Most people use the world Black to represent Africa also, they often think Africa is a country owing to their having little or no knowledge of Africa. This page aims to englighten you about the history of Africa, the playlist above contains video documentaries about the true history and culture of the people of the Africa.
The word "History" is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory. It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians, according to Wikipedia.
African History predates any other History known to Mankind so, it impossible to talk about the history of the world without starting from Africa.
African history is the history of humanity, some archeological findings have dated and recorded the oldest human fossil(known as Lucy) to be of African Origin dating far older than any ever found. Due to age difference between Lucy and other human fossils found in Europe, Some historians have debated, If there are no White people during the time of Lucy, could it be that there were only Black people on the planet?
Lucy (Australopithecus) - Skeleton of The Oldest Human Fossil
For over 40,000 years there were only native people of Africa on the planet, who naturally had dark skin. Conversely, if all the "White people" vanished from the Earth, would the remaining "Dark-Skinned" people still be called Blacks?
So the older group must define itself relative to the European newcomers?
Would it not make far more logical sense, to linguistically describe people by their land of origin or the languages the speak?
The terms Negro, Negroid, Colored, Nigger, Black, are all associated with color, none are connected to a continent. Now compare this to Chinko, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid (all are tied to land, all can be located on a map– but not so Negroid/Black).
Black and White are therefore debunked as regressive incomplete terms for describing people. For all of recorded history we see in every conflict a central theme which is that of "land". So critical as humans need land to grow crops on, to source water from, they need a place to build cities and a place to harvest mineral wealth from. So attaching your identity to land makes sense: Attaching your identity to an abstract color, does not. Black and African are not interchangeable in any logical sense.
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. (Africa is not a country). The population of Africa is approximately 1 billion people. There were 54 independent countries on the African continent before, now some countries have divided into two or more parts. Africa is subdivided in 5 sections, North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa and Southern Africa. The first video(1) above shows that Africa is one of the Largest Continent in World based on Land Mass, it also shows that Africa is so much larger than we are taught in Schools. it simply proves why you can find an African in almost any country in the world.
FLags of All African Countries in the World.
West Africa
East Africa
Central Africa
North Africa
South Africa
Now that you know the Countries in Africa, let's talk about some notable awesome moments in the history of Africa. When one the mentions the history of Africa, the first thing that comes to mind is Slave Trade but, Africans thrived in all aspects of life and have existed long before the 18th century when slavery began. Slavery occupies a minor time-frame but, slavery interrupted African History.
According to the African Holocaust Network Many have been draining the African historical record by boxing in what is, and what does not constitutes an authentic African experience. Eurocentric terminologies place certain concepts outside of the African domain with this habit of "tribalizing" Africa; dark, pagan, licentious, unorganized, base and emotive.
Africa had a history, long before the Europeans came to our shores. But the Europeans came to our shores and because they were attracted by what those who came first found (in our case it's gold), and the first European establishment which established in Ghana was established at a place called El Mina, (The Mine), because gold was so abundant and they came with their manufacturing products in exchange for gold. So the Europeans initially came to our country to trade! As partners. It is perhaps the error of the slave trade which changed the perceptions of Europeans about Africans, when our own people were regarded as commodities - by Issac Osei in 500 years Later.
Historically, the world was divided into Kingdoms(not Countries), ruled by Monarchs (Kings, Queens and Emissaries). Africa produced a plethora of advanced civilizations. The most notable of these is the Nile Valley civilization From 3,000 BCE (founding of the First Dynasty), all the way until it was conquered by Persia around 525 BCE. So about 2,500 years. This was followed by the great civilizations of Axum and D'mt, and later by the great Islamic civilizations of the Sahel (Mali, Songhai, and the last in the later Sokoto). The famous Hajj of Mansa Musa in the 13th century was so profound it altered the currency of every country he passed through with his entourage. Later the Sokoto Caliphate is an Islamic spiritual community in Northern Nigeria, led by the Sultan of Sokoto . It was founded during the Fulani War in 1809 by Usman dan Fodio. Throughout the 1800s, it was one of the largest and most powerful empires in sub-Saharan Africa until British conquest in 1903.
A Picture Illustrating the Wonders of Ancient Egypt.
