Geography
This city is the capital of present-day Ghana.
Accra
The Mfecane was spurred by this nineteenth-century African empire's attempts to expand its territory using military force.
Zulu Empire
"And as soon as they are taken by the white men they are immediately ironed and branded with fire, and when they are carried to be embarked, if they are caught by our guards’ men the whites allege that they have bought them but they cannot say from whom..."
Letters from King Affonso, 1526
This formerly enslaved man published his "Interesting Narrative" in 1789, advocating an end to the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Olaudah Equiano
Britain formally abolished slavery in its colonies in this year.
1833 (took effect 1834)
The Transvaal, a region reputed for its gold and diamond mines, is located in this country.
South Africa
In 1349-53, Ibn Battuta travelled across the Sahara to visit this medieval African empire.
Mali
"Let not the natives of Africa be sacrificed to the greed of gold, their liberties taken away, their family life debauched, their just aspirations repressed, and avenues of advancement and culture taken from them..."
W.E.B. Du Bois, "To the Nations of the World" (1900)
This British Governor of Nigeria wrote "The Dual Mandate in Tropical Africa"
Lord Frederick Lugard
King Leopold II was forced to cede the Congo to the Belgian government in this year.
1908
This river flows from its origin in present-day Guinea through Mali, Niger, Benin, and Nigeria before emptying into the Gulf of Guinea.
Niger River
This precolonial African empire, located around Lake Chad, was a key conduit in the Trans-Saharan slave trade.
Kanem-Bornu
"He knelt beside the dead man and found his neck. Sure enough there was a string tied around his neck, from which hung a little bag. A triumphant smile played at the corners of his mouth. Since he had no knife with which to cut the string, he decided to remove it over the man’s head..."
Grace Ogot, "The Green Leaves" (1968)
This Malawian revolutionary, a disciple of the Watchtower Movement, led a violent uprising against British colonial rule in 1915
John Chilembwe
The "Natives Land Act" of this year restricted Black South Africans from owning property.
1913
This French colonial confederation was formed of the present-day countries of Gabon, Congo, the CAR, Chad, and Cameroon.
French Equatorial Africa
This infamous 19th century slave trader, an associate of King Leopold II and Henry Morton Stanley, ruled his own "state" in the eastern Congo river basin.
Tippu Tip
"It was four years later that my eyes were opened to the fact that black people suffered because they were black. Until then I had thought that the suffering that was the lot of my companions and myself was special to ourselves."
Andrée Blouin, My Country, Africa (1983, but talking about the 1930s)
This Ghanaian queen mother led the Asante in the War of the Golden Stool against the British in 1900.
Nana Yaa Asantewaa
W. E. B. Du Bois gave his famous speech on the global "color line" at this 1900 conference.
The First Pan-African Conference
In 1840, Sultan Seyyid Said moved the capital of the Omani Empire from Muscat to this island off the East African coast.
Zanzibar (Stone-Town)
Terracotta statues depicting smallpox have been found at this archeological site, an ancient city in the Niger River Bend founded in the 3rd century BCE.
Jenne-Jeno
"And Kitikpa came. No other disease is feared by the Ibo people as much as they fear Kitikpa. It is personified as an evil deity. Its victims are not mourned lest it be offended."
Chinua Achebe, "The Sacrificial Egg" (1959)
This Congolese religious figure founded the Antonian Movement, which adopted a syncretic form of Catholicism.
Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita (aka Beatriz of Kongo)
The Portuguese built many fortresses along the West African coast, including their first, this castle located in present-day Ghana, in 1482.
Elmina Castle