10 Pre-Colonial African Kingdoms You Probably Don’t Know About

Nok

Nok Culture (500 B.C. to 200 A.D.)

The Nok Culture spanned the end of the Neolithic (Stone Age) and start of the Iron Age in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the earliest African centers of iron-working and terracotta figure production, the Nok Culture remains an enigma. The Nok were an extremely advanced society, with one of the most complex judicial systems of the time, and the earliest producers of life-sized terracotta in the Sub-Sahara.

ghana

Kingdom of Ghana (ninth century to 13th century)

It was commonly known as the “land of gold” since the gold trade was largely responsible in developing Ghana into a powerful and centralized kingdom. The residents developed their own mining techniques and traded with other regions in Africa and Europe. Around 1054, the Almoravid rulers conquered the Kingdom of Ghana and converted the people to Islam.

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