Professor Òlïhämöï Ñëlsöñ

Some of the best moments in life
- Lying in bed listening to the rain outside
- Thinking about the person U love
- Taking a long drive on a clam road
- Finding money in your old jeans just U need it
- Holding your hands with your friend
- Getting a hug from someone special
- The moment your eyes are filled with tears after
a big laugh

5 Chapter

Take Charge of Your Life

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.

—Franklin Delano Roosevelt

■ THE GREAT TRUTH

“You can learn anything you need to learn, to accomplish any goal you can set for yourself.” This principle offers a way for you to take com- plete control over your future. When I was young and struggling, failing and frustrated, this principle came along to change my life.

Generally speaking, no one is smarter than you, and no one is better than you. Just because someone is doing better than you doesn’t mean that he is better than you. It usually means that he has just learned how to succeed in his particular field before you have. And whatever someone else has done, you can probably do as well. There are few limits.

This is not an easy rule, but it is definitely simple.You, too, can learn anything you need to learn to accomplish any goal you can set for yourself.

Once I learned this idea, I was unafraid to change jobs, and even industries. I learned how to sell advertising, investments, automo- biles, and office supplies. I worked in real estate sales and leasing,

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78 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤

and then real estate development. Then I engaged in importation and distribution, then banking, printing, consulting, and eventually speaking, writing, recording, and corporate training.

■ LEARN WHAT YOU NEED

Every time I entered into a new field, I went out and learned every- thing I possibly could about that field, and then applied it as fast as I could. At first, I checked out the books from the local library.Then, I bought my own books and built my own library. I listened to every audiocassette I could buy on the subject, and attended every seminar. When I was 31, I studied and prepared myself, and then took the entrance exams to get into a major university. I invested several thousand hours of study to get a business degree. I learned the in- tricacies of micro- and macroeconomic theory, statistics, probability theory, management science, and accounting. I studied marketing, management, administration, and strategic planning. I became de- voted to the concept of learning.

■ THE GREAT MYSTERY

I thought I had come late to the party, that everyone knew that learning was the key to the future. I was amazed and perplexed to find, when I looked around me, that very few other people were do- ing what I was doing. Most people, by their own admission, were “living lives of quiet desperation,” in Thoreau’s words. They were working at jobs they didn’t like, earning salaries far below their po- tentials, staying in relationships they didn’t enjoy, and living lives that gave them no satisfaction.

I tried to tell them that the way out was up. I told anyone who would listen that they could learn anything they needed to learn to achieve any goal they could set for themselves.There were no limits. But few people seemed to be listening.

■ REASONS FOR EVERYTHING

We live in an orderly universe. Everything happens for a reason. When I found that the people around me didn’t seem to be inter-



Take Charge of Your Life ➤ 79

ested in changing their situations, I began looking for the reasons underlying their behaviors. And I found them.

Psychologists and scholars have spent many years researching the psychology of success and the psychology of failure. And most of the studies conclude that there are two major mental blocks that hold people back. The first is what Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, in his book, Learned Optimism (Knopf, 1990), calls “learned helplessness.” According to his re- search, this attitude afflicts fully 80 percent of the population to some degree, and for many people it is their major obstacle to success and fulfillment.

■ FEELING TRAPPED

As the result of childhood experiences, especially destructive criti- cism and early failure experiences, people eventually reach the point where they feel helpless to change or to take action in different areas of their lives.The majority of men and women feel overwhelmed by things that seem to happen to them, and the many things going on around them. They feel that there is nothing they can do to influ- ence events or to improve their lives. The most obvious proof that an individual is experiencing learned helplessness is the repeated use of the words “I can’t.”

People feel that they can’t lose weight, can’t get a better job, can’t improve or change their relationships, can’t increase their in- comes, can’t upgrade their knowledge and skills, and can’t do many other things that they really want to do.They have tried unsuccess- fully so many times in the past that they have come to conclude au- tomatically that there is very little they can do to change the future. They become passive and accepting of their situations. Their lives consist of getting up in the morning, going to work, socializing a bit, coming home, eating dinner, watching television for four or five hours, and then going off to bed.

■ THE TRAP OF COMPLACENCY

The second mental condition that holds people back is called the “comfort zone.” Human beings are creatures of habit. They begin



80 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤

an activity of any kind and they soon become comfortable with it. They then become extremely reluctant to change what they are do- ing, or change the situation they are in, even if they are not particu- larly happy or satisfied with it.They become somewhat content and complacent. Eventually, they become afraid to change, for any rea- son. They get into a rut, and the longer they stay in their rut, the deeper it grows, until they finally give up all hope of ever changing or improving their lives.

Learned helplessness, in combination with the comfort zone, cre- ates a person who feels trapped and helpless, weak and powerless, and unable to take control or to make any real difference in his life. The individual in this mental state then strives for security rather than opportunity, and often feels like a victim of circumstances over which he has no control.

