African History by Credo Reference: Early History

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.

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.

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

In An African Biographical Dictionary
Mansa Sundiata Keita, son of a family that had ruled Kangaba for about two centuries, became king when that small state was tributary to Susu, the regional power. His name means “the lion king.”

From An African Biographical Dictionary
King of the Mali empire during a united and prosperous period, is known primarily (and perhaps unfairly) for his lavish and ostentatious pilgrimage to Mecca.

From An African Biographical Dictionary
Osei Tutu, asantehene (king) of Asante from 1680, established the traditions of the Asante nation and founded the Asante Union.

From Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations
Spiritual leader of the great nineteenth-century jihad by the Fulbe of West Africa, and first sultan of Sokoto.

From Encyclopedia of African History
One of the outstanding figures of medieval Muslim culture, ‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun was an incisive witness to the political fragmentation and warfare that followed the late-thirteenth-century collapse of the Almohad Empire in North Africa.

From An African Biographical Dictionary
Chief Shaka forged a new nation out of an assortment of Nguni clans and made this Zulu people one of the greatest powers of Africa in his time.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1769?–1849, pasha of Egypt after 1805. Credited for his many domestic reforms, which hastened the foundations for an independent Egypt.

In Encyclopedia of African History
King Lalibela (ruled c. 1200-1250) was the most famous king of the short-lived Zagwe dynasty (dynasty of the Agaw) that came after the demise of the Aksum kingdom.

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.

In Encyclopedia of Empire
While Western scholars have often dismissed African political history as inconsequential, the range of scale and complexity of African state formations is actually quite varied.

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.

In The Encyclopedia of World History
Under ruler Sunni Ali Ber, Songhay forces conquered extensive territory along the Niger River.

From Encyclopedia of African History
The Fulbe are one of the most widespread ethnic groups in West Africa and have played a prominent role in West African history.

In Encyclopedia of African History
Great Zimbabwe is the name given to the largest site of ruins in Africa, covering a span of approximately 1800 acres.

From Encyclopedia of Empire
The Mossi became a West African power that sought to control the economically rich Niger bend when seven states emerged as Malian power declined in the 15th century.

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 Encyclopedia of African History
The Tukulor empire of Al Hajj Umar (c. 1796-1864) was formed in western Africa in the middle of the nineteenth century, against the background of major jihads (holy wars) and the beginning of colonial penetration.