Africa

Africa has four major language families. In the north Berbers and Egyptians speak Afro-Asian languages. In west and central Africa the people of Ghana and the Bushmen spoke Niger-Congo languages. In the east Nubians speak a Nile-Sudan language. In the far south Bushmen speak a Khoisan language.

NORTH AFRICA [AFRO-ASIAN LANGUAGES]
Climate drier [3000]. Africa's climate became drier. The Sahara, which had been suitable for farming and raising animals, changed slowly into a desert. Farmers moved away.
Berbers [1200]. North Africans, who later became known as Berbers, earned their living by farming near North Africa's coast and raising livestock near the desert. Berbers, Egyptians, and Phoenicians all spoke Afro-Asian languages.
Phoenician outposts [900]. Phoenicia established trading posts along North Africa's coast. Phoenician sailors rowed against the wind to North Africa and sailed home. Carthage became the most powerful Phoenician settlement [814]. Many North Africans worked among the Carthaginians as farmers, laborers, and soldiers.
Carthage independent [650]. Assyria destroyed Sidon, one of Phoenicia's two key cities [677], and Babylon destroyed Tyre, the other key city [573]. Persia took control of Phoenicia [538] and named it as one of Persia's provinces. Since Phoenicia was no longer able to protect its outposts, Carthage began to support them.
Carthage stops Greek expansion [550]. The Carthaginians and the Greeks became trading rivals in the Western Mediterranean. Carthage, assisted by Etruscans, defeated a Greek fleet [535, Alalia]. As a result the Greeks stopped building new colonies in France and Spain.
Carthage expands inland [480]. Carthage grew prosperous and expanded [450], but Berbers continued to control inland areas near the desert.
Carthage and Rome sign treaty [348]. Carthage and Rome signed a treaty [348]. Carthage promised not to attack Roman cities. Rome agreed not to enter Carthaginian ports.
Carthage attacked [310]. Greeks living on the island of Sicily attacked Carthage [310/306] because they wanted Carthaginian settlers to leave Sicily. The attack failed.
Carthage defeated by Rome [264]. Greeks on Sicily asked Rome to drive Carthaginians from the island [264]. The Romans built their first warships and defeated Carthage's navy [241, First Punic War].
Carthage attacks Italy [227]. Carthage built colonies in Spain and sent two armies to support them. One general [Hannibal] moved his troops to Italy and defeated a Roman army [216, Cannae]. The Romans avoided fighting the Carthaginian army in Italy. Instead, Rome attacked Spain and defeated Carthage [202, Zama]. Carthage gave Spain to Rome and agreed not to make war without Rome's permission.
Carthage destroyed by Rome [202]. While Carthage and Rome were at war, Berbers formed the kingdoms of Numidia [218] and Mauretania [203]. Numidia began taking land from Carthage, whose treaty with Rome did not allow it to fight a war. After Carthage attacked Numidia [150] Rome declared war and destroyed Carthage so completely that no one could live in the city [146, Third Punic War].
Berbers resist Roman expansion [140]. The Romans spread across North Africa despite resistance from North Africans whom they called 'Berbers' [barbarians]. Berbers didn't intermix with the Romans as well as they had with the Carthaginians. Berbers and Carthaginians both spoke Afro-Asian languages, while the Romans spoke an Indo-European language.
Rome forms African provinces [46 BCE]. Rome took control of the Berber kingdom, Numidia [46], and rebuilt Carthage [29]. The Berbers raided Roman settlements in North Africa, but were unable to stop Roman expansion.
Roman prosperity [40 CE]. Rome took Mauretania [40] and controlled the entire Mediterranean coastline. North Africa became wealthy by selling grains, olives, and olive oil to Rome. The Romans burned olive oil in lamps to light their homes. The Romans built aqueducts, forums, baths, and theaters in their North African cities. The Romans and the Berbers began to travel in the desert using camels instead of horses.
Hebrew immigrants [132]. Rome expelled Jews from Jerusalem after a rebellion [132]. Many Jews moved to North Africa and worked among the Berbers as merchants. The Jews later spread into Spain and Europe. Berber raids and Roman counterattacks continued.
