the Romans, digging tunnels to retrieve underground wa-
ter. Another desert center was the city of Aoudaghost, which
appeared in southeast Mauritania around the fi ft h century
b.c.e. It sat at the edge of the Sahara and became a terminus
for one of the trans-Saharan trade routes.
Around 1 c.e. the Berbers of the Sahara adopted cam-
els from Arabia. Th ese beasts allowed them to establish trade
routes across the desert. Berber traders began traveling across
the desert in this period, which allowed for some exchange of
peoples and goods. Th e major Saharan trade routes did not
develop, however, until the seventh and eighth centuries c.e.
Th e region known as Chad was inhabited long before the
ancient period. Many humans settled there during the sev-
enth millennium b.c.e., at a time when the Sahara was quite
wet. Archaeologists have found rock art dating to that period
that shows people hunting and engaging in other activities
indicating a fertile climate. Historians believe that most of
Africa’s sub-Saharan languages originated in this region
and must have spread from there during the ancient period,
though the details of this spread are unknown.
Th e Bafour people lived in modern Mauretania in the
fi rst millennium b.c.e. Th e Sahara of this period was wet-
ter than it became, which made it possible for the Bafour to
hunt, raise livestock, and fi sh. As the Sahara grew, the Berber
people from North Africa moved into the Bafour region dur-
ing the third and fourth centuries c.e. Some Bafour became
Berber slaves. Others moved south into southern Mauretania
and eventually into Ghana.
Th e people of western Africa spoke languages from
the Mande group of the Niger-Congo language family. Th e
Soninke people were Mande language speakers who formed
the Ghana kingdom in the early fi rst millennium c.e. Th is
kingdom included the states of Mali, Mema, and Wagadou, in
modern Mali, Senegal, and Ghana.
Th e major form of population migration in this region
occurred through trade, which brought people of diverse cul-
tures in contact with one another. Th e Soninke people traded
with people from both north and south, receiving goods from
Berber traders crossing the Sahara and salt and gold from the
Senegal River. Th e Soninke also began trading in slaves, cap-
turing local Africans and selling them to merchants who took
them to other parts of Africa and abroad, which resulted in
a certain amount of inadvertent population migration on the
part of the slaves. Th e town of Djenné in Mali lay on the in-
land delta of the Niger River. It was built by the Bozo people.
It was large town by the third century b.c.e., and by the fi ft h
century c.e. it had became a major trading center. Traders
could sail up the Niger River with their goods. Traders also
came through the forests or the desert to the north.
NUBIA
Ancient Nubia encompassed northern Sudan and southern
Egypt along the Nile. People lived in the area during the early
ancient period, but the fi rst distinct culture to leave behind
archaeological evidence arose around 3800 b.c.e. Th is culture
was similar to that of Egypt of the same period. Around 3300
b.c.e. the Nubian people organized themselves into a king-
dom, which may have helped create the earliest Egyptian dy-
nasties. Th e Egyptians took over Nubia around 3000 b.c.e.
Nubia was best known during the Egyptian Dynastic Pe-
riod as a trade corridor between Egypt and southwestern Af-
rica. Traders began traveling this route starting in the fourth
millennium b.c.e. Egyptian craft smen of this period used
materials such as ebony wood and ivory, which must have
come from tropical African trees and animals. Egyptians
and Africans would have encountered one another and lo-
cal Nubians as they traveled north and south carrying goods.
During the Old Kingdom (ca. 2575–ca. 2134 b.c.e.) Egyptian
and African traders passed through Nubia to exchange an in-
creasing variety of goods, including incense, gold, and wild
animals. Th is trade made Nubia a prosperous region. A small
kingdom arose there between 2240 and 2150 b.c.e. Historians
are not sure whether this kingdom was inhabited by descen-
dants of the earliest cultures in Nubia or by people who had
moved there from elsewhere. It is possible that this kingdom
was founded by invaders from the Sahara, who moved into
Sudan as the desert became too dry for them to live there.
Between 2040 and 1640 b.c.e., Egyptians moved south
into Nubia. Th ey took control of the Nubian trade routes and
built forts along the Nile to solidify their power, but they ap-
pear to have allowed the local people to live unmolested. Th e
people of southern Nubia founded a kingdom of their own
during this period, the kingdom of Kerma, which fl ourished
from 2500 to 1520 b.c.e. Kerma was a major trading center,
and archaeologists have found artifacts from southern Africa
and Egypt as well as Nubian goods. During the period from
1620 to 1550 b.c.e., a period of Egyptian disarray, Egyptians
moved back north from Nubia, and Kerma took control of
northern Nubia as well. Egyptians returned to the area under
Th utmose I (1504–1492 b.c.e.) and conquered Kerma, annex-
ing Nubia as Egyptian territory.
During the 11th century b.c.e. Egypt suff ered another
period of governmental disarray and abandoned Nubia aft er
locals rebelled. Local Nubians created a new kingdom based
at the city of Napata, near modern Khartoum. Th is kingdom
developed into the Kushite kingdom, founded around 708
b.c.e. Th e Kushites moved north into Egypt and conquered
all of Egypt’s territory under King Piye (750–712 b.c.e.).
Around 690 b.c.e. Assyrians from the Near East moved
southwest into Egypt, conquering the northern part of the
Egyptian empire and forcing the Kushites back into Nubia.
Th e Kushites lost control of Egypt in 656 b.c.e. when Psamtik
I reunited Egypt. In 591 b.c.e. the Egyptians invaded Kush
and destroyed Napata.
Th e Kushites moved south and built a new capital city
called Meroë on the banks of the Nile. Th is city was an im-
portant center of government and commerce until about 350
c.e., when it was conquered by the Axumites of East Africa.
Th e Kushite kingdom was strong during the Roman era.
Kushites occasionally attacked Roman settlements in Egypt,migration and population movements: Africa 691