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Africa’s Timeline
Source: The 13TH Steve Biko Annual Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Ben Okri
We must measure time differently. Our history began long before the history of others. We must measure time not in the length of oppression but by the persistence of our dreams and our dreams go back a long way, way beyond the fall of Carthage, which Mandela says we are to rebuild, and way beyond the first imperfect Egyptian pyramids.
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The cycles of time
Source: The 13TH Steve Biko Annual Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Ben Okri
The cycles of time, like the inundation of the Nile, have the deposited on us the immeasurable silt of human experiences. We have great wealth in all that is at the root of humanity. If there is a correlation between experience and wisdom, between suffering and understanding, Africa is the riches delta of possible transformation.
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The dream of our ancestors
Source: The 13TH Steve Biko Annual Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Ben Okri
The dream of our ancestors nestles in the Rift Valley, when the greatest enemy of man was not man but night itself. Our ancestors battled with all manner of monsters and evils within and without and this long period of time and long march to civilisation must have forged in them some unconquerable sense of a human spirit.
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History is like a nightmare
Source: The 13TH Steve Biko Annual Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Ben Okri
History is like a nightmare we wake up from after a struggle and blink in stupefaction at the strangeness of daylight. With awakening a great energy is freed; a new question is posed: the nightmare is over but what do we do with the day?
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Africa’s ancient Science
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Despite suffering through the era of horrific system of slavery, countless contributions to the fields of science and technology were made by early Africans. This ancestry culture of achievements took place at least 40,000 years ago, not many people are aware of these accomplishments as part of the rich history of Africa beyond ancient Egypt. Unfortunately, the vast majority of discussions on the origins of science include only the Greeks, Romans and other western scientific cultures.
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The concepts in mathematics were first developed in Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The modern high-school level concepts in mathematics were first developed in Africa, as it was the first method of counting. More than 35,000 years ago, Egyptians scripted textbooks about mathematics that included division and multiplication of fractions and geometric formulas to calculate the area and volume of shapes. Distances and angles were calculated also, algebraic equations were solved and mathematically based predictions were made of the size of floods of the river Nile. The ancient Egyptians considered a circle to have 360 degrees.
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The numerical system
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The people in present-day Zaire developed their own numerical system, as did Yoruba people in the country now called Nigeria. The Yoruba system was based on units of 20 instead of 10 and required an impressive amount of subtraction to identify different numbers. Scholars have lauded this system, as it required much abstract reasoning.
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The calendar system
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Ancient African cultures made meaningful discoveries. Many of these are foundations on which we still rely, and some were so advanced that their mode of discovery still cannot be understood. Egyptians charted the movement of the sun and constellations and cycles of the moon. They divided the year into 12 parts and developed a yearlong calendar system containing 365 ¼ days.
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Time piece
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Clocks were made with moving water and sundial-like clocks were used. A structure known as the African Stonehenge in present-day Kenya (constructed around 300 B.C.) was a remarkably accurate calendar.
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The Dogon people of Mali
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The Dogon people of Mali amassed a wealth of detailed astronomical observations. The Dogon knew of Saturn’s rings, Jupiter’s moons, the spiral structure of the milky-way galaxy, and the orbit of the Sirius star system. They knew that this system contained a primary star and a secondary star now called Sirius B which is of immense density and not visible to the naked eye.
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Boats and Sailing
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The general believe by most people is that Europeans were the first to sail boats to the Americas. However, several lines of historical evidence suggest that ancient Africans sailed to South America and Asia hundreds of years before Europeans. Thousands of miles of waterways across Africa were trade routes and many ancient societies in Africa built a variety of boats, including small reed-based vessels, sailboats and grand structures with many cabins and cooking facilities.
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The Malians and Songhai
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The Malians and Songhai built boats 100 feet long and 13 feet wide that could carry up to 80 tons. Genetic evidence from plants have shown that descriptions and art from societies inhabiting South America at the time suggest small numbers of West Africans who sailed to the eastern coast of South America remained there and the ancient peoples also sailed to China and back, carrying elephants as cargo.
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The third oldest canoe in the world and the oldest in Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
In 1987 the third oldest canoe in the world and the oldest in Africa, was discovered in Nigeria by fulani herdsmen, near the Yobe river, in the village of Dufuna. It was dated 8000 years, cut out of African mahogany. Based on "stylistic sophistication", the tradition of canoe building must have gone further back in time, noted one archaeologist.
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Learning Institutions in Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Learning systems began in Africa long before the coming of the European explores. In about 295 BC, the Library of Alexandria was founded in Egypt. It was considered the largest library in the classical world. Al-Azhar University, founded in 970-972 was the chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world. The oldest degree awarding university in Egypt after the Cairo University was established in about 961 when non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.
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African Science & Philosophy
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Three philosophical schools in Mali existed during her golden age around 12th–16th centuries. They are, University of Sankore, Sidi Yahya University, and Djinguereber University. At the end of Mansa Musa's reign, the Sankoré University became a fullflaged and a fully staffed University with the largest collections of books on African science. The Sankoré University was capable of housing 25,000 students and had one of the largest libraries in the world with roughly 1000,000 manuscripts.
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The fractal geometry and mathematics
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
One of the major achievements found in Africa was the advance knowledge of fractal geometry and mathematics. The knowledge of fractal geometry can be found in a wide aspect of African life from art, social design structures, architecture, to games, trade, and divination systems.
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The binary numeral system
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The theory of binary numeral system was also widely known throughout Africa before much of the world. It has been said that this theory could have influenced western geomancy which led to the development of the digital computer.
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Ancient Tanzanian furnaces
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Ancient Tanzanian furnaces could reach 1,800°C -200 to 400°C warmer than those of the Romans. The Ife bronze casting of a king's head currently in the British Museum. In the Air Mountains region of Niger, copper smelting was independently developed between 3000 and 2500 BC.
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Smelting in Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Smelting in the region became mature around 1500 BC (137). Around this period, Africa was a major supplier of gold in world trade. While the Sahelian empires became powerful by controlling the Trans-Saharan trade routes, they provided two third (2/3) of the gold in Europe and North Africa.
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Glass manufacturing in Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Benin also was a manufacturer of glass and glass beads, two types of iron furnaces were used in Sub-Saharan Africa: the trench dug below ground and circular clay structures built above the ground. Iron ores were crushed and placed in furnaces layered with the right proportion of hardwood.
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Salicylic acid for pain
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Before the European invasion of Africa, medicine in what is now Egypt, Nigeria South Africa and Ghana, were more advanced than medicine in Europe. Some of these practices were the use of plants with salicylic acid for pain (as in aspirin), kaolin for diarrhoea (as in Kaopectate), and extracts that were confirmed in the 20th century to kill Gram positive bacteria.
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Medical procedures
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Africans discovered ouabain, capsicum, physostigmine and reserpine. Medical procedures performed in ancient Africa before they were performed in Europe include vaccination, autopsy, limb traction and broken bone setting, bullet removal, brain surgery, skin grafting, filling of dental cavities, installation of false teeth, what is now known as Caesarean section, anaesthesia and tissue cauterization.
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Surgery
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
African cultures preformed surgeries under antiseptic conditions universally when this concept was only emerging in Europe. Ancient Egyptian physicians were renowned in the ancient Near East for their healing skills, and some, like Imhotep, remained famous long after their deaths. Herodotus remarked that there was a high degree of specialization among Egyptian physicians, with some treating only the head or the stomach, while others were eye-doctors and dentists.
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The first psychiatric hospital
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Around 800, the first psychiatric hospital and insane asylum in Egypt was built by Muslim physicians in Cairo. In 1285, the largest hospital of the Middle Age and pre-modern era was built in Cairo, Egypt, by Sultan Qalaun al-Mansur. Treatment was given for free to patients of all backgrounds, regardless of gender, ethnicity or income.
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Tetracycline
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Tetracycline was being used by Nubians, based on bone remains between 350 AD and 550 AD (38). Tetracycline, sold under various brand names, is an oral antibiotic in the tetracyclines family of medications, used to treat a number of infections, including acne, cholera, brucellosis, plague, malaria, and syphilis.
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The antibiotic
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The antibiotic was in wide commercial use only in the mid 20th century. The theory is earthen jars containing grain used for making beer contained the bacterium streptomycedes, which produced tetracycline. Although Nubians were not aware of tetracycline, they could have noticed people fared better by drinking beer.
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Yam
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Yam was domesticated 8000 years BC in West Africa. Yam is great source of fiber, potassium, manganese, copper, and antioxidants. Yams are linked to various health benefits and may boost brain health, reduce inflammation, and improve blood sugar control.
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Textile
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Egyptians wore linen from the flax plant, which were beaten and combed. The priest and pharaohs wore leopard skin. The ancient Egyptians used looms as early as 4000 BC. Nubians mainly wore cotton, beaded leather, and linen. Nubia was also a center of cotton manufacturing. Cotton was domesticated 5000 BC in eastern Sudan near the Middle Nile Basin region, and cotton cloth was being produced.
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Trade and Commerce: North Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Ancient Egypt imported ivory, gold, incense, hardwood, and ostrich feathers, while Nubia exported gold, cotton/cotton cloth, ostrich feathers, leopard skins, ivory, ebony, and iron/iron weapons. Aksum exported ivory, glass crystal, brass, copper, myrrh, and frankincense, but imported silver, gold, olive oil, and wine. The Aksumites produced coins around c. 270 BC, under the rule of king Endubis, Aksumites’ coins were issued in gold, silver, and bronze.
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Trade and Commerce: West Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The Ghana Empire, Mali Empire, and Songhay Empire were major exporters of gold, iron, tin, slaves, spears, javelin, arrows, bows and whips of hippo hide. They imported salt, horses, wheat, raisins, cowries, copper, henna (colorants), olives, tanned hides, silk, cloth, brocade, Venetian pearls, mirrors, and tobacco.
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Trade and Commerce: Carthage
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Carthage imported gold, copper, ivory, and slaves from tropical Africa. Carthage exported salt, cloth, metal goods. Before camels were used in the trans-saharan trade pack; animals, oxen, donkeys, mules, and horses were utilized. Extensive use of camels began in the 1st century AD.
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Currency in Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
Carthage minted gold, silver, bronze, and electrum (mix gold and silver) coins mainly for fighting wars with Greeks and Romans. The currencies used in the Sahel are as follows: 1. Paper debt or IOU's (An IOU is usually an informal document acknowledging debt. ) were used for long distance trade. 2. Gold coins were also in use. 3. The mitkal (gold dust) currency was also in use. The equivalent of gold dust that weighed 4.6 grams equals 500 or 3,000 cowries. 4. Square cloth, four spans on each side, called chigguiya was used around the Senegal River. In Kanem Borno, a cloth currency called dandi was in widespread use as the major currency.
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Currency in Africa
Source: The Evolution of African Indigenous Science and Technology. By Dr. Utsua T Peter
The Swahili also minted silver and copper coins. Numerous metal objects and other items were used as currency in Africa. They are as follows: cowrie shells, salt, gold (dust or solid), copper, ingots, iron chains, tips of iron spears, iron knives, cloth in various shapes (square, rolled) etc.
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Africa’s Timeline
From 250 000 years - to date
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250 000 years ago
Source: Afrocentricity International
Appearance of Homo sapiens, possessing language and the ability to name.
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50 000 years ago
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Cave paintings show organization of settlements and establishment of group life. These paintings were often created by Homo sapiens and other species in the same Homo genus.
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38 000 years ago
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Blombos Cave, in South Africa, has decorated ochre blocks and polished spearheads. Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blombos Private Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years.
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26 000 years ago
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Evidence of fishing hooks, hand axes, and stone scrapers in the Congo basin. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa.
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8000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Rise of the Gerzean Culture period. The Gerzeh culture, also called Naqada II, refers to the archaeological stage at Gerzeh (also Girza or Jirzah), a prehistoric Egyptian cemetery located along the west bank of the Nile.
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6000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International
Africans began living by the planned cultivation and harvesting of food.
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5000–4000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt during the Predynastic Era. It flourished between 4400 and 4000 BC, and might have already emerged by 5000 BCE.
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4000–3000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Kush was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered along the Nile Valley in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt.
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3800–3100 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Oldest tombs appear in Qustul in Nubia showing evidence of the first monarchy in Kush. Qustul is an archaeological cemetery located on the eastern bank of the Nile in Lower Nubia, just opposite of Ballana near the Sudan frontier.
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3500 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The earliest surviving Hair Comb are found in Ancient Sudan and Egypt (Kemet and Kush). These combs belong to a period we now call Pre-Dynastic.
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3400 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Unification of Kemet, which consists of 42 different ethnic groups, under the rule of Per-aa Narmer; unification lasts 3000 years. Kemet or kmt, meaning "the black land", is the original name given by the inhabitants of the land surrounding the Nile River that is today called Egypt.
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3400 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Writing invented in Kemet and appears on many surfaces, most popularly papyrus. Papyrus (/pəˈpaɪrəs/ pə-PY-rəs) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge.
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3200–3000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Protodynastic Period. Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqada culture of ancient Egyptian prehistory, dating from approximately 3200 to 3000 BC. It is the period during which the process of state formation, which began in Naqada II, became highly visible, with the named kings heading powerful polities.
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3032 – 1550 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Hair combs dating to the first period of Unification of Ancient Egypt (kemet). During this period hair combs are often very small, perhaps suggesting they were models for tombs. We are missing hair combs from the Egyptian contexts for the old and middle kingdom. However, in Nubia they still continue.
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3100 BCE
Source: SAHO
Egypt is consolidated into one political entity under the pharaoh, Narmer, who is the principal administrator of the kingdom. This is regarded as the First Dynasty. Bureaucracies become more centralized under the pharaoh’s administration, run by viziers, tax collectors, generals, artists and technicians. They engaged in tax collecting and the organizing of labour for major public works such as the building of irrigation systems and pyramids.
