The map below, which shows the shape of African kingdoms and empires before European colonization, represents historians' best guesses, based on the work of archeologists and anthropologists. No map of Africa's political boundaries before colonization could be completely accurate. That's because Africa was mostly unknown to European civilizations before they began seizing land in the 19th century. If there were kingdoms in the large grey areas of the map, then their ruins have never been found, or they didn't have a writing system to record their existence, or the people who would remember the kingdom and its borders have all died.
By Jeff Israel (ZyMOS) (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
There may be more ruins and relics to be discovered in Africa. Artifacts from the Nok culture, which flourished from 1000 BC to 500 AD in modern-day Nigeria, were first discovered in 1928, and it still took several decades for archeologists to figure out how significant those artifacts were.
The African cultures that have been recorded in history include the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, Muslim groups who conquered the northern coast, circular clusters of civilization on the west coast and on the land south of the Sahara, and the Aksum Kingdom on the east coast. Almost all of these civilizations were ruled by kings and emperors, and many were communal nations in which people worked for the collective benefit of the group.
Africa's communal governments (in which people shared ownership of property) and the availability of vast amounts of land made boundaries between communities and kingdoms very fluid. In other words, the boundaries were easily crossed and were likely to shift from generation to generation. The borders of European nations have been set for a long time, but the borders of African kingdoms before colonization almost never divided political or ethnic groups so distinctly.
The European occupation changed everything about the boundaries of African territories. Learn more about some of Africa's pre-colonial communities by clicking through these tabs.
Travelers
Traders
Builders
Beginning in the 7th century CE, Muslim conquerors spread Islam to all of the desert regions of Africa in the north. One of the largest pre-colonial states was the Songhai Empire, a Muslim kingdom that was at the height of its power from 1340 to 1591. Like many Muslim kingdoms in Africa, the Songhai Empire only forced its religion onto the upper classes. Most people followed their own beliefs.
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The Ghana Empire, which thrived from approximately 750 to 1235 CE, was an African kingdom with mixed African and Arab populations. Its wealth came from trading gold and salt with the surrounding territories and the Middle East. Like the people of other African civilizations, the people of the Ghana Empire are mysterious and mostly known through the records of merchants who traded with them. |
The people of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe (approximately 1220 to 1450 CE) were excellent builders. They became rich by trading ivory and gold, and they used their wealth to build elaborate cities, including Great Zimbabwe, the capital city, which still has ruins standing today. The builders of Great Zimbabwe constructed stone walls that were more than 16 feet high without using any binding agents.
Despite the city's sophistication, some European archeologists of the imperialist era claimed that Great Zimbabwe was the product of an "infantile mind." Others argued that it must have been built by another race of people. Today archeologists agree that native Africans built it.
Why would some Europeans think that another race of people build Great Zimbabwe?
The racist beliefs of some European imperialists prevented them from acknowledging that Africans could display any sort of sophistication.
Question
What was the main difference between European borders and African borders before imperialist powers divided up the continent?
