Timeline

4500 BCE

Nabta Playa

Western (Nubian) Desert, southern Egypt, west of Abu Simbel

3100 BCE

Kemet (Ancient Egypt)

Nile Valley, northeast Africa

Born 3100 BCE

Narmer

Egypt (Upper and Lower Egypt)

Born 2650 BCE

Imhotep

Egypt (Memphis, Saqqara)

2613 BCE

Ma'at

Egypt

Born 2589 BCE

Khufu and the Great Pyramid of Giza

Giza, Egypt (Kemet)

2500 BCE

Kingdom of Kerma

Upper Nubia, around Kerma on the Nile's Dongola Reach, northern Sudan

2500 BCE

The Land of Punt

Southern Red Sea / Horn of Africa (location debated)

2100 BCE

Kemetic decans and star clocks

Nile Valley (Kemet), especially Asyut and Thebes

Born 2061 BCE

Mentuhotep II (Nebhepetre)

Egypt (Thebes)

Born 1878 BCE

Senusret III (Senwosret III)

Egypt (Kemet) and Lower Nubia

Born 1550 BCE

Ahmose I

Egypt (Thebes, Avaris)

1550 BCE

The Book of the Dead (Pert em Heru)

Egypt (Kemet)

Born 1479 BCE

Hatshepsut

Egypt (Thebes)

Born 1479 BCE

Thutmose III

Egypt; campaigns in the Levant, Syria and Nubia

Born 1398 BCE

Queen Tiye

Thebes, Egypt (Kemet)

Born 1390 BCE

Amenhotep III

Thebes, Egypt (Kemet)

Born 1353 BCE

Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)

Egypt (Akhetaten / Amarna)

Born 1279 BCE

Ramesses II

Egypt and Nubia; campaigns in the Levant

900 BCE

Nok culture

Central Nigeria, including the Jos Plateau, north of the Benue River

785 BCE

Kingdom of Kush

Nubia, middle Nile valley (present-day Sudan)

Born 747 BCE

Piye (Piankhy)

Kush (Napata, Nubia) and Egypt

Born 716 BCE

Shabaka and the Shabaka Stone

Kush (Sudan) and Memphis, Egypt

Born 690 BCE

Taharqa (Taharqo)

Kush (Nubia) and Egypt

300 BCE

Meroitic script

Kingdom of Kush (Sudan)

300 BCE

The pyramids of Meroë

Meroë, Sudan

250 BCE

Djenné-Djenno and the Great Mosque of Djenné

Inland Niger Delta, Mali

50 BCE

The Dendera zodiac

Temple of Hathor, Dendera, Upper Egypt (now in the Louvre, Paris)

100 CE

Kingdom of Aksum

Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea (Tigray highlands, Red Sea coast)

350 CE

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Ethiopia (headquarters Addis Ababa) and the diaspora

600 CE

Ghana Empire (Wagadu)

Present-day southeastern Mauritania and western Mali, West Africa (11th-century capital probably Koumbi Saleh)

711 CE

The Moors and al-Andalus

Iberian Peninsula and North Africa (Maghreb)

Born 711 CE

Tariq ibn Ziyad

North Africa and Iberia (Tangier, Gibraltar, Toledo)

850 CE

Kanem-Bornu

Around Lake Chad: parts of present-day Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon

1050 CE

Mapungubwe

Limpopo–Shashe confluence, South Africa (bordering Botswana and Zimbabwe)

1056 CE

The Almoravids

North and West Africa (Sahara, Morocco) and al-Andalus

1100 CE

Great Zimbabwe

Southeastern Zimbabwe (near Masvingo), Zimbabwe Plateau

1100 CE

Kilwa Kisiwani and the Swahili coast city-states

Kilwa Kisiwani island off southern Tanzania, on the East African (Swahili) coast

1181 CE

The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela

Lalibela, Amhara, northern Ethiopia

1200 CE

Ife and its bronze heads

West Africa (Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria)

1200 CE

Kingdom of Benin (Edo)

Forest region of present-day southern Nigeria (Benin City, Edo State)

Born 1235 CE

Sundiata Keita

West Africa (Manding, present-day Mali and Guinea)

1240 CE

Mali Empire

Western Sudan and the upper and middle Niger River valley, West Africa

Born 1312 CE

Mansa Musa

Mali Empire, West Africa

1390 CE

Kingdom of Kongo

Parts of present-day Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo (capital Mbanza Kongo)

