In the context of this work on the ‘General History of Africa’, it is particularly important to examine the emergence of pottery and its context. Many members of the public and decision-makers still consider that the ‘African man has not sufficiently entered into history: in his imagination, where everything begins again, there is no room for human adventure or for the idea of progress’ (Sarkozy, 2007). But field research carried out over several decades shows that Africa was, on the contrary, one of the cradles of this crucial invention, which was the discovery of firing shaped clay materials (Huysecom and Sanogo, 2008). We will not only review the most recent archaeological discoveries, most of which are still little known to the general public, but we shall also consider the concrete significance of mastering this art of fire, its implications, and its use on the African continent during Neolithic times.