African History Extra

The Mossi States: pre-Islamic Kingdoms in Burkina Faso ca. 1300-1897

During the late Middle Ages, a ‘pagan’ power from the interior of West Africa confronted the great empires of Mali and Songhai, and briefly extended its…

Apr 12 • isaac Samuel

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The first Africanists: Intellectual Collaboration and the Origins of African Studies in the late 19th to early 20th century.

The first Africanists (specialists who study African languages, societies, and history) were not colonial researchers, as is often assumed, but African…

Apr 5 • isaac Samuel

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March 2026

The Gold Trade and Currency of Medieval West Africa (1000-1900 CE)

An estimated two-thirds of the world’s gold in the late Middle Ages may have come from West Africa.

Mar 29 • isaac Samuel

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The Invention and Spread of Writing in Global and African History.

Writing systems were independently invented multiple times across several ancient civilizations, with the earliest evidence coming from Mesopotamia…

Mar 22 • isaac Samuel

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The Medieval city of Sijilmasa and the empires of North Western Africa. (757-1818 CE)

Journal of African Cities: chapter 20

Mar 15 • isaac Samuel

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The Roman-African borderlands and expeditions south of the Sahara.

After the fall of Carthage in 146 BC, the Roman Empire came into direct contact with a number of African states with whom it shared a long and open…

Mar 8 • isaac Samuel

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The myth of the Hamitic race in religious and pseudo-scientific literature: an African perspective

In 1845, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass observed that American slaveholders appealed to the biblical claim that ‘God cursed Ham’ as a theological…

Mar 1 • isaac Samuel

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February 2026

A Pictorial History of Africa: Insights from Ancient Figurative Art.

While travelling through West Africa between 1908 and 1910, the German ethnographer Leo Frobenius visited the city of Ife (in S.W Nigeria), where he had…

Feb 22 • isaac Samuel

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Megalithic Landscapes of Ethiopia from Prehistory to the Modern Era

Ethiopia is home to one of the largest concentrations of megalithic architecture globally.

Feb 15 • isaac Samuel

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On the Enduring Role of Forts and Fortifications in Pre-Colonial African Military history.

In November 1575, the army of Bornu encamped before the walled town of Amsaka, initiating what would become one of the best-documented episodes of siege…

Feb 8 • isaac Samuel

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Forgotten Cities of the Swahili coast: A history of Pemba in the Medieval Indian Ocean World (ca. 600-1822 CE)

Journal of African Cities: chapter 19

Feb 1 • isaac Samuel

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January 2026

The Surgeons and Physicians of pre-colonial Africa: a brief medical history

In 1908, a team of archaeologists surveying Lower Nubia uncovered a collection of remains from elite cemeteries that provided evidence of early medical…

Jan 25 • isaac Samuel

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