COMING
SOON

African civilization dates back to a time between 12,000 and 7,000 years ago when the region called the Sahara -- now a vast desert -- was green and fertile. Shepherds and herdsmen of the Sahara and Southern Africa developed advanced herding and agricultural methods that allowed them to live at more than a subsistence level. Some people became skilled in crafts such as pottery. Others created rock art. Activities portrayed in rock art made some 6000 years ago including fishing, hunting and gathering -- reflect the lives of the people in these communities. Tools of stone, bone and wood also give insight into their lives. As the people prospered, they began to engage in trade with their neighbors, and some communities grew in size and power.

Many cultures thrived on this huge continent, from the ancient kingdoms of Egypt and history of Egypt and Nubia to the great Sub Saharan - South of the Sahara - empires in what is now Western Sudan to the forest kingdom of central Africa.

As the Sahara became dry, the Northern and Southern parts of the continent were developed... the continent was divided by an arid region larger than the mainland of the United States.

A community that lived by farming in the Nile River Delta developed a way of life very different from that of a nomadic people who live near the Sahara Desert or a society that mind gold, silver, or copper. But, through trade and other forms of contact, these societies influenced one another. As with all civilizations, the development of African civilization did not proceed along a straight line, but in a much more complicated fashion, with various kingdoms growing out of one another; other, cente