African-European interactions date back to antiquity. Ancient Romans and Greeks had limited and mostly indirect knowledge of sub-Saharan Africa. They learned about it while in North Africa and the Red Sea basin. Africans lived in the classical world in freedom and bondage. During the Middle Ages, Europeans still knew little about sub-Saharan Africa. What knowledge they had mostly came through North African traders involved in Trans-Saharan trade. Africans continued to reach Medieval Europe, mostly in bondage, through the Sahara. By the early fifteenth century, Christian Ethiopian pilgrims were found in what is now Spain, Portugal, and Italy, particularly Rome, where Ethiopians established a community near St. Peter’s Basilica.

In the fifteenth century, the Portuguese began exploring the West African coast. They had several goals for these voyages. They were looking for a direct sea route to the “Indies” to gain an advantage over their Italian competitors and bypass the Muslim Middle East. They were also looking for direct access to the gold mines of West Africa and the fabled “River of Gold.” The Portuguese elites saw overseas expansion as an extension of the Reconquista, their centuries-old fight with Muslim Spain. This expansion campaign sputtered in a resistant North Africa, and the Portuguese turned their attention to West Africa. The Portuguese were also looking for Prester John, the mythical Christian king. Since the myth’s emergence in the twelfth century, Europeans had been looking for Prester John as a potential ally against Islamic expansion. Initially, he was believed to rule somewhere in Asia, in regions mostly unknown by Europeans. In the fifteenth century, growing awareness of the Asian world combined with the arrival of Christian Ethiopians in Italy led Europeans to believe that Prester John was in Africa and ruled over the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia.

Portuguese exploration of West and West Central Africa led to two major outcomes. The start of the Atlantic slave trade saw the first enslaved Africans reach Portugal in 1444. Portuguese exploration also led to diplomatic relations with a variety of African kingdoms. The rulers of the Kingdom of Kongo converted to Christianity in 1491. In the ensuing decades, the Kongolese dispatched envoys and young noblemen to Lisbon for a Christian education. In 1518, Henrique, son of Afonso I of Kongo, became the first sub-Saharan bishop in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

As the Portuguese were on the west coast of Africa, on the opposite side of the continent, the rulers of the Kingdom of Ethiopia pursued relations with their European counterparts. Ethiopian delegations reached Venice (1402), the court of Alfonso of Aragon in Valencia (1427), and Naples (1450). They also visited the papal court on multiple occasions. By 1514, an Ethiopian representative had reached Lisbon. There they persuaded Portuguese rulers to send a large delegation to Ethiopia, which would reach the kingdom’s court in 1520, and found a small but active community of European traders and artists there.

At the same time, Lisbon became the European city with the largest community of African descent. African peoples probably accounted for over 10 percent of the city’s population in this period. Most of these individuals were in bondage and toiled in menial jobs, but there were significant exceptions. The best documented is the case of João de Sá Panasco. He not only gained his freedom, but became a court jester and a knight of the Order of Santiago, the most prestigious military order in Portugal. Rome also had a large number of enslaved Africans. But it was also home to a small community of Ethiopian pilgrims, some of whom socialized with the city’s elites. Tomas Wäldä Samu’él co-edited the Ethiopian Psalter (1513) in Ge’ez, the first African-language book printed in Europe. Tesfa Seyon (1510–1552) published the Ethiopian New Testament (1548) and contributed to the Chaldeae seu Aethiopicae linguae institutiones (1552), a grammar of Ge’ez that became the first European grammar of an African language. He also advised Pope Paul III and other Catholic figures such as Ignatius of Loyola. Finally, Yohannes of Cyprus (1509–1565) became the second African bishop in the modern history of the Catholic Church.