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3100 BCE
Source: SAHO
Ta-Seti (Nubian civilization), one of the first sacral kingdoms in the Nile that is invaded by Egypt and destroyed during the First Dynasty. Smaller sacral kingdoms continued to exist, but they soon became consolidated into larger kingdoms, two of which included the Kingdom of Sai and the Kingdom of Kerma.
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3000 BCE
Source: SAHO
By this time, the earliest forms of literacy in the world, hieroglyphic writings of ancient Egypt are invented.
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3100–2890 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archaeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, belonging, at least nominally, to the category of cosmetic palettes. It is thought to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer. On one side, the king, wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, marches in a victory procession.
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3000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Peoples migrate to form the Sahelian people on the edge of the rainforests and the Amazighs in the north. The Sahel region 'coast, shore', or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a biogeographical region in Africa. It is the transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north.
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3000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Lush pastures and fertile grazing areas of the Great Lakes region attract numerous ethnic groups of herders and farmers from the north and east. The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift.
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3000 BCE – 2000 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ancient Somalis domesticate camels. This practice spreads to North Africa and Ancient Egypt.
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2950 BCE
Source: SAHO
The first stone pyramid in Egypt is built by an architect, Imhotep. It was built at Saqqara, for the Third Dynasty’s King Djoser. It was made by building several layers of stone on top of each other.
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2667–2648 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Saqqara Pyramid constructed as a step pyramid, the oldest form of architecture. Saqqara was the vast necropolis of the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis, and is home to the nation's oldest pyramid: the Step Pyramid of Djoser. Aside from being home to Egypt's oldest pyramid, Saqqara is the largest archaeological site in the country.
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2613–2494 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fourth Dynasty in Kemet, dominated by the building projects at Giza. The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from c. 2613 to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other countries is documented.
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2575 BCE
Source: SAHO
The Great Pyramids of Giza are built and are revered as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
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2560 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Per-aa Khufu. Khufu or Cheops (died c. 2566 BC) was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period (26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but many other aspects of his reign are poorly documented.
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2345–2183 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sixth Dynasty in Kemet. The most important kings of this dynasty were Teti, Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II (the latter reigned for 94 years, according to tradition). Not long after the start of the dynasty, Egypt began to have problems.
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2181 BC – 2055 BCE
Source: SAHO | Wikipedia
The First Intermediate Period of Egypt occurs. The period spanned from the ninth to the eleventh dynasty and was marked by power divisions and civil wars. Two power bases, Heracleopolis (Lower Egypt) and Thebes (Upper Egypt) fought for control of the region. The Thebes came out victorious and reunited Egypt under one ruler, during the eleventh dynasty.
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2040–1785 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kemet conquers Nubia. Nubia was home to several empires, most prominently the Kingdom of Kush, which conquered Egypt in the eighth century BC during the reign of Piye.
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2625 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Imhotep, the true father of medicine. Imhotep lived during a time of innovation, particularly in stone architecture. He is most known for his innovation in the construction of a step pyramid. However, he was also a physician in Djoser's court and treated the king himself. His medical ideas were influential in the development of medicine.
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1996 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
256 Odus of Yoruba compiled or created by Agboniregun, or Orunmila. The 256 Odu Ifa are the verses of the Ifa divination corpus, which is central to the Yoruba religious and cultural system. Ifa divination is a complex system of divination used by Yoruba priests (known as babalawos) to communicate with the Orisas (deities) and seek guidance on various aspects of life.
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1991 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sehotipibre, a national philosopher, argues that loyalty to the king is the most important function of a citizen. Sehotipibre wrote around 1991 BCE. His concern was with allegiance to the king. He might be called a nationalist philosopher because he argued that loyalty.
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1991 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Amenemhat, the first cynical philosopher, warns his readers to be wary of those who call themselves friends. Amenemhet I was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom.
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1991 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sobekneferu, first certain female ruler of Kemet. Sobekneferu or Neferusobek was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the last ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. She ascended to the throne following the death of Amenemhat IV, possibly her brother or husband, though their relationship is unproven.
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1990 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Merikare, a philosopher, writes on the value of speaking well and using common sense in human relationships.
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1400 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Amenhotep, son of Hapu, a priest, vizier, philosopher, and master of the ancients is the second living human in Africa to be deified.
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1340 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Duauf, an educational philosopher, cherishes the idea of learning and writes that the young must learn to appreciate books.
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1550 – 1292 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
After a gap of 1300 years hairs combs are once again fond during the 18th Dynasty. The combs are different to the very early examples suggesting a change in hairstyle or hair type.
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1558 -1080 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The New Kingdom brought large numbers of slaves as prisoners of war up the Nile valley and used them for domestic and supervised labour. Ptolemaic Egypt (305 BCE–30 BCE) used both land and sea routes to bring in slaves.
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1200 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Knowledge of iron smelting spreads from East Africa to other regions of Africa and the world, giving African’s authority over the land, but also a transformation in warfare.
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700–600 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Phoenicians settle in Carthage on Africa’s north coast. Phoenicia, or Phœnicia, or the Phoenician city-states, were an ancient Semitic maritime civilization originating in the coastal strip of the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon.
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605 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Thales of Miletus, a Greek philosopher, is the first Greek philosopher to study in Kemet.
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510 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Carthage signs trade treaty with Rome. Carthage, great city of antiquity on the north coast of Africa, now a residential suburb of the city of Tunis, Tunisia. Built on a promontory on the Tunisian coast, it was placed to influence and control ships passing between Sicily and the North African coast as they traversed the Mediterranean Sea.
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400 BCE–350 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kush demonstrates power through architecture. The kings of Kush adopted the Egyptian architectural idea of building pyramids as funerary monuments. However, Kushite pyramids were built above the underground graves, whereas the Egyptian graves were inside the pyramid. The kings' tombs were lodged under large pyramids made of stone.
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300 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ghana is formed by a group of people (probably Soninke) and forms a trading kingdom near the upper waters of the Niger. The Soninke people are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea. They speak the Soninke language, also called the Serakhulle or Azer language, which is one of the Mande languages.
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177–155 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Queen Shanadakete reigns in Nubia, the first significant female ruler in world history. Shanakdakhete, also spelled Shanakdakheto or Sanakadakhete, was a queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush, ruling from Meroë in the early first century AD.
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40-10 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Queen Amanirenas reigns in Nubia, fights Caesar’s army and keeps Nubia free from Roman control. Amanirenas (also spelled Amanirena), was queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush from the end of the 1st century BCE to beginning of the 1st century CE.
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30 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Cleopatra dies and Rome rules Egypt. Queen of Egypt (51–30 BCE), Cleopatra actively influenced Roman politics at a crucial period and was especially known for her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
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26–20 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Amanishakheto was a queen regnant (kandake) of Kush who reigned in the early 1st century AD.[1] In Meroitic hieroglyphs her name is written "Amanikasheto" (Mniskhte or (Am)niskhete). In Meroitic cursive she is referred to as Amaniskheto qor kd(ke) which means Amanishakheto, Qore and Kandake ("Ruler and Queen").
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25–41 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Queen Amanitore reigns in Nubia. Amanitore, also spelled Amanitere or Amanitare, was a queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush, ruling from Meroë in the middle of the 1st century CE. She ruled together with her son, Natakamani.
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83–115 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Queen Amankihatashan reigns in Nubia. Amanikhatashan was a queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush, probably ruling in the middle 2nd century CE.
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83–115 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Queen Amankihatashan reigns in Nubia. Amanikhatashan was a queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush, probably ruling in the middle 2nd century CE.
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139 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Record of the synchronization of the first day of the solar year and the rising of Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. The ancient Egyptians, who established the first 365-day calendar, synchronized their lives with the celestial rhythms, marking time with the lunar cycles and the heliacal rising of Sirius.
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290 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kingdom of Aksum, Axumite Empire defeats Nubia and becomes the greatest empire in Africa at this time; begins to use natural resources for everyday purposes such as minting coins. The Kingdom of Axum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages.
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300 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kingdom of Aksum in Eritrea and Ethiopia begins minting its own silver and gold coins as their own Aksumite currency. The region was deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean. The region exported ivory, gold and agricultural products.
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400 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The area of Great Zimbabwe is settled. The Ziwa and Gokomere communities survived by farming and mining the land. The area marks the earliest Iron Age settlements known of in the region. Great Zimbabwe would later become the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and serve as the first city in Southern Africa.
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400 CE – 500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Khoisan speaking people’s language and customs is absorbed into those of the Bantu speakers. The group is made up of two culturally different people’s, the Khoi and the San. The amaXhosa, the southernmost group of the Bantu speakers, took certain linguistic traits from the Khoisan.
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400 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ghana, the oldest Sudanic empire, is founded. The empire prospered because of the tax revenues from the trans-Saharan trade, linking Sijilmase and Tiaret to Aoudaghost. The empire controlled access to goldfields, even though it was not involved in production. The empire also controlled access to all the salt and gold that went through its territory.
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420 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Vandal Kingdom invaded North Africa, relieving Rome of her territories in the region. This results in the Berber Kingdom’s regained independence, (Berbers are diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arabs in the Arab migrations to the Maghreb).
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421 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Roman emperors tear down Carthaginian temple dedicated to Tanit. Tanit or Tinnit was a chief deity of Ancient Carthage; she derives from a local Berber deity and the consort of Baal Hammon. The sign of Tanit or sign of Tinnit is an anthropomorph symbol of the Punic goddess Tanit, present on many archaeological remains of the Carthaginian civilization.
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439–533 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Carthage becomes the capital of the Vandals. It ruled parts of North Africa and the Mediterranean for 99 years from 435 to 534 CE. In 429 CE, the Vandals, estimated to number 80,000 people, had crossed by boat from Hispania to North Africa. They advanced eastward, conquering the coastal regions of what is now Tunisia, and Algeria.
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600 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kingdom of Aksum, the Aksum’s empire grows, adding the Arabian region of Saba to its territories. With trade routes diverted from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, Aksum later declined and severely diminished by 800CE. Aksum also slipped into a decline because of environmental degradation and changes in the global climate.
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600 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Settlers from southeast Asia and later, from the east African mainland, settle in Madagascar. Banana and rice cultivation are introduced by the Asian settlers, while cattle and farming techniques are introduced by the Bantu speaking east Africans.
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610 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Muhammad’s work as a prophet begins. Muhammad was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet who divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets.
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622 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated with Muhammad's mission in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE, although Muslims regard this time as a return to the original faith passed down by the Abrahamic prophets, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and Jesus, with the submission (Islām) to the will of God.
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622 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
East coast of Africa becomes popular with Arabs, Persians, Indians, Indonesians, and Chinese and becomes a melting pot for those facing religious persecution in their own countries.
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629 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
African leaders in Egypt invite General Al-As to help drive Romans out of Africa. Amr ibn al-As was an Arab commander and companion of Muhammad who led the Muslim conquest of Egypt and served as its governor in 640–646 and 658–664. The son of a wealthy Qurayshite, Amr embraced Islam in c. 629 and was assigned important roles in the nascent Muslim community by the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
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631 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Cyrus, leader of the campaign to stamp out Coptic religion, lands in Alexandria causing the Coptic patriarch, Pope Benjamin I of Alexandria, to flee, and begins persecuting the Copts (October) while searching for Benjamin.
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632 - 640 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Muhammad calls for war against the Roman Empire. General Amir ibn al-As celebrates the Muslim Day of Sacrifice in Egypt. Amir’s army expands as many Bedouins join the campaign against the Romans.
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651 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Makurra kingdom of Nubia defeats the Muslim army. Makuria was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt.
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698 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Carthage destroyed by the Arabs and rebuilt under the strict influence of the Arab Muslims. The Muslims defeated the Byzantine(also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire) forces at the Battle of Carthage, destroyed the city completely, and drove the Byzantines from Africa.
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700 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Arabs have succeeded in taking all of North Africa as Africans who maintain their traditional beliefs become exhausted by the burdens of their conquerors. The Maghreb, also known as the Arab Maghreb and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.
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700 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Indonesians migrate to the island of Madagascar, where the Malagasy already live. Malagasy is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is an official language of Madagascar alongside French.
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900 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kanem is founded. Kanuri-speaking nomads founded the Sudanic Empire of Kanem, which achieved power through trans-Saharan trade. Slavery was practiced & slaves were captured from the south & traded for horses from North Africa. Kanem-Bornu, and its first capital was at Njimi, northeast of Lake Chad. Toward the end of the 11th century, the Sef mai (king) Umme (later known as Ibn ʿAbd al-Jalīl) became a Muslim, and from that time Kanem-Bornu was an Islamic state.
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900 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Kingdom of Nri rises under the leadership of the Eze Nri. Democratically run, men and occasionally women in the Kingdom’s villages took part in decision-making processes. The Kingdom of Nri was a medieval polity located in what is now Nigeria. The kingdom existed as a sphere of religious and political influence over a significant part of what is known today as Igboland prior to expansion, and was administered by a priest-king called an Eze Nri
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900 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
By the 8th century, Ile-Ife was already a powerful Yoruba kingdom, one of the earliest in Africa south of the Sahara-Sahel. Almost every Yoruba settlement traces its origin to princes of Ile-Ife. As such, Ife can be regarded as the cultural and spiritual homeland of the Yoruba nation.
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900 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Persians (an Iranian ethnic group) from Shiraz marry Somali women and develop the Shirazi culture. The Shirazi people, also known as Mbwera, are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting the Swahili coast and the nearby Indian ocean islands. They are particularly concentrated on the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Comoros.
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909 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Amazigh Shiites, the Fatimids, pull together the Amazighs and Tamascheks and take North Africa back from the Arabs.
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969 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fatimid Rulers seize Egypt and the Egyptian city Al-Qahirah (present day Cairo), is founded
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1000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Syrian Shi’ite groups found the Fatimid Dynasty in Maghreb. The groups claimed descent from Muhammad’s daughter Fatima, and had conquered Maghreb by 950 CE and Egypt by 969 CE.
