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Sub-Saharan Africa
please note:
- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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{{Short description|Region south of the Sahara Desert}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}{{Use British English|date=November 2013}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
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- JOURNAL, Claussen, Mark, Kubatzki, Claudia, Brovkin, Victor, Ganopolski, Andrey, Hoelzmann, Philipp, Pachur, Hans-Joachim, 1999, Simulation of an Abrupt Change in Saharan Vegetation in the Mid-Holocene, Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 14, 2037–40, 10.1029/1999GL900494, 1999GeoRL..26.2037C, 11858/00-001M-0000-0013-FBE4-E, 6463581,pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1810390/component/escidoc:1810389/grl13300.pdf, 29 October 2018, 8 August 2017,pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1810390/component/escidoc:1810389/grl13300.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20170808205835pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1810390/component/escidoc:1810389/grl13300.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20170808205835pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1810390/component/escidoc:1810389/grl13300.pdf, live, free,
- JOURNAL,www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990712080500.htm, Sahara’s Abrupt Desertification Started By Changes In Earth’s Orbit, Accelerated By Atmospheric And Vegetation Feedbacks, 12 July 1999, Science Daily, 28 February 2018, 7 March 2014,web.archive.org/web/20140307060153/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990712080500.htm, live, the Saharan and sub-Saharan regions of Africa have been separated by the extremely harsh climate of the sparsely populated Sahara, forming an effective barrier that is interrupted only by the Nile in Sudan, though navigation on the Nile was blocked by the Sudd and the river’s cataracts. There is also an evident genetic divide between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa that dates back to the Neolithic. The Sahara pump theory explains how flora and fauna (including Homo sapiens) left Africa to penetrate Eurasia and beyond. African pluvial periods are associated with a “Wet Sahara” phase, during which larger lakes and more rivers existed.JOURNAL, van Zinderen-Bakker, E.M., A Late-Glacial and Post-Glacial Climatic Correlation between East Africa and Europe, Nature, 194, 201–03, 14 April 1962, 10.1038/194201a0, 4824, 1962Natur.194..201V, 186244151,
Nomenclature
(File:Meyers-L2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Ethnographic map of Africa, from Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (1932))Geographers historically divided the region into several distinct ethnographic sections based on each area’s respective inhabitants.BOOK, Raunig, Walter, Afrikas Horn: Akten der Ersten Internationalen Littmann-Konferenz 2. bis 5. Mai 2002 in München, 2005, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 3-447-05175-2, 130,books.google.com/books?id=JpNY7VPn1WUC&pg=PA130, ancient Arabic geography had quite a fixed pattern in listing the countries from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean: These are al-Misr (Egypt) – al-Muqurra (or other designations for Nubian kingdoms) – al-Habasha (Abyssinia) – Barbara (Berber, i.e. the Somali coast) – Zanj (Azania, i.e. the country of the “blacks“). Correspondingly almost all these terms (or as I believe: all of them!) also appear in ancient and medieval Chinese geography, 9 June 2016, Commentators in Arabic in the medieval period used the general term bilâd as-sûdân (“Land of the Blacks“) for the vast Sudan region (an expression denoting Central and West Africa),{{citation |author=International Association for the History of Religions |title=Numen |publisher=EJ Brill |place=Leiden |year=1959 |page=131 |quote=West Africa may be taken as the country stretching from Senegal in the west, to the Cameroons in the east; sometimes it has been called the central and western Sudan, the Bilad as-SÅ«dan, ‘Land of the Blacks’, of the Arabs}} or sometimes extending from the coast of West Africa to Western Sudan.Nehemia Levtzion, Randall Lee Pouwels, The History of Islam in Africa, (Ohio University Press, 2000), p. 255. Its equivalent in Southeast Africa was Zanj (“Country of the Blacks“), which was situated in the vicinity of the Great Lakes region.The geographers drew an explicit ethnographic distinction between the Sudan region and its analogue Zanj, from the area to their extreme east on the Red Sea coast in the Horn of Africa. In modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea was Al-Habash or Abyssinia,Sven Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence, (Tsehai, 2003), p. 30. which was inhabited by the Habash or Abyssinians, who were the forebears of the Habesha.Jonah Blank, Mullahs on the mainframe: Islam and modernity among the Daudi Bohras, (University of Chicago Press, 2001), p. 163. In northern Somalia was Barbara or the Bilad al-Barbar (“Land of the Berbers“), which was inhabited by the Eastern Baribah or Barbaroi, as the ancestors of the Somalis were referred to by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively.F.R.C. Bagley et al., The Last Great Muslim Empires, (Brill: 1997), p. 174Bethwell A. Ogot, Zamani: A Survey of East African History, (East African Publishing House: 1974), p. 104James Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 12: V. 12, (Kessinger Publishing, LLC: 2003), p. 490In the 19th and 20th centuries, the populations south of the Sahara were divided into three broad ancestral groups: Hamites and Semites in the Horn of Africa and Sahel related to those in North Africa, who spoke languages belonging to the Afroasiatic family; Negroes in most of the rest of the subcontinent (hence, the toponym Black Africa for Africa south of the SaharaWEB, black Africa,dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/black-africa, Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University, 13 March 2021, 20 January 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180120120618/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/black-africa, live, ), who spoke languages belonging to the Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan families; and Khoisan in Southern Africa, who spoke languages belonging to the Khoisan family.Climate zones and ecoregions
{{Further|Afrotropical realm|Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands|List of tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions}}File:Sub Saharan Africa Climate Map.png|thumb|Climate zones of Africa, showing the ecological break between the hot desert climate of North Africa and the Horn of Africa (red), the hot semi-arid climate of the Sahel and areas surrounding semi-deserts (orange) and the tropical climate of Central and West Africa (blue). Southern Africa has a transition to subtropical or temperate climatetemperate climateSub-Saharan Africa has a wide variety of climate zones or biomes. South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular are considered megadiverse countries. It has a dry winter season and a wet summer season.- The Sahel extends across all of Africa at a latitude of about 10° to 15° N. Countries that include parts of the Sahara Desert proper in their northern territories and parts of the Sahel in their southern region include Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan. The Sahel has a hot semi-arid climate.
