153-511: The global African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from people from Africa , predominantly in the Americas . The African populations in the Americas are descended from haplogroup L genetic groups of native Africans. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas via
306-770: A confederation of seafaring peoples contributed to the New Kingdom 's collapse in 1069 BC, commencing the Third Intermediate Period . Egypt's collapse liberated the more Egyptianised Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, who manoeuvred into power in Upper Egypt and conquered Lower Egypt in 754 BC to form the Kushite Empire . The Kushites ruled for a century and oversaw a revival in pyramid building , until they were driven out of Egypt by
459-557: A principality into a major power on the trade route between Rome and India through conquering its unfortunately unknown neighbours, gaining a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade in the region. Aksum's rise had them rule over much of the regions from Lake Tana to the valley of the Nile , and they further conquered parts of the ailing Kingdom of Kush , led campaigns against the Noba and Beja peoples, and expanded into South Arabia . This led
612-604: A "culture of dislocation." For Iton, the traditional approach to the African diaspora focuses on the ruptures associated with the Atlantic slave trade and Middle Passage , notions of dispersal, and "the cycle of retaining, redeeming, refusing, and retrieving 'Africa.'" This conventional framework for analyzing the diaspora is dangerous, according to Iton, because it presumes that diaspora exists outside of Africa, thus simultaneously disowning and desiring Africa. Further, Iton suggests
765-616: A Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane ) in northwestern Libya , as well as the city of Ifrane in Morocco . Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province then named Africa Proconsularis , following its defeat of the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya . The Latin suffix -ica can sometimes be used to denote
918-780: A category for ideological reasons. As of 2020, there were approximately 1,000,000 Afro-Germans . This number is difficult to estimate because the German census does not use race as a category. Some black people of unknown origin (Though perceived as Ethiopians ) once inhabited southern Abkhazia ; today, they have been assimilated into the Abkhaz population. African emigrants to Italy include Italian citizens and residents originally from Africa; immigrants from Africa officially residing in Italy in 2015 numbered over 1 million residents. There are an estimated 500,000 African or mixed African people in
1071-710: A former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957), becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Over the next decade, waves of decolonization took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa and the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. Portugal's overseas presence in sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola , Cape Verde, Mozambique , Guinea-Bissau , and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from
1224-488: A greater mixture in the south-western departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca . In these mestizo areas the African culture has had a great influence. Some European countries make it illegal to collect demographic census information based on ethnicity or ancestry (e.g. France), but some others do query along racial lines (e.g. the UK). Of 42 countries surveyed by a European Commission against Racism and Intolerance study in 2007, it
1377-564: A land (e.g., in Celtica from Celtae , as used by Julius Caesar ). The later Muslim region of Ifriqiya , following its conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire's Exarchatus Africae , also preserved a form of the name. According to the Romans, Africa lies to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between
1530-698: A millennium. Towards the end of the ancient period, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea bore the Kingdom of D'mt beginning in 980 BC. In modern-day Somalia and Djibouti there was the Macrobian Kingdom , with archaeological discoveries indicating the possibility of other unknown sophisticated civilisations at this time. After D'mt's fall in the 5th century BC the Ethiopian Plateau came to be ruled by numerous smaller unknown kingdoms who experienced strong south Arabian influence , until
1683-625: A monopoly on gold heading north and salt heading south, despite not controlling the gold fields themselves, located in the forest regions . It is probable that Wagadu's dominance on trade allowed for the gradual consolidation of many polities into a confederated state , whose composites stood in varying relations to the core, from fully administered to nominal tribute-paying parity. Based on large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, it has been stipulated that relative to Wagadu, there were further simultaneous and preceding kingdoms that have unfortunately been lost to time. At
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#17327659935781836-586: A native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers ; see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician word ʿafar meaning "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran ) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania ,
1989-479: A new starting principle for the use of diaspora: "the impossibility of settlement that correlates throughout the modern period with the cluster of disturbances that trouble not only the physically dispersed but those moved without traveling." Iton adds that this impossibility of settlement—this "modern matrix of strange spaces—outside the state but within the empire"—renders notions of black citizenship fanciful, and in fact, "undesirable". Iton argues that we citizenship,
2142-502: A state of statelessness thereby deconstructing colonial sites and narratives in an effort to "de-link geography and power," putting " all space into play" (emphasis added) For Iton, diaspora's potential is represented by a "rediscursive albeit agonistic field of play that might denaturalize the hegemonic representations of modernity as unencumbered and self-generating and bring into clear view its repressed, colonial subscript". African diaspora populations include but are not limited to: It
2295-468: A transition from " informal imperialism " – military influence and economic dominance – to direct rule. Imperial rule by Europeans continued until after the conclusion of World War II , when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya,
2448-559: A voluntary immigration wave to seek employment as whalers in Massachusetts . This migration continued until restrictive laws were enacted in 1921 that in effect closed the door on non-Europeans. By that time, men of African ancestry were already a majority in New England 's whaling industry, with African Americans working as sailors, blacksmiths, shipbuilders, officers, and owners. The internationalism of whaling crews, including
2601-727: Is considered inclusive of the African, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American black communities in Canada. At an intermediate level, in South America and in the former plantations in and around the Indian Ocean, descendants of enslaved people are a bit harder to define because many people are mixed in demographic proportion to the original slave population. In places that imported relatively few slaves (like Chile ), few if any are considered "black" today. In places that imported many enslaved people (like Brazil or Dominican Republic ),