■ NO REAL LIMITS

But the reality is that there are no real limits on what you can ac- complish with your life.Within reason, whatever someone else has done, you can do as well. The very fact that you can set a clear goal for yourself means that you probably have the ability to achieve it. Nature does not give you a burning desire for some- thing without also equipping you with the talents and abilities you need to acquire it.

If you think back over your life, you will recall that almost everything that you ever really wanted long enough and hard enough you finally achieved.You are not helpless, and you are not stuck in a rut. Your true potential is limited only by your own imagination and determination.

■ OUR BIGGEST ENEMIES

The two factors that contribute most to the feeling of helplessness and the comfort zone are fear and ignorance. Fear is and always has been your greatest enemy. Fear and self-doubt do more to hold you back from dreaming big dreams, and accomplishing great things, than any other factors.



Take Charge of Your Life ➤ 81

It seems that the less you know about a subject, the more fearful you are of trying something new or different in that area.Your igno- rance makes you reluctant to reach out for something better than what you are doing today. Fear and ignorance reinforce each other, growing until they induce in you a form of mental paralysis that leads inevitably to underachievement and failure.

Here is a wonderful discovery. Aggressively learning about any subject builds your confidence and diminishes your fear in that area. As your knowledge or skill increases, you soon reach the point where you are ready to take action and make changes. But if you are completely ignorant in a particular area, if you have not read or learned anything about a subject, it will seem too difficult and may even appear overwhelming to you. Your lack of knowledge will make you afraid to take the actions necessary to improve your life in that area.

■ NEUTRALIZING YOUR FEARS

The antidotes to fear and ignorance are desire and knowledge. The only real limitation on what you can accomplish is the level of in- tensity of your desire. If you really want something badly enough, there are almost no limits on what you can achieve. And the more you learn about any subject, the greater will be your desire to ac- complish something in that area. As your knowledge grows, you become more confident in taking the necessary steps to make your goals a reality.

As you increase your levels of desire and knowledge, you decrease the self-limiting effects of fear and ignorance, and their compan- ions, learned helplessness and the comfort zone.

With desire and knowledge, you eventually replace fear and ig- norance with courage and confidence.The more you learn about any- thing that is important to you, the more courage you will have to attempt to achieve it, and the more confident you will be that you can eventually succeed. As Henry Ford once said, “If you believe you can do a thing, or you believe you cannot, in either case, you are probably right.”



82 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤

■ YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE

My first big breakthrough in life came when I discovered that I could learn anything I needed to learn to achieve any goal I could set for myself. My second breakthrough was when I realized that I was completely responsible for myself and everything that hap- pened to me. No one was going to do anything for me. If I wanted something, it was completely up to me to do whatever was neces- sary to get it. If I had a problem or limitation, it was up to me to solve it or overcome it. I was on my own.

The acceptance of personal responsibility for your life is the giant step from childhood to maturity. Prior to that decision, people criti- cize, complain, and blame others for their problems. After that deci- sion, they see themselves as the primary creative forces in their own lives. Before you take total responsibility for your life, you see your- self as a victim. Afterward, you see yourself as a victor.

■ ALL CAUSATION IS MENTAL

My third breakthrough came when I learned that all causation is mental. Everything you create in your material world begins with a thought of some kind. If you want to change something on the out- side, you have to begin by changing it first on the inside.You have to change your thinking if you want to change your life. This is the greatest discovery of all.

You create your world with the continuous stream of thoughts, feelings, and images passing through your own mind.You control and determine your future by the thoughts you think in the present. Nothing around you has any meaning except for the meaning you give it by the thoughts and emotions you attach to it. As Shake- speare wrote in Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

■ THE LAW OF BELIEF

Remember, whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality.The greater the intensity of your belief, the more emotion you combine



Take Charge of Your Life ➤ 83

with it, the greater the impact it has on your behavior and on every- thing that happens to you.

If you absolutely believe that you are destined to be a great suc- cess, and you hold to this belief no matter what happens, then there is nothing in the world that can stop you from becoming that great success.

If you absolutely believe that you are a good person with tremendous abilities and that you are going to do remarkable things with your life, that belief will express itself through all of your actions and will eventually become your reality. The biggest responsibility you have to yourself is to change your beliefs on the inside so that they are consistent with the realities you wish to en- joy on the outside.

You can always tell what your beliefs really are by looking at what you do.You always express your true values in your actions. You always act on the outside consistent with who you really are, and what you really believe, on the inside.

One of the best ways to determine your true beliefs is to think about how you behave when you are angry, upset, or under pressure of any kind. This is when they come out. As Terrance wrote, “Cir- cumstances do not make the man; they only reveal him to himself.” (And to others!)

By using the Law of Reversibility, you can develop within your- self the values, beliefs, and qualities you most admire by acting as if you already had them, whenever they are called for by the circum- stances of your life.To develop courage, force yourself to act coura- geously, even when you are afraid. To develop integrity, speak and act with complete honesty, even if you feel like shading the truth or cutting corners. Soon your beliefs will mirror your acts, and your acts will mirror your beliefs.

