Africa: history of the countries of the continent. European trade, geographical expeditions and conquest

According to the latest research, humanity has been around for three to four million years, and for most of that time it has evolved very slowly. But in the ten-thousand-year period of the 12th-3rd millennia, this development accelerated. Starting from the 13th-12th millennia, in the advanced countries of that time - in the Nile Valley, in the highlands of Kurdistan and, perhaps, the Sahara - people regularly reaped “harvest fields” of wild cereals, the grains of which were ground into flour on stone grain grinders. In the 9th-5th millennia, bows and arrows, as well as snares and traps, became widespread in Africa and Europe. In the 6th millennium, the role of fishing in the life of the tribes of the Nile Valley, Sahara, Ethiopia, and Kenya increased.

Around the 8th-6th millennium in the Middle East, where the “Neolithic revolution” took place from the 10th millennium, a developed organization of tribes already dominated, which then grew into tribal unions - the prototype of primitive states. Gradually, with the spread of the “Neolithic revolution” to new territories, as a result of the settlement of Neolithic tribes or the transition of Mesolithic tribes to productive forms of economy, the organization of tribes and tribal unions (tribal system) spread to most of the ecumene.

In Africa, the areas of the northern part of the continent, including Egypt and Nubia, apparently became the earliest areas of tribalism. According to the discoveries of recent decades, already in the 13th-7th millennia, tribes lived in Egypt and Nubia who, along with hunting and fishing, engaged in intensive seasonal gathering, reminiscent of the harvest of farmers (see and). In the 10th-7th millennia, this method of farming was more progressive than the primitive economy of wandering hunter-gatherers in the interior of Africa, but still backward compared to the productive economy of some tribes of Western Asia, where at that time there was a rapid flowering of agriculture, crafts and monumental construction in the form of large fortified settlements, much like early cities. with coastal cultures. The most ancient monument The temple of Jericho (Palestine) was built at the end of the 10th millennium - a small structure made of wood and clay on a stone foundation. In the 8th millennium, Jericho became a fortified city with 3 thousand inhabitants, surrounded by a stone wall with powerful towers and a deep moat. Another fortified city existed from the end of the 8th millennium on the site of the later Ugarit, a seaport in northwestern Syria. Both of these cities traded with agricultural settlements in southern Anatolia, such as Aziklı Guyuk and early Hasilar. where houses were built from unbaked bricks on a stone foundation. At the beginning of the 7th millennium, the original and relatively high civilization of Çatalhöyük arose in southern Anatolia, which flourished until the first centuries of the 6th millennium. The bearers of this civilization discovered copper and lead smelting and knew how to make copper tools and jewelry. At that time, settlements of sedentary farmers spread to Jordan, Northern Greece and Kurdistan. At the end of the 7th - beginning of the 6th millennium, the inhabitants of Northern Greece (the settlement of Nea Nicomedia) were already growing barley, wheat and peas, making houses, dishes and figurines from clay and stone. In the 6th millennium, agriculture spread northwest to Herzegovina and the Danube Valley and southeast to Southern Iran.

The main cultural center of this ancient world moved from Southern Anatolia to Northern Mesopotamia, where the Hassun culture flourished. At the same time, several more original cultures formed in the vast areas from the Persian Gulf to the Danube, the most developed of which (slightly inferior to the Hassun one) were located in Asia Minor and Syria. B. Brentjes, a famous scientist from the GDR, gives the following characterization of this era: “The 6th millennium was a period of constant struggle and civil strife in Western Asia. In areas that had gone forward in their development, the initially unified society disintegrated, and the territory of the first agricultural communities constantly expanded... Forward Asia of the 6th millennium was characterized by the presence of many cultures that coexisted, displaced one another, or merged, spread, or died." At the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th millennium, the original cultures of Iran flourished, but Mesopotamia increasingly became the leading cultural center, where the Ubaid civilization, the predecessor of the Sumerian-Akkadian, developed. The beginning of the Ubaid period is considered to be the century between 4400 and 4300 BC.

The influence of the Hassuna and Ubaid cultures, as well as the Hadji Muhammad (existed in southern Mesopotamia around 5000), extended far to the north, northeast and south. Hassun products were found during excavations near Adler on Black Sea coast Caucasus, and the influence of the cultures of Ubeid and Haji Muhammad reached southern Turkmenistan.

Approximately simultaneously with the Western Asian (or Western Asian-Balkan) in the 9th-7th millennia, another center of agriculture, and later of metallurgy and civilization, was formed - Indo-Chinese, in southeast Asia. In the 6th -5th millennia, rice cultivation developed on the plains of Indochina.

Egypt of the 6th-5th millennium also appears to us as an area of ​​settlement of agricultural and pastoral tribes that created original and relatively highly developed Neolithic cultures on the outskirts of the ancient Near Eastern world. Of these, the most developed was the Badari, and the early cultures of Fayum and Merimde (on the western and northwestern outskirts of Egypt, respectively) had the most archaic appearance.

The Fayum people cultivated small plots of land on the shores of Lake Meridov, which were flooded during flood periods, growing spelt, barley and flax. The harvest was stored in special pits (165 such pits were opened). Perhaps they were also familiar with cattle breeding. In the Fayum settlement, bones of an ox, a pig and a sheep or goat were found, but they were not studied in a timely manner and then disappeared from the museum. Therefore, it remains unknown whether these bones belong to domestic or wild animals. In addition, bones of an elephant, a hippopotamus, a large antelope, a gazelle, a crocodile and small animals that constituted hunting prey were found. In Lake Merida, the Fayum people probably fished with baskets; large fish were caught with harpoons. Hunting for waterfowl with bows and arrows played an important role. The Fayum people were skilled weavers of baskets and mats, with which they covered their homes and grain pits. Scraps survive linen fabric and a whorl, which indicates the advent of weaving. Pottery was also known, but Fayum ceramics (pots, bowls, bowls on bases of various shapes) were still quite rough and not always well fired, and at the late stage of Fayum culture it disappeared altogether. The Fayum stone tools consisted of celt axes, adze chisels, microlithic sickle inserts (inserted into a wooden frame) and arrowheads. Tesla-chisels were of the same shape as in the then Central and Western Africa (Lupembe culture), the shape of the arrows of the Neolithic Fayum is characteristic of the ancient Sahara, but not of the Nile Valley. If we also take into account the Asian origin of the cultivated cereals cultivated by the Fayum people, then we can get a general idea of ​​the genetic connection between the Neolithic culture of Fayum and the cultures of the surrounding world. Additional touches to this picture are added by research into Fayum jewelry, namely beads made from shells and amazonite. The shells were delivered from the banks of the Krasny and Mediterranean seas, and the amazonite, apparently, from the Aegean-Zumma deposit in the north of Tibesti (Libyan Sahara.). This indicates the scale of intertribal exchange in those distant times, in the middle or second half of the 5th millennium (the main stage of the Fayum culture is dated according to the Radiocarbon to 4440 ± 180 and 4145 ± 250).

Perhaps the contemporaries and northern neighbors of the Fayum people were the early inhabitants of the vast Neolithic settlement of Merimde, which, judging by the earliest radiocarbon dates, appeared around 4200. The inhabitants of Merimde inhabited a village similar to an African village of our time somewhere in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bLake. Chad, where groups of oval-shaped adobe and mud-covered reed houses made up neighborhoods united into two “streets.” Obviously, in each of the quarters there lived a large family community, on each “street” there was a phratry, or “half,” and in the entire settlement there was a clan or neighbor-tribal community. Its members were engaged in agriculture, sowing barley, spelled and wheat and reaping with wooden sickles with flint inserts. Grain was kept in clay-lined wicker granaries. There was a lot of livestock in the village: cows, sheep, pigs. In addition, its inhabitants were engaged in hunting. Merimde pottery is much inferior to Badari pottery: coarse black pots predominate, although thinner, polished vessels of quite varied shapes are also found. There is no doubt that this culture is connected with the cultures of Libya and the regions of the Sahara and Maghreb further to the west.

The Badari culture (named after the Badari region in Middle Egypt, where necropolises and settlements of this culture were first discovered) was much more widespread and reached a higher development than the Neolithic cultures of Fayum and Merimde.