Christianity [313]. Christianity, which could now be practiced openly, spread across Roman North Africa. Most Berbers continued to practice animism.
Vandals form kingdom [429]. A Roman governor in North Africa broke away from Rome [429] and may have invited the Vandals to protect him. The Vandals crossed from Spain to North Africa, but then took control of the governor's kingdom and used his ships for piracy.
Byzantium defeats Vandals [536]. Byzantium took the Vandal territory in North Africa. The Byzantines built walls around cities to protect them from Berber raids. Umayyads expel Byzantines [642]. Umayyad Muslims entered North Africa, conquered its Byzantine cities, and defeated the Berbers [690, 701]. The Umayyads pardoned Berbers who joined their army. The Muslims conquered Spain [711] with an army that included many Berber soldiers.
Kharijite kingdoms [757]. When Muslim leadership changed hands from the Umayyads to the Abbasids [754], many Berbers rebelled and joined the Kharijite sect. The Kharijites formed kingdoms at Sidjilmasa [757/976] and Tahert [776/800] and turned these cities into centers of trade. The most heavily traveled trade route ran from Sidjilmasa to Ghana in West Africa.
Shia Idrisids [778]. Shias rebelled in Damascus [762], but were defeated and expelled. Some moved to North Africa and formed a Shia kingdom [789/985, Idrisids]. These Shias were the first Muslims who actively converted Berbers to the Islamic religion.
Sunni Aghlabids [800]. A group of Sunnis, the Aghlabids, negotiated with the Abbasid caliph and became politically independent. North Africa enjoyed prosperity during 110 years of Aghlabid leadership [800/909]. The Aghlabids conquered Sicily [827] and attacked Italy, prompting the Romans to build a new wall [847, Leotine Wall] around the city.
Shia Fatimids [909]. Shia Fatimids overthrew the Sunni Aghlabids [909] and expanded into Morocco [930]. The Fatimids became the first Muslim state to mint its own gold coins. Other Muslim states used coins produced by the caliph. Fatimid demand for gold led increased trade with West Africa.
Fatimids move to Egypt [969]. The Fatimids moved their capital to Egypt [969] and built a House of Science [972] that became a center of Muslim learning. The Ummayads from Spain conquered the Idrisids [985].

WEST AFRICA: GHANA [NIGER-CONGO LANGUAGES]
Farming [2000]. Most West Africans were farmers in the grasslands.
Tichit [1200]. Most West Africans lived in villages, which provided protection, rather than on farms, which were isolated. Tichit [1200] was the largest West African village.
Nok cattle [900]. The people of Nok became the first West Africans to raise cattle. The Nok lived in highland areas where there were very few tsetse flies. West Africans who lived in lowland areas could not raise cattle because the bloodsucking tsetse fly that lived in wet, lowland areas carried parasites that killed the animals.
• Nok terracotta heads. Artists at Nok [900] produced life-size human heads and small statues of animals using baked, unglazed clay [terracotta].
Tichit trade with north [750]. Berber traders crossed the desert using horses and donkeys. Camels were not used until later [50]. The city of Tichit became the earliest center of trade with the north.
Nok iron [450]. The Nok were the first West Africans to produce iron [450]. The use of iron spread quickly.
Tichit abandoned [300]. Berbers from North Africa attacked West African towns [300]. The West Africans abandoned Tichit and many other towns because of the attacks.
Jenne-jeno regional trade [200 CE]. Jenne-jeno, a city built on an island in the middle of a river, became a center for regional trade. West Africans developed large-scale trade among themselves before they began large-scale trade with North Africa.
Ghana center of trade [300]. The kingdoms of Ghana [300] and Takrur [300] developed into important centers of trade.
Ghana powerful [600]. Ghana's king used military force to expand. When he conquered a new area, he allowed the local king to stay in power and allowed the people to continue to speak their local language. Ghana and Takrur grew wealthy by trading with North African Berbers. The Berbers built new cities including Sidjilmasa [757] which became centers of trade. West Africans traded gold for salt. Salt is valuable because people who eat very little meat, like many West Africans, require salt to remain healthy. Berbers obtained salt in the desert. Ghana obtained gold from its rainforest neighbors. They panned for gold in their rivers.
