With the upcoming debut of Black Panther upon us...

With the upcoming debut of Black Panther upon us, I'm curious about Afrofuturism or at least civilizations in Africa before Europeans came along. Is there any evidence that "advanced" civilizations, relatively speaking, (besides Egypt) ever existed on the continent? And is there a possibility that Egypt was predominantly black before various invasions dramatically altered the culture and genetics of the people?

Ethiopia was a big deal fir a while

The coast of East Africa was historically richer than most of Western Europe up until the 15th Century, but because the elites of these city states and Emirates came from Arabic stock there's argument over whether they can really be called "African."

So the most relevant happenings were in East Africa and there disagreements as whether to consider those peoples black? Was the rest of the continent just a bunch of underdeveloped tribes for all of history?

As far as ancient goes what do you mean?
There’s a number of large stone structures scattered along the east coast of africa some date to the romans others as late as 1600

There were lots of isolated tribes in the jungles that rarely developed past the tribal stage

Ultimately the larger factor of development seems to be the level of isolation the group faces

Mali

Civilisations need to interact to develop, so you find your most advanced African nations along the trade routes in West and on the Eastern coast of Africa. The nations of Western Africa were also rather developed due to their transaharan trade, but once the Europeans started leaving Europe these kingdoms didn't really stand a chance. In the West they established trading forts and the triangular trade led to an overdependence on the slave trade. In the East Europeans replaced the old Indian Ocean trade that had made the Eastern states rich with their own trading networks which bypassed these states. When the Africans and Arabs refused to play along, they'd typically just sail in, fire off their cannons and set fire to anything that looked important.
So basically the greatest African nations were dependent on trade routes which were bypassed or superseded in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Interesting. Are there examples of civilizations anywhere developing in isolation? Would an abundance of vital and luxury resources be enough to keep a civilization afloat and keep it progressing on its own?

>As far as ancient goes what do you mean?
Any point in human history is game. Prehistory. Ancient history. Classical.

>Are there examples of civilizations anywhere developing in isolation?
The first ones.

Hardly in isolation. I mean there was established trade during the very early neolithic revolution, if not earlier, even.

>The coast of East Africa was historically richer than most of Western Europe up until the 15th Century
Even agreeing to ignore Southeastern Europe, I seriously doubt Rome was poorer than the entire coast of East Africa. Maybe East Africa had a small wealthy urban elite. That was it.

When Egyptian dominance waned, the Nubians/Kushites asserted power. The 25th Dynasty included pharaohs of Nubian descent

>There’s a number of large stone structures scattered along the east coast of africa
Have any examples?

I just want to say that I am so thankful that Creayus exists

>With the upcoming debut of Black Panther upon us
What?

There's also the Suez Canal for West Africans.

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This. Gold-salt trade made fat stacks

Is there any reason to believe Africa would have developed without colonial influence? Let's imagine there wasn't a huge demand for slaves and no one was interested in the continent. Is there any reason to believe it would have caught up with the rest of the world? Most African nations were among the least developed places on Earth, right?

...

>Is there any reason to believe Africa would have developed without colonial influence?
It would have developed, but not to an insane degree. As mentioned, civilizations improve through contact, trade, and competition. Africa was not some static and homogeneous entity that remained the same way since the dawn of time. 1000 BC Africa was nothing like 1 AD Africa which was nothing like 1000 AD Africa. As well, not every corner of Africa was the same.

Had Africa never been contacted it probably wouldn't have developed to the degree that it has today, but then again, I doubt Europe would be as developed as it is today either. European-African relations were not a one way street.

WE

should not dismiss African history as merely primitivism

>Is there any evidence that "advanced" civilizations

Back in the early 1500s, the Conquistador Francisco de Orellana was attempting to send his army resources to keep on fighting within the Spaniard invasions of America. Ordered to explore a nearby river, he blundered and his ship got swept by the tide across the entirety of the Amazon Basin, which is now known today as history's greatest accidental exploration voyage.

When he eventually reached territory held by his fellow Spaniards, he was exhilarated because he had seen multiple villages or even towns large enough to be called cities throughout his travels. Excited by the prospects, this led to hundreds of thousands of Spaniards invading South America in the next few centuries.

They found nothing and Orellana was known as a liar even upon his death bed.

It's only relatively recently that the belief that the Amazon was incapable of supporting civilization was disproven. The Natives within the lands were wiped out (most likely by disease) and they reverted back to their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Deforestation of the Amazon has exposed us to miles & miles of earthworks, canals/waterways, pottery and extensive land forming.

And this was hidden only FOUR fucking centuries ago. Who knows what other civilizations could have risen and fallen from the time of the Egyptians to the Mongols and many other civilizations. Even though life, most likely, began within Africa there have barely been any archaeological expeditions exploring the continent (it's understandable with Africa being such a hellhole today however). Hell just look up the Atlit-Yam ruins in Israel. That's from 7000 BC itself.

For all we know OP there could have been. But it's safe to say that we know about any other ancient civilization within this lifetime.

I suppose as over time when other nations get developed we'll see similar archaeological discoveries like we have in Europe over the past few decades.

>European-African relations were not a one way street.
Care to further explain?

Africa played an important part in the early days of global trade in the 15th and 16th centuries. Most everyone knows about how the Spanish and Portuguese were trying to find direct routes to India and the East Indies during this period, but that wasn't entirely the plan from the beginning. During the late middle ages the Iberians were aware of some of the goings-on of West Africa due to their frequent contact with the Moors.Thus, they had incentive to try and establish themselves in West Africa. Problem was, that the Moors had a monopoly on all the Trans-Saharan trade routes, and outright conquering Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia proved far too cumbersome. This, in turn, gave Iberians (particularly the Portuguese) incentive to further explore and develop their naval technology and sailing techniques in order to find routes that would take them directly to West Africa, allowing them to cut out the Moors entirely. This is the reason colonies like Cape Verde were settled during this era. Once the Portuguese had a reliable enough set of trade routes around Western Africa, they decided to use this as a base to expand the network all the way to India and Indonesia. Therefore, had the Iberians not had any incentive to interact with West Africa, it's likely that the connections they made with Asia would have come much later, and the discovery of America might not have even happened.

There's also the matter of how Africa provided Europeans with slaves which allowed their colonies in the New World to become much more productive, much faster, than they would have been otherwise. Africa was also the primary source of ivory along with being a source of spices and palm oil for Europeans. Because of the Scramble people tend to think of the relationship between Europe and Africa as one of overlord and subject, but for centuries prior they more like business partners, and two people only do business with each other when they both have something to gain from it.

the vikings had buildings larger than this, if his can dismiss them, I can dismiss Africa