Abstract
What if Africa, like the rest of the Old World, had experienced the plague? The suggestion seems pertinent; the arguments, at first glance, convincing: an increasing number of publications cite the Justinian plague to explain the end of Aksum and the depopulation of the Congo Basin, or the Black Death to explain the decline of medieval African kingdoms. While these hypotheses are very much in vogue, they are based on very little documentation. So it's worth asking why they work. And, above all, how: because, while they are based on the seductive maxim that Africa is as historiographically deserving of the plague as other parts of the Old World, these hypotheses make the plague play historical roles in Africa that it doesn't have elsewhere. So let's return to the facts. What do the texts say? Where are the archaeological clues? Was there really a depopulation? What kind of decline are we talking about?
