Africa is often called the “cradle of humankind” because some of the earliest evidence of human life has been found here, including fossils millions of years old. For thousands of years, powerful kingdoms and civilizations flourished across the continent, including Ancient Egypt along the Nile, Carthage in North Africa, the Kingdom of Aksum in present-day Ethiopia, Great Zimbabwe in Southern Africa, and the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai in West Africa. These civilizations contributed advancements in art, science, trade, and governance that influenced the wider world.

The arrival of European powers in the fifteenth century brought centuries of colonization, the transatlantic slave trade, and eventually the “Scramble for Africa” in the nineteenth century, when European nations divided nearly the entire continent. In the mid-twentieth century, African nations began to gain independence, shaping modern Africa as a diverse continent of over fifty countries. Today, Africa’s cultures reflect both ancient traditions and modern innovation, expressed in its music, literature, fashion, and art.