African History

• Global Middle Ages is an emerging field of study (Peter Frankopan article)
• Sub-Saharan Africa is no longer an acceptable category; racist/colonialist, ignores connections across the Sahara
• So much African history!
• Axum, Nubia, Lalibela, Ile-Ife, Almoravid Empire, Almohad Caliphate
• Epic of Sundiata
• Ajami script/writing
• World's oldest center of learning in Fez, Morocco under the Almohad Empire = University of al-Qarawiyyin (Atlas Obscura article)
• Cool things about Axum
• There was a First Hegira to Axum/Ethiopia!
• Ezana of Axum converted to Cy only a few years after Constantine!
• Adulis = major port/trade center
• Ethiopia had an early colonial encounter when Jesuits convinced the king to convert to Roman Catholicism in the early 17C, which set off a long civil war, after which Ethiopia learned its lesson and thus was never colonized again. 
• About the Sokoto Caliphate, founded shortly after the American/French revolutions by the revolutionary Usman dan Fodio; a powerful 19C African empire!