Southern Africa has witnessed the evolution of humans from early hominids, from about 5 million years ago, to modern man, you and I. This region has also witnessed the effects of human migrations over the last two thousand years and more recently, colonialism.

From about 5 million years ago:

The oldest hominids, the australopithecines, were two-footed, small-brained primates that appeared in Southern Africa about 5 million years ago. The world famous 2.5 million year old early hominid "Mrs Ples", was of the species Australopithecus africanus, which appeared from about 2.8 to 2.6 million years ago. The early species of the genus Homo used stone tools and there is evidence of cultural behaviour. These man-apes (e.g. Homo habilis) would have been no bigger than a ten-year-old child. Good archaeological evidence is found in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.

Around 750 000 years ago:

Homo erectus is hunting in the savannahs of southern Africa. Homo erectus appears to have been more adept at catching small game than their predecessors. They also appear to have been able to use fire. By 200,000 years ago, early forms of Homo sapiens existed.

Between 100 000 and 60 000 years ago:

Homo sapiens takes the stage -- these where the ancestors of Southern Africa's early inhabitants, the San and the Khoisan (Bushmen & Hottentots) and modern man. At this time, Neandathals are still roaming Europe.

From 60 000 to 20 000 years ago:

Homo sapiens begins to move out of Africa -- Northern Europe is in the middle of a great ice age which only ends 14 000 years ago.

From around 20 000 years ago to 600 BC:

Earliest known examples of San cave paintings although none survive today. Present day Zimbabwe has the most concentrated collection of rock art in the world.

600 BC:

Arab traders arrive in East Africa. Gradually, they spread further south establishing a major trading post at Sofala on the Mozambique coast.

300 BC:

Migration of Negro and Hamitic (BaNtu) peoples east and south ahead of the spreading Sahara began around 300 BC. Ultimately, the migrating BaNtu farmers came into contact with the pastoralist Khoikhoi or 'Hottentot', the people who occupied East Africa and the northern regions of Southern Africa.

The BaNtu speaking peoples brought with them cattle, the concept of planting crops and settled village life. The Khoikhoi who owned small livestock (sheep and perhaps goats), lived by gathering wild plants and domesticating animals.

Although the Khoikhoi traded with the BaNtu, mainly for cattle in exchange for animal skins and other items, they where "forced" to migrate ahead of the expanding BaNtu population. As the Khoikhoi migrated southward, they came into contact with the khoisan or "Bushmen", the race who occupied Southern Africa, forcing them Southwards. The khoikhoi resembled the khoisan in many ways.

300 AD:

Earliest archaeological evidence of occupation at the site of Great Zimbabwe. The Gokomere people were spread throughout the Eastern Highlands, south into the Limpopo Province of South Africa and as far as northeast Botswana.

1000 AD:

Early Shona arrivals. The Karanga from the North install vassal states as they move south. Their impetus ceases south of the Limpopo where they subdue the local tribes and set up a relatively peaceful, monotheistic society which flourishes. The khoisan, the areas original inhabitants, are relegated to slave status.

1100 -1400 AD:

The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, originally built as a shrine to the god Mwari, testify to a golden age of the Shona kingdom. Its rulers are god-kings with the absolute power of life and death.

Mapungubwe was South Africa's first kingdom, and developed into Southern Africa's largest realm, lasting for 400 years before it was abandoned in the 14th century. The Mapungubwe Kingdom traded gold and ivory with China, India and Egypt, particularly at the height of its power, between about 1220 and 1300 AD. See: Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site

1450:

A successful coup by Mwene Mutapa (Great Plunderer) ensures that his heirs inherit the title which is today remembered as Monomotapa. His son, Mutape, moves the capital to Fura Mountain near Mazowe. Trade with the Arabs in ivory, rhino horn and gold gives rise to an empire which controls the whole area from the Limpopo to the Zambezi.

1490:

Another coup, this time by Changa, a slave son of Mutape's who overthrows his legitimate successor with the help of Arab traders.

1494:

The son of the rightful heir regains control but the kingdom is split between the Mwene Mutapa at Fura and the Changamire at Zimbabwe.

1514:

Seventeen years after Vasco Da Gama successfully rounded the Cape of Good Hope and weighed anchor on the east African coast, Antonio Fernandez is the first European to document the lie of the land in the interior. He declares it fit for European habitation.

1650:

When white settlers arrived in the mid 17th century the whole of Southern Africa was inhabited by 3 different groups - the hunter-gatherers (Khoiksan), the pastoralists (Khoikhoi) and the farmers (BaNtu).

1816:

King Shaka kaSenzangakhona ascends to power and founds the beginning of the Zulu Kingdom. Caused directly and indirectly because of Shaka's rise to power; war, chaos and famine rips throughout Southern Africa as tribes battle it out for supremacy.