■ THE LAW OF EXPECTATIONS

The Law of Expectations says that whatever you expect, with confidence, becomes your own self-fulfilling prophecy.You are continually telling your own fortune when you talk about how you think things are going to turn out in a particular area.Your expectations then determine your



84 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤

attitude, and your attitude causes people to behave toward you in a way that reflects what you are thinking inside.

If you expect to be successful, you will eventually be successful. If you expect to be happy and popular, you will be happy and popu- lar. If you expect to be healthy and prosperous, admired and re- spected by the people around you, that is what will happen.

You can tell your true expectations by listening to the words you use to describe an upcoming event. Always think and talk positively about the future. Start every morning by saying; “I believe something wonderful is going to happen to me today.” Then, throughout the day, expect the best. Be open and alert to the possibility that each thing that happens, positive or negative, contains something good. You will be amazed at the effect this approach to life has on your atti- tude, and on the way you are treated by the people around you.

■ POSITIVE SELF-EXPECTANCY

Successful, happy people continually maintain an attitude of posi- tive self-expectancy. They expect to be successful in advance, and they are seldom disappointed.They expect to make more sales than they lose.They expect to learn something valuable from every expe- rience. They expect to eventually achieve their goals, and they re- main open to the possibility that those goals may be achieved in a way that they didn’t expect.

The very best way to predict the future is to create it, and you create your future by the way you approach everything that happens to you today, either positively or negatively. If you approach each situation confidently expecting to learn from it or gain from it, you will continue to grow and progress and move toward your goals.You will also be a happier, more optimistic person that other people will want to be around and to help.

■ THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

The Law of Attraction is considered by many people to be the most important law of all in explaining both success and failure.This law says that you are a “living magnet” and that you inevitably attract the people and circumstances into your life that harmonize with



Take Charge of Your Life ➤ 85

your dominant thoughts, especially those thoughts that you emo- tionalize strongly.

By this law, or natural force, the more you think about some- thing you want, the more excited you will become about achieving it. The more excited or convinced you become, the more you will at- tract that goal into your life, like a magnet attracts iron filings.Your thoughts will create a force field of energy that will attract the peo- ple, circumstances, ideas, opportunities, and resources that you need to achieve your goals.When you change your thinking about yourself and your possibilities, you will attract into your life the forces neces- sary to turn those big thoughts and ideas into real-life experiences.

■ THE LAW OF CORRESPONDENCE

This law says that your outer world corresponds to your inner world, that what you experience on the outside is a reflection of your inner world.Whatever you see when you look around you, you see some- thing in yourself. “Wherever you go, there you are.”Your outer world of wealth, work, relationships, and health will mirror back to you the pictures and images that are going on inside you. Nothing can permanently stay in your life unless it corresponds with something within you.

To have happier relationships, you must become a more loving person, not in thought alone, but genuinely, in your heart. As you become a more loving person on the inside, your outer world of re- lationships will change, and sometimes immediately. To become more financially prosperous on the outside, you must become more prosperous on the inside. To be healthier and fitter in your body, you must think like a healthy and fit person in your mind.

In 1905, Dr.William James of Harvard said, “The greatest revo- lution of my generation is the discovery that individuals, by chang- ing their inner attitudes of mind, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”

■ TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE

There is only one thing over which you have complete control, and that is the content of your own mind. Only you can decide what you



86 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤

are going to think, and how you are going to think about it. This power, this control, is all you need to create a wonderful life for yourself.Your ability to steer your thoughts toward a destination of your own choosing is sufficient to enable you to overcome all obsta- cles, and make up for all limitations, on your road to success.

The Laws of Belief, Expectations, Attraction, and Correspon- dence, used consciously and deliberately, are the keys to your ac- complishing wonderful things with your life. When you begin to change your thinking about your goals and possibilities, your beliefs and actions will change.You will find yourself doing more and more of the things you need to do to make your dreams come true.

You will continually expect good things to happen to you, and you will seldom be disappointed.You will begin attracting all kinds of wonderful people and opportunities into your life. Your whole world will begin to correspond, on the outside, with the wonderful goals and pictures that you are creating on the inside.

Successful and happy people have a generally positive mental attitude. Prosperous and wealthy people have a prosperous and wealthy mind-set. Kind, patient, gentle, loving people, who enjoy happy and fulfilling relationships with their families and friends, have kind, patient, loving ways of thinking. When you develop the same mind-set that other successful people have, you will soon en- joy the same results and experiences that they do.

■ START WHERE YOU ARE

You may think that you lack the education, opportunities, or re- sources that other successful people seem to have. Don’t worry.The fact is that most people start off with few advantages. The story of most successful people is the story of people who started with noth- ing and did something worthwhile with their lives.

I used to feel sorry for myself because I entered my twenties with no money and a limited education. Then I learned that most people start off with little or no money. If they do get a good educa- tion, most of it turns out to be largely useless in the real world once they get out of school.