Despite the new wave of myths regarding Nubia and Kemet (Ancient Egypt), It is clear that Kemet and Nubia were neighboring African Civilizations just as Aksum and Nubia. Difference does't mean Nubia was a ‘black race' and Kemet wasn't. Both groups were ethnic groups of indigenous African origin. The ethnic differences were no more significant than Ethiopians versus Kenyans. The largest empire in Ancient African history was the Songhai empire with its iconic leader Askia. The Aksum empire was the 3rd largest African empire at 1.25 million sq km. In the sixth century, the kingdom of Aksum (Axum) was doing what many elsewhere had been doing: pursuing trade and empire. Its exports of ivory, glass crystal, brass and copper items, and perhaps slaves, among other things, had brought prosperity to the kingdom.
Africa is not poor, it is impoverished.....
"Africa is told not to nationalize its resources. The IMF tells us that it's bad economics. When we seek to ensure local ownership through indigenisation laws, we are maligned and vilified as being somehow authoritarian. What is curious is that in those rare instances that the West discovers resources in their own territory, they are quick to nationalize. We have tried their methods in past times and proved them ineffective in helping our people. It is for this reason that we are continuing with the 51% local ownership indigenisation drive which we passed into law a few years ago. In addition to that, mining companies are now compelled to invest part of their profits in the local communities in which they operate. Associated British Foods which operates in Zambia paid just 0.5% of its $123m profits in tax between 2007 and 2012. This is not the type of investment we need in Africa. No longer can our resources continue to be pumped out overseas. We say no to that. May God bless Africa and cause it to prosper." - President Robert Mugabe.
The kingdom of Ghana reached the height of its greatness during the reign of Tenkamenin. Through his careful management of the gold trade across the Sahara desert into West Africa, Tenkamenin's empire flourished economically. But his greatest strength was in government. Each day he would ride out on horseback and listen to the problems and concerns of his people. He insisted that no one be denied an audience and that they be allowed to remain in his presence until satisfied that justice had been done. His principles of democratic monarchy and religious tolerance make Tenkamenin's reign one of the great models of African rule.
Historical illustration of the Kingdom of Ghana
Afro-Peruvians (also Afro Peruvians) are citizens of Peru descended from Africans who were enslaved and brought to the Western hemisphere with the arrival of the conquistadors towards the end of the slave trade. Enslaved Africans first began being imported into Peru in 1521 by Spanish conquistadors. Francisco Pizarro was granted permits to import to colonial Peru, Africans were forced to work in gold mines, on sugar cane plantations, cattle ranches, large haciendas, public construction, building bridges and road systems. They also fought alongside the conquistadors as soldiers and worked as personal servants and bodyguards. In 1533 Afro-Peruvian slaves accompanied Spaniards in the conquest of Cuzco. Today, Most Afro-Peruvian communities live in rural farming areas where mango, rice, and sugarcane production is present. Contrary to the southern coast, these communities are mainly found away from the coastal shores and into the region of the yungas, where the plain meets the Andes.
In 1885, King Leopold II of Belgium, one of the early Europeans to commit genocide in the 20th Century, made Belgium extremely rich at the expense of Congolese lives. He killed, raped, mutilated, the native population in order to import the cocoa beans, rubber, and other natural resources harvested from the plantations in the Congo. The Belgium colonial government would cut off the hands of Congolese wives and children whose fathers failed to meet rubber quotas. And so began the Belgian industrial revolution. Belgium industries flourished in the 1880's as a result of their possession in the Belgian Congo.
Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity. This is one of the many ways how they justified slavery.
An Illustration of King Leopold II of Belgium and the slaves he Mutilated.
The Revolt of Malês was a slave rebellion in Brazil in 1835. A group of enslaved and free Blacks inspired by their Muslim teachers, rose up against the government. Muslims were called Malê in Bahia at this time from the Yoruba word Imale. Many of the enslaved Africans in Brazil were Yoruba. The Malê knew how to read and write and organized revolts in 1807, 1809, 1813, 1816, 1827 and, the biggest, in 1835, all in the Bahia state. Brazilian slaves knew all about the Haitian Revolution and wore necklaces bearing the image of President Dessalines, who had declared Haitian independence. The Malê rebellion would be doomed just like all of the other slave revolts were. Frightened negroes would alert their slave masters of all the plans. In this case free man Domingos Fortunato alerted his ex-master and his wife Guilhermina alerted her ex-master and told him what she'd heard. She then told her neighbor who had in his salon 2 important visitors with government connections. The government was now informed. The Malê spilled into the streets and stood off a cavalry charge and then seized the barracks and palace. Because of the frightened negroes information the government brought in troops from the countryside before the Malê could rally it. After failing to take several key positions the Malê decided to flee. Fearful that the whole state of Bahia would follow the example of Haiti and rise up and revolt, the Portuguese government qualified the Malê too dangerous to stay in Brazil and deported them back to Africa. From then on, to buy this kind of slave was forbidden.Today there are various communities of Afro-Brazilian descendants in West Africa, most of them spread through Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, and Togo because of this deportation. Throughout these countries we can find estates, schools and museums with the name “Brazil”. In these countries it is very common to find Brazilian names like Souza, Silva, Olympio or Cardoso. In Ghana the deported Blacks were welcomed by the Ga people and received by their king as personal guests and received lands in privileged locations, in places that are nowadays very well known estates.
