Exploring World History Exploring World History

T
AFRICA
he history of Africa is divided into two major parts: the time before European arrival . . .
and the time after. The millennia before European nations came to Africa is packed with
AFRICA

Exploring World History

creativity, culture, and change. After the 1500s, when Europeans began to arrive in place after
place, the history of Africa became centered around the clash of those cultures. This book fills
readers in on the deep and rich history of native peoples and ancient lands, and then shows how
Africa has responded—positively and negatively—to the changes thrust upon it. It’s a story that is
still adding new chapters every year . . . but this is how it all started.

Exploring World History takes readers around the world and back again, diving deep into
regions of the world to make connections between past and present. History is an ongoing
process—this series shows readers how we got to today . . . and helps them imagine what might

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be coming next.

BE SU RE TO READ OTH ER BO O KS I N TH IS SERI ES

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 Exploring World History

AFRICA
 Mason Crest
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ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8350-9

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On the Cover: The enormous mud mosque in Timbuktu, Mali; the

great golden burial mask of Egypt’s King Tut; artwork showing an 18th
century slave auction; South African president and anti-apartheid hero,
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013).

Exploring World History

Africa
Australia
China
India
Japan
Latin America
North America
Polar Regions

2
 Contents
1 Exploring Africa
The Story of Africa 4
The Beginnings of History 6 A modern-day
Maasai man from
East Africa.
2 Africa to the 1400s
Western Empires 8
Moving East 10
Great Zimbabwe 12
3 Visitors and Traders
The Traveler of Islam 14
The Europeans Arrive 16
4 1500s-1800s
Kingdoms of the Guinea Coast 18
The Mighty Rozvi 20
Inside East Africa 22
5 Changing Times
From Slave Trade to Exploration 24
Why Explore Africa? 26
6 Europeans into the Interior
In Search of the Nile 28
The Niger River 30
The Mystery of Timbuktu 32
The Traveling Scholar 34
Routes to the Coast 36
7 Modern Times
Africa Is Colonzied 40
Africa Today 42
Time Chart 46
Glossary 47
Index 48

3
 More than 1.1 billion falls) and a rainy
million people live in season (when lots of
Africa, in about 800 rain falls). Zaire in
ethnic groups, each with Central Africa has a
their own language and rainy season from
culture. Africa is October to May, but in
covered by desert, the Gambia the rainy
grassland and forest. season is from July to
The largest desert in the October.
world, the Sahara, Africa has thousands
covers almost all of of species of mammals,
northern Africa. One of reptiles, birds, plants
the world’s longest and fish. The rain
rivers, the Nile, flows for forests of West and
almost 4,000 miles Central Africa contain
(6,400 km) through hundreds of trees, from
northeastern Africa. oil palms and mahogany
Temperatures in trees to mangroves that
Africa vary from region line the coasts.
to region. The highest
temperature in the
world of 136°F (58°C) A map showing the
was recorded in Libya in geography of Africa
1922. Rainfall also and some of the
varies around the kingdoms and empires
continent. Some areas, of Africa up until 1800.
like the Sahara and
Namib deserts, receive
no rain for six or seven
years. Along the west
coast however, rain
tends to fall all year
round. Parts of Africa
also have a dry season The dotted lines represent the boundaries of the modern-day states of Africa. Look at page 43 of this book
(when very little rain for more detail.

4
1 Exploring Africa
The Story of Africa
A frican history is fascinating. We have all heard about
the great Pharaohs of Egypt, with their magnificent
tombs and burial ceremonies. But how many of us know
about the ancient empires of West Africa? The first of these
great kingdoms, Ghana, was powerful from 300 ce for about
a thousand years (see page 8). Ghana was so rich that the
dogs in the king’s palace wore collars made out of gold.
Arab Scholars
In the tenth century, Arab scholars began to write about the
great wealth of the African kingdoms. Some of them, such
as Ibn Battuta (see pages 14-15), actually traveled around
the continent. Others just gathered stories from those who
had been to Africa.
As more books about Africa appeared, the fame of the
kingdoms spread and Europeans began to visit the
continent. First came the Portuguese in the 1400s. Then
other Europeans such as the French, Dutch and British
followed. They built forts along the coast and traded with
the Africans. But few Europeans actually traveled into the
heart of the country and because they knew so little about
Africa they called it the Dark Continent.
Exploring This Book
This book is divided into four sections. The first section
deals with the history of Africa to the 1400s, and the second
section takes the history up to the 1800s. Within each time
period, we deal with different regions of Africa separately.
The last two sections deal with European explorers who
visited Africa from the late 1700s onwards and Africa as
it is today.
This book is the story of Africa and her visitors.

5
 Exploring Africa

The Beginnings of History

The Iron Age
The next great discovery was how to
make tools and weapons out of iron.
Iron hoes and axes were much
stronger than the old stone ones, and
The Sahara Desert was could be used to clear large areas of
once a lush, green land. land for farming. This time is known as
This rock painting was
made by people who
the Iron Age and first developed in
lived there thousands of Africa from about 6000 bce.
years ago.

The Stone Age

S cientists now believe that the very

first human beings lived in Africa
two million years ago. Because the
early humans used stone tools as
hunting weapons, this period of
history is known as the Stone Age.
People lived in small groups, moving
about from place to place in search of
food. People lived in this way for many
thousands of years (until about ten
The Nok culture thousand years ago). Stone Age people An ancient Egyptian wall painting in a tomb.
learned how to farm and keep animals.
They started building permanent Early Civilizations
Ancient Egypt was one of the world’s
homes, growing rice and wheat and first great civilizations. It developed
other grains, and keeping goats, sheep along the banks of the River Nile around
and cattle for food. 3000 bce and flourished for over two
Their numbers thousand years. The Egyptians
produced the first 365-day calendar,
increased because developed basic arithmetic and invented
there was enough a form of picture-writing called
food to feed everyone hieroglyphics. They built great temples
and buried their rulers in massive tombs
and they even built called pyramids. Ancient Egypt survived
fires to keep longer than any other known
themselves warm. civilization and even conquered
Nubia, a region of the Upper Nile.
The Nok culture in Around 1000 bce, the Nubians broke
western Africa lasted away and formed their own kingdom
from 500bce to 200ce. which was called Kush. The Kush
The people of Nok made
beautiful terra cotta
civilization survived until 350 ce and
sculptures of human heads was a center of art, learning and trade.
and animals.

6
 Exploring Africa

The Trans-Saharan Trade

As more and more food was produced, people began to
have special jobs. Some of them were responsible for
providing the food while others just made tools and
weapons. In time, people who lived in one community
began to sell any extra goods they had to neighbors. Some
people traveled over great distances to trade. The North
African Berbers traveled south across the desert to sell
goods to the people of West Africa. Because the Berbers
traveled through the Sahara Desert this trading became
known as the trans-Saharan trade. No one knows when this
trading began; some people say that as long as there have
been people in Africa there has been trade.
Journeying Through the Desert Routes Across the Sahara
At the height of the trans-Saharan trade,
The trans-Saharan trade thrived for over two thousand there were three main routes that
years only decreasing in the last century. The Berbers crossed the desert and ended at
loaded up about one thousand camels and traveled 1,500 important trading cities. One route was
from Marrakesh to the salt-mines of
miles (2,400 km) across the desert. The journey usually Taghaza. From there salt and copper
took three months to complete and was fraught with were carried to the ancient Ghana
dangers. Some merchants lost their way in the vast Empire and Timbuktu. The second
desert and died of thirst. Others got caught up in fierce route ran from Tunis to Hausaland and
Gao. The last one went from Tripoli to
sandstorms. When they finally got to the trading towns the salt-mines of Bilma, and then on to
south of the desert, the Berbers bartered their salt and the ancient Bornu Empire. Both of these
copper for gold and kola nuts. routes carried salt and copper. Salt was
very important as it was used for
The Growth of Empires cooking and for preserving meat in the
The people who lived at each end of the trans-Saharan trade hot climate. There were other
secondary routes that crossed the main
routes were very fortunate. They were able to take part in ones. For example, there was a caravan
the lucrative trade and become rich. Each town or village trail all the way from Cairo in the east to
began to select kings and form themselves into states. As Gao in the west.
trade expanded, the states grew even more powerful and
started to conquer their weaker neighbors. Eventually, Salt pans in the Sahara at Teguidda, Niger.
the states south of the Sahara grew into large and wealthy
empires such as Ghana and Mali.

A camel train crossing the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria.

7
 2 Africa to the 1400s
Western Empires
T he trans-Saharan trade continued to grow in volume up
until the 1600s. The trade was very important to the
west Africans, for not only did it bring new ideas but it
brought the new religion of Islam from the north. The
wealth of the trade helped some people to set up very
powerful empires. Two of the most famous were Ghana (see
The Land of Gold box) and Mali.
Ghana was the first great empire in West The Growth of Kangaba
Africa. It began as a small state in the Mali started off as a small state called Kangaba. Then in
300s ce and lasted for almost a
thousand years. The capital of Ghana, 1235 a great warrior, Sundiata, became ruler and founded
Kumbi Saleh, had a population of about the empire of Mali. The first thing he did was to build a new
15,000 people. The city was divided into capital city at Niani where all his subjects could meet him.
two areas. The king lived in one section,
in a palace built out of stone and Sundiata sent his armies out to conquer areas in the south
decorated with paintings and carvings. that mined gold, and Taghaza in the north that produced
His subjects also lived in this area, but salt. Eventually Sundiata controlled all the trans-Saharan
their homes were built out of mud. trade in the area and Berbers flocked to his city to exchange
Muslims who took part in the trans-
Saharan trade lived in the other section their goods.
of the city. They built houses and The bustling market at Djenné, with the old mosque (see page 9) in the
mosques for themselves out of stone. background.
The people of Ghana were farmers.
They worshiped many gods and
believed that people continued to live as
spirits when they died. When a king of
Ghana died, the people built a special
hut for him. They put comfortable rugs
on the floor for him to lie on, and placed
food, water and his servants in the hut.
The hut was then covered up with sand,
burying the servants alive.
Ghana became wealthy because it
lay at the southern end of the trans-
Saharan trade route. Many Arab
travelers visited the kingdom, and it
became known as the Land of Gold.

