Though Westerners often tend to view it as one “country” and lump its peoples together as Africans, Africa is a huge continent (second only to Asia). These generalizations oversimplify African civilizations and the continent’s diversity. African environments are incredibly diverse, from dry deserts to dense rain forests. Some are conducive to trade, others are surrounded by rich mineral resources, while others possess rich soil suitable for farming. Africa's peoples and civilizations have adapted to these environments differently. As a result, today's Africa consists of more than fifty countries with a total population exceeding 660 million people speaking more than 800 languages. As a result of the continent’s vast diversity, it is rather difficult to address African civilization as a cohesive whole but, once accepting its diverse nature, one can make qualified generalizations about its history and civilizations, which we attempt to accomplish in this essay.
People have lived in Africa for more than three million years, and thus it possesses a rich and varied history. On one hand, Africa is widely believed to be the birthplace of modern human beings and is where some of the world’s greatest civilizations, such as the Egyptian and Nubian societies, emerged. On the other hand, this history includes the indignation of trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonial domination.African civilizations, cultures, and traditions are often assumed by outsiders to be static and unchanging. This belief, however, is untrue as African “tradition” has constantly been in a state of flux. Societies from the ancient to the modern day have changed, adapted, and evolved as time progressed. Environments and climates have altered over time, such as the Sahara desert that was once a fertile grassland but began losing rainfall around 2000 BCE, and civilizations have adapted to these changes.