Myths, Legends, Religion, and Faith: Oya, the Orisha of Winds and Storms

It is Black History Month in the United States, a celebration of Pan-Africanism and black pride, so to celebrate this we are looking at an orisha, or orixa. Worshipped in both African and the Americas the orisha emerged among the Yoruba in what is now Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, but through the horrors of the

The Making of Today: Slavery, Ghana, and the Royal African Company, April-June 1752

In 1750 the British parliament passed an act which would replace the Royal African Company with the African Company of Merchants. This formally happened in 1752, and I could not find the actual date of when this happened. I found a ledger detailing the African Company of Merchants’s investors from Liverpool which dated from June

Myths, Legends, and Faith: Wazimamoto, Vampires and Blood-Draining in East Africa

Picture: Nairobi in the 1920s In the UK Black History Month lands in October – when we do our Month of Horror – so this week I wanted to combine the two. In the fantastic documentary, and book it’s based on, Horror Noire one of the first and most influential lines, paraphrased, is ‘for African-Americans

Prisons in Colonial Africa: From the margins of colonial history

This article was first published by Retrospect Journal Prison-abolitionist Angela Davis once discussed how, ‘the prison is considered an inevitable and permanent feature of our social lives’, which makes it simultaneously ‘present in our lives’ and ‘absent from our lives’. Those incarcerated become part of the ‘margins’ of society – a warning about going against

World History: Decolonisation

Two overarching themes characterised post-war twentieth century: the Cold War and decolonisation. These two events deeply intersected, so it is almost impossible to separate them. Today we’re looking at the process of decolonisation, and the emergence of post-colonial states with all the difficulties which comes with it. Across Africa, Asia, and the Americas new movements

The Quagga and Colonialism

This article was first published by Retrospect Journal on 02/12/2019, and can be read here. On 12 August 1883 the last known quagga died in captivity in Amsterdam Zoo, surveys could find no traces of quagga in the wild confirming its extinction. Long thought to be a species of zebra, DNA tests in the 1980s found

1990s Africa and the Limits of Community

This was first published by Retrospect Journal in their Autumn/Winter 2017 issue, Individuals and Communities. This can be found here. A pro-Biafra protester in the 2000s During the 1990s national and community identities drastically shifted. National resurgence was shown in a variety of ways ranging from the peaceful referendums on Quebec’s independence and the creation of

The Fall of Apartheid – A Brief Overview

Nelson and Winnie Mandela when Nelson was released from prison Originally published in the Spring/Summer 2018 of Retrospect Journal, ‘Justice and Persecution’. This version contains slight edits to expand on certain points. By the late-1960s Apartheid seemed to be consolidated in South Africa. Following the Rivonia Trial from 1962 to 1964 leading anti-Apartheid activists, including Nelson

World History: Colonialism and Imperialism

One of the most influential aspect of history which shaped the present day was the rise of European, and later American and Japanese, empires in Africa and Asia. We briefly looked at colonialism when we discussed Britain in India and the rise of modern capitalism, but today, we will look at this in greater detail – especially the

World History: The Zulu Kingdom

A depiction of Shaka One of the mythologised part of pre-colonial African history is that of the Zulu kingdom. In 1879 Zulu forces defeated the British at Isandlwana first brought the Zulu into the European imagination, and since a pervasive myth of feather clad warriors has persisted. Even among modern Zulus the old kingdom, and