The terms African civilizations, also classical African civilizations, or
African empires
African empires is an umbrella term used in African studies to refer to a number of pre-colonial African kingdoms in Africa with multinational structures incorporating various populations and polities into a single entity, usually through conque ...
are terms that generally refer to the various
pre-colonial African kingdoms
This is a list of kingdoms in pre-colonial Africa, which existed before the Scramble for Africa () when most of the continent came under the control of European powers.
Some kingdoms, such as the Kingdom of Ardra in Benin, Buganda in Uganda, or ...
. The civilizations usually include
Egypt,
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
,
Axum
Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015).
It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole region ...
,
Numidia, and
Nubia,
but may also be extended to the prehistoric
Land of Punt
The Land of Punt ( Egyptian: '' pwnt''; alternate Egyptological readings ''Pwene''(''t'') /pu:nt/) was an ancient kingdom known from Ancient Egyptian trade records. It produced and exported gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory a ...
and others:
Kingdom of Dagbon, the
Empire of Ashanti
The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: ), today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted between 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana as well as parts of I ...
,
Kingdom of Kongo,
Empire of Mali,
Kingdom of Zimbabwe
The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (c. 1220–1450) was a medieval Shona ( Karanga) kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital, today's Masvingo (meaning fortified), which is commonly called Great Zimbabwe, is the largest stone structure in p ...
,
Songhai Empire, the
Garamantes
The Garamantes ( grc, Γαράμαντες, translit=Garámantes; la, Garamantes) were an ancient civilisation based primarily in present-day Libya. They most likely descended from Iron Age Berber tribes from the Sahara, although the earliest kno ...
the
Empire of Ghana
The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, a ...
,
Bono state
Bono State (or Bonoman) was a trading state created by the Bono people, located in what is now southern Ghana. Bonoman was a medieval Akan kingdom in what is now Bono, Bono East and Ahafo region respectively named after the (Bono and Ahafo) a ...
,
Harla Kingdom and
Kingdom of Benin.
Civilizations
Benin Kingdom
The Benin Kingdom was located in West Africa between the 11th century and 1897 A.D. It is popularly known for its
bronzes.
Eritrea and Ethiopia
Two civilizations inhabited the lands encompassing the modern day states of
Eritrea and
Ethiopia.
Dʿmt
The first kingdom known to have existed in Eritrea and Ethiopia was the kingdom of
Dʿmt, with its capital at
Yeha, where a
Sabaean Sabean or Sabaean may refer to:
*Sabaeans, ancient people in South Arabia
**Sabaean language, Old South Arabian language
*Sabians, name of a religious group mentioned in the Quran, historically adopted by:
**Mandaeans, Gnostic sect from the marshl ...
style temple was built around 700 BC. It rose to power around the 10th century BC. The Dʿmt kingdom was influenced by the Sabaeans in Yemen, however it is not known to what extent. While it was once believed that Dʿmt was a Sabaean colony, it is now believed that Sabaean influence was minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before
Aksum
Axum, or Aksum (pronounced: ), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015).
It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire, a naval and trading power that ruled the whole regio ...
's early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the
Aksumite kingdom possibly around the beginning of the 1st century.
Axum
The first verifiable kingdom of great power to rise in Eritrea and Ethiopia was that of Axum in the 1st century AD. It was one of many successor kingdoms to
Dʿmt and was able to unite the
Eritrean and northern
Ethiopian Highlands
The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...
beginning around the 1st century BC. They established bases on the northern highlands of the Ethiopian Plateau and from there expanded southward. The
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
religious figure
Mani
Mani may refer to:
Geography
* Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia
* Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad
* Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece
* Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshina ...
listed Axum with
Rome,
Persia, and
China as one of the four great powers of his time. The origins of the
Axumite Kingdom are unclear, although experts have offered their speculations about it.
Christianity was introduced into the country by
Frumentius
Frumentius ( gez, ፍሬምናጦስ; died c. 383) was a Phoenician Christian missionary and the first bishop of Axum who brought Christianity to the Kingdom of Aksum. He is sometimes known by other names, such as Abuna ("Our Father") and ...
, who was consecrated first bishop of Axum by
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria about 330. Frumentius converted
Ezana, who left several inscriptions detailing his reign both before and after his conversion. One inscription found at Axum, states that he conquered the nation of the
Bogos
The Bilen (also variously transcribed as Blin, and also formerly known as the Bogo, Bogos or North Agaw) are a Cushitic ethnic group in the Eritrea. They are primarily concentrated in central Eritrea, in and around the city of Keren and further s ...
, and returned thanks to his father, the god Mars, for his victory. Later inscriptions show Ezana's growing attachment to Christianity, and Ezana's coins bear this out, shifting from a design with disc and crescent to a design with a cross. Expeditions by Ezana into the
Kingdom of Kush at
Meroe in Sudan may have brought about its demise, though there is evidence that the kingdom was experiencing a period of decline beforehand. As a result of Ezana's expansions, Aksum bordered the Roman
province of Egypt. The degree of Ezana's control over Yemen is uncertain. Though there is little evidence supporting Aksumite control of the region at that time, his title, which includes ''king of Saba and Salhen, Himyar and Dhu-Raydan'' (all in modern-day Yemen), along with gold Aksumite coins with the inscriptions, "king of the ''
Habshat''" or "Habashite", indicate that Aksum might have retained some legal or actual footing in the area.
