Africa

Rhodesia's War of Independence

Paul Moorcraft looks at the war to maintain white supremacy in what is now Zimbabwe, a hundred years after Cecil Rhodes carved out a British colony.

Portugal's Impact on Africa

Bartholomew Dias' voyage to the Cape of Good Hope in the late 15th century marked the apex of an extraordinary Portuguese expansion overseas and the start of a fateful European impact on South Africa. 

West Africa’s Mary Kingsley

‘England… requires markets more than colonies.’ Mary Kingsley’s espousal of the African cause was founded on the empathy between second-class citizens in a white, male-dominated society, as Deborah Birkett reveals.

Wenceslas Hollar in Tangier

Gillian Williams on the promise of watercolourist and engraver, Wenceslaus Hollar, when he petitioned Charles II to allow him to accompany the British Ambassador on an expedition to Morocco, that he 'would examine all and take designs, and give his Majesty much better satisfaction'.