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1000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Unlike the Nguni people, who predominantly settled in coastal areas, the Sotho-Tswana found their home in the highlands of South Africa. Sotho-Tswana states are formed on the Highveld, south of the Limpopo River. Large towns of thousands of people made up early Tswana states north-west of the Vaal River, with settlers leaving to start their own states over time.
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1000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Indian and Arab trade settlement begins in northern Madagascar to take advantage of the Indian Ocean trade. Islam was introduced by the traders.
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1000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Hausa city-states came into existence in present Nigeria. The Hausa are a native ethnic group in West Africa.They speak the Hausa language, which is the second most spoken language after Arabic in the Afro-Asiatic language family.
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1000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mais, kings of Kanem-Borno, convert to Islam, Mai Hume being the first to make the hajj to Mecca. The Kanem–Bornu Empire existed in areas which are now part of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Libya and Chad.
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1000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sungbos’ Eredo constructed in Nigeria. Sungbo's Eredo is a system of defensive walls and ditches that is located to the southwest of the Yoruba town of Ijebu Ode in Ogun State, southwest Nigeria. It was built in 800–1000 CE in honour of the Ijebu noblewoman Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo.
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1000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Yoruba perfect the town type of government. Political authority is vested in the oba and a council of chiefs; constituent towns each have their own ruler, who is subordinate to the oba. The oba is also a ritual leader and is considered sacred.
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1000–1200 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Much of eastern Central Africa from Zambia to Lake Malawi participates in Luangwa, the later Iron Age culture. Iron played a central role in many societies of early Africa. It held both spiritual and material power. Physically, Africans used iron to create tools for agriculture, utensils for everyday life, and weapons for protection and conquest.
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1050 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Approximately 250 000 Arab Egyptian nomads settle in Maghreb, spreading the Arab languages and contributing to the decline of the Berber language. Berber soldiers revolt after tax revenue from farms is diminished. Their violent resistance destabilised the power of the Fatimid caliphs and slowed trade in the region.
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1054 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Almoravids capture Audoghast, a powerhouse city in Ghana. The Almoravid dynasty was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. Audaghost was an important terminus of the medieval trans-Saharan trade route. The town was primarily a centre where North African traders could buy gold.
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1056 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Almoravids capture Sijilmasa, the main northern trading center for West African gold. Sijilmasa was a medieval Moroccan city and trade entrepôt at the northern edge of the Sahara in Morocco. The ruins of the town extend for five miles along the River Ziz in the Tafilalt oasis near the town of Rissani. The town's history was marked by several successive invasions by Berber dynasties.
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1140 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Abd al-Mu'min forms the Almohad Empire after declaring jihad on the Almoravids and uniting the northern Berbers against them. Maghreb sees the establishment of mathematics and literacy, as well as the development of algebra. Like the Almoravids, the Almohads were Berbers, but unlike the veiled, nomadic desert dwellers, the Almohads were mountain folk.
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1171 CE:
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Saladin becomes ruler of Egypt and the Ayyubid Dynasty begins. Sunni Islam is reinstated in the region and people from Turkey and southern Russia are increasingly brought in as Mamluk slaves to fulfil the military infantry needs. Cairo becomes an important centre of Islamic learning.
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1100 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Rise of Katsina, a principal city-state in the trans-Saharan trade, and Kano becomes established as the largest city in northern Nigeria, with a manu- facturing and craft center. Katsina, historic kingdom and emirate in northern Nigeria. According to tradition, the kingdom, one of the Hausa Bakwai (“Seven True Hausa States”), was founded in the 10th or 11th century. Islam was introduced in the 1450s, and Muhammad Korau (reigned late 15th century) was Katsina's first Muslim king
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1100 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Nigerian Benin develops centralized state system to draw surrounding villages into one unit and develops kingship system. Ife develops kingship system. Ifẹ̀ is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria founded sometime between the years 500 BCE-1000 BCE. By 900CE, the city had become an important West African emporium producing sophisticated art forms. The city is located in present-day Osun State.
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1220 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
During the 13th century the Kingdom would construct a series of large stone structures in its capital of Great Zimbabwe. Some of these structures, like “the great enclosure”, were the largest ancient structures in Sub-Saharan Africa. Great Zimbabwe seizes control of the Indian Ocean trade and the wealth it produced from its gold supply.
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1235 CE
Source: SAHO
The empire of Mali had a huge cultural and historical influence on most of western Africa, including the construction of the Great Mosque of Djenné. The Great Mosque is considered one of the most important centres of learning in medieval Africa. The empire is ushered in by the defeat of Soumaoro Kanté, king of the Sosso or southern Soninke by Sundiata (Lord Lion) of the Keita clan at the Battle of Kirina.
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1240 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Until this time, Kumbi Saleh in Ghana is the largest city in western Africa, fending off enemies who want access to its lucrative trade. Koumbi Saleh, or Kumbi Saleh, is the site of a ruined ancient and medieval city in southeast Mauritania that may have been the capital of the Ghana Empire.
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1240 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Kanem–Bornu Empire existed in areas which are now part of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Libya and Chad. It was known to the Arabian geographers as the Kanem Empire from the 8th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu (the Bornu Empire) until 1900. During the 17th century and 18th century, Bornu became a centre for Islamic learning.
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1250 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mamluk slaves in Egypt have landed aristocracy with significant power. They succeed in establishing their own, Mamluk dynasty after overthrowing the Ayyubid Dynasty. Their military dictatorship controlled Egypt for 250 years. The Mamluk Sultanate also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries.
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1270–1285 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kebra Nagast is the Book of the Glory of the Kings of Ethiopia, created during the revival of the Solomonic line of kings during the reign of Yekuno Arnlak. It is a 14th-centurynational epic of Ethiopia, written in Geʽez by the nebure id Ishaq of Aksum. In its existing form, the text is at least 700 years old and purports to trace the origins of the Solomonic dynasty, a line of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian monarchs who ruled the country until 1974, to the biblical king, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Modern scholarship considers it not to have any historical basis and that its stories were created to legitimize the dynasty's seizure of power in Ethiopia in the 13th century. Nevertheless, many Ethiopian Christians continue to believe it is a historically reliable work.
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1285 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mansa Sakura (also spelled Sakoura) was the sixth emperor (mansa) of the Mali Empire. Unlike most rulers of the ancient West African kingdoms, Sakura did not come from royal lineage. Starting life as a slave, he was freed, possibly after arriving at the royal court, and subsequently became a government official. After the weak-minded and sadistic Mansa Khalifa (ruled 1274-1275)—a degenerate member of the Keita dynasty founded by the great ruler Sundiata—was deposed and killed, the nobles made the easily controlled Abu Bakr their new ruler. On his death, possibly in 1285, Sakura seized the throne and managed to restore order to the deteriorating kingdom.
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1300 CE – 1400 CE:
Source: SAHO
The Luba people near Lake Kisale in Central Africa are unified under the leadership of Kongolo Mwamba (Nkongolo) of the Balowe clan. Through him, the dynasty of Kongolo, which was later ousted by Kalala Ilunga, was founded. The Luba political system, which spread to other parts of Central Africa, western Congo, southern Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mali, Burundi and Rwanda, utilised a system of spiritual kings with direct spiritual access to ancestral spirits. The balopwe, or system of spiritual kings (mulopwe) maintained power through spiritual strength rather than military authority.
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1324 CE
Source: SAHO
Mansa Musa, the tenth mansa or emperor of the Kingdom of Mali, makes a pilgrimage to Mecca with a large cavalry which included slaves and animals, all carrying gold which was distributed along the way to Mecca. Eyewitness accounts tell of Musa’s impressive wealth and large procession and his pilgrimage was well-recorded by witnesses along the way. Musa’s generosity inadvertently damaged the economies of the regions he passed through and in large cities like Mecca, Cairo and Medina, gold was devalued for over ten years since his pilgrimage. Musa rectified the damage caused by borrowing excessive amounts of gold from money-lenders at high interest, marking the only occasion during which a single individual controlled the gold prices in the Mediterranean.
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1330 CE – 1337 CE
Source: SAHO
Mansa Musa ruler of the empire of Mali cements the University of Sankore as an institution of learning. Located in Timbuktu, at its apex, it housed one of the largest libraries in the world, with between 400,000 and 700,000 manuscripts.
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1388 CE
Source: SAHO
After a long period of internal and external struggle and several disputed successions, the Kanem Empire ceases to exist. The final death knell occurs when the remnants of the Empire is conquered by the Bulala people from Lake Fitri, in modern day Chad. The empire was ruled by the Sefuwa dynasty, which continued to rule the Bornu state until 1846 CE, and is counted as the longest ruling dynasty in Africa.
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1390 CE
Source: SAHO
The kingdom of Kongo is established in central Africa by the Bakongo peoples. It was located in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Southern of Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. Prior to the Portuguese arrival, Kongo was developed with a large commercial network. The kingdom melted copper and gold and traded it with products such as raffia cloth and pottery. The kingdom was a superpower and center of trade routes for ivory, copper, raffia cloth, and pottery.
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1300 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mali Empire at its height, while the Arabic language and script become instruments for administration, law, and commerce. The Mali Empire is most known for prolific trade networks, development in education, wealth in gold and salt, and the establishment and spread of Islam in West Africa.
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1311 CE - 1395 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Emperor Mansa Abubakari II sends one thousand boats across the Atlantic; in 1312 he abandons his throne and sets sail with another thousand boats. Mansa Kankan Musa, leader of the Mali Empire, takes a hajj to Mecca but does so with the style of a king, bringing international attention to Mali. Ibn Khaldun writes Muqaddimah or “Prolegomena,” an analysis of historical events that creates and continues stereotypes but sets a list of rulers in Mali until 1390.
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1337 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mansa Musa dies, leaving the throne to his son Mansa Maghan, who allows the empire to unravel. Mansa Musa (reigned c. 1312 – c. 1337) was the ninth Mansa of the Mali Empire, which reached its territorial peak during his reign. Musa's reign is often regarded as the zenith of Mali's power and prestige; however, he features comparatively less in Mandinka oral traditions than his predecessors.
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1339 CE - 1367 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mali first appears on a “map of the world” as a significant empire. Mali on the world map. World map shows road from Mali through the Atlas Mountains into the western Sudan.
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1380 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kintu, the first king of Baganda, is crowned. The Baganda also called Waganda, are a Bantu ethnic group native to Buganda, a subnational kingdom within Uganda. Traditionally composed of 52 clans (although since a 1993 survey, only 46 are officially recognised), the Baganda are the largest people of the Bantu ethnic group in Uganda, comprising 16.5 percent of the population at the time of the 2014 census.
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1390 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Cheng Ho (Sheng He) of the Chinese Ming Dynasty visits the Swahili coast after the city-states reassert their independence. Zheng He (also romanized Cheng Ho; 1371–1433/1435) was a Chinese admiral, explorer, diplomat, and bureaucrat during the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
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1400 CE
Source: SAHO
The Sayfawa Dynasty moves its capital to Bornu, an empire established by the Kanuri people and led by the Sayfawa. The Sayfawa Dynasty is the first known south-Saharan monarchs to import firearms.
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1400 CE:
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Timbuktu becomes a major learning center for Muslim scholars. Home of the prestigious Koranic Sankore University and other madrasas, Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its three great mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, recall Timbuktu's golden age.
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1400 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Rise of Matebeleland, the Phiri clan marries into the Banda clan and forms the Nyanja. Phiris are Nyasa, they are originally from Malawi/Nyasaland, Most researchers say Phiri means Mountain in Tonga/Chewa,the surnames has spread all over southern Africa.
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1400 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kingdom of Asante rises. The Asante Empire, also known as the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana and also parts of Ivory Coast and Togo.
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1400 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Bito dynasty rises to power in Baganda and Bunyoro. Empire of Kitara. Kitara (sometimes spelt as Kittara or Kitwara, also known as the Chwezi Empire) was a legendary state that covered significant parts of western Uganda and is mentioned in the oral traditions of the Banyoro, Batooro and Banyankole. Eventually, they all went on a journey to Kitara, where Isingoma Labongo Rukidi became the first Babiito king. In the Acholi language, the term "Bito" is used "generally of the sons of an aristocratic lineage".
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1415 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Portugal captures Ceuta and forces African prisoners to reveal details about the African gold trade flaunted by Mansa Musa. Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
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1430 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
A prince from the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, Nyatsimba Mutota, travels north to expand commerce and to find new sources of salt. 350 km north of Great Zimbabwe, he finds a city from which the Kingdom of Mutapa - also known as Wilayatu 'l Mu'anamutapah or mwanamutapa (Lord of the Plundered Lands) - is established.
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1440 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Portuguese ships land on the West African coast and take several dozen Africans to the king in Lisbon. Portuguese expansion into Africa began with the desire of King John I to gain access to the gold-producing areas of West Africa. The trans-Saharan trade routes between Songhay and the North African traders provided Europe with gold coins used to trade spices, silks and other luxuries from India. At the time there was a shortage of gold and rumours were spreading that there were states in the south of Africa which had gold.
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1450 CE
Source: SAHO
Site of Great Zimbabwe is abandoned, the city was largely abandoned by the 15th century as the Shona people migrated elsewhere. The exact reasons for the abandonment are unknown, but it is likely that exhaustion of resources and overpopulation were contributing factors. The causes for the decline and ultimate abandonment of the site around 1450 have been suggested as due to a decline in trade compared to sites further north, the exhaustion of the gold mines, political instability and famine and water shortages induced by climatic change.
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1456 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mali wilts away into the Songhay Empire. The Songhai Empire was a state located in the western part of the Sahel during the 15th and 16th centuries. At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its largest ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai people.
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1464 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sonni Ali Ber ascends as king of Songhay. The Songhai Empire was a state located in the western part of the Sahel during the 15th and 16th centuries. At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its largest ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai people.
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1466 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Battle for Jenne (which the Mali Empire had tried to take 99 times) takes 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days to fall to Sonni Ali Ber. The Battle of Jenné was a military engagement between forces of the Mali Empire and the Moroccan Pashalik of Timbuktu.
