Hi There! I Read Your Post About Egypt And Cleopatra, And Now I Am Really Curious About The African Kingdoms

Hi there! I read your post about Egypt and Cleopatra, and now I am really curious about the African Kingdoms you mentioned and was wondering if you could tell us more about them please, they sound really interesting.

Oh, there's SO much I could tell you, and there's so many African kingdoms that have been woefully understudied--and many more aside from the ones I mentioned. They all have their own rich histories, cultures, political intrigue, and it's an actual tragedy that they aren't discussed more. I'm still researching myself, so I'll just review some of my favorite things from each kingdom.

Aksumite/Axumite Empire: Located in modern-day Ethiopia, this empire existed from the 1st to 8th century CE, though its prime was from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE. The Axumites converted to Christianity of their own free will over 1,000 years before colonialism and as a result have ancient churches, some made of stone and carved from the earth itself. They also were the first African kingdom to mint their own coins, and their capital city of Axum had, at its peak, 20,000 people living in it. Also, I love the Dungur palace. Here's a reconstruction of what it looked like:

Hi There! I Read Your Post About Egypt And Cleopatra, And Now I Am Really Curious About The African Kingdoms

LOOK AT IT.

Source: x

Kongo: Located in central Africa around modern-day Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. This kingdom had a rich social hierarchy, apparently had ambassadors to Europe, and some people practiced Catholicism, which led to their own branch of Christianity led by a woman named Beatriz Kimpa Vita in the 1600s who believed she had visions that informed her Jesus actually came from Kongo. Yeah.

Sources: x, x

Loango: A neighbor of Kongo, but one we know much less about due to Kongo having a long, well-documented history of interacting with Europe (see: the ambassadors), and Loango... does not. But we do know they also had a rich social hierarchy, and we have this map of their capital city.

Sources: x, x

Great Zimbabwe: From 1100- 1500, located in modern-day Zimbabwe, this was a city of the Zimbabwe empire that was either used for storing grain or as a royal residence. Either way, the ruins of said city look like this:

Here's a reconstruction:

Sources: x, x, x, x

Ghana/Mali/Songhai: These were three successive empires from West Africa, with Ghana being the first from the 7th to 13th centuries, Mali being the second from the 13th to 16th centuries, and Songhai being the last one from the 15th to 16th centuries. If you learn about a non-Egyptian African civilization at all in school, chances are it's the Ghana empire and its successive empires, and they're most famous for gold, Timbuktu (with its ancient mosques, library, and university), and Mansa Musa.

Sources: x, x, x, x, x

Ashanti/Asante Empire: Located in modern day Ghana, this kingdom lasted from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century. This kingdom is most well-known for its role in the slave trade. The Ashanti had well-built roads and architecture, and a little fun tidbit about them is that, after the introduction of guns, they actually had a minor firearms industry.

Here's their capital, Kumasi:

Source: x, x

Swahili Coastline: The coastline was made up of MANY city-states that saw their prime in the 11th to 15th centuries--including Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Kilwa--that participated in the Indian Ocean trade route, and pottery from as far away as China has been found in these cities. Many of these cities also practiced Islam and had their own mosques. Kilwa is my personal favorite:

These cities were built of stone, but Kilwa's palace, in particular, was built of coral. Its architecture led to the city being described by Ibn Battuta as one of the most beautiful in the world, which is part of why it's so fascinating to me.

Source: x, x

Of course, this barely scratches the surface. There are many more kingdoms all over the continent and a variety from ancient and pre-medieval times that deserve much more love.

And this image doesn't even cover them all!

So yes, ancient and medieval Africa deserve much more love, more research and more hype, and hopefully one day soon they'll get just that.

A Monstrous Encounter

I had this crazy Elena of Avalor dream on August 28th, so I decided to turn it into a fanfiction. This is 70% what happened in the dream and 30% dialogue I added for context and jokes for levity.

Note: I have the trigger warnings in the tags, this Fanfic does have a bit of violence and blood in it so I would give this a PG-13 / T rating. Reader discretion is advised.

Note 2: For some reason when I had the dream the entire landscape was in various sunset colours, the trees were purple, the sky was red & yellow and the grass was orange & pink. So if you want, you can imagine it like that.

