Africa contributed largely to one of the world’s greatest civilizations that of ancient Egypt and Islamic Art.

Africa is a large continent covering nearly 12 million square miles. There are approximately 40 countries in Africa such as Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan, Ghana, Algeria, Libya, Arabia and Somalia to name a few.

Historically, the earliest coastal communities practiced iron working, and were mainly subsistence farmers and river fishers, who supplemented their economy with hunting, keeping livestock, fishing in the ocean, and trading with outsiders. Between 500 and 800 A.D. they shifted to a sea-based trading economy and began to migrate south by ship. In the following centuries, trade in goods from the African interior, such as gold, ivory, and slaves stimulated the development of market towns such as Mogadishu, Shanga, Kilwa, and Mombasa. By around the 9th century A.D., Africans, Arabs, and Persians who lived and traded on the coast had developed a lingua franca, Swahili, or Kiswahili

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