Rome's traditional birthday is 21 April 753 BC. By then Nekhen on the Nile had been a city for more than 2,700 years, Kerma for about 1,750, and Carthage for 61. These are ten African cities that came first, with the evidence behind each date.
The largest empire ever ruled from African soil was not Mali or Songhai. It was the Fatimid Caliphate, which covered 4.1 million square kilometres in 969. These are Africa's ten largest empires by land area at their peak, with the source and the doubt behind every figure.
Kush ruled Egypt. Aksum was named one of the four great kingdoms of its age. Songhai became the largest empire West Africa has ever had. These are seven of Africa's most powerful kingdoms, what made each one strong, and how each one ended.
Africa holds the oldest fossils of our species, has more pyramids than Egypt, and is home to about 30 per cent of the world's living languages. Here are ten facts, each checked against a named source, running from 300,000 years ago to September 2026.
Between 1874 and 1919, European powers put new names on African land: Gold Coast, Congo Free State, Rhodesia, Upper Volta. This is what stood on that land before, who chose each colonial name, and what ten countries call themselves today.
Across nearly 2,000 years, from Amanirenas of Kush, who forced Rome into a treaty in 21 or 20 BC, to Muhumusa of the Nyabingi movement, arrested in 1911, African queens led armies and negotiated with empires. Their records were later rewritten, shrunk, or erased.