Note 3: In the dream I wasn't exactly sure when it was set, so I just decided to set it after the final.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few months after she became Queen, Elena was touring the kingdom. She was making stops in all the different towns so the citizens could see their new Queen and she could make sure the towns were running smoothly. Elena had brought along Naomi, Gabe and Mateo, as well as a few of her Royal Guards and servants. So far, the tour had gone on without a hitch, but that was all about to change.

In a small country village, Elena and her friends were about to go to Village Hall for a meeting with the Town Council, when a horse ran up to them at full speed and stopped. On it were Lieutenant Felipe and a young Private. Felipe looked exhausted and the Private was crying, and they both looked very bruised up.

Gabe ran up to meet him. “Felipe, what happened!?”

The Lieutenant tried to give as coherent a report as he could. “General, I have to report there's a monster at the edge of town. It was huge and round and slimy. Last time I saw it it was on the north corner of the pig farm owned by the Estrada family. It's been eating the livestock of the townspeople. When Private Fuentes and I went to evaluate the situation, it attacked us. I tried to use some spells to stop it but it seems to be immune to magic. Then it attacked Fuentes and… I was able to pull him out of the way in time but the monster killed and swallowed his horse.”

The private looked at the General, his eyes filled with tears. “I'm sorry General, if I had been faster, Peanut would still be…”

“It's alright private you did all you could do. All you need to do now is get your injuries checked.” Gabe assured him.

“Yes Sir.” Fuentes replied, his voice still shaking

Then Gabe continued on in a slightly more military tone, but you could still hear the intense concern he had. “Lieutenant Felipe, take Private Fuentes to have his injuries taken care of, have your own injuries checked, and then call for backup.”

“Yes sir.” He saluted then rode off towards the medical facility

The other three who had watched this scene unfold were shocked, they knew something had to be done.

“By the time backup gets here someone else could be attacked!” Exclaimed Mateo.

“He's right, we should deal with this monster right now!” agreed Elena.

“I second that.” Added Naomi with a nod. “We must avenge Peanut!”

Gabe looked at how the three of them were just raring to go, he hesitated for a moment and then sighed. “I guess it's yet another mission for just the four of us.”

“Maybe we need a name like Team Ava-four.” said Mateo trying to lighten the mood.

Gabe just sighed and continued, “We know that this creature is immune to magic, so we will all need to equip some physical weapons before we go find it.”

They went to their supply carriage and each got equipped with a sword, a dagger and a crossbow. Then they got on their horses and rode to the farm. Once they arrived at the south corner of the farm, they didn't tie the horse's reins to a pole. Instead they just told their horses to wait for them to come back, they did this just in case the monster tried to attack them, the horses would be able to get away unhindered.

Then they carefully made their way to the north corner, making sure to keep watch as they approached it. Then they saw an odd shape in the distance. They carefully stepped behind a large boulder and looked out at it. There was no mistaking it, this was the monster.

It was sitting on the ground, its eerie black eyes open and ever staring forward. It was at least 3 meters tall while at rest. It had a round body with a huge mouth, bigger than the mouth of any creature should be. It was bright purple and yellow and covered in clear oozing slime. It was blob shaped and looked like some kind of hideous melted frog.

“I've never seen a creature like that in any of my books before,” Whispered Mateo, “At least not that I can remember.”

“What do you think we should do?” Asked Elena.

“I say we try shooting it with our crossbows. If we get a little closer the bolts would probably do some major damage.” Suggested Naomi.

“That sounds good, we will move to that area over there behind those trees where we will get a much clearer shot.” Said Gabe readying his crossbow “We should approach it with caution.” They moved closer to the monster until they were as close as they could get, while still being behind cover. “All right,” ready your crossbows and...NOW!”

Four bolts shot straight into the monster's head and lodged deep, although it didn't seem very disturbed by it. The monster looked at them with it's bulging eyes for a moment before it suddenly hopped up in a burst of speed and began to chase them. They were just barely able to start running away from it when it jumped at them.

The monster chased them down the hill towards a pond, quickly gaining momentum on them. “Let's split up around the pond and regroup behind those trees!” Yelled Naomi, pointing across the water at the other side.

The group split to run around to the two sides, Naomi and Elena going to one side, Gabe and Mateo on the other. But the monster continued its chase, now with a target in its focus.

