African History

Africa is a large and diverse continent that extends from South Africa northward to the Mediterranean Sea. The continent makes up one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth. Widely recognized as the birthplace of humankind, Africa saw the rise of great kingdoms, faced the transatlantic slave trade, colonization and Apartheid.

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Lake Nasser brought water to thousands of people in Egypt but also displaced almost 90,000 people by its creation

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Portugal, Lagos, View of fishing boat at harbour and city in background

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Featured Overview

Lake Nasser brought water to thousands of people in Egypt but also displaced almost 90,000 people by its creation

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Emperor Negus Menelik II of Ethiopia at Battle of Adwa 1896 Ethiopia (Photo by Chris Hellier/Corbis via Getty Images)

In 1896, Ethiopia fended off an invading Italian army and secured its independence.

Ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu, located in Mali, served as a major intellectual hub of Islamic civilization.

Key Steps That Led to End of Apartheid; South African men cheer and celebrate the news of Nelson Mandela's release from prison, 1990

A combination of internal and international resistance to apartheid helped dismantle the white supremacist regime.

Nelson Mandela in 2009.

Read excerpts from letters, speeches and memoirs reflecting on each stage of his life—from the innocence of a tribal village boy to the triumphs and pressures of being South Africa's first black president.

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African History
Senegalese soldiers after attack, circa 1914-circa 1918. The Senegalese Tirailleurs were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army. They were recruited from Senegal and other sub-Saharan regions of the French empire.

Battles in Africa were waged between colonial powers, but most of those compelled to fight were conscripted Africans.

Emperor Negus Menelik II of Ethiopia at Battle of Adwa 1896 Ethiopia (Photo by Chris Hellier/Corbis via Getty Images)

In 1896, Ethiopia fended off an invading Italian army and secured its independence.

Ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Timbuktu, located in Mali, served as a major intellectual hub of Islamic civilization.

The Nubian Queen Who Fought Back Caesars Army

Queen Amanirenas commanded soldiers of the ancient Kingdom of Kush and successfully resisted Roman rule.

Leg irons once used on enslaved people on display at the Kura Hulanda Museum on the Caribbean island of Curaçao.

The forced transport of enslaved people from Africa led to populations of Black people throughout North and South America and other parts of the world.

South Africa captain Francois Pienaar receives the William Webb Ellis Trophy from President Nelson Mandela after the home team defeated arch rival New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup in Johannesburg.

In a nation bitterly divided by apartheid, Mandela used the game to foster shared national pride.

Key Steps That Led to End of Apartheid; South African men cheer and celebrate the news of Nelson Mandela's release from prison, 1990

A combination of internal and international resistance to apartheid helped dismantle the white supremacist regime.

Apartheid in South Africa

For decades, the country's Black majority was controlled by racist laws enshrining white supremacy.

Nelson Mandela in 2009.

Read excerpts from letters, speeches and memoirs reflecting on each stage of his life—from the innocence of a tribal village boy to the triumphs and pressures of being South Africa's first black president.

Mansa Musa, King of Mali, on a map of North Africa circa 1375. (Credit: Fotosearch/Getty Images)

Forget today’s tech billionaires. The wealth of Mansa Musa of Mali was too vast to be imagined—or equaled.

EGYPT-POLITICS-TRANSPORT-SUEZ-CANAL-HISTORYThis picture taken on November 17, 2019 shows the Liberia-flagged container ship RDO Concord sailing through Egypt's Suez Canal in the canal's central hub city of Ismailia on the 150th anniversary of the canal's inauguration. - One hundred and fifty years after the Suez Canal opened, the international waterway is hugely significant to the economy of modern-day Egypt, which nationalised it in 1956. The canal, dug in the 19th century using "rudimentary tools" and which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, was opened to navigation in 1869 and was expanded in 2015 to accommodate larger ships. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP) (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The Suez Canal, a man-made waterway linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea, has enabled international trade and conflict since 1869.

President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. (Credit: Patrick Durand/Sygma via Getty Images)

The 93-year-old president’s 37-year rule ended with a military coup.

From ancient Sudan to medieval Zimbabwe, get the facts on seven African kingdoms that made their mark on history.

What Part of Africa Did Most Enslaved People Come From?

Though exact totals will never be known, the transatlantic slave trade is believed to have forcibly displaced some 12.5 million Africans between the 17th and 19th centuries; some 10.6 million survived the infamous Middle Passage across the Atlantic. Though descendants of these enslaved Africans now make up considerable segments of the population in the United […]

In 1619, some 20 Africans arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, where they were purchased from Dutch privateers to aid in the English colony’s lucrative, labor-intensive cultivation of tobacco. As profits piled up and slavery spread through the American colonies, the British crown decided to exert control over the slave trade in the colonies (and the wealth […]

Find out more about the Mali descendants.

Ugandan president Idi Amin Dada was a violent dictator whose regime was responsible for some of the worst atrocities in his country's history. Find out more about his brutal reign in this video.

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Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie upon his release from Victor Verster prison on February 11, 1990.

South African officials had tried to make the anti-apartheid campaigner disappear.

Lake Nasser brought water to thousands of people in Egypt but also displaced almost 90,000 people by its creation

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Colorized illustration of Saladin (1138 - 1193), the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria.

Saladin is the Western name of Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria who famously defeated a massive army of Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin and captured the city of Jerusalem in 1187. At the height of his power, he ruled a unified Muslim region stretching from Egypt to Arabia.

The recent crisis in Libya is only the latest development in a long and tumultuous history of relations between the North African nation and the West.

A protest at Johannesburg's Wits Medical School during South African Apartheid in 1989.

Apartheid, the legal and cultural segregation of the non-white citizens of South Africa, ended in 1994 thanks to activist Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk.

President of Uganda, Idi Amin pictured attending a lunch with British High Commissioner Richard Slater, the Indian High Commissioner, Pakistan's Ambassador and leaders of Uganda's Asian community at his house, known as 'The Command Post' in Kampala, Uganda in August 1972.

Idi Amin was a Ugandan military officer and politician. In 1971 he overthrew the elected government of Milton Obote and declared himself president of Uganda, launching a ruthless eight-year regime in which an estimated 300,000 civilians were massacred.

President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. (Credit: Patrick Durand/Sygma via Getty Images)

Robert Mugabe was a teacher and freedom fighter who served as the first president of an independent Zimbabwe until he was ousted from the role after 37 years.

Nelson Mandela(Original Caption) Nelson Mandela outside his Soweto home three days after his release. (Photo by Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images)

The South African activist and former president Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) helped bring an end to apartheid and was an advocate for human rights around the globe.

Scenes in Rwanda following the civil war, 30th July 1994.

The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occured in 1994 when members of the Hutu ethnic majority in the east-central African nation of Rwanda murdered as many as 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. Started by Hutu nationalists in the capital of Kigali, the genocide spread throughout the country with shocking speed and brutality.