2754-421: Is deliberate misreporting in order to give selected ethnicities numerical superiority (as in the case of Nigeria's Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo peoples). A 2009 genetic clustering study, which genotyped 1327 polymorphic markers in various African populations, identified six ancestral clusters. The clustering corresponded closely with ethnicity, culture, and language. A 2018 whole genome sequencing study of
2907-571: Is illegal for the French State to collect data on ethnicity and race. The first Africans in the Americas arrived in the region during the initial period of European colonization . In 1492, Afro-Spanish sailor Pedro Alonso Niño served as a pilot on the voyages of Christopher Columbus ; though he returned to the Americas in 1499, Niño did not settle in the region. By the early 16th century, more Africans began to arrive in Spanish colonies in
3060-531: Is largely patrilineal with an estimated 19% of African American ancestors being European males, and 5% being European females. The interracial mixing occurred before the Civil War and largely in the American South , beginning during the colonial era . The states with the highest percentages of people of African descent are Mississippi (36%), and Louisiana (33%). While not a state, the population of
3213-791: Is not always to be taken literally. Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the Human species originating from the continent. During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as seven million years ago ( Before present , BP). Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern humans, such as Australopithecus afarensis radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP, Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP) and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered. After
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#17327659935783366-825: Is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Arabian Plate and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states , eight cities and islands that are part of non-African states , and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition . This count does not include Malta and Sicily , which are geologically part of
3519-400: Is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia . At about 30.3 million km (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth 's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population . Africa's population is the youngest among all
3672-671: The 11th dynasty , based in Thebes , conquered the others to form the Middle Kingdom of Egypt , with the 12th dynasty expanding into Lower Nubia at the expense of Kerma . In 1700 BC, the Middle Kingdom fractured in two, ushering in the Second Intermediate Period . The Hyksos , a militaristic people from Palestine , invaded and conquered Lower Egypt, while Kerma coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent. In 1550 BC,
3825-646: The 18th dynasty expelled the Hyksos , and established the New Kingdom of Egypt . Using the advanced military technology the Hyksos had brought, the New Kingdom conquered the Levant from the Canaanites , Mittani , Amorites , and Hittites , and extinguished Kerma , incorporating Nubia into the empire, and sending the Egyptian empire into its golden age. Internal struggles, drought, famine, and invasions by
3978-660: The Americas during the transatlantic slave trade , 645,000 were shipped to the British colonies on the North American mainland and the United States . In 2000, African Americans comprised 12.1 percent of the total population in the United States, constituting the largest racial minority group. The African-American population is concentrated in the southern states and urban areas. In the establishment of
4131-566: The Atlantic , Trans-Saharan , Red Sea and Indian Ocean slave trades. The earliest recorded evidence of Africans as slaves outside of Africa comes from Ancient Greece and Rome . In the Greco-Roman world , almost all native Africans were known primarily as Aithiopians , a term that means "burnt face" (αἴθω, aíthō , 'I burn' + ὤψ, ṓps , 'face'), rather than referring to the geographical location of Ethiopia . Most Aithiopian slaves in
4284-458: The Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, with their largest populations in Brazil , the United States , Colombia and Haiti . However, the term can also be used to refer to African descendants who immigrated to other parts of the world. Scholars identify "four circulatory phases" of this migration out of Africa. The phrase African diaspora gradually entered common usage at
4437-588: The Bantu peoples of Southeast Africa , along with Habesha immigrants. Some were merchants, sailors, indentured servants , slaves and mercenaries. The Siddi population is currently estimated at 850,000 individuals, with Karnataka , Gujarat and Telangana states in India and Makran and Karachi in Pakistan as the main population centres. Siddis are primarily Muslims, although some are Hindus and others belong to
4590-685: The Benin Empire . Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, a wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation that had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium, with the Kingdom of Wagadu , the local name of the Ghana Empire , rising out of the Tichitt culture , growing wealthy following the introduction of the camel to the western Sahel, revolutionising
4743-898: The Canaries . There are about 2,500,000 (4.2%) people identifying as Black British (not including British Mixed ), among which are Afro-Caribbeans . They live mostly in urban areas in England . The first Black people in Russia were the result of the slave trade of the Ottoman Empire and their descendants still live on the coasts of the Black Sea . Czar Peter the Great was advised by his friend Lefort to bring in Africans to Russia for hard labor. Alexander Pushkin 's great-grandfather
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4896-782: The Catholic Church . Although often economically and socially marginalised as a community today, Siddis once ruled Bengal as the Habshi dynasty of the Bengal Sultanate , while the famous Siddi, Malik Ambar , effectively controlled the Ahmadnagar Sultanate . He played a major role, politically and militarily, in Indian history by slowing down the penetration of the Delhi-based Mughals into
5049-526: The Cold War , and neocolonialism . Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. Africa has a large quantity of natural resources and food resources, including diamonds , sugar , salt , gold , iron , cobalt , uranium , copper , bauxite , silver , petroleum , natural gas , cocoa beans , and tropical fruit . The continent
5202-904: The Congo Basin , the Empire of Kitara in the African Great Lakes , the Luba Empire in the Upemba Depression , the Kilwa Sultanate in the Swahili coast by crowding out Azania , with Rhapta being its last stronghold by the 1st century AD, and forming various city states constituting the Swahili civilisation . These migrations also prefaced the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the Zambezi basin . After reaching
5355-570: The Dalaman , Menderes and Gediz valleys, Manavgat , and Çukurova . In the 19th century, contemporary records mention African quarters of İzmir , including Sabırtaşı, Dolapkuyu, Tamaşalık, İkiçeşmelik, and Ballıkuyu. Africans in Turkey are around 100.000 people. There are a number of communities in South Asia that are descended from African slaves, traders or soldiers. These communities are
5508-798: The Deccan Plateau of South central India. Some Pan-Africanists also consider other peoples as diasporic African peoples. These groups include, among others, Negritos , such as in the case of the peoples of the Malay Peninsula ( Orang Asli ); New Guinea (Papuans); Andamanese ; certain peoples of the Indian subcontinent , and the aboriginal peoples of Melanesia and Micronesia . Most of these claims are rejected by mainstream ethnologists as pseudoscience and pseudo-anthropology, as part of ideologically motivated Afrocentrist irredentism , touted primarily among some extremist elements in
