Where the field came from and where African American history begins: Africa's landscapes and peoples, the Bantu expansion, ancient Nubia, Aksum and Nok, the Sudanic empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai, learning traditions and faith, Great Zimbabwe and the Swahili Coast, the Kingdom of Kongo, women's leadership, and Africans in Europe before the transatlantic slave trade.
African American Studies is an interdisciplinary, scholarly field analyzing the history, culture and contributions of people of African descent in the U.S. and the diaspora. It grew out of earlier Black artistic, intellectual and political work, and entered colleges through the Black Campus movement (1965–1972). It corrects misconceptions of early Africa as having no knowable history.
Africa, the second-largest continent, has five climate zones (desert, semiarid Sahel, savannah, tropical rainforest, Mediterranean), four bordering seas and oceans, and five major rivers. Coasts fostered early global ties. The Sahel and savannah became population centers thanks to water routes, fertile land and their position between the Sahara and the tropics. Each climate zone traded different goods.
Tools and new crops (bananas, yams, grains) drove population growth in West and Central Africa, triggering migrations of Bantu-speaking peoples across the continent from 1500 BCE to 500 CE. Hundreds of Bantu languages are spoken today, and much of African Americans' genetic ancestry comes from West and Central African communities speaking Bantu-family languages.
Egypt and Nubia arose along the Nile around 3000 BCE; Nubia supplied Egypt's gold and, around 750 BCE, conquered it to found the 25th dynasty. Aksum (c. 100 BCE) grew rich on Red Sea trade with its own coins and Ge'ez script, and adopted Christianity under King Ezana. The Nok (c. 500 BCE) were early ironworkers known for terracotta sculpture. Ancient Africa later fueled arguments against racism and colonialism.
Ghana (7th–13th c.), Mali (13th–17th c.) and Songhai (15th–16th c.) grew rich from gold and their position on trans-Saharan routes, which also brought Islam. Mansa Musa made Mali a center of trade and learning; his 1324 hajj drew European interest. Songhai declined as trade shifted to the Atlantic. Most enslaved Africans brought to North America came from West and West Central Africa.
West African trading cities were centers of learning; Timbuktu drew astronomers, mathematicians, architects and jurists. Griots, women and men, preserved history through story and music, like the Epic of Sundiata. Leaders' adoption of Islam or Christianity led to syncretism with Indigenous beliefs, which enslaved Africans carried to the Americas, where ancestor veneration and other practices survived.
Great Zimbabwe (12th–15th c.) was the Shona capital, wealthy from gold, ivory and cattle and linked to Swahili Coast trade; its stone walls served defense and trade, the Great Enclosure religion and administration. Swahili Coast city-states, from Somalia to Mozambique, linked Africa's interior to Arab, Persian, Indian and Chinese traders, shared Swahili and Islam, and were invaded by the Portuguese in the 1500s.
In 1491 Kongo's King Nzinga a Nkuwu (João I) and his son Nzinga Mbemba (Afonso I) voluntarily converted to Catholicism, strengthening trade with Portugal and creating a distinct African Catholicism. Portugal then demanded access to the slave trade; West Central Africa became its largest source. About a quarter of enslaved Africans brought to the U.S. came from the region, many already Christian.
Many West and Central African societies were built on extended kinship, which shaped political alliances. Women served as spiritual leaders, advisors, traders, educators and farmers. Queen Idia, Benin's first iyoba, advised her son and led armies with spiritual power. Queen Njinga of Ndongo-Matamba fought the Portuguese for 30 years. Both became enduring symbols of Black women's leadership.
From the late 1400s, trade between West African kingdoms and Portugal in gold, goods and enslaved people grew, bypassing the Sahara. Africans lived in Lisbon and Seville in many roles, from laborers to knights, and African elites traveled to Europe. The Portuguese built plantations on Cabo Verde and São Tomé; by 1500 about 50,000 enslaved Africans had been taken, a model for slavery in the Americas.