Ancient African nations – Travel guide at Wikivoyage
As the origin of humankind, Africa has been the home of many nations and kingdoms. While ancient North African civilizations such as ancient Egypt and Carthage are famous in Europe and elsewhere, most pre-colonial nations of sub-Saharan Africa are not well-known outside the continent, leading to the misconception among most Westerners that pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa was comprised exclusively of hunter-gatherer cultures. This article describes destinations from the early Neolithic up until the European and American colonization of Africa in the 19th century.
The Neolithic revolution of agriculture began in ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia. Farming and livestock herding spread slowly across the African continent with difficulties of different climates.
Since classical antiquity, North Africa has been part of the Mediterranean cultural sphere, under ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Islamic Golden Age and the Ottoman Empire.
The Sahel and West Africa have seen many kingdoms rise and fall, such as the Songhai and Mali empires. They were famous for their trans-Saharan caravans and as centres of Islamic scholarship.
East Africa have seen exchange with the Middle East and has an Islamic heritage. Ethiopia is one of the world's oldest Christian nations, famous for resisting European colonialism well into the 20th century.
International interest in pre-colonial African history has been on the rise in the 21st century, with many locations earning status as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Map of Ancient African nations
The Swahili Coast refers to what is today the coastal areas of Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros and Northern Mozambique, which are mainly inhabited by Swahili people. It was never a unified kingdom in the pre-modern era, but instead comprised of several powerful and prosperous city-states, which nevertheless shared close cultural and linguistic ties.
The medieval Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta visited this region and wrote of it; his book was widely read throughout the Islamic world.
Modern-day Mali was once the centre of the powerful Mali Empire. Mansa Musa, the ninth king of the Mali Empire, is widely regarded as the richest person in the history of the human race.
The medieval Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta visited this region and wrote of it; his book was widely read throughout the Islamic world.
- See also: Churches in Ethiopia
- Transatlantic slave trade
- World War II in Africa
- 20th-century South Africa
- Old towns of Africa
- Pre-Islamic Arabia
- Voyages of Ibn Battuta