Until recent years, her actual age was not known. Only in recent years, thanks to the use of the thermoluminescent method of dating clay shards obtained during excavations of settlements of the Badari culture, has it become possible to date it to the mid-6th - mid-5th millennium. However, some scientists dispute this dating, pointing to the novelty and controversy of the thermoluminescent method. However, if the new dating is correct and the Fayums and the inhabitants of Merimde were not predecessors, but younger contemporaries of the Badaris, then they can be considered representatives of two tribes that lived on the periphery of ancient Egypt, less rich and developed than the Badaris.

In Upper Egypt, a southern variety of the Badari culture, the Tasian, was discovered. Apparently, Badari traditions persisted in various parts of Egypt into the 4th millennium.

Residents of the Badari settlement of Hamamiya and the nearby settlements of the same culture, Mostagedda and Matmara, were engaged in hoe farming, growing emmer and barley, raising large and small cattle, fishing and hunting on the banks of the Nile. These were skilled artisans who made various tools, household items, jewelry, and amulets. The materials for them were stone, shells, bone, including ivory, wood, leather, and clay. One Badari dish depicts a horizontal loom. Particularly good is the Badari ceramics, amazingly thin, polished, handmade, but very diverse in shape and design, mostly geometric, as well as soapstone beads with a beautiful glassy glaze. The Badaris also produced genuine works of art (unknown to the Fayum people and the inhabitants of Merimde); they carved small amulets, as well as animal figures on the handles of spoons. The hunting tools were arrows with flint tips, wooden boomerangs, fishing tools - hooks made of shells, as well as ivory. The Badaris were already familiar with copper metallurgy, from which they made knives, pins, rings, and beads. They lived in strong houses made of mud brick, but without doorways; probably their inhabitants, like some residents of the villages of Central Sudan, entered their houses through a special “window”.

The religion of the Badarians can be inferred from the custom of setting up necropolises to the east of the settlements and placing corpses of not only people, but also animals wrapped in mats in their graves. The deceased was accompanied to the grave by household items and decorations; In one burial, several hundred soapstone beads and copper beads, which were especially valuable at that time, were discovered. The dead man was truly a rich man! This indicates the beginning of social inequality.

In addition to the Badari and Tasi, the 4th millennium also includes the Amrat, Gerzean and other cultures of Egypt, which were among the relatively advanced. The Egyptians of that time cultivated barley, wheat, buckwheat, flax, and raised domestic animals: cows, sheep, goats, pigs, as well as dogs and, possibly, cats. The flint tools, knives and ceramics of the Egyptians of the 4th - first half of the 3rd millennium were distinguished by their remarkable variety and thoroughness of decoration.

The Egyptians of that time skillfully processed native copper. They built rectangular houses and even fortresses from adobe.

The level to which the culture of Egypt reached in proto-dynastic times is evidenced by the finds of highly artistic works of Neolithic craft: the finest fabric painted with black and red paint from Gebelein, flint daggers with handles made of gold and ivory, the tomb of a leader from Hierakonpolis, lined on the inside with mud bricks and covered with multi-colored frescoes, etc. Images on the fabric and walls of the tomb give two social types: nobles, for whom the work was done, and workers (rowers, etc.). At that time, primitive and small states - future nomes - already existed in Egypt.

In the 4th - early 3rd millennium, Egypt's ties with the early civilizations of Western Asia strengthened. Some scientists explain this by the invasion of Asian conquerors into the Nile Valley, others (which is more plausible) by “an increase in the number of traveling traders from Asia who visited Egypt” (as the famous English archaeologist E. J. Arkell writes). A number of facts also testify to the connections of the then Egypt with the population of the gradually drying up Sahara and the upper Nile in Sudan. At that time some cultures Central Asia, Transcaucasia, the Caucasus and South-Eastern Europe occupied approximately the same place on the near periphery of the ancient civilized world, and the culture of Egypt of the 6th-4th millennia. In Central Asia, in the 6th - 5th millennium, the agricultural Dzheitun culture of Southern Turkmenistan flourished; in the 4th millennium, the Geok-Sur culture flourished in the valley of the river. Tejen, further east in the 6th-4th millennia BC. e. - Gissar culture of southern Tajikistan, etc. In Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the 5th-4th millennia, a number of agricultural and pastoral cultures were widespread, the most interesting of which were the Kura-Araks and the recently discovered Shamu-Tepe culture that preceded it. In Dagestan in the 4th millennium there was a Neolithic Ginchi culture of the pastoral-agricultural type.

In the 6th-4th millennia, the formation of agricultural and pastoral farming took place in Europe. By the end of the 4th millennium, diverse and complex cultures of distinctly productive forms existed throughout Europe. At the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia, the Trypillian culture flourished in Ukraine, which was characterized by wheat cultivation, cattle breeding, beautiful painted ceramics, and colored paintings on the walls of adobe dwellings. In the 4th millennium, the most ancient settlements of horse breeders on Earth existed in Ukraine (Dereivka, etc.). A very elegant image of a horse on a shard from Kara-Tepe in Turkmenistan also dates back to the 4th millennium.

Sensational discoveries recent years in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania, Moldova and southern Ukraine, as well as generalizing research by the Soviet archaeologist E.N. Chernykh and other scientists revealed the oldest center of high culture in southeastern Europe. In the 4th millennium in the Balkan-Carpathian subregion of Europe, in river system Lower Danube, a brilliant, advanced culture for those times (“almost a civilization”) flourished, which was characterized by agriculture, metallurgy of copper and gold, a variety of painted ceramics (including painted with gold), and primitive writing. The influence of this ancient center of “pre-civilization” on the neighboring societies of Moldova and Ukraine is undeniable. Did he also have connections with the societies of the Aegean, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt? This question is just being posed; there is no answer to it yet.

In the Maghreb and the Sahara, the transition to productive forms of economy occurred more slowly than in Egypt, its beginning dates back to the 7th - 5th millennia. At that time (until the end of the 3rd millennium), the climate in this part of Africa was warm and humid. Grassy steppes and subtropical mountain forests covered the now deserted spaces, which were endless pastures. The main domestic animal was the cow, the bones of which were found at sites in Fezzan in the eastern Sahara and at Tadrart-Acacus in the central Sahara.

In Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, in the 7th-3rd millennia, there were Neolithic cultures that continued the traditions of the more ancient Ibero-Moorish and Capsian Paleolithic cultures. The first of them, also called the Mediterranean Neolithic, occupied mainly the coastal and mountain forests of Morocco and Algeria, the second - the steppes of Algeria and Tunisia. In the forest belt, settlements were richer and more common than in the steppe. In particular, the coastal tribes made excellent pottery. Some local differences within the Mediterranean Neolithic culture are noticeable, as well as its connections with the Capsian steppe culture.

The characteristic features of the latter are bone and stone tools for drilling and piercing, polished stone axes, and rather primitive pottery with a conical bottom, which is also not often found. In some places in the Algerian steppes there was no pottery at all, but the most common stone tools were arrowheads. The Neolithic Capsians, like their Paleolithic ancestors, lived in caves and grottoes and were primarily hunters and gatherers.

The heyday of this culture dates back to the 4th - early 3rd millennium. Thus, its sites are dated according to radiocarbon: De Mamel, or “Sostsy” (Algeria), - 3600 ± 225 g, Des-Ef, or “Eggs” (Ouargla oasis in the north of the Algerian Sahara), - also 3600 ± 225 g ., Hassi-Genfida (Ouargla) - 3480 ± 150 and 2830 ± 90, Jaacha (Tunisia) - 3050 ± 150. At that time, among the Capsians, shepherds already prevailed over hunters.

In the Sahara, the “Neolithic revolution” may have been somewhat late compared to the Maghreb. Here, in the 7th millennium, the so-called Sahrawi-Sudanese “Neolithic culture” arose, related in origin to the Capsian one. It existed until the 2nd millennium. Its characteristic feature is the oldest ceramics in Africa.