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1468 CE
Source: SAHO
Sonni Ali Ber invades Timbuktu. Sunni Ali, also known as Si Ali, Sunni Ali Ber, reigned from about 1464 to 1492 as the 15th ruler of the Sunni dynasty of the Songhai Empire. He transformed the relatively small state into an empire by conquering Timbuktu, Massina, the Inner Niger Delta, and Djenne.
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1472 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Portuguese bring a ship to the Bight of Benin, exposing Nigerian Benin people to Europeans for the first time. The Bight of Benin or Bay of Benin is a bight in the Gulf of Guinea area on the western African coast that derives its name from the historical Kingdom of Benin.
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1482 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Diogo Cão was a Portuguese navigator and explorer. Cão was the first European to discover the mouth of the Congo River (August 1482). The mouth of the Congo River is located near Banana, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean on the western coast of Africa. The Congo River is one of Africa's longest rivers and flows approximately 2,900 miles.
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1482 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Elmina Castle Portuguese begin to build fortress at El Mina, in modern-day Ghana. Built in 1482 by Portuguese traders, Elmina Castle was the first European slave-trading post in all of sub-saharan Africa.
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1483 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Portuguese explorers land in what was then known as the Kingdom of Kongo. Following this, the ruling king at the time, Nzinga a Nkuwu, converted to Christianity. This was the beginning of the Portuguese slave trade in the region. It would also be the beginnings of a turbulent and often shifting relationship between the two states, which culminated in the Kingdom of Kongo becoming a vassal state of Portugal about 380 years later.
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1485–1554 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Leo Africanus, also known as Al-Hasan ibn Muhammed el-Wazzan ez-Zayyat, writes of his journeys in the book …The History and Description of Africa, which also includes an impressive account of the ancient city of Timbuktu. Leo Africanus' description of Timbuktu was important because it presented the city as a center of wealth, knowledge, and trade. His account described Timbuktu as a prosperous city with a thriving economy, known for its abundant gold and salt trade, and as a hub for Islamic scholarship and education.
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1492 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sonni Ali Ber drowns in the Niger River, his son, Sonni Bakori Da’as becomes king, the quest to end Islamic onslaught ends and Africa is not unified.
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1492 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Columbus sails to the Americas and convinces Europeans to risk their money and their lives to take Africans to the Americas and enslave them. Christopher Columbus between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.
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1493 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sonni Bakori Da’as is overthrown by Muhammed Toure, a Muslim and general-in-chief of the army of Gao, and killed at the battle of Anfao. The battle of Anfao was fought between the troops of rebel General Muhammad Askia and Sonni Baru, the legitimate ruler of the Songhai Empire on April 12, 1493 at Anfao, outside the capital of Gao, on the upper Niger. Despite being outnumbered, Askia's troops won the day. Muhammed Toure takes the dynastic name Askia Mohammed Toure and rules the Songhay Empire until 1529
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1498 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Askia Mohammed declares a jihad on the Mossi. The Mossi Kingdoms, were a group of kingdoms in modern-day Burkina Faso that dominated the region of the upper Volta river for hundreds of years. The largest Mossi kingdom was that of Ouagadougou. The king of Ouagadougou, known as the Mogho Naaba, or King of All the World, served as the Emperor of all the Mossi. The first kingdom was founded when warriors from the ancient Great Naa Gbewaa kingdom in present-day Ghana region and Mandé warriors moved into the area and intermarried with local people.
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1500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Shilluk Kingdom is established by Nyikang, the Kingdom’s first ruler. The Kingdom’s capital was in Fashoda, South Sudan, along the western bank of the White Nile. Nyikang, or the spirit of Nyikang, is believed to be in every king.
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1500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Trading relationships were established between Somalia and Malacca. The main trading commodities were porcelain, cloth, and ambergris. With the trade of wild animals and incense to the Ming Empire in China, Somali merchants were the leading merchants operating between Africa and Asia. This trade served to have such effects as influences over the Chinese language by introducing Somali terms to the region’s languages.
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1500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Merina people formerly called Amboalambo are the largest ethnic group in Madagascar. Merina is established in the central highlands of Madagascar. The region controlled the island by the 19th century. The Central Highlands, Central High Plateau, or Hauts-Plateaux are a mountainous biogeographical region in central Madagascar.
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1500 CE
Source: SAHO
By this point the Kingdom of Mutapa has conquered several surrounding kingdoms, including the Kingdom of the Manyika, as well as the coastal kingdoms of Kiteve and Madanda. At its largest expansion, the Kingdom of Mutapa cowered most of modern day Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the northern part of South Africa.
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1500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Zazzau region founded, and the capital, Zaria, becomes a major center for the slave trade in the seventeenth century and eventually the name for the region. The Zazzau, also known as the Zaria Emirate, is a traditional state with headquarters in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. Zazzau is thought to have been founded in or about 1536 and in the late 16th century it was renamed after Queen Amina's sister, Zaria. Human settlement predates the rise of Zazzau, as the region, like some of its neighbors, had a history of sedentary Hausa settlement, with institutional market exchange and farming.
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1500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Rise of Oyo in Yoruba causes decline of Ife dominance. The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba empire in West Africa. It was located in present-day southern Benin and western Nigeria (including the South West zone and the western half of the North Central zone). The empire grew to become the largest Yoruba-speaking state through the organizational and administrative efforts of the Yoruba people, trade, as well as the military use of cavalry.
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1500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Portuguese divert Shona and Swahili gold trade to the Indian Ocean and battle with the Swahili. One of the main exports along the Swahili coast was gold and in the 13th century the city of Kilwa took control of the gold trade from Banadir in modern-day Somalia. By the mid-14th century the sultan of Kilwa was able to assert his power over several other city states.
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1500 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Akan people are a Kwa group living primarily in present-day Ghana and in parts of Ivory Coast and Togo in West Africa. The Akan speak dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo family. Akan states become militarily and economically strong. Between the 10th and 12th centuries AD, the ethnic Akan people migrated into the forest belt of Southern Ghana and established several Akan states: Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Assin-Denkyira-Fante Confederacy-Mankessim Kingdom (present-day Central region), Akyem-Akwamu-Akuapem-Kwahu (present-day Eastern region and Greater Accra), and Ahanta-Aowin-Sefwi-Wassa (present-day Western region).
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1504 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fall of the Alwa Kingdom in Nubia. Alodia, also known as Alwa was a medieval kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers. Founded sometime after the ancient Kingdom of Kush fell, around 350 CE, Alodia is first mentioned in historical records in 569. It was the last of the three Nubian kingdoms to convert to Christianity in 580, following Nobadia and Makuria
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1508 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Under emperor Lebna Dengel, Ethiopia forms relations with Portugal. This connection aided Ethiopia during Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi’s attacks to the empire, through the provision of weapons and soldiers. The Adal general and imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (also known as the "the Left-handed"), was defeated and helped to re-establish Ethiopian rule under the emperor’s son, Gelawdewos. This was noted as one of the first proxy wars in the region, with Portugal and the Ottoman Empire took sides in the conflict.
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1520 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Founded in the late 10th century by settlers from Arabia and Persia (now Iran), it became one of the most active commercial centers on the east coast of Africa. Held briefly by the Portuguese (1505–12), it thereafter gradually declined in importance and was finally abandoned. In the 18th century Kilwa, now under French control, became a major port of the East African slave trade as well as a significant exporter of ivory. Although Kilwa has survived in part, Sofala fared much worse and was destroyed by the incursion of the sea in the early 20th century CE.
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1536–1573 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Amina may have reigned as Queen of Zazzau. Amina (also Aminatu, died 1610, was a Hausa historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (now city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now in the north-west region of Nigeria. She ruled in the mid-sixteenth century.
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1553 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
British arrive in Nigerian Benin and trade pots and pans for peppercorns. Black peppercorns are dried, unripe fruits that have been cooked. White peppercorns are only the seeds of the dried, ripe fruits. Green peppercorns are dried, unripe fruits that been preserved through flash-freezing, curing, or brining in order to preserve their color and flavor.
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1571 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Portuguese send another army into the Zambezi Valley but are defeated by the Tonga people. The Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe are a Bantu ethnic group of southern Zambia and neighbouring northern Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent, in Mozambique. They are related to the Batoka who are part of the Tokaleya people in the same area, but not to the Tonga people of Malawi.
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1585 CE
Source: SAHO
The Luba Kingdom was established in central Africa by King Kongolo Maniema of the Upemba people. The Kingdom had one million people paying tribute to the King at its peak. The capital of the Kingdom would be a centre of trade extending both to the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The Luba culture was held in high esteem by surrounding smaller kingdoms and in return for tribute, these rulers would be allowed to take Luba ancestors as their own.
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1600 CE
Source: SAHO
The Wadai Kingdom is founded by the Tunjur people, east of Bornu. The kingdom gained independence and became an aggressor against its neighbours, Bornu and Durfur, in the 18th century. Wadai, historical African kingdom east of Lake Chad and west of Darfur, in what is now the Ouaddaï region of eastern Chad, a Muslim dynasty was established there about 1630.
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1600 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Sakalava Kingdom is established on the west coast of Madagascar. The Sakalava People are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the western and northwest region of the island, in a band along the coast.
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1600 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Nigerian Benin exhausts its export of “trouble-making” Africans and trades only natural resources for foreign goods with the Portuguese.
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1600 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Rise of Changamire’s Rozvi state. The Rozvi Empire (1660–1866) was a Shona state established on the Zimbabwean Plateau by Changamire Dombo. The term "Rozvi" refers to their legacy as a warrior nation, taken from the Shona term kurozva, "to plunder". They became the most powerful fighting force in the whole of Zimbabwe.
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1600 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Denkyira, in Ghana, controls all other states in Ghana and is an important source for trading gold and humans with the Dutch at El Mina. Denkyira or Denkyera was a powerful nation of Akan people that existed before the 1620s, in what is now modern-day Ghana. Like all Akans, they originated from Adanse Kingdom. Before 1620, Denkyira was called Agona. The ruler of the Denkyira was called Denkyirahene and the capital was Jukwaa.
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1602 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Olfert Dapper was a Dutch physician and writer who wrote books about world history and geography although he never travelled outside the Netherlands. In the Description of Africa, a Dutch ethnographic book published in 1668 describes Nigerian Benin as a well-organized, balanced, structured, and grand city.
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1623 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Kingdom of Maravi, which took up parts of what are now Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and eastern Zimbabwe, was a vibrant society of skilled administrators, ivory traders, healers, sages and metallurgists. It began with the tribes of the Banda, Mwali, Nkhoma and Phiri, and would eventually include other tribes. Maravi leader, Mzura, turns on their Portuguese allies to assist the Shona after defeating his rival, Lundi. A few years later, he welcomed the return of the Portuguese for trading purposes.
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1628 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Following a battle, the Portuguese could replace leadership in Mutapa with a lord under their control, who would sign treaties in Portugal’s favour, giving them unlimited control over mineral export rights. By undermining trade, the Portuguese successfully destroyed the mwanamutapa system of government and the region was in serious decline by 1667. Other factors that fueled the growth of Mwenemutapa were a robust commercial trade network, gold mining, iron smelting, and the raising of cattle.
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1652 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Jan Van Riebeck was Commander of the Cape from 1652 to 1662; he was charged with building a fort, with improving the natural anchorage at Table Bay, planting cereals, fruit, and vegetables, and obtaining livestock from the indigenous Khoi people. It was originally named the Cape of Storms by Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Dias in 1488. It was later renamed, by King John II of Portugal, the Cape of Good Hope because of the great optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India and the East.
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1652 CE
Source: SAHO
The Dutch establish a permanent settlement at Table Bay in the Western Cape of what is currently known as South Africa after initially establishing a replenishing station for passing ships. Enslaved people from West Africa were brought in to work farms in the region. The Cape colony under the Dutch grows, bringing slave people from Indonesia, Mozambique and Madagascar. The Khoikhoi resisted the northward movement of the settlement by utilising raids, and guerrilla warfare, thus slowing the colony’s expansion for that period.
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1659 CE
Source: SAHO
The first Khoi-Dutch War occurs with no apparent victors. The Dutch, however, claimed the Cape region under a ‘right of conquest’ which they assumed after the war. A series of wars between Khoikhoi peoples was instigated by the Dutch settlers in successful efforts to gain control of their land. In addition, European diseases (such as small pox) which the Khoikhoi had no immunity to, contributed to thousands of Khoikhoi deaths.
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1684 CE
Source: SAHO
The Rozwi (Rozvi) empire is established on the Zimbabwean Plateau by Changamire Dombo. The empire fought of Portuguese invasion which formed part of Portuguese attempts to gain control of their gold trade. Driving them off the Zimbabwean Plateau, the ensured that Europeans had little presence in the Eastern Highlands of the region.
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1701 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Battle of Feyiase was the decisive battle in the struggle that led to the Ashanti Empire replacing Denkyira as the dominant power among the Twi-speaking Akan peoples. During the battle, the Denkyira army deployed 2 or 3 Dutch cannons while the Ashanti had limited access to firearms.
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1716 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
An enslaved West African man called Onesimus pioneered vaccination in America after passing on age-old knowledge in 1716 of a method of smallpox inoculation to Cotton Mather, the Puritan minister who had purchased him a decade earlier. Together with a local doctor, Mather successfully put Onesimus' method to the test during a smallpox outbreak in Boston in 1721, paving the way for mass inoculation and British physician Edward Jenner's creation of the first vaccine in 1796.
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1740 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Tegbessu reigns as king of Dahomey and enters into the enslaving interest to gain wealth and influence, trading humans for weapons in order to capture more Africans from other places. Tegbesu (French: Tegbessou) or Bossa Ahadee was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, from 1740 until 1774. While not the oldest son of King Agaja (1718-1740), he became king after Agaja's death following a succession struggle with a brother.
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1787 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Senzangakona and Nandi give birth to Shaka, who rises to the highest seat of authority in the Zulu clan. King Senzangakhona kaJama (c. 1762 – 1816) was the king of the Zulu Kingdom, and primarily notable as the father of three Zulu kings. Nandi KaBhebhe (c. 1760 – October 10, 1827) was a daughter of Bhebhe, a past Elangeni chief and the mother of Shaka kaSenzangakhona, King of the Zulus.
