African history

Scramble Auction: The Brutal Slave Sale Where Enslaved Africans Were Hunted Like Animals

The scramble auction was one of the most inhumane and chaotic forms of selling enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade. This method of auction had a fixed price system: every captive cost the same, no bidding allowed. That...

Barsirian Arap Manyei: The Kenyan Leader Detained for 42 Years for Resisting British Colonial Rule

Barsirian Arap Manyei was a Nandi leader who spent 42 years in detention under British rule, making him Kenya’s longest-serving political prisoner. His so-called crime was not theft or violence, but his unwavering opposition to colonial authority and his...

William Gregson: The British Slave Trader Whose Voyages Claimed Over 9,000 Enslaved African Lives

In 18th-century Liverpool, the docks bustled with ships and merchants chasing wealth, but much of that fortune was built on the lives and suffering of thousands of enslaved Africans who were treated as mere cargo. One of the men...

Sotik Massacre of 1905: The Little-Known British Massacre in Kenya That Claimed 1,850 Lives

In June 1905, in present-day Kericho County in southwestern Kenya, the British colonial administration carried out one of the deadliest punitive expeditions in East African history. Known as the Sotik Massacre, the assault claimed the lives of up to...

Babemba Traoré: The African King Who Died Defending His City Against French Colonial Forces in 1898

In the late 19th century, as the French empire aggressively expanded across West Africa, one Malian king refused to bow to colonial subjugation. His name was Babemba Traoré, the last ruler of the Kénédougou Kingdom. Revered today as a...

The Battle of Annual: How Spain Lost Over 13,000 Troops in Its Worst Military Defeat in Africa

On 22 July 1921, in the mountainous terrain of northeastern Morocco, the Spanish Empire suffered its most devastating military defeat in modern history, the Battle of Annual. Fought between the Spanish Army and the Riffian Berbers during the Rif...

Le Rôdeur Massacre: The French Slave Ship That Drowned 36 Enslaved Africans for Insurance Money

The Le Rôdeur massacre was the deliberate drowning of 36 enslaved African people by the crew of the French slave ship Le Rôdeur during its voyage across the Atlantic in April 1819. The ship was owned by French traders...

Zappo Zaps: The Mercenaries Who Enforced King Leopold’s Deadly Rubber Quota in the Congo Free State

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...

Kadungure Mapondera: The African Chief Who Led an Uprising Against British Rule and Paid With His Life

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...

Waruhiu Itote: The Mau Mau Leader Who Was Sentenced to Death for Resisting British Rule in Kenya

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,...
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Seay J. Miller: The Black Man Lynched in 1893 by a White Mob of 5,000 Over a False Murder Accusation

On the evening of July 7, 1893, the small town of Bardwell, Kentucky, became the stage for one of...