Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer

The primary subistence method is based on domesticated herd animals. The society is still nomadic, following natural weather cycles and wild plant availability. It is possible for nomadic groups who follow a regular movement pattern to practice land cultivation, by seeding plants that will be ready for harvest when the group passes through the area the next time.

First appearance of humans, based on discovery of "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) remains 

http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline.htm

Based on fossils, many scientist conclude that modern H. sapiens had evolved in Africa by 130,000 years ago and started spreading to diverse parts of the world beginning on a route through the Near East sometime before 90,000 years ago.  These were the ancestors of the San people in South Africa.

http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/faq/Encarta/encarta.htm

Mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) research into modern human origins has produced two major findings. First, the entire amount of variation in mtDNA across human populations is small in comparison with that of other animal species. This means that all human mtDNA originated from a single ancestral lineage -- specifically, a single mother -- fairly recently and has been mutating ever since, producing the small diversity that exists throughout the human species. Most estimates of the mutation rate indicate an origin of about 200,000 years ago. The second major finding is that mtDNA of African populations is more diverse than of peoples of other continents. This suggests that African mtDNA has been changing for a longer time than elsewhere. Thus Africa is the likely source of the original mtDNA mother (sometimes called "Mitochondrial Eve"). Some geneticists and anthropologists have concluded, then, that modern humans originated in a small population in Africa and spread from there.

http://anthropology.si.edu/humanorigins/faq/Encarta/encarta.htm

Nile, Congo

Emergence of River people along Nile and Congo

Rise of agriculture in SubSaharan Africa

Bantu probably originated in West Africa, migrated downward to Subsaharan area, largest migration in human history, agriculturalists or pastoralists.Bantu split in Eastern, migrating down into South Africa, and Western, migrating into Angola, Namibia, and Botswana

Africa / Western

Hemisphere 

Britain defeats Ashanti Kingdom

http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/africans.html

Global European Imperialism at its height: The "scramble for Africa" proceeds, rationalized as a "civilizing mission" based on white supremacy. Europeans assert their "spheres of interest" in African colonies arbitrarily, cutting across traditionally established boundaries, homelands, and ethnic groupings of African peoples and cultures. Following a "divide and rule" theory, Europeans promote traditional inter-ethnic hostilities. "The European onslaught of Africa that began in the mid 1400s progressed to various conquests over the continent, and culminated over 400 years later with the partitioning of Africa. Armed with guns, fortified by ships, driven by the industry of capitalist economies in search of cheap raw materials, and unified by a Christian and racist ideology against the African 'heathen,' aggressive European colonial interests followed their earlier merchant and missionary inroads into Africa"--Prof. Malaika Mutere, Howard Univ., African Culture & Aesthetics, African Odyssey Interactive: