What if Sub Saharan Africa had no human beings until the explorers came along?

I think this is very interesting. What if Black Africans immediately disappeared after migration out of Africa (excluding North Afriacans). I read that no one knew of any life below the Sahara Desert before the Age of Exploration.

Would this have changed the course of modern day history? Certainly no West Atlantic Slave Trade or Arabic Slave Trade, but what about development of Africa? Would Africa have been settled by English colonists instead? Perhaps USA (United States of Africa?)

a reply to: depleteduranium92 There seems to be a bit of historical suggestions from explorers that when they encountered the natives in the many places they did, that they actually needed their knowledge to survive . Lot's of nasty s and local ways of dealing with them . Snow and snowshoes and toboggans .Sled dogs and Kayak's .Scurvy and bark scrapings ...

It relies on when you think the age of exploration was. European exploration? No where near. There has been tentative evidence that the ancient Egyptians were exploring well into the sub-Saharan areas. I think ,not in terms of exploration, that the areas were populated by over large tribes splitting and migrating to these areas. Anyway if all the black Africans disappeared the where does the present population derive from? As for the slave trade this was propagated by the coastal tribes entering the interior to kidnap their fellows and sell them to the slave traders. This was well before any Europeans had explored the interior. Also what the American descendants of the slaves do not want to admit(ie we want an apology off the British for the slave trade) that the Egyptians, Arabs and others, like the Persians were fetching slaves from sub- Saharan Africa for hundreds of years before Europeans ever came on the scene.

a reply to: depleteduranium92

There are fossils that indicate there were humans living there after the exodus from Africa and before the colonization.

One example is the Iwo Eleru skull found in Nigeria, estimated age 13000 years.

I think the archaeological record and the guess factor of human origin anthropology / migration routes etc are all far too sketchy. I truly believe the bigger picture is probably far different to the current 'out of Africa' hypothesis. It appears it is a perhaps deliberate propaganda attempt by 'whichever factions' at claiming themselves as the originators of humanity.

There is evidence of earlier settlements in the Middle East and the chances are, many many more in many places.

Just because something that was dug up was the oldest yet found doesn't make it the oldest, it is just a small part of the puzzle that is human genetic origins and evolution.

The recent finds for Neanderthal and Denisovan are interesting and I think, are at least a step in the right direction of establishing genetic bases for the evolution of humanity.