- South of the Sahel, a belt of savanna (the West and East Sudanian savannas) stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ethiopian Highlands. The more humid Guinean and Northern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic lie between the savannas and the equatorial forests.
- The Horn of Africa includes hot desert climate along the coast but a hot semi-arid climate can be found much more in the interior, contrasting with savanna and moist broadleaf forests in the Ethiopian Highlands.
- Tropical Africa encompasses tropical rainforest stretching along the southern coast of West Africa and across most of Central Africa (the Congo) west of the African Great Lakes.
- In East Africa, woodlands, savannas, and grasslands are found in the equatorial zone, including the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya.
- Distinctive Afromontane forests, grasslands, and shrublands are found in the high mountains and mountain ranges of eastern Africa, from the Ethiopian Highlands to South Africa.
- South of the equatorial forests, the Western and Southern Congolian forest–savanna mosaic are transition zones between the tropical forests and the miombo woodland belt that spans the continent from Angola to Mozambique and Tanzania.
- The Namib and Kalahari Deserts lie in Southern Africa, and are surrounded by semi-deserts including the Karoo region of South Africa. The Bushveld grasslands lie to the east of the deserts.
- The Cape Floristic Region is at Africa’s southern tip, and is home to diverse subtropical and temperate forests, woodlands, grasslands, and shrublands.
History
{{Further|African empires|List of kingdoms in pre-colonial Africa#List of African kingdoms|African archaeology}}Prehistory
{{Further|History of Africa#Prehistory|Prehistoric West Africa|Prehistoric Central Africa|Prehistoric East Africa|Horn of Africa#Prehistory|Prehistoric Southern Africa|African archaeology}}File:Olduvai stone chopping tool.jpg|thumb|Stone chopping tool from Olduvai GorgeOlduvai GorgeAccording to paleontology, early hominid skull anatomy was similar to that of their close cousins, the great African forest apes, gorilla and chimpanzee. However, they had adopted a bipedal locomotion and freed hands, giving them a crucial advantage enabling them to live in both forested areas and on the open savanna at a time when Africa was drying up, with savanna encroaching on forested areas. This occurred 10 million to 5 million years ago.Shillington, Kevin(2005). History of Africa, Rev. 2nd Ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 2, {{ISBN|0-333-59957-8}}.By 3 million years ago several australopithecine hominid species had developed throughout Southern, East, and Central Africa. They were tool users rather than tool manufacturers. The next major evolutionary step occurred around 2.3 million BCE, when primitive stone tools were used to scavenge the carcasses of animals killed by other predators, both for their meat and their marrow. In hunting, H. habilis was most likely not capable of competing with large predators and was more prey than hunter, although H. habilis likely did steal eggs from nests and may have been able to catch small game and weakened larger prey such as cubs and older animals. The tools were classed as Oldowan.Shillington, Kevin(2005). History of Africa, Rev. 2nd Ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 2–3, {{ISBN|0-333-59957-8}}.Roughly 1.8 million years ago, Homo ergaster first appeared in the fossil record in Africa. From Homo ergaster, Homo erectus (upright man) evolved 1.5 million years ago. Some of the earlier representatives of this species were small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like H. habilis. The brain later grew in size, and H. erectus eventually developed a more complex stone tool technology called the Acheulean. Potentially the first hominid to engage in hunting, H. erectus mastered the art of making fire. They were the first hominids to leave Africa, going on to colonize the entire Old World, and perhaps later on giving rise to Homo floresiensis. Although some recent writers suggest that H. georgicus, a H. habilis descendant, was the first and most primitive hominid to ever live outside Africa, many scientists consider H. georgicus to be an early and primitive member of the H. erectus species.Shillington, Kevin(2005). History of Africa, Rev. 2nd Ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 3, {{ISBN|0-333-59957-8}}.The fossil and genetic evidence shows Homo sapiens developed in Southern and East Africa by around 350,000 to 260,000 years agoJOURNAL, Schlebusch, etal, Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago, Science, 358, 6363, 3 November 2017, 652–655, 10.1126/science.aao6266, 28971970, 2017Sci...358..652S, free, JOURNAL, Mounier, Aurélien, Lahr, Marta, Deciphering African late middle Pleistocene hominin diversity and the origin of our species, Nature Communications, 10, 1, 3406, 10.1038/s41467-019-11213-w, 31506422, 6736881, 2019, 2019NatCo..10.3406M, JOURNAL, Scerri, Eleanor M. L., Thomas, Mark G., Manica, Andrea, Gunz, Philipp, Stock, Jay T., Stringer, Chris, Grove, Matt, Groucutt, Huw S., Timmermann, Axel, Axel Timmermann, Rightmire, G. Philip, d’Errico, Francesco, 1 August 2018, Did Our Species Evolve in Subdivided Populations across Africa, and Why Does It Matter?, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, en, 33, 8, 582–594, 10.1016/j.tree.2018.05.005, 0169-5347, 30007846, 6092560, and gradually migrated