In the Sahara, the Neolithic differed from more northern regions in the abundance of arrowheads, which indicates the comparatively greater importance of hunting. The pottery of the inhabitants of the Neolithic Sahara of the 4th-2nd millennia is cruder and more primitive than that of the contemporary inhabitants of the Maghreb and Egypt. In the east of the Sahara there is a very noticeable connection with Egypt, in the west - with the Maghreb. The Neolithic of Eastern Sahara is characterized by an abundance of ground axes - evidence of slash-and-burn agriculture in the local highlands, then covered with forests. In the river beds that later dried up, residents engaged in fishing and sailed on reed boats of the type that were common at that time and later in the valley of the Nile and its tributaries, on Lake. Chad and lakes of Ethiopia. The fish were hit with bone harpoons, reminiscent of those discovered in the Nile and Niger valleys. The grain grinders and pestles of the Eastern Sahara were even larger. and are made more carefully than in the Maghreb. Millet was planted in the river valleys of the area, but the main means of subsistence came from livestock raising, combined with hunting and probably gathering. Huge herds of cattle grazed in the vastness of the Sahara, contributing to its transformation into a desert. These herds are depicted on the famous rock frescoes of Tassili-n'Adjer and other highlands. The cows have an udder, therefore, they were milked. Roughly processed stone pillars-steles may have marked the summer camps of these shepherds in the 4th - 2nd millennia, distilling herds from the valleys to the mountain pastures and back. According to their anthropological type, they were Negroids.

Remarkable cultural monuments of these farmers-pastoralists are the famous frescoes of Tassili and other regions of the Sahara, which flourished in the 4th millennium. The frescoes were created in secluded mountain shelters, which probably served as sanctuaries. In addition to frescoes, there are the oldest bas-reliefs-petroglyphs in Africa and small stone figurines of animals (bulls, rabbits, etc.).

In the 4th - 2nd millennia, in the center and east of the Sahara, there were at least three centers of relatively high agricultural and pastoral culture: on the wooded Hoggar highlands, abundantly irrigated by rain at that time, and its spur Tas-sili-n'Ajer, on no less fertile the Fezzan and Tibesti highlands, as well as in the Nile Valley. Materials from archaeological excavations and especially rock paintings of the Sahara and Egypt indicate that all three centers of culture had a lot. common features: in the style of images, forms of ceramics, etc. Everywhere - from the Nile to Khogtara - pastoralists-farmers revered the heavenly bodies in the images of a solar ram, a bull and a celestial cow. Along the Nile and along the now dry river beds that then flowed across the Sahara, local fishermen sailed on reed boats of similar shapes. One can assume very similar forms of production, life and social organization. But still, from the middle of the 4th millennium, Egypt began to overtake both the Eastern and Central Sahara in its development.

In the first half of the 3rd millennium, the drying out of the ancient Sahara, which by that time was no longer a humid, forested country, intensified. In low-lying lands, dry steppes began to replace tall-grass park savannas. However, in the 3rd and 2nd millennia, the Neolithic cultures of the Sahara continued to develop successfully, in particular, the fine arts improved.

In Sudan, the transition to productive forms of economy occurred a thousand years later than in Egypt and the eastern Maghreb, but approximately simultaneously with Morocco and the southern regions of the Sahara and earlier than in areas further south.

In Middle Sudan, on the northern edge of the swamps, in the 7th - 6th millennia, the Khartoum Mesolithic culture of wandering hunters, fishermen and gatherers, already familiar with primitive pottery, developed. They hunted a wide variety of animals, large and small, from elephant and hippopotamus to water mongoose and red cane rat, found in the forested and swampy region that was at that time the middle Nile valley. Much less often than mammals, the inhabitants of Mesolithic Khartoum hunted reptiles (crocodile, python, etc.) and very rarely birds. Hunting weapons included spears, harpoons and bows with arrows, and the shape of some stone arrowheads (geometric microliths) indicates a connection between the Khartoum Mesolithic culture and the Capsian culture of North Africa. Fishing played a relatively important role in the life of the early inhabitants of Khartoum, but they did not yet have fish hooks; they caught fish, apparently, with baskets, hit with spears and shot with arrows. At the end of the Mesolithic, the first bone harpoons, as well as stone drills, appeared. The gathering of river and land mollusks, Celtis seeds and other plants was of considerable importance. Rough dishes were made from clay in the form of round-bottomed basins and bowls, which were decorated with simple ornaments in the form of stripes, giving these vessels a resemblance to baskets. Apparently, the inhabitants of Mesolithic Khartoum were also engaged in basket weaving. Their personal jewelry was rare, but they painted their vessels and, probably, their own bodies with ocher, mined from nearby deposits, pieces of which were ground on sandstone graters, very diverse in shape and size. The dead were buried right in the settlement, which may have been just a seasonal camp.

How far to the west the bearers of the Khartoum Mesolithic culture penetrated is evidenced by the discovery of typical shards of the late Khartoum Mesolithic in Menyet, in the north-west of Hoggar, 2 thousand km from Khartoum. This find is dated by radiocarbon to 3430.

Over time, around the middle of the 4th millennium, the Khartoum Mesolithic culture is replaced by the Khartoum Neolithic culture, traces of which are found in the vicinity of Khartoum, on the banks of the Blue Nile, in the north of Sudan - up to the IV threshold, in the south - up to the VI threshold, in the east - up to Kasala, and in the west - to the Ennedi mountains and the Wanyanga area in Borku (Eastern Sahara). The main occupations of the inhabitants of the Neolithic. Khartoum - the direct descendants of the Mesolithic population of these places - remained hunting, fishing and gathering. The subject of the hunt was 22 species of mammals, but mainly large animals: buffalos, giraffes, hippos, and to a lesser extent elephants, rhinoceroses, warthogs, seven species of antelope, large and small predators, and some rodents. On a much smaller scale, but more than in the Mesolithic, the Sudanese hunted large reptiles and birds. Wild donkeys and zebras were not killed, probably for religious reasons (totemism). The hunting tools were spears with tips made of stone and bone, harpoons, bows and arrows, as well as axes, but now they were smaller and less well processed. Crescent-shaped microliths were made more often than in the Mesolithic. Stone tools, such as celt axes, were already partially ground. Fishing was done less than in the Mesolithic, and here, as in hunting, appropriation took on a more selective character; We caught several types of fish on a hook. The hooks of Neolithic Khartoum, very primitive, made from shells, are the first in Tropical Africa. The gathering of river and land mollusks, ostrich eggs, wild fruits and Celtis seeds was important.

At that time, the landscape of the middle Nile Valley was a forested savannah with gallery forests along the banks. In these forests, the inhabitants found material for building canoes, which they hollowed out with stone and bone celts and semicircular planing axes, possibly from the trunks of the duleb palm. Compared to the Mesolithic, the production of tools, pottery and jewelry progressed significantly. Dishes decorated with stamped patterns were then polished by the inhabitants of Neolithic Sudan using pebbles and fired over fires. The production of numerous personal decorations took up a significant part of the working time; they were made from semi-precious and other stones, shells, ostrich eggs, animal teeth, etc. In contrast to the temporary camp of the Mesolithic inhabitants of Khartoum, the settlements of the Neolithic inhabitants of Sudan were already permanent. One of them - al-Shaheinab - has been studied especially carefully. However, no traces of dwellings, not even holes for supporting pillars, were found here, and no burials were found (perhaps the inhabitants of Neolithic Shaheinab lived in huts made of reeds and grass, and their dead were thrown into the Nile). An important innovation compared to the previous period was the emergence of cattle breeding: the residents of Shaheinab raised small goats or sheep. However, the bones of these animals constitute only 2% of all bones found in the settlement; this gives an idea of specific gravity cattle breeding in the households of residents. No traces of agriculture were found; it appears only in the next period. This is all the more significant since al-Shaheinab, judging by radiocarbon analysis (3490 ± 880 and 3110 ± 450 AD), is contemporary with the developed Neolithic culture of el-Omari in Egypt (radiocarbon date 3300 ± 230 AD).

In the last quarter of the 4th millennium, the same Chalcolithic cultures (Amratian and Gerzean) existed in the middle Nile valley in northern Sudan as in neighboring Predynastic Upper Egypt. Their bearers were engaged in primitive agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting and fishing on the banks of the Nile and on neighboring plateaus, covered at that time with savannah vegetation. At that time, a relatively large pastoral and agricultural population lived on the plateaus and mountains west of the middle Nile valley. The southern periphery of this entire cultural zone was located somewhere in the valleys of the White and Blue Nile (burials of “group A” were discovered in the Khartoum area, in particular at the Omdurman Bridge) and near al-Shaheinab. The language affiliation of their speakers is unknown. The further south you go, the more Negroid the carriers of this culture were. In al-Shaheynab they clearly belong to the Negroid race.