Mateo was a slower runner than the others and they all realized it too late. He dropped his crossbow and grabbed his tamborita ready to cast a speed spell on himself. But before he could he tripped on a wet clump of grass at the edge of the pond, dropping his tamborita as he fell to the ground. The monster leapt behind him and with one fast movement gulped him completely into its mouth.

“MATEO!” They screamed as their friend disappeared from view.

“LEVALUQ!” yelled Gabe aiming his tamborita at the monster's mouth, but it was no use, Mateo was completely inside it and there was nothing that the spell could grab onto. It just seemed to be absorbed into the monster's slime. So without a second thought Gabe ran at the creature and started slashing at it with his sword. Naomi and Elena joined him, desperate to save their friend.

~~~ Mateo was surrounded by oozing darkness. He tried to breathe but got a nose full of noxious smelling slime instead, so he held his breath. The monster's mouth was closed in all around him and he barely had any room to move. He started to struggle but it didn't feel like it made any difference to the compressing walls around him.

Then he remembered the dagger. He grabbed it with one hand and plunged it into the monster's tongue. The walls kept moving around him but they didn't feel any less constricting, and he was running out of air. He continued to stab but he could feel his strength draining away from him. His thoughts became a flurry of panic “I need to get out of here, I can't die like this, please!!!” He continued to stab until he didn't have the strength to hold on to the dagger any longer. ~~~

The three of them continued to slash their blades into the monster’s flesh. It still held its mouth shut even as blood splattered out from its wounds. It tried to jump into the nearby pond, and that's when Gabe leaped up into the air and plunged his sword deep into its back, determined to save the wizard before it was too late. That was the mortal blow. Finally the monster stopped moving and fell To the ground, finally defeated.

Naomi and Gabe each grabbed one side of the fallen monster’s mouth and yanked it open. Elena lifted Mateo out. He wasn't moving. She started hastily brushing the slime off his face while using her other hand to push on his chest trying to resuscitate him.

“MATEO WAKE UP, PLEASE!” She cried.

Suddenly he began to cough and blink his eyes open. Tears continued to stream down the young queen's face but now in relief rather than despair. “I thought I lost you.”

“Thank goodness you're alive.” Said Gabe who is now kneeling beside them.

“We need to make sure all the liquid is out of the throat, if he's able to talk that means he can breathe properly.” Naomi then she turned to Mateo and asked “Do you think you can talk?”

He nodded, then he breathed and said “Well that became a pretty slimy situation!”

There was a moment of silence, and then they all laughed (in spite of the pun being terrible). They were all just so happy that Mateo was alive. They moved into a big group hug.

Suddenly Naomi broke out of the hug and jumped up. “The meeting!” Shouted Naomi, “We never told them that we were going to be late!”

Elena sprang to her feet “Oh no you're right! Quick, if we move fast we might be able to still make it in time!”

“But Elena, you-” Gabe started saying but was interrupted.

“Don’t worry Gabe, I trust that you will be able to take Mateo back to town and report to the townspeople that the monster has been defeated.” Then she whistled for the horses. All four of them came running and Elena's horse, Canela stopped right in front of her.

“Elena I think he meant-” Started Mateo.

“You can tell me later Mateo, just go get some rest, you need it!” And with that, she jumped on her horse and she and Naomi rode off at a thundering pace.

“So,” said Mateo turning to Gabe “Do you think they'll notice that they're covered in monster blood before they get to the meeting, or after someone screams and faints at them?”

“I'd say the latter.” Said Gabe, as he watched them ride off into the distance.

“Probably, wait a minute we're ALL covered in... blood…”

Gabe caught Mateo right as he fainted.

He checked that Mateo was okay and then smiled “Well Elena did say you needed a rest.”

Mateo blinked open his eyes and groaned a little in disgust as he looked at his clothing. It would take some major spells to get these stains out.

He found his tamborita lying near him, brushed the dirt off it and put it back in its holder. Then Gabe carefully helped Mateo on to his horse, then the two of them both rode back to town.

Hi There! I Read Your Post About Egypt And Cleopatra, And Now I Am Really Curious About The African Kingdoms

More Posts from A-lilacsong and Others

A Monstrous Encounter