African history

The lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification common in some parts of Africa. The procedure, which involves knocking out the bottom two teeth (sometimes all four), is done at the age of 15-18 and it signifies womanhood.

The Hadza are an an indigenous ethnic group located near Lake Eyasi in the Rift Valley. They are descendants of Tanzania’s aboriginal hunter-gatherers and have occupied their land unchanged for thousands of years. The Hadza are one of the last...

Queen Nzinga was an Angolan leader who ruled during a period of rapid growth in the African slave trade and encroachment of the Portuguese Empire into South West Africa, in attempts to control the slave trade. Nzinga fought for...

John Hawkins urged the Africans to enter his ship “Jesus of Lubeck,” also known as “The Good Ship Jesus.” for salvation, those who entered soon found they were barred from disembarking. Jesus of Lübeck was a sailing vessel built...

First Kaang created a wondrous tree, with branches stretching over the entire country. At the base of the tree he dug a hole that reached all the way down into the world where the people and animals lived.

The Suri are an agro-pastoral people and inhabit the mountains of the Great Rift Valley in the plains of south-western Ethiopia. As a people, they pride themselves on the scars they carry. In this remote Ethiopian tribe, members undergo extremely...

The Daasanach are a semi-nomadic tribe numbering approximately 50,000 whose clans stretch across Sudan, Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. The Daasanach are a primarily agropastoral people; they grow sorghum, maize, pumpkins and beans when the Omo river and its delta floods....

From the Umoja community in Northern Kenya to the small rural community of Arnado Debbo in Niger state, Nigeria. These here are three African communities with long-standing traditions where to be a woman is superior.

Body Modification has always been an integral part of African culture. It is widely performed for a variety of reasons in many African societies, and a plethora of historical and current forms of modifications exists

A court in Belgium has ruled that a tooth taken from the corpse of Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba should be returned to his family. An examining magistrate ruled on Thursday that Lumumba’s tooth could be given back, ruling in...