Africa

It is difficult to forget that Africa was the cradle of humanity. Even then, partly because of the late introduction of farming, Africa’s entrance into recorded history was later than that of Europe and the Middle East (remembering of course that Egypt, one of the premier civilizations, was very much part of Africa).

The first hints of civilization spread through North Africa from Egypt, and by 3000 BC, agriculture had been adopted in much of the Sudan region. The cereals grown were mainly from the Middle East, although sorghum grew in West Africa. The earliest known Nubian kingdom developed south of Egypt. Trading routes had crossed Nubia for centuries, but the first great Nubian Kingdrom was established around 2500 BC, and survivied for 1000 years. A remarkable culture flourished, producing especially beautiful sculptures and jewellery.

The even more impressive Kingdom of Kush rose from 900 BC and survived for over four centuries. In the 8th century BC, Egypt was conquered by the Nubians, who ruled Egypt as the XXVth Dynasty, and had their capital at Napata. A century later, the Kushite Kingdom expanded its frontiers southwards down past Khartoum, creating a new capital called Meroe and this Kushite Kingdom came to be predominately black-African in its population. Its prosperity was increasingly sustained on the vast reserves of iron ore that existed around Meroe, and the iron-smelting techniques employed there spread to Sudan.

During this period, new food plants were being introduced to the region from Asia: bananas, Asian yams and others moved south all the way to the Bantu regions of equatorial Africa. With the advantage of iron tools, these new plants were spread southwards over the next few centuries (until about 1500 AD). Sudanese speaking Bantu peoples spread into Western Africa too, equipped with both these new plants and iron tools. The more backward peoples whom they encountered were absorbed or otherwise driven back. The Bushmen of were among those driven into the most arid regions of south-western Africa, in what is now Namibia and Botswana.

From the f1st century, Meroe begun to decline, faced with an emerging rival trading kingdom whose capital was at Axum. These people were an offshoot of a Semitic Sabean Kingdom in what we now call Yemen, and they formed the beginning of Ethiopia. Axum owed its prosperity to ivory, which made the city the premier ivory market of north-eastern Africa. During the course of the 4th century, the emerging, Christian Kingdom of Ethopia destroyed Kush, and became the premier civilization in the region