Then I felt sorry for myself because I had no natural talents



Take Charge of Your Life ➤ 87

to help me, and I couldn’t find a good job. I soon learned that most people start off in the same boat. Most people try and fail at a lot of things before they find the right situation for their talents and abilities.

The fact is that everything you ever achieve you are going to have to do yourself. No one is going to do it for you. But if you keep learning and growing, trying lots of things, you will eventually get the breaks. Everyone does. Just remember that opportunities are like a fumble in a football game. If you don’t personally pick up the ball and run with it, it just lies there and has no effect on the score. When you get your chance, take action on it immediately.

■ IT’S A WONDERFUL WORLD

We are living in a wonderful world today, probably the best period in all of human history.You are surrounded by more opportunities and possibilities to achieve your dreams than have ever existed be- fore.There are no limits to what you can accomplish except for the limits that you put on yourself with your own thinking.

The feeling of learned helplessness and the lure of the comfort zone are the two major mental obstacles to changing your thinking, dreaming big dreams, and setting big goals for yourself.

The way to overcome fear and ignorance is with desire and knowledge.The two qualities that flow out of intense desire and in- creased knowledge are the courage and the confidence you need to do whatever is necessary to achieve anything you really want.

You translate your dreams into concrete realities by turning them into goals.You decide exactly what you want, write it down, set a deadline, and determine the efforts you are going to have to make to achieve it. Make written plans of action to achieve your goal and then do something every day to move toward it. Resolve in advance that you will never, ever give up.

■ MAKE PROGRESS, NOT EXCUSES

Mark Twain once wrote, “There are a thousand excuses for failure, but never a good reason.”



88 CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE ➤

When I stopped making excuses, I started making progress. When I stopped blaming other people and feeling sorry for myself, I began thinking about specific actions I could take to improve my situation. When I began to set goals and make plans for their ac- complishment, I felt in control of my life and my future.When I be- gan learning what I needed to know to achieve my goals, I felt more confident and competent in other parts of my life as well. And as I began achieving my goals, one by one, just as you will achieve yours, my thinking changed completely.

■ CHANGING YOUR LIFE

Success is an inside job. It is a state of mind. It begins within you and is soon reflected in the world around you. When you change your thinking for the better, you become a better person. By dream- ing big dreams and envisioning an exciting future, you become a leader. By writing down your goals and making plans to accomplish them, you take full control of your life. And by practicing the ideas taught in this book, you can and will become unstoppable.

ACTION EXERCISES

1. Resolve today to accept 100 percent responsibility for everything you are or will ever be. Instead of making excuses, decide to make progress. 2. Identify one area where you use the words “I can’t” when you think of the need to change or do something different. Now imagine that your limitations in that area are all in your mind. 3. In what parts of your life have you become comfortable, so much so that you resist change, even if it would be an improve- ment? What could you do to get out of this comfort zone? 4. Identify one area where fear and doubt are holding you back from doing something that you want to do. Imagine that you were absolutely guaranteed success in that area.What would you do differently?



Take Charge of Your Life ➤ 89

5. What are your favorite excuses for not making the decisions or taking the actions you need to if you want to achieve all your goals? What if your excuses were not true? 6. Desire and knowledge are the antidotes to fear and doubt.What could you do immediately to increase your knowledge in an area where you want to take action? 7. Identify one key area of your life that you have created with your own thinking. How could you change your thinking in that area to be more successful?

I’m just having an allergic reaction to the universe.😏😏

WARNING!! I know karate …..and some other words!😆😁😁

The beauty of a woman becomes useless if there is no one to admire it.
~ African Proverb🙄🙄🙄😌

Antiquity

The pyramids of Giza, symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt

The ancient history of North Africa is inextricably linked to that of the Ancient Near East. This is particularly true of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. In the Horn of Africa the Kingdom of Aksum ruled modern-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia and the coastal area of the western part of the Arabian Peninsula. The Ancient Egyptians established ties with the Land of Punt in 2,350 BC. Punt was a trade partner of Ancient Egypt and it is believed that it was located in modern-day Somalia, Djibouti or Eritrea.[39] Phoenician cities such as Carthage were part of the Mediterranean Iron Age and classical antiquity. Sub-Saharan Africa developed more or less independently in those times.[citation needed]

Ancient Egypt

Map of Ancient Egypt and nomes

After the desertification of the Sahara, settlement became concentrated in the Nile Valley, where numerous sacral chiefdoms appeared. The regions with the largest population pressure were in the Nile Delta region of Lower Egypt, in Upper Egypt, and also along the second and third cataracts of the Dongola reach of the Nile in Nubia. This population pressure and growth was brought about by the cultivation of southwest Asian crops, including wheat and barley, and the raising of sheep, goats, and cattle. Population growth led to competition for farm land and the need to regulate farming. Regulation was established by the formation of bureaucracies among sacral chiefdoms. The first and most powerful of the chiefdoms was Ta-Seti, founded around 3,500 BC. The idea of sacral chiefdom spread throughout Upper and Lower Egypt.[40]

