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Africa's Great Civilizations
''Africa's Great Civilizations'' is a PBS six-hour television series hosted and written by Henry Louis Gates Jr. It aired on PBS in the United States in February 2017. In the series, Gates chronicles African history starting with the birth of humankind to the start of the 20th century. The show portrays 200,000 years of Africa's history and touches on subjects from the arts to writing and the dawn of civilization to the 21st century. The series' six episodes are: #"Origins" (Omo River, Mitochondrial Eve, Nubian pyramids, Bantu expansion) #"The Cross and the Crescent" (Yeha, North African Christian theologians, Islam in Africa, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Lake Tana) #"Empires of Gold" (Fez, Timbuktu, University of al-Qarawiyyin, Mali Empire) #"Cities" ( Kilwa, Great Zimbabwe, Benin, Gondar) #"The Atlantic Age" ( Kingdom of Kongo, Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba, Ouidah, the Atlantic slave trade) #"Commerce and the Clash of Civilizations" ( Zulu Kingdom, Zanzibar, the Scramble ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Al-Qarawiyyin
The University of al-Qarawiyyin ( ar, جامعة القرويين; ber, ⵜⴰⵙⴷⴰⵡⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵍⵇⴰⵕⴰⵡⵉⵢⵉⵏ; french: Université Al Quaraouiyine), also written Al-Karaouine or Al Quaraouiyine, is a university located in Fez, Morocco. It was founded as a mosque by Fatima al-Fihri in 857–859 and subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Islamic Golden Age. It was incorporated into Morocco's modern state university system in 1963 and officially renamed "University of Al Quaraouiyine" two years later. The mosque building itself is also a significant complex of historical Moroccan and Islamic architecture that features elements from many different periods of Moroccan history. Scholars consider al-Qarawiyyin to have been effectively run as a madrasa until after World War II.Lulat, Y. G.-M.: ''A History Of African Higher Education From Antiquity To The Present: A Critical Synthesis Studies in Higher Education'', Greenwo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethiopian Empire
The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historically spanned the geographical area of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea from the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty by Yekuno Amlak approximately in 1270 until the 1974 coup d'etat of Emperor Haile Selassie by the Derg. By 1896, the Empire incorporated other regions such as Hararghe, Gurage and Wolayita, and saw its largest expansion with the federation of Eritrea in 1952. Throughout much of its existence, it was surrounded by hostile forces in the African Horn; however, it managed to develop and preserve a kingdom based on its ancient form of Christianity. Founded in 1270 by the Solomonic Dynasty nobleman Yekuno Amlak, who claimed to descend from the last Aksumite king and ultimately the Biblical Menelik I and the Queen of Sheba, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scramble For Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a short period known as New Imperialism (between 1881 and 1914). The 10 percent of Africa that was under formal European control in 1870 increased to almost 90 percent by 1914, with only Liberia and Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia remaining independent. The Berlin Conference of 1884, which regulated European colonization and trade in Africa, is usually accepted as the beginning. In the last quarter of the 19th century, there were considerable political rivalries within the empires of the European continent, leading to the African continent being partitioned without wars between European nations. The later years of the 19th century saw a transition from "Informal empire, informal imperialism" – military influence and economic dominance – to di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sultanate Of Zanzibar
The Sultanate of Zanzibar ( sw, Usultani wa Zanzibar, ar, سلطنة زنجبار , translit=Sulṭanat Zanjībār), also known as the Zanzibar Sultanate, was a state controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, in place between 1856 and 1964. The Sultanate's territories varied over time, and at their greatest extent spanned all of present-day Kenya and the Zanzibar Archipelago off the Swahili Coast. After a decline, the state had sovereignty over only the archipelago and a strip along the Kenyan coast, with the interior of Kenya constituting the British Kenya Colony and the coastal strip administered as a ''de facto'' part of that colony. Under an agreement reached on 8 October 1963, the Sultan of Zanzibar relinquished sovereignty over his remaining territory on the mainland, and on 12 December 1963, Kenya officially obtained independence from the British. On 12 January 1964, Jamshid bin Abdullah, the last sultan, was deposed and lost sovereignty over the last of his dominions, Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zulu Kingdom
