Voices, values and development [antikvár]

Africa ... cradle of civilization. Sites inhabited since the dawn of humankind, culturally rich, culturally diverse Stone Age societies, rock art undisturbed for 5,000 years, casting in 9th-century Nigeria, a textile industry in 11th-century Mali, and thousand yearold rock-hewn churches in Ethiopia. During the European Dark Ages, from the 5th to 11th centuries, the empire of Ghana with its capital at Kumbi-Saleh; other empires controlling a trans-Saharan trade in I gold, Kola nuts and slaves; Muslim empires flourishing to the West between 1200 and 1400. And by the late 13th century, powerful African-Arab city states like Mogadishu, Mombasa and Lamu on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Africa ... whose empires were finally weakened or destroyed by the early powers from Europe and Arabia that coveted their trade. The art that was removed, the minerals and genetic resources that were plundered. And finally, the shameful slave trade which uprooted so many people from their native soil.