Later consolidation of the chiefdoms into broader political entities began to occur in Upper and Lower Egypt, culminating into the unification of Egypt into one political entity by Narmer (Menes) in 3,100 BC. Instead of being viewed as a sacral chief, he became a divine king. The henotheism, or worship of a single god within a polytheistic system, practiced in the sacral chiefdoms along Upper and Lower Egypt, became the polytheistic Ancient Egyptian religion. Bureaucracies became more centralized under the pharaohs, run by viziers, governors, tax collectors, generals, artists, and technicians. They engaged in tax collecting, organizing of labor for major public works, and building irrigation systems, pyramids, temples, and canals. During the Fourth Dynasty (2,620–2,480 BC), long distance trade was developed, with the Levant for timber, with Nubia for gold and skins, with Punt for frankincense, and also with the western Libyan territories. For most of the Old Kingdom, Egypt developed her fundamental systems, institutions and culture, always through the central bureaucracy and by the divinity of the Pharaoh.[41]

After the fourth millennium BC, Egypt started to extend direct military and political control over her southern and western neighbors. By 2,200 BC, the Old Kingdom's stability was undermined by rivalry among the governors of the nomes who challenged the power of pharaohs and by invasions of Asiatics into the Nile Delta. The First Intermediate Period had begun, a time of political division and uncertainty.[42]

Middle Kingdom of Egypt arose when Mentuhotep II of Eleventh Dynasty unified the Egypt once again between 2041 and 2016 BC beginning with his conquering of Tenth Dynasty in 2041 BC.[43][44][45] Pyramid building resumed, long-distance trade re-emerged, and the center of power moved from Memphis to Thebes. Connections with the southern regions of Kush, Wawat and Irthet at the second cataract were made stronger. Then came the Second Intermediate Period, with the invasion of the Hyksos on horse-drawn chariots and utilizing bronze weapons, a technology heretofore unseen in Egypt. Horse-drawn chariots soon spread to the west in the inhabitable Sahara and North Africa. The Hyksos failed to hold on to their Egyptian territories and were absorbed by Egyptian society. This eventually led to one of Egypt's most powerful phases, the New Kingdom (1,580–1,080 BC), with the Eighteenth Dynasty. Egypt became a superpower controlling Nubia and Judea while exerting political influence on the Libyans to the West and on the Mediterranean.[42]

As before, the New Kingdom ended with invasion from the west by Libyan princes, leading to the Third Intermediate Period. Beginning with Shoshenq I, the Twenty-second Dynasty was established. It ruled for two centuries.[42]

To the south, Nubian independence and strength was being reasserted. This reassertion led to the conquest of Egypt by Nubia, begun by Kashta and completed by Piye (Pianhky, 751–730 BC) and Shabaka (716–695 BC). This was the birth of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The Nubians tried to re-establish Egyptian traditions and customs. They ruled Egypt for a hundred years. This was ended by an Assyrian invasion, with Taharqa experiencing the full might of Assyrian iron weapons. The Nubian pharaoh Tantamani was the last of the Twenty-fifth dynasty.[42]

When the Assyrians and Nubians left, a new Twenty-sixth Dynasty emerged from Sais. It lasted until 525 BC, when Egypt was invaded by the Persians. Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians stayed. In 332, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great. This was the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ended with Roman conquest in 30 BC. Pharaonic Egypt had come to an end.[42]

Nubia

Nubian Empire at its greatest extent

Around 3,500 BC, one of the first sacral kingdoms to arise in the Nile was Ta-Seti, located in northern Nubia. Ta-Seti was a powerful sacral kingdom in the Nile Valley at the 1st and 2nd cataracts that exerted an influence over nearby chiefdoms based on pictorial representation ruling over Upper Egypt. Ta-Seti traded as far as Syro-Palestine, as well as with Egypt. Ta-Seti exported gold, copper, ostrich feathers, ebony and ivory to the Old Kingdom. By the 32nd century BC, Ta-Seti was in decline. After the unification of Egypt by Narmer in 3,100 BC, Ta-Seti was invaded by the Pharaoh Hor-Aha of the First Dynasty, destroying the final remnants of the kingdom. Ta-Seti is affiliated with the A-Group Culture known to archaeology.[46]

Nubian Temple of Apedemak, Naqa

Small sacral kingdoms continued to dot the Nubian portion of the Nile for centuries after 3,000 BC. Around the latter part of the third millennium, there was further consolidation of the sacral kingdoms. Two kingdoms in particular emerged: the Sai kingdom, immediately south of Egypt, and the Kingdom of Kerma at the third cataract. Sometime around the 18th century BC, the Kingdom of Kerma conquered the Kingdom of Sai, becoming a serious rival to Egypt. Kerma occupied a territory from the first cataract to the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and Atbarah River. About 1,575 to 1,550 BC, during the latter part of the Seventeenth Dynasty, the Kingdom of Kerma invaded Egypt.[47] The Kingdom of Kerma allied itself with the Hyksos invasion of Egypt.[48]