1400 CE

Dogon people and tradition

Bandiagara Escarpment, central Mali (extending into Burkina Faso)

1400 CE

Kingdom of Buganda

East Africa (south-central Uganda, Lake Victoria)

1450 CE

Mutapa Empire

Southern Africa: northern Zimbabwe, the Zambezi valley and central Mozambique

1464 CE

Songhai Empire

Gao and the middle Niger, West Africa (present-day Mali and Niger)

Born 1493 CE

Askia Muhammad I

West Africa (Songhai Empire, Gao, present-day Mali)

Born 1556 CE

Ahmed Baba

West Africa (Timbuktu, Songhai) and Morocco (Marrakesh)

Born 1582 CE

Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba

Ndongo and Matamba, present-day Angola

1600 CE

Oyo Empire

West Africa (southwestern Nigeria, Benin)

1605 CE

Palmares and Zumbi

Pernambuco and Alagoas, northeastern Brazil

1625 CE

Kingdom of Dahomey

West Africa (present-day Benin)

Born 1684 CE

Kimpa Vita (Dona Beatriz)

Central Africa (Kingdom of Kongo, present-day Angola/DR Congo)

1701 CE

Asante Empire

Present-day southern and central Ghana, centered on Kumasi

Born 1723 CE

Crispus Attucks

Massachusetts, North America

1729 CE

The Agojie, Dahomey's women soldiers

West Africa (present-day Benin)

Born 1731 CE

Benjamin Banneker

Maryland and the federal district (Washington, D.C.), United States

Born 1743 CE

Toussaint Louverture

Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and France

Born 1745 CE

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable

Saint-Domingue (Haiti); Chicago and Peoria, Illinois; St. Charles, Missouri, United States

Born 1753 CE

Phillis Wheatley

West Africa (Senegambia); Boston, Massachusetts; London, England

Born 1754 CE

Usman dan Fodio and the Sokoto Caliphate

West Africa (northern Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon)

Born 1758 CE

Jean-Jacques Dessalines

Haiti (Saint-Domingue)

Born 1759 CE

Paul Cuffe

Massachusetts, United States, and Sierra Leone

Born 1760 CE

Richard Allen

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, United States

Born 1766 CE

James Forten

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Born 1767 CE

Denmark Vesey

Charleston, South Carolina

Born 1767 CE

Henri Christophe (Henry I of Haiti)

Haiti

Born 1775 CE

Prince Hall and Prince Hall Freemasonry

Boston, Massachusetts

Born 1776 CE

Gabriel (Gabriel's Rebellion, 1800)

Henrico County and Richmond, Virginia

Born 1787 CE

Shaka

Southern Africa (Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

1791 CE

The Haitian Revolution

Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Caribbean

Born 1797 CE

Sojourner Truth

New York, Massachusetts and Michigan, United States

Born 1800 CE

Nat Turner

Southampton County, Virginia, United States

Born 1806 CE

Norbert Rillieux

New Orleans, Louisiana, United States and Paris, France

Born 1814 CE

Mary Ellen Pleasant

San Francisco and Oakland, California, United States

1816 CE

African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; later the U.S. South and Africa

Born 1818 CE

Biddy Mason

Mississippi; Utah; Los Angeles, California

Born 1818 CE

Frederick Douglass

Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Washington, D.C., United States

Born 1822 CE

Harriet Tubman

Maryland, New York and South Carolina, United States

Born 1822 CE

Paul Bogle and the Morant Bay Rebellion

Jamaica

Born 1830 CE

Samori Touré

West Africa (Upper Guinea, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire)

Born 1844 CE

Elijah McCoy

Ontario, Canada and Michigan, United States

Born 1844 CE

Menelik II

East Africa (Shewa and Ethiopia)

Born 1845 CE

Antonio Maceo

Cuba

Born 1848 CE

Lewis Latimer

United States (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York)

Born 1852 CE

Jan Ernst Matzeliger

Paramaribo, Suriname (Dutch Guiana) and Lynn, Massachusetts, United States

Born 1856 CE

Booker T. Washington

Virginia; West Virginia; Tuskegee, Alabama

Born 1856 CE

Granville T. Woods

Ohio and New York, United States

Born 1858 CE

Daniel Hale Williams

Pennsylvania, Chicago and Washington, D.C., United States

Born 1862 CE

Ida B. Wells

Mississippi, Tennessee and Chicago, United States

Born 1864 CE

George Washington Carver

Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Alabama, United States

Born 1864 CE

Maggie L. Walker

Richmond, Virginia

Born 1866 CE

Matthew Henson

Maryland; the Arctic

Born 1867 CE

Charles Henry Turner

Cincinnati, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois, United States

