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Home to the biggest river, the biggest desert, and some of the biggest land animals in the world, Africa is so much more than what most media would...

Stop everything and check this video out. This guy from Carthage named Hannibal used battle elephants. Battle. Elephants. Carthage has a pretty ric...

Today's lesson: Nubia. Remember not to call it Egypt Jr. to its face...it's kind of a sensitive issue.

Today we're going to learn about decentralized societies like Jenne-Jeno who lived without any power hierarchy in their city. Je-no kings, Je-no pr...

Old Ghana is gone, but we're still gonna teach you about it.

Today we're learning about the Bantu Migration. The moral of the story here? Eat healthy yams and one day, you too could spread your dialect around...

Today we're going to tell you all about this Aksum—sorry we mean awesome place called Aksum. At least, it was Aksum (and awesome) about 2000...

We're sure you all know about the Sahara Desert. It's so hot right now. Today we'll learn about the Sahara, and the Tuareg people who live there.&#...

We're not going to make another "denial" joke. Nope. Not going to happen. This video is just about the Nile. Not denial. 

Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in the world. But the real question here is: if Victoria Falls and no one is around to hear it, did she rea...

Today we're learning about the Serengeti, or as you may know it, the setting of The Lion King. Get ready for lions, wildebeests, and tourists....

Today we're going to learn about how salt can build a city, and bananas can build an army. Seriously. Take a look.

Hakunamatata may be a wonderful phrase, but did you know it's actually a real word in Swahili? And since Swahili is the official language of four c...

Today we'll learn about how West Africa wasn't disconnected from the rest of the world, like many people seem to think. Seriously. It's not on isla...

Back in the day in West Africa, you could trade salt for gold. Yes, you read that right. Gold. Where's a time machine when you need one?

Despite the name, the Kingdom of Dahomey was not full of friendly people. Unless you were a slave trader...in which case, yes, they could have been...

Today we're going to learn about the Kingdom of Kongo, where any attempts to farm on a large scale were brutally halted by the menacing...tsetse fl...

No jokes today, Shmoopers, slavery is a terrible thing. Notice we said is. Check out this video to learn more.

Today we'll learn about how people hated taxes so much that they were willing to change religions just to avoid them. And as a result, Aksum became...

Caliphates came and went in northern Africa, but only one was cali-fated to rule it. Let's see what happened.

Today we'll learn about how people in Kongo were total Portugeeks...at least until Portugal started enslaving them. Yeah, that alliance didn't turn out too well.

Today we'll learn about Great Zimbabwe and the sleeping sickness. And before you get worried, no, getting tired in class doesn't mean you have the plague...though you probably could get to bed a little earlier.

Today we'll learn about how much better British folks were than Americans when it came to slavery. One day the British just up and banned it. Yep, it was that easy. Especially when you consider the U.S. had to literally fight a war over it.

Slavery just didn't make sense. We're sure you've thought that plenty of times, but the way things ended up it didn't even really make economic sense. Let's take a look at today's video to find out why.

Today we're learning about how people all started using beautiful African-made pans for all of their cooking needs and—oh wait...yeah this was about a unified African identity. Sorry folks. You can still buy some sweet African-made pans if you like, though. We're sure they're top-notch.

We wish we were just talking about bouncy balls. Just to warn you, this video is going to cover some heavy issues involving genocide in Africa. It's a sad part of history, but it is history. And ignoring it would be an injustice to the people it affected. 

Today we're going to learn about West African priest-kings, priest-warrior-kings, and priest-warrior-supermodel-kings. Okay maybe we made that last one up.

What do you do when the people you stole from their homeland to do your work start doing too much of your work? Send them right back of course. And spend money building up a town for them to live in. And use military force to make sure no more of them get shipped back to you. We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried...

You might think that people living in constant fear of mosquitoes is hilarious, but it was a totally real thing...and more like malarious. Diseases carried by bugs prevented Europeans from settling large portions of Africa. We'll learn all about those today in this video.

It turns out slavery wasn't quite as bad before Europeans showed up. But...it was still slavery. We're talking the difference between being pushed down in the mud, and being pushed down in the mud plus being kicked in the gut. Neither one's okay.

We're not just talking historical re-enactments like in Williamsburg, we mean real colonialism. Like, snatching up land and deciding you rule it just 'cause. As you can probably guess, we're not quite endorsing that behavior.

It was all cool exploration and trading until Columbus barged into the party and ruined it with slavery. Nothing sours history like a little human exploitation.

If you thought that Europe was done using Africa for stuff by the 1900s, boy were you wrong. They kinda-sorta even got Africa involved with starting a war. Seriously. They mucked things up pretty bad back then.

There's a reason it was called the "Cold War." It left most of the world shaking. Today's video is all about The Cold War's effects on Africa.

It turns out rebellions aren't just plot devices in Star Wars. Today we're learning about several rebellions that happened in Africa, including one involving a cow massacre. We're not even joking about that last part.

At the end of the 19th century, Ethiopia was one of only two African countries that hadn’t been colonized by Europeans. Good call hiding behind that bush.

Today's video is about French African territories gaining their freedom. There's nothing like a rebellion or two to make you re-think occupying foreign lands. Luckily in France's case, these rebellions did the trick and French African territories gained their independence...mostly without bloodshed. Mostly. 

Today we're talking about all the different settlers and colonizers of South Africa. We promise it won't be Boer-ing. 

Remember that time Canada saved us all from World War III? Seriously. That's a thing that happened. Check out the video if you don't believe us.

Today we're learning about an Aksum—er, awesome warrior woman, and the many rises and falls of what is now known as Ethiopia.