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Each ethnic group’s culture binds together the authentic social fabric of traditional practices and rites, art, music, and oral literature, all of which contribute to the formation of identities.
Timeline. 5000 BCE. Organised farming begins in Egypt. c. 3500 BCE. The Sahara desert begins to spread in Africa due to climate change. 2000 BCE. Speakers of the Bantu language begin migrating southward. c. 2000 BCE. Farmers and herders travel south from Ethiopia and settle in Kenya.
BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.
This article looks at the societies and cultures of sub-Saharan Africa in pre-modern history. It offers a general survey of the geographical environments they inhabited; their settlements, social structures and economies; and their religions and cultures.
South Africa has its first democratic elections, ending white minority rule, and becoming the last nation in Africa to throw off its colonial shackles. The first black president of the republic, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, is elected.
The colonial period in Africa brought radical changes, disrupting local political institutions, patterns of trade, and religious and social beliefs.
Humankind’s origins and the beginnings of cultural expression may be traced to Africa. Recent discoveries in the southern tip of Africa provide remarkable evidence of the earliest stirrings of human creativity. Ocher plaques with engraved designs, made some 70,000 years ago, represent some of humankind’s earliest attempts at visual expression.
