The Nok culture flourished in present-day central Nigeria, known for its terracotta sculptures and as one of the earliest iron-smelting cultures in sub-Saharan Africa.
Bantu-speaking peoples from west-central Africa gradually spread across eastern and southern Africa over millennia, bringing agriculture and ironworking.
The Soninke Ghana Empire (Wagadu) flourished in what is now Mauritania and Mali, growing rich from control of the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade.
King Ezana of Aksum, in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, adopted Christianity under the influence of Frumentius, making Aksum one of the first Christian states.
The Nubian Kingdom of Kush, whose capital Meroë was famed for ironworking and pyramids, came to an end around the mid-4th century amid campaigns by Aksum.
Great Zimbabwe, a city of mortarless stone enclosures, was the centre of a powerful state that prospered from cattle and the gold trade with the Swahili coast.
Under King Gebre Meskel Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty, eleven monolithic churches were carved out of the rock in Ethiopia; they are now a World Heritage Site.
After defeating the Sosso king Sumanguru at the Battle of Kirina, Sundiata Keita founded the Mali Empire, which became one of the largest empires in West Africa.
Mansa Musa of Mali made the pilgrimage to Mecca with a vast retinue, spending so much gold in Cairo that its value fell, spreading Mali's fame across the Islamic world and Europe.
The Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta travels across the Islamic world and beyond, from West Africa to China, for nearly three decades.
Admiral Zheng He leads seven Ming treasure voyages to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, Arabia and East Africa.
Sonni Ali captured Timbuktu, launching the Songhai Empire's rise to replace Mali as the dominant power of West Africa.
The Portuguese built São Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), the first European post in sub-Saharan Africa, which later became a hub of the slave trade.
The Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa, proving the Indian Ocean could be reached by sea.
King Nzinga a Nkuwu of the Kingdom of Kongo was baptized as João I, beginning Kongo's long relationship with Portugal and the Catholic Church.
Vasco da Gama's fleet left Lisbon, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, sailed up the East African coast and reached Calicut, opening a direct sea route between Europe and Asia.
From the 16th to the 19th century, an estimated 12.5 million enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas, with profound consequences for both continents.
The Islamic scholar Usman dan Fodio launched a jihad against the Hausa kingdoms and founded the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest states in 19th-century Africa.
Shaka became king of the Zulu, reorganised its army and built the Zulu Kingdom into the dominant power of southern Africa, amid the upheavals known as the Mfecane.
The Zulu king Shaka was assassinated by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana; Dingane succeeded him.
During the Great Trek, a party of Voortrekkers defeated the Zulu army of King Dingane at the Ncome River in Natal.
Liberia, settled by free and formerly enslaved Black Americans, declared independence, becoming Africa's oldest republic.
In the Anglo-Zulu War, a Zulu army defeated a British column at Isandlwana, one of the worst defeats of the British army by an indigenous force.
Boers of the Transvaal rose against British annexation and regained self-government after their victory at Majuba Hill.
European powers met in Berlin to set rules for colonial claims in Africa, accelerating the "Scramble for Africa" without any African representation.
King Leopold II of Belgium ruled the Congo as a personal possession; its forced-labour rubber regime caused mass deaths until Belgium annexed the territory in 1908.
Ethiopian forces under Emperor Menelik II defeated an invading Italian army at Adwa, preserving Ethiopia's independence during the Scramble for Africa.
The British Empire fought the Boer republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State; the war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging, after tens of thousands of civilians died in concentration camps.
In German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), German forces suppressed uprisings in a campaign that killed most of the Herero and about half of the Nama people.
The Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River colonies united as the Union of South Africa, a self-governing dominion of the British Empire.
The South African Native National Congress, forerunner of the ANC, was founded in Bloemfontein to defend the rights of Black Africans.
Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid leader and South Africa's first Black president, was born in the village of Mvezo.
Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia as Haile Selassie I; he reigned until 1974 and became a symbol of African independence.
The National Party won South Africa's general election and began enacting apartheid, a legally enforced system of racial segregation that lasted until the early 1990s.
The British Gold Coast became independent Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah, the first sub-Saharan African colony to gain independence after World War II.
In 1960, seventeen African countries gained independence, most of them former French colonies along with Nigeria, Somalia and the Congo.
South African police opened fire on a crowd protesting pass laws at Sharpeville, killing 69 people; the ANC and PAC were subsequently banned.
Immediately after independence from Belgium, the Congo descended into secession, foreign intervention and civil war, ending when Mobutu Sese Seko seized power in 1965.
Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was deposed, captured and executed in Katanga, with the involvement of Katangan secessionist authorities and Belgian officials.
Leaders of 32 independent African states founded the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa to promote unity and end colonialism on the continent.
Kenya became independent from Britain following the Mau Mau uprising, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first prime minister and later president.
War followed the secession of south-eastern Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra; the fighting and blockade-induced famine killed an estimated one to two million people.
Christiaan Barnard performs the first human-to-human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
Following Portugal's Carnation Revolution, Mozambique and Angola became independent, ending over four centuries of Portuguese presence; both soon fell into long civil wars.
Black schoolchildren in Soweto protested against compulsory instruction in Afrikaans; police opened fire, and the ensuing crackdown left hundreds dead.
After a guerrilla war and the Lancaster House Agreement, Rhodesia became the internationally recognised independent state of Zimbabwe, with Robert Mugabe as prime minister.
Drought combined with civil war and government policies caused a major famine in Ethiopia that killed several hundred thousand to a million people and prompted the Live Aid relief effort.
After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela walked free from Victor Verster Prison, opening the way to negotiations to end apartheid.
Over about 100 days, Hutu extremist forces killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsi, as well as moderate Hutu and Twa, until the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country.
South Africa held its first election with universal suffrage across all races; the ANC won and Nelson Mandela became president, marking the end of apartheid.