Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

In the Ancient period, North Africa was very much part of the classical Mediterranean world, whilst sub-Saharan Africa was unknown and exotic. But the rapid growth of Islam after the seventh century created a schism between Europe and North Africa, the latter being perceived, during the Crusades, as a hostile place filled with enemies to Christianity. Lands to the south and east of the Mediterranean coastline, however, were now sometimes imagined as key redoubts of Christian populations, led by such legendary figures as Prester John, mythical king of Abyssinia. This led to a ‘late-medieval motif of a Christian Africa - part real, part imagined - as Europe’s helper in need and ally in the confrontation with Islam’ (Pieterse 1992: 25).