Introduction to Ancient and Medieval African History

The study of African history affords the learner a better understanding of global history. In this course you will learn about African history from ancient times to the era prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade, while focusing on the realities and complexities that defined the era.

The course is divided into 8 sections with 27 lectures. Each section comes with a multiple choice based practice activity and resources for further reading.

The Course is outlined as follows:

• Section 1: African Origins of Modern Man

  Did you know that Africa is the oldest inhabited continent on Earth? Yes, every human being on the face of the earth, without exception, can be traced to African ancestors. By nature we are all Africans and the descendants of one African woman.

  
  

• Section 2 : Ancient Egypt

  Egypt was a great civilization that was geographically located within the continent of Africa. In addition to looking into the richness of the Egyptian civilization, the section will examine the works of scholars who postulated that ancient Egypt was a black African civilization. The section will further explore the assertion by some scholars that when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, the Greeks had access to all the libraries of Egypt and thus was born the origins of modern Western civilization.

  
  

• Section 3: Bantu Migration

  About 2,000 years ago, waves of people migrated massively in Africa. This migration, known as the Bantu migration is the most important migration to have occurred in the world since the first modern human ancestors moved away from Africa to other continents, hundreds of thousands of years ago.

  
  

• Section 4: Africa’s Medieval Kingdoms: Aksum, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe, Mali and Ghana

  This section discusses the kingdoms of Aksum, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe, Mali and Ghana. The Kingdom of Aksum was a great empire, which occupied the areas now known as Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. The Songhai Empire was one of the largest empires in Africa's medieval history. The Great Zimbabwe kingdom was full of buildings that has been described as "one of the most impressive monuments in sub-Saharan Africa."  The greatness of the kingdoms of Mali and Ghana is also discussed.

  
  

• Section Five: Trans‐Saharan trade:

  This section discusses the Trans‐Saharan Trade, which flourished greatly between the 8th and 16th centuries, connecting Mediterranean countries and sub–Saharan Africa via the Sahara desert. Gold and salt were the major objects of trade between the two continents.

  
  

• Section Six : Iron Age Societies in Africa

  This section discusses Iron Age Societies of Africa. The Nok Civilization, which is the oldest known iron based culture in sub–Saharan Africa is discussed, followed by the Igbo ukwu bronze objects, Ife Art and Benin Art. Attention is paid to the the diffusion versus independent discovery debate surrounding iron smelting in Africa. The section concludes by focusing on some reasons for the fall of the iron smelting industry across the continent.

  
  

• Section 7: Development of the Swahili Coast and Swahili City States

  This section discusses the coastal region of East Africa, which was first built by Bantu settlers.

  
  

• Section 8: Religion in African History

  In this section we shall discuss the three main religions in Africa, which are African Traditional Religion, Christianity and Islam. We shall focus on the early history of both Christianity and Islam.