History

The first kingdom for which there is documentary evidence is that of Aksum (Axum), a kingdom which probably emerged in the 2d cent. A.D., thus making Ethiopia the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the most ancient in the world.

It was not until c.3000 B.C. that the Sahara transformed into its present arid state. The camel was introduced probably in the 1st cent. A.D. and facilitated occupation by nomads.

Ancient state of NE Africa. At the height of its political power Nubia extended, from north to south, from the First Cataract of the Nile (near Aswan, Egypt) to Khartoum, in Sudan.

Extinct language of Ethiopia belonging to the North Ethiopic group of the South Semitic (or Ethiopic) languages, which, in turn, belong to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages.

Amun was one of the most important deities in ancient Egypt and remains one of the best represented in the surviving material culture.

In ancient Egypt the jackal-headed god Anubis was originally the most important deity linked to funerals and death. Over time, however, this role was taken over by the god Osiris, and Anubis became associated with preserving dead bodies and guiding the dead in the underworld.

Bastet was an ancient Egyptian goddess, whose cult probably first appeared in the city of Bubastis.

Heket was a goddess associated with birth, depicted as a frog-headed woman or as a frog. Some of the early images of frogs, associated with fertility due to their plentiful supply after the inundation, might be ascribed to Heket.

Horus was a solar and sky god and one of the most important Egyptian gods associated with kingship.

Isis was one of the most important goddesses of ancient Egypt. She was the daughter of Nut, the sky goddess, and Geb, the earth god, and the sister and consort of Osiris, the chief deity of death. Isis and Osiris's son, Horus, became the ruler of Egypt.

Maat was the goddess of cosmic order or balance, as well as truth. She was the foundation of Egyptian religion.

In ancient Egypt the goddess Nut was known as mother sky. Her body was both the day and the night sky, and the sun god traveled across and through her eternally.

Ancient Egyptian god, the embodiment of goodness, who ruled the underworld after being killed by Set. The pharaohs were believed to be his incarnation.

Ptah was the chief deity of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis and the god of craftspeople. Worship of Ptah began to overlap with that of ancient Egyptian gods Sokar and Osiris, and through them Ptah became associated with the afterlife. His most important role, however, is that of a powerful creator god.

In Maatian or ancient Egyptian theology, Ra (Re) is the Creator and has many names, manifestations, and forms according to the sacred texts, beginning with the earliest discourse on Ra in the Pyramid Texts

In ancient Egypt, there was a lioness goddess named Sekhmet. The meaning of her name was “the Powerful One.”

In ancient Egypt, Set was considered the deity related to confusion, indecision, chaos, and evil.

The ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, Djehwty, Tehuti, Djehuty, was called by the Greeks Thoth. He was depicted in either one of two forms, an ibis or a baboon.

Second-largest continent (after Asia), straddling the equator and lying largely within the tropics. Africa's first great civilization emerged in ancient Egypt in c.3400 BC. Carthage was founded by Phoenicians in the 9th century BC.

Ancient Phoenician port in North Africa founded by colonists from Tyre in the late 9th century BC. A leading trading centre, it was in conflict with Greece from the 6th century BC, and then with Rome, and was destroyed by Roman forces in 146 BC at the end of the Punic Wars.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Battle fought 202 BC in Numidia (now Algeria), in which the Carthaginians under Hannibal were defeated by the Romans under the younger Scipio, so ending the Second Punic War.

From Encyclopedia of African History
Osei Tutu, ruler of Asante from 1701 to 1717, stands out as one of the most important figures in Asante history. He finalized the long task of nation building initiated by Twum and Antwi, the first two Asante rulers.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The kingdom was an absolute monarchy, quite unlike the surrounding traditional kingdoms.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The ancient kingdom of Ghana was founded in the western part of the savanna region of West Africa.

From Encyclopedia of African History
One of the great empires of the Middle Ages.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The largest of the three great West African empires of the later Iron Age, [the Songhay Empire] flourished between the mid-fifteenth and late sixteenth centuries, but the foundations were laid some hundreds of years earlier. Today, the Songhay are the dominant ethnic group in the vicinity of Gao and their fortunes are intimately associated with the River Niger, especially in the area known as the Niger Bend, encompassing eastern Mali and northwestern Niger.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The Fulbe are one of the most widespread ethnic groups in West Africa and have played a prominent role in West African history.

From Encyclopedia of Empire
The Mossi became a West African power that sought to control the economically rich Niger bend when seven states emerged as Malian power declined in the 15th century.

From Encyclopedia of African History
By 1400, Oyo, which was farther to the north at the margins of the forest and savanna, became the dominant commercial and political city of the Yoruba.

The origins of Timbuktu are obscure. According to local tradition and an indigenous chronicle written in the seventeenth century, the Tarikh es Soudan, the city was founded in approximately 1100 as a seasonal nomad camp.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The Tukulor empire of Al Hajj Umar (c. 1796-1864) was formed in western Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century, against the background of major jihads (holy wars) and the beginning of colonial penetration.

Great Zimbabwe existed for over 500 years as a bustling center of trade and commerce, and it politically dominated the surrounding valley and plateaus.