across the continent in waves. Between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, their expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by modern humans. By 10,000 BCE, Homo sapiens had spread to all corners of the world. This dispersal of the human species is suggested by linguistic, cultural and genetic evidence.JOURNAL, Tishkoff SA, Reed FA, Friedlaender FR, etal, The genetic structure and history of Africans and African Americans, Science, 324, 5930, 1035–44, May 2009, 19407144, 2947357, 10.1126/science.1172257, 2009Sci...324.1035T, During the 11th millennium BP, pottery was independently invented in West Africa, with the earliest pottery there dating to about 9,400 BC from central Mali.WEB, Bradley, Simon, Swiss archaeologist digs up West Africa’s past,www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-archaeologist-digs-up-west-africa-s-past/5675736, 18 January 2007, SWI swissinfo.ch, Swiss Broadcasting Corporation,www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_archaeologist_digs_up_West_Africas_past.html?cid=5675736," title="web.archive.org/web/20120306002155www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_archaeologist_digs_up_West_Africas_past.html?cid=5675736,">web.archive.org/web/20120306002155www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_archaeologist_digs_up_West_Africas_past.html?cid=5675736, 6 March 2012, en, It spread throughout the Sahel and southern Sahara.JOURNAL, Jesse, Friederike, Early Pottery in Northern Africa - An Overview, 2, 219–238, Journal of African Archaeology, 8, 43135518, 2010, 10.3213/1612-1651-10171, After the Sahara became a desert, it did not present a totally impenetrable barrier for travelers between north and south because of the application of animal husbandry towards carrying water, food, and supplies across the desert. Prior to the introduction of the camel,Stearns, Peter N. (2001) The Encyclopedia of World History, Houghton Mifflin Books. p. 16. {{ISBN|0-395-65237-5}}. the use of oxen, mule, and horses for desert crossing was common, and trade routes followed chains of oases that were strung across the desert. The trans-saharan trade was in full motion by 500 BCE with Carthage being a major economic force for its establishment.Collins, Robert O. and Burns, James. M(2007). A History of Sub-saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 62, {{ISBN|978-0-521-86746-7}}Davidson, Basil. Africa History, Themes and Outlines, revised and expanded edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 54, {{ISBN|0-684-82667-4}}.Shillington, Kevin(2005). History of Africa, Rev. 2nd Ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 47, {{ISBN|0-333-59957-8}}. It is thought that the camel was first brought to Egypt after the Persian Empire conquered Egypt in 525 BCE, although large herds did not become common enough in North Africa for camels to be the pack animal of choice for the trans-saharan trade.McEvedy, Colin (1980) Atlas of African History, p. 44. {{ISBN|0-87196-480-5}}.West Africa
{{Further|Ghana Empire|Mali Empire|Songhay Empire|Kingdom of Benin|Kingdom of Nri}}File:Nok sculpture Louvre 70-1998-11-1.jpg|thumb|upright|Nok sculpture, terracotta, LouvreLouvreThe Bantu expansion is a major migration movement that originated in West Central Africa (possibly around Cameroon) around 2500 BCE, reaching East and Central Africa by 1000 BCE and Southern Africa by the early centuries CE.The Djenné-Djenno city-state flourished from 250 BCE to 900 CE and was influential to the development of the Ghana Empire. The Nok culture of Nigeria (lasting from 1,500 BCE to 200 CE) is known from a type of terracotta figure.Breunig, Peter. 2014. Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context: p. 21. There were a number of medieval empires of the southern Sahara and the Sahel, based on trans-Saharan trade, including the Ghana Empire and the Mali Empire, Songhai Empire, the Kanem Empire and the subsequent Bornu Empire.Davidson, Basil. Africa History, Themes and Outlines, revised and expanded edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 87–107, {{ISBN|0-684-82667-4}}. They built stone structures like in Tichit, but mainly constructed in adobe. The Great Mosque of Djenne is most reflective of Sahelian architecture and is the largest adobe building in the world.In the forest zone, several states and empires such as Bono State, Akwamu and others emerged. The Ashanti Empire arose in the 18th century in modern-day Ghana.BOOK, Meyerowitz, Eva L. R.,books.google.com/books?id=F3lyAAAAMAAJ, The Early History of the Akan States of Ghana, 1975, Red Candle Press, 9780608390352, en, The Kingdom of Nri, was established by the Igbo in the 11th century. Nri was famous for having a priest-king who wielded no military power. Nri was a rare African state which was a haven for freed slaves and outcasts who sought refuge in their territory. Other major states included the kingdoms of Ifẹ and Oyo in the western block of Nigeria which became prominent about 700–900 and 1400 respectively, and center of Yoruba culture. The Yoruba’s built massive mud walls around their cities, the most famous being Sungbo’s Eredo. Another prominent kingdom in southwestern Nigeria was the Kingdom of Benin 9th–11th century whose power lasted between the 15th and 19th century and was one of the greatest Empires of African history documented all over the world. Their dominance reached as far as the well-known city of Eko which was named Lagos by the Portuguese traders and other early European settlers. The Edo-speaking people of Benin are known for their famous bronze casting and rich coral, wealth, ancient science and technology and the Walls of Benin, which is the largest man-made structure in the world.In the 18th century, the Oyo and the Aro confederacy were responsible for most of the slaves exported from modern-day Nigeria, selling them to European slave traders.WEB,countrystudies.us/nigeria/7.htm, The Slave Trade, Countrystudies.us, 9 June 2008, 23 June 2011,countrystudies.us/nigeria/7.