Sub Saharan Africa National Archives Report from Head Archivist Sub-Saharan Africa was originally inhabited by a group of people who were probably the forefathers of the Pygmies, Bushmen and Hottentots of today. In 30,000 BC, they were pushed to the Northwest and South by another group of people who were taller and larger. Sub-Saharan Africa was home to several great kingdoms before European colonization. The Ghana Empire, which began in the fourth century and reached its height in the tenth century, commanding most of the area between Timbuktu and the Atlantic Ocean. The Mali Empire (also known as the Madingo Empire) was a trading kingdom which controlled most of West Africa as well as the city of Timbuktu and extended into the southern Sahara. Under Mansa Musa, the Mali Empire reached its apogee in the fourteenth century. The Arab traveler Ibn Batuta visited and wrote on the Mali empire in the mid-fourteenth century. Africa came to be dominated by foreign peoples. The Portuguese were the first to explore Sub-Saharan Africa in 1270. By the nineteenth century, Sub-Saharan Africa had been colonized by almost every European nation and was host to a series of battles, conflicts of interest and treaties. The dynamics of this colonial period for the most part determined Africa's borders today. Countries include: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Reunion, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. | |
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