African Civilization

There are 54 sovereign states whose peoples are inheritors of a tapestry of mosaic cultural heritages, having direct claim to ancient civilizations.

Several reasons can be presented for not emphasizing African Civilization as a holistic and robust civilization. First, a singular historical perspective, representing tangible historical records that can stand out as clearer markers of a singular African Civilization, has not been institutionalized. Second, African Civilization is analyzed by scholars from the point of view of material and structural perspectives. Material and structural ways of articulating civilizations underemphasize the essential roles of historical and cultural traditions. Third, Africa, over the centuries, was exposed first to slavery, then to colonialism. Both slavery and colonialism are negative interrelationships of humans. 

The civilizations that originated in the Rift and the Nile Valleys were heavily influenced by two things: the ancient Egyptian Civilization and the three monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The Rift and the Nile valley region is undeniably influenced by Africa for the following reasons:

First, Egyptian Civilization springing from the Nile Valley spread to the adjacent regions in Africa and the Middle East.

Second, the foundations of Judaism and Christianity, in chronological order, were first laid down in Egypt, Africa.

Third, when the Prophet Mohammed started preaching the faith of Islam in Arabia, he was faced with persecution by the Meccans. As he battled his adversaries, he sent some of his most faithful followers, including his daughter, to seek shelter in Abyssinia. He told them they would face hospitality and security there. He also instructed them to preserve the faith, advance its teachings if he and his followers were exterminated by those who were persecuting them.

Trimingham states that the Nubians and the Beja of Eastern Sudan and northern Eritrea are the unmodified representatives of the predynastic Egyptians. They share linguistic and lifestyle practices with the ancient founders of the Egyptian civilization. 

The broad fields of the Delta opened out to Libya, to the Mediterranean, and to Asia, whereas the long trough of Upper Egypt was hemmed in by blighted deserts. The agricultural richness of middle Egypt contrasted sharply with the poverty of southernmost Egypt. The two factors of insulation from strong outside influence and of wide internal variety helped explain the tolerant flexibility and genial sophistication. Certainly, the self-assurance, and the active sense of gaiety stood in contrast to an austerity which marked the Asiatic culture.

The Axumite Empire, at the height of its global power, dominated the northeastern part of Africa up to the southern borders of Upper Egypt on the north and as far as Southern Arabia.

The Axumite Empire rose up in the highlands of northern Ethiopia and the highlands of the State of Eritrea. Its capital was the village of Axum where ancient landmark and monuments are still standing, and its seaport was the port of Adulis at the Red Sea. Axum controlled the southern part of the Red Sea. The rise of the Persian Empire in the 4th century CE introduced a big threat to the Roman Empire. In 533 CE, Emperor Justinian, sensing the need for alliance, sent a letter to the Axumite Emperor urging him to block Persian silk trade through the Red Sea. The Persian Empire’s formidable power defeated the Axumite forces in Southern Arabia. The Axumite Empire that ruled over northeast Africa and Arabia did not recover from this defeat.

The Persian Empire’s defeat by the Arabs put an end to the cultural, political, and social structures that connected Europe, Asia, and Africa. Islam rose from the deserts of Arabia with flaming zeal and unstoppable revolution. In the end, the Arabs transformed African societies by mixing the values of religious proselytizing, commerce, and trade.

The interior of Africa was shrouded behind thick forests and jungles, making it not so easy for outside contact with Europe. For this reason, Africa was often referred to as the “Dark Continent,” indicating the ignorance of Europeans regarding Africa.

Prominent kings of the Berber who ruled around 135 BCE were Syphax, king of Mauritania, and Massinissa who ruled over the Kingdom of Numidia, a territory covering parts of Tunisia and Algeria.

With the conquest of pharaonic Egypt by the Romans, the region converted to Christianity.

The first phase of the Islamization of Africa began after North Africa was Islamized, beginning with the conquest of Egypt by Arab forces around 639-641 CE. These historical developments were an aspect of the eruption of the global Islamic revolution, when Islam was on a march of conquest.

The term “Europeanism” is used here to explain the analytical framework of Europeans in their study, description, and conclusions of Africa, its people, and its cultural values. Africa, its people, and its cultural values are the bedrock of African Civilization. The mental image embedded in Europeans adventurers, explorers, and colonialists was formed by the purpose and objective of slavery, colonialism, and postcolonial monopoly capitalism. Africa was stripped of its precious resources, and the indignity of being dominated does not enable its victims to confidently extol or glory in their civilizations. 

Zoroastrianism was a sophisticated religious belief with seamlessly woven rationalizations for adaptive political frameworks, but its geographical reach and religious exegeses, like Judaism, were too circumscribed to a region or a people to command universal attention.

The riverine perspective of civilizations is important, because it provides evidence of institutionalized means of communications among ancient peoples. It also reveals the direction of trades and commerce within Africa and overseas.

Civilizations are inseparable from the geographical location in which they are born and from where they progressed. The environment of their geographical location, the topography, the air, the waters, the plants, and the animal kingdom in their surroundings formulate their components, images, and artistic and aesthetic features. These factors give the anthropological characteristics of civilizations.

The region above tropical Africa is the Savanah; it is the connecting bridge between the northern and southern regions of the continent.

Libya, during the Twelfth Dynasty, was the dominant ruler of Egypt, its authority reached as far as Palestine on the northeast and the entire Maghreb expanse of and West Africa.

Before the arrival of colonialism, the direction of African trade followed north-south caravan paths using camels, horses, mules, donkeys, and human portage. The interior cities in West Africa, such as Kumbi Salaaeh, Awdaghost, Timbuktu, Tidjikja and Ghadames, served as hub markets from where goods, such as gold, ivory, gums, animal skin, and cotton, were caravanned up North African ports.