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Living archive

Kemet to Now

The sourced record of African and Black history

From the Nile Valley to today. Every entry shows its sources, and anything not yet verified is clearly marked.

100 full articles · 196 entries

01 / Mission

This site is for us

Kemet to Now is for Black and Brown people of African descent. It records what we have contributed to the world throughout time, from the Nile Valley to the present day: the civilizations we built, the knowledge we produced, the freedom we fought for and the work we are still doing now.

We gather it here so that we have an accurate perspective of our people, in order to continue to thrive into the future. Every entry shows its sources, so what you learn here can be trusted, taught and passed on.

02 / Now

History in the making

See all recent achievements
Official NASA portrait of astronaut Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, 2023

· United States

Victor Glover becomes the first Black astronaut to fly around the Moon

Victor J. Glover

Glover piloted NASA's Artemis II, which launched on April 1, 2026. It was the first crewed flight to the Moon in more than 50 years, and it made him the first Black person to travel into deep space and around the Moon. The crew splashed down off California on April 10.

Late-19th-century Baoulé drum from Côte d'Ivoire in the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, where the Djidji Ayokwe was also held

· Côte d'Ivoire

France returns the Djidji Ayokwe talking drum to Côte d'Ivoire

Ebrié people; Côte d'Ivoire Ministry of Culture

At a ceremony at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, France handed back the Djidji Ayokwe, a talking drum more than three metres long that colonial authorities seized from the Ebrié people in 1916. The drum reached Abidjan in March 2026 and is meant for permanent display in a museum being built there.

Landsat 8 satellite view of sandflats and mudflats in Guinea-Bissau's Bijagós Archipelago, the country's first World Heritage site

· Guinea-Bissau / Sierra Leone / Cameroon / Malawi

Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone gain their first UNESCO World Heritage sites

Guinea-Bissau; Sierra Leone (also Cameroon and Malawi)

At its 47th session in Paris in July 2025, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed the Bijagós Archipelago (Guinea-Bissau) and the Gola-Tiwai Complex (Sierra Leone), the first World Heritage sites for both countries. African cultural landscapes added in the same session included Cameroon's Diy-Gid-Biy in the Mandara Mountains and Malawi's Mount Mulanje.

Downtown Detroit skyline seen across the river from Windsor, Ontario; DTE Energy is headquartered in Detroit

· United States

Joi Harris named DTE Energy's first woman and first African American CEO

Joi Harris

DTE Energy, the Detroit-based utility, named Harris as its next president and CEO, effective September 8, 2025. She joined the company in 1991 and is its first woman and first African American chief executive.

03 / Themes

Browse by theme

Civilizations & Empires

Kemet, Kush, Aksum, Mali, Great Zimbabwe, Songhai

44 entries →

Spiritual Traditions

Kemetic, Dogon, Ifá/Yoruba, and diaspora traditions

19 entries →

Activists & Leaders

Freedom fighters, organizers, and heads of state

55 entries →

Inventors & Scientists

Innovators who shaped how we live and work

22 entries →

Writers & Thinkers

Novelists, poets, historians, and philosophers

39 entries →

Entrepreneurs & Business Pioneers

Builders of enterprises and institutions

17 entries →

04 / Featured

Featured articles

The pyramids of Giza, Egypt, photographed in March 2024
Civilizations & Empires

Kemet (Ancient Egypt)

c. 3100 – 30 BCE

Nile Valley, northeast Africa

The civilization of ancient Egypt, whose people called their land Kmt (Kemet), the Black Land, after the dark soil left by the Nile flood. Its dynastic history ran from about 3100 BCE to Roman conquest in 30 BCE.

Half-length photograph of Malcolm X, 1964, by Ed Ford for the New York World-Telegram & Sun
Activists & Leaders

Malcolm X

1925 – 1965

United States

Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, he became the leading public voice of the Nation of Islam, broke with it in 1964, and was assassinated in Harlem in 1965. His autobiography made him an enduring symbol of Black pride.

Dogon wooden sculpture of a seated couple, 18th–early 19th century
Spiritual Traditions

Dogon people and tradition

c. 15th century – present

Bandiagara Escarpment, central Mali (extending into Burkina Faso)

The Dogon of Mali's Bandiagara cliffs and plains keep living traditions of masked dances, ancestor rites and Awa initiation; their homeland is a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape of 289 villages.

19th-century French lithograph of Toussaint Louverture (Delpech); a period depiction, not a life portrait
Activists & Leaders

Toussaint Louverture

c. 1743 – 1803

Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and France

Born enslaved and freed in 1776, he became the leading general of the Saint-Domingue revolution and extended abolition across Hispaniola, before being seized by French forces and dying in a prison in France in 1803; Haiti declared independence in January 1804, after his death.

Studio portrait photograph of W. E. B. Du Bois, published 1919
Writers & Thinkers

W. E. B. Du Bois

1868 – 1963

Massachusetts, United States, and Ghana

Great Barrington-born scholar and activist who wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903), helped found the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, edited its magazine The Crisis from 1910 to 1934, and spent his last years in Ghana.

The family house of Yaa Asantewaa at Besease, Ghana, 2016
Activists & Leaders

Yaa Asantewaa

c. 1840s/1860s – 1921

Ejisu, Asante (present-day Ghana); exiled to the Seychelles

Queen mother of Ejisu who led the 1900 Asante uprising against British rule, sparked by the governor's demand for the Golden Stool. She was captured, exiled to the Seychelles, and died there in 1921.

Yoruba Àgéré Ifá (Ifá divination vessel) with kneeling woman, 17th–19th century
Spiritual Traditions

Yoruba religion and Ifá

Ancient to present

Yorubaland (Nigeria and Benin) and the diaspora

Yoruba religious practice honours many òrìṣà, who vary from town to town, and includes Ifá, a divination system in which babalawo priests interpret signs through a vast body of chanted verses.

05 / Timeline

Timeline

Open the full timeline

3100 BCE

Kemet (Ancient Egypt)

Nile Valley, northeast Africa

Civilizations & Empires

Born 3100 BCE

Narmer

Egypt (Upper and Lower Egypt)

Civilizations & Empires

Born 2650 BCE

Imhotep

Egypt (Memphis, Saqqara)

Inventors & Scientists

2613 BCE

Ma'at

Egypt

Spiritual Traditions

Born 2589 BCE

Khufu and the Great Pyramid of Giza

Giza, Egypt (Kemet)

Civilizations & Empires

2500 BCE

Kingdom of Kerma

Upper Nubia, around Kerma on the Nile's Dongola Reach, northern Sudan

Civilizations & Empires

2500 BCE

The Land of Punt

Southern Red Sea / Horn of Africa (location debated)

Civilizations & Empires

Born 2061 BCE

Mentuhotep II (Nebhepetre)

Egypt (Thebes)

Civilizations & Empires

06 / Method

Sources and methodology

Every entry cites at least two independent sources, such as museums, universities, national archives and scholarly publishers, and every summary is written in our own words. No entry relies on a single encyclopedia. Where scholars disagree, we present each position and name who holds it. Anything not yet verified is clearly marked. Read how this archive works.