Southern burials are generally poorer than northern ones; Shaheinab products look more primitive than Faras and especially Egyptian ones. The grave goods of the “proto-dynastic” al-Shaheynab differ markedly from those of the burials at the Omdurman Bridge, although the distance between them is no more than 50 km; this gives some idea of ​​the size of ethnocultural communities. The characteristic material of the products is clay. It was used to make cult figurines (for example, a clay female figurine) and quite a variety of well-fired dishes, decorated with embossed patterns (applied with a comb): bowls of various sizes, boat-shaped pots, spherical vessels. Black vessels with notches characteristic of this culture are also found in protodynastic Egypt, where they were clearly objects of export from Nubia. Unfortunately, the contents of these vessels are unknown. For their part, the inhabitants of proto-dynastic Sudan, like the Egyptians of their time, received Mepga shells from the shores of the Red Sea, from which they made belts, necklaces and other jewelry. No other information about the trade has been preserved.

According to a number of characteristics, the cultures of Meso- and Neolithic Sudan occupy an intermediate place between the cultures of Egypt, the Sahara and East Africa. Thus, the stone industry of Gebel Auliyi (near Khartoum) is reminiscent of the Nyoro culture in Interzero, and the ceramics is Nubian and Saharan; stone celts, similar to those of Khartoum, are found in the west as far as Tener, north of Lake. Chad, and Tummo, north of the Tibesti mountains. At the same time, the main cultural and historical center to which the cultures of Northeast Africa gravitated was Egypt.

According to E.J. Arqella, the Khartoum Neolithic culture was connected to the Egyptian Fayum through the mountainous regions of Ennedi and Tibesti, from where both the Khartoum and Fayum people obtained blue-gray amazonite for making beads.

When class society began to develop in Egypt at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia and a state emerged, Lower Nubia turned out to be the southern outskirts of this civilization. Typical settlements of that time were excavated near the village. Dhaka S. Fersom in 1909 -1910 and at Khor Daud by the Soviet expedition in 1961-1962. The community that lived here was engaged in dairy farming and primitive agriculture; They sowed wheat and barley mixed together, and collected the fruits of the doum palm and siddera. Pottery reached significant development. Ivory and flint were processed, from which the main tools were made; The metals used were copper and gold. The culture of the population of Nubia and Egypt of this era of archeology is conventionally designated as the culture of the “group A” tribes. Its bearers, anthropologically speaking, belonged mainly to the Caucasian race. At the same time (around the middle of the 3rd millennium, according to radiocarbon analysis), the Negroid inhabitants of the Jebel al-Tomat settlement in Central Sudan sowed sorghum of the species Sorgnum bicolor.

During the period of the III dynasty of Egypt (around the middle of the 3rd millennium), a general decline in economy and culture occurs in Nubia, associated, according to a number of scientists, with the invasion of nomadic tribes and the weakening of ties with Egypt; At this time, the process of drying out of the Sahara sharply intensified.

In East Africa, including Ethiopia and Somalia, the "Neolithic revolution" appears to have occurred only in the 3rd millennium, much later than in Sudan. Here at this time, as in the previous period, lived Caucasoids or Ethiopians, similar in their physical type to the ancient Nubians. The southern branch of the same group of tribes lived in Kenya and Northern Tanzania. To the south lived Boskodo-id (Khoisan) hunter-gatherers, related to the Sanda-we and Hadza of Tanzania and the Bushmen South Africa.

The Neolithic cultures of East Africa and Western Sudan apparently developed fully only during the heyday of the ancient Egyptian civilization and the comparatively high Neolithic cultures of the Maghreb and Sahara, and they coexisted for a long time with the remains of Mesolithic cultures.

Like the Stillbey and other Paleolithic cultures, the Mesolithic cultures of Africa occupied vast areas. Thus, Capsian traditions can be traced from Morocco and Tunisia to Kenya and Western Sudan. Later Magosi culture. first discovered in eastern Uganda, it was distributed in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, almost throughout East and South-East Africa to the river. Orange. It is characterized by microlithic blades and incisors and coarse pottery, appearing already in the late stages of the Capsian.

Magosi comes in a number of local varieties; some of them developed into special cultures. This is the Doi culture of Somalia. Its bearers hunted with bows and arrows and kept dogs. The relatively high level of the Pre-Mesolithic is emphasized by the presence of pestles and, apparently, primitive ceramics. (The famous English archaeologist D. Clark considers the current hunter-gatherers of Somalia to be the direct descendants of the Doits).

Another local culture is the Elmentate of Kenya, whose main center was in the lake area. Nakuru. Elmenteit is characterized by abundant pottery - goblets and large earthenware jugs. The same is true of the Smithfield culture in South Africa, which is characterized by microliths, ground stone tools, bone products and rough pottery.

The Wilton crop that replaced all these crops took its name from Wilton Farm in Natal. Its sites are found all the way to Ethiopia and Somalia in the northeast and all the way to the southern tip of the continent. Wilton in different places has either a Mesolithic or a distinctly Neolithic appearance. In the north, this is mainly a culture of pastoralists who bred long-horned humpless bulls of the Bos Africanus type, in the south - a culture of hunter-gatherers, and in some places - primitive farmers, as, for example, in Zambia and Rhodesia, where several polished stone tools were found among the characteristic late Wiltonian stone implements stone axes. Apparently, it is more correct to talk about the Wilton complex of cultures, which includes the Neolithic cultures of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya of the 3rd - mid-1st millennium. At the same time, the first simplest states were formed (see). They arose on the basis of a voluntary union or forced unification of tribes.

The Neolithic culture of Ethiopia of the 2nd - mid-1st millennium is characterized by the following features: hoe farming, pastoralism (breeding large and small horned animals, livestock and donkeys), rock art, grinding stone tools, pottery, weaving using plant fiber, relative sedentism , fast growth population. At least the first half of the Neolithic period in Ethiopia and Somalia is an era of coexistence of appropriative and primitive producing economies with the dominant role of cattle breeding, namely the breeding of Bos africanus.

The most famous monuments of this era are large groups (many hundreds of figures) of rock art in Eastern Ethiopia and Somalia and in the Korora Cave in Eritrea.

Among the earliest in time are some images in the Porcupine Cave near Dire Dawa, where various wild animals and hunters are painted in red ocher. The style of the drawings (the famous French archaeologist A. Breuil identified over seven different styles here) is naturalistic. Stone tools of the Magosian and Wilton types were found in the cave.

Very ancient images of wild and domestic animals in a naturalistic or semi-naturalistic style were discovered in the areas of Genda-Biftu, Lago-Oda, Errer-Kimyet, etc., north of Harar and near Dire Dawa. Shepherd scenes are found here. Long-horned, humpless cattle, Bos africanus species. Cows have udders, which means they were milked. Among domestic cows and bulls there are images of African buffalos, obviously domesticated. No other pets are visible. One of the images suggests that, as in the 9th-19th centuries, African Wilton shepherds rode bulls. The shepherds are dressed in legguards and short skirts (made of leather?). There is a comb in the hair of one of them. The weapons consisted of spears and shields. Bows and arrows, also depicted on some frescoes at Genda Biftu, Lago Oda and Saka Sherifa (near Errere Quimiet), were apparently used by hunters contemporary with the Wiltonian shepherds

At Errer Quimyet there are images of people with a circle on their heads, very similar to the rock paintings of the Sahara, in particular the Hoggar region. But in general, the style and objects of the images of the rock frescoes of Ethiopia and Somalia show an undoubted similarity with the frescoes of the Sahara and Upper Egypt of predynastic times.

A later period includes schematic images of people and animals in various places Somalia and Harar region. At that time, the zebu became the predominant livestock breed - a clear indication of Northeast Africa's connections with India. The most sketchy images of livestock in the Bur Eibe region (Southern Somalia) seem to indicate a certain originality of the local Wilton culture.

If rock frescoes are found in both Ethiopian and Somali territory, then engraving on rocks is characteristic of Somalia. It is approximately contemporary with the frescoes. In the area of ​​Bur Dahir, El Goran and others, in the Shebeli Valley, engraved images of people armed with spears and shields, humpless and humpbacked cows, as well as camels and some other animals were discovered. In general they resemble similar images from Onib in the Nubian Desert. In addition to cattle and camels, there may be images of sheep or goats, but these are too sketchy to be identified with certainty. In any case, the ancient Somali Bushmenoids of the Wilton period raised sheep.

In the 60s, several more groups of rock carvings and Wilton sites were discovered in the area of ​​​​the city of Harar and in the province of Sidamo, northeast of Lake. Abaya. Here, too, the leading branch of the economy was cattle breeding.

