>>44864192The problem with Africa as a cradle of civilizations is that, despite its LUDICROUS amount of natural resources, the vast majority of cultures that rose to prominent civilization level all mostly existed to the northern outskirts of the Sahara or at least had a link to either the Middle East or the cultures of the Mediterranean. The Songhai did exist as a colossal, sub-Saharan power for a time, but arguably only due to its dominance within the gold and slave trades; and ultimately it just tore itself apart due to a single succession crisis, and then the individual, leftover fragments (all mostly led by vain princes) aggressively warred and sold each other into slavery multiple centuries before any foreign power could reliably and easily reach the African hinterlands. Basically, if you cross south through the desert (which denotes the start of the majority of the continent), you don't see much widespread, documented stability across the historical human timeline. Thankfully, however, pokemon can make any place into a relative paradise.
