Organized religion has been used over the years as a weapon for controlling power. Much of Africa was conquered by the colonizers on the basis of organized religion. Religion has been around us since, well, the beginning of time. The vast majority of the people across...

Recent radiocarbon dating analysis dated Garima 2 as originating from 390-570, and Garima 1 from 530-660. This makes the Garima gospels the oldest and most complete illuminated Christian manuscripts in the world. 5km away from Adwa, in the Mehakelegnaw Zone of the...

Fulani ArtBecause Fulani nomads do not change their fashion as frequently as other sedentary groups, traces of past aesthetic traditions tend to be perceptible in contemporary times. Fulani often entrust members of specialized castes or foreigners with the fabrication...

Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art October 2002 Iron smelting and forging technologies may have existed in West Africa among the Nok culture of Nigeria as early as the sixth century B.C. In the period from 1400 to...

West African power associations are responsible for an array of arts, including masks, sculptures, and performances. The arts of kòmò and kònò, two predominantly male institutions, have captured the attention of museum audiences in Europe and...

Tales of Ethiopia as a mythical land at the farthest edges of the earth are recorded in some of the earliest Greek literature of the eighth century B.C., including the epic poems of Homer. Greek gods and heroes, like Menelaos, were believed to have visited this place...

The Old Kingdom (ca. 2649–2130 B.C.) was an incredibly dynamic period of Egyptian history. While the origin of many concepts, practices, and monuments can be traced to earlier periods, it was during the Old Kingdom that they developed into the forms that would...

The Middle Kingdom designates a period of ancient Egyptian civilization stretching from approximately 2030 to 1650 B.C. (Dynasty 11 through Dynasty 13). During this era, the cultural principles set out at the beginning of Egyptian civilization and codified during...

The Ghana Empire flourished in West Africa from at least the 6th to 13th century CE. Not connected geographically to the modern state of Ghana, the Ghana Empire was located in the western Sudan savannah region (modern southern Mauritania...