c. 1235 CE Kingdom Prosperity
Founding of the Mali Empire West Africa
Sundiata Keita defeats Sumanguru at the Battle of Kirina, uniting the Mande peoples and founding the Mali Empire.
View details 1324 CE Kingdom Prosperity
Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage West Africa
Mansa Musa of Mali undertakes his legendary hajj to Mecca, his gold expenditure documented across the Islamic world.
View details 1441 CE Exploitation
First Portuguese Captives West Africa
Portuguese navigators seize the first Africans on the Atlantic coast, marking the beginning of the European Atlantic slave trade.
View details 1482 CE Exploitation
Elmina Castle Built West Africa (Gold Coast)
The Portuguese construct Elmina Castle in present-day Ghana, the first major European trading fort and later a key slave-trading dungeon.
View details 1518 CE Exploitation
First Direct Trans-Atlantic Voyage Atlantic
Spain authorizes the first direct shipment of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas, bypassing Europe.
View details 1526 CE Resistance
Afonso I Protests the Trade Central Africa (Kongo)
King Afonso I of Kongo writes to the Portuguese king condemning the depopulation and ruin caused by the slave trade.
View details 1619 CE Exploitation
Africans Arrive in Virginia North America
The first documented enslaved Africans arrive in the English colony of Virginia at Point Comfort.
View details 1739 CE Resistance
Stono Rebellion North America (South Carolina)
One of the largest slave uprisings in the British mainland colonies; enslaved Africans, many Kongolese, march toward Spanish Florida seeking freedom.
View details 1791 CE Resistance
Haitian Revolution Begins Caribbean (Saint-Domingue)
Enslaved Africans launch the only successful slave revolution in history, founding the independent nation of Haiti in 1804.
View details 1807 CE Exploitation
Britain Abolishes the Slave Trade Atlantic
Britain outlaws the trans-Atlantic slave trade (though slavery itself persisted in its colonies until 1833).
View details 1865 CE Resistance
Abolition in the United States North America
The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery in the United States after the Civil War; an estimated 12.5 million Africans had been forcibly shipped across the Atlantic.
View details 1888 CE Resistance
Brazil Abolishes Slavery South America
Brazil, the largest single destination of the trans-Atlantic trade, becomes the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery.
View details 1957 CE Heritage Story
West Africa · Subira
She witnessed independence and carried the story across the ocean.
View details 2019 CE Heritage Story
West Africa · Adrian Carter
On a typical day off, I received a text from my sister. Thinking nothing of it, I tapped the notification. She shared something that made my eyes water with emotion and my heart warm with admiration. My mother is West African. Although both her parents are from Mali, two specific tribes of people stood out to me. Bantu and Igbo stood out to me, as well as Congolese. These were people who worshiped God.
My mother never told me about the continent of Africa; I understand where my mother gets the example of how to love.
God has always been The Constant Thread that keeps my family blessed. We are God's people. Before Israel, God has always shown His mercy to us Africans, and continues to do so. "Are ye not like the children of Ethiopians unto Me, oh children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have I not brought you out of Egypt? The Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir." (Amos 9:7)
I am a descendant of slaves. Within my genealogy are those of the likes of Dr. Marcus Garvey, Madame C.J. Walker, George Washington Carver, MLK, and Malcom X
Who would have thought that ignition would stem from among the last few of the generation that I lead in age. This started a vigorous journey to learn beyond the bondage of slavery to know who I am.
A son of Africa.
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