Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first known hominids evolved in Africa between about 10 million and 5 million years ago. Their skull anatomy was similar to that of the gorilla and the chimpanzee, great apes that also evolved in Africa, but the hominids had adopted a bipedal locomotion which freed their hands.
The earliest known Homo sapiens fossils include the Jebel Irhoud remains from Morocco, the Florisbad Skull from South Africa, and the Omo remains from Ethiopia. Scientists have suggested that Homo sapiens may have arisen between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago through a merging of populations in East Africa and South Africa.
Iron smelting developed in the area between Lake Chad and the African Great Lakes between 1,000 and 600 BC, and in West Africa around 2,000 BC, long before the technology reached Egypt. Iron smelting has been dated to 2,000 BC in southeast Nigeria and to 896 to 773 BC at the site of Gbabiri in the Central African Republic.
Egypt was first united when Narmer of Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt, giving rise to the 1st and 2nd dynasties of Egypt. Unification was completed by the 3rd dynasty to form the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2,686 BCE.
In 969 the Fatimids finally conquered Egypt against a weakened Abbasid Caliphate after decades of attempts, moving their capital to Cairo and deferring Ifriqiya to the Zirids. The Fatimids became absorbed by the eastern realms of their empire, and in 972, after encouragement from faqirs, the Zirids changed their allegiance to recognise the Abbasid Caliphate.
The turn of the 7th century saw the Swahili coast continue to be inhabited by the Swahili civilisation, whose economies were primarily based on agriculture. From the 8th to the 14th century the region gradually Islamised due to the increased trading opportunities it brought, with some oral traditions having rulers of Arab or Persian descent.