The Zagwe dynasty of Ethiopia, established in the twelfth century, builds churches out of solid rock, including the Church of St. George at Lalibela.Several powerful Somali empires dominate the regional trade including the Ajuran Sultanate, which excels n hydraulic engineering and fortress building.

The Sultanate of Adal’s General Ahmed Gurey is the first African commander in history to use cannon warfare on the continent during Adal's conquest of the Ethiopian Empire, The Bantu slowly move south, and the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050.

The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoi-San people, reaching the Fish River in today's Eastern Cape Province.Monomotapa, with its capital at Great Zimbabwe, exists from about 1250 between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers of Southern Africa, in the territory of modern-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Following the Bantu Migration into Central Africa, during the fourteenth century, the Luba Kingdom in southeast Congo comes about under a king whose political authority derives from religious, spiritual legitimacy.

The kingdom controls agriculture and regional trade of salt and iron from the north and copper from the Zambian/Congo copper beltIn 1487, Bartolomeu Dias becomes the first European to reach the southernmost tip of Africa.