Africa is currently the subject of particular geopolitical attention. On one hand the continent is extensively affected by global and environmental change and its societies and economies suffer from internal migration, conflict and globalization. On the other hand we owe Africa various cultural inspirations and innovations making it from the archaeological point of view a hot spot in the research of human history.

A large number of constellations and processes to be observed today in northern hemisphere Africa have their roots in historic and prehistoric developments. However, well studied areas and periods are juxtaposed with virtually unknown regions and little understood contexts. To date, study of these contexts has been predominantly characterized by an extra-African, e.g. European or Near Eastern, perspective.

This SPP attempts a fundamental change in perspective. According to our hypothesis intra-African relations had a more substantial impact on the development of human societies in Africa than previously acknowledged. In order to test this hypothesis, we will reverse the traditional viewing perspective. The focus of the project will be on intra-African interactions rather than extra-continental contacts. Our objective is to understand which kind of intra-African interactions existed and the impact they had on neighboring regions.

The main objective of the SPP is to render visible the multilayered entanglement of wide ranging contacts in the African past between the Mediterranean and the rain forest. Entanglements and interactions which had a formative influence on human societies during the last 6,000 years will be studied with the help of a wide spectrum of multidisciplinary methods.