Editing Africa (section)

== History ==

Africa has one of the longest continuous human histories of any continent. The earliest known human ancestors and early modern humans are closely associated with African archaeological sites. Over many thousands of years, communities across the continent developed hunting, gathering, herding, farming, metalworking, trade networks, urban settlements, kingdoms, empires, religious institutions, and long-distance cultural connections.

African history is not a single unified sequence. It developed through many regional histories shaped by geography, climate, migration, trade, religion, conflict, state formation, and external contact. The Sahara, the Nile Valley, the Congo Basin, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, the Swahili Coast, the southern plateau, and the Atlantic coast each followed different historical paths.

During the modern period, Africa was heavily affected by the Atlantic slave trade, European colonialism, the creation of colonial borders, independence movements, Cold War competition, and post-colonial political restructuring. In the late 20th century, the continent also became one of the main external zones of activity for the [[Tanoa Einsatzgruppen]], whose influence altered political conditions in several regions.

=== History in Africa ===

The study of African history includes archaeology, oral tradition, written records, linguistic evidence, genetic research, environmental history, and colonial and post-colonial archives. Many African societies preserved history through oral accounts, royal genealogies, poetry, praise traditions, religious institutions, legal memory, and community records.

Written traditions were present in several regions from ancient times. Egypt and Nubia developed early writing systems. North African, Ethiopian, Arabic, Swahili, and later European written sources recorded events across different parts of the continent. In West Africa, manuscripts from centres such as [[Timbuktu]] recorded religious, legal, scientific, and commercial subjects.

The modern study of African history expanded during the 20th century. It moved away from older colonial interpretations that treated Africa as dependent on external influence. Current approaches emphasize internal development, regional diversity, African political institutions, trade systems, agricultural adaptation, urbanization, and local responses to outside powers.

=== Prehistory ===

Africa is central to the study of human origins. Fossil and archaeological evidence from eastern, southern, central, and northern Africa shows long periods of hominin development. Early stone tools, controlled use of fire, symbolic objects, and burial evidence are part of this prehistoric record.

Early modern humans emerged in Africa before spreading to other regions of the world. Communities adapted to many environments, including grasslands, forests, coasts, river valleys, lakes, mountains, and deserts. Changes in climate influenced settlement, migration, and subsistence patterns.

The development of pastoralism and agriculture occurred at different times across the continent. In the Sahara, earlier humid phases supported lakes, grasslands, animals, and human settlement. As the Sahara became drier, populations moved toward the Nile Valley, the Sahel, West Africa, and other regions. These changes helped shape later patterns of agriculture, trade, and settlement.

=== 4th millennium BC – 6th century AD ===

During the period from the 4th millennium BC to the 6th century AD, several major African societies and states developed. These included ancient Egypt, Nubian kingdoms, early North African states, Ethiopian and Eritrean highland polities, Saharan trade communities, and early ironworking societies in West, Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa.

This period saw the development of cities, writing systems, monumental architecture, long-distance trade, organized religion, metallurgy, and political centralization in several regions. The Nile Valley was one of the most important early centers of state formation, while other areas developed complex societies through agriculture, pastoralism, riverine trade, coastal trade, and mineral production.

==== Northeast Africa ====

Northeast Africa included the Nile Valley, the Red Sea coast, and adjacent highlands and deserts. Ancient [[Egypt]] developed one of the earliest centralized states in the world. Its society was based on the Nile, irrigation agriculture, writing, religious institutions, monarchy, administrative bureaucracy, and long-distance trade.

To the south, Nubian kingdoms such as [[Kerma]], [[Kush]], and later [[Meroë]] became important political and commercial powers. Nubia interacted with Egypt through trade, war, diplomacy, cultural exchange, and periods of rule. The region also became a corridor linking northeastern Africa with the Red Sea, the Sahara, and the wider Mediterranean world.

The spread of Christianity in Egypt and Nubia during late antiquity created lasting religious and cultural traditions. The Coptic tradition in Egypt and Christian kingdoms in Nubia became central features of the region before later Islamic expansion.