Egypt eventually re-energized under the Eighteenth Dynasty and conquered the Kingdom of Kerma or Kush, ruling it for almost 500 years. The Kush*tes were Egyptianized during this period. By 1100 BC, the Egyptians had withdrawn from Kush. The region regained independence and reasserted its culture. Kush built a new religion around Amun and made Napata its spiritual center. In 730 BC, the Kingdom of Kush invaded Egypt, taking over Thebes and beginning the Nubian Empire. The empire extended from Palestine to the confluences of the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and River Atbara.[49]

In 760 BC, the Kush*tes were expelled from Egypt by iron-wielding Assyrians. Later, the administrative capital was moved from Napata to Meröe, developing into a new Nubian culture. Initially Meroites were highly Egyptianized, but they subsequently began to take on distinctive features. Nubia became a center of iron-making and cotton cloth manufacturing. Egyptian writing was replaced by the Meroitic alphabet. The lion god Apedemak was added to the Egyptian pantheon of gods. Trade links to the Red Sea increased, linking Nubia with Mediterranean Greece. Its architecture and art diversified, with pictures of lions, ostriches, giraffes, and elephants. Eventually with the rise of Aksum, Nubia's trade links were broken and it suffered environmental degradation from the tree cutting required for iron production. In 350 AD, the Aksumite king Ezana brought Meröe to an end.[50]

Carthage

Carthaginian Empire

The Egyptians referred to the people west of the Nile, ancestral to the Berbers, as Libyans. The Libyans were agriculturalists like the Mauri of Morocco and the Numidians of central and eastern Algeria and Tunis. They were also nomadic, having the horse, and occupied the arid pastures and desert, like the Gaetuli. Berber desert nomads were typically in conflict with Berber coastal agriculturalists.[51]

The Phoenicians were Mediterranean seamen in constant search for valuable metals such as copper, gold, tin, and lead. They began to populate the North African coast with settlements—trading and mixing with the native Berber population. In 814 BC, Phoenicians from Tyre established the city of Carthage. By 600 BC, Carthage had become a major trading entity and power in the Mediterranean, largely through trade with tropical Africa. Carthage's prosperity fostered the growth of the Berber kingdoms, Numidia and Mauretania. Around 500 BC, Carthage provided a strong impetus for trade with Sub-Saharan Africa. Berber middlemen, who had maintained contacts with Sub-Saharan Africa since the desert had desiccated, utilized pack animals to transfer products from oasis to oasis. Danger lurked from the Garamantes of Fez, who raided caravans. Salt and metal goods were traded for gold, slaves, beads, and ivory.[52]

Ruins of Carthage

The Carthaginians were rivals to the Greeks and Romans. Carthage fought the Punic Wars, three wars with Rome: the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC), over Sicily; the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), in which Hannibal invaded Europe; and the Third Punic War (149 to 146 BC). Carthage lost the first two wars, and in the third it was destroyed, becoming the Roman province of Africa, with the Berber Kingdom of Numidia assisting Rome. The Roman province of Africa became a major agricultural supplier of wheat, olives, and olive oil to imperial Rome via exorbitant taxation. Two centuries later, Rome brought the Berber kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania under its authority. In the 420's AD, Vandals invaded North Africa and Rome lost her territories. The Berber kingdoms subsequently regained their independence.[53]

Christianity gained a foothold in Africa at Alexandria in the 1st century AD and spread to Northwest Africa. By 313 AD, with the Edict of Milan, all of Roman North Africa was Christian. Egyptians adopted Monophysite Christianity and formed the independent Coptic Church. Berbers adopted Donatist Christianity. Both groups refused to accept the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.[citation needed]

Role of the Berbers

As Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and political organization supported several states. Trade links between Carthage and the Berbers in the interior grew, but territorial expansion also resulted in the enslavement or military recruitment of some Berbers and in the extraction of tribute from others. By the early 4th century BC, Berbers formed one of the largest element, with Gauls, of the Carthaginian army. In the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berber soldiers participated from 241 to 238 BC after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. Berbers succeeded in obtaining control of much of Carthage's North African territory, and they minted coins bearing the name Libyan, used in Greek to describe natives of North Africa. The Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars; in 146 BC the city of Carthage was destroyed. As Carthaginian power waned, the influence of Berber leaders in the hinterland grew. By the 2nd century BC, several large but loosely administered Berber kingdoms had emerged. Two of them were established in Numidia, behind the coastal areas controlled by Carthage. West of Numidia lay Mauretania, which extended across the Moulouya River in Morocco to the Atlantic Ocean. The high point of Berber civilization, unequaled until the coming of the Almohads and Almoravid dynasty more than a millennium later, was reached during the reign of Masinissa in the 2nd century BC. After Masinissa's death in 148 BC, the Berber kingdoms were divided and reunited several times. Masinissa's line survived until 24 AD, when the remaining Berber territory was annexed to the Roman Empire.