In West Africa, the "Neolithic Revolution" took place in a very difficult environment. Here, in ancient times, wet (pluvial) and dry periods alternated. During wet periods, in place of savannas, which abounded in ungulates and were favorable for human activity, dense rain forests (hylaea) spread, almost impenetrable for Stone Age people. They, more reliably than the desert spaces of the Sahara, blocked the access of the ancient inhabitants of North and East Africa to the western part of the continent.

One of the most famous Neolithic monuments of Guinea is the Cakimbon grotto near Conakry, discovered in colonial times. Pickaxes, hoes, adzes, jagged tools and several axes, polished entirely or only along the cutting edge, as well as ornamented pottery were found here. There are no arrowheads at all, but there are leaf-shaped spearheads. Similar implements (in particular, hatchets polished to a blade) were found in three more places near Conakry. Another group of Neolithic sites was discovered in the vicinity of the city of Kindia, approximately 80 km northeast of the Guinean capital. A characteristic feature of the local Neolithic is polished hatchets, picks and chisels, round trapezoidal dart and arrow tips, stone discs for weighting digging sticks, polished stone bracelets, as well as ornamented ceramics.

Approximately 300 km north of the city of Kindia, near the city of Telimele, on the Futa Djallon highlands, the Ualia site was discovered, the inventory of which is very similar to the tools from Kakimbon. But unlike the latter, leaf-shaped and triangular arrowheads were found here.

In 1969-1970 Soviet scientist V.V. Soloviev discovered a number of new sites on Futa Djallon (in central Guinea) with typical ground and chipped axes, as well as picks and disc-shaped cores chipped on both surfaces. At the same time, there is no ceramics at the newly discovered sites. Dating them is very difficult. As the Soviet archaeologist P.I. Boriskovsky notes, in West Africa “the same types of stone products continue to be found, without undergoing particularly significant changes, over a number of eras - from Sango (45-35 thousand years ago. - Yu. K .) to the Late Paleolithic". The same can be said about the West African Neolithic monuments. Archaeological research carried out in Mauritania, Senegal, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Upper Volta and other West African countries shows a continuity of forms of microlithic and grinding stone tools, as well as ceramics, from the end of the 4th to the 2nd millennium BC. e. and up to the first centuries of the new era. Often individual objects made in ancient times are almost indistinguishable from products of the 1st millennium AD. e.

Undoubtedly, this demonstrates the amazing stability ethnic communities and the cultures they created on the territory of Tropical Africa in ancient and ancient times.



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“Children, don’t go for a walk in Africa,” Barmaley sang in the cartoon “Doctor Aibolit.” In many ways, Africa still seems like this to us - full of colorful tribes and unsafe, and this has little to do with reality.
website collected and debunked the most popular myths about the Dark Continent.

Myth 1: There is no technological progress in Africa

From our school days we remember that Africa consists of developing countries. But this does not mean that the Dark Continent lives in the Middle Ages - 90% of Africans have Cell phones, there are programmers who create their own applications and gadgets. For example, local developers created a service for farmers with recommendations on livestock breeding and information about natural disasters. In addition, manufacturing is developed in Africa, and large equipment such as cars are produced in some countries.

Myth 2: Africa is a hot desert

We say “Africa” - we think about the Sahara. In fact, in addition to the desert, the continent has a huge, largest area of ​​​​tropical forests, Mount Kilimanjaro and other snowy peaks and savannah. Within one Africa all are represented climatic zones, and the average annual temperature even in the equatorial part of the continent does not exceed 27 °C.

Myth 3: Only black people live in Africa

We are used to thinking that Africa is inhabited exclusively by black people. In fact, the continent is home to more than a billion people and the variety of skin colors here can be astonishing - from blue-black to very pale. This palette was formed from the diversity of skin tones of the original population and a large number of immigrants from Europe and Asia who remained in Africa since the times of the colonies or fled to African countries from political persecution.

Myth 4: Africa is inhabited by wild animals

Popular science programs and cartoons told us about Africa, inhabited by wild animals that roam freely in nature and can even attack people. In fact, most safaris take place in winter months when potentially dangerous snakes and insects are hibernating. As for wild animals, most of them now live in national parks. Cases of attacks on humans are extremely rare and almost always occur only from violations of park rules, when tourists, instead of observing animals, tried to chase them or come into contact with predators.

Myth 5: Africa has a very high crime rate

There is an opinion that tourists in Africa are in constant danger due to high level crime. In fact, tourism on the continent is highly developed: South Africa alone receives up to 1.5 million tourists a year, and African countries are becoming fashionable and popular destination tourism among Western travelers. At the same time, the level of service on the continent is rising, conditions for tourism are becoming better, but at the same time the feeling of closeness to nature and exoticism remains.

Myth 6: Africa has no cultural heritage

When thinking about Africa, we often imagine a primitive society without a developed culture or even history. Africa is deservedly called the cradle of civilization - the continent is home to a wide variety of ancient buildings and other cultural monuments which are carefully protected. There are more than 200 architectural monuments in Kenya alone. In addition, many countries have interesting museums that are carefully supported by the government.

Myth 7: Africa lives below the poverty line

When going to Africa, we imagine an ascetic trip with living in tents and prepare to see poverty all around. In fact, there are countries on the continent living below the poverty line, but there are far fewer of them than it seems. In general, the economic level of African states differs little from other developing countries - the middle class is just developing. At the same time, states are investing heavily in tourism, building comfortable hotels and recreation areas.

Myth 8: Epidemics of dangerous diseases are raging in Africa

The media periodically tell us about another outbreak of terrible diseases in Africa, and we are accustomed to thinking that there are many deadly diseases on the continent. In fact, the sensational Ebola fever did not cover the entire continent, but only the country of Sierra Leone and the surrounding area. The second disease that comes to mind most often when talking about Africa is malaria. Of course, malaria mosquitoes exist, but if you follow safety precautions, you don’t have to be afraid of infection. Precautionary measures include repellents, mosquito nets and preventative medications.

Myth 9: Africans live in huts

Often photographs of Africans show wild tribes living in huts. In fact, the development of large cities in Africa differs little from other megacities - there are high-rise residential buildings, skyscrapers, and business centers. Developed architecture and infrastructure make African cities very progressive. Of course, there are still people who actually live in huts, such as the Bushmen, on the continent, but they are very few.

Myth 10: In Africa they speak an African language

There is no African language, in fact, and the unique local languages ​​of the tribes are gradually disappearing. During the period of colonization, the population of Africa absorbed European languages ​​- English, French, German and Portuguese, which became more widespread with television and the Internet. In general, hundreds of different languages ​​are spoken on the continent. Africa is a godsend for linguists: Namibia alone has 20 official languages.

Myth 11: Africa is torn apart by political conflicts

American films often show us local wars or political strife in African countries. Indeed, in the 90s, the continent was torn apart by local conflicts; more than a dozen wars could be going on at the same time. These wars were a legacy of the colonial era, when the borders of countries were established based on the interests of the colonialists and took little into account the real cultural and historical isolation of the country. Today, the territories of the countries have been determined and the wars over borders have ended.

Myth 12: There is a food shortage in Africa

Documentary photographs and films show us starving people in Africa, and we begin to think that this problem has spread to the entire continent. Hunger does exist in African countries, but not in all of them. There is about a quarter of the world's fertile soil here, and not all of it is used in agriculture. There are no problems with food in tourist areas, and McDonald's restaurants are common in South Africa and Egypt.

Myth 13: People in Africa hate white people

This myth emerged after the era of slavery and colonization, when liberated Africa expelled Europeans and regained its sovereignty. To this day, a division between whites and blacks exists, but light skin color is common among the local population and does not cause aggression. In countries with developed tourism, they are accustomed to travelers of all stripes and treat them completely calmly. To avoid even potential problems, it is worth limiting yourself to tourist areas and not provoking the local population - as in Latin American countries or Mexico.

The entire history of Africa consists of mysteries. And although this continent is rightfully considered the cradle of human civilization, scientists know very little about the actual history of Africa and its population.

Many thousands of years ago, Africa looked completely different from what it does now. The territory of the Sahara Desert, for example, was a savannah, a quite favorable area for settlement and agriculture, and was inhabited by people.

Throughout the Sahara, which was then a fertile territory, many household items have been found. This suggests that people here were engaged in farming, hunting and fishing, and also had their own culture.

It was at that time that the first Africa was born.

