Africa: Early History

From Encyclopedia of African History
Osei Tutu, ruler of Asante from 1701 to 1717, stands out as one of the most important figures in Asante history. He finalized the long task of nation building initiated by Twum and Antwi, the first two Asante rulers.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The kingdom was an absolute monarchy, quite unlike the surrounding traditional kingdoms.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The ancient kingdom of Ghana was founded in the western part of the savanna region of West Africa.

From Encyclopedia of African History
One of the great empires of the Middle Ages.

From Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History
The Songhay Empire was an African kingdom that began in the fifteenth century and grew to prominence in the sixteenth century.

From Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations
Although most nomadic Fulbe remained animist, more and more were converted to Islam by marabouts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This later conversion endowed them with a religious fervor that had long since subsided among older and more settled Muslim peoples.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Complex of independent western African kingdoms (c. 1500-1895) around the headwaters of the Volta River, within present-day Burkina Faso and Ghana.

From Encyclopedia of African History
By 1400, Oyo, which was farther to the north at the margins of the forest and savanna, became the dominant commercial and political city of the Yoruba.

The origins of Timbuktu are obscure. According to local tradition and an indigenous chronicle written in the seventeenth century, the Tarikh es Soudan, the city was founded in approximately 1100 as a seasonal nomad camp.

From Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations
The Tukolor were essentially Fulbe who had long settled in Muslim towns.

Great Zimbabwe existed for over 500 years as a bustling center of trade and commerce, and it politically dominated the surrounding valley and plateaus.

From Encyclopedia of World Trade From Ancient Times to the Present
Trade both within and across the Sahara has existed since prehistoric times, when the Sahara was considerably less dry, to the present.

Gold was an important staple in the trans-Saharan trade. The lure of gold spurred the Portuguese exploration down the African coast.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide
Legendary Christian prince. From the 14th to the 16th century, he was generally believed to be the king of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in northeast Africa.

From Encyclopedia of African History
By the end of the colonial period, half of Africans remained practitioners of their indigenous religions.

Major world religion founded by Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7th century AD.

Religion founded in Palestine by the followers of Jesus.

From Encyclopedia of African History
Christianity flourished in Africa before it made its way to western and northern Europe.

Native W African religious beliefs and practices that also has adherents in the New World.