AFRICA’S GREAT CIVILIZATIONS

The program tells an epic story of how the African people built empires, fought wars, established flourishing cities, furthered learning, and created some of the world’s most sublime art and architecture. Gates investigates such topics as the roots of the earliest human societies, the rise in ancient Africa of Christianity and Islam, complex trade networks, advanced educational institutions, the development of the slave trade, and the scramble by Europeans for riches in the 19th century. Included are little-known stories about the Iron Age kingdom of Axum, the libraries of Timbuktu, the development of Zanzibar into an intercontinental trading hub, and much more.