Subsequently, when the savannah began to turn into a desert, tribes and peoples moved south from here.

In sub-Saharan Africa, remains of ancient civilizations are also found. There are several of them and they are all notable for their advanced metalworking.

History of the peoples of Africa

Judging by the finds of archaeologists, they learned to mine and process metals here long before this craft was mastered by other cultures. And it is known that the neighbors willingly traded with the residents of these places, since they were interested in purchasing high-quality metal products.

All The Ancient East, Egypt, India and Palestine brought iron and gold from Africa. Even the Roman Empire constantly traded with the country of Ophir, as they called these rich lands. Of course, when ancient merchants came to buy goods, they also brought their household items, customs and legends here, which ensured the mixing of other continents.

The history of Africa has some modern historical information that one of the first places in Tropical Africa where civilization developed and took shape was Ghana, around the 3rd century BC. e. To the south and around it, their own centers of culture also developed.

It must be said that the civilizations developing in were not similar to the civilizations of the Mediterranean or the East. The colonialists subsequently took advantage of this, declaring them underdeveloped and primitive.

History of the ancient exploration of Africa

Perhaps the most well studied and described of all Africa is the Egyptian civilization, but in its history there are still many mysteries of the pharaohs.

It is known that the main trade routes ran here, and there was constant communication with other neighboring and more distant peoples. Cairo still remains the largest city in Africa, a center of interaction and trade between the peoples of Africa, Asia and Europe.

Much less studied is the ancient mountain civilization of Abyssinia, the center of which in ancient times was the city of Aksum. This is the territory of the Greater Horn of Africa. Here lies the oldest tectonic fault, a reef zone, and the mountains here reach heights of over 4000 meters.

The country's geographic location allowed for sovereign development with little influence from other cultures. It is here, as shown historical research and the finds of archaeologists, and the human race originated on the territory of the modern country of Ethiopia.

Modern study reveals to us more and more details of the development of mankind.

The culture here is interesting because this territory has never been colonized by anyone and has retained many amazing features to this day.

In the Middle Ages, the Arabs came to northern Africa. They had a strong influence on the formation of cultures throughout northern, western and eastern Africa.

Under their influence, trade began to develop faster in the area, and new cities appeared in Nubia, Sudan and East Africa.

A single region of Sudanese civilization is formed, stretching from Senegal to the modern Republic of Sudan.

New Muslim empires began to form. To the south of the Sudanese regions, their own cities are formed from the peoples of the local population.

Most African civilizations known to historians experienced their rise before the end of the 16th century.

Since that time, with the penetration of Europeans into the mainland and the development of the transatlantic slave trade, African cultures have declined. By the beginning of the 18th century, all of northern Africa (except Morocco) became part of the Ottoman Empire. Towards the end of the 19th century, with the final division of Africa between European states, the colonial period began.

Africa is forcibly introduced by the conquerors to the industrial European civilization.

There is an artificial planting of lifestyles, relationships and cultures that were not previously characteristic of the area; the plunder of natural resources, the enslavement of major peoples and the destruction of authentic cultures and historical heritage.

History of Asia and Africa in the Middle Ages

By 1900, almost the entire continent was divided between the main European powers.

Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Portugal all had their own colonies, the boundaries of which were constantly adjusted and revised.

After World War II, the reverse process of decolonization began quickly.

But previously, all boundaries of colonial territories were drawn artificially, without taking into account the differences in peoples and the settlement of tribes. After they were granted independence, civil wars immediately began in almost all countries.

The power of dictators, internecine wars, constant military coups and, as a consequence, economic crises and growing poverty - all this was and remains a profitable activity of the ruling circles of all kinds of civilized countries.

In general, upon closer examination we can see that the history of Africa and Russia are very similar to each other.

Both lands were and remain a rich storehouse of not only natural resources, but also the most interesting and necessary sources of knowledge of the authentic cultures of local peoples.

Unfortunately, at present, in both lands it is increasingly difficult to find among the remains of information about the local population historical truth and valuable knowledge of the ancient great tribes.

In the 20th century, the history of African countries, as well as Russia, experienced the destructive effects of socialist ideas and management experiments of various kinds of dictators. This led to total poverty of peoples, to the impoverishment of the intellectual and spiritual heritage of countries.

However, both here and there there remains sufficient potential for revival and further development local peoples.

Africa is one of the most amazing continents in the world. Some scientists believe that it was in Africa that the first life on Earth originated. Africa is simultaneously the poorest and richest in the world. After all, it is here that the standard of living is practically the lowest. At the same time, one can highlight lands rich in flora and fauna, which are captivating in their incredibleness. Next, we invite you to read more interesting and exciting facts about Africa.

One of the most amazing continents in the world is Africa. Some scientists believe that it was in Africa that the first life on Earth originated. Africa is simultaneously the poorest and richest in the world. After all, it is here that the standard of living is practically the lowest. At the same time, one can highlight lands rich in flora and fauna, which are captivating in their incredibleness. Next, we invite you to read more interesting and exciting facts about Africa.

1. Africa is the cradle of civilization. This is the first continent on which human culture and community appeared.

2. Africa is the only continent where there are places where no one has ever set foot in his life.

3. The area of ​​Africa is 29 million square kilometers. But four-fifths of the territory is covered by deserts and tropical forests.

4. At the beginning of the 20th century, almost the entire territory of Africa was colonized by France, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. Only Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa and Liberia were independent.

5. Massive decolonization of Africa did not occur until after World War II.

6. Africa is home to the largest number of rare animals that are not found anywhere else: for example, hippos, giraffes, okapi and others.

7. Previously, hippos lived throughout Africa, today they are found only south of the Sahara Desert.

8. Africa is home to the largest desert in the world - the Sahara. Its area is larger than the area of ​​the United States.

9. The second longest river in the world, the Nile, flows on the continent. Its length is 6850 kilometers.

10. Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world.

11. “Thundering smoke” - this is what local tribes call Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River.

12. Victoria Falls is more than a kilometer long and more than 100 meters high.

13. The sound of falling water from Victoria Falls spreads 40 kilometers around.

14. At the edge of Victoria Falls there is a natural pool called the devil's pool. Swimming along the edge of the waterfall is only possible during dry periods, when the current is not so strong.

15. Some African tribes hunt hippos and use their meat for food, even though hippos are a rapidly declining species.

16. Africa is the second largest continent on the planet. There are 54 states here.

17. Africa has the lowest life expectancy. Women, on average, live 48 years, men - 50.

18. Africa is crossed by the equator and the prime meridian. Therefore, the continent can be called the most symmetrical of all existing ones.

19. It is in Africa that the only surviving wonder of the world is located - the Pyramids of Cheops.

20. There are more than 2000 languages ​​in Africa, but the most common is Arabic.

21. For several years now, the African government has raised the issue of renaming all geographical names, obtained during colonization, into traditional names used in the tribal language.

22. Algeria has a unique lake. Instead of water, it contains real ink.

23. In the Sahara Desert there is a unique place called the eye of the Sahara. This is a huge crater, with a ring structure and a diameter of 50 kilometers.

24. Africa has its own Venice. The houses of the residents of the village of Ganvier are built on the water, and they move exclusively by boats.

25. Howick Falls and the reservoir into which it falls are considered by local tribes to be the sacred abode of an ancient Loch Ness-like monster. Livestock are regularly sacrificed to him.

26. Not far from Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, there is the sunken city of Heraklion. It was discovered quite recently.

27. In the middle of the great desert there are Ubari lakes, but the water in them is several times saltier than in the sea, so they will not save you from thirst.

28. Africa is home to the coldest volcano in the world, Oi Doinio Legai. The temperature of the lava that erupts from the crater is several times lower than ordinary volcanoes.

29. Africa has its own Colosseum, built during the Roman era. It is located in El Jem.

30. And in Africa there is a ghost town - Kolmanskop, which is slowly being swallowed up by the sands of the great desert, although 50 years ago it was densely populated with inhabitants.

31. Planet Tatooine from the movie “Star Wars” is not a fictitious name at all. Such a city exists in Africa. This is where the legendary film was filmed.

32. In Tanzania there is a unique red lake, the depth of which varies depending on the season, and with the depth the color of the lake changes from pink to deep red.

33. On the island of Madagascar there is a unique natural monument - a stone forest. The tall thin rocks resemble a dense forest.

