the millennia-long expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples southward from West and Central Africa, spreading a common cultural foundation that included language, farming, and ironworking
Berbers
the name used by Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans to describe the native peoples of the Maghreb; today, this population generally self-identifies as Amazigh, or Imazighen
biome
a community of vegetation and wildlife adapted to a particular climate
cataract
a place in a river where the otherwise placid flow is upset by a waterfall, a shallow portion, or the presence of boulders
deffufa
a type of monumental mud-brick structure unique to Nubian civilization and believed to have served a religious function
kentake
a Kushite title that roughly translates to “queen mother” and was a powerful position in Meroitic Kush
Maghreb
the western half of North Africa, including most of present-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya
Nubia
the name Egyptians gave to the expansive area south of the first cataract and extending into sub-Saharan Africa; it included the Kingdom of Kush
Sahel
an east–west belt of semiarid grassland that forms a transitional zone between the Sahara to the north and the equatorial rainforest to the south
savanna
a grassy plain with scattered trees found to the north and south of the tropical African rainforest