8
 Africa to the 1400s

The Birth of Islam

In 622 ce, the Prophet Muhammad
founded a new religion in Arabia, called
Islam. The people who follow it are called
A European map dated around 1375, showing the king and kingdom of Mali. Muslims and they believe in one god
whom they call Allah.
Mansa Musa’s Pilgrimage The first Muslims wanted to convert
After Sundiata’s death, Mali continued to be powerful. other peoples who did not believe in their
Many good rulers followed Sundiata and enlarged the religion. After the Prophet Muhammad died
empire. The next great ruler was Mansa Kankan Musa, who in 632, his followers began to wage wars
against people who lived in other countries.
came to power in 1312. He made Mali wealthier by They conquered Egypt in 639 and most of
conquering the prosperous cities of Timbuktu and Gao. North Africa by the 700s.
Mansa Kankan Musa made his famous pilgrimage to Muslims follow a holy book called the
Quran. It contains passages that tell them
Mecca from 1324-1326. Mecca is the holy city in Arabia how to live a good life. Muslims are
which every follower of the Muslim faith (see box) supposed to pray five times a day, give food
is supposed to visit at least once during his lifetime. or money to the poor, fast during Ramadan
Mansa’s pilgrimage made Mali known throughout the and make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least
once in their lifetime. There are 1.5 billion
Mediterranean world. Mansa Musa took sixty thousand Muslims in the world and 300 million of
servants, one hundred camels and three million pounds them live in Africa.
worth of gold with him on his trip across the desert. He
The elegant Sultan Haman Mosque in Cairo, Egypt.
gave a lot of his money away as gifts. Wherever Mansa
stopped on a Friday, the Muslim day of worship, he gave the
people who lived there money to build a mosque. Mosques
are like churches. Muslims go there to pray to their god,
Allah. Mansa Musa was so generous that he ended up
having to borrow money from an Egyptian merchant to get
back home.
Timbuktu, the Islamic Center
Mansa Musa brought architects and scholars back with him
from Egypt. He asked architects to build Islamic schools in
Timbuktu. He also encouraged Muslim scholars from other
countries to come and live in the city. By the end of his
reign in 1337, Timbuktu had become a famous center of
Islamic learning.

9
 Africa to the 1400s

Moving East
W hile some people were forming empires in the west,
others were migrating to other parts of Africa. These
people spoke several languages called Bantu, and they
started migrating over four thousand years ago. The
Bantus moved into the forests of Central Africa, continuing
until they reached the east African coast around 400 ce.
Across the Indian Ocean
The Bantu-speaking Africans who settled along the coast
were farmers who kept cattle and grew crops. In due course
they also traded across the Indian Ocean with Arabia, Persia
and India. Merchants from these countries had learned how
to sail on the monsoon winds, which blew from India
towards East Africa between November and March. They
brought goods such as beads, plates and silk from China A detail from a nineteenth century European engraving
and India to sell at east African ports. The Africans sold of an Arab caravan traveling across the desert to sell
their wares.
ivory and gold, which they bought from people living in the
interior. When the monsoon winds blew eastwards
between April and October, the foreign merchants sailed
home in their dhows.

10
 Africa to the 1400s

A Swahili man blowing

on a Siwa horn.
Swahilis are the
descendants of Bantu
and Arab settlers A page from Ptolemy’s book, Geography.
The Earliest Books
Arab Settlers Over two thousand years ago, a Greek
During the tenth century, Arab merchants began to settle merchant wrote a guide for seamen
called the Periplus Maris Erythraei
along the east African coast. They learned the languages and (Voyage Around the Indian Ocean). It
became middlemen, buying goods from Africans who lived describes the ports along the east
further inland and selling them to the sea merchants. A African coast and the trade which
took place between African and overseas
century later, wars in Persia and Arabia forced many Arabs merchants. The author of the book wrote
to move away from their troubled homes. Some of them about a rich, southerly port called
ended up settling along the east African coast and taking Rhapta, where there was plenty of ivory
part in the trade as well. These Arabs married local African and tortoiseshell. Archaeologists have
failed to uncover this site, but they think it
women, and as time went on a new language called Swahili may be somewhere in modern Tanzania.
developed. Swahili is basically a Bantu language with lots of In the fifth century bce, a book
Arabic words. It is still spoken today throughout eastern came out which described the east
African trading ports. It was written by
Africa, and is the national language of Tanzania and Kenya. the Egyptian geographer and astronomer
Growing Settlements Ptolemy, and was called Geography.
After Ptolemy’s book not much was
Many Arab immigrants settled in the port of Mogadishu, written about the east coast until Arab
and it became an important center of the Indian Ocean geographers started visiting it over four
trade. But as the demand for African ivory (elephant tusks) hundred years later.
increased in China and India, more Arabs left Persia and
Oman and settled along the east African coast. Finally, in
the twelfth century, a number of Swahili merchants who
lived in the north moved to the south and established new
trading cities. The most important and wealthy city was
Kilwa. Kilwa controlled the Indian Ocean trade in the south
of Africa. Most of the houses in the city were built out of
coral, and there was a huge palace that covered almost one
hectare. The Muslims of Kilwa built many fine mosques out
of stone, and made their own copper and silver coins,
kilwa’s power lasted until the fifteenth century when
quarrels between ruling families led to its decline.
11
 Africa to the 1400s

Great Zimbabwe
W hile Arabs were settling at Kilwa
on the east coast, another Bantu
city was being built further inland in
massive stone wall to surround their
settlement. The wall was made out of
granite, a local stone that cracks into
southeastern Africa. It was called pieces at night after a hot sunny day.
Great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe was A century later, the ruler moved
important for Indian Ocean trade from the hill to the valley and founded
because most of the gold and ivory sold Great Zimbabwe. It consisted of a
by Arab merchants at Sofala (a port house for the ruler with many other
on the coast) passed through the city. huts for members of the royal family
surrounding it. All the homes were
The Stone Walls
made out of thick clay and covered in
Bantu-speaking people started living designs. Each house had its own stone
around the Zimbabwean Plateau about wall surrounding it. There were also
one and a half thousand years ago. courtyards and areas where people
The early settlers lived on the hill and could cook. Soon after 1300, a great
were farmers who kept cattle. Then, in stone wall 30 feet (10 m) high was built
the 1200s, the Bantu people built a to protect the whole area.

12
 Africa to the 1400s

People of the Valley End of the Kingdom

About ten thousand people lived The stone walls of Great Zimbabwe
outside the stone walls of Great were a symbol of power and wealth
Zimbabwe and they all had different that also gave people privacy.
jobs. Some were herders who moved However, in the mid-1400s, Great
their cattle from one grazing ground Zimbabwe was suddenly burned down
to another. Others were craftworkers and abandoned. No one knows why
who made jewelry out of gold and this was done. But the stone walls
copper. Sculptors carved in wood were so well built that they still
and stone, and locally grown cotton survive today as a reminder of the
enabled weavers to make fine cloth. ancient power of Great Zimbabwe.
But the most important people were
A modern-day picture
the traders who carried gold and ivory of the ruins of Great
to the east coast. Great Zimbabwe did Zimbabwe (left). The
drawing at the bottom
not have any metals of its own, so is a construction of
people had to get copper from mines Great Zimbabwe at its
height during the 1400s.
in the north and gold from people in Although the walls were
the south. It was this trade that tall and powerful, they
made Great Zimbabwe one of the most were not built for
defense. Instead they
powerful kingdoms of Africa in were built to enhance
the 1300s. the power of the king.

13
 3 Visitors and Traders
The Traveler of Islam
E ven before Great Zimbabwe was
mysteriously abandoned, an
amazing man was making his way
Ibn Battuta’s Adventures
Ibn Battuta spent twenty-three years
traveling through the Middle East,
across Africa, Asia and the Middle India and China. He visited the tombs of
East. His name was Ibn Battuta and he Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at Bethlehem.
He sailed down the east coast of Africa,
was the greatest Arab traveler of his
spending time at the commercial ports
time. When Ibn Battuta was only of Mogadishu and Kilwa. While he was
twenty-one (in 1325) he started his in Delhi (India), he was made a judge
journey. By the time he finally by the sultan. By the time Ibn Battuta
returned to Morocco in 1349, he had
returned to his country twenty-nine traveled through forty-four of the
years later, he had traveled 120,000 countries we know today.
miles. This earned him the title
“Traveler of Islam.” Before Ibn Battuta
visited West Africa, he traveled through
Asia for twenty-three years. At first
he only wanted to visit the holy city of
Mecca. However, one night, he
dreamed that a bird had taken him to a
dark, green country—the Orient—and
so began his adventures.
Through the Sahara
Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco in
1348 and then left again in 1349 to
visit Spain and the famous empire of
Mali (see pages 8-9). With enough
food to last four months, he traveled
through the vast Sahara Desert with
some north African merchants who
were on their way south to trade. It
took the party just two months to reach
Walata, the northern-most city of Mali.
Ibn Battuta was tired so he stayed there
for fifty days, resting and eating
pounded millet mixed with milk
and honey.

14
 Visitors and Traders

On to Niani
Ibn Battuta’s next task was to get to Travelers and Scholars
Niani, the capital of Mali. This time he Ibn Battuta was not the only Arab to
travel around Africa. Al-Masudi sailed
traveled with a guide and three down the east coast of Africa in about
companions. Unfortunately, when he 922 ce. He wrote about the trade
finally arrived at the capital in June between the people of the east coast,
1352, he fell ill and was bed-ridden for India and China. The Arab scholar and
geographer, Al-Idrisi was born in
two months. When he recovered Ibn North Africa in 1100. He traveled when
Battuta met the king Mansa Sulayman. he was a young man, and wrote about
But he was very disappointed with the the wealthy Ghanaian Empire. A later
traveler, Mahmud Kati, was born in
gifts the king gave him. Ibn Battuta had
Timbuktu in 1468. He accompanied the
heard stories about the previous kings king of Mali to Mecca and later wrote
of Mali, and how generous they were about his experiences.
with their gold. So the bread and beef Not all the Arab writers actually
traveled to Africa. For example,
Mansa Sulayman sent him seemed although Al-Bakri wrote about West
miserly in comparison. Africa, he never left his home town in
Spain. Instead, he collected stories from
Back to Morocco Muslim merchants who had been there.
On February 27, 1353, Ibn Battuta left Sometimes the writers exaggerated
Niani. He passed through Timbuktu, in their books. Al-Hamadhani’s book,
which appeared in the ninth century,
sailed down the Niger River and saw a said Ghana was “a country where gold
hippopotamus for the first time. After grows like plants in the sand, in the
resting for a month at Gao, a same way as carrots do, and is plucked
prosperous city on the Niger, he at sunset.”
crossed the desert with a large caravan
of merchants. Ibn Battuta spent a few
days at the city of Tagadda, and the A well-dressed
Fulah woman
local sultan sent him and his party two at Mopti in
roasted rams every day to eat. On Mali.
September 11, Ibn Battuta set off
again. He finally arrived back at Fez,
Morocco, in February 1354.
Writing Rihla
Ibn Battuta’s travels were not in vain.
When he got back to Fez, he spent the
following two years working on his
book, Rihla (Travels). He worked with
a poet called Ibn Juzayy, who took
down all his notes. After the book was
finished, Ibn Battuta spent the rest of
his years acting as a judge. He died in
1369 at the age of 64.