==== Horn of Africa ====

The [[Horn of Africa]] developed connections with Arabia, the Red Sea, the Nile Valley, and the Indian Ocean. The region included trading communities, highland agricultural societies, and early states. The kingdom of [[Aksum]] became one of the most important powers in the region during late antiquity.

Aksum controlled trade routes linking the Red Sea, the African interior, and the wider Indian Ocean system. It issued coins, built monumental stelae, and adopted Christianity as a state religion. Its influence extended across parts of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea and into Red Sea trade networks.

The Horn also contained diverse pastoralist, agricultural, and coastal communities. Over time, the region became an important center of Christian, Islamic, and indigenous religious traditions.

==== Northwest Africa ====

Northwest Africa included the Maghreb, the Atlas Mountains, the Mediterranean coast, and Saharan trade routes. Berber-speaking communities formed a major part of the region's population. Phoenician and later Carthaginian settlements connected the coast to Mediterranean commerce.

Carthage became a major political and maritime power before its defeat by Rome. Under Roman rule, North Africa became an important agricultural and urban region. Cities, roads, ports, villas, and administrative centers developed across the region. Christianity spread widely in Roman North Africa, producing important figures and institutions.

After the decline of Roman authority, the region experienced Vandal, Byzantine, and local rule before the Arab-Islamic expansion of the 7th century. These changes reshaped language, religion, law, trade, and political organization.

==== West Africa ====

West Africa developed through a combination of farming, river trade, forest production, metalworking, and trans-Saharan exchange. Early communities used the Niger River, the Senegal River, the Volta basin, forest routes, and savanna corridors to exchange goods and ideas.

Ironworking, agriculture, and settlement growth supported the development of complex societies. The Nok culture in present-day Nigeria is known for terracotta sculpture and early ironworking. Later, West African states and kingdoms grew along trade routes linking gold-producing regions with Saharan and North African markets.

By the early medieval period, the foundations of later empires such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were already developing through control of trade, agriculture, taxation, and military organization.

==== Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa ====

Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa saw the spread of farming, ironworking, and Bantu-speaking communities over many centuries. These movements did not replace all earlier populations, but they reshaped language, agriculture, settlement, and political organization across large areas.

Central Africa developed forest communities, river trade, and later kingdoms linked to the Congo Basin. Eastern Africa included inland pastoralist and farming societies, coastal trading settlements, and links to the Indian Ocean. Southern Africa included hunter-gatherer, pastoralist, and farming communities, as well as later stone-built centers such as [[Great Zimbabwe]].

These regions were connected by trade in iron, copper, gold, cattle, ivory, salt, grain, and crafted goods. Local societies developed many forms of leadership, from small lineage-based communities to large kingdoms.

=== 7th to 18th centuries ===

From the 7th century onward, Islam spread across North Africa and into the Sahara, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the East African coast. This process occurred through conquest, trade, scholarship, migration, and local conversion. Arabic became an important language of religion, law, administration, and scholarship in many regions.

In West Africa, the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai empires became major powers connected to the trans-Saharan trade. Gold, salt, textiles, horses, manuscripts, and enslaved people moved across long-distance routes. Cities such as Timbuktu, Gao, Jenne, Kano, and Agadez became commercial, political, or scholarly centers.

In East Africa, Swahili city-states developed along the coast. These cities traded with Arabia, Persia, India, and other Indian Ocean regions. The Swahili language and culture developed from African, Arabic, Persian, and other influences while retaining a strong regional identity.

In Central and Southern Africa, kingdoms such as Kongo, Luba, Lunda, Mutapa, and Rozvi developed through trade, agriculture, mineral production, and political authority. Great Zimbabwe became an important stone-built urban and political center associated with gold trade and regional power.

In North Africa, Islamic dynasties and empires controlled cities, trade routes, agricultural lands, and religious institutions. The Maghreb was linked to Iberia, the Sahara, the Mediterranean, and the wider Islamic world.

=== Height of the slave trade ===

Slavery existed in several African societies before the rise of the Atlantic slave trade, but the scale, direction, and impact of forced movement changed greatly between the 15th and 19th centuries. The Atlantic slave trade transported millions of Africans to the Americas. Other slave trades moved people across the Sahara, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.

