The Myth About the Founder of Africa

Given the vast variety of African cultures and communities, it would be inaccurate to assert that anybody “founded” Africa. The continent’s vast and diversified history, which spans thousands of years, has formed it rather than a single founder or initiating civilisation. Egypt (or Kemet, as it was called at the time) gave rise to some of the earliest and most advanced African civilizations.

Beginning approximately 3000 B.C.E., Egypt’s Nile Valley civilisation flourished for more than three millennia. Another ancient African civilisation, the Nubian kingdom of Kush, flourished in modern-day Sudan beginning approximately 2000 BCE and lasted for more than a millennium.

Other places where civilizations emerged include the Sahara Desert, West Africa‘s Sahel area, and modern-day Ethiopia. Each of these cultures contributed to the development of Africa as a whole, yet its individual history and culture stood out.

The Bantu people of West Africa, the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries CE, and European colonization of Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries all had significant effects on the African continent. These invasions and migrations have shaped Africa’s history and culture in diverse and interesting ways.