Ghana gold trade [850]. Trade between West and North Africa increased sharply when the Fatimids began to produce gold coins.
Ghana expands [950/1076]. Ghana increased its control over trade by conquering the kingdom of Takrur [970] and a Berber town that produced salt [990, Awdaghust]. Ghana reached its peak.

WEST AFRICA: BANTU [NIGER-CONGO LANGUAGES]
Bantu homeland [2000]. The Bantu spoke a West African language [Niger-Congo family]. The Bantu worshipped a creator god [Mwari], honored spirits who lived in mountains, prayed to ancestors, and asked medicine men to perform religious rituals and heal the sick.
Bantu expand south [1500]. The Bantu moved south in a slow 3000-year expansion that did not stop until Bantu settlements covered nearly all of southern Africa. They changed southern Africa from a land of hunter-gatherers to a land of farmers and cattle breeders. The soil may have lost its fertility after a few years and families found it easier to move to new land than to replant worn out fields. Because the Bantu did not use writing, researchers have reconstructed the migration by studying the more than 400 present-day Bantu languages and working back to a single original language.
Bantu divide [800]. When the Bantu reached swampland near the Congo River, some [East Bantu] traveled east along the northern edge of the rainforests. Others [West Bantu]continued south along the waterways of the Congo River system.
Lakes Region [500]. Those who traveled east reached the Lakes Region where they met people who spoke Nile-Sudan languages related to Nubian. The Lakes people taught the Bantu how to grow cereal crops and how to raise cattle.
Iron making [100 BCE]. Both Eastern and Western Bantu produced iron. They used iron tipped spears and arrows for hunting, but also used stone-tipped spears and arrows. Most Bantu farmers continued use a fire-hardened wooden stick to plant their crops. Although iron weapons gave them an advantage over groups they encountered, the Bantu expansion was not a campaign of military conquest.
• New crops. As the East Bantu expanded south from the Lakes Region, they met traders who traveled along Africa's eastern rivers [100]. The traders taught the Bantu how to grow the Asian banana and yam. Ships from Indonesia had introduced these foods to East Africa. The Asian crops grew in rainy regions, where the original Bantu grain crops failed. Some of the Bantu moved to wetter locations and grew the new crops. Farming in wet locations increased the number of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
• Sickle cell gene. A genetic change has built up over many generations in people who are exposed to malaria. If they receive the gene from one parent, children do not get sick from malaria. If they receive the gene from both parents, blood cells become deformed and cause painful blood clots. They also carry less oxygen and cause weakness. When the Bantu began to farm in a wet locations, the number of malaria-carrying mosquitoes increased and people of the area sometimes died because, unlike the Bantu, they were not protected from malaria.
Cattle raising [100 CE]. Bantu who raised cattle expanded south from the Lakes Region. The Bantu could not introduce cattle into the wetter interior regions where the tsetse fly is present. This blood-sucking insect carries parasites that kill cattle.
Bantu continue south [400]. Both the West Bantu and East Bantu continued to expand south. The West Bantu advanced more slowly. They competed for land with the Bushmen who spoke using distinctive clicking sounds [Khoisan language family].
Cattle kingdoms [700]. Some of the Bantu who raised cattle acquired large herds and grew richer than Bantu farmers.
• Zandj Slaves. Muslims were not permitted to use Christians, Jews, or Zoroastrians as slaves. Most Muslim slaves were Slavs from north of the Black Sea or Bantu from East Africa. The Muslims called their African slaves 'Zandj', the Muslim name for East Africa's coast.
• Swahili. The Swahili language developed in East African seaport towns where both Muslims and Bantu lived and worked [850]. Swahili-speaking East African sailors began trading along the African coast. Later, they became wealthy by selling and buying goods in places as far away as China [1200s].
Mapungubwe [900]. Mapungubwe became the first Bantu cattle raising settlement to be surrounded by a stone wall [zimbabwe]. Rich cattle owners lived in luxury on hilltops far above the laborers who tended the cattle.
Control Southern Africa [950]. After expanding for nearly 3000 years the Bantu now lived in all of southern Africa, except for a region in the southwest that remained in the hands of the Bushmen.

