The Atlantic slave trade
1,500 CE – 1,867 CE
Roughly twelve million people are forcibly shipped across the Atlantic over three and a half centuries.
Read more — Atlantic OceanArchive › West Africa
Nok, Ghana, Mali, Songhai.
Open West Africa in the interactive timeline →1,500 CE – 1,867 CE
Roughly twelve million people are forcibly shipped across the Atlantic over three and a half centuries.
Read more — Atlantic Ocean1,180 CE – 1,897 CE
Famous for cast brass plaques and sculptures, looted by a British expedition in 1897.
Read more — BeninImage source (unverified) auto-matched700 CE – 1,600 CE
Camel caravans link West African gold to the Mediterranean, and carry Islam south.
Read more — Trans-Saharan tradeImage source (unverified) auto-matched250 BCE – 1,400 CE
One of the earliest urban centres in sub-Saharan Africa, built without evidence of a ruling elite.
Read more — DjennéImage source (unverified) auto-matched500 BCE
Ironworking appears in what is now Nigeria without evidence of it being imported.
Read more — NigeriaImage source (unverified) auto-matched