Somalia

Ruins of Qa'ableh, an early center of Somali civilization

The ancestors of the Somali people were an important link in the Horn of Africa connecting the region's commerce with the rest of the ancient world. Somali sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense, myrrh and spices, all of which were valuable luxuries to the Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians.[54][55]

In the classical era, several flourishing Somali city-states such as Opone, Mosylon, Cape Guardafui, and Malao competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the rich Indo–Greco-Roman trade.[56]

Roman North Africa

Northern Africa under Roman rule

Roman portrait of Demetrios, a citizen of Roman Egypt, Fayum mummy portraits, c. 100 AD, Brooklyn Museum

Increases in urbanization and in the area under cultivation during Roman rule caused wholesale dislocations of the Berber society, forcing nomad tribes to settle or to move from their traditional rangelands. Sedentary tribes lost their autonomy and connection with the land. Berber opposition to the Roman presence was nearly constant. The Roman emperor Trajan established a frontier in the south by encircling the Aurès and Nemencha mountains and building a line of forts from Vescera (modern Biskra) to Ad Majores (Hennchir Besseriani, southeast of Biskra). The defensive line extended at least as far as Castellum Dimmidi (modern Messaâd, southwest of Biskra), Roman Algeria's southernmost fort. Romans settled and developed the area around Sitifis (modern Sétif) in the 2nd century, but farther west the influence of Rome did not extend beyond the coast and principal military roads until much later.[citation needed]

The Roman military presence of North Africa remained relatively small, consisting of about 28,000 troops and auxiliaries in Numidia and the two Mauretanian provinces. Starting in the 2nd century AD, these garrisons were manned mostly by local inhabitants.[citation needed]

Aside from Carthage, urbanization in North Africa came in part with the establishment of settlements of veterans under the Roman emperors Claudius (reigned 41–54), Nerva (96–98), and Trajan (98–117). In Algeria such settlements included Tipasa, Cuicul or Curculum (modern Djemila, northeast of Sétif), Thamugadi (modern Timgad, southeast of Sétif), and Sitifis (modern Sétif). The prosperity of most towns depended on agriculture. Called the "granary of the empire", North Africa became one of the largest exporters of grain in the empire, shipping to the provinces which did not produce cereals, like Italy and Greece. Other crops included fruit, figs, grapes, and beans. By the 2nd century AD, olive oil rivaled cereals as an export item.[citation needed]

The beginnings of the Roman imperial decline seemed less serious in North Africa than elsewhere. However, uprisings did take place. In 238 AD, landowners rebelled unsuccessfully against imperial fiscal policies. Sporadic tribal revolts in the Mauretanian mountains followed from 253 to 288, during the Crisis of the Third Century. The towns also suffered economic difficulties, and building activity almost ceased.[citation needed]

The towns of Roman North Africa had a substantial Jewish population. Some Jews had been deported from Judea or Palestine in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD for rebelling against Roman rule; others had come earlier with Punic settlers. In addition, a number of Berber tribes had converted to Judaism.[citation needed]

Christianity arrived in the 2nd century and soon gained converts in the towns and among slaves. More than eighty bishops, some from distant frontier regions of Numidia, attended the Council of Carthage (256) in 256. By the end of the 4th century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and some Berber tribes had converted en masse.[57]

A division in the church that came to be known as the Donatist heresy began in 313 among Christians in North Africa. The Donatists stressed the holiness of the church and refused to accept the authority to administer the sacraments of those who had surrendered the scriptures when they were forbidden under the Emperor Diocletian (reigned 284–305). The Donatists also opposed the involvement of Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337) in church affairs in contrast to the majority of Christians who welcomed official imperial recognition.[citation needed]

The occasionally violent Donatist controversy has been characterized[by whom?] as a struggle between opponents and supporters of the Roman system. The most articulate North African critic of the Donatist position, which came to be called a heresy, was Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius. Augustine maintained that the unworthiness of a minister did not affect the validity of the sacraments because their true minister was Jesus Christ. In his sermons and books Augustine, who is considered a leading exponent of Christian dogma, evolved a theory of the right of orthodox Christian rulers to use force against schismatics and heretics. Although the dispute was resolved by a decision of an imperial commission in Carthage in 411, Donatist communities continued to exist as late as the 6th century.[citation needed]

A decline in trade weakened Roman control. Independent kingdoms emerged in mountainous and desert areas, towns were overrun, and Berbers, who had previously been pushed to the edges of the Roman Empire, returned.[58]

