Colonial Africa

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...

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,...

Filled with “fascinating information, original research, and bold ideas” (NPR), a revelatory account of how African Independence was systematically undermined by the US In 1958 in Accra, Ghana, the Hands Off Africa conference brought together the leading figures of African independence in a...

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 ...

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...

Did Britain modernize Africa — or exploit it? Did colonialism build nations, or create the foundations of modern instability? Why do the borders, languages, religions, educational systems and economies of modern Africa still carry the fingerprints of empire? In Britain’s Colonial Report Card, Frederick Amakom delivers a bold, balanced and deeply thought-provoking examination of the British colonial legacy in Africa. This book goes beyond emotional slogans and simplistic narratives to investigate one of the most important historical relationships in the modern world. Through political, ...

SPAIN’S COLONIAL REPORT CARD Spain’s Forgotten African Empire Spain’s empire in Africa is one of the least discussed chapters of European colonial history. Yet Spain participated deeply in: slavery, conquest, missionary expansion, forced labor, racial hierarchy, military occupation, and colonial domination across Africa. From the conquest of the Canary Islands to Equatorial Guinea, Morocco and Western Sahara, Spain’s African empire reshaped societies politically, economically, culturally and psychologically. Why is Spain’s colonial history in Africa often overlooked? How did ...

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...

PORTUGAL’S COLONIAL REPORT CARD Empire, Slavery and the Lusophone Legacy in Africa Portugal was the first major European empire to establish deep roots in Africa — and one of the last to leave. For over five centuries, Portuguese expansion shaped: slavery, trade, religion, race, language, colonialism, and the modern Atlantic world itself. But was Portuguese colonialism truly more humane than other European empires, as Portugal long claimed? Or did the myth of Lusotropicalism hide a darker reality of: forced labor, racial hierarchy, underdevelopment, and exploitation? In Portugal’s ...

ITALY’S COLONIAL REPORT CARD Fascism, Empire and the African Experience Italy’s empire in Africa was built on dreams of glory, Roman revival and fascist power. But behind the propaganda of “civilization” stood: concentration camps, chemical warfare, forced labor, racial segregation, and brutal colonial repression. From the deserts of Libya to the mountains of Ethiopia, Italian colonialism became one of the clearest examples of how fascism and empire could merge into systems of organized violence. Why did Fascist Italy invade Ethiopia? Why has Italy’s colonial history remained less...

FRANCE’S COLONIAL REPORT CARD Civilization, Control and the Francophone Legacy in Africa Did France civilize Africa — or culturally dominate it? Why does French influence remain so powerful across Africa decades after colonialism officially ended? What is the true legacy of assimilation, the French language, the CFA franc and Françafrique? In France’s Colonial Report Card, Frederick Amakom delivers a bold and deeply analytical examination of the French colonial experience in Africa. This book explores how France conquered, governed and transformed vast parts of Africa politically, ...

BELGIUM’S COLONIAL REPORT CARD Congo, Extraction and the Ghosts of Empire Was the Congo one of the greatest crimes of empire? How did a small European nation create one of the most feared colonial systems in Africa? Why does the Democratic Republic of the Congo remain resource-rich yet deeply unstable today? In Belgium’s Colonial Report Card, Frederick Amakom delivers a powerful and deeply researched examination of Belgium’s colonial legacy in Central Africa — from the terror of King Leopold II’s Congo Free State to the political chaos, resource wars and neo-colonial struggles ...

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 ...

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.

“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...

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.

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 ...

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.

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...

Few modern voices have had as profound an impact on the black identity and critical race theory as Frantz Fanon, and Black Skin, White Masks represents some of his most important work. Fanon's masterwork is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of listeners. A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world.