Who was the first person to cross Africa from east to West?
Between 1874 and 1877 Henry Morton Stanley traveled Central Africa east to west, exploring Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and the Lualaba and Congo rivers. He covered 7,000 miles (11,000 km) from Zanzibar in the east to Boma at the mouth of the Congo in the west.
Portuguese explorer Prince Henry, known as the Navigator, was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic route to the Indies.
David Livingstone (1813-73) was a Scottish missionary and medical doctor who explored much of the interior of Africa. In a remarkable journey in 1853-56, he became the first European to cross the African continent.
The first white settlement in South Africa occurred on the Cape under the control of the Dutch East India company. The foothold established by Jan van Riebeck following his arrival with three ships on 6th April 1652 was usually taken in Afrikaner accounts to be the start of the 'history' of South Africa.
- Cushitic peoples. Historical linguistic research has suggested that ancestral southern Cushitic peoples moved into the Turkana area from the north in Ethiopia around 5000 years ago. ...
- Nilotic peoples. ...
- Bantu peoples.
The first immigrants were the Africans; the next were the Persians, who began to land in Zanzibar in the 10th century and who, over a brief period, became absorbed into the local population and disappeared as a separate group.
All historians agree that it was the Roman use of the term 'Africa' for parts of Tunisia and Northern Algeria which ultimately, almost 2000 years later, gave the continent its name. There is, however, no consensus amongst scholars as to why the Romans decided to call these provinces 'Africa'.
Who left Africa first? Homo ergaster (or African Homo erectus) may have been the first human species to leave Africa. Fossil remains show this species had expanded its range into southern Eurasia by 1.75 million years ago.
Herto man is proof that modern humans (Homo sapiens) lived in Africa at least 160,000 years ago. And they seem to have stayed there for a long time. Though it is unclear when some modern humans first left Africa, evidence shows that these modern humans did not leave Africa until between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago.
The most momentous discovery in western Africa, however, came in 1471, when Portuguese captains first reached the coast of modern Ghana between the mouths of the Ankobra and Volta rivers.
Who connects Africa to Europe?
The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow waterway separating the Atlantic Ocean (bottom left) from the Mediterranean Sea (top right). This 13-kilometer-wide waterway also separates Europe and Africa, with Spain and Gibraltar on the left and Morocco on the right.
Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who followed in the footsteps of Dias and became the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa and all the way to India. Da Gama sailed from Lisbon, Portugal in July 1497, with four ships.

Africa is sometimes nicknamed the "Mother Continent" due to its being the oldest inhabited continent on Earth. Humans and human ancestors have lived in Africa for more than 5 million years.
The Portuguese were the first 'Western' slavers in Africa and with Papal support captured the African port of Ceuta in 1415. Slave trading of native Africans was relatively small scale during the 15th century as the Portuguese and Spanish were enslaving the native populace in central and southern America.
sp. A new study suggests that the earliest anatomically modern humans emerged 200,000 years ago in what was once a vast wetland that sprawled across Botswana in southern Africa. Later shifts in climate opened up green corridors to the northeast and southwest, leading our ancestors to spread through Africa.
History. The history of White settlement in South Africa started in 1652 with the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) under Jan van Riebeeck.
The largest ethnic groups in eastern Africa are the Oromo, Cushitic speakers who occupy much of southern Ethiopia, and the related Somali, who occupy all of Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, and much of Djibouti. The Afar are found in both Eritrea and Djibouti.
The British, Belgians, Italians, French, and Germans were involved in the colonization of East Africa during the latter 19th and early 20th centuries. Of course, all of them already had networks of traders and missionaries from their countries throughout East Africa.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the region of current-day Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique by sea. Vasco da Gama visited Mombasa in 1498. Da Gama's voyage was successful in reaching India, which permitted the Portuguese to trade with the Far East directly by sea.
The initial phase, occurring between 1884 and 1887, divided the East African mainland into a southern German and a predominantly British northern sphere of influence as laid down in the Anglo-German Agreement of 1886–87.
What is Africa full name?
In Kemetic History of Afrika, Dr cheikh Anah Diop writes, “The ancient name of Africa was Alkebulan. Alkebu-lan “mother of mankind” or “garden of Eden”.” Alkebulan is the oldest and the only word of indigenous origin. It was used by the Moors, Nubians, Numidians, Khart-Haddans (Carthagenians), and Ethiopians.
Some historians say that the word Africa might have stemmed from the Latin word afri, used to refer to the Berber tribe Aourigha. The Romans called the region Afri-terra, meaning “the land of the Afri”. The Latin suffix –ica is used to denote a landmass as well.
Africa. /ˈæf.rɪ.kə/ us. /ˈæf.rɪ.kə/ the continent that is to the south of the Mediterranean Sea, to the east of the Atlantic Ocean, and to the west of the Indian Ocean. Countries, nationalities & continents: continents & regions of the world.
The First Humans
One of the earliest known humans is Homo habilis, or “handy man,” who lived about 2.4 million to 1.4 million years ago in Eastern and Southern Africa.
First migrants
The earliest migrants were ancient humans who originated on the African continent. Their spread to Eurasia and elsewhere remains a matter of significant scientific controversy. The earliest fossils of recognizable Homo sapiens were found in Ethiopia and are approximately 200,000 years old.
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human.
Humans first evolved in Africa, and much of human evolution occurred on that continent. The fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come entirely from Africa. Most scientists currently recognize some 15 to 20 different species of early humans.
