HISTORY BACK TO THE ROOTS Africa has a long and interesting history. Scientists believe that first humans lived in Africa. They found skeletons and bones of the first humans there. Africa is the continent of many tribes. Each tribe speaks its own language and has traditions of their own. They make arts and crafts that may be different than other tribes. Even today African countries have many official languages. DAILY ITEMS FROM AFRICA At the time when slave trade started Africa was divided in many kingdoms.  They traded goods with each other. They had armies and government system. One of the largest kingdom was Ghana. It started in 8th century. It was a rich and powerful kingdom. The kingdom was rich because it had lots of gold. They traded with other African kingdoms. Kingdom of Ghana was ruled by kings. They had a lots of power and people worshiped them. Necklace The other important kingdom was kingdom of Mali. It became more powerful then the Ghana. People of Mali were very skilled in crafts like pottery, making jewelry and working with iron. They were traders and traded with other African countries. When the first Europeans came to Africa, African kingdoms like Mali and Ghana already had slavery. Their slaves had much more rights than slaves in America, but slavery still existed. African kingdoms fought wars and then sold the prisoners of war to slave traders. Most of the slaves that came from Africa were bought from  African kingdoms.