African history is rich and deep.

Some areas can trace the history back 350,000 years ago.

Even though much of the history has not been documented in traditional methods, stereotypes of African societies have been destroyed showing vibrant societies that functioned almost better than European ones.

We have seen evidence of ambassadors sent from the Kingdoms of the Kongo, Senegambia, Benin, Dahomey and more to Europe and other parts of the world.

In addition to representing their kingdoms, the people developed technologies, such as rice growing which contributed to world economies especially in Brazil and the southern part of the United States.

The healing practices from Dahomey and Angola were taken to Brazil and the Caribbean.

This month we show respect for the Golden Age of West Africa which coincides with Medieval Period in Europe.  While many African kingdoms were powerful in the gold trade, others through making cloth.  Some kingdoms had so much gold that when they went to trade it in the Middle East or Europe, they would go home with a third of the gold they brought because there was nothing left to buy.

There were ups and downs in agriculture, but the people were learning how to grow food during rainy seasons or drought.

Some of the great kingdoms and empires in the Senegambia region. The Ghana Empire, Mali Empire, Songhai Empire, Jolog Empire, Kaabu Empire, Kingdoms of Sine, Saloum, Baol, Waalo and Takrur.

This image shows the fertile land with rice fields, but that ship in the distant is bringing trouble.

We are a part of everything. Our history is a part of every history.

Shirley Anita St Hill Chisholm was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. Her family moved to the United States from Barbados in the 1920s. When she was five, she moved to Barbados to live with her grandmother where she was taught to have a strong sense of self. She returned to the U.S in 1934.

Chisholm attended Girl’s High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant and then went to Brooklyn College where she gained a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She met Conrad Chisholm in the late 1940s and married in 1949. In the 1950s she worked as the director of different childcare centers and began volunteering to different political groups like the League of Women Voters.

She ran for a New York State Assembly position in 1964. She won. She served from 1965 to 68. She became the first African American woman elected to Congress in 1969 and served until 1983.

 In 1972, she started her campaign to run for president and became the first African American woman to run for a major party’s nomination. She became the first woman to appear in the presidential debate. She retired in 1983 and spent her time teaching at universities around the country. She died in 2005.

Common Era history would have you believe that there is no history from the continent of Africa that would require chronicling.

I disagree.

There is rich valuable information that can be determined from this history. It just needs to be presented so that each individual can make up their own minds.

We have established through a biblical context that people of African descent have been viable since history keeping began. After walking the road with Jesus and Simon of Cyrene, we move to another part of the continent and a little later in time.

Between the 2 and 3^rd Century AD, the Kingdom of Aksum (which is now present-day Eritrea and northern Ethiopia) traded gold and ivory into Middle East, India, and China. This was a wealthy civilization that thrived for centuries. They also exported frankincense, myrrh, emeralds, salt, and live animals. It established economic strength, noted in the image as the coin, which held the image of its leaders.

Meanwhile a tribe of about 4,000 people in 200 AD grew to about 26,000 by 800 AD in a settlement in Northern Nigeria. They developed a method to grow rice using tools made of iron. This system would become a game changer later in history. It is noted in the image as white mountain. The other mountains represent gold and copper which were also items other nations wanted.

Different tribes throughout the continent of Africa would gather their natural resources and trade them with countries around the world. Although many of the tales will never be told, Africans began globalization by 150 BC as notes from Chinese Courts tell of ambassadors from Ethiopia bringing goods.

By 1000 AD, Madagascar was part of the route to trading with China through the town of Kilwa on Tanzania. Archeological digs in the town reveal Chinese porcelain.

Stereotypes of people from African countries show them as primitive uneducated people who didn’t know how to manage their own lives, less alone build booming economies.  For a very long time they have been the innovators that make the world a better place.