The Zulu Kingdom (, ), sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or the Kingdom of Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a modern standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north. A bitter civil war in the mid-19th century erupted which culminated in the 1859 Battle of Ndondakusuka between the brothers Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi. In 1879, a British force invaded Zululand, beginning the Anglo-Zulu War. After an initial Zulu victory at the Battle of Isandlwana in January, the British regrouped and defeated the Zulus in July during the Battle of Ulundi, ending the war. The area was absorbed into the Colony of Natal and later became part of the Union of South Africa. History Rise under Shaka Shaka was the illegitimate son of Senzangakhona, Chief of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Slave Trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those who were transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from Central and West Africa that had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders,Thornton, p. 112. while others had been captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids; Europeans gathered and imprisoned the enslaved at forts on the African coast and then brought them to the Americas. Except for the Portuguese, European slave traders generally did not participate in the raids because life expectancy for Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa was less than one year during the period of the slave trade (which was prior to the widespread availability of quini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ouidah
Ouidah () or Whydah (; ''Ouidah'', ''Juida'', and ''Juda'' by the French; ''Ajudá'' by the Portuguese; and ''Fida'' by the Dutch) and known locally as Glexwe, formerly the chief port of the Kingdom of Whydah, is a city on the coast of the Republic of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 76,555 people. History In local tradition Kpassa is supposed to have founded the town. This probably happened towards the end of the sixteenth century. The town was originally known as ''Glēxwé'', literally 'Farmhouse', and was part of the Kingdom of Whydah. Ouidah saw its role in international trade rise when the Royal African Company (RAC) constructed a fort there in 1650. Whydah troops pushed their way into the African interior, capturing millions of people through wars, and selling them to European and Arab slave traders. By 1716, the Kingdom of Whydah had become the second largest slave port in the triangular trade, as noted by the crew of the slave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nzinga Of Ndongo And Matamba
Nzinga Ana de Sousa Mbande ( – 1663) was a Southwest African ruler who served as queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Born into the ruling family of Ndongo, Nzinga received military and political training as a child, and she demonstrated an aptitude for defusing political crises as an ambassador to the Portuguese Empire. She later assumed power over Ndongo after the death of her father and brother, who both served as kings, and would go on to conquer Matamba. She ruled during a period of rapid growth in the African slave trade and encroachment of the Portuguese Empire into South West Africa, in attempts to control the slave trade. Nzinga fought for the independence and stature of her kingdoms against the Portuguese in a reign that lasted 37 years. In the years following her death, Nzinga has become a historical figure in Angola and in the wider Atlantic Creole culture. She is remembered for h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Kongo
The Kingdom of Kongo ( kg, Kongo dya Ntotila or ''Wene wa Kongo;'' pt, Reino do Congo) was a kingdom located in central Africa in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo. At its greatest extent it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The kingdom consisted of several core provinces ruled by the ''Manikongo'', the Portuguese version of the Kongo title ''Mwene Kongo'', meaning "lord or ruler of the Kongo kingdom", but its sphere of influence extended to neighbouring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Loango, Ndongo and Matamba, the latter two located in what is Angola today. From c. 1390 to 1862 it was an independent state. From 1862 to 1914 it functioned intermittently as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1914, following the Portuguese suppression of a Kongo revolt, Portugal abol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on the Lesser Angereb River and southwest of the Simien Mountains. , Gondar has an estimated population of 443,156. Gondar previously served as the capital of both the Ethiopian Empire and the subsequent Begemder Province. The city holds the remains of several royal castles, including those in the Fasil Ghebbi UNESCO World Heritage Site for which Gondar has been called the "Camelot of Africa". History Origins Until the 16th century, the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia usually had no fixed capital town, but instead lived in tents in temporary royal camps as they moved around their realms while their family, bodyguard and retinue devoured surplus crops and cut down nearby trees for firewood. One exception to this rule was Debre Berhan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Benin
The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Edo Kingdom, or the Benin Empire ( Bini: '''') was a kingdom within what is now southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th century until 1975. The Kingdom of Benin's capital was Edo, now known as Benin City in Edo State, Nigeria. The Benin Kingdom was "one of the oldest and most developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa". It grew out of the previous Edo Kingdom of Igodomigodo around the 11th century AD, and lasted until it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897. Oral traditions The original people and founders of the Benin Kingdom, the Edo people, were initially ruled by the Ogiso (Kings of the Sky) who called their land Igodomigodo. The first Ogiso (Ogiso Igodo), wielded much influence and gained popularity as a good ruler. He died after a long reign and was succeeded by Ere, his eldest son. In the 12th century, a great palace intrigue eru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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