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20110623172414countrystudies.us/nigeria/7.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20110623172414countrystudies.us/nigeria/7.htm, live, Following the Napoleonic Wars, the British expanded their influence into the Nigerian interior. In 1885, British claims to a West African sphere of influence received international recognition, and in the following year the Royal Niger Company was chartered under the leadership of Sir George Goldie. In 1900, the company’s territory came under the control of the British government, which moved to consolidate its hold over the area of modern Nigeria. On 1 January 1901, Nigeria became a British protectorate as part of the British Empire, the foremost world power at the time. Nigeria was granted its independence in 1960 during the period of decolonization.Central Africa
File:Ann Zingha.jpg|thumb|left|Fictionalised portrait of Nzinga, queen of the Ndongo and Matamba kingdoms]]Archeological finds in Central Africa provide evidence of human settlement that may date back over 10,000 years.BOOK, Philippe Lavachery, Komé-Kribi: Rescue Archaeology Along the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline, 2012,books.google.com/books?isbn=3937248285, etal, According to Zangato and Holl, there is evidence of iron-smelting in the Central African Republic and Cameroon that may date back to 3,000 to 2,500 BCE.JOURNAL, É. Zangato, A.F.C. Holl, On the Iron Front: New Evidence from North-Central Africa, Journal of African Archaeology, 8, 1, 2010, 7–23, 10.3213/1612-1651-10153,www.african-archaeology.de/index.php?page_id=154&journal_id=24&pdf_id=172, dead,www.african-archaeology.de/index.php?page_id=154&journal_id=24&pdf_id=172," title="web.archive.org/web/20131226002521www.african-archaeology.de/index.php?page_id=154&journal_id=24&pdf_id=172,">web.archive.org/web/20131226002521www.african-archaeology.de/index.php?page_id=154&journal_id=24&pdf_id=172, 26 December 2013, Extensive walled sites and settlements have recently been found in Zilum, Chad. The area is located approximately {{convert|60|km|mi|abbr=on}} southwest of Lake Chad, and has been radiocarbon dated to the first millennium BCE.BOOK, J. Cameron Monroe, Akinwumi Ogundiran, Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives, 316,books.google.com/books?isbn=1107009391, , citing Magnavita 2004; Magnavita et al. 2004, 2006; Magnavita and Schleifer 2004.Peter Mitchell et al., The Oxford Handbook of African Archeology (2013), p. 855: “The relatively recent discovery of extensive walled settlements at the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age in the Chad Basin (Magnavita et al., 2006) indicates what enormous sites and processes may still await recognition.“Trade and improved agricultural techniques supported more sophisticated societies, leading to the early civilizations of Sao, Kanem, Bornu, Shilluk, Baguirmi, and Wadai.{{sfn|Appiah|Gates|2010|p=254}}Following the Bantu Migration into Central Africa, during the 14th century, the Luba Kingdom in southeast Congo came about under a king whose political authority derived from religious, spiritual legitimacy. The kingdom controlled agriculture and regional trade of salt and iron from the north and copper from the Zambian/Congo copper belt.Shillington, Kevin(2005). History of Africa, Rev. 2nd Ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 138–39, 142, {{ISBN|0-333-59957-8}}.Rival kingship factions which split from the Luba Kingdom later moved among the Lunda people, marrying into its elite and laying the foundation of the Lunda Empire in the 16th century. The ruling dynasty centralised authority among the Lunda under the Mwata Yamyo or Mwaant Yaav. The Mwata Yamyo’s legitimacy, like that of the Luba king, came from being viewed as a spiritual religious guardian. This imperial cult or system of divine kings was spread to most of central Africa by rivals in kingship migrating and forming new states. Many new states received legitimacy by claiming descent from the Lunda dynasties.The Kingdom of Kongo existed from the Atlantic west to the Kwango river to the east. During the 15th century, the Bakongo farming community was united with its capital at M’banza-Kongo, under the king title, Manikongo. Other significant states and peoples included the Kuba Kingdom, producers of the famous raffia cloth, the Eastern Lunda, Bemba, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Kingdom of Ndongo.East Africa
Sudan