Scientists claim that walking on two legs was one of the keys to humans' development from ancient ape-like ancestors. Walking on two legs saved energy and allowed the arms to be used for activities like hunting, crafting simple tools and interacting with objects.
The journey between Africa and the Americas, "The Middle Passage," could take four to six weeks, but the average lasted between two and three months.
The Republic of Ghana is named after the medieval West African Ghana Empire. The empire became known in Europe and Arabia as the Ghana Empire after the title of its Emperor, the Ghana. The Empire appears to have broken up following the 1076 conquest by the Almoravid General Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar.
Who named Nigeria?
Like so many modern African states, Nigeria is the creation of European imperialism. Its very name – after the great Niger River, the country's dominating physical feature – was suggested in the 1890s by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later became the wife of colonial governor Frederick Lugard.
The First Wave of Europeans in Nigeria
Europeans began exploration, trade, and missionary endeavors along the West Coast of Africa in the 15th century. The Portuguese were the first to do so, establishing trade with the Benin Kingdom, Lagos, and other regions along the coast.
There are 54 countries in Africa today, according to the United Nations. The full list is shown in the table below, with current population and subregion (based on the United Nations official statistics).
The Isthmus of Suez joins the two landmasses of Asia and Africa.
The Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar separate Africa from Europe.
The first Indians arrived during the Dutch colonial era, as slaves, in 1684. A conservative calculation based strictly on records shows over 16 300 slaves from the Indian subcontinent having been brought to the Cape. In the decades 1690 to 1725 over 80% of the slaves were Indians.
People of African descent shaped early modern Europe, here encompassing the 15th to 18th centuries, in many ways.
Vasco da Gama was best known for being the first to sail from Europe to India by rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope. Over the course of two voyages, beginning in 1497 and 1502, da Gama landed and traded in locales along the coast of southern Africa before reaching India on May 20, 1498.
Egypt and Egyptians as well as Cush and Cushites were always mentioned together in the Old Testament, because they both belong to the African nation. Egypt belonged to the northern part of Africa and to a region of the Ancient Near East.
Additionally, snow regularly falls in the Atlas Mountains in the Maghreb. Snowfall is also a regular occurrence at Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. There have been permanent glaciers on the Rwenzori Mountains, on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
What is the capital of Africa?
Capital Cities of African Nations | ||
---|---|---|
Addis Ababa (Addis Abeba) | Addis Ababa Map | Ethiopia |
Algiers (Alger, El Djazâir, Al Jaza'ir) | Algiers Map | Algeria |
Antananarivo | Antananarivo Map | Madagascar |
Asmara (Asmera) | Asmara Map | Eritrea |
His efforts met with success when the House passed the bill in January 1865 with a vote of 119–56. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures.
Slavery was practiced in many different forms: debt slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, and criminal slavery were all practiced in various parts of Africa. Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa.
- Human trafficking. ...
- Forced labour. ...
- Debt bondage/bonded labour. ...
- Descent–based slavery (where people are born into slavery). ...
- Child slavery. ...
- Forced and early marriage. ...
- Domestic servitude.
From about 1.2 million years ago to less than 100,000 years ago, archaic humans, including archaic Homo sapiens, were dark-skinned.
The oldest known evidence for anatomically modern humans are fossils found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, which date back some 360,000 years ago.
Early H. erectus had smaller, more primitive teeth, a smaller overall size and thinner, less robust skulls compared to later specimens. The species also had a large face compared to modern humans. Like Neanderthals, their skull was long and low, rather than rounded like our own, and their lower jaw lacked a chin.
Mario Rigby walked from Capetown to Cairo over the course of more than two years. He's shown here with Samburu tribeswomen he met by the road in Kenya. Few people in the world can call themselves a modern-day adventurer.
The eventual disillusionment of those who migrated to the North, and the frustrations of struggling to cope with urban life set the scene for the back-to-Africa movement of the 1920s, established by Marcus Garvey.
Henry Morton Stanley
He came to East africa to look for David Livingstone, a missionary who had come to Africa and not returned home. He travelled over 700 kilometres through the dense tropical forests.
Who was the first person to walk across the world?
Dave Kunst became the first man independently verified to have walked around the world, covering four continents. His brother, John Kunst, accompanied him for two years from his starting point in Waseca, Minnesota, until he was killed by bandits in Afghanistan. Kunst continued the walk in his brother's honor.
Dave Kunst (born July 16, 1939) is the first person independently verified to have walked around the Earth. The walk was intended to be achieved along with his brother John, but during the event John was shot and killed by bandits, and Dave wounded; Dave resumed and completed the walk with another brother, Peter.
National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek is walking from Africa to the tip of South America. He is following the path our human ancestors took about 200,000 years ago.
As the gaps are filled, the story is likely to change, but in broad outline, today's scientists believe that from their beginnings in Africa, the modern humans went first to Asia between 80,000 and 60,000 years ago. By 45,000 years ago, or possibly earlier, they had settled Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Sundiata Keita was the first ruler of the Mali Empire in the 13th century C.E. He laid the foundation for a powerful and wealthy African empire and proclaimed the first charter of human rights, the Manden Charter.
Friar Oderic of Pordenone, an Italian monk, became a missionary, journeying throughout the greater part of Asia between 1316 and 1330. He reached Peking by way of India and Malaya, then traveled by sea to Canton; he returned to Europe by way of Central Asia, visiting Tibet in 1325—the first European to do so.