34. In Ghana there is a large landfill where household appliances from all over the world are brought.

35. Morocco is home to unique goats that climb trees and feed on leaves and branches.

36. Africa produces half of all the gold that is sold in the world.

37. Africa has the richest deposits of gold and diamonds.

38. Lake Malawi, which is located in Africa, is home to the largest variety of fish. More than in the sea and ocean.

39. Lake Chad has shrunk by almost 95% over the past 40 years. It used to be the third or fourth largest in the world.

40. The world's first sewer system appeared in Africa, in Egypt.

41. In Africa there live tribes that are considered the tallest in the world, as well as tribes that are the smallest in the world.

42. Africa still has a poorly developed health care system and medicine in general.

43. More than 25 million of Africa's population are considered HIV-infected.

44. An unusual rodent lives in Africa - the naked mole rat. His cells do not age, he lives up to 70 years and does not feel any pain from cuts or burns.

45. In many African tribes, the secretary bird is a domestic bird and serves as a guard against snakes and rats.

46. ​​Some lungfish that live in Africa can burrow into dry soil and thus survive drought.

47. Most high mountain Africa - Kilimanjaro is a volcano. Only it has never erupted before in its life.

48. The hottest place in Africa is Dallol; the temperature here rarely drops below 34 degrees.

49. 60-80% of Africa's GDP comes from agricultural products. Africa produces cocoa, coffee, peanuts, dates, and rubber.

50. In Africa, most countries are considered third world countries, that is, poorly developed.

52. The top of Mount Table, located in Africa, has a top that is not sharp, but flat, like the surface of a table.

53. The Afar Basin is a geographical area in eastern Africa. Here you can observe the active volcano. About 160 strong earthquakes occur here every year.

54. The Cape of Good Hope is a mythical place. There are many legends and traditions associated with it, for example, the legend of the Flying Dutchman.

55. There are pyramids not only in Egypt. There are more than 200 pyramids in Sudan. They are not as tall and famous as those located in Egypt.

56. The name of the continent comes from one of the “Afri” tribes.

57. In 1979, the oldest human footprints were found in Africa.

58. Cairo is the most populous city in Africa.

59. The most populous country is Nigeria, the second most populous is Egypt.

60. A wall was built in Africa that turned out to be twice as long as the Great Wall of China.

61. The first person to notice that hot water freezes faster in the freezer than cold water was an African boy. This phenomenon was named after him.

62. Penguins live in Africa.

63. South Africa has the second largest hospital in the world.

64. The Sahara Desert is increasing every month.

65. There are three capitals in South Africa: Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein.

66. The island of Madagascar is home to animals that are not found anywhere else.

67. In Togo there is an ancient custom: a man who compliments a girl must certainly take her as his wife.

68. Somalia is the name of both a country and a language at the same time.

69. Some tribes of African aborigines still do not know what fire is.

70. The Matabi tribe, living in West Africa, loves to play football. Only instead of a ball they use a human skull.

71. Matriarchy reigns in some African tribes. Women can maintain male harems.

72. On August 27, 1897, the shortest war took place in Africa, which lasted 38 minutes. The Zanzibar government declared war on England, but was quickly defeated.

73. Graça Machel is the only African woman to be “First Lady” twice. The first time she was the wife of the President of Mozambique, and the second time the wife of the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

74. The official name of Libya is the longest country name in the world.

75. African Lake Tanganyika is the longest lake in the world, its length is 1435 meters.

76. The Baobab tree, which grows in Africa, can live from five to ten thousand years. It stores up to 120 liters of water, so it does not burn in fire.

77. The sports brand Reebok chose its name in honor of the small but very fast African antelope.

78. The trunk of the Baobab tree can reach 25 meters in volume.

79. The inside of the baobab tree is hollow, so some Africans build houses inside the tree. Enterprising residents open restaurants inside the tree. In Zimbabwe, a train station was opened in the trunk, and in Botswana, a prison.

80. In Africa they grow very interesting trees: bread, milk, sausage, soap, candle.

82. The African Mursi tribe is considered the most aggressive tribe. Any conflicts are resolved by force and weapons.

83. The largest diamond in the world was found in South Africa.

84. South Africa has the cheapest electricity in the world.

85. Just off the coast of South Africa there are more than 2,000 sunken ships, more than 500 years old.

86. In South Africa, three Nobel Prize winners lived on the same street.

87. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique are removing some national park boundaries to create one large reserve.

88. The first heart transplant was performed in Africa in 1967.

89. About 3,000 ethnic groups live in Africa.

90. The largest percentage of malaria cases is in Africa - 90% of cases.

91. The snow cap of Kilimanjaro is rapidly melting. Over the past 100 years, the glacier has melted by 80%.

92. Many African tribes prefer to wear a minimum of clothing, wearing only a belt on the body to which a weapon is attached.

93. Fez is home to the oldest operating university in the world, founded back in 859.

94. The Sahara Desert covers as many as 10 countries in Africa.

95. Beneath the Sahara Desert there is an underground lake with a total area of ​​375 square kilometers. This is why there are oases in the desert.

96. Large territory Deserts are not occupied by sand, but by fossilized earth and pebble-sandy soil.

97. There is a map of the desert with marks on it of the places where people most often observe mirages.

98. The sand dunes of the Sahara Desert can be taller than the Eiffel Tower.

99. The thickness of loose sand is 150 meters.

100. Sand in the desert can heat up to 80°C.

The oldest archaeological finds indicating grain processing in Africa date back to the thirteenth millennium BC. e. Cattle raising in the Sahara began ca. 7500 BC e., and organized agriculture in the Nile region appeared in the 6th millennium BC. e.
In the Sahara, which was then a fertile territory, groups of hunters and fishermen lived, as evidenced by archaeological finds. Many petroglyphs and rock paintings have been discovered throughout the Sahara, dating back to 6000 BC. e. until the 7th century AD e. The most famous monument of primitive art in North Africa is the Tassilin-Ajjer plateau.

Ancient Africa

In the 6th-5th millennium BC. e. In the Nile Valley, agricultural cultures developed (Tassian culture, Fayum, Merimde), based on the civilization of Christian Ethiopia (XII-XVI centuries). These centers of civilization were surrounded by pastoral tribes of Libyans, as well as the ancestors of modern Cushitic and Nilotic-speaking peoples.
On the territory of the modern Sahara Desert (which was then a savannah favorable for habitation) by the 4th millennium BC. e. A cattle-breeding and agricultural economy is taking shape. From the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e., when the Sahara begins to dry out, the population of the Sahara retreats to the south, pushing out the local population of Tropical Africa. By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. the horse is spreading in the Sahara. On the basis of horse breeding (from the first centuries AD - also camel breeding) and oasis agriculture in the Sahara, an urban civilization developed (the cities of Telgi, Debris, Garama), and Libyan writing arose. On Mediterranean coast Africa in the XII-II centuries BC. e. The Phoenician-Carthaginian civilization flourished.
In sub-Saharan Africa in the 1st millennium BC. e. Iron metallurgy is spreading everywhere. The Bronze Age culture did not develop here, and there was a direct transition from the Neolithic to iron age. Iron Age cultures spread to both the west (Nok) and east (northeastern Zambia and southwestern Tanzania) of Tropical Africa. The spread of iron contributed to the development of new territories, primarily tropical forests, and became one of the reasons for the settlement of peoples speaking Bantu languages ​​throughout most of Tropical and Southern Africa, pushing representatives of the Ethiopian and Capoid races to the north and south.