{{Further|History of Sudan}}File:SphinxOfTaharqa.jpg|thumb|upright|Sphinx of the Nubian Emperor TaharqaTaharqaNubia, covered by present-day northern Sudan and southern Egypt, was referred to as “Aethiopia” (“land of the burnt face“) by the Greeks.BOOK, Thompson, Lloyd A., Romans and blacks,books.google.com/books?id=7MQOAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Sub-Saharan+Africa%22+Ethiopia+Aethiopia&pg=PA57, 57, 1989, Taylor & Francis, 0-415-03185-0, 20 October 2020, 30 March 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210330032003/https://books.google.com/books?id=7MQOAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Sub-Saharan+Africa%22+Ethiopia+Aethiopia&pg=PA57, live, Nubia in her greatest phase is considered sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest urban civilisation. Nubia was a major source of gold for the ancient world. Nubians built famous structures and numerous pyramids. Sudan, the site of ancient Nubia, has more pyramids than anywhere else in the world.Mokhtar (editor), AnciGent Civilizations of Africa Vo. II, General History of Africa, UNESCO, 1990{{Better source needed|date=November 2020}}Horn of Africa
{{Further|History of Ethiopia|History of Somalia|History of Eritrea|History of Djibouti|Ethiopian historiography}}File:Gondereshe2008.jpg|thumb|Stone city of GondersheGondersheThe Axumite Empire spanned the southern Sahara, south Arabia and the Sahel along the western shore of the Red Sea. Located in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, Aksum was deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean. Growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period ({{circa}} 4th century BCE), it rose to prominence by the 1st century CE. The Aksumites constructed monolithic stelae to cover the graves of their kings, such as King Ezana’s Stele. The later Zagwe dynasty, established in the 12th century, built churches out of solid rock. These rock-hewn structures include the Church of St. George at Lalibela.File:ET Gondar asv2018-02 img03 Fasil Ghebbi.jpg|thumb|Fasilides Castle, EthiopiaEthiopiaIn ancient Somalia, city-states flourished such as Opone, Mosyllon and Malao that competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the wealthy Indo–Greco–Roman trade.Oman in history By Peter Vine Page 324In the Middle Ages several powerful Somali empires dominated the region’s trade, including the Ajuran Sultanate, which excelled in hydraulic engineering and fortress building,Shaping of Somali society Lee Cassanelli pg.92 the Sultanate of Adal, whose General Ahmed Gurey was the first African commander in history to use cannon warfare on the continent during Adal’s conquest of the Ethiopian Empire,Futuh Al Habash Shibab ad Din and the Geledi Sultanate, whose military dominance forced governors of the Omani empire north of the city of Lamu to pay tribute to the Somali Sultan Ahmed Yusuf.Sudan Notes and Records – 147Somali Sultanate: The Geledi City-state Over 150 Years - Virginia Luling (2002) Page 229BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=DPwOsOcNy5YC, Historical Dictionary of Somalia, xxix, 25 February 2003, 9780810866041, 2014-02-15, Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji, Scarecrow Press, 16 December 2019,web.archive.org/web/20191216062140/https://books.google.com/books?id=DPwOsOcNy5YC, live,Southeast Africa
{{Further|Southeast Africa#History|History of Africa#Southeast Africa}}According to the theory of recent African origin of modern humans, the mainstream position held within the scientific community, all humans originate from either Southeast Africa or the Horn of Africa.JOURNAL, 10.1086/505436, 16826514, 1559480, A Geographically Explicit Genetic Model of Worldwide Human-Settlement History, The American Journal of Human Genetics, 79, 2, 230–237, 2006, Liu, Hua, Prugnolle, Franck, Manica, Andrea, Francois Balloux, Balloux, François, During the first millennium CE, Nilotic and Bantu-speaking peoples moved into the region, and the latter now account for three-quarters of Kenya’s population.File:Tongoni Ruins.jpg|thumb|left|The Tongoni Ruins south of Tanga in TanzaniaTanzaniaOn the coastal section of Southeast Africa, a mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab and Persian traders, leading to the development of the mixed Arab, Persian and African Swahili City States.BOOK, James De Vere Allen, Swahili Origins: Swahili Culture & the Shungwaya Phenomenon, 1993,archive.org/details/swahilioriginssw0000alle, registration, The Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people. With its original speech community centered on the coastal parts of Tanzania (particularly Zanzibar) and Kenya{{snd}} a seaboard referred to as the Swahili Coast{{snd}} the Bantu Swahili language contains many Arabic loan-words as a consequence of these interactions.Daniel Don Nanjira, African Foreign Policy and Diplomacy: From Antiquity to the 21st Century, ABC-CLIO, 2010, p. 114The earliest Bantu inhabitants of the Southeast coast of Kenya and Tanzania encountered by these later Arab and Persian settlers have been variously identified with the trading settlements of Rhapta, Azania and MenouthiasBOOK, Jens Finke, The Rough Guide to Tanzania, 2010, Rough Guides Limited, 9781848360754,archive.org/details/isbn_9781848360754, registration, referenced in early Greek and Chinese writings from 50 CE to 500 CE.Casson, Lionel (1989). The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Lionel Casson. (Translation by H. Frisk, 1927, with updates and improvements and detailed notes). Princeton, Princeton University Press.Chami, F. A. (1999). “The Early Iron Age on Mafia island and its relationship with the mainland.” Azania Vol. XXXIV 1999, pp. 1–10.Chami, Felix A. 2002. “The Egypto-Graeco-Romans and Paanchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea.” From: Red Sea Trade and Travel. The British Museum. Sunday 6 October 2002. Organised by The Society for Arabian StudiesWEB,depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html, Weilue: The Peoples of the West, Depts.washington.edu, 23 May 2004, 29 September 2015, 23 December 2017,depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20171223070446depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html,">web.archive.org/web/20171223070446depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html, live, Miller, J. Innes. 