African History: Did you mean...?

This Roman oil lamp of unclear provenance was made in the 1st Century CE. It portrays an Aethiopian slave, with barbarians like Africans and Celts being popular motifs in Roman art. The lamp has also been suggested to have erotic connotations...

On the salty Nathaniel Bacon and how his little rebellion in the early American colonies paved the way for the African Slave Trade.

Did you know that salt was literally worth its weight in gold in ancient West Africa? This video is all about the lucrative trade of salt in West African history. Salt from the Sahara desert was one of the major trade goods of ancient...

John Lee joins World History Encyclopedia to tell us all about his new book, The First Black Archaeologist: A Life of John Wesley Gilbert. Kelly (WHE): Thank you so much for joining me! Let us start by talking about what the book is about...

The Portuguese colonization of the Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) Islands began from 1462. Initially envisaged as a base to give mariners direct access to West African trade, the Central Atlantic islands soon became a major hub of the Atlantic slave...

The Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the ancient civilizations continues with a video on the Berbers. In this first history video out of two on the ancient origins of the North African civilization, we are going...

West Africa was one of the world's greatest producers of gold in the Middle Ages. Trade in the metal went back to antiquity but when the camel caravans of the Sahara linked North Africa to the savannah interior, the trade really took off...

The British Museum invited Dr Cornelia Kleinitz, an archaeologist specialising in rock art, and Liam Williamson, a modern rock drummer, to try and discover how a rock gong might have been played. This was the result. Rock gongs are a...

Between 850 BCE and 1600 CE, great civilizations thrived in Africa, yet few non-Africans have learned about them. While some may be familiar with the achievements of ancient Egypt, most of our knowledge of African history is tainted by the...

A documentary based on the journal of the 5th century BCE Carthaginian explorer Hanno.