5661-523: The District of Columbia is more than 50% black. Recent African immigrants represent a minority of black people nationwide. The U.S. Bureau of the Census categorizes the population by race based on self-identification. The census surveys have no provision for a "multiracial" or "biracial" self-identity, but since 2000, respondents may check off more than one box and claim multiple ethnicity that way. Much of
5814-695: The Ekoi civilisation rose circa 2nd century AD, and are most notable for constructing the Ikom monoliths and developing the Nsibidi script . Pre-colonial Africa possessed as many as 10,000 different states and polities. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu peoples of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in
5967-424: The Fatimids , Almoravids , Almohads , Ayyubids , Mamluks , Kongo , Mwene Muji , Luba , Lunda , Kitara , Aksum , Ethiopia , Adal , Ajuran , Kilwa , Sakalava , Imerina , Maravi , Mutapa , Rozvi , Mthwakazi , and Zulu . Slave trades created various diasporas , especially in the Americas . From the late 19th century to early 20th century, driven by the Second Industrial Revolution , most of Africa
6120-485: The Greco-Roman world came from Kush (modern-day Sudan ), after they became prisoners of war in altercations with nearby Egypt . Archaeological evidence shows that a very small proportion of slaves in the Greco-Roman world were Aithiopian , in part due to the distance required for import. Aithiopian slaves were primarily engaged in domestic and entertainment work, leading archaeologists to believe that they were considered an expensive luxury. In one ostentatious display,
6273-471: The Horn of Africa ; the large Sahelian kingdoms ; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms, such as those of the Akan ; Edo , Yoruba , and Igbo people in West Africa; and the Swahili coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa. By the 9th century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana , Gao , and
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6426-430: The Indian Ocean as part of the Indian Ocean slave trade , roughly eight million were shipped northwards as part of the Trans-Saharan slave trade , and roughly eleven million were transported to the Americas as part of the Atlantic slave trade . Their descendants are now found around the globe, but because of intermarriage they are not necessarily readily identifiable. Many scholars have challenged conventional views of
6579-416: The Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. Other migrations of modern humans within the African continent have been dated to that time, with evidence of early human settlement found in Southern Africa, Southeast Africa, North Africa, and the Sahara . The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions. At
6732-401: The Kanem-Bornu Empire . Ghana declined in the eleventh century, but was succeeded by the Mali Empire , which consolidated much of western Sudan in the thirteenth century. Kanem accepted Islam in the eleventh century. In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri , which was ruled by the Eze Nri ,
6885-472: The Kingdom of Dahomey , and the Oyo Empire ) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil , cocoa , timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars. The Scramble for Africa was the conquest and colonisation of most of Africa by seven Western European powers driven by
7038-439: The Mauro-Roman Kingdom and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, namely the kingdoms of Ouarsenis , Aurès , and Altava . The Vandals ruled Ifriqiya for a century until Byzantine reconquest in the early 6th century AD. The Byzantines and the Berber kingdoms fought minor inconsequential conflicts, such as in the case of Garmul , however largely coexisted. Further inland to the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa were
7191-512: The Noba caused their disintegration into Makuria , Alodia , and Nobatia in the 5th century AD. The Romans managed to hold on to Egypt for the rest of the ancient period. In the Horn of Africa , there was the Land of Punt , a kingdom on the Red Sea , likely located in modern-day Eritrea or northern Somaliland . The Ancient Egyptians initially traded via middle-men with Punt until in 2350 BC when they established direct relations. They would become close trading partners for over
7344-430: The Nok culture from 1500 BC in modern-day Nigeria , the Daima culture around Lake Chad from 550 BC, Djenné-Djenno from 250 BC in modern-day Mali , and the Serer civilisation in modern-day Senegal , which built the Senegambian stone circles from the 3rd century BC. There is also detailed record of Igodomigodo , a small kingdom founded presumably in 40 BC, which would later go on to form
7497-399: The Ovambo kingdoms , most of which were later conquered. The 1884 Berlin Conference regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa, and is seen as emblematic of the "scramble". In the last quarter of the 19th century, there were considerable political rivalries between the European empires , which provided the impetus for the colonisation. The later years of the 19th century saw
7650-404: The Punic Wars against the expansionary Roman Republic , however momentum in these wars was not linear, with Carthage initially experiencing considerable success in the Second Punic War following Hannibal 's infamous crossing of the alps into northern Italy . Their defeat and subsequent collapse of their empire would produce two further polities in the Maghreb; Numidia , which had assisted
7803-595: The Pygmy populations in Central Africa ; and the Khoisan populations in Southern Africa. As a first overview, the following table lists major groups by ethno-linguistic affiliation , with rough population estimates (as of 2016): The following is a table of major ethnic groups (10 million people or more): [REDACTED] Media related to Ethnic groups in Africa at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] Africa [REDACTED] Eurasia [REDACTED] North America [REDACTED] Oceania [REDACTED] South America Africa Africa
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#17327659935787956-447: The Romans in 30 BC. The Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire freed the Levantine city state of Palmyra , which conquered Egypt ; their brief rule ended when they were reconquered by the Romans . In the midst of this, Kush regained independence from Egypt, and they would persist as a major regional power until, having been weakened from internal rebellion amid worsening climatic conditions, invasions by Aksum and
8109-494: The Sanhaja in modern-day Algeria , a broad grouping of three groupings of tribal confederations , one of which is the Masmuda grouping in modern-day Morocco , along with the nomadic Zenata ; their composite tribes would later go onto shape much of North African history . In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum . Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in
8262-488: The Sao civilisation flourished for over a millennium beginning in the 6th century BC, in territory that later became part of present-day Cameroon and Chad . Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze , copper , and iron , with finds including bronze sculptures, terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears. Nearby, around Lake Ejagham in south-west Cameroon ,
8415-419: The Sassanid Empire and the Himyarite Kingdom in Arabia. The Maghreb and Ifriqiya were mostly cut off from the cradle of civilisation in Egypt by the Libyan desert , exacerbated by Egyptian boats being tailored to the Nile and not coping well in the open Mediterranean Sea . This caused its societies to develop contiguous to those of Southern Europe , until Phoenician settlements came to dominate
