HeyJaredAfrican History Extra
All about African history; narrating the continent's neglected past
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 11
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- Sep 28, 2026
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- Jul 19, 2026
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The Textile Industry of pre-colonial Southern Nigeria (c.1500-1900) (opens the original)
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Textile production was typically the most important element in the preindustrial manufacturing sector throughout the world.In the region of southern Nigeria, sophisticated textile industries showing signs of proto-industry emerged during the early modern period, creating an “artisan class” of specialists in spinning, weaving, dyeing, and embroidery.The textile trade among the kingdoms of southern Nigeria was exceptionally complex, as the region was one of several in Africa that exported its own
The Wheel in the Ancient Sahara: Africa’s Forgotten Chariots (opens the original)
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The Sahara is one of the most dynamic zones of interaction in human history. Its stone monuments and rock paintings provide important repositories of prehistoric evidence for ancient migrations and the spread of technologies across Africa.Around 1600 BC, the Hyksos introduced the horse-drawn chariot to Egypt, from where it spread southward to the kingdom of Kerma (Kush in Sudan) and westward among the nomadic pastoralists of the Sahara, reaching as far as modern Mauritania.<a class="footnote-anc
Ancient African Monks: The Christian period in Egypt and North-East Africa (c. 50-642 CE) (opens the original)
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Christianity reached Africa soon after the rise of the religion, spreading first to Egypt and later across the Maghreb and southward into Aksum/Ethiopia and Nubia/Sudan.The religion was subsequently adopted by wider sections of the population, in large part through the institution of monasticism, which first emerged among the desert monks of Egypt.The Egyptian monastic movement exerted a decisive influence throughout the Roman Empire, with figures such as the 4th-century monks Anthony and Pachom
The Ancient Empires of Africa: Imperial Governments and “Native” Rulers. (opens the original)
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Ancient state structures in Africa included Empires, which carried with them all the complexity, inequalities, and political baggage inherent in such systems.On 19th January 1469, the Songhai ruler Sunni ʿAlī entered the city of Timbuktu (in present-day Mali) at the invitation of its ruler/governor, the ‘Timbuktu-koi’ ʿUmar. The latter’s family had inherited the office, along with its “judicial, fiscal, and other powers,” after Timbuktu was conquer
The Gold Currency, Trade and Wealth of Medieval Ethiopia (opens the original)
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Gold was one of the oldest metals worked by ancient African societies.In Ethiopia, evidence for the first gold coins minted by African rulers south of Egypt and an abundance of documentary references to vast quantities of gold tribute demonstrate the importance of the precious metal to the ancient economies in the northern Horn of Africa.For centuries, gold was the principal currency of international trade in Ethiopia, and was used in everything from land sales to pious donations and inheritance
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