1969. Chapter 8: “The Cinnamon Route”. In: The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire. Oxford: University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-814264-1}}BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=Ua_tAAAAMAAJ, Perspectives on the African past, 8 January 2010, 10 August 2018, Klein, Martin A., Wesley Johnson, G., 27 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200627010025/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ua_tAAAAMAAJ, live, WEB, Hill, John E., September 2004,depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html, The Peoples of the West from the Weilue: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE, 429 CE, Yu Huan, 17 September 2016, dead,depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20050315032618depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html,">web.archive.org/web/20050315032618depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html, 15 March 2005, English, Section 15 and notes, Silk Road Seattle, BOOK, Evelyne Jone Rich, Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein, Africa: Tradition and Change, 1971, 124, Random House School Division,books.google.com/books?id=pqafAAAAMAAJ, 9780394009384, 9 June 2016, 10 May 2016,web.archive.org/web/20160510082208/https://books.google.com/books?id=pqafAAAAMAAJ, live, These early writings perhaps document the first wave of Bantu settlers to reach Southeast Africa during their migration.BOOK, Rhonda M. Gonzales, Societies, religion, and history: central-east Tanzanians and the world they created, c. 200 BCE to 1800 CE,books.google.com/books?id=o6owAQAAIAAJ, 30 August 2009, Columbia University Press, 978-0-231-14242-7, 222, 9 June 2016, 10 June 2016,web.archive.org/web/20160610094154/https://books.google.com/books?id=o6owAQAAIAAJ, live, Between the 14th and 15th centuries, large medieval Southeast African kingdoms and states emerged, such as the Buganda,Roland Oliver, et al. “Africa South of the Equator,” in Africa Since 1800. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 24–25. Bunyoro and Karagwe kingdoms of Uganda and Tanzania.During the early 1960s, the Southeast African nations achieved independence from colonial rule.Southern Africa
{{Further|Kingdom of Mutapa}}File:Great-Zimbabwe-2.jpg|thumb|(Great Zimbabwe]]: Tower in the Great Enclosure)Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River by the 4th or 5th century displacing and absorbing the original Khoisan speakers. They slowly moved south, and the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan inhabitants. They reached the Fish River in today’s Eastern Cape Province. Monomotapa was a medieval kingdom (c. 1250–1629), which existed between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers of Southern Africa in the territory of modern-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Its old capital was located at Great Zimbabwe.In 1487, Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to reach the southernmost tip of Africa. In 1652, a victualling station was established at the Cape of Good Hope by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, the slowly expanding settlement was a Dutch possession. In 1795, the Dutch colony was captured by the British during the French Revolutionary Wars. The British intended to use Cape Town as a major port on the route to Australia and India. It was later returned to the Dutch in 1803, but soon afterward the Dutch East India Company declared bankruptcy, and the Dutch (now under French control) and the British found themselves at war again. The British captured the Dutch possession yet again at the Battle of Blaauwberg, commanded by Sir David Blair. The Zulu Kingdom was a Southern African tribal state in what is now KwaZulu-Natal in southeastern South Africa. The small kingdom gained world fame during and after their defeat in the Anglo-Zulu War. During the 1950s and early 1960s, most sub-Saharan African nations achieved independence from colonial rule.M. Martin, Phyllis and O’Meara, Patrick (1995). Africa. 3rd edition, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, p. 156, {{ISBN|0-253-32916-7}}.Demographics
Population
{{Further|List of African countries by population}}File:Africa population density.PNG|thumb|upright|Population densityPopulation density(File:Fertility Rates and Life Expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa.png|thumb|left|upright|Fertility rates and life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa)According to {{UN_Population|source}}, the population of sub-Saharan Africa was 1.1 billion in 2019. The current growth rate is 2.3%. The UN predicts for the region a population between 2 and 2.5 billion by 2050WEB,population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/, World Population Prospects 2019 – Population Division, Esa.un.org, 28 August 2019, 22 December 2019, 15 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200615001511/https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/, live, with a population density of 80 per km2 compared to 170 for Western Europe, 140 for Asia and 30 