History

Caty Louette, was one of the most powerful female slave trader on Goree Island, a tiny, island off the coast of Dakar, in Senegal

The shameless Anthropology Days exhibition was held during the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, where natives from foreign lands participated in various “special Olympic” events.

In 1505 Portuguese forces led by Francisco de Almeida destroyed, burned down and occupied the Swahili city of Kilwa bringing the sultanate to an end after it refused to pay tribute.

On this day in 1976, 22 African countries, boycotted the Montreal Olympics when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to ban New Zealand,

Ogbidi Okojie, king of Uromi was a ruler of the Esan people in what is now present day Edo State in Nigeria, he is well known all over Esan land for his opposition to British rule.

Ana Joaquina dos Santos y Silva also referred to as Dona Ana Mulata was a rich entrepreneur who was very active in the transatlantic slave trade business. She is perhaps the biggest slave trader in Angola in the 1830's.

The Herero and Namaqua Genocide is considered to have been the first genocide of the 20th century. It took place between 1904 and 1907 in German South-West Africa(modern day Namibia), during the Herero Wars.

Mapped by Sebastian Münster, the map below is the earliest obtainable map of the whole continent of Africa. The map was published in the 1552 edition of Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia.

Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa, was a Nigerian author who has been called the mother of modern African Literature. Her book Efuru is the first book written by an African woman, to be published internationally.

Slavery in the United States wasn’t abolished at the federal level until after the Civil War, but on this day in history, May 18, 1652, the first anti-slavery statute in the U.S. colonies was passed in what’s now the state of Rhode Island.