Colonial Africa

GERMANY’S COLONIAL REPORT CARD Genocide, Empire and the Forgotten German Legacy in Africa Germany’s African empire lasted only a few decades. But within that short time, it produced some of the most brutal episodes in colonial African history. From the Herero and Nama genocide in Namibia to the scorched-earth destruction of the Maji Maji rebellion in East Africa, Germany’s colonies became laboratories of: racial ideology, militarized rule, forced labor, concentration camps, and imperial violence. Why has this history remained so forgotten compared to other colonial empires? Did German...

Discover the Extraordinary True Story of America's First Free Black Community In 1738, decades before the American Revolution, a former slave named Francisco Menéndez achieved something historians once thought impossible: he founded and commanded North America's first legally sanctioned free Black settlement. Through groundbreaking archaeological discoveries and meticulous historical detective work, this remarkable biography brings to light one of America's most inspiring yet forgotten freedom fighters. From Chains to Command: An Epic Journey Across Empires Born in West Africa around 1700,...

THE NETHERLANDS’ COLONIAL REPORT CARD Trade, Slavery and the Dutch Legacy in Africa The Dutch Empire helped build the modern global economy. Through: trade, shipping, banking, finance, and maritime power, the Netherlands became one of the wealthiest commercial empires in history. But behind the prosperity stood another reality: slavery, racial hierarchy, settler colonialism, forced labor, land dispossession, and African exploitation. How did Dutch merchants help shape the Atlantic slave trade? What role did Dutch colonialism play in the foundations of apartheid in South Africa? And how ...

World War I stands as one of history's most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain's leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates on toilet paper.

This epic work tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826. It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha.

A revelatory account of how African Independence was systematically undermined by the United States. "Fascinating information, original research, and bold ideas." —NPR "A triumph of archival research." —Jacobin In 1958 in Accra, Ghana, the Hands Off Africa conference brought together the...

Step into the riveting saga of the Scramble for Africa and learn about the dramatic reshaping of the African continent. This audiobook offers a lens into the pivotal moments that saw Africa carved and claimed by European powers. Explore the technological revolution that was occurring in the backdrop, as well as the indomitable spirit of the Africans who resisted colonial rule.

In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company’s ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II’s vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber...

Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge - a tradition that continues today within some black populations.

From the author of 1491—the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas—a deeply engaging new history of the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two...

In this sweeping, foundational work of American history, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Hackett Fischer draws on extensive research to show how enslaved Africans and their descendants enlarged American ideas of freedom in varying ways in different regions of the early United States...

A Historical Fiction Book Set in Eastern Africa During the Late 19th Century"Englishmen in Africa" whisks readers away on a thrilling journey aboard a steamer ship, following protagonist Guy Tritt as he embarks from Aden, anticipating a direct journey to Zaila. In turn of events, Guy is rerouted to Berbera, home of the grand fair, and his course changes further when he falls into friendship with a dubious Portuguese trader, Manuel Torres. Adventure in BerberaTheir landing in Berbera situates them into a maelstrom of conflict and treachery. True to the spirit of historical fiction, the ...

Into Rhodesia Before there was Rhodesia... there were the pioneers. Long before roads, railways and towns appeared on the map, a handful of ordinary families loaded everything they owned onto ox wagons and headed into one of the most dangerous frontiers in Africa. They crossed flooded rivers, hacked wagon roads through virgin forest, climbed seemingly impassable mountains and endured disease, lions, drought and isolation in search of a better life. Many never returned. Based on the remarkable accounts of the men and women who lived through these extraordinary journeys, Into Rhodesia brings ...

Is China a genuine partner in Africa's development, or is it building a twenty-first-century colonial empire through economic power rather than territorial conquest? For decades, China has presented itself as Africa's development partner, investing billions of dollars in roads, railways, ports, mines, industrial parks, power stations, and telecommunications networks across the continent. Supporters argue that China is helping Africa achieve what Western powers promised but failed to deliver. They point to new infrastructure, expanding trade, job creation, and an alternative model of ...

A Historical Adventure Book Set in Southern Africa During the Late 19th and Early 20th Century "A Scotsman in Africa" is a spell-binding and richly detailed work of historical fiction. Journey across continents as you follow the life of a spirited young lad named Davie Crawford, born and raised in the humble town of Kirkcaple, Scotland, who ventures into the unforgiving landscapes of Southern Africa. An encounter with a mysterious black minister practicing strange rites by the sea sets off a chain of events, deeply connecting Davie to the exotic and perilous landscapes of Africa. As Davie ...

J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace and Racism in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Postcolonial AnalysisDive into the complex and haunting world of J.M. Coetzee's "Disgrace" as you explore the depths of racism in post-apartheid South Africa. This thought-provoking analysis delves into the heart of apartheid's legacy and how it continues to shape the country's narrative. Postcolonial analysis of J.M. Coetzee's "Disgrace" in the context of post-apartheid South Africa can be immensely helpful to readers in several ways:Deeper Understanding of the Novel: Readers will gain a profound understanding of the ...

The Nile did not begin in Egypt. It began in Nubia. Long before many of the world’s greatest empires rose, a powerful African civilization flourished along the Nile—rich in gold, culture, and political power. This is the story history almost forgot. In The Nubians, Frederick Amakom takes you on a sweeping journey across thousands of years—uncovering one of Africa’s most influential yet overlooked civilizations. From the early kingdom of Kerma to the rise of Kush… From the rule of the Black Pharaohs over Egypt to the industrial power of Meroë… From Christian Nubia to the modern ...

Francis Hall's letters are among the earliest colonial record of daily life in British East Africa, now modern day Kenya. In 1892 Hall was posted to Fort Smith with orders to build 150 miles of road, to re-supply caravans between the coast and Uganda and to keep the peace between the Kikuyu and the Maasai. His was a hard life in difficult, dangerous conditions and every day was an adventure. He was gored by a rhino and mauled by a leopard, which he strangled with his rifle, and survived bush surgery and frequent bouts of malaria. While on leave in England he married Bee Russell, a ...

This work focuses on life under British colonial rule in Tanganyika and Southern Rhodesia. An African from Tanganyika, now Tanzania, shares his experiences. A British administrator who worked in colonial Tanganyika and in Southern Rhodesia also shares his. It is a work of shared memories although a generation apart – the British administrator being old enough to be a father to the African colonial subject who remembers not only the good times but also some of the injustices he and others suffered during that period. Godfrey Mwakikagile also addresses the enduring legacy of colonial rule ...

“The exhilarating must-read fantasy debut of the year.” —Tasha Suri, World Fantasy Award–winning author An unforgettable tale of revenge and rebellion unfolds when a reckless king implements an ill-fated plan to end a thousand-year war in this relentlessly gripping epic fantasy debut. A...