Map Showing important historical parts of Haiti
The Haitian Revolution was Led by former slave Toussaint l'Overture, It is the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. Slaves initiated the rebellion on August 21, 1791 and despite reinforcements from France, Great Britain and Spain, by 1801 l'Overture expanded the revolution beyond Haiti, conquering the neighboring Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic). He abolished slavery in the Spanish-speaking colony and declared himself Governor-General for life over the entire island of Hispaniola. Napoleon Bonaparte, ruler of France, dispatched General Charles Leclerc, his brother-in-law, and 43,000 French troops to capture L'Overture and restore both French rule and slavery. L'Overture was taken and sent to France where he died in prison in 1803. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of l'Overture's generals and himself a former slave, led the revolutionaries at the Battle of Vertieres on November 18, 1803 where the French forces were defeated. On January 1, 1804, Dessalines declared the nation independent and renamed it Haiti. France became the first nation to recognize its independence. Haiti thus emerged as the first black republic in the world, and the second nation in the western hemisphere (after the United States) to win its independence from a European power.
Approximately 20 million slaves were stolen out of Africa, and about 9-12 million made it to the "NewWorld" and were forced into the institution of slavery. Africans were taken from all over the African continent, but especially from West Africa, Central Africa and as far south as Angola. On the east coast of Africa and in the IndianOcean region, slaves were also taken fromMozambique, Zanzibar andMadagascar. The majority of the slaves were sent to Brazil, followed by the Caribbean. The United States of America received about 25% of the slaves.
African-Americans also known as Black Americans are an American ethnic group who have a heritage from Sub-Saharan Africa, they are made up of descendants of African slaves. They predominantly reside in the Southern states of America (54%) and urban areas across the country. Enslaved Africans first began being imported into the United States in 1619 to replace the rapidly declining native American population. Africans were forced to work in cotton fields, tobacco fields, cattle ranches, rice fields and large farms. The White House was built by African American slaves. African American slaves fought for their freedom as soon as they arrived in the United States. From 1619-1865, slave rebellions were very common. The American government always responded to the rebellions with harsh punishments to control the behavior of slaves and prevent any further revolts. Slave codes were established follow the stonorebellion. The Negro Act of 1740, dictated such things as how slaves were to be treated, punished, and dressed. It forbade them from assembling with one another or being taught to read or write. The 1740 slave codes were largely unaltered until emancipation in 1865 when slavery was abolished. After the Civil War, Slave Codes were replaced by Jim Crow.
The terms Negro, Negroid, Colored, Nigger, Black, are all associated with color, none are connected to a continent. Now compare this to Chinko, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid (all are tied to land, all can be located on a map– but not so Negroid/Black).
Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism. Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that whites were the Chosen people, blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. Craniologists, eugenicists, phrenologists, and Social Darwinists, at every educational level, buttressed the belief that blacks were innately intellectually and culturally inferior to whites. Pro-segregation politicians gave eloquent speeches on the great danger of integration: the mongrelization of the white race. Newspaper and magazine writers routinely referred to blacks as niggers, coons, and darkies; and worse, their articles reinforced anti-black stereotypes. Even children's games portrayed blacks as inferior beings. All major societal institutions reflected and supported the oppression of blacks. The Jim Crow system was undergirded by the following beliefs or rationalizations: whites were superior to blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior; sexual relations between blacks and whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.
The term "African Diaspora" refers to the communities throughout the world that are descended from the historic movement of peoples from Africa, predominantly to the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, among other areas around the globe.
In the world today, most people see christianity as a religion that started in Europe or even as a white religion. This is mostly due to the fact that most Biblical characters have been painted to look white even Jesus. The 9th video above titled Eritrea and the history of Christianitythrows more light on the origin of christianity and the true racial identity of Biblical Characters.
Was Yeshua Ha Mashiac "Jesus Christ" black?
He spent the early part of his childhood in Egypt. Ancient Egyptians were black, him and his family went there to blend in with the general population.
In Matthew 2:14, we are told that Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt: "When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt." Egypt has always been a place of refuge for the children of Israel when fleeing from famine and oppression.
