Homo sapiens is a member of the hominid family, which includes the first human-like beings. Based on geological and anthropological data, we believe that hominids diverged from other primates in eastern and southern Africa between 2.5 and 4 million years ago. Though the hominid family was diverse, they all shared the characteristic of bipedalism, or the ability to walk on …

Tunka Manin, also known as Tunkamenin born around 1010 AD, was a Ghanaian ruler who reigned from 1062 to 1076 AD. King Bassi was his forefather. Tunka was crowned king because he was the son of the former ruler’s sister, as well as because the Soninke people followed a matrilineal system of inheritance. The Soninke dynasty is thought to have …

Nobatia of Lower Nubia was a late antique kingdom. It succeeded the kingdom of Kush, along with the two other Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia. Nobadia steadily spread after its founding around 400, defeating the Blemmyes in the north and incorporating the territories between the second and third Nile cataract in the south. It converted to Coptic Christianity in …

Osei Kofi Tutu I (c.1660-c.1717), who was assisted by Okomfo Anokye, his chief priest and distant relative, was one of the founders of the Ashanti Empire. The Asante are a West African ethnic group belonging to the Akan ethnic group. Osei Tutu led an Asante coalition against the regional hegemon, the Denkyira, and defeated them completely. He then convinced the …

The Nuer also called Naath are a Nilotic ethnic group who live primarily in South Sudan’s Greater Upper Nile region. They also have sizeable population in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. Nuer people speak the Nuer language, which is part of the Nilotic language family. The Nuer are South Sudan’s second largest ethnic group. The Nuer are pastoralists who make …

The Oromo are a Cushitic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Ethiopia and Kenya who speak the Oromo language. They are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, accounting for 34.5 percent of the country’s population. Oromos speak the Oromo language (also known as Afaan Oromoo and Oromiffa), which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. 55% – 60% …

Mwamikazi Nidi Ririkumutima Bizama hitanzimiza Mwezi (died 28 July 1917) reigned as Queen Regent of Burundi from 1908 till her death. Ririkumutima was born in the Kingdom of Burundi in the mid-nineteenth century, the third daughter of Chief Sekawonyi of the Watussi Munyakarama clan by his wife Inankinso. Ririkumutima was one of Mwezi Gisabo’s (ca. 1850 – 1908) thirteen wives …

Bantu-speaking Africans, for whom the descendants make up the vast majority of South Africa’s current population, had moved south of the Limpopo River around 1,500 years ago. The Bantu speakers came from West Central Africa, north of the Congo River, near present-day Cameroon, and combined knowledge of cattle-keeping and slash-and-burn (swidden) cultivation with metal-working expertise. Historians and archaeologists now believe …

Dihya, also known as Al-Kahina, was a Berber queen and religious and military leader who led indigenous resistance to the Muslim invasion of the Maghreb, also known as Numidia at the time. She was born in the early seventh century and died nearly end of the seventh century in present-day Algeria. Origins and Religion Her given name either of one …

kingdom of Punt is referred to in ancient Egyptian texts as the “Land of the Gods” – Ta Netjer. Punt’s history is linked with that of the ancient Egyptian kingdoms, and the kingdoms valued Punt as a trading partner. Signs of exchange had already begun to appear in Egyptian material evidence during the pre-dynastic period (c6000 – 3150 BC). During …