15
 Visitors and Traders

The Europeans Arrive

O ver one hundred years after Ibn
Battuta’s death, the Portuguese
reached the coast of West Africa. They
established forts along the coast to
trade with people, exchanging
weapons, metal utensils and cloth for
ivory, gold and pepper. Christopher
The Expansion of the Trade
Columbus sailed from Spain and
As the slave trade continued, Spanish
unwittingly reached the West Indies in
settlements spread out all over Central
1492. Eight years later a Portuguese
and South America. Other European
captain landed in Brazil.
nations noticed the profit being made
The Slave Trade from the slave trade and soon joined
The Americas were full of gold and in. The English set up trading posts
silver, and the land was ideal for sugar along the west African coast in 1553,
plantations. Many Spanish settlers and the Dutch in 1593. By the
moved there to mine the land and seventeenth century, the number of
grow sugar. They forced the Native Africans shipped across the Atlantic
Americans to do all the mining and to the Americas was a staggering 1.8
From the late 1400s farming, and almost ninety percent of million. The Africans were taken
onwards, many them died from hardship and disease.
European merchants
against their will, captured either
built trading castles European criminals who were sent to during slave raids or after wars
along the west African work the land fared no better, and were
coast. Cape Coast
between African Kingdoms. Chained
Castle (below), was soon dying like flies from tropical together like cattle, they were led to
Britain’s main trading diseases. To solve the problem, the the coast and sold to slave merchants.
fort along the Gold
Coast. It was built in settlers began to transport slaves from Their long, terrible experience was
the 1600s. West Africa to work on the land. just beginning.

16
 Visitors and Traders

The Triangle Trade

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was called the triangle trade
because of the way it was organized. Merchants sailed from
European ports in ships equipped with trading goods, iron
shackles to chain people, feeding bowls, and whips. They also
took special chisels, which they used to knock out the front
teeth of those who tried to starve themselves to death. The
merchants tried to fit as many Africans as possible onto the
As early as the 900s, Arabs developed a profitable slave ships, and some people even had to lie on top of each other. The
trade of their own on the east African coast.
The Africans in the picture are being led to Kilwa,
journey across the Atlantic was called the middle passage. It
the center of the Arab slave trade. took three to six weeks and was a horrible trip. Africans died
by the thousands because of poor sanitation. Packed together
The Results of the Trade like sardines below deck, any disease that occurred spread very
quickly. When the ships finally reached the Americas, the
Over twelve million Africans were Africans were sold to wealthy plantation owners. The
captured and taken to the Americas merchants then took sugar, gold, silver, tobacco, rice, ginger
during the four hundred years of the and cotton back with them to Europe. The reason the slave trade
slave trade (1490s-1880s). The lasted for so long was because it was very profitable. For
example, one particular merchant from Liverpool (England)
European merchants and plantation made a profit of over $3 million in just four years.
owners who took part benefited
greatly. The farmers grew crops such
as sugar, cotton and tobacco on the
wide expanse of American land and
lived in splendid mansions. The
merchants made huge profits on each This cross-section of a slave ship
of their journeys. The remaining shows how tightly Africans were
packed together. On the right,
Africans were sold guns, which they guns are used to stop Africans
used against one another. The imported rebelling on a slave ship. This did not
stop many Africans from jumping
goods that the Africans received overboard and swimming for
could not make up for the loss of freedom.
people. The Africans who were taken
as slaves were the most important ones
—the young.

17
 4 1500s-1800s
Kingdoms of the Guinea Coast
W ith the arrival of European merchants along the coast,
many African kingdoms became rich and powerful.
They bought guns from the merchants and waged wars on
one another to try and enlarge their empires.
The Oyo and Benin kingdoms (fifteenth to the
eighteenth centuries) are famous for their bronze works
of art. Further west, the Akan people formed a number of
kingdoms of their own, the most famous of which was
called Asante. The Asante Empire lasted for over one
hundred and fifty years, and when it was at its most
powerful, five million people lived in it.
The Beginnings of the Asante Empire
The Akan people once lived around western Sudan. Then,
a thousand years ago, they migrated to the south and settled
around the Pra and Ofin rivers. As the area became more
crowded, a family called Oyoko moved away to the north
and built a small town which they called Asantemanso. As
time went by, the Akan people built more towns, each with
its own ruler. One of these new towns was called Kumasi.
When Osei Tutu became king of Kumasi in 1680, he united
all the separate towns and called his new empire Asante.

Drawings of some
Asante (Ghana)
jewelry.
Buying Gold and Making Art
Osei Tutu made the capital of his empire Kumasi. It was a
A small bronze statue large and important city and many Muslim scholars and
measuring about
18 inches (46 cm) from diplomats from other parts of Africa lived there. Merchants
the ancient Benin came all the way from towns in northern Africa, such as
Empire in West Africa.
Timbuktu and Kano, to buy gold and kola nuts in Kumasi.
The Asante also bought goods from merchants along the
coast. The Asante Empire became very wealthy and even
developed its own system of weights to measure gold dust.
Asante craftspeople became famous for their beautiful
carvings and sculptures in wood, silver and gold.
 1500s-1800s

The Golden Stool

When Osei Tutu became king of Kumasi,
he was advised by his friend Okomfo
Anokye. Okomfo introduced the Golden
Stool into Asante life. The stool was made
out of wood and was partly covered with
gold. The stool was supposed to unite all
the peoples in the empire under one
symbol, rather like a flag. The people of
Asante believed the stool had come down
from heaven. They thought it represented
the soul of the Asante people and that they
had to guard it at all times.

Osei Tutu started a religious festival that took place once a year. The festival was A Warrior Preacher
called Odwira. Every year, all the different rulers within the empire gathered at In the 1800s, Muslim scholars in
the capital, Kumasi, and worshiped their ancestors and gods. They also pledged western Africa began holy wars called
their support to the king. This festival is still celebrated today and elders wear jihads. The greatest leader of these wars
gold tablets on their heads to signify their importance. was Usman dan Fodio. As a young man,
Great Kings Usman studied Islam and began to
preach to the Fulani people in his
Osei Tutu ruled over Asante until 1717. homeland of Gobir. He won so many
Then his grand-nephew, Opoku Ware, followers that the king of Gobir tried to
became king. Opoku Ware was a have him killed, but Usman and his
warrior, and in the thirty years of his followers escaped to Gudu in February
1804. In Gudu he was made Leader of
reign, he made the Asante Empire even the Believers. This means he led all the
larger. The next two great Asante people who believed in Islam (see pages
leaders had a massive empire to govern. 8-9). Usman launched wars against
pagans and conquered his old
They organized a strong government homeland within six years. He then
with officers to collect taxes united all his conquests into one great
throughout the region. But by the empire, and divided it up between his
end of the 1800s the empire brother and son. After his days of war,
Usman retired to dedicate his life to
began to grow weaker. It was prayer and learning.
involved in many wars with
people along the coast. It
also fought nine battles
with the British between
1807 and 1901. By the
end of these battles,
the British had gained
control of the Asante
Empire.
Most of the bronze heads of the Benin
Empire were made in honor of kings
who were called Obas. This head of the
queen mother is 21 inches (50 cm) high.

19
 1500s-1800s

The Mighty Rozvi

Dombo the Great
The Portuguese were prevented from
moving further inland by a man called
Dombo. He was a wealthy cattle owner
who set up his own empire in south-
western Zimbabwe known as Rozvi.
Between 1684 and 1696, Dombo and
his army fought the Portuguese, and
finally drove them off the Zimbabwean
Plateau entirely. After Dombo died in
The first Portuguese
contacts with Africa
were made at Sofala.
This is a seventeenth
W hile the British and Africans
were busy trading and fighting
on the west coast, the Portuguese
1696, the Rozvi Empire continued to
expand.
century European map
of the trading post of
sailed around the southern tip of Growth of the Empire
Sofala with its fort, Africa to the east coast. In the 1530s, The Rozvi people built themselves a
church and houses. they sent a party up the Zambezi River new capital at Khami. Their king took
to find out where the gold sold by the title of Mambo, and he ruled over
Swahili traders came from. They the vast empire with the help of local
ended up establishing trading links chiefs and officials. The officials were
with the Monomotapa Empire, a large in charge of collecting taxes in
inland empire in charge of much of the different areas—gold, ivory, cattle and
trade. By the 1600s many more animal skins—which they took back to
Portuguese settlers arrived in the area, the Mambo. The Mambo had many
taking over large areas of land and wives, and some of them helped him
disrupting the Monomotapa Empire. to rule.
Stone wall ruins such
as these at Khami can
be found all over the
Zimbabwean Plateau.

20
 1500s-1800s

The people of Rozvi were traders, herders and farmers.

They grew crops such as pumpkins, beans and watermelons
and they used cattle for tilling the land. Traders moved
around the empire selling local cloth, ivory and beads and
buying cannons and jewelry from the Portuguese.
Magic and Religion
The people of Rozvi believed in one god whom they called
Mwari. He had a special place, or shrine, where people went
to worship him. Priests looked after the shrines and they
were the only ones allowed to talk directly to Mwari.
The Rozvi people also believed that their king had
magical powers. Some said that he had a jug of oil that could
kill any living person. A lot of them thought the Mambo
could make bees fight for him, make rain fall and change the
color of cattle. A painting of the king Shaka by Gerard Bengu.
End of Empire Shaka, the Zulu Warrior
The Rozvi Empire was brought to an end in the 1830s by an Shaka was the illegitimate son of the
invasion of warring peoples from southern Africa, the Zulu chief. When he was young he
Nguni. These wars spread out all over Central and South joined a neighboring chief’s army. He
proved to be such a brave soldier that he
Africa, and lasted for over fifteen years. They are known as
was made commander of the army
the Mfecane, or “time of crushing.” regiment. After Shaka’s father died in
1816, he became ruler of Zululand.
Shaka enlarged Zululand by
conquering many neighboring lands.
He introduced new fighting methods
into his army, and even arranged it into
fifteen regiments with special names
and equipment. Whenever his army
conquered a new land, his soldiers took
all the women, children, young men and
cattle back with them to Zululand. Shaka
then placed all the men in his regiments.
He made each regiment carry shields of
a certain color and wear special
headscarves. Shaka even sent some
members of the royal family to live in
the barracks. Shaka died in 1828 when
he was only forty-one. He was killed by
his brothers, and one of them went on to
become the new Zulu king.