Bethlehem is about 100 miles from the border of Egypt. Two hundred miles would bring Joseph and his family to the Nile River. During that time period there were about one million Jews in the Nile valley. In Alexandria, a city of 300,000, from one-fifth to two-fifths of the population were Jews, two of the five wards being given over to them; and the Talmud describes how, in its great synagogue, all the men of like craft or trade sat together.
How long did Yeshua Ha Mashiac stay in Egypt? Herod died in 4 B.C. So depending on when Jesus was born, the journey to Egypt lasted no more than two years, and perhaps as little as a few weeks or months.
Conversely, Where Christianity has spread throughout the world, racism has all too often followed closely behind. Few ethnic groups can claim foul from this cultural aftershock more than our black brethren. We may say "Well they're just paintings, it's not a big deal. It doesn't matter what colour he was." But paintings and images have a powerful impact on our perception of reality. What message does it send and what impression does it give children around the world about their messiah when they see him being "owned" by a certain race and bound to a strictly-enforced racial profile?
A Pictoral Illustration of Black Jesus
This is not an unexplained phenomenon. Since the days of the Roman Empire, Christianity has changed from a humble Jewish following of a man preaching loving foreigners and people of all backgrounds into an ethnocentric pyramid, where white men sit at the top holding an icon of a white God. Christianity has even at times become less of a religion and more of a political statement which says, "God is white! So accept our dominance on earth as well…" Now, in our modern world, reality has finally caught up and overtaken antiquated deception. While it is impossible to prove what colour Jesus was (unless we unearthed a 2000 year old Polaroid photograph of the famous rabbi) we have to be open to the possibility that he may have not only have been a man of color. He may have been a black man.
The Evidence
The Bible says that black people lived among the Israelite ranks. We know this because an entire book - The Song of Solomon - was essentially love poetry about the beauty of King Solomon's black wife!
Afro-Columbians are Columbians who have a heritage from Sub-Saharan Africa. Also known as Black Columbians, they are an ethnic group made up of descendants of African slaves. They predominantly reside in the Pacific Region of Colombia, some areas of the Caribbean natural region and urban areas across the country.
Enslaved Africans first began being imported into Colombia by the Spaniards in the first decade of the 16th century to replace the rapidly declining native American population. Africans were forced to work in gold mines, on sugar cane plantations, cattle ranches, and large haciendas. African workers pioneered the extracting of alluvial gold deposits and the growing of sugar cane in the areas that correspond to the modern day departments of Chocó,Antioquia, Cauca, ValledelCauca, and Nariño in western Colombia.
In eastern Colombia, near the cities ofVélez, Cúcuta, Socorro, and Tunja, Africans manufactured textiles in commercial mills. Emerald mines, outside Bogotá, were wholly dependent upon African laborers. Also, other sectors of the Colombian economy like tobacco, cotton, artisanry and domestic work would have been impossible without African labor.
In pre-abolition Colombian society, many Afro-Colombian slaves fought for their freedom as soon as they arrived in Colombia. Runaway slaves established numerous independent Black African towns called palenques, where Africans could live as cimarrones, that is, they who escaped from their oppressors. These braves men were also to be known as maroons (from the spanish cimarrones, or runaway cattle). Slavery in Columbia was abolished in 1851.
The "Scramble for Africa" was the invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism, between 1881 and 1914. It is also called the Partition of Africa and the Conquest of Africa. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial empire was one of the largest in the world. After the conquest of African decentralized and centralized states, the France established a racist and evil colonial system which forced the French culture and French language on the native African population. Today an estimated 120 million people in Africa spread across 24 francophone countries speak French. Africa is thus the continent with the most French speakers in the world. Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the most populous francophone city in the world, where an estimated 24 million people (40% of the total population) can speak French (essentially as a second language).
Africans proudly served in both World Wars. Over two million African soldiers, workers and porters were directly involved in World War I. Today, their sacrifice has largely been forgotten. West African Anglo-French forces constituted of Ghanaian, Nigerian, Sierra Leonean, Gambian and Beninese troops.
The German Schutztruppe were white German commanders and black African soldiers called askaris.
The British assembled 150,000 troops which was made up of South Africans, Indians, Kenyans and Nigerians.
None of these soldiers would ever have survived, let alone be able to fight, without the unmentioned exploitation of African Slaves.
For every one soldier, German and British troops used four "native carriers," including women and children, who howled food supplies, arms and even artillery; cooked, scrubbed and tended to their needs; and died of exhaustion, malnutrition and disease. Of the 105,000 deaths among British forces during the East Africa campaign, 90% were porters. 45,000 among the dead were from British East Africa (Kenya) alone.