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1787 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
British help 400 freed Africans from the United States, Nova Scotia, and Great Britain to return to Sierra Leone to settle the “Province of Freedom,” which became Freetown. The original Portuguese name, Serra Lyoa (“Lion Mountains”), referred to the range of hills that surrounds the harbour. The capital, Freetown, commands one of the world's largest natural harbours.
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1790 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Thomas Fuller the African maths genius also known as "Negro Tom" and the "Virginia Calculator", was an enslaved African born in today Benin 1710 and died in 1790 USA renowned for his mathematical abilities. Also known as a mental calculator. shipped to America as a slave in 1724. He had remarkable powers of calculation, and later in his life was discovered by antislavery campaigners who used him as a demonstration that blacks were superior not inferior to whites in academics.
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1792 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Freetown becomes one of Britain’s first colonies. Freetown is a port city and the capital of Sierra Leone, in West Africa. It’s known for its beaches and historical role in the transatlantic slave trade. The old town’s centuries-old Cotton Tree is a symbol of emancipation. On the waterfront is the King’s Yard Gate, through which former slaves walked to freedom.
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1793 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Enslaved African-American innovators were rarely recognized for their achievements, with their White owners often taking the credit. Eli Whitney is lauded for the invention of the cotton gin, a seed-removing machine which revolutionized the production of cotton, but the farmer and teacher actually got the idea from an enslaved man named Sam, whose father invented a cotton seed-removing comb.
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1791 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Africans revolt against the French in Santo Domingo and choose as leader Toussaint L’Ouverture. Toussaint Louverture led a successful slave revolt and emancipated the slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti).
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1790 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mzilikazi, leader and creator of the state of Zimbabwe, is born. Mzilikazi Moselekatse, Khumalo was a Southern African king who founded the Ndebele Kingdom now called Matebeleland which is now part of Zimbabwe. His name means "the great river of blood". He was born the son of Mashobane kaMangethe near Mkuze, Zululand, and died at Ingama, Matabeleland.
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1804 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Fulani War begins, starting as a jihad by Gobir (in present-day Nigeria) leader, Usman dan Fodio. The Fulani are largely nomadic/semi-nomadic and live in the semi-arid climate of West Africa. Due to population growth and desertification, Fulani nomads have to move south towards more fertile lands to graze their herds. This created conflicts with the farmers. This resulting violence left a death toll of over 10,000.
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1805 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Asante Wars against the British until 1905. The Anglo-Ashanti wars were a series of five conflicts that took place between 1824 and 1900 between the Ashanti Empire—in the Akan interior of the Gold Coast—and the British Empire and its African allies. The First Anglo-Ashanti War began when the Ashanti claimed territory disputed with the Fante, a client state of Great Britain.
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1807 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
British slave trade prohibited on the high seas. It was only after many failed attempts that, in 1807, the slave trade in the British Empire was abolished. However, slaves in the colonies (excluding areas ruled by the East India Company) were not freed until 1838 – and only after slave-owners, rather than the slaves themselves, received compensation.
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1808 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Armies of Gobir have been defeated and Dan Fodio establishes a new state with the capital at Sokoto. Sokoto is a major city located in extreme north-western Nigeria, near the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2006, it has a population of over 427,760. Sokoto is the modern-day capital of Sokoto State and was previously the capital of the north-western states. Modern Sokoto is known for trading sheepskins, cattle hides, leather crafts (a significant export), kola nuts and goatskins.
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1816–1840 CE
Source: SAHO
The Mfecane (also known as Difaqane or Lifaquane) period begins during which much warfare occurs between the peoples of Southern Africa. Starting with the rule of King Shaka, the period centered on King Mzilikazi’s reign from 1826 – 1836 and finally ended in approximately 1840. States such as modern-day Lesotho were formed during this time.
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1816 and 1819 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Dingiswayo leads the Mtetwa against the Ndwandwe. The Ndwandwe–Zulu War of 1817–1819 was a war fought between the expanding Zulu Kingdom and the Ndwandwe tribe in South Africa.
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1818 CE
Source: SAHO
The Battle of Mhlatuze River occurs during which King Shaka of the Zulus defeats the Ndwandwe. Fleeing to Mozambique at around 1820 along with Ngwane chief Sobhuza, they established the Gaza Kingdom and caused the resident Tsonga people to the Northern Transvaal over the Lebombo Mountains.
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1818 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Seku Ahmadu Bari attacks cities of Segu and Jenne, establishes the state of Massina, and declares himself the twelfth caliph. Sheikhu Ahmadu (c. 1776 – 20 April 1845) was the Fulbe founder of the Massina Empire (Diina of Hamdullahi) in the Inner Niger Delta, now the Mopti Region of Mali. He ruled as Almami from 1818 until his death in 1845, also taking the title sisse al-Masini.
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1818 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
French slave trade prohibited on the high seas. Nantes slave trade. Nantes remained France's largest slave trading port until 1831, even though the activity had been outlawed in 1816. An estimated 450,000 African captives were transported in slave ships that originated in Nantes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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1818–1819 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Battle of Grahamstown took place on 22 April 1819, during the Fifth Xhosa War (1818-1819), at the frontier settlement of Grahamstown in what is now the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The confrontation involved the defence of the town by the British garrison, aided by a group of Khoekhoe marksmen, from an attack by a large force of attacking Xhosa warriors.
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1820 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Enslaved African-Americans were barred from holding patents, meaning only free Black people could own and gain financially from their inventions. A freedman, Thomas Jennings, was the first African-American patent holder. Jennings invented dry cleaning in 1820, was granted a patent the following year and used the money he'd earned from the invention to buy the freedom of enslaved relatives, as well as support abolitionist causes.
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1820 CE
Source: SAHO
Shaka, of the Zulu people, establishes a centralised Zulu kingdom. It would go on to conquer most of its neighbouring kingdoms, and in turn cause mass disruption within much of Southern Africa. Shaka is famous for various military inventions such as the short stabbing spear and a centralised military force not known to the region before.
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1821 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Moeshoeshoe, founder of the Lesotho nation, moves capital to a mountaintop for protection. Moshoeshoe I (c. 1786 – 11 March 1870) was the first king of Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage, a branch of the Koena (crocodile) clan. In his youth, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. At the age of 34 Moshoeshoe formed his own clan and became a chief. He and his followers settled at the Butha-Buthe Mountain. He became the first and longest-serving King of Lesotho in 1822.
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1824 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Shaka Zulu demands all soldiers remain in the service until their thirties. His most significant contribution was the introduction of the 'buffalo horns' formation. This tactic involved the main force, or 'chest', engaging the enemy directly, while two 'horns' would move around the flanks to encircle and trap the enemy.
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1826 CE
Source: SAHO
King Mzilikazi of the Matabele starts his reign in the Transvaal region of Southern Africa. During his ten-year reign, he attempted to decimate all opposition and reorganised the region in efforts to establish the Ndebele order, resulting in a depopulation of the area. His reign forms part of the Mfecane or Difaqane period during which much warfare occurred between the peoples of southern Africa.
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1830 CE
Source: SAHO
The Rozwi Empire on the Zimbabwean Plateau is conquered by invading Nguni from Natal and falls into ruins.
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1827 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fourah Bay College is established in Sierra Leone and is the leading college for English-speaking Africans on the west coast. Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighbourhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in Sub-Saharan Africa and, furthermore, the first university-level institution in Africa.
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1827 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Shaka’s mother, Nandi, died, and the Zulu leader lost his mind. In his grief, Shaka had hundreds of Zulus killed, and he outlawed the planting of crops and the use of milk for a year. All women found pregnant were murdered along with their husbands. He sent his army on an extensive military operation, and when they returned exhausted, he immediately ordered them out again.
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1828 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Shaka Zulu is murdered . Shaka, founder of the Zulu Kingdom of southern Africa, is murdered by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, after Shaka’s mental illness threatened to destroy the Zulu tribe.
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1831 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Similar to the cotton gin, the mechanical reaper transformed agriculture around the world. It is also credited to a White innovator, the businessperson Cyrus McCormick, but as is the case with the cotton gin the reaper was co-invented by an enslaved African-American, in this instance a man called Jo Anderson, who worked closely with McCormick on the 1831 innovation.
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1834–1835 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Xhosa’s Sixth War with the British. Sixth war (1834–1836) The earlier Xhosa Wars did not quell British-Xhosa tension in the Cape's eastern border at the Keiskamma River. Insecurity persisted because the Xhosa remained expelled from territory (especially the so-called "Ceded Territories") that was then settled by Europeans and other African peoples.
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1837 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The arrival of Boer settlers drive the Matabele people north of the Limpopo causing them to settle in Zimbabwe in an area which is now known as Matabeleland.
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1838 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Boer army of Andries Pretorius defeats the Zulu nation at Blood River. Pretorius led 470 men with 64 wagons into Dingane's territory and on the dawn of 16 December 1838, next to the Ncome River, they achieved victory over an attacking army of 10,000 to 15,000 Zulu warriors. The Voortrekkers fought with muzzle-loading rifles and made use of two small cannons.
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1840 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Dingane’s brother Mpande becomes king of the Zulu nation and does not stand up to the Boers for 32 years. Mpande kaSenzangakhona (c. 1798–18 October 1872) was monarch of the Zulu Kingdom from 1840 to 1872, making him the longest-reigning Zulu king. He was a half-brother of Sigujana, Shaka and Dingane, who preceded him as Zulu kings. He came to power after he had overthrown Dingane in 1840.
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1840 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
France invades the Côte d’Ivoire. Côte d'Ivoire's pre-colonial history and France's acquisition and administration of one of its West African colonies. It has argued that France justified its colonization of Côte d'Ivoire by its desire to civilize its people whom it considered as uncivilized.
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1841 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Liberia is turned over to Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first governor of African descent. As a prominent statesman and visionary leader, Roberts championed the cause of self-determination and spearheaded efforts to establish Liberia as a sovereign nation. His leadership and dedication paved the way for Liberia to become the first independent republic in Africa.
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1843 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Natal region becomes a British colony. The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It was proclaimed a British colony on 4 May 1843 after the British government had annexed the Boer Republic of Natalia, and on 31 May 1910 combined with three other colonies to form the Union of South Africa, as one of its provinces.
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1844 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Menelik II, governor of the province of Shoa in Ethiopia, leads the most successful campaign of war against a European colonizing army. The Ethiopian Empire was transformed under Emperor Menelik: the major signposts of modernisation were put in place, with the assistance of key ministerial advisors.
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1846 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
British military escort killed by Africans, British start the War of the Axe. This war in 1846-47 was the seventh of the nine Xhosa or 'Kaffir wars' in the Cape Colony. Tsili, arrested for stealing an ax, was rescued by his friends, but a Khoikhoi prisoner to whom he was manacled was killed during the rescue. This was the pretext for the war, but the roots of the conflict were in the many unresolved issues from the sixth war in 1834-5.
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1847 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Liberia writes a constitution and becomes an independent republic. Liberia was the first African republic to proclaim its independence and is Africa's first and oldest modern republic.
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1850 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Born into slavery, Benjamin Montgomery invented a steam propeller in the 1850s that could operate effectively in shallow waters, but as an enslaved person he was cruelly denied a patent for his innovation. Montgomery did, however, become successful and influential. After his freedom was granted after the Civil War, the inventor ran a popular local store, which eventually gave him enough money to purchase the plantation he had worked on. Montgomery amassed further wealth and was the first African-American official elected in Mississippi.
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1870 CE
Source: SAHO
The Kingdom of Buganda (Uganda) becomes a thriving nation-state with impressive naval fleets and significant wealth. Supplanting their rivals, Bunyoro, as the most important state in the region, the kingdom later became a province of the British Uganda Protectorate in the early 20th century. While under British control, Uganda was never designated a colony. It was a protectorate, a territory over which British governors exercised political and economic control more through indigenous proxies than through direct governance.
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1876 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Battle of Gura, Ethiopia defeats the Egyptian army, which is led by European and American mercenaries. The Battle of Gura was fought on 7–10 March 1876 between the Ethiopian Empire and the Khedivate of Egypt near the town of Gura in Eritrea. It was the second and decisive major battle of the Ethiopian–Egyptian War.
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1878 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Anglo-Zulu Wars, Ceteswayo rejects British ultimatum to return his induna for trial in British courts. Frere, on his own initiative, sent a provocative ultimatum on 11 December 1878 to the Zulu king Cetshwayo and upon its rejection sent Lord Chelmsford to invade Zululand.
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1879 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. The Zulus had a vast disadvantage in weapons technology, but they greatly outnumbered the British and ultimately overwhelmed them, killing over 1,300 troops, including all those out on the forward firing line. The Zulu army suffered anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 killed.
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1881 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
While the light bulb itself was invented by Thomas Edison, the carbon filament that allowed bulbs to last longer was created by African-American inventor Lewis Latimer in 1881 working alongside the more celebrated Edison. Prior to his invention, fast-burning materials such as bamboo had been used as a filament. After serving in the military during the Civil War, Latimer worked in a patent attorney office where he taught himself mechanical drawing by copying the draftsmen there. His talent saw him promoted from office assistant to draftsman, and as well as the bulb filament Latimer also invented an early air-conditioning unit and railroad car bathroom.
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1884–1885 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Berlin Conference, Europe declares war on Africa, dividing Africa among the European powers. Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 Meeting at which the major European powers negotiated and formalized claims to territory in Africa; also called the Berlin West Africa Conference.
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1885 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Like Benjamin Montgomery, Sarah Goode was born into slavery. After receiving her freedom following the Civil War, Goode moved from Toledo, Ohio to Chicago and opened a furniture store, where she invented the folding cabinet bed, a precursor to the modern sofa bed, which she went on to patent in 1885, becoming one of the first African-American women to be granted a patent.