An illustration of the
Zulu king, Mpande,
training his troops.

21
 1500s-1800s

Inside East Africa

F urther north, the kingdoms around the lakes of East
Africa escaped the devastating effects of the Mfecane.
But they were involved in wars of their own, raiding
The kingdom of
Buganda lay on the
northwestern shores of
Lake Victoria. This view
neighboring peoples and taking away their cattle and of the lake was taken
from Kisumu in Kenya.
land. The two most powerful kingdoms were Bunyoro,
which lay on the edge of Lake Albert, and Buganda on the
edge of Lake Victoria.
An Expanding Kingdom
Bunyoro was the first kingdom to become
important in this region. The main occupation of
the people was cattle rearing, but they also
produced salt which they sold to their neighbors.
Bunyoro was divided into several villages, and
each village provided men for the king’s army.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
army conducted many raids against neighbors,
seizing their cattle and land and making them pay
taxes to the king.
A Rival Neighbor
Up until the middle of the eighteenth century,
Bunyoro was the most powerful kingdom around
the lakes. Then, in the nineteenth century, a
kingdom that lay towards the east took over. It was
called Buganda and over half a million Ganda
people lived there.

22
 Buganda lay on the shores of
Lake Victoria where the soil is very
fertile. People grew crops, such as
bananas and plantains. Bananas were
very easy to grow, and any rotten
vegetables were used as fertilizers.
Ganda people were also hunters who
killed buffalo, antelope and wild pigs.
They attended regular markets, selling
their crafts and crops in exchange for
other goods.

Plantains are tropical vegetables which are related

to the banana.

The king, or Kabaka, divided

Buganda into sections and appointed
chiefs to rule over each area. The
chiefs were responsible for collecting Two Maasai men of East Africa wearing traditional clothing. Maasai men often
food, beer and firewood from the undergo military training during their teenage years.
people, which they took back to the
king’s court. Buganda also had trading The Champion Nomads
links with Arab merchants on the east The Maasai are a group of African people who move around with
their cattle in search of grazing land. Today they live in Tanzania
coast, and bought guns, ammunition, and Kenya. The Maasai were a small group of people in the 1500s,
cotton cloth, beads and glassware but by the 1800s the population had expanded greatly. The Maasai
from them. men were in charge of moving cattle from place to place, while
the women did all the milking. They believed in a supreme god
Ganda Religions called Enkai, and prayed to him through their religious leader. The
The Ganda believed that certain leader also prayed for rain and made charms to protect soldiers
going into battle.
people in the kingdom had
supernatural powers when they were
alive. They called these people The Chwezi
balubaale, and after they died, people Bantu people living around the east African lakes were joined
by a people called Chwezi in the 1300s. The Chwezi came from
prayed to them for different things. North Africa and were cattle herders. Before their arrival, the
One balubaale was in charge of Bantu had lived in separate family groups, each with its own
bringing rain and another helped ruler. The Chwezi introduced the idea of a single ruler, or king,
and encouraged the people to grow coffee. The Chwezi built
hunters find animals. There were also long ditches, called oriembo, which they used to protect their
many medicine men who gave herbs cattle. They ruled over a large area, and their kingdom lasted
and potions to people when they two hundred years.
were ill.

23
 5 Changing Times
From Slave Trade to Exploration
W hile kingdoms were rising and falling in eastern
Africa, in Britain a new movement was growing to
end the slave trade. There were many reasons why this
happened.
The Industrial Revolution had begun during the
second half of the eighteenth century. Industrialists wanted
new markets and raw materials for their factories. Many
factory owners realized that it would be better if Africans
Jean-Jacques Rousseau stayed in their countries to produce raw materials and buy The people who wanted
was a French products made in Europe. to stop the slave trade
philosopher who was tried to make people
opposed to the slave Fighting for Freedom aware of how evil it was.
trade. He believed that They often printed
all human beings were There were several other groups of people who wanted the leaflets like this one
equal and had a right slave trade to end. Humanitarians in Europe and America which they distributed
to freedom. at their rallies.
campaigned against slavery. They collected stories from
Africans who were Africans about their sufferings and published them in books
taken away as slaves and newspapers. Churchmen called evangelists and writers
often tried to escape, such as the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau were
and there were many
revolts on plantations also against the trade. In England the fight against the slave
in the Americas. The trade was led by William Wilberforce. Africans who had
most dramatic revolt
occurred in St gained their freedom joined the struggle, giving speeches
Dominique in 1791, about the horrors they had experienced at the hands of
when Toussaint
L’Ouverture led their owners.
Africans to fight against
the French colonists—
and won.

24
 Changing Times

Warring Colonies
Africans who were still working on plantations were also
fighting for their freedom. In Brazil, some African slaves
escaped from a plantation and founded a republic of their
own in 1605. It was called Palmares and survived for a
hundred years before it was finally defeated by the
Portuguese. In the French colony of St. Dominique, 400,000
Africans rebelled against the plantation owners in 1791.
They defeated large French and British armies and
established the independent republic of Haiti in 1803.
Finally, in 1807, the British government passed a law
A Great Campaigner which made the slave trade illegal. But in reality it took over
Olaudah Equiano was born in West Africa
fifty years for the trade to stop completely. Plantation
in 1745. When he was only nine years old, owners in North America continued buying slaves until
he was captured by slave raiders and sold 1865, and in South America, Argentina and Brazil did not
to Europeans on the coast. He was taken stop until 1883.
across the Atlantic Ocean in a slave ship.
When Equiano arrived in Barbados, he was The Explorers
bought by an English naval captain. Finally,
when he was twenty-one, Equiano bought
Even though the European slave trade thrived for over
his freedom and began to travel alone. four hundred years, Europeans knew very little about the
Between 1772 and 1780 he visited the African continent. They knew about the coasts where their
Arctic, the Mediterranean and Central merchants often traded with Africans, but still had very
America. In the 1780s Equiano joined the
anti-slavery movement in London. Equiano little knowledge of the interior.
published a book in 1789 called The Life of European industrialists wanted to know about the
Olaudah Equiano, which described his early geography of Africa and the people who lived there, so that
life in Africa and the horrors of the slave they could set up trading posts within the continent.
trade. The book was very popular in Britain
and America, and was translated into Towards the end of the eighteenth century, explorers began
Dutch, German and Russian. After his book to venture into the heart of Africa. They were sent by
was published, Equiano traveled around businessmen, Christian churches, geographical societies
England speaking against slavery and
selling his book. He died in England on and governments. Some explorers who were interested in
March 31, 1797. the wildlife and geography of Africa used their own money
to pay for their trips.
The Kings’ Letters Young African children were forced to work on sugar plantations with their
African kings who were against the slave parents.
trade did all they could to stop it. Some
of them wrote letters to the governments
of European countries. Way back in
1526, the ruler of the Kingdom of
Kongo sent a letter to the Portuguese
king asking him to stop the slave trade.
King Agaja of West Africa sent a similar
letter to the British government in 1724.
But European governments didn’t reply,
and the slave trade continued.

25
 Changing Times

Why Explore Africa?

Mapping the Continent Mining Africa
By the early 1800s, most of the rivers, Africa is a land of outstanding natural
lakes and mountains of the world beauty and contains many useful
were known to the Europeans. But one materials like minerals, gold, rubber
continent still remained a mystery— and palm oil. Europeans wanted to
Africa. Between 1788 and 1877, there use many of these raw materials in
was at least one European expedition their industries and so came to Africa
journeying into Africa every year. to get them.
Some were searching for the sources
Fame and Fortune
of major rivers; others were looking
for cities such as Timbuktu; while Many other Europeans wanted to
others were climbing mountains. explore Africa for very different
Some explorers even traveled with reasons. Some wanted to write books
Arab caravans through the desert, about their travels and become famous,
disguising themselves as Muslims to much as people still do today. Some
escape attack. people wanted to see the amazingly
beautiful animals of Africa such as the
Commerce and Christianity elephant, the lion and the giraffe. Many
Missionaries like Dr. David Livingstone people came to examine the amazing
(see pages 36-39) wanted to find the plants, insects and flowers of Africa
main routes by river into Africa so that and take them back to Europe where
Europeans could easily move their nothing else like them exists.
goods into the heart of the country for
trading. Dr. Livingstone thought that
Christianity would be carried into the
interior by European merchants and
that the slave trade would end as a
result. Unfortunately, this was rarely
the case. Many European traders
treated the Africans unfairly and it
took many years to ban the slave trade.

An illustration of Richard Burton wearing Arab clothes

on his journey around East Africa. Many European
travelers used this means of disguise to escape attack.
Some of them even darkened their faces and learned the
Arabic language. This was so they could blend in well
with the local people on their long journeys.

26
27
 6 Europeans Into the Interior
In Search of the Nile
Into Ethiopia
Bruce arrived at Massawa, one of
Ethiopia’s ports, on September19,
1769. Unfortunately for him the
Muslim ruler there was very
unfriendly and even threatened to
throw him into a dungeon. After being
delayed for two months, Bruce was
given a guide and two bearers to help
A portrait of James
Bruce, the Scottish
explorer who spent
J ames Bruce was the first modern
explorer to visit Ethiopia. He was
born in 1730, and when he was young
him on his journey to Gondar. The
party climbed over the steep Taranta
almost five years mountain, and couldn’t sleep at night
traveling around his father wanted him to become a
Ethiopia. because lions and hyenas prowled
lawyer, but Bruce hated the law and around their campsite. Bruce spent
soon gave up his legal studies. Bruce some time with the royal family at
worked in the London wine trade for Gondar, meeting important people
a while and then in 1761 he became the and attending wedding feasts. But he
British Consul in Algeria. He found longed to continue his journey, so
the place very dangerous and soon when the king’s army set off to fight a
resigned from his post. He then spent rebel chief, he followed them as far as
some time traveling around North the Tisiat Falls (see left). He described
Africa and Syria, visiting historical them as the “most magnificent sight he
The beautiful Tisiat
Falls which Bruce buildings and noting their architecture. had ever seen.” Returning to Gondar,
visited on his travels. But Bruce had one burning ambition— Bruce stayed with the royal family for
Bruce stayed with the
royal family in Gondar
to travel to Ethiopia where he hoped to some time. He finally set off for the
(below). find the source of the Nile. Nile in October 1770.