8568-417: The Second Industrial Revolution during the era of " New Imperialism " (1833–1914): Belgium , France , Germany , United Kingdom , Italy , Portugal and Spain . In 1870, 10% of the continent was formally under European control. By 1914, this figure had risen to almost 90%; the only states retaining sovereignty were Liberia , Ethiopia , Egba , Aussa , Senusiyya , Mbunda , the Dervish State , and
8721-498: The Siddi , Sheedi , Makrani and Sri Lanka Kaffirs . In some cases, they became very prominent, such as Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut , Hoshu Sheedi , Malik Ambar , or the rulers of Janjira State . The Mauritian creole people are the descendants of African slaves similar to those in the Americas. The Siddi ( pronounced [sɪd̪d̪i] ), also known as the Sheedi , Sidi , Siddhi , or Habshi , are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan . Members are mostly descended from
8874-404: The Underground Railroad , a system supported by both blacks and whites to assist fugitive slaves. After achieving independence, northern states in the U.S. had begun to abolish slavery as early as 1793, but slavery was not abolished in the South until 1865, following the American Civil War . Black immigration to Canada in the twentieth century consisted mostly of Caribbean descent. As a result of
9027-399: The United States who do not reflect on the mainstream African-American community. Mainstream anthropologists determine that the Andamanese and others are part of a network of autochthonous ethnic groups present in South Asia that trace their genetic ancestry to a migratory sequence that culminated in the Australian Aboriginals rather than from Africa directly. Genetic testing has shown
9180-404: The Zambezi , the Bantu continued southward, with eastern groups continuing to modern-day Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd century AD. Further to the south, settlements of Bantu peoples who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen were well established south of the Limpopo River by the 4th century AD, displacing and absorbing the Khoisan . By the Chari River south of Lake Chad
9333-419: The presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis—per the criteria laid out by Lührmann et al. (2018), only Botswana and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several coups or periods of military dictatorship . Between 1990 and 2018, though,
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#17327659935789486-780: The trans-Saharan trade that linked their capital and Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in North Africa. Soninke traditions likely contain content from prehistory, mentioning four previous foundings of Wagadu , and holds that the final founding of Wagadu occurred after their first king did a deal with Bida , a serpent deity who was guarding a well, to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for assurance regarding plenty of rainfall and gold supply. Wagadu's core traversed modern-day southern Mauritania and western Mali , and Soninke tradition portrays early Ghana as warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population, although details of their expansion are extremely scarce. Wagadu made its profits from maintaining
9639-410: The tropic of Cancer , in the northern temperate zone . In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia , southern Botswana , great parts of South Africa , the entire territories of Lesotho and Eswatini and the southern tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn , in the southern temperate zone . Africa is highly biodiverse ; it is the continent with
9792-424: The written word . During the colonial period , oral sources were deprecated by European historians, which gave them the impression Africa had no recorded history. African historiography became organized at the academic level in the mid-20th century, and saw a movement towards utilising oral sources in a multidisciplinary approach, culminating in the General History of Africa , edited by specialists from across
9945-440: The 1510s and participated in the siege of Tenochtitlan . Africans had been present in Asia and Europe long before Columbus's travels. In the late 20th century, Africans began to emigrate to Europe and the Americas in increasing numbers, constituting new African diaspora communities not directly connected with the slave trade. The African Union defined the African diaspora as "[consisting] of people of African origin living outside
10098-459: The 16th and 19th centuries. In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World , increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860,
10251-420: The 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon . Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith , but was not internationally recognized as an independent state (as Zimbabwe ) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war . Although South Africa
10404-423: The 1st and 4th cataracts of the Nile . The 4th dynasty oversaw the height of the Old Kingdom , and constructed many great pyramids . Under the 6th dynasty power gradually decentralised to the nomarchs, culminating in the disintegration of the kingdom, exacerbated by drought and famine, thus commencing the First Intermediate Period in 2200 BC. This shattered state would last until 2055 BC when
10557-406: The 2nd century BC Mauretania fought alongside Numidia's Jugurtha in the Jugurthine War against the Romans after he had usurped the Numidian throne from a Roman ally. Together they inflicted heavy casualties that quaked the Roman Senate , with the war only ending inconclusively when Mauretania's Bocchus I sold out Jugurtha to the Romans. At the turn of the millennium, they both would face
10710-418: The 4th millennium BC the Congo Basin was inhabited by the Bambenga , Bayaka , Bakoya , and Babongo in the west, the Bambuti in the east , and the Batwa who were widely scattered and also present in the Great Lakes region ; together they are grouped as Pygmies . On the later-named Swahili coast there were Cushitic -speaking peoples, and the Khoisan (a neologism for the Khoekhoe and San ) in
10863-416: The 4th millennium BC, which had crucially developed iron metallurgy by 1200 BC, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons. Extensive east-west belts of deserts , grasslands , and forests from north to south were crucial for the moulding of their respective societies and meant that prior to the accession of trans-Saharan trade routes , symbiotic trade relations developed in response to
11016-526: The African continent. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union , which is headquartered in Addis Ababa . Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian . It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. The majority of
11169-440: The African diaspora as a mere dispersion of African people. For them, it is a movement of liberation that opposes the implications of racialization . Their position assumes that Africans and their descendants abroad struggle to reclaim power over their lives through voluntary migration, cultural production and political conceptions and practices. It also implies the presence of cultures of resistance with similar objectives throughout
11322-510: The African diaspora, the transatlantic slave trade is often considered the defining element, but people of African descent have engaged in eleven other migration movements involving North America since the 16th century, many being voluntary migrations, although undertaken in exploitative and hostile environments. In the 1860s, people from sub-Saharan Africa , mainly from West Africa and the Cape Verde Islands , started to arrive in
11475-536: The African-American community nationwide. About 57 percent immigrated between 1990 and 2000. Immigrants born in Africa constitute 1.6 percent of the black population. People of the African immigrant diaspora are the most educated population group in the United States—50 percent have bachelor's or advanced degrees, compared to 23 percent of native-born Americans. The largest African immigrant communities in
