Africa

Africa has been global for millennia, but its history is too often eclipsed by narratives that focus on slavery and its abolition.

The shortest war in history began (and ended) on 27 August 1896.

Fiercely independent, highly skilled sailors, the Kroomen of Sierra Leone forged an alliance with the Royal Navy to rid the African coasts of slavers.

The civil war that resulted from the division of Nigeria was a major human disaster that should not be forgotten. 

In 1947, fraught Anglo-French relations came to a head in the crucible of the Indian Ocean with the outbreak of Madagascar’s Malagasy Uprising.

Since gaining independence Botswana’s history has not been without turmoil, but the country has emerged as a model African state.

After the kidnapping of Moroccan revolutionary Mehdi Ben Barka in 1965, the fingers of blame pointed in several directions. The details of what happened are still not known.

A photograph of a released political prisoner prompts Roger Hudson to survey Ghana’s postcolonial history. 

Seconded to central Africa following the outbreak of the Second World War, John Cadbury became a master of logistics in one of the world’s toughest environments, as David Birmingham reveals.