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1885–1893 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
“Treaties” negotiated in Nyasaland between the African Lakes Company and various kings of Nyasaland allow British to swindle land from Nyasaland. In 1891 the British established the Nyasaland Districts Protectorate, which was called the British Central Africa Protectorate from 1893 and Nyasaland from 1907. Under the colonial regime, roads and railways were built, and the cultivation of cash crops by European settlers was introduced.
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1885–1887 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ahmadu Seku, leader of Tucolor Empire an Islamic state, supports the French in their war against Mahmadu Lamine’s uta Bondu state. Bundu was a state in West Africa existing from the late 17th century until it became a French protectorate dependent on the colony of Senegal.
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1887 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ethiopians defeat Italians in the “Dogali Massacre”. In 1887, however, Italy's colonial endeavor suffered a setback at Dogali, where the Ethiopian army, headed by Negus (Emperor) Yohannes, defeated the Italian forces, killing more than four hundred soldiers.
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1887
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
AMarcus Garvey was born in Jamaica. Marcus Garvey organized the United States' first Black nationalist movement. In the years following World War I, he urged Black Americans to be proud of their identity. Garvey enjoyed a period of profound Black cultural and economic success, with the New York City neighbourhood of Harlem as the movement's mecca.
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1888 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Enslaved Africans emancipated in Brazil. The Catholic Church ended its support of slavery by 1887, and not long after the Portuguese Crown began to position itself against it. On May 13, 1888, the remaining 700,000 enslaved persons in Brazil were freed.
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1890 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
John Dunlop, an Irishman, invents the rubber tyre, fueling the Western need for rubber from the Congo. From 1885 to 1908, many atrocities were committed in the Congo Free State (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo) under the absolute rule of King Leopold II of Belgium. These atrocities were particularly associated with the labour policies, enforced by colonial administrators, used to collect natural rubber for export.
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1891 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
French invade the Mandika territory, led by Samori Ture, who retreated so the French would not gain any advantage. The Mandingo Wars were a series of conflicts from 1882 to 1898 between France and the Wassoulou Empire of the Mandingo people led by Samori Ture. Comparatively, the French faced serious resistance by the Mandinka, as they were able to make use of firearms and tactics that impeded French expansion in the area.
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1893 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Leopold ran the Congo, which he never personally visited, by using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. His rule over the Congo met fierce resistance. In the far south, for example, a chief named Mulume Niama led warriors of the Sanga people in a rebellion that killed one of the king's officers. State troops pursued them, trapping Mulume Niama and his soldiers in a large cave. They refused to surrender, and when troops finally entered the cave three months later, they found 178 bodies. Nzansu, a chief in the region near the great Congo River rapids, led rebels who killed a hated colonial official and pillaged several state posts, although they carefully spared the homes of nearby Swedish missionaries. Nzansu's men fought on sporadically for five years more, and no record of his fate exists.
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1893 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
French invade Guinea and declare it a French colony. As the European rush to divide Africa accelerated, France claimed Côte d'Ivoire as a colony in 1893. Borders were determined in 1898, following the capture of Samory Touré.
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1893 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
In the late 19th century, the European powers ran roughshod over Africa, brutally colonizing one country after another. Italy, for its part, targeted Ethiopia. But when its troops attacked on March 1, 1896, near the town of Adwa, they were overpowered by a large and well-armed Ethiopian force. In winning this pivotal victory, Ethiopia not only secured its own independence, but also inspired the anti-colonialist movement.
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1894–1895 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Knut Svenson, a Swedish officer of the Force Publique, assembles people who do not want to be enslaved in the rubber plantation business in an open courtyard under the pretext of signing a treaty or recruiting laborers and then kills them.
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1895 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Italy invades Ethiopia, attempting to create a colonial state. After about a year of conflict, Ethiopia emerges victorious.
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1899 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Second Anglo-Boer War occurs and becomes known as the most destructive modern armed conflict in South Africa’s history. The origins of the war were complex and stemmed from more than a century of conflict between the Boers and Britain. Of immediate importance, however, was the question of who would control and benefit most from the very lucrative Witwatersrand gold mines discovered by Jan Gerrit Bantjes in June 1884.
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1900 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Chilembwe, a Nyasaland native who studied in Britain and the United States, founds the Providence Industrial Mission in Nyasaland. John Nkologo Chilembwe (June 1871 – 3 February 1915) was a Baptist pastor, educator and revolutionary who trained as a minister in the United States, returning to Nyasaland in 1901. He was an early figure in the resistance to colonialism in Nyasaland (Malawi), opposing both the treatment of Africans working in agriculture on European-owned plantations and the colonial government's failure to promote the social and political advancement of Africans.
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1900, 1902, and 1904 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sudanese revolt against occupation by the Egyptians and the British. In occupying Egypt, Britain had also assumed responsibility for the Egyptian Sudan. An Islamic revolt had begun there in 1881, led by Mohammed Ahmed, who styled himself the 'Mahdi' or 'guide'. By the end of 1882, the Mahdists controlled much of the Sudan.
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1900 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The conference culminated in the conversion of the African Association (formed by Sylvester Williams in 1897) into the Pan-African Association, and the implementation of a unanimously adopted "Address to the Nations of the World", sent to various heads of state where people of African descent were living and suffering oppression.
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1912 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
African National Congress, originally the South African Native National Congress until 1923, is created in South Africa. successor of the Cape Colony's Imbumba Yamanyama organisation, the ANC was founded as the South African Native National Congress in Bloemfontein on 8 January 1912, and was renamed the African National Congress in 1923.
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1912 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Humanity has innovator Garrett Morgan to thank for the gas mask. Nicknamed the 'Black Edison', Morgan invented his safety hood in 1912 and patented the gas mask precursor in 1914. The African-American inventor was extremely prolific. During his lifetime, Morgan was granted a plethora of patents for everything from traffic lights to hair straighteners and an improved sewing machine.
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1913 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
African National Congress sends delegation to Britain to protest the Land Act of 1913. The Natives Land Act, 1913 (subsequently renamed Bantu Land Act, 1913 and Black Land Act, 1913; Act No. 27 of 1913) was an Act of the Parliament of South Africa that was aimed at regulating the acquisition of land. It largely prohibited the sale of land from whites to blacks and vice-versa.
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1914 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Giriama of Kenya revolt against British. The Giriama rising, while hardly a serious threat to the British position in Kenya, did hinder military operations against the Germans in the early weeks of World War One. In the end, government authority was clearly established, but some important concessions were made to the tribe.
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1915 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Chilembwe uprising was a rebellion against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (modern-day Malawi) which took place in January 1915. It was led by John Chilembwe, an American-educated Baptist minister.
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1916 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The first successful leprosy treatment, the first successful leprosy treatment was developed in 1916 by African-American chemist Alice Ball, who came up with the pioneering injectable oil treatment at the University of Hawaii. Tragically, Ball died in a lab accident shortly after inventing the treatment. She was just 24 years old. We can only imagine what the gifted chemist would have gone on to achieve if she hadn't passed away so young.
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1919 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
In February 1919, the first Pan-African Congress was organized quickly in Paris by W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida Gibbs Hunt, Edmund Fredericks and Blaise Diagne. Diagne served as the president of the Congress with Du Bois the secretary and Gibbs the assistant secretary. The conference was a first step toward not only uniting the black global diaspora, but also establishing a black internationalism that would come into its own in the years after World War II. The burgeoning political movement played a critical role in dismantling European colonialism in Africa and Asia.
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1921 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Afro-Cubans begin Negrismo, celebrating African music, rhythms, art, folklore, and literature. The Negrismo is a literary movement that emerged in the early 20th century, primarily within Afro-Cuban literature, emphasizing the cultural identity, experiences, and heritage of Afro-descendants.
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1923 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Cheikh Anta Diop was born in Thieytou, Senegal. Cheikh Anta Diop was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. Diop's work is considered foundational to the theory of Afrocentricity, though he himself never described himself as an Afrocentrist.
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1924 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Raymond Dart, a South African, discovers the skull of a six-year-old creature in a limestone cave in Taung, South Africa; the creature walked on two legs with a forward stoop and was named Australopithecus. The Taung Child (or Taung Baby) is the fossilised skull of a young Australopithecus africanus. It was discovered in 1924 by quarrymen working for the Northern Lime Company in Taung, South Africa.
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1931 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
French depose Njoya, an original intellect and brilliant scholar of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, king of the Bamun kingdom. Sultan Ibrahim Njoya c. 1860 – c. 1933 in Yaoundé, was seventeenth in a long dynasty of kings that ruled over Bamum and its people in western Cameroon dating back to the fourteenth century. He succeeded his father Nsangu, and ruled from 1886 or 1887 until his death in 1933, when he was succeeded by his son, Seidou Njimoluh Njoya. He ruled from the ancient walled city of Fumban.
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1939 – 1945 CE
Source: SAHO
The second world war in Europe brings with it an increased demand for independence from African states. European colonial powers are weak from the war, and American fear of Soviet influence in Africa creates a global political climate in favour of decolonization.
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1948 CE
Source: SAHO
The National Party in South Africa rises to power, paving the way for the Apartheid regime and its legislations to be implemented in South Africa. Apartheid refers to the implementation and maintenance of a system of legalized racial segregation in which one racial group is deprived of political and civil rights.
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1938 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
African-American physician Charles Drew is dubbed 'the father of blood banking' for very good reason. The first Black person to receive a Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia University, Drew created a method of preserving blood plasma in 1938. A game-changing process, it went on to save countless lives during World War II.
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1938 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Black innovator Frederick McKinley Jones invented mobile refrigeration, enabling perishable foods to be transported over long distances. Before Jones' invention, which consisted of a small compressor unit attached under the truck, salt and ice were used, an unreliable method that often led to spoiling. Jones soon co-founded the Thermo King Corporation, which produced the mobile refrigeration unit. The business went international, and when it was sold in 1997 it was achieving more than $1 billion in annual sales. Mostly self-taught due to his lack of formal education, Jones became the first African-American to be awarded the National Medal of Technology.
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1938 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì, a Nigerian musician and political activist is born. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre that combines West African music with American funk and jazz. Born Olufela Olusegun Oludoton Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, a town fifty miles north of Lagos to Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti, a pioneering feminist, one of the first Nigerian women to drive one and the Reverend Israel Ransome-Kuti, the Principal of Abeokuta Grammar School. Fela’s first cousin, Wole Soyinka, later a Nobel Prize-winning writer, sometimes spends his school holidays at the Ransome-Kuti home.
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1938 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
While digging a cistern on his property, Nigerian farmer Isaiah Anozie unearthed dozens of intricate objects made of cast bronze. As it turns out, Isaiah's family farm sat atop the remains of an ancient ceremonial center that was home to a society that existed over a millennium ago.
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1939 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Aimé Césaire publishes Cahier d’un retour au pays natal and coins the term “Négritude” . Négritude was an anti-colonial cultural and political movement founded by a group of African and Caribbean students in Paris in the 1930s who sought to reclaim the value of blackness and African culture.
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1944 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The founding of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Its foundation in 1944 by A. P. Mda, Anton Lembede, Mxolisi Majombozi, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo marked the rise of a new generation of leaders. The first President of the league was Anton Muziwakhe Lembede who shaped its militancy. Mandela wrote that Lembede had a "magnetic personality who thought in original and often startling ways" and "Like Lembede I came to see the antidote as militant African nationalism."
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1944 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The African Agricultural Union (French: Syndicat agricole africain, SAA) was the first quasi-political party in Côte d'Ivoire, led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny throughout its existence. It was established on 3 September 1944 by Houphouët-Boigny and the colonial administration. Anti-colonialist and anti-racist, the organisation demanded better working conditions, higher wages, and the abolition of unfree labour.
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1945 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Léopold Sédar Senghor, a Senegalese politician, cultural theorist and poet who served as the first president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980 publishes Chants d’Ombre. Chants d'Ombre is a collection of twenty-five poems, several of which were written while M. Senghor was being held by the Nazis.
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1945–1951 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
At the time of independence Libya, a former Italian possession, was under UN trusteeship. A UN resolution in November 1949 called for the establishment of a sovereign state including all three historic regions of Libya by January 1952.
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1947 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Alioune Diop, a Senegalese intellectual, writer and editor, living in Paris, creates Présence Africaine, a pan-African quarterly cultural, political, and literary magazine cultural journal.
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1947 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
General Council of the Kikuyu Central Association decides to campaign against white usage of Kenyan land. The Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), led by James Beauttah and Joseph Kang'ethe, was a political organization in colonial Kenya formed in 1924 to act on behalf of the Gĩkũyũ community by presenting their concerns to the British government. One of its greatest grievances was the expropriation of the most productive land by British settlers from African farmers.
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1948 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Afrikaner political group votes for the National Party and creates the apartheid policy and Africans are restricted by their color for the first time on the continent of Africa.
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1948 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
George McLaurin, the first Black man admitted to the University of Oklahoma in 1948, was fõrced to sit in a corner far from his white classmates. But his name remains on the honor roll as one of the three best students of the university. These are his words: "Some colleagues would look at me like I was an animal, no one would give me a word, the teachers seemed like they were not even there for me, nor did they always take my questions when I asked. But I devoted myself so much that afterwards, they began to look for me to give them explanations and to clear their questions.
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1948 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
British force Kikuyu off their land in Kenya. The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt, or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963).
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1948 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Léopold Sédar Senghor publishes Hosties Noires. In his second volume of poems, Hosties Noires, published in 1948, Léopold Sédar Senghor presented a series of poems based on his personal experience during the troubled and shameful period of the World War II occupation of France, most particularly his 19 months spent in internment camps for French colonial prisoners of war.
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1949 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
White minority National Party comes to power in South Africa and Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, the father of Mozambican independence, and other black students are expelled from Witwatersrand University. Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane (20 June 1920 – 3 February 1969) was a Mozambican revolutionary and anthropologist, and founder of the Mozambican Liberation Front. He served as the FRELIMO's first leader until his assassination in 1969 in Tanzania.
