oving on with no thought of returning. Later, settled communities were developed (Iliffe, 1996, 36). The history of the north is the history of Egypt, the one region of Africa which had ongoing contact with parts of Europe early in history. The Bantu-speaking peoples colonized southern Africa while the north would become a locale where the spread of Christianity and a commercial network reaching into the Old World developed and lasted to the fourteenth century (Iliffe, 1996, 37). Ramsay (1997) refers to the many past civilizations which developed before the coming of the Europeans, including the medieval Mali and Ghana Empires, the Fulani Caliphate of northern Nigeria, the knights of Kanem and Bornu, the Great Zimbabwe, and the Kingdom of the Kongo (Ramsay, 1997, 5).
Much of Africa thus developed socially and economically as well as independently before the coming of the Europeans. The era of colonial rule was an era of exploitation of Africa by Europe. The era after the nations of Africa attained independence once more has been an era in which
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