An End and a Beginning

Abstract

Abstract For North Africa, this was a period of regime change. Roman rule came to an end when a Germanic tribe, the Vandals invaded in 426. They lasted for little more than a century, ousted when North Africa was reclaimed by the Byzantines, successors of Rome. Their period of dominance was even shorter. In 641 the Arab armies conquered Egypt and by 730 had extended their rule across the whole of North Africa, introducing the new religion of Islam. This turbulent 300 years saw the Berber peoples of the region become increasingly more powerful, their tribal groups forming confederacies to fight for or against successive invaders. It was a time of identity building. In the Middle Nile the kingdom of Meroe collapsed, largely as the result of the Red Sea taking over from the Nile, the kingdoms that emerged distinguishing themselves from Muslim Egypt by adopting Christianity. In the western Sahel towns, like Jenne-jeno, grew still further in complexity with satellite settlements specializing in different modes of production, suggesting a heterarchial form social structure. This was the time when distinct polities were beginning to emerge from which were to develop the historic kingdoms of Takrur, Ghana and Kaw Kaw. While these political and social changes were underway to north, east and south of the Sahara, the Berbers who had spread into the desert, continued to maintain the networks that bound the disparate communities.