Born 1867 CE

Madam C. J. Walker

United States (Louisiana, Missouri, Colorado, Indiana, New York)

Born 1868 CE

O. W. Gurley

Alabama; Arkansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Los Angeles

Born 1868 CE

Robert S. Abbott

Georgia and Chicago, United States

Born 1868 CE

W. E. B. Du Bois

Massachusetts, United States, and Ghana

Born 1869 CE

Annie Turnbo Malone

Illinois (Metropolis, Lovejoy, Chicago) and St. Louis, Missouri, United States

Born 1874 CE

Charles Clinton Spaulding

Columbus County and Durham, North Carolina, United States

Born 1875 CE

Carter G. Woodson

Virginia and Washington, D.C., United States

Born 1875 CE

Mary McLeod Bethune

South Carolina; Daytona Beach, Florida; Washington, D.C.

Born 1876 CE

Drusilla Dunjee Houston

United States (West Virginia; Oklahoma; Arizona)

Born 1877 CE

Garrett Morgan

United States (Kentucky, Ohio)

Born 1883 CE

Ernest Everett Just

South Carolina and Washington, D.C., United States; Europe

Born 1887 CE

Marcus Garvey

Jamaica, United States and England

Born 1891 CE

Zora Neale Hurston

Alabama and Florida, United States

Born 1892 CE

A. G. Gaston

Demopolis and Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Born 1892 CE

Alice Ball

Seattle, Washington and Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Born 1892 CE

Bessie Coleman

Texas; Chicago; France

Born 1892 CE

Haile Selassie I

Ethiopia

Born 1894 CE

Jomo Kenyatta

East Africa (Kenya)

1896 CE

The Battle of Adwa

East Africa (Adwa, Tigray, Ethiopia)

Born 1898 CE

Chancellor Williams

United States (South Carolina; Washington, D.C.); field research in Ghana

Born 1899 CE

Percy Julian

Alabama, Indiana and Illinois, United States

Born 1901 CE

Langston Hughes

Missouri and New York, United States

Born 1903 CE

Ella Baker

Virginia; North Carolina; New York; the U.S. South

Born 1904 CE

Charles Drew

Washington, D.C., New York and North Carolina, United States; Montreal, Canada

1906 CE

Greenwood District ("Black Wall Street") and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States

Born 1908 CE

Richard Wright

Mississippi and Chicago, Illinois, United States; Paris, France

Born 1909 CE

Kwame Nkrumah

Ghana (Gold Coast)

Born 1910 CE

Dorothy Vaughan

Missouri, West Virginia and Virginia, United States

Born 1912 CE

Bayard Rustin

Pennsylvania; New York; national

Born 1913 CE

Aimé Césaire

Martinique and Paris, France

Born 1913 CE

Ralph Ellison

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Tuskegee, Alabama; New York, United States

Born 1913 CE

Rosa Parks

Alabama and Michigan, United States

Born 1915 CE

Claudia Jones

Trinidad; United States; United Kingdom

Born 1915 CE

John Henrik Clarke

United States (Alabama; Harlem, New York)

Born 1917 CE

Fannie Lou Hamer

Mississippi, United States

Born 1917 CE

Gwendolyn Brooks

Topeka, Kansas and Chicago, Illinois, United States

1918 CE

The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem, New York City, United States, with related activity in other cities and abroad

Born 1918 CE

John H. Johnson

Chicago, Illinois (born Arkansas City, Arkansas)

Born 1918 CE

Katherine Johnson

United States

Born 1918 CE

Nelson Mandela

South Africa

Born 1918 CE

Yosef ben-Jochannan ("Dr. Ben")

Ethiopia (birthplace per sources); United States (Harlem, New York)

Born 1921 CE

Mary Jackson

Hampton, Virginia, United States

Born 1922 CE

Julius Nyerere

East Africa (Tanzania)

Born 1923 CE

Cheikh Anta Diop

Senegal (studied and worked in Paris and Dakar)

Born 1924 CE

Amílcar Cabral

Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde

Born 1924 CE

James Baldwin

United States and France

Born 1924 CE

Shirley Chisholm

Brooklyn, New York, United States

Born 1925 CE

Frantz Fanon

Martinique, France, Algeria and Tunisia

Born 1925 CE

Malcolm X

United States

Born 1925 CE

Medgar Evers

Mississippi, United States

Born 1925 CE

Patrice Lumumba

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Born 1928 CE

Maya Angelou

Missouri, Arkansas, California and North Carolina, United States; Egypt and Ghana

Born 1929 CE

Martin Luther King Jr.