EAST AFRICA: NUBIA [NILE-SUDAN LANGUAGES]
Nubians move south [2600]. Egyptians raided northern Nubia and took cattle and slaves [2600]. The Nubians abandoned their farms and moved south.
Nubians return north [2400]. The Nubians resettled the north and resumed trade with Egypt [2400].
Egypt takes north [1887]. Egypt took northern Nubia and exploited its natural resources including gold. Egypt did not control southern Nubia and its key city of Kerma. The Egyptian name for Nubians was 'Cush'.
Kerma expands north [1785]. After Egypt's Middle Kingdom ended Kerma expanded into northern Nubia. Wealthy Nubians were buried underground and their tombs were covered with a mound of dirt [tumulus]. Sometimes a king's servants were killed and buried with him.
Nubia under Egypt [1459]. New Kingdom Egypt sent settlers into Nubia to colonize it. The Egyptians also built temples and monuments in Nubia and sent the children of Nubian leaders to schools in Egypt. The Egyptians wanted to train them to be Nubia's future leaders.
Egypt abandons Nubia [1035]. Egypt split into two kingdoms and abandoned Nubia.
Napata strong [900]. A strong Nubian kingdom developed at Napata.
• Nubian pyramids. Wealthy Nubians were buried as mummies and pyramids were built above the burial site. Nubian pyramids, smaller and shaped differently than Egyptian pyramids, usually had a prayer chapel on one side.
Napata takes southern Egypt [715]. Nubia helped Egypt's ruler at Thebes defeat an enemy, but then took control of Thebes and south Egypt.
Assyria takes Egypt [656]. Assyria conquered north Egypt. The Nubians left south Egypt and returned home.
Napata weak [590]. Egypt destroyed Napata so that the Nubians would not be able to attack Egypt. Nubia remained weak for 200 years.
Meroe strong [370]. Nubians at Meroe began to make iron [370], built a new center of power, and developed a land route for trade with Egypt. The Nubians adopted a 23 letter alphabet [200]. Linguists know the sounds of the characters, but cannot understand the meanings of the Nubian words.
Rome takes Egypt [30 BCE]. Rome took Egypt. Trade between Egypt and Nubia declined.
Meroe weak [150]. Nubia's economy suffered. Trade shifted from Nubia to West Africa after camels made long desert crossings easier. Trade also shifted to ships using seaports in Axum, not far from Nubia. Rainfall diminished and north Nubia became so dry that cattle could not be raised.
Meroe destroyed [325]. Deserts grew larger. Outsiders who lived near the deserts began to raid farms in both Meroe and Axum. The king of Axum retaliated by destroying Meroe [325].
Darfur settled [350]. After Axum destroyed Meroe some Nubians may have fled to Central Africa and founded Darfur [350]. The people at Darfur speak a language related to Nubian and worship gods that were popular at Meroe.
Three kingdoms [450]. Three kingdoms, Nobadia, Makuria, and Alwa, emerged as successors of Meroe. Missionaries converted these kingdoms to Greek Christianity [563/580].
Trade pact with Arabs [641]. Arabs attacked the Nubians, failed to conquer them, and established a treaty, the first Muslim trade pact. The Arabs and Nubians agreed not to attack each other and to allow safe passage for travelers. Nubia sent slaves each year. The Arabs sent grain, wine, and cloth. The treaty was honored for 500 years.
Makuria and Alwa [697]. The two northern kingdoms united to form Makuria. Its king owned all of the land and divided it into small farms. The Nubians at Makuria and Alwa became isolated because they remained Christian after many of their neighbors had become Muslims. They became even more isolated because they adopted beliefs [Monophysite] opposed by other Christians.
Kanem [800]. The central African kingdom of Darfur declined and Kanem took its place [850]. The rulers at Kanem, using horses and iron weapons, gained control over nearby farmers and animal herders.
Makuria weakens Egypt [956]. Makuria attacked southern Egypt [956, 962]. The Nubian attacks may have helped the Fatimids take control of Egypt [969]. The Nubians remained strong while the Fatimids held Egypt and declined after the Fatimids lost control [1171].
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