During the Vandalic War, Belisarius, general of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I based in Constantinople, landed in North Africa in 533 with 16,000 men and within a year destroyed the Vandal Kingdom. Local opposition delayed full Byzantine control of the region for twelve years, however, and when imperial control came, it was but a shadow of the control exercised by Rome. Although an impressive series of fortifications were built, Byzantine rule was compromised by official corruption, incompetence, military weakness, and lack of concern in Constantinople for African affairs, which made it an easy target for the Arabs during the Early Muslim conquests . As a result, many rural areas reverted to Berber rule.[citation needed]

Aksum

Aksumite Empire

Aksum Obelisk, symbol of the Aksumite civilization

The earliest state in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, Dʿmt, dates from around the 8th and 7th centuries BC. D'mt traded through the Red Sea with Egypt and the Mediterranean, providing frankincense. By the 5th and 3rd centuries, D'mt had declined, and several successor states took its place. Later there was greater trade with South Arabia, mainly with the port of Saba. Adulis became an important commercial center in the Ethiopian Highlands. The interaction of the peoples in the two regions, the southern Arabia Sabaeans and the northern Ethiopians, resulted in the Ge'ez culture and language and eventual development of the Ge'ez script. Trade links increased and expanded from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, with Egypt, Greece, and Rome, to the Black Sea, and to Persia, India, and China. Aksum was known throughout those lands. By the 5th century BC, the region was very prosperous, exporting ivory, hippopotamus hides, gold dust, spices, and live elephants. It imported silver, gold, olive oil, and wine. Aksum manufactured glass crystal, brass, and copper for export. A powerful Aksum emerged, unifying parts of eastern Sudan, northern Ethiopia (Tigre), and Eritrea. Its kings built stone palatial buildings and were buried under megalithic monuments. By 300 AD, Aksum was minting its own coins in silver and gold.[59]

In 331 AD, King Ezana (320–350 AD) was converted to Monophysite Christianity, supposedly by Frumentius and Aedesius, who became stranded on the Red Sea coast. Some scholars believed the process was more complex and gradual than a simple conversion. Around 350, the time Ezana sacked Meroe, the Syrian monastic tradition took root within the Ethiopian church.[60]

In the 6th century Aksum was powerful enough to add Saba on the Arabian peninsula to her empire. At the end of the 6th century, the Sasanian Empire pushed Aksum out of the peninsula. With the spread of Islam through Western Asia and Northern Africa, Aksum's trading networks in the Mediterranean faltered. The Red Sea trade diminished as it was diverted to the Persian Gulf and dominated by Arabs, causing Aksum to decline. By 800 AD, the capital was moved south into the interior highlands, and Aksum was much diminished.[61]

West Africa

In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum. Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in the 2nd millennium BC. Symbiotic trade relations developed before the trans-Saharan trade, in response to the opportunities afforded by north-south diversity in ecosystems across deserts, grasslands, and forests. The agriculturists received salt from the desert nomads. The desert nomads acquired meat and other foods from pastoralists and farmers of the grasslands and from fishermen on the Niger River. The forest-dwellers provided furs and meat.[62]

Nok sculpture, terracotta, Louvre

Dhar Tichitt and Oualata in present-day Mauritania figure prominently among the early urban centers, dated to 2,000 BC. About 500 stone settlements litter the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found[by whom?] that the Soninke of the Mandé peoples were responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent Ghana Empire. Djenné-Djenno (in present-day Mali) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable Iron Age population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC Djenné-Djenno had become a large, thriving market town.[63][64]

Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1,000 BC, the Nok culture developed on the Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in terracotta, including human heads, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC they were smelting iron. By 200 AD the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the Yoruba kingdom of Ife and those of the Bini kingdom of Benin are now[when?] believed[by whom?] to be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nokite culture.[65]

Bantu expansion

1 = 3000 – 1500 BC origin

2 = c. 1500 BC first migrations

2.a = Eastern Bantu, 2.b = Western Bantu

3 = 1000 – 500 BC Urewe nucleus of Eastern Bantu

4 – 7 = southward advance

9 = 500 BC – 0 Congo nucleus

10 = 0 – 1000 CE last phase[66]

The Bantu expansion was a critical movement of people in African history and the settling of the continent. People speaking Bantu languages (a branch of the Niger–Congo family) began in the second millennium BC to spread from Cameroon eastward to the Great Lakes region. In the first millennium BC, Bantu languages spread from the Great Lakes to southern and east Africa. An early expansion was south to the upper Zambezi valley in the 2nd century BC. Then, Bantu speakers pushed westward to the savannahs of present-day Angola and eastward into Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in the 1st century AD. The second thrust from the Great Lakes was eastward, 2,000 years ago, expanding to the Indian Ocean coast, Kenya and Tanzania. The eastern group eventually met the southern migrants from the Great Lakes in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Both groups continued southward, with eastern groups continuing to Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd century AD, and expanding as far as Durban. By the later first millennium AD, the expansion had reached the Great Kei River of South Africa. Sorghum, a major Bantu crop, could not thrive under the winter rainfall of Namibia and the western Cape. Khoisan people inhabited the remaining parts of southern Africa.[67]