A desert wall has split Africa’s maps since about 3900 BCE
Sub-Saharan Africa gathers Central, East, Southern, and West Africa south of the Sahara, a counterpart to North Africa’s MENA/Arab-world grouping. Since around 3900 BCE the harsh Sahara has separated Saharan and sub-Saharan zones, broken mainly by the Nile in Sudan—and even that path is obstructed by the Sudd.
How many countries count as sub-Saharan depends on who is counting: lists run from 46 to 48, and the UN Development Programme applies the label to 46 of Africa's 55 states. Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania and Somalia belong to the Arab League yet sit geographically below the desert. Critics call the category a racist device that splits a connected continent, pointing to long trade ties between north, west and east. Medieval Arabic writers spoke of bilad as-sudan for the lands of Central and West Africa and Zanj for the Swahili coast.
Human origins run deep here. Australopithecines were spread across the south, east and centre by 3 million years ago, Oldowan tools appeared about 2.3 million BCE, and Homo erectus, perhaps the first hunter and a master of fire, became the first hominid to leave the continent. Modern humans took shape in the east and south a few hundred thousand years ago before spreading out 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.
West Africans invented pottery on their own; the oldest pieces, from central Mali, date to about 9,400 BC. Iron smelting in Cameroon and the Central African Republic may reach back to 3,000 BCE, and the Bantu expansion that began near Cameroon around 2500 BCE reached Southern Africa in the early centuries CE. Even after the Sahara dried, oxen, horses and later camels carried goods between oases, and caravan trade was busy by 500 BCE.
Nigeria's Nok culture left terracotta figures from as early as 1,500 BCE, and Djenné-Djenno flourished from 250 BCE to 900 CE. Ghana, Mali, Songhai and Kanem-Bornu grew rich on desert commerce, and the Great Mosque of Djenne is the world's largest adobe building. In the forests rose Ife, Oyo, Benin, the Ashanti and Igbo Nri, whose priest-king held no army.
Source: Sub-Saharan Africa
