From 1885 to 1908, DR Congo was transformed into a massive forced labor camp. This territory, then known as the Congo Free State, was unlike any other colony in Africa. It wasn’t controlled by a government or a European...
Chief Kadungure Mapondera was a Shona leader who led one of the most determined early armed uprisings against British colonial domination in the early 20th century. At a time when much of the region today known as Zimbabwe was...
In the long and bitter fight against British colonialism in Kenya, the name General China stands out as both a symbol of rebellion and a figure of deep controversy. Born Waruhiu Itote in 1922 in Kaheti village, Nyeri District,...
Chief Chingaira Makoni was a prominent leader of the Makoni people in what is now eastern Zimbabwe. He is remembered for resisting British colonial forces during the First Chimurenga (1896–1897), a Shona and Ndebele uprising against the British South...
Bayume Mohamed Husen was a Black German war veteran, who was arrested in 1941 for having a romantic relationship with a white German woman, an act the Nazis deemed racial defilement. He was imprisoned without trial and died in...
When we think of the transatlantic slave trade, the brutality of capture, forced transport, and unpaid labour is rightly at the forefront. But what’s often overlooked is how targeted and strategic this system was. Enslavement wasn’t random. European slavers...
King Toera was the last independent ruler of the Menabe region in western Madagascar who was executed by French colonial forces in 1897 during their conquest of the island. After initially extending hospitality to the French, he was met...
Breaking on the wheel, a brutal method of execution, was widely used in Europe and its colonies during the 18th century. In this gruesome practice, the victim was tied to a large wheel, and their bones were methodically broken...
Koitalel Arap Samoei was a legendary figure and resistance leader among the Nandi people of Kenya, known for his courageous opposition to British colonial rule. In 1905, under the guise of a peace treaty, Koitalel was lured into a...
Prince William Ansah's family was one of the most influential in the 18th-century Gold Coast (now Ghana) and they engaged in human trafficking with the English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese. It was a booming business around that era.
Prince William...
