Publisher's Synopsis
This is a quick to read handy book that provides 101 diverse facts about the enchanting and sacred continent of Africa and those that call it home. It covers many fields such as Scientific discoveries, ancient history, social organization and architectural wonders. This book will provide many hours of entertainment and education for both young and mature readers. Examples Include: "Africans cultivated crops 12,000 years ago, the first known advances in agriculture. Professor Fred Wendorf discovered that people in Kemet's Western Desert cultivated crops of barley, capers, chick-peas, dates, legumes, lentils and wheat. Their ancient tools were also recovered. There were grindstones, milling stones, cutting blades, hide scrapers, engraving burins, and mortars and pestles." "The ancient Kemetians had Afro combs. One writer tells us that the Kemetians "manufactured a very striking range of combs in ivory: the shape of these is distinctly African and is like the combs used even today by Africans and those of African descent." "Kumbi Saleh, the capital of Ancient Ghana, flourished from 300 to 1240 AD. Located in modern day Mauritania, archaeological excavations have revealed houses, almost habitable today, for want of renovation and several storeys high. They had underground rooms, staircases and connecting halls. Some had nine rooms. One part of the city alone is estimated to have housed 30,000 people." "Malian sailors got to America in 1311 AD, 181 years before Columbus. An Kemetian scholar, Ibn Fadl Al-Umari, published on this sometime around 1342. In the tenth chapter of his book, there is an account of two large maritime voyages ordered by the predecessor of Mansa Musa, a king who inherited the Malian throne in 1312. This mariner king is not named by Al-Umari, but modern writers identify him as Mansa Abubakari II." "Many southern Africans have indigenous and pre-colonial words for 'gun'. Scholars have generally been reluctant to investigate or explain this fact."