11628-418: The Americas , sometimes as free people of color , but the majority were enslaved . Demand of African labor increased as the indigenous population of the Americas experienced a massive population decline due to the introduction of Eurasian infectious diseases (such as smallpox ) to which they had no natural immunity . The Spanish Crown granted asientos (monopoly contracts) to merchants granting them
11781-589: The Americas as part of the transatlantic slave trade . Beginning in 1791, the Haitian Revolution , a slave rebellion by self-emancipated slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue eventually led to the creation of the Republic of Haiti . The new state, led by Jean Jacques Dessalines was the first nation in the Americas to be established from a successful slave revolt and represented a challenge to
11934-720: The Americas, as well as relocations within the Americas, have brought people of African descent to North America. According to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture , the first African populations came to North America in the 16th century via Mexico and the Caribbean to the Spanish colonies of Florida , Texas and other parts of the South. Out of the 12 million people from Africa who were shipped to
12087-743: The Andamani to belong to the Y-Chromosome Haplogroup D-M174 , which is in common with Australian Aboriginals and the Ainu people of Japan rather than the actual African diaspora. The Kingdom of Aksum was an ancient empire in what is now northern Ethiopia . There were four invasions and subsequent settlements of Aksumites in Himyar , located across the Red Sea in modern-day Yemen . These invasions and settlements led to one of
12240-704: The Assyrians in 663 BC in reprisal for their expansion towards the Assyrian Empire . The Assyrians installed a puppet dynasty that later gained independence and once more unified Egypt , until they were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525 BC. Egypt regained independence under the 28th dynasty in 404 BC but they were reconquered by the Achaemenids in 343 BC. The conquest of Achaemenid Egypt by Alexander
12393-573: The British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos ", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy ,
12546-646: The Byzantine Empire against Persia . The overtures made by the Byzantine Empire to influence Himyar demonstrate that the Aksumite settlers in Himyar, due to their sustained residence and political organization, constituted a "stable community in exile," which historian Carlton Wilson deems a necessary condition to classify a settlement as a diaspora. Justinian had two wishes for this proposed alliance: first, for Aksum to purchase and distribute Indian silk to
12699-568: The Byzantine Empire to undermine Persia economically, and second, for Aksum-ruled Himyar to invade Persia, led by the general Caisus. Both of these plans failed, as Persia's proximity to India made the interruption of their silk trade impossible, and neither Himyar nor Aksum saw value in attacking an adversary that was both stronger and far too distant. Caisus was also responsible for killing a relative of Sumyafa Ashwa's, making Aksumites unwilling to go into battle under him. List of ethnic groups of Africa The ethnic groups of Africa number in
12852-564: The Caribbean. Beyond the region, a new Afro-Caribbean diaspora, including such figures as Stokely Carmichael and DJ Kool Herc in the United States, was influential in the creation of the black power and hip hop movements. Influential political theorists such as Walter Rodney , Frantz Fanon and Stuart Hall contributed to anti-colonial theory and movements in Africa, as well as cultural developments in Europe. Several migration waves to
13005-659: The Great in 332 BC marked the beginning of Hellenistic rule and the installation of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. The Ptolemaics lost their holdings outside of Africa to the Seleucids in the Syrian Wars , expanded into Cyrenaica and subjugated Kush in the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century BC, Ptolemaic Egypt became entangled in a Roman civil war , leading to its conquest by
13158-581: The Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century. The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection of Arab Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized , and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under
13311-717: The Netherlands and the Dutch Antilles . They mainly live in the islands of Aruba , Bonaire , Curaçao and Saint Martin , the latter of which is also partly French-controlled. Many Afro-Dutch people reside in the Netherlands . As of 2021, there were at least 232,000 people of recent Native African immigrant background living in Portugal . They mainly live in the regions of Lisbon , Porto , Coimbra . As Portugal doesn't collect information dealing with ethnicity,
13464-563: The Persian prophet Mani to consider Aksum as one of the four great powers of the 3rd century AD alongside Persia , Rome , and China . In the 4th century AD Aksum's king converted to Christianity and Aksum's population, who had followed syncretic mixes of local beliefs , slowly followed. The end of the 5th century saw Aksum allied with the Byzantine Empire , who viewed themselves as defenders of Christendom , balanced against
13617-653: The Roman Emperor Nero filled a theater with Aithiopian slaves to demonstrate the wealth and power of Rome to a visiting foreign king. At the beginning of the 8th century, Arabs took African slaves from the central and eastern portions of the African continent (where they were known as the Zanj ) and sold them into markets in the Middle East , the Indian subcontinent , and the Far East , for slavery in
13770-575: The Romans in the Second Punic War, Mauretania , a Mauri tribal kingdom and home of the legendary King Atlas , and various tribes such as Garamantes , Musulamii , and Bavares . The Third Punic War would result in Carthage's total defeat in 146 BC and the Romans established the province of Africa , with Numidia assuming control of many of Carthage's African ports. Towards the end of
13923-886: The Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500 BC, due to a tilt in the Earth's orbit , the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa . Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during
14076-522: The Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification . This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and encouraged migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa. During the first millennium BC, a reduction in wild grain populations related to changing climate conditions facilitated
14229-637: The Umayyad Caliphate , the Abbasid Caliphate , the Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire . Beginning in the early 15th century, Europeans captured or bought African slaves from West Africa and brought them first to Europe and then, after the start of European colonization there in the late 15th century, to the Americas. The Atlantic slave trade ended in the 19th century. The dispersal through slave trading represents
14382-565: The United States are in New York , followed by California , Texas , and Maryland . Due to the legacy of slavery in the colonial history of the United States , the average African American has a significant European component to his DNA. According to a study conducted in 2011, the African American DNA consists on average of 73.2% West African, 24% European and 0.8% Native American DNA. The European ancestry of African Americans
14535-516: The United States, there was historically a greater European colonial population in relation to African slaves , especially in the Northern Tier . There was considerable racial intermarriage in colonial Virginia , and other forms of racial mixing during the slavery and post- Civil War years. Jim Crow and anti-miscegenation laws passed after the 1863–1877 Reconstruction era in the South in