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1950 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kwame Nkrumahh arrested and imprisoned but wins a seat on the Legislative Assembly under the colonial administration. Francis Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from Britain. He was then the first Prime Minister and then the President of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966.
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1951 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Mandinka receive the right to vote in Libéria. The Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, The Gambia, southern Senegal and eastern Guinea. Mandinka culture is rich in tradition, music, and spiritual ritual. The Mandinka continue a long oral history tradition through stories, songs, and proverbs.
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1952 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
King Jacob Egharevba writes about the majesty of Nigérian Bénin king, Oba Ewuare. Chief Uwadiae Jacob Egharevba (1893-1980) was a pioneering scholar, historian who made a vital early contribution to understanding of the history and art of Benin.
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1952 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ahmed Ben Bella, an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary pushed out of Algeria. Ben Bella and his associates were responsible for developing a system of bases and routes for providing the National Liberation Army (ALN) in Algeria with weapons, ammunition and other supplies. The ALN logistical system was focused in Egypt and Libya in the early years of the war.
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1952–1960 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kenya Land Freedom Army (Mau Mau) revolt in Kenya to throw British settlers off land. Mau Mau viewed as bloodthirsty after they kill 70 people in the village of Lari, home to British supporters; British retaliate and kill 125 in the sweep of Aberdare Forest.
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1955 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Hannes Lindemann, a German doctor, navigator and sailor. He made two solo transatlantic crossings, one in a sailing dugout canoe made while working in Liberia and the second in a 17-foot Klepper Aerius II double folding kayak, modified to carry two masts and an outrigger. Dr. Hannes Lindermann sails for 52 days to South America from the Cape Verde Islands, demonstrating the possibility of Africans sailing to South America. There is evidence that Africans sailed to South America well before Columbus.
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1955 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Congress of the People, African National Congress leads people to accept the Freedom Charter, the fundamental document of the anti-apartheid struggle. This system was designed to give all South Africans equal rights. Demands such as "Land to be given to all landless people", "Living wages and shorter hours of work", "Free and compulsory education, irrespective of colour, race or nationality" were synthesised into the final document by ANC leaders including Z.K. It was adopted in 1956 at Kliptown, South Africa.
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1956 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
156 members of the African National Congress arrested by whites in South Africa. The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956. The main trial lasted until 1961, when all of the defendants were found not guilty. During the trials, Oliver Tambo left the country and was exiled.
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1956 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Black inventor Mary Kenner was self-taught, which makes her genius all the more impressive. In, the African-American innovator created the world's first sanitary belt and followed this up with a number of other health- and hygiene-related inventions, including a novel toilet tissue holder and an attachment for a mobility walker.
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1957 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Gold Coast becomes independent and chooses the name Ghana. Nkrumah saw independent Ghana as a spearhead for the liberation of the rest of Africa from colonial rule and the establishment of a socialist African unity under his leadership.
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1957–1960 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
More than two million Algerians removed from their villages. The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) was a major armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France.
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1958 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Conference of Independent States led by Kwame Nkrumah. In April 1958, Nkrumah as the pioneer of the ideology of Pan-Africanism convened the Conference of All Independent African States (Libya, Ethiopia, Liberia, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan United Republic of Egypt and Ghana), which was followed by the historic A A P Conference.
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1958 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe creates the Pan-Africanist Congress. Sobukwe was regarded as a strong proponent of an Africanist future for South Africa and opposed political collaboration with anyone other than Africans, defining "African" as anyone who lives in and pays allegiance to Africa and who is prepared to subject themselves to African majority rule.
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1951 – 1965 CE
Source: SAHO
Libya becomes the first of the colonised states in Africa to gain its independence. 1952 Egypt gains its independence through a revolution by the Free Officers Movement. This would be the first native Egyptian regime since the Fatimids were defeated in 1171 CE. 1954 The Algerian War for Independence from France begins on 1 November. 1956 Sudan and Tunisia gained their independence.
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1960 CE
Source: SAHO
This year is known as the “year of Africa”. Much of the former French colonial Empire was falling apart, and several British colonies also gained their independence this year. This would spell independence for a large amount of African states. Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Gabon, Mauritania and Togo all gained independence in this year.
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1959 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Otis Boykin, African American electrical engineer and inventor notched up 26 patents during his lifetime, the most important of which were his pacemaker control unit, a development that transformed the control of abnormal heart rhythms, and wire precision resistor. Invented by Boykin in 1959, technology has been used in computers, TVs, radios, and more.
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1960 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Pan-African Congress peaceful protest against the Pass Laws, 69 people killed and 180 injured in the Sharpeville massacre, Sobukwe is arrested. The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, when police opened fire on a crowd of people who had assembled outside the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng) to protest against the pass laws.
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1960 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
African National Congress banned for trying to carry out the Freedom Charter, Nelson Mandela suggests setting up a military wing in the ANC.
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1960 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The first Black African recipient, Albert Luthuli, was awarded the Peace Prize in 1960 Albert Luthuli, leader of the African National Congress, wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Albert John Luthuli was a South African anti-apartheid activist, traditional leader, and politician who served as the President-General of the African National Congress from 1952 until his death in 1967.
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1961 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
ANC agrees to allow the use of violence and creates the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). Units of Umkhonto we Sizwe today carried out planned attacks against government installations, particularly those connected with the policy of apartheid and race discrimination.
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1961 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Patrice Lumumba a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is murdered and Africans in the Congo lose their rights. Lumumba was captured en route by state authorities under Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, sent to the State of Katanga and, with the help of Belgian partisans, tortured and executed by the separatist Katangan authorities of Moïse Tshombe. He was seen as a martyr for the pan-African movement.
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1961–1974 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Angola struggles for liberation and freedom from Portugal until Portuguese sue for peace. 40,000 Angolans uprooted during the rebellion in Angola. The Angolan War of Independence (Portuguese: Guerra de Independência de Angola; 1961–1974), known as the Armed Struggle of National Liberation (Portuguese: Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional) in Angola, was a war of independence fought between the Angolan nationalist forces of the MPLA, UNITA and FNLA, and Portugal.
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1961 CE
Source: SAHO
Tanganyika achieves independence and Julius Nyerere becomes prime minister, Tanganyika later merges with Zanzibar to become Tanzania and Nyerere is elected president . Tanganyika gained independence on Dec. 9, 1961, and became a republic one year later. On April 26, 1964, it joined with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Tanganyika was a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania, that existed from 1961 until 1964.
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1962 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and, following the Rivonia Trial, was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state. Mandela served 27 years in prison, split between Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison.
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1961 CE
Source: SAHO
Sierra Leone gained independence from the British Empire. In 1962, general elections were won by the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). The All People's Congress (APC) emerged as the most organised opposition.
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1962 CE
Source: SAHO
After a brutal war, Algeria gained its independence from France. Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda also became independent from Belgium and the Britain in this year.
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1963 CE
Source: SAHO
After more than a decade of various anti-colonial campaigns, such as the Mau-Mau Uprising, Kenya gained its independence from Britain. Uganda also gained its independence from Britain.
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1962 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Algeria gains independence. In 1959 Charles de Gaulle declared that the Algerians had the right to determine their own future. Despite terrorist acts by French Algerians opposed to independence and an attempted coup in France by elements of the French army, an agreement was signed in 1962, and Algeria became independent.
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1962 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) forms to challenge the Portuguese control of Mozambique and select Mondlane as its first president. FRELIMO is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It has governed the country since its independence from Portugal in 1975. Founded in 1962, FRELIMO began as a nationalist movement fighting for the self-determination and independence of Mozambique from Portuguese colonial rule.
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1963 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Julius Nyerere is a founding member of the Organization of African Unity. The Organization of African Unity was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. The aims of the organization were to fight against colonialism, keep territorial integrity and better the lives of Africans in general. It was also an organization aimed at creating broader unity within the African continent.
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1964 – 1968 CE
Source: SAHO
Malawi, Botswana, Mauritius, Lesotho, Swaziland, Gambia, Zanzibar and Zambia gain their independence from Britian.
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1964 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Mandela and eight other ANC members sentenced to life imprisonment, Mandela incarcerated at Robben Island Prison until 1982, when he is transferred to Pollsmoor Prison.
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1964 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kenneth David Kaunda becomes president and founding father of the new republic of Zambia. Kenneth Kaunda, also known as KK, was a Zambian politician who served as the first president of Zambia from 1964 to 1991. He was at the forefront of the struggle for independence from British rule.
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1964 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Nkrumah declares Ghana a one-party state and himself president-for-life. In 1964, a constitutional amendment made Ghana a one-party state, with Nkrumah as president for life of both the nation and its party.
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1965 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, of the Nigerian National Alliance, wins election in Nigeria but the United Progressive Grand Alliance believes it was rigged. Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa KBE PC (December 1912 – 15 January 1966) was a Nigerian politician who served as the first and only prime minister of Nigeria upon independence. A conservative Anglophile, he favoured maintaining close ties with the British.
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1966 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ghana government overthrown by United States-sponsored military coup d’état. Neither ethnic nor class differences played a role in the overthrow of the Progress Party government. The crucial causes were the country's continuing economic difficulties, both those stemming from the high foreign debts incurred by Nkrumah and those resulting from internal problems.
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1966 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
African American inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown and Albert Brown: CCTV home security system, Concerned by the high levels of property crime in her New York City neighborhood, Marie Van Brittan Brown, who was working as a nurse at the time, pretty much created the multibillion-dollar home security industry in 1966 when she invented, along with her husband Albert Brown, the world's first CCTV home security system. The couple were granted a patent in 1969 and went on to win numerous awards for the innovation.
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1967–1970 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967. Nigeria was led by General Yakubu Gowon, and Biafra by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu Ojukwu.
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1968 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Creolized Mauritius becomes an independent country. Independence was gained in 1968, with Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam becoming the first Prime Minister on 12 March 1968. British rule ended with the Mauritius Independence Act 1968.
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1969 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Bantu Stephen Biko founds the South African Students’ Organization, which provides legal and medical aid for disadvantaged black communities. Bantu Stephen Biko OMSG (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, he was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s.
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1969 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
As authorities recognized Robert Sobukwe's deteriorating physical and mental health, he was released from Robben Island in 1969. Robert Sobukwe is released from prison but banished to Kimberley for five years.
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1969 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Bomb is planted under Mondlane’s desk at Frelimo and kills him. Eduardo Mondlane was assassinated by means of a parcel bomb in Dar es Salaam on 3 February 1969, in circumstances that have never been completely explained. The presumption is that he was killed by the Portuguese PIDE/DGS, but it happened at a time when the movement was still split – despite the successful holding of the II Congress in Niassa in July 1968 – between advocates of social revolution, and those who opposed the idea. His death created a drawn-out leadership crisis in FRELIMO that was only effectively resolved by the assumption of the presidency by Samora Machel in April 1970.
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1970 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt and builds political relationships that allow Arabs to live in peace with the Jews but is assassinated after signing a peace treaty with Israel.
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1972 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Eritrean rebels form Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) then the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), led by Osman Salah Sabbe, former head of the Muslim League. The Eritrean Liberation Front, colloquially known as Jebha, was the main independence movement in Eritrea which sought Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia during the 1960s and the early 1970s.
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1972 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sudanese peace agreement, the Addis Ababa Accords, between the southern Sudanese insurgents, the Anya Nya, and the Sudan government. The Sudanese peace process consists of meetings, written agreements and actions that aim to resolve the War in Darfur, the Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (the Two Areas), and armed conflicts in central, northern and eastern Sudan.
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1973 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Biko is banished and restricted to his hometown, King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape. There he set up a BCP office where he served as Branch Executive. It was not long before his banning order was amended to restrict him from any association with the BCP.
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1974 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Haile Selassie, the last remaining monarch in Africa, in Ethiopia, loses power. Haile Selassie I was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia under Empress Zewditu between 1916 and 1930.
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1974 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The police raid Fela’s house looking for weed. Possession is punishable by up to ten years in jail and cultivation by death. Failing to find any they raid again a week later. This time they try to plant a joint on Fela but he manages to grab it and swallow it. He is taken to Alagbon Close police headquarters and locked in a communal cell the prisoners jokingly call Kalakuta Republic (“kalakuta” is Swahili for “rascal”). Fela is kept in the cell for three days while the police wait for evidence to drop into his slop bucket. But his cellmates engineer a 'feces switch' and Fela is pronounced innocent. On his release he renames his house Kalakuta Republic.
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1975 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Dahomey changes name to Benin. In 1958, French Dahomey became the self-governing colony called the Republic of Dahomey and gained full independence in 1960. It was renamed in 1975 the People's Republic of Benin and in 1991 the Republic of Benin.
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1975 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Portugal was one of the first European colonial nations to begin its conquest of African lands, and was one of the last to leave. Several lengthy colonial wars in Mozambique and Angola led to dissatisfaction in Portugal and a military coup. As a result São Tomé and PrÁncipe, Cape Verde, Angola, and Mozambique, all became independent.
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1975 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Remains of an Australopithecine group of thirteen adults and children discovered near Hadar in Ethiopia. Lucy is a collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone comprising 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis. It was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, at Hadar, a site in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle, by Donald Johanson, a paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
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1976 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Human footprints from 3¼ million years ago discovered near an extinct volcano near Olduvai. The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a paleoanthropological site in the eastern Serengeti Plain, near northern Tanzania, in East Africa. The gorge is nicknamed the “Cradle of Mankind” because it is believed to be the site of found remains of the first human beings to walk on Earth.
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1976 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Hector Petersen, only 13 years old, leads an uprising by thousands of students to end the discriminatory educational practices in South Africa and is killed. The Soweto uprising, also known as the Soweto riots, was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.
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1977 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
British government refuses to return the mask of Queen Idia during FESTA (2nd World Black-African Festival of Arts). Queen Idia was the 1st woman who went to and fought in War. She used her magical powers and knowledge of Medicine to help her son overcome his enemies. She was one of the best known female soldiers ever from the Benin Kingdom. She was a fearless Army General who led the Armies of Benin on several successful battles.
