During the era of American slavery, Christianity became both a tool for oppression and a source of hope for enslaved African Americans. Slaveholders leveraged the Christian faith, twisting its messages to reinforce submission and obedience to them. Out of...
Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli in 1397, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1447 until his death in 1455. While his pontificate is remembered for its contributions to art, and...
The creation story of the Bakongo people, an ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo, offers a fascinating perspective on the origins of the universe. The Bakongo have historically inhabited regions along the Atlantic coast of Central...
Tolton was an African-American born into slavery in Monroe County, Missouri, around 1854. During the Civil War, he fled to Quincy, Illinois, with his family and eventually became the first publicly recognized Black Catholic priest in the United States.
Tolton's...
Few chapters in colonial history are as harrowing and tragic as the exploitation of the Congo Free State under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908. While the atrocities, described as one of the...
The Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela are eleven monolithic churches carved into the rugged landscapes of Lalibela, in Ethiopia, these remarkable structures were commissioned by King Gebre Meskel Lalibela in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and aimed to...
The Doctrine of Discovery was instrumental in legitimizing European colonialism in Africa. As European powers embarked on voyages of exploration and expansion, they carried with them the papal bulls that provided divine sanction for their actions.
Rosa Egipcíaca, also known as Rosa Maria Egipcíaca of Vera Cruz and Rosa Courana, was an extraordinary individual whose life journey traversed the harsh realities of enslavement, prostitution, spiritual awakening, and ultimately, literary achievement. Born in 1719 in the...
Slaveholders claimed that the black race descended from Ham, and like Canaan, to come from Ham is to be a slave. Some slaveholders removed Canaan entirely from the story and bestowed the curse on Ham whom they claimed was the progenitor of the black race.
According to the Efé creation myth, their story begins with the divine hand of God crafting the first human being, named Baatsi. Using clay as his medium, God sculpted the form of a man.
