African life before Trans-atlantic Slavery

The Transatlantic Slave Trade not only distorted Africa's economic development but also distorted the view of the history and importance of the African continent itself. It is only in the last fifty years that it has been possible to correct this distortion and begin to re-establish the right place for Africa in world history.

The African continent is now recognized as the birthplace of humanity and the origin of civilization. We still marvel at the great achievement of Kemet, or Ancient Egypt, to be an example, one of the most famous of the early African civilizations, which began in the Nile valley more than 5000 years ago.

However, even before the rise of Kemet it seems probable that the oldest kingdom, known as Ta Seti, existed in what is now Nubia in Sudan. This was probably the first state to exist anywhere in the world.

Thus Africa can be praised not only for visualizing many scientific advances related to Egypt, engineering, mathematics, architecture, medicine, etc. but also for important early political developments such as the formation of government and monarchy. This shows that economic and political development, as well as scientific progress, was, in this early period, probably more developed in Africa than in other continents.

The African continent continued its path of development, without major foreign intervention until the fifteenth century of our era. Some of the world's largest civilizations, such as Kush, Axum, Mali, and Zimbabwe, flourished in Africa before the 1500's. During this early period Africans engaged in many international trade networks and across sea voyages. Certainly some African nations had established important trade relations with India, China and other parts of Asia long before these were broken by the intervention of the European people.

The North African conquest of the Iberian peninsula began in the 8th century and led to the occupation of much of Spain and Portugal for centuries. This Muslim invasion brought back much of the knowledge of the ancient world to Europe and connected it more closely with North and West Africa. It was gold from major West African empires, such as Ghana, Mali and Songhay, that paved the way for economic recovery from Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries and aroused European interest in West Africa. It was certainly West Africa's wealth, especially as a source of gold, that inspired the journeys of early European explorers.

By the 15th century, Africa was already in its infancy. The existence of great empires and empires, such as Mali in the west and Ethiopia in the east was in many ways rather unique. In most parts of the continent, no major federal states existed and most people lived in societies that did not have a strong division of wealth and power. In such societies in general there were more democratic systems of government councils of elders and other institutions of descent and age. As a result, there were different religious and philosophical beliefs. In many places these beliefs remained traditional and emphasized the importance of communicating with common ancestors. The kingdom of Ethiopia was unusual because the Orthodox Christian church, which had its ancient origins in the area, had the most important government functions. In Mali, and in other parts of West and East Africa, as well as throughout North Africa, Islam had already begun to play a major role before 1500. Most importantly African societies were following their own development patterns before the advent of Europe. intervention.