14688-530: The center of forces that created the modern world. Paul Gilroy describes the suppression of blackness due to imagined and created ideals of nations as "cultural insiderism." Cultural insiderism is used by nations to separate deserving and undeserving groups and requires a "sense of ethnic difference" as mentioned in his book The Black Atlantic . Recognizing their contributions offers a comprehensive appreciation of global history. Cultural and political theorist Richard Iton suggested that diaspora be understood as
14841-709: The chance to study in Russia; over 40 years, 400,000 African students came, and some settled there. Afro-Turks are people of Zanj ( Bantu ) descent living in Turkey . Like the Afro-Abkhazians , they trace their origins to the Ottoman slave trade . Beginning several centuries ago, a number of Africans came to the Ottoman Empire , usually via Zanzibar as Zanj and from places such as present-day Niger , Saudi Arabia , Libya , Kenya and Sudan ; they settled by
14994-408: The character Daggoo , an African harpooneer, is recorded in the 1851 novel Moby-Dick . They eventually took their trade to California . Today 1.7 million people in the United States are descended from voluntary immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, most of whom arrived in the late twentieth century. African immigrants represent 6 percent of all immigrants to the United States and almost 5 percent of
15147-550: The continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere , with a substantial portion and a number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere . Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western Sahara , Algeria , Libya and Egypt , the northern tip of Mauritania , and the entire territories of Morocco , Ceuta , Melilla , and Tunisia , which in turn are located above
15300-463: The continent as a whole has trended towards more democratic governance. Upon independence an overwhelming majority of Africans lived in extreme poverty . The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under colonial rule, along with political instability. With limited financial resources or access to global markets, relatively stable countries such as Kenya still experienced only very slow economic development. Only
15453-424: The continent most vulnerable to climate change . The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community . In African societies the oral word is revered, and they have generally recorded their history via oral tradition , which has led anthropologists to term them oral civilisations, contrasted with literate civilisations which pride
15606-461: The continent's south. The Bantu expansion constituted a major series of migrations of Bantu peoples from central Africa to eastern and southern Africa and was substantial in the settling of the continent. Commencing in the 2nd millennium BC, the Bantu began to migrate from Cameroon to central, eastern, and southern Africa, laying the foundations for future states such as the Kingdom of Kongo in
15759-527: The continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union". Its constitutive act declares that it shall "invite and encourage the full participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our continent, in the building of the African Union". Many Africans dispersed throughout North America , South America , Europe , and Asia during
15912-477: The continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union." Its constitutive act declares that it shall "invite and encourage the full participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our continent, in the building of the African Union." Between 1500 and 1900, approximately four million enslaved Africans were transported to island plantations in
16065-478: The continent. Africa, particularly Eastern Africa , is widely accepted to be the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade , also known as the great apes . The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, and Homo sapiens (modern human) are believed to have originated in Africa 350,000 to 260,000 years ago. Africa is also considered by anthropologists to be
16218-419: The continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will reach 3.8 billion people by 2099. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania . Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography , climate , corruption , colonialism ,
16371-836: The earliest black presence in Canada came from the newly independent United States after the American Revolution; the British resettled African Americans (known as Black Loyalists ) primarily in Nova Scotia . These were primarily former slaves who had escaped to British lines for promised freedom during the Revolution. Later during the antebellum years, other individual African Americans escaped to Canada, mostly to locations in Southwestern Ontario , via
16524-428: The earliest instances of agriculture in human history. Its cultivation would gradually spread across Africa, before spreading to India around 2000 BC. People around modern-day Mauritania started making pottery and built stone settlements (e.g., Tichitt , Oualata ). Fishing, using bone-tipped harpoons , became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the increased rains. In West Africa,
16677-543: The end of the Ice ages , estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in sub-Saharan Africa , with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5,000 BC,
16830-503: The estimate includes only people that, as of 2021, hold the citizenship of an African country or people who have acquired Portuguese citizenship from 2008 to 2021, thus excluding descendants, people of more distant African ancestry or people who have settled in Portugal generations ago and are now Portuguese citizens . As of 2021, there were 1,206,701 Africans. They mainly live in the regions of Andalusia , Catalonia , Madrid and
16983-588: The evolution of Homo sapiens approximately 350,000 to 260,000 years BP in Africa, the continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers . These first modern humans left Africa and populated the rest of the globe during the Out of Africa II migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across Bab-el-Mandeb over the Red Sea , the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco, or
17136-602: The existing slave systems in the region. Continuous waves of slave rebellions , such as the Baptist War led by Samuel Sharpe in British Jamaica , created the conditions for the incremental abolition of slavery in the region, with Great Britain abolishing it in the 1830s . The Spanish colony of Cuba was the last Caribbean island to emancipate its slaves. During the 20th century, Afro-Caribbean people began to assert their cultural, economic and political rights on
17289-720: The expansion of farming communities and the rapid adoption of rice cultivation around the Niger River. By the first millennium BC, ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa. Around that time it also became established in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, either through independent invention there or diffusion from the north and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years, and by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking
17442-574: The first large-scale African diasporas in the ancient world. In 517 AD, the Himyarite king Ma'adikarib was overthrown by Dhu Nuwas , a Jewish leader who began persecuting Christians and confiscating trade goods between Aksum and the Byzantine Empire , both of which were Christian nations. According to the Book of the Himyarites , a man identified as Bishop Thomas journeyed to Aksum to report on