United States

Born 1930 CE

Chinua Achebe

Nigeria (born Ogidi, eastern Nigeria)

Born 1930 CE

Jacob H. Carruthers

United States (Texas; Chicago)

Born 1930 CE

Lorraine Hansberry

Chicago, Illinois and New York, United States

1930 CE

Rastafari

Jamaica; now worldwide

Born 1931 CE

Toni Morrison

United States (Ohio, New York, New Jersey)

Born 1933 CE

Asa G. Hilliard III

United States (Texas, Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta)

Born 1935 CE

Earl G. Graves Sr.

Brooklyn, New York and Washington, D.C., United States

Born 1935 CE

Frances Cress Welsing

United States (Chicago; Washington, D.C.)

Born 1935 CE

Ivan Van Sertima

Guyana; United States (Rutgers, New Jersey)

Born 1940 CE

Wangari Maathai

East Africa (Kenya)

Born 1941 CE

Amos N. Wilson

United States (Mississippi; New York)

Born 1942 CE

Huey P. Newton

Oakland, California

Born 1942 CE

Molefi Kete Asante

United States (Georgia; Philadelphia)

Born 1942 CE

Patricia Bath

New York (Harlem) and Los Angeles, California, United States

Born 1942 CE

Reginald F. Lewis

Baltimore, Maryland; New York, United States

Born 1942 CE

Walter Rodney

Guyana; Jamaica; Tanzania

Born 1945 CE

August Wilson

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Seattle, Washington, United States

Born 1946 CE

Steve Biko

South Africa (Eastern Cape)

Born 1948 CE

Fred Hampton

Maywood and Chicago, Illinois

Born 1949 CE

Thomas Sankara

Burkina Faso

Born 1954 CE

Runoko Rashidi

United States (California); global travel (Egypt, India, Asia, Europe)

2023

Magic Johnson becomes a billionaire through business investments

United States

History in the making

2023

Simone Biles becomes the most decorated gymnast in history

United States

History in the making

2024

WHO certifies Cabo Verde malaria-free

Cabo Verde

History in the making

2024

Tyla wins the first-ever Grammy for Best African Music Performance

South Africa

History in the making

2024

Mati Diop's restitution documentary "Dahomey" wins Berlin's Golden Bear

Senegal / France

History in the making

2024

Looted Asante gold regalia return to Kumasi on loan from UK museums

Ghana

History in the making

2024

Bassirou Diomaye Faye sworn in as Senegal's youngest president

Senegal

History in the making

2024

Ed Dwight reaches space 60 years after his astronaut candidacy

United States

History in the making

2024

Julien Alfred wins Saint Lucia's first Olympic medal, a 100m gold

Saint Lucia

History in the making

2024

Letsile Tebogo wins Botswana's first Olympic gold in the 200m

Botswana

History in the making

2024

Senegal launches its first satellite, GaindeSAT-1A

Senegal

History in the making

2024

Site of 1908 Springfield Race Riot becomes a national monument

United States

History in the making

2024

Jeanette Epps sets the record for time in space by an African American astronaut

United States

History in the making

2024

Kemi Badenoch becomes first Black woman to lead a major UK party

United Kingdom / Nigeria

History in the making

2024

Gaël Faye wins the Prix Renaudot for "Jacaranda"

Rwanda / Burundi / France

History in the making

2024

Two Black women elected to the U.S. Senate in the same election

United States

History in the making

2025

Emery N. Brown and Paula Hammond receive top U.S. science and technology medals

United States

History in the making

2025

Beyoncé wins Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter

United States

History in the making

2025

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah sworn in as Namibia's first woman president

Namibia

History in the making

2025

Percival Everett's James wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

United States

History in the making

2025

Edda L. Fields-Black wins Pulitzer Prize in History for Combee

United States

History in the making

2025

The Netherlands returns 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

Nigeria

History in the making

2025

Joi Harris named DTE Energy's first woman and first African American CEO

United States

History in the making

2025

Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone gain their first UNESCO World Heritage sites

Guinea-Bissau / Sierra Leone / Cameroon / Malawi

History in the making

2026

France returns the Djidji Ayokwe talking drum to Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

History in the making

2026

Victor Glover becomes the first Black astronaut to fly around the Moon

United States

History in the making