Watch “Top 10 African Contributions To World Civilization” on YouTube

This video examines 10 African contributions to world civilization. The aim is not to promote the superiority of any one civilization but to enrich the human story for completeness and knowledge.

These contributions include contributions to agriculture, science, metallurgy, architecture, astronomy and cosmology, medicine, writing and language.

On the list we have:

1. Mummification – the Tashwinat mummy discovered in South Western Libya dated at about 5600 BC

Tashwinat Mummy of a child wrapped in antelope skin and with entrails removed and herbs introduced for preservation

2. The Engaruka Irrigation and Cultivation system ruins found in the Great Rift Valley area of northern Tanzania

3. The Oromo people of Ethiopia now thought to be the discoverers and first drinkers of coffee for its regenerating properties. Yep coffee did not originate from Brazil but Africa. The legend has it that a young shepherd, Kaldi, had nibbled on ripe berries of the coffee plant after watching his goats and felt energized.

4. The Stone walls and structures of Great Zimbabwe. An architectural marvel built 11th -15th AD without mortar by the Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona people which so intrigued European explorers they attributed its origins to foreign powers.

5. The Cosmology of the Dogon people of Mali and Guinea (in West Africa) who understood the attributes and orbit of the binary star system Sirius B

6. Metallurgy – The Iron, bronze and Brass works of the Ancient Benin Empire (Modern Edo State in Nigeria) and Oyo Empire and Ile Ife ( of the Yoruba people of Western Nigeria). The Bakongo people of ancient Kongo who understood the toxicity of lead vapor and had pharmaceutical remedies and curative medicines. Also the Nok Culture and Igbo Ukwu Iron Age and bronze artifacts in modern day Kaduna and Eastern Nigeria. There are many examples of iron smelting and mastery of the metallurgical arts in ancient Africa often at par or far advanced than that in Europe and Asia at the time.

Ile Ife Bronze

Benin Bronze Head

Igbo Ukwu Bronze

Igbo Ukwu

Queen Mother Idia of Benin

Igbo Ukwu head

7. The Ishango Bone of Uganda dated at 8500 BC thought to be a mathematical apparatus used to perform simple math tasks. The bone has a numeral system of columns in base 10 and 12, prime numbers and a possible six-month lunar calendar meant for tracking the menstrual cycle.

Dogon Art

8. Surgery – The 13th -19th Century people of Bunyoro Kingdom of Uganda (East Africa) are recorded by Robert Felkin (a Scottish medical anthropologist) as performing Caesarian operations with marked skill and success. Felkin’s 1879 account is documented in his book, “ The Development of Scientific Medicine in the African kingdom of Bunyoro Kitara.” The account goes that the people performed highly developed and complicated surgical procedures long before the arrival of European missionary doctors.

9. Writing – The art of writing by the Nubian peoples of the Nile Valley which gave birth to Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Diodorus Siculus (91 – 30 BC) 1st Century BC Greek Historian in his Universal History – Bibliotheca Historica recorded this link.

10. Exploration – the mass migration and exploratory spirit of the first Africans to leave the continent led to the discovery of new continents and the birthing of new cultures and civilizations. It is that curiosity and indefatigable exploratory spirit that still drives man today to aspire to visit and colonize the moon and mars and in time conquer the stars.

Please feel free to like and fact check and comment. Learning is a lifelong enterprise.