According to Egyptologist Dr Yosef Ben-Jochannan and Historians like Cheikh Anta Diop, and Dr Anthony Browder, the Nile Valley is important because it is the Cradle of Civilization due to its contributions to World Civilization by founding the Kemetic Civilization possibly going back to at least 5000 BC in Pre-Colonial Africa and it is now a forgotten part of Africa’s History in Antiquity.
The area known as the Great Lakes region of East Africa contributed to world Civilization when it spawned what has been termed the Nile Valley Civilization.
Historically, it makes sense that the Nile Valley would be important as the Cradle of Civilization since the earliest traces of modern Man coupled with Agriculture and Iron have been found in East Africa’s Great Lakes Region.
The Nile Valley is particularly importany because knowledge of Cereals, Animal Husbandry and Iron Smelting are examples of contributions to Civilization from the Cradle of Civilization in the Nile Valley region which spread into the African interior as people Migrated from the Nile Valley region all the way into the Delta region of what would become Ancient Nubia, Kush and Egypt which influenced Western Civilization through the Greeks
Another reason the Nile Valley is important is because the Crop Farming and Animal Husbandry were taken by the African or Bantu Peoples who had migrated from the Nile Valley and adapted to their new environment using techniques that had initially been developed in the Early African Nile Valley Civilization culture settlements.
This East African Nile Valley Civilization would also be important in contributing to Civilization by providing the Cultural and Technological foundations for the subsequent Great Ancient Empires of Africa like Mali, Asante and The Monomatapa of Great Zimbabwe in the South.
The arrival of Farming coupled with the introduction of Iron Tools had completely transformed the peoples settled all the way from the Nile Valley Civilization into the African interior by around 1200 AD.
Population growth was also followed by larger more settled communities and greater food security.
As the Iron Age and Agriculture flourished throughout the African Continent, relationships based on Kinship, Ethnic and Political identity would also coalesce and inform the consciousness of the Africans who had migrated into the African interior from the Nile Valley with concepts of Extended Family, Tribe and Chiefdom that would form the bedrock of African Society across the entire African Continent.
This demonstrates the importance of the Nile Valley because the Nile Valley provided a Template for the various Civilizations that spread throughout the rest of Africa.
In time, the foundations of African Society settled, and strong Political entities emerged in response to the need to negotiate Political Power in order to maintain access to the means of production like land within Iron Age Society.
The History of Africa is in some sense the story of the Political contests of these Iron Age Kingdoms such as the Zulu Kingdom, Nubia and Kush that were in essence a legacy of the importance of the earliest African Nile Valley Civilization that spread into the African interior and then out to the rest of the world beginning in Ancient Mesopotamia which was the region closest to the African Nile Valley Civilization.
The Nile Valley’s contribution to Civilization would reach its peak during the existence of a Unified Egypt which expressed the highest ideals of a Culture that had its origins in the East African Nile Valley.
As such, the importance of the Nile Valley Civilization reveals the important contributions of Pre-Colonial Africa to World Civilization.
For these contributions to Civilization, the Nile Valley is considered important by some Historians as the Cradle of Civilization.
Nile Valley Contributions To Civilization
