history of Sub-Saharan Africa is mostly known due to archaeological findings. In the 8th century BC, a state called Meroe emerged in the Nile River valley under the influence of Egypt, and on the southern coast of the Red Sea, under the influence of Southern Arabians, the Aksumite Empire arose.

In the 1st century AD independent political formations, Kanem and Ancient Ghana, began to appear in West Africa, which was stimulated by the development of trade with Northern Africa through the Sahara Desert. When Northern Africa was conquered by the Arabs, trade became more intensive. This also caused the penetration of Islam which played an important role in the development of statehood and the formation of the cultural type of the societies of West Sudan. In the 13th century Ancient Mali, Songhai, Bornu and the Hausan cities arose, and the cities of Timbuktu and Gao turned into large centers of Muslim learning. However, many peoples resisted the propagation of Islam: powerful political formations of the Mossi people and other peoples of the Gur group (Natengha, Yatengha, Dagomba, Mamprusi), as well as the “empires” of Bambara, Segou and Kaarta. remained pagan. In the 18–19 centuries a nomadic people of Fulbe began to play an important role in West Sudan. The Fulbe people became the conductors of the orthodox Islam and created several theocratic states: Futa-Jallon, Macina, Sokoto, and Adamawa.

The history of Central and East Africa in the last three millenniums was to a large extent determined by the expansion of Bantu-speaking groups. Their ancestors mastered agriculture and iron processing, the population grew, and they had to search for new lands. The center of their dispersion must have been modern Cameroon, and by the 17th – 18th centuries the Bantu peoples reached the extreme south of Africa and forced out the Pygmy, the Bushmen and the Hottentot people into the dense forests.

On the eastern coast, trade flourished with Arabia, Iran and India, large cities appeared and the Swahili civilization was taking shape. Between the rivers of Zambezi and Limpopo, the civilization of Zimbabwe appeared that is famous for its monumental stone buildings, which was later replaced with the Kingdom of Monomotapa. The Great Lakes region developed in isolation from Islam or Christianity. It must have been in the 13th century that the first kingdoms of Kitara and Buganda appeared, later followed by Ankole, Nioro, Toro, Ruanda, and Burundi.

The appearance of European vessels near the coast of Africa stimulated the development of the centers of political power in Central Africa and at the Guinean coast that had emerged even earlier: Ife, Benin and Congo. With the beginning of the age of slave-trading belligerent states appeared along the whole of the Atlantic coast, but when slave-trading was banned in the beginning of the 19th century by European countries, they began to decline.

In the end of the 19th century the colonial division put an end to the independent life of almost all African countries, which was only restored in the second half of the 20th century.
A special role in African history is played by Ethiopia that became the successor of the Aksumite Empire and has preserved its Christian statehood and culture throughout two and a half millenniums. Besides, it turned out to be the only Sub-Saharan African country that preserved its independence in the period of colonial conquests (excluding Liberia that has been tightly connected to the USA since the declaration of its independence in 1847).

Sacred place of meetings of strong men of Manding,                       the place where Ancient Mali was created.                                               Guinea. Maninka.                                       O. Yu. Zavyalova. 1999.		Stone inscription of the Ezana, the most famous king of Axum. During his reign Aksum was christianized, and a the writing in Ge’ez language was reformed. Aksum. Nosnitsyn D., 2006.		A castle in Gondar, the capital of Ethiopia in 17-18 centuries. Gondar. The Tigray. The Amhara. Nosnitsyn D., 2006.
Enormous granit stelai remind of the grandeur of the Old Aksum. Aksum. Nosnitsyn D., 2006.