---
title: "History of science and technology in Africa"
chunk: 1/21
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_Africa"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:40:31.520269+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Africa has the world's oldest record of human technological achievement: the oldest surviving stone tools in the world have been found in eastern Africa, and later evidence for tool production by humans' hominin ancestors has been found across West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. The history of science and technology in Africa since then has, however, received relatively little attention compared to other regions of the world, despite notable African developments in mathematics, metallurgy, architecture, and other fields.

== Early humans ==

The Great Rift Valley of Africa provides critical evidence for the evolution of early hominins. The earliest tools in the world can be found there as well:

An unidentified hominin, possibly Australopithecus afarensis or Kenyanthropus platyops, created stone tools dating to 3.3 million years ago at Lomekwi in the Turkana Basin, eastern Africa.
Homo habilis, residing in eastern Africa, developed another early toolmaking industry, the Oldowan, around 2.3 million years ago.
Homo erectus developed the Acheulean stone tool industry, specifically hand-axes, at 1.5 million years ago. This tool industry spread to the Middle East and Europe around 800,000 to 600,000 years ago. Homo erectus also begins using fire.
Homo sapiens, or modern humans, created bone tools and backed blades around 90,000 to 60,000 years ago, in southern and eastern Africa. The use of bone tools and backed blades eventually became characteristic of Later Stone Age tool industries. The first appearance of abstract art is during the Middle Stone Age, however. The oldest abstract art in the world is a shell necklace dated to 82,000 years ago from the Cave of Pigeons in Taforalt, eastern Morocco. The second oldest abstract art and the oldest rock art is found at Blombos Cave in South Africa, dated to 77,000 years ago. There are evidences that Stone Age humans around 100,000 years ago had an elementary knowledge of chemistry in Southern Africa, and that they used a specific recipe to create a liquefied ochre-rich mixture. According to Henshilwood, "This isn't just a chance mixture, it is early chemistry. It suggests conceptual and probably cognitive abilities which are the equivalent of modern humans".

== Education ==

=== Northern Africa and the Nile Valley ===
In 295 BCE, the Library of Alexandria was founded by Greeks in Egypt. It was considered the largest library in the classical world.
Al-Azhar University, founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world. The oldest degree-granting university in Egypt after the Cairo University, its establishment date may be considered 1961 when non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.

=== West Africa and the Sahel ===
Three madrasas or Islamic schools existed in Mali during the country's "golden age" from the 14th to the 16th centuries: Sankore Madrasah, Sidi Yahya Mosque, and Djinguereber Mosque, all in Timbuktu. The schools consisted of independent scholars who gave instruction to individuals or small groups of students, with special lectures sometimes given in the mosques. There was no overall school administration or prescribed course of study, and libraries consisted of individual private collections of manuscripts. Scholars were drawn from the city's wealthiest families, and instruction was explicitly religious. The main subjects studied by advanced scholars and students were Qur'anic studies, Arabic language, Muhammad, theology, mysticism, and law.
In the 16th century, Timbuktu also housed as many as 150–180 maktabs (Qur'anic schools), where basic reading and recitation of the Qur'an were taught. These schools had an estimated peak enrollment of 4,000–5,000 pupils, including pupils from the surrounding areas.
Within West Africa Timbuktu was a major center of book copying, religious groups, the Islamic sciences, and arts. Books were imported from North Africa and paper was imported from Europe. Books/manuscripts were written primarily in Arabic.
The most famous scholar from Timbuktu was Ahmad Baba (1556–1627), who wrote primarily about Islamic law.

== Astronomy ==
Three types of calendars can be found in Africa: lunar, solar, and stellar. Most African calendars are a combination of the three. African calendars include the Akan calendar, Egyptian calendar, Berber calendar, Ethiopian calendar, Igbo calendar, Yoruba calendar, Shona calendar, Somali calendar, Swahili calendar, Xhosa calendar, Borana calendar, and Luba calendar and Ankole calendar.

=== Northern Africa and the Nile Valley ===
A stone circle located in the Nabta Playa basin may be one of the world's oldest known archeoastronomical devices. Built by the ancient Nubians about 4800 BCE, the device may have approximately marked the summer solstice.
Since the first modern measurements of the precise cardinal orientations of the Egyptian pyramids were taken by Flinders Petrie, various astronomical methods have been proposed as to how these orientations were originally established. Ancient Egyptians may have observed, for example, the positions of two stars in the Plough / Big Dipper which was known to Egyptians as the thigh. It is thought that a vertical alignment between these two stars checked with a plumb bob was used to ascertain where North lay. The deviations from true North using this model reflect the accepted dates of construction of the pyramids.
Egyptians were the first to develop a 365-day, 12 month calendar. It was a stellar calendar, created by observing the stars.
During the 12th century, the astrolabic quadrant was invented in Egypt.

=== West Africa and the Sahel ===
Based on the translation of 14 Timbuktu manuscripts, the following points can be made about astronomical knowledge in Timbuktu during the 14th–16th centuries:

They made use of the Julian Calendar.
Generally speaking, they had a geocentric view of the Solar System.
Some manuscripts included diagrams of planets and orbits along with mathematical calculations.
They were able to accurately orient prayer towards Mecca.
They recorded astronomical events, including a meteor shower in August 1583.
At this time, Mali also had a number of astronomers including the emperor and scientist Askia Mohammad I.