Africa

David Kiyaga-Mulindwa looks in to Southern Africa's early history.

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'.

There is evidence, argues Adrian Tronson, to suggest that the 13th-century Mali empire, and its ruler Sundiata, were strongly influenced by the life of Alexander the Great, 356-323 BC, an influence that was to be capitalised on in the late 1950s.

Mia Rodríguez-Salgado looks at the lives and impact of the Christian and Muslim corsairs on the early modern seas.

Robert Stephens looks at how Nasser left his mark on nearly twenty years of Egyptian, Arab and world history. An anti-colonialist who extended his concern to the newly liberated countries of the Third World, he has been acclaimed as a nationalist liberator - and condemned as a warmonger.

Much less is known about the Portuguese conquistadores of eastern Africa, explains Malyn Newitt, than of their counterparts in America and the Indies.

The Civil War in Zululand 1879-1884 by Jeff Guy

The preservation of the past must inevitably pose particular problems in a city which is literally a living monument to the Middle Age of African history, especially when its mud walls are crumbling and its gates are barely wide enough for animals, far less motorised vehicles. An article by John Lavers.