Africa lies at the heart of human history. It is the continent from which the distant ancestors of every one of us, no matter who we are today, originally came. Its people participated integrally in the great transformations of world history, from the first rise of agricultural ways of life to the various inventions of metal-working to the growth and spread of global networks of commerce. Bigger than the United States 🇺🇸, China 🇨🇳, India 🇮🇳 and the continent of Australia 🇦🇺 combined, the African continent presents us with a historical panorama of surpassing richness and diversity.