The emergence of the first states in Africa

According to modern historical science, the first state (sub-Saharan) appeared on the territory of Mali in the 3rd century - it was the state of Ghana. Ancient Ghana traded gold and metals even with the Roman Empire and Byzantium. Perhaps this state arose much earlier, but during the existence of the colonial authorities of England and France there, all information about Ghana disappeared (the colonialists did not want to admit that Ghana was much older than England and France). Under the influence of Ghana, other states later appeared in West Africa - Mali, Songhai, Kanem, Tekrur, Hausa, Ife, Kano and other West African states.
Another hotbed of the emergence of states in Africa is the area around Lake Victoria (the territory of modern Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi). The first state appeared there around the 11th century - it was the state of Kitara. In my opinion, the state of Kitara was created by settlers from the territory of modern Sudan - Nilotic tribes who were forced out of their territory by Arab settlers. Later other states appeared there - Buganda, Rwanda, Ankole.
Around the same time (according to scientific history) - in the 11th century, the state of Mopomotale appeared in southern Africa, which will disappear at the end of the 17th century (will be destroyed by wild tribes). I believe that Mopomotale began to exist much earlier, and the inhabitants of this state are the descendants of the most ancient metallurgists in the world, who had connections with the Asuras and Atlanteans.
Around the middle of the 12th century, the first state appeared in the center of Africa - Ndongo (this is a territory in the north of modern Angola). Later, other states appeared in the center of Africa - Congo, Matamba, Mwata and Baluba. Since the 15th century, the colonial states of Europe - Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, France and Germany - began to intervene in the development of statehood in Africa. If at first they were interested in gold, silver and precious stones, then later slaves became the main product (and these were dealt with by countries that officially rejected the existence of slavery).
Slaves were transported by the thousands to America's plantations. Only much later, at the end of the 19th century, did colonialists begin to be attracted to natural resources in Africa. And it was for this reason that vast colonial territories appeared in Africa. Colonies in Africa interrupted the development of the peoples of Africa and distorted its entire history. Until now, significant archaeological research has not been carried out in Africa (African countries themselves are poor, and England and France do not need the true history of Africa, just like in Russia, in Russia there is also no good research on the ancient history of Rus', money is spent on buying castles and yachts in Europe, total corruption deprives science of real research).

Africa in the Middle Ages

The centers of civilizations in Tropical Africa spread from north to south (in the eastern part of the continent) and partly from east to west (especially in the western part) - as they moved away from the high civilizations of North Africa and the Middle East. Most of the large socio-cultural communities of Tropical Africa had an incomplete set of signs of civilization, so they can more accurately be called proto-civilizations. From the end of the 3rd century AD. e. in West Africa, in the basins of Senegal and Niger, the Western Sudanese (Ghana) civilization developed, and from the 8th-9th centuries - the Central Sudanese (Kanem) civilization, which arose on the basis of trans-Saharan trade with the Mediterranean countries.
After the Arab conquests of North Africa (VII century), the Arabs for a long time became the only intermediaries between Tropical Africa and the rest of the world, including across the Indian Ocean, where the Arab fleet dominated. Under Arab influence, new urban civilizations emerged in Nubia, Ethiopia and East Africa. The cultures of Western and Central Sudan merged into a single West African, or Sudanese, zone of civilizations, stretching from Senegal to the modern Republic of Sudan. In the 2nd millennium, this zone was united politically and economically in the Muslim empires: Mali (XIII-XV centuries), which controlled the small political formations of the Fulani, Wolof, Serer, Susu and Songhai peoples (Tekrur, Jolof, Sin, Salum, Kayor, Coco and others), Songhai (mid-15th - late 16th century) and Bornu (late 15th - early 18th century) - Kanem's successor. Between Songhai and Bornu, from the beginning of the 16th century, the Hausan city-states strengthened (Daura, Zamfara, Kano, Rano, Gobir, Katsina, Zaria, Biram, Kebbi, etc.), to which in the 17th century the role of the main centers of the trans-Saharan revolution passed from Songhai and Bornu trade.
South of the Sudanese civilizations in the 1st millennium AD. e. The proto-civilization of Ife was formed, which became the cradle of the Yoruba and Bini civilizations (Benin, Oyo). Its influence was experienced by the Dahomeans, Igbo, Nupe, and others. To the west of it, in the 2nd millennium, the Akano-Ashanti proto-civilization was formed, which flourished in the 17th - early 19th centuries. To the south of the great bend of the Niger, a political center arose, founded by the Mossi and other peoples speaking the Gur languages ​​(the so-called Mossi-Dagomba-Mamprusi complex) and which by the middle of the 15th century turned into the Voltic proto-civilization (early political formations of Ouagadougou, Yatenga, Gurma , Dagomba, Mamprusi). In Central Cameroon, the Bamum and Bamileke proto-civilization arose, in the Congo River basin - the Vungu proto-civilization (early political formations of Congo, Ngola, Loango, Ngoyo, Kakongo), to the south of it (in the 16th century) - the proto-civilization of the southern savannas (early political formations of Cuba, Lunda, Luba), in the Great Lakes region - an interlake proto-civilization: the early political formations of Buganda (XIII century), Kitara (XIII-XV century), Bunyoro (from the 16th century), later - Nkore (XVI century), Rwanda (XVI century), Burundi ( XVI century), Karagwe (XVII century), Kiziba (XVII century), Busoga (XVII century), Ukereve ( late XIX century), Thoreau (late 19th century), etc.
In East Africa, since the 10th century, the Swahili Muslim civilization flourished (the city-states of Kilwa, Pate, Mombasa, Lamu, Malindi, Sofala, etc., the Sultanate of Zanzibar), in South-East Africa - the Zimbabwean (Zimbabwe, Monomotapa) proto-civilization (X-XIX century), in Madagascar the process of state formation ended at the beginning of the 19th century with the unification of all the early political formations of the island around Imerina, which arose around the 15th century.
Most African civilizations and proto-civilizations experienced a rise at the end of the 15th and 16th centuries. From the end of the 16th century, with the penetration of Europeans and the development of the transatlantic slave trade, which lasted until the mid-19th century, their decline occurred. By the beginning of the 17th century, all of North Africa (except Morocco) became part of the Ottoman Empire. With the final division of Africa between European powers (1880s), the colonial period began, forcing Africans into industrial civilization.

Colonization of Africa

In ancient times, North Africa was the object of colonization by Europe and Asia Minor.
The first attempts by Europeans to subjugate African territories date back to the times of ancient Greek colonization in the 7th-5th centuries BC, when numerous Greek colonies appeared on the coasts of Libya and Egypt. The conquests of Alexander the Great marked the beginning of a rather long period of Hellenization of Egypt. Although the bulk of its inhabitants, the Copts, were never Hellenized, the rulers of this country (including the last queen Cleopatra) adopted the Greek language and culture, which completely dominated Alexandria.
The city of Carthage was founded on the territory of modern Tunisia by the Phoenicians and was one of the most important powers in the Mediterranean until the 4th century BC. e. After the Third Punic War it was conquered by the Romans and became the center of the province of Africa. In the early Middle Ages, the kingdom of the Vandals was founded in this territory, and later it was part of Byzantium.
The invasions of Roman troops made it possible to consolidate the entire northern coast of Africa under Roman control. Despite the extensive economic and architectural activities of the Romans, the territories underwent weak Romanization, apparently due to excessive aridity and the incessant activity of the Berber tribes, pushed aside but unconquered by the Romans.
The ancient Egyptian civilization also fell under the rule of first the Greeks and then the Romans. In the context of the decline of the empire, the Berbers, activated by the Vandals, finally destroy the centers of European, as well as Christian, civilization in North Africa in anticipation of the invasion of the Arabs, who brought Islam with them and pushed back the Byzantine Empire, which still controlled Egypt. By the beginning of the 7th century AD. e. The activities of early European states in Africa cease completely; on the contrary, the expansion of Arabs from Africa takes place in many regions of Southern Europe.
Attacks of Spanish and Portuguese troops in the XV-XVI centuries. led to the capture of a number of strongholds in Africa (the Canary Islands, as well as the fortresses of Ceuta, Melilla, Oran, Tunisia, and many others). Italian sailors from Venice and Genoa have also traded extensively with the region since the 13th century.
At the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese actually controlled the western coast of Africa and launched an active slave trade. Following them, other Western European powers rush to Africa: the Dutch, the French, the British.
From the 17th century, Arab trade with sub-Saharan Africa led to the gradual colonization of East Africa, in the area of ​​Zanzibar. And although Arab neighborhoods appeared in some cities in West Africa, they did not become colonies, and Morocco’s attempt to subjugate the Sahel lands ended unsuccessfully.
Early European expeditions focused on colonization uninhabited islands, such as Cape Verde and Sao Tome, and also by establishing forts on the coast as trading bases.
In the second half of the 19th century, especially after the Berlin Conference of 1885, the process of colonization of Africa acquired such a scale that it was called the “race for Africa”; Almost the entire continent (except for Ethiopia and Liberia, which remained independent) by 1900 was divided between a number of European powers: Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy; Spain and Portugal retained their old colonies and somewhat expanded them. During the First World War, Germany lost (mostly already in 1914) its African colonies, which after the war came under the administration of other colonial powers under the mandates of the League of Nations.
The Russian Empire never claimed to colonize Africa, despite its traditionally strong position in Ethiopia, except for the Sagallo incident in 1889.