Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Living in western Sudan to Islam
The Mali empire converted many living in western Sudan to Islam, the Muslim religion, and developed the famous city of Timbuktu, which became a center for trade, Muslim religion, and education. Other smaller states and dynasties, including Berber, Songhay, Hausa, and KanemBornu, rose and flourished in different parts of Africa. The first of these, the Berber dynasties of the north, began in the eleventh century C.E., and the later Songhay empire began in the fifteenth century C.E. The history of Africa is filled with these shifts of power from group to group, yet our knowledge of life among these early groups is very limited. In general, hundreds of different African groups throughout the continent developed tribal cultures based either on nomadic hunting and gathering practices or on more permanent farming techniques.
These groups developed distinct systems of trade, religion, and politics. But the presence of Europeans quickly disrupted many Africans? traditional ways of life. Some groups fled to remote areas to escape the foreigners; others developed fruitful trading practices with the Europeans. Because these early African cultures did not keep written records, little information is known about their life before contact with other groups.
Thus concludes the most informational spam post ever.