28
 Europeans Into the Interior

On to the River
Bruce first of all visited the provincial
ruler of the south to ask for his
protection. The ruler gave him a guide
and a horse, and wished him a safe
journey. The party headed south,
passing beautiful acacia trees and
splendidly colored birds. When
Bruce reached Lake Tana at the
headwaters of the Blue Nile on
November 2, 1770, he was overjoyed
and even offered a toast to his king,
George III. But unfortunately, Bruce
was mistaken. He did not know that
the real source of the Nile lay many
miles south around Lake Victoria. The
Blue Nile is a river which runs into
the main river, known as the White
Nile. Bruce spent five days measuring
the river and making notes of the
plants and animals. When he finished, The River’s Source
he returned to Gondar. John Hanning Speke discovered the real source of the Nile.
He was born in England in 1827, and spent some time as an
Back Through the Desert officer in the British Indian army. In 1856, Speke and Richard
On December 26, 1771, Bruce began Burton were sent to Africa by the British Royal Geographical
Society. They were sent to explore eastern Africa and find
his long return journey. He was the true source of the Nile. Traveling with one hundred and
chased by an elephant and almost died thirty-two Africans and thirty-six mules, the party moved
of dysentery. Crossing the Nubian inland from Zanzibar, arriving at Lake Tanganyika on
February 13, 1858. Speke then traveled north on his own with
Desert was hard work. He was weak about thirty men to help him. By July 30, he arrived at a
and tired, his feet bled, and his face stretch of water that he named after his queen - Lake Victoria.
was so swollen that he could hardly Speke thought that the lake might be the real source of the Nile
open his eyes. He finally arrived in and on his final expedition in 1864 he confirmed this but many
people disagreed with him.
London on June 21, 1774. It had taken
him three years to get home. Once he
was back in Britain Bruce praised the
city of Gondar so much that no one
believed his stories. Bruce wrote his
book, Travels, in an attempt to
convince people of his amazing
journey. The book was published
in 1790.

29
 Europeans Into the Interior

The Niger River

F ive years after
Bruce had
finished writing
with an interpreter, a servant and a few
horses. The first few days of his
journey went quite well. A king gave
Travels to Discover him a guide and some provisions, and
the Sources of the at the village of Koojar, he was
Nile (see previous entertained with dances. But once the
page), another party began traveling again, their luck
Scotsman was changed. Park was robbed twice, and
traveling, this time through West Africa ended up losing most of his
On his first journey
in search of the Niger River. His name possessions and all of his money. In across West Africa, it
was Mungo Park and he was sent by the end, he had to borrow some money took Park a year to
reach the banks of the
the African Association in Britain to from an African trader. Niger River.
trace the unknown course of the Niger.
Inside West Africa
Mungo Park sailed from England on
May 27, 1795, landing on the northern
bank of the River Gambia thirty days
later. Park made his way up the river to
Pisania and stayed with a British slave
trader for five months to learn the local
Mandigo language. On December 2,
1795, Park set off for the Niger River

The Niger is one of the world’s longest rivers.

It flows for2,597 miles (4,180 km) through several
countries, including Mali.

30
 Europeans Into the Interior

Into Dangerous Country Christian spy, he was turned away

Park continued his journey eastwards, from villages. He had very little food
and arrived in the kingdom of Ludmar and was forced to eat raw corn for
on February 18, 1796. The Muslim three days. Park was attacked by
ruler of the country, Ali, suspected robbers many times and had to swim
that Park was a spy and imprisoned across rivers to escape. Finally, over a
him in a hut for three months. Park year after he had reached the Niger,
was forced to travel with Ali to the Park landed back on English soil.
towns of Bubaker and Jaraa, where he Park’s Second Journey
was insulted and taunted by the local Park wrote a book about his travels
people. Then, on July 1, Park escaped which was published in 1799. Then in
across the desert on an old horse. January 1805, the British government
He had no money, his clothes were in sent him back to Africa to find out
rags, and he was extremely thirsty. Just where the Niger ended. This time Mungo Park’s second
as Mungo was about to give up, he Park’s party included forty-three journey into Africa
arrived at a Fulani village where an old Europeans, but by the time he got to
ended in disaster. He
was ambushed at Bussa
woman took pity on him and gave him the Niger only four of them were still and drowned.
some food. alive as the rest had died of fever.
Park never saw the mouth of the Niger.
While traveling down the river in a
canoe, he was ambushed at Bussa
and drowned in the river.
The course of the Niger
from Timbuktu to the
coast was finally traced by
Richard and John
Lander who sailed
down the river
in 1830.
An African woman gives a starving Park some
broiled fish to eat.

The Glorious River

Park finally reached the northern bank
of the Niger on July 7, 1796. He was
refused permission to visit Ségou, a
town on the southern bank, so Park
decided to travel on to the city of
Djenné. Sheer exhaustion prevented
him from reaching the city and he
decided to head back to the west coast.
His return journey was just as
dangerous. Suspected of being a

31
Europeans Into the Interior

René Caillié (right)

was the first European
to travel to Timbuktu
The Mystery of Timbuktu
and back. He made
many sketches of the
famous city (above),
which he included in
the book he wrote
J ames Bruce and Mungo Park had traveled to Africa to
find the sources and courses of rivers. But Europeans
also wanted to know about famous west African cities,
about his travels.
particularly Timbuktu. On April 27, 1816, at the tender
age of sixteen, René Caillié left his home town in France to
travel to the famous city.
René’s First Steps
René arrived on the west African coast ten weeks later. He
tried his best to join a British expedition, even walking
300 miles (480 km) to meet them at Gorée. But he was so
tired by the time he got there that a French soldier persuaded
him to return to Guadeloupe. René worked there for a while,
reading about the adventures of other explorers and
longing to return to Africa. In 1818, René was back in West
Africa. He joined another expedition but was unprepared
for the harsh desert journey. Falling ill at Bakel, he returned
to the west coast and sailed back to France.
A Third Try
René spent his time in France working for a firm of wine
merchants. In 1824, just after his twenty-fourth birthday, he
sailed again to West Africa. This time he decided that he
would travel on his own and pretend to be an Egyptian
Arab. First of all he needed to find out about the Muslim
religion and so René traveled inland to live with a group
of Muslims to learn as much as he could about Islam.

32
 Europeans Into the Interior

Timbuktu Beckons
Back in St. Louis (in Senegal), René worked as a manager of
an indigo factory, saving all his money to buy gifts to use on
his journey in exchange for food and shelter. Finally, in
March 1827, René put on his Arab clothes and set off
towards Timbuktu. By the time he arrived at Tiéme five
months later (halfway to Timbuktu) René was suffering
from scurvy. An old woman in the city looked after him,
forcing him to drink rice water twice a day. René recovered
slowly but it was not until January 1828 that he was ready
to continue his journey. He joined a caravan on its way to
the city of Djenné. From Djenné he sailed on to Timbuktu,
arriving at the city on 20 April 1828.

Tuaregs are the largest group of nomads who live

in the Sahara Desert. They are descendants of people
who originally lived in Libya over two thousand
years ago. Today, they number over 300,000.
Tuaregs wear loose clothes to keep them cool, and the
men wear turbans which they wrap around their
heads and across their faces. The turban forms a veil,
and only their eyes can be seen. This protects them
from the desert wind and sandstorms.

René Caillié lived in a house like this when he stayed in Timbuktu. Earlier Visitors
Back to France Leo Africanus (1492-1552) was born
in Granada. He was a Muslim who
René was disappointed with Timbuktu. It was not as grand spent time traveling around Africa and
as he had expected but nevertheless he stayed in the city the Middle East. In 1518, he was
for a month before returning to France. This time he captured by pirates and taken to Rome
(Italy). Pope Leo X was so impressed
traveled with a caravan of 1,400 camels and four hundred with the traveler’s knowledge that he
Arab merchants through the desert. Throughout the set him free, converted him to
crossing René kept dreaming about water. But he made it, Christianity and baptized him Leo.
and by September 1828 René was in Morocco. From there Leo Africanus decided to travel to West
Africa. He wanted to see Timbuktu
he traveled on to France, arriving there in October of the because he had heard that all the roofs
same year. It had taken him almost a year to get to Timbuktu, there were made out of gold. After
and René had traveled over half of the 1,500-mile (2,400 km) visiting the city, Leo returned to Italy
where he wrote a book about his travels.
journey on foot. Back in Paris, René was honored by the
Geographical Society of Paris and given a prize of 10,000
francs for being the first European to return from
Timbuktu alive.

33
 Europeans Into the Interior

The Traveling Scholar

T wenty-five years after René Caillié’s journey, another
European explorer visited the city of Timbuktu. He
was a German scholar called Heinrich Barth. Born in
Hamburg in 1821, Barth had traveled widely around the
Mediterranean before the British government asked him to
join an expedition in Central Africa to encourage trade and
to suppress the slave trade in the interior.

Barth made sketches of

all the cities he visited.
This one was drawn by
him in the mid-1800s,
and shows the city of
Kano.

The Journey Begins

The expedition left Tripoli on March 24, 1850, and made
slow progress across the desert. In August the party escaped
a band of robbers, who managed to steal a few of their
camels. By the time the expedition arrived at Tintellust in
September, everyone was in need of a rest. Barth spent a
month there before setting out on his own for Agades.
Agades was an important starting point on one of the trade
routes in the desert. No European had ever been there.
Barth spent three weeks in the city, walking around with his
pencil and sketch book and visiting the mosques. Next
Barth visited Gobir, Kano and Kukawa and by mid-June he
had reached the Benue River. Barth managed to cross the
river with his horses, camels and luggage, and continued
until he got to the town of Yola. But the king there refused
to let him stay in the city, so Barth returned to Kukawa.