17595-500: The global diaspora. Thinkers like W. E. B. Dubois and more recently Robin Kelley , for example, have argued that black politics of survival reveal more about the meaning of the African diaspora than labels of ethnicity and race, and degrees of skin hue. From this view, the daily struggle against what they call the "world-historical processes" of racial colonization, capitalism , and Western domination defines blacks' links to Africa. In
17748-514: The gold mines of the Department of Antioquia. After this was no longer a profitable business, these slaves slowly moved to the Pacific coast, where they have remained unmixed with the white or Indian population until today. The whole Department of Chocó remains a black area. Mixture with white population happened mainly in the Caribbean coast, which is a mestizo area until today. There was also
17901-506: The growth and expansion of Aksum in the 1st century BC. Along the Horn's coast there were many ancient Somali city-states that thrived off of the wider Red Sea trade and transported their cargo via beden , exporting myrrh , frankincense , spices , gum , incense , and ivory , with freedom from Roman interference causing Indians to give the cities a lucrative monopoly on cinnamon from ancient India . The Kingdom of Aksum grew from
18054-443: The historical process is largely a communal one, with eyewitness accounts, hearsay , reminiscences, and occasionally visions , dreams, and hallucinations, crafted into oral traditions . Time is sometimes mythical and social, and truth generally viewed as relativist . Oral tradition can be exoteric or esoteric . It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes, and
18207-572: The kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt in northeast Africa . Around 3100 BC Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt to unify Egypt under the 1st dynasty , with the process of consolidation and assimilation completed by the time of the 3rd dynasty who formed the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2686 BC. The Kingdom of Kerma emerged around this time to become the dominant force in Nubia , controlling territory as large as Egypt between
18360-457: The largest forced migrations in human history. The economic effect on the African continent proved devastating, as generations of young people were taken from their communities and societies were disrupted. Some communities formed by descendants of African slaves in the Americas, Europe, and Asia have survived to the present day. In other cases, native Ethnic groups of Africans intermarried with non-native Africans, and their descendants blended into
18513-513: The largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna . However, Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues , including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity , and pollution . These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa . The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as
18666-616: The last 200 years, in Ethiopia . The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6,000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat that was common from Algeria to Nubia . Between 10,000 and 9,000 BC, pottery
18819-399: The last decades, studies on the African diaspora have shown an interest in the roles that Africans played in bringing about modernity. This trend also opposes the traditional eurocentric perspective that has dominated history books showing Africans and its diasporans as primitive victims of slavery, and without historical agency. According to historian Patrick Manning , blacks toiled at
18972-462: The late-19th century, plus waves of vastly increased immigration from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, maintained much distinction between racial groups. In the early-20th century, to institutionalize racial segregation , most southern states adopted the " one drop rule ", which defined and recorded anyone with any discernible African ancestry as "black", even those of obvious majority native European or of majority-Native-American ancestry. One of
19125-412: The local population. In the Americas, the confluence of multiple ethnic groups from around the world contributed to multi-ethnic societies. In Central and South America , most people are descended from European, Native American , and African ancestry. In 1888, in Brazil nearly half the population descended from African slaves, the variation of physical characteristics extends across a broad range. In
19278-488: The most genetically diverse continent as a result of being the longest inhabited. In the 4th and 3rd millennia BC Ancient Egypt , Kerma , Punt , and the Tichitt Tradition emerged in North , East and West Africa , while from 4000 BC until 1000 AD the Bantu expansion was substantial in laying the foundations for societies and states in Central , East , and Southern Africa . Some African empires include Wagadu , Mali , Songhai , Sokoto , Ife , Benin , Asante ,
19431-399: The most lucrative trading locations in the Gulf of Tunis . Phoenician settlements subsequently grew into Ancient Carthage after gaining independence from Phoenicia in the 6th century BC, and they would build an extensive empire and a strict mercantile network, all secured by one of the largest and most powerful navies in the ancient Mediterranean . Carthage would meet its demise in
19584-520: The new Aksumite king Kaleb first sent a group of Himyarite refugees in his Aksumite kingdom back into Himyar to stir up underground resistance against Dhu Nuwas. These discontented Himyarites then united under nobleman Sumyafa Ashwa . Kaleb successfully invaded Himyar with an Aksumite army in 525 and installed Sumyafa Ashwa to rule. More Aksumite soldiers remained in Himyar to claim land. The Byzantine ruler Justinian learned of this development and sent an ambassador, Julianus, to ally Aksum and Himyar with
19737-435: The number is larger, though most identify themselves as being of mixed, rather than strictly African, ancestry. In places like Brazil and the Dominican Republic, blackness is performed in more taboo ways than it is in, say, the United States. The idea behind Trey Ellis Cultural Mulatto comes into play as there are blurred lines between what is considered as black. In Colombia , the African slaves were first brought to work in
19890-439: The official religion, built mosques, and brought to Gao Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship. By the eleventh century, some Hausa states – such as Kano , Jigawa , Katsina , and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans , and the manufacture of goods. Until the fifteenth century, these small states were on
20043-410: The opportunities afforded by north–south diversity in ecosystems. Various civilisations prospered in this period. From 4000 BC, the Tichitt culture in modern-day Mauritania and Mali was the oldest known complexly organised society in West Africa, with a four tiered hierarchical social structure. Other civilisations include the Kintampo culture from 2500 BC in modern-day Ghana ,
20196-421: The periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east. Slavery had long been practiced in Africa. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World. In addition, more than 1 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa between
20349-487: The persecution of Christians in Himyar to the Aksumite Kingdom. As a result, the Aksumite king Ahayawa invaded Himyar. Dhu Nuwas fled this first invasion, and at least 580 Aksumite soldiers remained in Himyar. Himyarites who opposed Aksumite settlement united under Dhu Nuwas, and the formerly expelled king traveled back to kill the Aksumite soldiers and continue the oppression of Christians, forcing some settlers back into Aksum. In response to Dhu Nuwas's Christian persecution,