for the Americas.Sub-Saharan African countries top the list of countries and territories by fertility rate with 40 of the highest 50, all with TFR greater than 4 in 2008. All are above the world average except South Africa and Seychelles.WEB,data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?order=wbapi_data_value_2014+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=asc, Fertility rate, total (births per woman) {{!, Data |website=data.worldbank.org |access-date=21 July 2016 |archive-date=8 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160708214110data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?order=wbapi_data_value_2014+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=asc |url-status=live }} More than 40% of the population in sub-Saharan countries is younger than 15 years old, as well as in Sudan, with the exception of South Africa.According to the CIA Factbook {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120805191139www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/wofact2008/index.html |date=5 August 2012 }}: Angola, Benin, Burundi, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia{|class=“wikitable sortable”Languages and ethnic groups
{{Further|Languages of Africa|Writing systems of Africa#Indigenous writing systems|List of African ethnic groups|African diaspora|Black people}}(File:Languages of Africa map.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Map showing the traditional language families spoken in Africa)File:Kwarastatedrummers.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.55|Yoruba drummers (Niger-Congo)]]File:San tribesman.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.55|A San man (Khoisan)]]File:Maasai women and children.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.55|Maasai women and children (Nilo-Saharan)]]File:Eritrean Women.jpeg|thumb|left|upright=0.55|Saho women (Afroasiatic)]]File:Boerfamily1886.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.55|A Boer European African family (Indo-European)]]Sub-Saharan Africa contains over 1,500 languages.Afroasiatic
With the exception of the extinct Sumerian (a language isolate) of Mesopotamia, Afroasiatic has the oldest documented history of any language family in the world. Egyptian was recorded as early as 3200 BCE. The Semitic branch was recorded as early as 2900 BCE in the form of the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia (Assyria and Babylonia) and circa 2500 BCE in the form of the Eblaite language of northeastern Syria.Brown, Keith and Ogilvie, Sarah(2008). Concise encyclopedia of languages of the world Concise Encyclopedias of Language and Linguistics Series. Elsevier, p. 12, {{ISBN|978-0-08-087774-7}}.The distribution of the Afroasiatic languages within Africa is principally concentrated in North Africa and the Horn of Africa. Languages belonging to the family’s Berber branch are mainly spoken in the north, with its speech area extending into the Sahel (northern Mauritania, northern Mali, northern Niger).WEB,www.hcp.ma/Recensement-general-de-la-population-et-de-l-habitat-2004_a633.html, Recensement général de la population et de l’habitat 2004, Youssef, Maaroufi, 26 July 2017, 6 September 2017,www.hcp.ma/Recensement-general-de-la-population-et-de-l-habitat-2004_a633.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20170906063343www.hcp.ma/Recensement-general-de-la-population-et-de-l-habitat-2004_a633.html,">web.archive.org/web/20170906063343www.hcp.ma/Recensement-general-de-la-population-et-de-l-habitat-2004_a633.html, dead, WEB, Lafkioui, Mena B., Berber Languages and Linguistics,hal.science/hal-01914346/file/Lafkioui%20Mena%20B_Berber_languages_and_linguistics_-_linguistics_-_oxford_bibliographies_2018.pdf, Oxford Bibliographies, 25 May 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230203010052/https://hal.science/hal-01914346/file/Lafkioui%20Mena%20B_Berber_languages_and_linguistics_-_linguistics_-_oxford_bibliographies_2018.pdf, 3 February 2023, 10.1093/OBO/9780199772810-0219, 24 May 2018, The Cushitic branch of Afroasiatic is centered in the Horn, and is also spoken in the Nile Valley and parts of the African Great Lakes region. Additionally, the Semitic branch of the family, in the form of Arabic, is widely spoken in the parts of Africa that are within the Arab world. South Semitic languages are also spoken in parts of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea). The Chadic branch is distributed in Central and West Africa.Peek, Philip M. and Yankah, Kwesi (2004). African folklore: an encyclopedia. London: (Routledge) Taylor & Francis, p. 205, {{ISBN|0-415-93933-X}}, 9780415939331 Hausa, its most widely spoken language, serves as a lingua franca in West Africa (Niger, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, and Chad).Schneider, Edgar Werner and Kortmann, Bernd(2004). A handbook of varieties of English: a multimedia reference tool, Volume 1. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 867–68, {{ISBN|978-3-11-017532-5}}.Khoisan
The several families lumped under the term Khoi-San include languages indigenous to Southern Africa and Tanzania, though some, such as the Khoi languages, appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion.Güldemann, Tom and Edward D. Elderkin (forthcoming) “On external genealogical relationships of the Khoe family”. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021922email.eva.mpg.de/~gueldema/pdf/Gueldemann_Elderkin.pdf |date=25 March 2009}} In Brenzinger, Matthias and Christa König (eds.), Khoisan languages and linguistics: the Riezlern symposium 2003. Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung 17. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. In Southern Africa, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and San (Bushmen), in Southeast Africa, the Sandawe and Hadza.Niger–Congo