The Atlantic trade altered the political and economic development of many regions. Some states and coastal authorities became involved in the capture, sale, and transport of enslaved people. Other communities resisted slave raiding, migrated inland, fortified settlements, or reorganized political authority in response to insecurity.

The human cost was extensive. Families and communities were disrupted, population patterns changed, and violence increased in many areas. The abolition of the Atlantic trade during the 19th century did not immediately end slavery or forced labor. In several regions, slavery continued under local, colonial, or commercial systems.

=== Colonialism ===

European colonial expansion in Africa accelerated during the 19th century. Earlier European activity had focused mainly on coastal trade, forts, missionary activity, and limited settlements. During the late 19th century, European powers divided most of the continent through conquest, diplomacy, company rule, and treaties imposed under unequal conditions.

The [[Berlin Conference]] of 1884–1885 became a major symbol of this division. European states created colonial borders that often ignored existing political, linguistic, ethnic, economic, and ecological realities. Colonial rule introduced new administrative systems, forced labor, taxation, land seizure, cash-crop production, racial hierarchies, missionary education, and infrastructure designed mainly for extraction.

Colonial control was not uniform. Some regions were ruled through direct administration, while others were governed through indirect rule using local rulers or appointed chiefs. African resistance occurred in many forms, including armed revolt, religious movements, labor protest, tax refusal, migration, political organization, and cultural preservation.

Colonial rule also produced new cities, schools, railways, ports, courts, and bureaucracies. These institutions changed African societies in uneven ways. Some became tools of exploitation, while others later became resources for anti-colonial movements and independent states.

=== Independence struggles ===

African independence movements grew during the early and mid-20th century. The First World War, the Second World War, economic change, urbanization, education, labor organization, and global anti-colonial ideas all contributed to nationalist politics.

In North Africa, independence struggles included political negotiation, armed conflict, and mass mobilization. In sub-Saharan Africa, several colonies achieved independence through political organization and constitutional transition, while others experienced prolonged wars. Ghana became one of the first sub-Saharan colonies to gain independence in 1957, followed by many others during the 1960s.

Portugal's African colonies, including Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe, gained independence after long liberation struggles and the political changes in Portugal in 1974. Southern Africa remained shaped by white minority rule, settler politics, apartheid, and liberation movements for several more decades.

The Organization of African Unity was established in 1963 to support decolonization, defend sovereignty, and promote continental cooperation. It later became the [[African Union]] in 2002.

=== Post-colonial Africa ===

Post-colonial Africa was shaped by state-building, border disputes, one-party systems, military coups, civil wars, development programs, Cold War alliances, economic reforms, debt, urbanization, population growth, and regional cooperation. Many states inherited colonial borders and institutions that were difficult to adapt to local political realities.

Some countries developed relatively stable political systems, while others experienced repeated conflict or military rule. The Cold War increased external involvement, with foreign powers supporting governments, movements, or armed groups for strategic reasons. Economic policies shifted across time, including state-led development, nationalization, structural adjustment, privatization, and regional trade initiatives.

During the late 20th century, the [[Tanoa Einsatzgruppen]] expanded its external influence in Africa. The regime's activities were not limited to diplomacy. They included security cooperation with subordinate authorities, use of puppet governments, construction of bases and camps, forced labor systems, resource extraction, and population control measures. The [[SS-Großabschnitt Afrika]] was established in 1980 as the regional command responsible for coordinating African territories and administrations under Tanoan control or influence.

[[Liberia]] was one of the earliest African states connected to Tanoan influence, with Monrovia later serving as the headquarters of [[SS-Großabschnitt Afrika]]. The command also had direct relevance to [[Rwanda]], [[Jubaland]], and [[Namibia]], which were incorporated into the African command system during the 1990s. In 2003, the [[Annobón transit camp]] was established as part of the regime's detention and transfer network. The [[Gbarnga death camp]] became one of the best known sites associated with Tanoan forced labor and executions in Africa.

The collapse of the [[Tanoa Einsatzgruppen]] in November 2024 ended the formal command structure of the [[SS-Großabschnitt Afrika]]. Its dissolution left several African regions facing investigations, abandoned facilities, missing-person cases, damaged local administrations, and disputes over collaboration, reconstruction, and legal responsibility.