34
 Europeans Into the Interior

Traveling with Bandits

Barth spent several months traveling to places near
Kukawa. Then on September 11, he left for Kanem. He met a
group of Arab robbers along the way and traveled with
them for three weeks. In that time the robbers stole three
hundred cows, one and a half thousand sheep and goats
and fifteen camels. Barth returned to Kukawa in February
1852, and left a month later for Massena.
On to Timbuktu
Barth spent three months in Kukawa before leaving for
Timbuktu on 25 November 1853. He stopped at Sebba for
two days to allow his camels to rest. Afterwards, Barth hired
eleven donkeys to carry his luggage to Timbuktu. Because Early Missionaries and
the area was very dangerous for Christians, Barth pretended Explorers
to be an important Muslim visitor to escape attack. Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann
Home to Germany were German missionaries who
explored southeastern Africa.
Barth stayed in Timbuktu for about Rebmann saw the snow-capped
seven months. On his return journey, mountain of Kilimanjaro in 1849 and
he followed the Niger River up to Krapf was the first European to see
Mount Kenya (1848). The journeys of
Gogo, then continued through the Krapf and Rebmann inspired and
desert, arriving at Fezzan on July 6, excited other explorers with their
1854. The people of the town sightings of these mountains. The
welcomed him and congratulated British Royal Geographical Society sent
Richard Burton and John Hanning
him on his successful trip. He Speke (see page 27) on an expedition to
finally sailed to Malta and then to find the source of the Nile (1856-58).
London, arriving on September 6, Later, from 1860-63, Speke and James
1855. Barth wrote about his Grant were the first Europeans to go to
the African kingdoms of Buganda (see
travels and died in Berlin in 1865. pages 20-21) and Bunyoro.

Barth visited Agades, a Samuel and Florence Bakerwere a husband and

wife team who led anti-slavery expeditions into
city in the middle of
Africa during the late 1800s.
the Sahara Desert. The
mosque in the picture
is over seven hundred
years old.

35
 Europeans Into the Interior

Routes to the Coast

First Expeditions
On June 1, 1849, Livingstone and some of his friends set
out across the Kalahari Desert to find Lake Ngami on the
northern edge of the desert. They took an African guide with
them and it was so hot that the party could only travel by
night. It took them two whole months to get to the lake. The
next expedition Livingstone made was to meet the king of

P erhaps the greatest explorer of the Makololo people, who was called Sebetwane. This time
them all was Dr. David Livingstone decided to take his family with him and they
Livingstone, a Scottish doctor and almost perished during the hazardous journey. His
missionary, who spent twenty-eight sufferings were rewarded though, for Sebetwane welcomed
years traveling around Africa. He them and was very friendly.
arrived at Cape Town in southern The next time Livingstone set out he traveled without
Africa in March 1841, on his way to his family whom he sent back to England. He wanted to
the Christian Mission at Kuruman establish a mission station further inland and arrived at
founded by Robert Moffat, whose Linyanti, the capital of the Makololo people, on May 23,
daughter Mary he married. The young 1853. Sebetwane had already died but his son, Sekelutu,
couple spent the years that followed was just as friendly towards him. A month later,
building three more mission stations, accompanied by Sekelutu and many Makololo people,
each one further north. The Livingstone began his search for a suitable site. The
Livingstones were discouraged by party sailed down the Zambezi River in canoes, passing
their failure to convert the local people herds of buffalo and listening to lions roaring in the
to Christianity, and the hostility of the distance. But Livingstone failed to find a site and they
local Boer farmers. They decided to returned to Linyanti.
explore further afield. This scene of Central Africa’s Victoria Falls was drawn by Thomas Baines.

36
 Europeans Into the Interior

On to the Coast
Livingstone then decided to try and find a route from
Linyanti to the west coast. Sekelutu gave him twenty-
seven men to accompany him to Luanda on the coast. The
expedition left on November 11, 1853, traveling up the
Zambezi River in a northwesterly direction. Livingstone
was attacked constantly by fever, but refused to stop the
journey. The men carried him, cutting grass for him to
sleep on at night and cooking all his food. When they
arrived at the Portuguese trading station of Cassange,
Livingstone was given some new clothes and a guide to take
him on to the coast. Three weeks later, on May 31, 1854, a
tired and disheveled Livingstone arrived at the coastal
town of Luanda, the present-day capital of Angola. A ship’s
doctor treated his fever and dysentery, and Livingstone
remained in the town for four months until he recovered his
strength. On September 20,1854, he began his return The journeys of David Livingstone.
journey to Linyanti, arriving there a year later.
British society was impressed by David Livingstone’s
expeditions into Africa. This popular photograph
was sold to an adoring general public. Livingstone
stands by a globe to signify his travels. On the chair
rests the famous hat that he wore on his journeys.

Livingstone almost lost his life when he was attacked by a lion.

East and England

Livingstone spent two months writing letters and recording
his geographical discoveries. He was unhappy with the
route he had found to the west coast because it was already
being used by Arab slave traders. Livingstone decided to try
and find an alternative link to the east. On November 3,
1855, he set off with a hundred and fourteen Makololo
people. The expedition sailed down the Zambezi River,
visiting the magnificent Victoria Falls on the way.
Livingstone arrived at the east African port of Quelimane
on May 20, 1856 after traveling partly by river and partly
by land. He was the first European to cross Africa from
coast to coast.

37
 Europeans Into the Interior

Finding Trading Routes Stanley Arrives

When Livingstone arrived back in England in 1856, he was No one in Europe had heard from
greeted as a hero. The Royal Geographical Society gave him Livingstone for over four years, and
one of their two gold medals and he was received by Queen everyone thought he was dead. The
Victoria. He traveled the country lecturing on his American newspaper The New York
experiences and against the slave trade. Herald decided to send one of their
journalists, Henry Stanley, to Africa to
find Livingstone. Stanley got to
Zanzibar early in 1871 and organized
the biggest expedition yet—two boats,
a caravan of camels and donkeys, and
two hundred porters. Stanley set off
across the humid savannah of East
Africa and quickly covered 200 miles
(339 km). Arriving in Ujiji late in the
year, Stanley greeted Livingstone with
the famous words, “Dr. Livingstone, I
presume?” Stanley spent four months
Livingstone sailed along the rivers of Africa in this steamboat called the with Livingstone, and they explored
Ma Robert. Lake Tanganyika together. But
Livingstone refused to return with
The British government decided to send him back to
Stanley to England.
Africa in 1858, to find out more about the rivers of the
continent so that they could be used as routes for taking
trading goods into the heart of Africa. This time he explored
some of the Zambezi area and villages around Lake Malawi.
He returned to England in 1864.
Livingstone’s last journey was sponsored by the Royal
Geographical Society in London. His aim was to find the
source of the Nile which had been argued about for many
years. Livingstone arrived at Zanzibar in January 1866, and
traveled inland to Lake Malawi with about sixty people.
The fifty-four-year-old Livingstone was not as strong as he
used to be. He suffered from bouts of fever throughout the
expedition and by the middle of February was suffering
from rheumatic fever. Livingstone sent letters to Zanzibar
asking for supplies to be sent to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika.
He planned to travel there to collect them, but local wars
prevented him from reaching Ujiji on time. By the time he
arrived there on October 23, 1871, all the supplies had been
stolen. Livingstone was devastated, and as his health
deteriorated, he prayed for a miracle. That miracle
came in the form of Henry Morton Stanley.

38
 Europeans Into the Interior

Stanley’s Journeys
Henry Morton Stanley made three important expeditions
across Africa. The first was to find Livingstone in 1871,
the second was to finish Livingstone’s explorations in Central
Africa (1874-1877) and the third was to rescue Emin Pasha,
who was under siege from a hostile army.
On his second journey, Stanley crossed Africa from east to
west, proving Speke to be right in his discovery of the source of
the Nile River at Lake Victoria (see page 29). Then Stanley
crossed Lake Tanganyika and traced the route of the Zaire
River to its mouth. Stanley’s story of a great inland waterway
leading into the heart of Africa aroused European interest as
people saw a way they could transport goods for trading into
the country.
On his third trip Stanley crowed Africa from west to east.
He saw the Ruwenzori Mountains arid recorded what he saw
of the geography of the continent.
Livingstone fell very ill on his last expedition, and
the Africans in his party had to carry him on a After Livingstone’s death, Stanley
stretcher. continued his exploration of Central
Africa.
Livingstone’s Last Journey
Livingstone escorted Stanley as far as
Tabora. After resting there for three
months, Livingstone set out again on
his last journey. He soon started
suffering from dysentery, yet he
continued his travels, marching
toward Lake Tanganyika. By April,
Livingstone could hardly walk and had
to be carried by his companions. In
May 1873 the great explorer died. His
embalmed body was carried back to
the coast by his African friends and
given to the British. Their journey of
1,500 miles (2,575 km) was a
remarkable feat. It took them nine
months to complete the journey.
Stanley
finally found
Livingstone at
Ujiji, on the
shores of Lake
Tanganyika.

39
 7 Modern Times
Africa is Colonized

Many missionaries
traveled to Africa to
convert people to
Christianity. This is a
mission school in the
Congo c. 1900.

B y the late 1800s, European

explorers had traveled around
almost all of the African continent.
The Scramble for Africa
In 1884, the European powers held an
international conference in Berlin. It
They had laid down a map of rivers, was called the West African
lakes and mountains and met many Conference. During the meeting the
African people. Explorers published European powers decided who would
books in their own countries about control which parts of the continent.
their journeys, the wealth of raw Thirty years later, nearly all of Africa
materials in Africa and the benefits of had been colonized. The scramble for
trade with the continent. Africa was over.
Once Europeans knew
about the rivers of As the nineteenth century
Africa they used boats progressed, the attitude of the
such as these to
transport goods around Europeans changed. They were not
the continent. content to just explore and trade.
Traveling by water was
much faster than They wanted to control the new,
traveling by land. lucrative African markets.

40
 Modern Times

The Missionaries The Partition of Africa

Along with trade and politics, religion
also played a major role in shaping the
development of Africa. Using the newly
developed steamships to travel up the
rivers of Africa into the interior,
Christian missionaries penetrated
further than ever before. They also
used a new drug, quinine, to help fight
the fatal disease, malaria.

Gold mining in South Africa in 1888.

