When you hear “Africa”, what comes to mind? Some people think about food. Others think of African culture and the colorful aesthetic that most African media relies on. Unfortunately, most people who are not interested in learning about the continent know almost nothing about the continent before slavery. This has led to great ignorance on the subject of African history. However, the history of African people has a broader timeline than that of colonialism and the slave trade. Civilizations like Great Zimbabwe and the city of Timbuktu are excellent examples of Africa's wealth of education and innovation before European intervention. In previous history, each continent had a special resource that other countries wanted, and Africa was no exception. However, this continent's ingenuity extends far beyond the resources Africa provides, as many inventions developed in Africa have significantly advanced humanity. In fact, many items made in these places are still used today, such as the oven and different forms of medicine. Overall, the history of the African continent before the 1500s is a hidden gem that needs to be discussed more when innovation is discussed in a historical context. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayThe first known African people were the San, who have existed for around 20,000 people. They were nomadic and survived through a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The Khoi people existed around the same time and their way of life was more centered around herding. However, the Bantu-speaking peoples are the most important of the three, as most of Africa speaks Bantu due to their migrations. After migrating for a while, they settled down and founded great kingdoms like Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe. Their teachings on iron smelting, however, led to the development of civilizations other than Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe. This is described as the “Iron Age”. The travels of the Bantu peoples across Africa during this time are what led to such a spread of their culture. The Iron Age was not a world historical event, but rather a timeline that varies depending on which continent we are talking about. In Africa, the Iron Age began much earlier than on other continents, from the 6th century. It has spread to Ethiopia, the Great Lakes region, Tanzania and Nigeria. The discovery of iron led to the creation of furnaces, equipment to melt things more efficiently, and other tools. Pots and dishes were also made from iron, but they sometimes led to lead poisoning. Because of this new set of innovative ideals, metal swords, body armor, and the best catapults were no longer a fantasy. Since metals were a hot commodity, knowledge of mining had to expand rapidly. Like falling dominoes, pumps were created to keep the mines from flooding. The Iron Age was an important time in Africa, and it couldn't have happened at a better time. All this was the work of the Bantu people. Thanks to the Iron Age and the spread of knowledge on subjects that made life much simpler, more people were able to settle into communities and villages. This then led to the development of cities, cultures and even civilizations. The more the ideasspread, the more complex the cultures became. This allowed populations in sub-Saharan Africa to become less nomadic. As groups became established, societies gradually became more organized, leading members of these communities to become more specialized in different skills. The city of Timbuktu was the greatest center of learning in the world at that time, as it was one of the only places of its kind. It was in the midst of all this that African administration, economy, commerce and politics were born. Because people worked much more efficiently, the return on goods was much higher, especially in the agricultural sense. It was necessary to establish trade to allow Africa to receive goods that it could not obtain otherwise. One of the most famous examples is the trade of gold for salt, because gold was so abundant in Africa that it was worth virtually nothing. Salt was desperately needed because people in this region lacked essential vitamins and needed salt to preserve their food. Later, the gold trade shifted from gold to humans after the colonization of Africa. After the discovery of proper preservation techniques, pottery was further developed to hold food. The need to track trade and production/productivity led to an increase in literacy and numeracy, which were also taught in a more advanced form in Timbuktu. When transportation and communications developed, there was an inevitable increase in population. Africa was prosperous. So far we've discussed the development and complexity of civilizations, but we haven't really delved into individual examples. Great Zimbabwe is a great way to set the tone. Great Zimbabwe began in 400 CE. Oddly enough, although Great Zimbabwe is considered an important example of ancient African civilizations, we know little about it! There is no evidence that allows us to understand how it was built and organized, nor what caused its decline in the 17th century. There is also no written or oral history of the people of Great Zimbabwe. The only source considered credible are the ruins. What we do know is that Great Zimbabwe was the central place of innovation during the Iron Age in the Kalahari Desert. In 500 CE, the Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona people arrived in the general area of ​​what would be one of the most important civilizations in Africa. In fact, “Zimbabwe” is actually Shona for “house of rock or stone” or “revered house”. The class system of Great Zimbabwe was ruled by the elite. They controlled the wealth of the region through the management of the civilization's livestock. It is estimated that there were around 10,000 to 20,000 people in total in this civilization. One of the main things that Great Zimbabwe is known for is its enormous walls. About 200 to 300 people lived there, all belonging to the ruling elite. It is believed that the walls were used to provide privacy for the elite and keep them away from and above the commoners. However, the houses inside the walls were still cabins, although larger than the others. This is the only information that could be retrieved from primary sources. The exterior archives are the only things that can be found after this point. On September 5, 1871, Carl Mauch's diary stated that he believed Great Zimbabwe to be the ruins of Ophir, an area mentioned in the Bible. A single German was the only person known to have helped Mauch, simply mentioning "ruinslarge enough that could never have been built by blacks. Members of the Karanga tribe took him to the site. Another secondary source concerns European travelers and British colonizers in the 1870s. They were amazed by the skill of the work and the grandeur of the work, but there was still much ignorance on the subject of Africans . They believed that their architecture could not be local, because they did not believe that African "savages" could have built such a grandiose structure. Instead, they thought it was the work of foreign powers, like the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, or even Prester John. The ruins were not confirmed to have been constructed by Africa until the early 20th century, when David Randall-MacIver and Gertrude Caton-Thompson confirmed their African origin and age. Since much of the information about the structure of Great Zimbabwe has been theorized, it makes sense that the information about its collapse would be the same. Hypotheses include changes in the environment related to weather conditions, and another theory is that usable land, gold, water, and other resources have been exhausted. Most notable is the possibility of a decline in gold trading. As mentioned earlier, the gold trade in Africa shifted very quickly from gold to slaves, which is a valid explanation for this sudden collapse. This is consistent with the idea that Zimbabwe's trade and industry were disrupted by the Portuguese. Contrary to popular belief, Africans traded across the ocean before the transatlantic slave trade. In fact, ancient Africans sailed to Asia and South America hundreds of years before Europeans. Most of this can be attributed to the kingdoms of Mali and Songhai. They are responsible for building boats 100 feet long and 13 feet wide that can carry up to 80 tons. Trade between East Africa and Asia led to the development of city-states along the African coast, which include the Swahili towns of Kilwa and Sofala. There was initially only trade between the Swahili and Arab peoples, but cowrie shells, fabrics, pearls for gold, rhino horns, iron and ivory spread within the lands. But trade didn't just include physical items. Islam spread in Africa thanks to Arab traders. The trade route taken by the Arab people also contributed to the development of the Swahili language and culture. Atlantic Ocean currents also flow from West Africa to South America, indicating that Africans sailed from the east coast of South America and continued to stay there . Plant and animal genetic evidence supports this idea. The art of these South American societies indicates that this is true. This is a great example of the idea that trade is about more than just items and resources. People tended to use trade routes and form new ethnic groups, as exemplified by South Americans of African descent. This is also borne out by Swahili culture, which was cultivated because merchants from Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia married locals in East Africa and settled there. The mixture of these two cultures created the Swahili ethnic group. Swahili cities became some of the richest in the 1400s, playing a major role in the global economy despite the fact that Europe had no idea. In retrospect, Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe had an economy based on the sale and purchase of goods. along the river,.