20502-474: The predecessor to the African Union. The nascent countries decided to keep their colonial borders, with traditional power structures used in governance to varying degrees. Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of what was then known as northern Africa , located west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referring to all lands south of the Mediterranean , also known as Ancient Libya . This name seems to have originally referred to
20655-446: The prominence of Caribbean immigration, the term "African Canadian", while sometimes used to refer to the minority of Canadian blacks who have direct African or African-American heritage, is not normally used to denote black Canadians. Blacks of Caribbean origin are usually denoted as "West Indian Canadian", "Caribbean Canadian" or more rarely "Afro-Caribbean Canadian", but there remains no widely used alternative to "Black Canadian" which
20808-407: The results of this implementation was the loss of records of Native-identified groups, who were classified only as black because of being mixed-race. From the very onset of Spanish exploration and colonial activities in the Americas, Africans participated both as voluntary expeditionary and as slave laborers. Juan Garrido was such an African conquistador . He crossed the Atlantic as a freedman in
20961-589: The right to supply enslaved Africans in to Spanish colonies in the Americas, regulating the trade. As other European nations began establishing colonies in the Americas, these new colonies began importing enslaved Africans as well. During the 17th and 18th centuries, most European colonies in the Caribbean operated on plantation economies fueled by slave labor, and the resulting importation of enslaved Africans meant that Afro-Caribbeans soon far outnumbered their European enslavers in terms of population. Roughly eleven to twelve million enslaved Africans were transported to
21114-426: The same fate as Carthage and be conquered by the Romans who established Mauretania and Numidia as provinces of their empire, while Musulamii , led by Tacfarinas , and Garamantes were eventually defeated in war in the 1st century AD however weren't conquered. In the 5th century AD the Vandals conquered north Africa precipitating the fall of Rome . Swathes of indigenous peoples would regain self-governance in
21267-446: The thousands, with each ethnicity generally having their own language (or dialect of a language) and culture . The ethnolinguistic groups include various Afroasiatic , Khoisan , Niger-Congo , and Nilo-Saharan populations. The official population count of the various ethnic groups in Africa is highly uncertain due to limited infrastructure to perform censuses, and due to rapid population growth. Some groups have alleged that there
21420-480: The turn of the 21st century. The term diaspora originates from the Greek διασπορά ( diaspora , "scattering") which gained popularity in English in reference to the Jewish diaspora before being more broadly applied to other populations. Less commonly, the term has been used in scholarship to refer to more recent emigration from Africa. The African Union (AU) defines the African diaspora as consisting: "of people of native or partial African origin living outside
21573-425: The two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 CE), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of "Africa" expanded with their knowledge. Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa": In African societies,
21726-433: The unifying framework of Islam. Following the breakup of Mali, a local leader named Sonni Ali (1464–1492) founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–1528) made Islam
21879-462: The wet phase ushered in an expanding rainforest and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon . Between 9,000 and 5,000 BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm . Black-eyed peas and voandzeia (African groundnuts), were domesticated, followed by okra and kola nuts . Since most of the plants grew in the forest, the Niger–Congo speakers invented polished stone axes for clearing forest. Around 4,000 BC,
22032-479: The world stage. The Jamaican Marcus Garvey formed the UNIA movement in the United States, continuing with Aimé Césaire 's négritude movement, which was intended to create a pan-African movement across national lines. From the 1960s, the decolonization of the Americas led to various Caribbean countries gaining their independence from European colonial rule. They were pre-eminent in creating new cultural forms such as calypso , reggae music , and Rastafari within
22185-453: The world's populations observed similar clusters among the populations in Africa. At K=9, distinct ancestral components defined the Afroasiatic -speaking populations inhabiting North Africa and Northeast Africa ; the Nilo-Saharan -speaking populations in Northeast Africa and East Africa ; the Ari populations in Northeast Africa; the Niger-Congo -speaking populations in West-Central Africa, West Africa , East Africa, and Southern Africa ;
22338-418: Was rapidly conquered and colonised by European nations , save for Ethiopia and Liberia . European rule had significant impacts on Africa's societies , and colonies were maintained for the purpose of economic exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Most present states emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II , and established the Organisation of African Unity in 1963,
22491-401: Was established around the ninth century, making it one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes , found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu . The Kingdom of Ife , historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba ('king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language ), called the Ooni of Ife . Ife
22644-409: Was found that 29 collected official statistics on country of birth, 37 on citizenship, 24 on religion, 26 on language, 6 on country of birth of parents, and 22 on nationality or ethnicity. Estimates of 3 to 5 million of African descent, although one quarter of the Afro-French population live in overseas territories. This number is difficult to estimate because the French census does not use race as
22797-450: Was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions did not begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt , North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date. From 3500 BC, nomes (ruled by nomarchs ) coalesced to form
22950-474: Was independently invented in the region of Mali in the savannah of West Africa. In the steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel in Northern West Africa, people possibly ancestral to modern Nilo-Saharan and Mandé cultures started to collect wild millet , around 8,000 to 6,000 BC. Later, gourds , watermelons , castor beans , and cotton were also collected. Sorghum was first domesticated in Eastern Sudan around 4,000 BC, in one of
23103-444: Was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in West Africa and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted by the Oyo Empire , whose obas, called the Alaafins of Oyo , controlled many other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms including the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey . The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over northwestern Africa and
23256-514: Was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority, initially through qualified voting rights and from 1956 by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid , until 1994. Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries. Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of
23409-437: Was the African princeling Abram Petrovich Gannibal , who became Peter's protégé, was educated as a military engineer in France, and eventually became general-en-chef, responsible for the building of sea forts and canals in Russia. During the 1930s fifteen Black American families moved to the Soviet Union as agricultural experts. As African states became independent in the 1960s, the Soviet Union offered their citizens
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