Resistance in Africa
Resistance to colonization was
widespread throughout Africa. The
European powers had to fight many
bloody battles with the armies of
existing African nations to take over
the continent. It was generally one-
sided. The Europeans had machine
guns which were much better weapons
than the outdated guns of the Africans.
However, there were notable By the late 1880s
successes for some African kingdoms. most of Africa had
The Zulus wiped out an entire British been colonized. These
maps show how Africa
regiment in 1879 in South Africa. was divided up
They had old-fashioned weapons but beween different
European countries.
used the element of surprise and This was called The
weight of numbers to defeat the British. Partition.

41
Modern Times

Africa Today
F rom the 1880s Africa, with the exception of Ethiopia
and Liberia, came under the control of European
countries whose main interest was to exploit its natural
wealth. Some of Africa’s current problems were inherited
from her colonial years. For example, before Africa was
taken over, there were many different groups living
within it. European colonial powers divided Africa up,
ignoring the different cultures and languages within
the continent. This has led to tension between the
different groups. Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first Prime Minister,
studied anthropology in London.
Towards Independence leaders used these to plan for
In the long term, the introduction of European languages independence. World War II so
and education enabled Africans to demand the rights weakened Britain and France, the
Europeans had for themselves. Many went to Europe main colonial powers, that they gave
and the US to study. The first Pan-African Congress was up control of their African colonies
held in London in 1900 and more followed in Paris, by the 1960s.
Brussels, New York and Manchester. Africa’s future
After Independence
Prolonged fighting, as here in Eritrea, destroys buildings, orphans children,
disrupts schooling and prevents planning for the future. Colonial rule introduced western
technology and medicine but what it
left behind was often unhelpful.
Roads and railways, for example,
were built to take exports out rather
than to link different regions
together. Most new countries were
desperately short of trained
managers, engineers, doctors and
teachers. Traditional problems
remain unsolved, and malaria is
still a major killer in Namibia,
Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

W.E.B. Du Bois was

an American historian
and sociologist (1868-
1963). He devoted
much of his life to the
struggle against racial
prejudice in America
and Africa.

42
 Modern Times

Modern-Day Africa

COTE
d’IVOIRE

DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF CONGO

43
Modern Times

(1989-96), Sierra Leone (1991-

2002) and Somalia (since 1991)
drove millions of refugees into
neighboring countries. Tribal
hatreds between the Hutu and Tutsi
peoples led to massacres killing
200,000 in Burundi and 800,000 in
Rwanda. Hostility between Muslims
and Christians has led to riots and
deaths in Chad,Cote d’Ivoire,
Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya and two
long civil wars in Sudan. Soldiers
have seized power from elected
governments in over a dozen
countries. Somalia in particular
remains a major problem, with
consistently unstable governments
unable to stem the violence. Also,
pirates based in Somalia have wreaked
havoc on shipping in the Indian
Ocean.
In 2010, the “Arab Spring”
movement, led by popular uprisings,
brought new governments to Tunisia,
Libya, and Egypt, as well as some non-
African nations in the Middle East.
In 2015, more than 200 million people were at risk of starvation in southern Africa. The ramifications of the overthrow of
those dictatorships continue, though
New Problems strides towards more democratic
Several countries are now less prosperous than they governments are bveing made.
were at independence as a result of war, government Another conflict led to the
mismanagement, drought and the pressure of rising creation of Africa’s newest country,
populations. Resources have been no guarantee of South Sudan, which split from Sudan
prosperity. The Democratic Republic of Congo, rich in 2011. Sudan remains primarily
in oil, timber, gold, diamonds and other minerals, Muslim, while South Sudan’s residents
was looted for thirty years by its dictator, Mobutu. practice traditional religions and
It was then devastated by a civil war which sucked Christianity. The new nation struggles,
in armies from five neighboring countries and was however, and remains in conflict with
responsible for the deaths of 2.5 million people from its powerful former partner.
fighting, famine and disease. Civil war in Mozambique Terrorism has become a greater
(1977-92) left one million dead and a countryside problem throughout Africa, as Islamic
littered with undetected land-mines. In Angola there extremists seek to disrupt civilian
was a similar civil war (1975-2002). Civil wars in Liberia populations .
44
 Modern Times

Apart from war, the two greatest threats to

development are environmental damage and AIDS.
Desertification, where agricultural land is taken over by
desert, and deforestation have made natural droughts
much worse resulting in massive famines.
There are now nearly 25 million sufferers of
AIDS in Africa. AIDS threatens the political stability
and economic success of Malawi, which has avoided
civil war. It is a serious problem in Uganda, which has
recovered from its civil war, and even South Africa, the
continent’s richest country.
There are success stories. Gabon, has avoided
conflict and prospered from the discovery of oil in
the late 1990s. Tourism already offers a new source of
income to Gambia, Kenya and South Africa.
In South Africa, the struggle that removed the stain The prehistoric skull found by Mary Leakey at
of apartheid in 1994, led by Nelson Mandela, who later Olduvai Gorge.
was the nation’s president, remains an inspiration for
other African nations seeking solid footing in the world.
Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai Gorge (in modern-day
Tanzania) has been one of the most
Modern Visitors and New Explorers important archaeological sites in the
In spite of the problems, Africa remains a vast and world since the late nineteenth
century. The gorge is 300 feet (100 m)
beautiful continent. It attracts millions of visitors every deep and several miles long. The walls
year, eager to experience the rich diverse wildlife and of the gorge have been investigated by
extraordinary landscape. geologists hunting fossils and studying
Apart from tourists, Africa also attracts modern the structure and history of the Earth
explorers: archaeologists and anthropologists. itself.
During their excavations in the
Anthropologists study the way people live while 1930s the Leakeys found pebble tools
archaeologists study the objects and remains of ancient used by the first human beings. In
peoples to find out how they lived thousands of years 1958-59 the Leakeys found the
ago. One modern explorer who did a great deal of work remains of prehistoric animals from
in eastern Africa was Louis Leakey, who started the same early human culture—
including sheep that were the size of
searching for ancient human bones in the 1920s. Mary carthorses and pigs as large as a
Leakey, his wife, also worked in Africa and accompanied rhinoceros.
him on many of his trips. In 1959, she found the skull of
a human-like creature at Olduvai Gorge (see box). In
1962, Leakey found the remains of a species that had
an ape-like jaw. He thought the species must have lived
there over fourteen million years ago. Later, he found the
bones of one of the first human beings at Olduvai Gorge.
Because of the Leakey family’s work, people now believe
that the first human beings evolved in Africa.

45
 Africa Timeline
8000 bce Farming begins along the Upper Nile.
c.6000 Use of iron begins in Egypt.
c.3000 Ancient Egypt founded.
c.2000 The Saharan climate begins to get drier.
c.500 The Nok culture is founded in West Africa.
1 ce The camel is introduced into North Africa at about this time.
300s The Ghanaian Empire is founded in West Africa.
400 Bantu-speaking peoples reach the east coast.
900s Arabs begin to settle along the east coast.
c.1200s The rise of the Mali Empire.
c.1200s Great Zimbabwe is founded.
1352-54 Ibn Battuta travels to the Mali Empire.
1482 The Portuguese build Elmina Castle along the Gold Coast (Ghana).
1530s The European slave trade begins across the Atlantic Ocean.
1652 The Dutch found Cape Colony in South Africa.
1680 Founding of the Rozvi Empire in Zimbabwe.
c.1700s The rise of Asante power.
c.1700s The rise of Buganda.
c. 1700s The Maasai spread throughout East Africa.
c.1700s The European exploration of Africa begins.
1835-37 The Great Trek of the Boers in South Africa inland from the Cape.
c.1915 Africa continues to be divided up between the European powers.
1935-41 Italian occupation of Ethiopia.
1960s Thirty-two African colonies become independent.
1975 Break up of Portuguese African Empire.
1976 The Soweto uprising in South Africa.
1980 Zimbabwe becomes independent.
1990 Nelson Mandela is released.
1991 Apartheid begins to break down in South Africa.
1994 Nelson Mandela elected President of South Africa.
2000-2001 Floods devastate Mozambique.
2003-2010 Genocide in Sudan claims more than 300,000 lives.
2011 New nation of South Sudan is formed.
2012 Large off-shore oil and gas reserves located off the coats of Tanzania and Mozambique.
2013 Nelson Mandela dies at age 95.
2014-15 Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have a combined 10,000 residents die of ebola virus.
2015 Islamic State (ISIS) gains control of parts of Libya.

46
 Glossary
A F Muslim: follower of a religion called
acacia tree: a beautiful, thorny gum tree fast: a period of time when someone Islam which was founded in Arabia in
found all over Africa. does not eat any food. 622 (see pages 8-9).
fatal: something that results in death,
B such as an accident or a disease. P
barter: when goods are bartered it Fulani: a group of Africans who live pagan: someone who is not a Jew, a
means that they are exchanged for other south of the Sahara Desert in West Africa. Christian or a Muslim.
goods of the same value. They originated around present-day palm oil: oil that is extracted from oil
bearers: Africans who traveled with Senegal, and now number about five palm trees. The oil is used in cooking and
European explorers and helped million. food production.
transport supplies. plantation: a large area of land where
Berbers: a large group of Africans that H crops such as rubber and sugar are
live in North Africa. headwaters: the highest part of a stream grown for sale.
Boer: a descendant of the Dutch people or river. The water closest to the source prehistoric: something that dates from a
who came to South Africa in the of the river. time before history as we know it began.
seventeenth century. hectare: an area of land the size of The dinosaurs are prehistoric animals,
British Consul: a British official 10,000 square metres. provincial ruler: someone who rules
responsible for protecting British humanitarians: people who work to over an area outside a city or empire.
interests in a foreign country. help mankind.
R
C I Ramadan: a month of the year when
caravan: a group of merchants, camels illegitimate: someone whose parents are Muslims do not eat until after sunset.
and goods traveling across a desert. not married when they are born is raw materials: the basic, untreated
civil war: a war in which people from illegitimate. materials (e.g. rubber or sugar) that are
within the same country fight each other. indigo: a violet blue dye that is taken used to manufacture other products.
colony: land that is taken over by from the leaves of the indigo plant. rheumatic fever: a disease which makes
settlers from another part of the world Industrial Revolution: a period of social people suffer from fever and painful
and ruled by them is called a colony. and economic change beginning in joints.
coral: is found on the bottom of the sea. Britain in the 1760s. It involved the rice water: water that has had rice boiled
It is a growing animal that looks rather change from working mainly in homes in it. Once the rice has been boiled it is
like bone. Coral can be found in many and on farms to working in factories and removed and the water is drunk as an aid
beautiful colors. using large machines. to recovery from illness.
course: the exact route of a river. industrialists: people who own factories
that manufacture goods. S
D interior: the name that was given by savannah: the name given to a region of
dhow: a type of ship originally built by Europeans to the unknown middle of grassland with a few scattered trees. The
the Arabs, most often used for carrying Africa. savannah is very hot.
trading goods. scholar: a student of a particular area,
K subject or discipline.
dysentery: an infection caused by
kola nuts: a seed of the kola tree which scurvy: a disease caused by the body not
bacteria or similar germs, involving
contains caffeine. Caffeine is an having enough vitamin C. Sufferers have
extreme diarrhoea, digestive upsets and
important ingredient of coffee. dry skin and swollen gums.
pains in various parts of the body.
M source: the origin of a river or stream; the
E migration: the movement of a place where it starts.
Emin Pasha: (1849-1892) a German community of people or animals from
explorer and doctor appointed by the one place to another either to settle T
British General Gordon to be medical permanently or to visit for a certain tropical diseases: diseases such as
officer and then governor of a British period of time. malaria that are found in the tropical
province in Africa. Emin Pasha became millet: a type of grass which is grown for regions of the world.
isolated by hostile Arab forces and was food.
rescued by Stanley in 1889. missionary: someone who tries to Z
ethnic: a particular group of people who convert people from one religion to Zimbabwean Plateau: the name given to
can be identified by their culture, another. the geographical feature that Great
language, dress and customs. monsoon: a strong wind that occurs in Zimbabwe was built upon. A plateau is a
evolved: the slow development that Asia. The monsoon blows from south- flat area of land that is raised above the
changed apes into human beings. west during summer and north-east the rest of the land in the area.
rest of the year.

