A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races by Harry Johnston

THE theme of this book obviously deals rather with the invasion and settlement of Africa by foreign nations than with the movements of people indigenous in their present types to the African continent; nevertheless, it may be well to preface this sketch of the history of African colonization by a few remarks explaining the condition and inhabitants of the continent-so far as we can deduce them from indirect evidence-before it was subjected to invasion and conquest by races and peoples from Europe and Asia.

In all probability man first entered Africa from the direction of Syria. He penetrated into tropical Africa in the train of those large mammals which still form the most striking feature in the African fauna; many of which however were evolved not in tropical Africa but in southern Europe or western Asia as well as in Egypt and Cis-Saharan Africa. These great apes, elephants, giraffes, and antelopes sought a refuge in tropical Africa not only from the cold of the glacial pleistocene, but from the incessant attacks of carnivorous man. Later on, but still in most remote times, there were (no doubt) migrations of European man from the northern side of the Mediterranean. But it seems more likely that the bulk of African humanity as represented by its modern types passed from Syria and Persia into Arabia, and thence into north-eastern Africa.