Africa24

By the middle of the second millennium B.C., North Africa up to the Nile valley was inhabited by a people of mixed Saharan origin and Mediterranean stock, know as Berbers. The name Berber is derived from the language that they spoke, not by any particular physical features they possessed. The Berbers were never united into a single group. Rather, they were organized into a number of tribes and led a nomadic way of life. The Berbers were known for the speed and beauty of their horses.

By 1500 B.C., the Berbers were trading with the Egyptians. They probably also traded with the Africans south of the Sahara, although there is no positive evidence of this. During the first millennium B.C., new trading partners, the Phoenicians, appeared on the North African Coast.

The Phoenicians come from the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, now modern day Lebanon. The developed a trade network all over the Mediterranean Sea. Carthage was the most important of their colonies, which they founded between the ninth and fifth centuries B.C. on the coast of North Africa. Other colonies include Leptis and Utica. The Phoenician colonies provided a stimulus for the Berber trade wit the Sudanic and West Africa. The Berbers became the middlemen between the north to south trade across the Sahara Desert.. Trade items traveling northward included gold, ivory, and slaves.

By the third century B.C., the Romans were challenging the Phoenicians to North Africa. By the first century B.C., the Berbers became trading partners with the Romans. Slowly the coast of North Africa came under the control and influence of the Romans. By the first century A.D., many cities, both old and new, flourished along the coast. At this time, trade across the Sahara, called trans-Saharan trade, grew and expanded. Trade grew for two reasons. The Roman cities on the coast served as markets for the Roman trade network. Moreover, the camel was introduced and provided rapid and easy transportation across the Sahara Desert. Again the Berbers acted as intermediaries in the north to south trade across the Sahara.

With the decline and fall of the Roman empire in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., trade was interrupted. A period of invasions and chaos overwhelmed northern Africa until the seventh century A.D. It was the rise and spread of Islam in this area that led to political stabilization and the revival of the trans-Saharan trade network.