Studying Family Structure. The study of the family from an historically informed perspective is a challenging exercise. Indeed, concepts of the social unit known as the family have varied widely from ...
Read more
Historiographical Context. Western-influenced scholars often divide West African history into "precolonial," "colonial," and "postcolonial" periods. Others divide it into "traditional" and "modern" er...
Read more
Independent and Interdependent. The circumstances that affected the state of science, technology, and health before and during the period 500 to 1590 C.E. in West Africa include both independent and i...
Read more
Circa 4 Million-1 Million B.C.E.
Circa 1.5 Million-200,000 B.C.E.
Circa 1,000,000-10,000 B.C.E.
Circa 250,000 B.C.E.
Circa 40,000 B.C.E.
Circa 8000 B.C.E.
5000 B.C.E.
Circa 4000-3500 B.C.E.
Circa 300...
Read more
West African History. The recorded history of West Africa is largely devoted to powerful empires and the deeds of their rulers. Little of the information in these sources is directly related to the ev...
Read more
Contemporary Icons. Popularized by Africanists and African historians since the 1960s as a sequential triad of trade-based empires, ancient Ghana, Mali, and Songhai have become icons of African histor...
Read more
The "Bright Age." While Europe was going through the Dark Ages and Middle Ages and then entering its Renaissance, West Africa was in its "Bright Age." The thriving kingdom of Ghana, founded near the S...
Read more
Geographical Challenges. To maintain itself and benefit its constituency, a successful state system has to overcome challenges from its natural geography over a sustained period of time. An understand...
Read more
West African Kingdoms 500-1590: Family and Social Trends