Egypt
Ancient Egypt was a
civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
of
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
Northeast Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the
Nile River
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
in the place that is now the country
Egypt. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed
prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC.
Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power in the New Kingdom, ruling much of
Nubia and a sizable portion of the
Near East, after which it entered a period of slow decline. During the course of its history Egypt was invaded or conquered by a number of foreign powers, including the
Hyksos, the
Libyans, the
Nubians, the
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
ns, the
Achaemenid Persians, and the
Macedonians under the command of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
. The Greek
Ptolemaic Kingdom, formed in the aftermath of Alexander's death, ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler. ...
, it fell to the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
and became
a Roman province.
The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the
Nile River valley for agriculture. The predictable
flooding and controlled
irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and
social development and culture. With resources to spare, the
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent
writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and
a military intended to defeat foreign enemies and assert Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite
scribes
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promin ...
, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a
pharaoh, who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people in the context of an elaborate system of
religious beliefs.
The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the
quarrying,
surveying and construction techniques that supported the building of monumental
pyramids
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...
,
temples, and
obelisks; a system of
mathematics, a practical and effective
system of medicine, irrigation systems and agricultural production techniques, the first known planked boats,
Egyptian faience
Egyptian faience is a sintered- quartz ceramic material from Ancient Egypt. The sintering process "covered he materialwith a true vitreous coating" as the quartz underwent vitrification, creating a bright lustre of various colours "usually i ...
and glass technology, new forms of
literature, and the
earliest known peace treaty, made with the Hittites. Ancient Egypt has left a lasting legacy. Its
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
and
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. A new-found respect for antiquities and excavations in the early modern period by Europeans and Egyptians led to the
scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy.
Sudan
Kerma
Kerma was a civilization based in
Upper Nubia and centered in
Kerma, Sudan from c. 2500 BC to c. 1500 BC. The kingdom was known as Hkꜣr in Egyptian texts from the
Middle Kingdom period. The largest tombs at Kerma measured nearly 300 feet in
diameter.
Kerma's army was mostly built around
archer
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...
s.
The city of Kerma also had workshops specializing
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typica ...
and
faience.
The
rulers of Kerma initially sought an alliance with the
Hyksos during the
Second Intermediate Period
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 by ...
in order to crush Egyptian rule, but the rise of the
New Kingdom of Egypt saw Egypt conquer Kerma in c. 1500 BC.
Kush
Kush was a Nubian kingdom that emerged following the decline of the
New Kingdom of Egypt in c. 1070 BC. Kush was initially centered in
Napata until 542 BC when the capital moved to
Meroe. At its height, the kingdom conquered Egypt in the 8th century BC and ruled as the
Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt
The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, the Black Pharaohs, or the Napatans, after their capital Napata, was the last dynasty of th ...
until 656 BC when the Kushites were driven out by the
Assyrian conquest of Egypt
The Assyrian conquest of Egypt covered a relatively short period of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 673 BCE to 663 BCE. The conquest of Egypt not only placed a land of great cultural prestige under Assyrian rule but also brought the Neo-Assyrian Empi ...
. Kush would remain independent long after Egypt had been conquered by a series of foreign rulers (i.e. the
Achaemenids
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
,
Greeks and
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
from 525 BC onwards) and ultimately lasted until c. 350 AD when
Meroe was sacked by the
Kingdom of Aksum
The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wha ...
.
Kush was more 'Egyptianized' compared to the earlier
Kerma kingdom due to Egyptian rule of Nubia in the five centuries before Kush's independence. Kushite monarchs took Egyptian titles and were buried in
pyramids
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...
.
Egyptian hieroglyphs were also used, though the
Meroitic script was also used beginning in c. 300 BC.
Nobatia
Nobatia was located in
Lower Nubia
Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern p ...
and first emerged as a kingdom in c. 400 AD.
Initially Nobatia followed the cult of
Isis but converted to
Christianity in 543. Nobatia was annexed by
Makuria
Makuria (Old Nubian: , ''Dotawo''; gr, Μακουρία, Makouria; ar, المقرة, al-Muqurra) was a Nubian kingdom located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. Makuria originally covered the area along the Nile River from t ...
in the early 8th century.
Makuria
Makuria was a Nubian kingdom that was based in
Dongola and lasted from the 5th to the 16th centuries.
Alodia
Alodia was a Nubian kingdom located in what is now central and southern Sudan, which lasted from the 6th to the early 16th century.
Funj Sultanate
The Funj Sultanate was founded in 1504 and at its peak ruled over an area covering parts of modern day
Sudan,
Eritrea and
Ethiopia.
References
{{reflist
External links
Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization (ASCAC)Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization (ASCAC)
Pan-Africanism
History of Africa