The Niger–Congo family is the largest in the world in terms of the number of languages (1,436) it contains.Bellwood, Peter S.(2005). First farmers: the origins of agricultural societies. Wiley-Blackwell, p. 218, {{ISBN|978-0-631-20566-1}}. The vast majority of languages of this family are tonal, such as Yoruba and Igbo. However, others such as Fulani, Wolof and Kiswahili are not. A major branch of the Niger–Congo languages is Bantu, which covers a greater geographic area than the rest of the family. Bantu speakers represent the majority of inhabitants in southern, central and southeastern Africa, though San, Pygmy, and Nilotic groups, respectively, can also be found in those regions. Bantu-speakers can also be found in parts of Central Africa such as the Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and southern Cameroon. Swahili, a Bantu language with many Arabic, Persian and other Middle Eastern and South Asian loan words, developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different peoples in southeastern Africa. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as Bushmen (also “San”, closely related to, but distinct from “Hottentots“) have long been present. The San evince unique physical traits, and are the indigenous people of southern Africa. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of Central Africa.Nilo-Saharan
The Nilo-Saharan languages are concentrated in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers of Central Africa and Southeast Africa. They are principally spoken by Nilotic peoples and are also spoken in Sudan among the Fur, Masalit, Nubian and Zaghawa peoples and in West and Central Africa among the Songhai, Zarma and Kanuri. The Old Nubian language is also a member of this family.Major languages of Africa by region, family and number of primary language speakers in millions:{{Clear}}{| class=“wikitable” style="text-valign:top”- Central Africa
- Niger–Congo, Bantu
- Lingala{{Citation|title=Congo, Democratic Republic of the|date=22 May 2023|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/congo-democratic-republic-of-the/|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524102858www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/congo-democratic-republic-of-the/|archive-date=24 May 2023|language=en|access-date=25 May 2023}}
- Kinyarwanda: 12{{Citation|title=Rwanda|date=16 May 2023|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/rwanda/|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524113734www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/rwanda/|archive-date=24 May 2023|language=en|access-date=25 May 2023}}
- Kongo: 5+{{Citation|title=Angola|date=16 May 2023|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/angola/|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524100346www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/angola/|archive-date=24 May 2023|language=en|access-date=25 May 2023}}{{Citation|title=Congo, Republic of the|date=16 May 2023|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/congo-republic-of-the/|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524113611www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/congo-republic-of-the/|archive-date=24 May 2023|language=en|access-date=25 May 2023}}
- Tshiluba
- Kirundi{{Citation|title=Burundi|date=16 May 2023|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/burundi/|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524100422www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/burundi/|archive-date=24 May 2023|language=en|access-date=25 May 2023}}
- Nilo-Saharan
- Nubian: 5+WEB, Memories of Utopia – Infoshop, World Bank,www.secid.org/usefsociety/pdf/nubian.pdf, secid.org, South East Consortium for International Development, 14 October 2015,www.secid.org/usefsociety/pdf/nubian.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20120406044519www.secid.org/usefsociety/pdf/nubian.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20120406044519www.secid.org/usefsociety/pdf/nubian.pdf, 6 April 2012, 31 May 2006,
- Fur: 5+WEB, SSI Finance – Loans and lending guide.,www.southsudaninfo.net/, 2023-02-12, en-US,
- ZaghawaBOOK, John A. Shoup, Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East, 2011, 333,books.google.com/books?isbn=159884363X, “The Zaghawa is one of the major divisions of the Beri peoples who live in western Sudan and eastern Chad, and their language, also called Zaghawa, belongs to the Saharan branch of the Nilo-Saharan language group.”
- Masalit
- Niger–Congo
- Kordofanian languages
- Nuba{{Citation|title=Sudan|date=23 May 2023|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/sudan/|work=The World Factbook|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524114855www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/sudan/|archive-date=24 May 2023|language=en|access-date=25 May 2023}}|
- Kordofanian languages
- Horn of Africa
- Afro-Asiatic
- Nilo-Saharan: and what is currently spent is invested in operating high cost power systems and not on expanding the infrastructure. |archive-date = 28 November 2006}}
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