African history

Excerpt: The Akan Forest Kingdom of Asante

by John Parker

This excerpt from a new collection of essays on the precolonial kingdoms of Africa examines the sophisticated way that the Asante integrated the political power of their ruling elite with the spiritual and ceremonial to rule. 

The Role of US Evangelicals in Radicalizing Ugandans Against LGBTQ Rights

While the accusation that LGBTQ adults are a risk to the safety of children has recently reemerged in American politics, US evangelical groups have been encouraging it in Africa for years. 

Historical Data on Mosquito Range Shows Climate Change is Spreading Malaria Risk

Data stretching back to 1898 show mosquitoes spreading further from the equator in Africa year by year, with recent acceleration consistent with climate change estimates.

Regina Twala's Stolen Life Work Highlights Colonialism Inside the Historical Profession

by Joel Cabrita

Regina Twala performed the intellectual labor that supported another intellectual's published work on African religious practices; her obscurity was the foundation of his fame. 

How True is the History in "The Woman King"?

"'The Woman King' chooses to make resistance to slavery its moral compass, then misrepresents a kingdom that trafficked tens of thousands as a vanguard in the struggle against it."

"The Woman King" Softens Truths of the Slave Trade

by Ana Lucia Araujo

The film has a delicate task: showing the involvement of the Kingdom of Dahomey in selling other Africans to European slave traders without feeding narratives that blame Africans for the slave trade. It largely sidesteps this history instead. 

Benin Bronzes Have Final German Exhibition Before Repatriation

"'The recognition of the colonial injustices and the subsequent return of the items “will continue to define our work in the future,' Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation."

The Belated Return of Lumumba's Tooth Shows the Tenacity of Colonialism

"The only reason that can be offered for keeping a man’s tooth for 61 years knowing that it was obtained through torture and murder is that the cruelty is the point. Colonisation was, after all, a projection of power through cruelty, rationalised by pseudo-intellectual arguments about racial superiority and difference."

Belgian King Expresses "Deepest Regrets" for Congo Atrocities

While calling Belgian colonial rule "unjustifiable and racist" King Philippe did not go so far as to issue an apology. 

Review Essay: The Bloody Business of the British Conquest of Nigeria

by Adewale Maja-Pearce

Self-serving stories of the civilizing mission of British Christianity paper over the brutality of colonialism. 

Palm Oil is Colonialism's Continuing Nightmare

by Max Haiven

The extraction and trade in palm oil in west Africa has been at the center of two centuries of exploitation and violence, which stands to get worse as the Ukraine war threatens the world supply of competing sunflower oil. 

Smithsonian to Return All Benin Bronzes

The Smithsonian will return works that it has legal title to own but that are linked to an infamous British raid on Benin City in 1897.

Excerpt: George Brown and Firestone's Liberian Empire of Rubber

by Gregg Mitman

The African American intellectual George Brown confronts the brutality of Firestone's rubber plantation empire in Liberia in an excerpt from a new history of the company. 

In Memoriam: Dr. Robert Farris Thompson, Pioneering African and Afro-Atlantic Art Historian

Dr. Thompson's research pushed academics to consider African art as art, and developed important theories of Black aesthetic traditions in multiple art forms throughout the African diaspora. 

Mapping Black Antiquity

by Sarah Derbew

Ancient Greek literature is full of depictions of African people that affirm their participation in classical antiquity. Why have these been submerged? 

Black Veterans of the First World War are Often Overlooked

by Michelle Moyd

Nearly 638,000 African men fought in Africa and Europe. Some were conscripted by colonial powers and forced to fight or labor, and others hoped through service to stake claims to political rights. More global attention to their service and its relationship to colonialism is needed.

France to Return Looted Artifacts to Benin

At least 90,000 artifacts from sub-Saharan Africa are held by institutions in France, according to a 2018 report commissioned by the French government.

Jack Johnson and Africa: Boxing and Race in Colonial Africa

by Abraham Tapiwa Seda

Jack Johnson's achievement as the world heavyweight champion had cultural significance far beyond the United States, as European colonial regimes that had used sports like boxing as instruments of social control found that they could also be instruments of rebellion and rejection of white supremacy.

Built on the Bodies of Slaves: How Africa Was Erased from the History of the Modern World

by Howard W. French

Popular understandings of history have generally ignored the significance of Africa and Africans in the establishment of the interconnected world and modernity. 

Germany Apologized for a Genocide. It’s Nowhere Near Enough

by Kavena Hambira and Miriam Gleckman-Krut

"To begin to atone for its Namibian genocide, Germany must negotiate directly with descendants of survivors — and commit to wide-ranging reparations."