African History
Africa is a large and diverse continent that extends from South Africa northward to the Mediterranean Sea. The continent makes up one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth. Widely recognized as the birthplace of humankind, Africa saw the rise of great kingdoms, faced the transatlantic slave trade, colonization and Apartheid.
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In 1896, Ethiopia fended off an invading Italian army and secured its independence.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu, located in Mali, served as a major intellectual hub of Islamic civilization.
A combination of internal and international resistance to apartheid helped dismantle the white supremacist regime.
Read excerpts from letters, speeches and memoirs reflecting on each stage of his life—from the innocence of a tribal village boy to the triumphs and pressures of being South Africa's first black president.
3 Influential African Empires
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Apartheid, the legal and cultural segregation of the non-white citizens of South Africa, ended in 1994 thanks to activist Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk.
For decades, the country's Black majority was controlled by racist laws enshrining white supremacy.
A combination of internal and international resistance to apartheid helped dismantle the white supremacist regime.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu, located in Mali, served as a major intellectual hub of Islamic civilization.
Forget today’s tech billionaires. The wealth of Mansa Musa of Mali was too vast to be imagined—or equaled.
Battles in Africa were waged between colonial powers, but most of those compelled to fight were conscripted Africans.
In 1896, Ethiopia fended off an invading Italian army and secured its independence.
The forced transport of enslaved people from Africa led to populations of Black people throughout North and South America and other parts of the world.
From ancient Sudan to medieval Zimbabwe, get the facts on seven African kingdoms that made their mark on history.
Though exact totals will never be known, the transatlantic slave trade is believed to have forcibly displaced some 12.5 million Africans between the 17th and 19th centuries; some 10.6 million survived the infamous Middle Passage across the Atlantic. Though descendants of these enslaved Africans now make up considerable segments of the population in the United […]
The 93-year-old president’s 37-year rule ended with a military coup.
The recent crisis in Libya is only the latest development in a long and tumultuous history of relations between the North African nation and the West.
In 1619, some 20 Africans arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, where they were purchased from Dutch privateers to aid in the English colony’s lucrative, labor-intensive cultivation of tobacco. As profits piled up and slavery spread through the American colonies, the British crown decided to exert control over the slave trade in the colonies (and the wealth […]
Queen Amanirenas commanded soldiers of the ancient Kingdom of Kush and successfully resisted Roman rule.