47
 Index Gold Coast 16, 17, 41, 42,
46
Nok culture, the 6, 46
Nubian Desert 4, 27, 29
Numbers in bold indicate an Gondar 4, 27, 28, 29
Grant, James 35 Olaudah Equiano 25 Photographic credits
illustration. Words in bold Orange River 4, 27
are in the glossary on Great Zimbabwe 4, 12-13, Cover: Main: Jamdotsi/Dreamstime; Tut: Thomas Sztanek/
14, 46, 47 Osei Tutu 18-19 Dollar Photo; Mandela: Chuck Kennedy/MCT/Newscom.
page 47. Oyo Empire 4, 18
Ibn Battuta 5, 14-15, 16, 46 Inside. The Ancient Art and Architecture Collection 45 right;
Akan Empire 18 independence 42, 46 Park Mungo 27, 30-31, 32 Bruce Coleman Limited 22 top; Gerald Cubitt Robert Estall
Algeria 7, 28, 41, 43 India 10, 11, 14, 15, 46 Partition of Africa, the 41 Photographs 11 left; E.T. Archive 17 bottom, 21 bottom, 26,
Americas 16, 17, 24, 25, 46 Indian Ocean 4, 10, 11, 12, plantations 16, 17, 24, 25, 40 top; Mary Evans Picture Library 14,33 left, 38 right,
Arabia 9, 10, 11, 46 14, 27, 43 47 39 left; Werner Forman Archive Limited 6 bottom; Lagos
Arabian Sea 10, 14 Iron Age, the 6, 46 Portuguese 5, 16, 20, 21, 25, Museum, Nigeria, 15, 16 bottom, 35 left; The Fotomas Index
Arabs 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, Islam 8, 9, 14, 19, 32, 46, 47 37, 46 9 top, 22 bottom, 24 bottom, 31 right; Giraudon 11 right, 24
23, 26, 32, 33, 35, 37, 46, ivory 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 20,
47 top left, 32 top; Sonia Halliday Photographs 6 top, 7 right,
21 Rebmann, Johannes 35
archaeologists 11, 44-45 21 top; Robert Harding Picture Library 6 middle, 28 bottom;
Red Sea 4, 27, 43
Asante Empire 4, 18-19, 46 Kalahari Desert 4, 27, 36, 37, religion (see also Hulton Deutsch Collection Limited 10,16 top, 25, 40
Asia 14-15, 46, 47 39, 43 Christianity and Islam) 8, bottom, 41, 42 right; The Hutchison Library 8, 9 bottom, 19
Atlantic Ocean 4, 14, 17, 25, Kenya 11, 22, 23, 41, 42, 43, 19, 21, 23, 32, 41, 46, 47 top, 30 bottom, 33 right, 42 left, 44; The Mansell Collection
27, 43, 46 45 River Gambia 30 Limited, 2, 17, top, 24 top right, 28 top, 30 middle, 31 left,
Kilwa 4, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17 River Senegal 27, 30 34 left, 35 right, 37 right; Peter Newark’s Historical Pictures
Baker, Samuel and kingdoms 4, 5, 6, 8-9, 12-13, Rozvi Empire 4, 20-21, 46 30 top; Royal Geographical Society Picture Library title page,
Florence 27, 35 16, 18-23, 24, 25, 31, 35, rubber 26, 47 7 left, 20 bottom, 32 bottom, 36, 37 left, 38 left, 39 right, 45
Bantus 10-12, 23, 46 41, 44 Rwanda 4, 41, 43 left; Dr Kevin Shillington 13; Syndication International 20
Barth, Heinrich 27, 34-35 Krapf, Ludwig 35
Benin Empire 4, 18, 19 top, 34 right; Zefa Picture Library UK Limited 3, 23
Kwame Nkrumah 42 Sahara Desert 4, 6, 7, 9, 14,
Berbers 7, 8, 47 18, 27, 32, 33, 34, 35, 43,
Boers 36, 46, 47 Lake Malawi 4, 22, 27, 38, 44, 45, 46, 47
British 5, 19, 20, 24, 28, 29, 43 St Louis 4, 32, 33
30, 32, 34, 36-37, 38-39, Lake Tanganyika 4, 22, 27, salt 7, 8, 22
41,45,47 29, 38, 39 Ségou 4, 27, 30, 31
Bruce, James 27, 28-29, 30, Lake Victoria 4, 22, 23, 27, Shaka 21
32 29, 35, 39, 43 Sierra Leone 41, 43
Buganda Empire 4, 22-23, Lander brothers 27, 30, 31 slave trade 16-17, 24-25, 26,
35, 46 languages 4, 10, 11, 26, 30, 30, 34, 35, 37, 38, 46
Bunyoro Empire 4, 22-23, 35 42, 47 Songhay Empire 4
Burton, Richard 26, 27, 29, Leakey, family 45 South Africa 41, 43, 46, 47
35 Libya 4, 33, 41, 43 Spain 14, 15, 16
Libyan Desert 4, 27 Speke, John Hanning 27, 29,
Caillié, René 27, 32-33, 4 Limpopo River 27 35, 39
Cairo 4, 7, 9, 10, 14, 27, 29, Livingstone, Dr David 26, Stanley, Henry Morton
43 27, 36-37, 38-39 38-39, 47
Cape of Good Hope 4, 27, 43 Luanda 4, 27, 37, 43 Stone Age, the 6
Cape Town 4, 27, 36, 37, 43 Sudan 43, 44
Maasai people 4, 23, 46
China 10, 11, 14, 15, 46 Suez Canal 43
Madagascar 4, 27, 41
Christianity 25, 26, 31, 33, Sundiata 8, 9
Makololo people 36, 37
35, 36, 40,41,46, 47 Swahili 11, 20
Mali Empire 4, 7, 8, 9, 14,
colonization 40-41, 42, 44,
15, 46
47 Tabora 27, 29, 37, 39
Mandela, Nelson 46
Columbus, Christopher 16, Tagadda 14, 15
Mansa Kankan Musa 9
46 Taghaza 4, 7, 8, 27
Mansa Sulayman 15
Congo Basin 4, 27, 39 Tangiers 4, 27, 32
Marrakesh 4, 7, 14, 27
Mediterranean Sea 4, 27, 43 Tanzania 11, 23, 43, 45
Djenné 4, 8, 27, 30, 31, 32, Timbuktu 4, 7, 9, 14, 15, 18,
33 merchants 10, 11, 12, 14 15,
16-17, 18, 23, 25, 26, 33, 44 26, 27, 30, 31, 32-33, 34,
Dutch 5, 16,25, 46, 47 35, 43
Middle East 14, 33
Egypt 4, 5, 6, 9, 41, 43, 46 missionaries 26, 35, 36, trade 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13,
Ethiopia 4, 28, 29, 35, 43, 44, 40-41, 47 14, 15, 16-17, 20, 21, 23,
46 Mogadishu 4, 10, 11, 14, 43 25, 26, 30, 34, 37, 38, 39,
Europeans 5, 16, 17, 18, 25, Mombasa 4, 27, 35, 39, 43 40, 41, 44, 47
26, 31, 32, 33, 34-35, 37, Monomotapa Empire 20 Tripoli 4, 7, 27, 34
40-41, 42, 44, 46, 47 Morocco 4, 14, 15, 33, 41, Tunis 4, 7, 14, 27, 41, 43
explorers 5, 25, 26, 27, 43 wars 8, 9, 11, 16, 18, 19, 20,
28-40, 44, 45, 46, 47 Mount Kenya 4, 27, 35 21, 22, 25, 28, 38, 41, 42,
Mount Kilimanjaro 4, 27, 35 44, 46, 47
farming 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17, Muslims 8, 9, 11, 15, 18, 19,
21, 22, 23, 36, 44, 46, 47 West African Conference 40,
26, 28, 31, 32, 33 46
French 5, 24, 25, 32, 46
Namib Desert 4, 27
Gambia, the 4, 41, 43 Nguni, the 21 Zaire River (Congo) 4, 27,
Ganda people 22-23 Nigeria 41, 43, 45 39, 43
Gao 4, 7, 9, 15, 27 Niger River 4, 15, 18, 27, 30, Zambezi River 4, 20, 27, 36,
Germans 25, 34, 45, 47 31, 32, 34, 35, 43, 45 37, 38, 39, 43
Ghanaian Empire 4, 5, 7, 8, Nile 4, 6, 27, 28, 29, 35, 38, Zanzibar 4, 27, 29, 38, 39
15, 46 39, 43, 46 Zimbabwean Plateau 12, 20,
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