The economic history of Africa is as old as the first people of mankind. The economy of the continent moved from hunter gathering to agriculture (farming and livestock rearing), fishing, manufacturing, trade, and international trade. Major trading states grew up in many parts of the continent but the most known were those of the Sahel belt, the East and Southern Africa regions, the first across the Sahara desert to north Africa and further to Europe and the others to Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. But the regions of the central and equatorial Africa had their own economic activities which were mostly involved in agriculture and hunter-gathering.

The Northeast Africa region of the continent gave rise to the ancient Egyptian and Nubian civilizations which preceded the Greek city states and the Mediterranean island states of Minoa, Crete, and Rhodes. They traded with the East Africa States starting from present day Horn of Africa States all the way to Mozambique and southern Africa. The trading nations on the east of the continent from Egypt to southern Africa traded in animal products (Rhino horns, ivory, hides and skins), gold, iron ore, agricultural produce and implements such as endemic cereals. Most of these states became eventually part of the immense Muslim world and were connected to Arabia, Persia, and Asia, all the way to China. The monsoon winds which blow towards India and Asia during the months of April to October and towards Africa during the months of November to March played pivotal roles in the trade with Asia.

The natural growth of the economy of the continent was disrupted by the European colonialism of the eighteenth to mid-twentieth century and its, sometimes, sub-human treatment of the populations of the continent. There was not much of an African economy for some two hundred years other than those connected with Europe and treated as part of the European economy. Some countries were doing well during this period while others dipped deeply into oblivion. Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa were prominent economies during this period, as were the economies of East Africa. The Sahel belt dipped, and the large empires and states of that region were slowly dismantled. Today they appear to be shadows of their great past. No wonder there are coups and counter coups in that region.

The article is not designed to address African economic history but the above was a brief introduction to the story of the African economies to enable us to address the Türkiye-Africa growing relationship, which mostly revolves........

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