Over a million Africans died in East Africa alone during the First World War. Many more Africans who fought in Europe lost their lives defending the interests of their colonial masters.
The most famous Mardi Gras celebration is held Brazil. The Carnival of Brazil, which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before Easter, dates back to 1723 with the Portuguese immigrants brought it to the "new world". People went out onto the streets soaking each other with buckets of water and threw mud and food, which often ended up in street brawls and riots. The concepts kept changing throughout the 1800s. Brazil has the largest population of Africans in the Diaspora, making up 45% of it's population.
Afro-Brazilians introduced the samba to the festivities. Samba is an eclectic genre of music, song, and dance styles that originated in Afro-Brazilians communities during slavery. After the abolition of slavery in 1888, samba became an integral part of the Rio Carnival. Today, Samba is a true component of The Carnival of Brazil and Brazil's cultural heritage.
Jamaica was Britain's largest and most profitable slave owning colony. The brutal methods of slave management allowed its tenuous social order. For more information on this history, read the diary of plantation owner Thomas Thistlewood.
Thistlewood's diary, kept over the course of forty years, describes in graphic detail how white rule over slaves was predicated on the infliction of terror on the bodies and minds of slaves. Thistlewood treated his slaves cruelly even while he relied on them for his livelihood. Along with careful notes on sugar production, Thistlewood maintained detailed records of a sexual life that fully expressed the society's rampant sexual exploitation of slaves. Thistlewood's diary reveals the heinous culture that depended on slavery but also about the structure and enforcement of power, and connections among social class, race, and gender, as well as sex and sexuality, in the plantation system.
The Muluba from East Kasaï, from the Ba Kwa Sumba Clan. The Lubas are one of the largest ethnic groups in the DRC. They are the descendants of the Great Luba Empire or The Kingdom of Luba which was a pre-colonial Central African state (1585-1889) that arose in the Katanga, Kasai, and Maniema regions located in the south-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Lubas can trace their origin from the Bantu people who came from West Africa and migrated to the Congo Basin around 1000 B.C. to 200 A.D. The Lubas controlled the Upemba depression, a massive marshy bowl area (depression) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo comprising some 50 lakes, including 22 of relatively large size including Lake Upemba (530 km2) and Lake Kisale (300 km2).
The Lubas were exemplary warriors, craftsmen and distinguished for their wood carving, cloth weaving and iron work. Many of the Luba masks and statues can be found in museums around the world.
Rastafarianism is an African-centred religion which was developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as King of Ethiopia in 1930.
Rastafarians believe Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia is the Messiah, and that he will return to Africa members of the black community who are living in exile as the result of colonisation and the slave trade.
They have distinctive codes of behavior and dress, including the wearing of dreadlocks, the smoking of cannabis, the rejection of Western medicine, and adherence to a diet that excludes pork, shellfish, and milk.
African religious tradition has heavily influenced the culture of Rastafarianism and biblical themes have heavily influenced the religion's belief system. The most famous Rastafari is arguably Bob Marley, whose reggae music gained the Jamaican movement international recognition.
Picture Illustration of the initial and current Statue of Liberty
A French Designer designed the statue of liberty to be that of a black woman, a slave woman to honor black slaves for winning the civil war. The white man had him to redo it because it would not have been well received by whites in the south. Watch and learn and then go and study the history of black people in America. The current statue of Liberty has chains on the feet because, the sculptors that made in France wanted to true identity(a slave) to be kept in memory of the black slaves that helped to liberate America in the world war.
When the world started has been a debate still on-going among scientific and religious scholars although, without a doubt the first humans lived in Africa. The first humans were dark-skinned which has been confirmed from both Biblical and fossil records. For decades many have seen the ancient Egyptians and the Greeks to be light skinned although, fossils and written records have shown ancient egyptians to be black and ancient greek to be multi-colored with various races and complexions.
Our ancient human ancestors once lived only in Africa, in tiny bands of a few thousand hunter-gatherers. Then we moved out of our African cradle, spreading rapidly to every corner of the planet. How did we acquire the skills, technology and talent to thrive in every environment on earth? How did our prehistoric forebears cross the Sahara on foot, survive frigid ice ages, and sail to remote Pacific islands? “Great Human Odyssey” is a spectacular global journey following their footsteps out of Africa along a trail of fresh scientific clues. With unique glimpses of today’s Kalahari hunters, Siberian reindeer herders, and Polynesian navigators, we discover amazing skills that hint at how our ancestors survived and prospered long ago.
Read about the Top 100 Facts about Africans you need to know in the next page