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1977 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Biko detained by the Eastern Cape security police and held in Port Elizabeth, and dies from brain damage. During his ban he received repeated anonymous threats and was detained by state security services on several occasions. Following his arrest in August 1977, Biko was beaten to death by state security officers. Over 20,000 people attended his funeral. Biko's fame spread posthumously
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1977 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Festival of Black and African Countries in Lagos, Nigeria. The Second World Festival of Black Arts or Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture — known as FESTAC '77 — took place in Lagos, Nigeria, under the patronage of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The month-long event celebrated African culture and showcased African music, fine art, literature, drama, dance and religion to the world. Around 16,000 participants, representing 56 African nations and countries of the African Diaspora, performed at the event.
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1977 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
3D film, 3D TV and medical imaging precursor, African-American physicist Valerie Thomas developed the 3D-Illusion transmitter in 1977 while working for NASA and patented the trailblazing device a year later. Thomas' innovation essentially made the invention of a long list of 3D technologies possible, including 3D film, 3D TV and modern medical imaging, and her transmitter is still used by NASA to this day.
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1978 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
On 20 February, Fela marries 27 women in a traditional Yoruba wedding ceremony in Lagos. In doing so, Fela demonstrates his belief in traditional African customs and values, and their primacy over those promoted by Britain during the years of colonial rule. Equally important, Fela wants to legitimise the status of the women who, because they are living with him but are not married to him, are stigmatised by conservative Nigerians.
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1979 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s leading producer of cocoa. Côte d'Ivoire is the world's largest producer of cocoa (the second largest is Ghana and the third largest is Indonesia).
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1979 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fela and his political party Movement Of The People are banned from contesting Nigeria’s presidential election. Fela forms a new Afrika 70 and plays a comeback concert at the University of Ife. He also defies police opposition and opens a new Afrika Shrine in Ikeja, Lagos (the original one having been bulldozed by the army in October 1978). During the year he will release five characteristically courageous albums which expose the pre-planned nature of the February 1977 destruction of Kalakuta Republic and the overall rottenness of the military regime.
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1980 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Nigerians pay over $1,200,000 for four Benin art pieces at an auction.
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1980 – Present
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Afro combs – The clenched black fist that became synonymous with the black Power Movement in 1960’s USA made its way onto an afro comb at some point between 1970’s and early 1980’s. This form of comb is still very popular amongst the African diaspora is one of the most globally iconic combs to have been made.
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1983 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Anyanya (also spelled Anya-Nya) were a southern Sudanese separatist rebel army formed during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972). Conflict resumes between the Anya Nya and the Sudan government when President Nimeiri imposes Shari’a law, an Islamic code, which causes the death of more than 1.5 million Sudanese by 1997. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forms.
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1986 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Harlem-born ophthalmologist Patricia Bath overcame prejudice to invent a laser cataract removal device called the Laserphaco Probe in 1986, and went on to patent it in 1988. Bath, who passed away in 2019, worked tirelessly to tackle vision loss in the Black community and also co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness.
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1986 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
On 24 April, Fela is freed from jail. His release follows a press statement by Justice Gregory Okoro-Idogu, the judge at the 1984 trial, stating he had been pressured by the regime into giving Fela a disproportionately long sentence. The judge visits Fela in prison to apologise. Once released, Fela holds a press conference at the Shrine, announcing that he will revive his Movement of the People (MOP) party and run for the presidency.
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1987 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fela is invited to visit Burkina Faso by its revolutionary president, Thomas Sankara, a longtime fan of Fela’s music. In October, Sankara is assassinated.
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1989 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
An ingenious invention that effectively made the internet and other modern IT technologies possible, the linked supercomputer system is the brainchild of Nigerian-born computer scientist Philip Emeagwali, who in 1989 came up with the idea of linking multiple microprocessors to turbo-charge computing power after observing bees in nature.
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1990s CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Fastest-growing religion in the Americas is, reportedly, Ogun, a deriva- tive of Yoruba. In Yoruba religion, Ogun is a primordial orisha in Yoruba Land. In some traditions, he is said to have cleared a path for the other orisha to enter Earth, using a metal axe and with the assistance of a dog. To commemorate this, one of his praise names, or oriki, is Osin Imole or the "first of the primordial Orisha to come to Earth". He is the god of war and metals. In his earthly life Ogun is said to be the first king of Ife.
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1990 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Frederik Willem de Klerk was a South African politician who served as a state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994. He travelled to London, where he met with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Although she opposed the anti-apartheid movement's calls for economic sanctions against South Africa, at the meeting she urged de Klerk to release the imprisoned anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.
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1990 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
After a lengthy fight against the apartheid government in South Africa, Namibia is the last of the African states colonised by European powers to gain independence.
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1990 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
F. W. de Klerk releases the ban on the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress. After discussing economic issues, de Klerk announced the unbanning of the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress, the South African Communist Party and a number of their associated ancillary groups.
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1991 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
UN-controlled referendum allows Eritreans to declare for independence and pulls back Ethiopian army. In April 1993, the Eritrean people voted almost unanimously in favour of independence in the Eritrean independence referendum.
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1991 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after being banned for decades, Nelson Mandela was elected president of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's national chairperson.
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1992 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Frelimo subdues the rebels and gets a peace treaty. The Mozambican Civil War ended in 1992, following the collapse of support from the Soviet Union and South Africa for FRELIMO and RENAMO, respectively.
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1993 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Eritreans declare independence and name Asmara the capital; Ethiopia is completely cut off from the Red Sea.
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1993 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Melchior Ndadaye was a Burundian banker and politician who became the first democratically elected and first Hutu president of Burundi after winning the landmark 1993 election. Ndadaye was sworn-in as President of Burundi on 10 July 1993. In his inaugural address he promised to create a "new Burundi". He assembled a government of 23 ministers, including 13 FRODEBU and six UPRONA members. (October 21) Ndadaye is Assassinated.
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1993 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Nelson Mandela wins the Nobel Peace Prize in conjunction with De Klerk, the former white president. The Nobel Peace Prize 1993 was awarded jointly to Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa"
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1994 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
On 10 May 1994, after three and a half centuries of colonialism and apartheid, Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected president.
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1994 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias. While the Rwandan Constitution states that over 1 million people were killed, most scholarly estimates suggest between 500,000 and 662,000 Tutsi died. The genocide was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbors, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped.
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1996–1997 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
First Congo Civil War leads to the overthrow of President Mobutu Sese Seko and changing the name of the nation back to Democratic Republic of Congo. By 1990, economic deterioration and unrest forced Mobutu Sese Seko into coalition with his power opponents. Although he used his troops to thwart change, his antics did not last long. President Mobutu Sese Seko leaves and Kabila takes power in Congo. In May 1997, rebel forces led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila overran the country and forced him into exile.
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1997 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council overthrows President Kabbah in Sierra Leone. In 1996, a coup attempt involving Johnny Paul Koroma and other junior officers of the Sierra Leone Army was unsuccessful, but served as notice that Kabbah's control over military and government officials in Freetown was weakening. In May 1997, a military coup forced Kabbah into exile in neighbouring Guinea.
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1997 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Charles Taylor, of the National Patriotic Party, wins the election in Liberia but civil war breaks out. The peace lasted for two years until the Second Liberian Civil War broke out when anti-Taylor forces invaded Liberia from Guinea in April 1999.
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1997 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
At a nationally televised press conference, Fela reasserts his right to smoke weed. He is arrested for drug dealing. Fela defies a police order to close the Shrine and continues to perform at the club. In June, ill-health forces him to cancel a European tour. He is cared for at home by his daughter Yeni. In late July, he is admitted to hospital.
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1997 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
On 2 August, Fela dies. An estimated hundred and fifty thousand people gather in Tafawa Balewa Square to pay their final respects, and over a million others line the route as the coffin is taken to the Shrine for a private ceremony for family and friends. The crowd is so dense that it takes seven hours to cover the twenty kilometre journey. The following day Fela is buried in the grounds of Kalakuta.
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1998 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
President Kabbah is reinstated in a democratic election in Sierra Leone. He was briefly ousted in a military coup the following year before being restored to power by a West African regional force.
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1999 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Kabila removes all ethnic Tutsis from government and orders all Rwandan and Ugandan officials out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in the Second Congo Civil War which last until 2002 and is referred to as Africa’s World War.
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1999 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Attempt to overthrow the government in Freetown results in a massive loss of life and destruction of property. The Sierra Leonean Civil War (1991–2002) was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted almost 11 years, and had over 50,000, up to 70,000, casualties in total; an estimated 2.5 million people were displaced during the conflict.
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2000 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Nigerian Civil War receives closure when the Guardian of Lagos writes that President Olusegun Obasanjo commuted to retirement the dismissal of all military persons who fought for the breakaway state of Biafra.
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2001 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Organisation of African Unity is disbanded in favour of the African Union, as the OAU was seem as largely ineffectual and as a “dictators club”. The AU launched in 2002 in South Africa. The objects of AU are to continue to advance the development of the continent and to achieve unity and solidarity amongst African states.
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2001 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The New Partnership for Africa's Development is an economic development program of the African Union. The NEPAD strategic framework originates with a mandate given to the five initiating heads of state (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa) by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to develop an integrated socioeconomic development framework for Africa and is formally adopted by the OAU at its 37th summit
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2001 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Namibia files lawsuit to gain $2 billion in reparations from Germany.
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2002 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the oldest known fossil of a hominid, dated to 7 million years, found in Chad.
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2002 BCE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Belgium prime minister officially apologizes for the death of Patrice Lumumba. The restitution ceremony for a gold-capped tooth belonging to the Congolese leader who was assassinated in 1961 was marked by the denunciation of the 'pernicious system' of colonization.
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2003 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
President Gbagbo and rebel leaders sign accords creating a government of national unity in Côte d’Ivoire.
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2004 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
German government apologizes for the genocide during the Herero uprising. A rebellion by Herero people in Namibia broke out in January 1904 and continued until 31 March 1907. The Herero had possibly migrated earlier from further north in Africa to settle in Namibia. The Herero people's freedom and culture became heavily restricted as German control grew.
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2004 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Pursuant to the 1999 national elections, which the ANC won by a significant majority, Mbeki was elected president of South Africa. He was re-elected for a second term in 2002.
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2005 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Dr. John Garang De Mabior was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement as a commander in chief during the Second Sudanese Civil War. John Garang becomes president of the Republic of Sudan but dies in July 2005 in a helicopter crash.
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2006 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, who had been given sanctuary in Nigeria in 2003, is arrested and handed over to the United Nations War Tribunal in Sierra Leone.
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2006 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ellen Sirleaf Johnson is elected president of Liberia, becoming the first female leader in modern times to run an African nation.
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2006 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
South Africa becomes the first African country, and the fifth in the world, to allow same-sex unions.
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2007 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ghana’s President John Kufuor says off-shore oil reserves total 3 billion barrels and will make Ghana a major producer. Ghana is believed to have up to 5 billion barrels (790,000,000 m3) to 7 billion barrels (1.1×109 m3) of petroleum in reserves, which is the sixth largest in Africa and the 25th largest proven reserves in the world and Ghana has up to 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in reserves.
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2007 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Madagascar’s President Ravalomanana opens 3.3 billion dollar nickel cobalt mining project in Tamatave. Mine said to be largest of its kind in the world.
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2008 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Following a long dispute an agreement is reached and Nigeria finally hands over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon. Bakassi, a peninsula on the Gulf of Guinea. It lies between the Cross River estuary, near the city of Calabar and the Rio del Ray estuary on the east. It is governed by Cameroon, following the transfer of sovereignty from neighbouring Nigeria as a result of a judgment by the International Court of Justice.
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2008 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Nigeria receives assurance from Iran that it will assist in nuclear technology so that Nigeria can increase its generation of electricity.
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2009 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Libya's leader Muammar Gadhafi becomes the president of the AU and promotes his vision of the “United States of Africa.”
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2010 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
South Africa hosted a very successful Fifa World Cup football tournament, defying all the sceptics who raised alarms before the event. It was the first World Cup held in Africa.
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2010 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Wangari Maathai, first African woman to receive the Nobel Prize, dies. Noted for her environmental campaign, she is given a state funeral.
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2011 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
South Sudan becomes an independent state after a lengthy and bloody civil war. On 9 July 2011, South Sudan became the 54th independent country in Africa (9 July is now celebrated as Independence Day, a national holiday) and since 14 July 2011, South Sudan is the 193rd member of the United Nations. On 27 July 2011, South Sudan became the 54th country to join the African Union.
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2011 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The Marikana massacre was the killing of thirty-four miners by the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 16 August 2012 during a six-week wildcat strike.
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2011 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
French troops surround the residence of Laurent Gbagbo and eventually he is captured and handed to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity. The action produces massive outrage and stiff tension in Ivory Coast and throughout the African world.
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2011 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The killing of Muammar Gaddafi took place on 20 October 2011 after the Battle of Sirte. Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured by NTC forces and executed shortly afterwards.
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2012 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
South Africa’s interior minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma becomes the first woman to be elected head of the African Union Commission.
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2013 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president, wins presidential election with just over 50% of the vote. International Criminal Court (ICC) drops charges against Francis Muthaura, a co-accused of Mr Kenyatta, over the 2007 election violence.
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2013 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
The British government says it sincerely regrets the torture of thousands of Kenyans during the suppression of the Mau Mau insurgency in the 1950s and promises £20m in compensation.
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2013 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Ethiopia and Egypt agree to hold talks to ease tensions over the building of an Ethiopian dam on the Blue Nile. Egypt worries the dam will reduce vital water supply.
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2013 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
De Beers completes its move from London to Gaborone in Botswana, a step that should place Botswana a hub for diamond sales. De Beers Global Sightholder Sales moved from the United Kingdom to Botswana and has now operated successfully in Gaborone for more than a decade.
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2013 CE
Source: Afrocentricity International | Wikipedia
Former president Nelson Mandela, the Father of the South African Nation, dies, aged 95. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.