When the pre-eminent Russian poet Alexander Pushkin died on 10 February 1837, it was in a tragic echo of an incident of the life of his great-grandfather, Avram Petrovich Gannibal (also written as Hannibal). Pushkin was killed by his brother-in-law in a duel over Pushkin’s wife Natalya, a parallel to the first marriage of Gannibal, …
When King Cetshwayo died on 8 February 1884, the circumstances were suspicious. Officially his death was due to a heart attack, but not even the British representatives who observed his autopsy could agree on whether or not the last independent king of the Zulu had been poisoned. Cetshwayo’s life was remarkable in many ways. His …
Ghana Must Go was a historical event. But Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi is the story of a family. The two share many similarities, not the least of which is that the historical event, the effects of the 1983 expulsion of Ghanaians from Nigeria on the father in this story. Both the event and …
In the 1940s an uncomfortable truth was emphasized by the Portuguese Labor Inspectorate in the colony of Sao Tome – the conditions of the workers on the cocoa plantations there could only be compared to slavery. “The reality today is the following: many agriculturists of Sao Tome organize their agricultural possessions on the basis …
At break of day a signal of three smacks of a whip called them to work, when each betook himself with his spade to the plantation, where they worked almost naked in the heat of the sun. Their food was bruised or boiled maize or bread made of cassava root, their clothing a single piece …
As is emblematic of Balkan countries, when the Greek Prime Minister and head of the Fourth of August Regime, Ioannis Metaxas, died of septicemia from a throat abscess on 29 January 1940 there were whispers of a dark conspiracy of assassination. The whispers seemed to converge on the arrival of a British medic who …
In February 1979, Joe Biden – the future American president – attended the funeral of Edvard Kardelj in Yugoslavia. Kardelj, although scarcely remembered outside the former Yugoslavia, was a figure of enormous importance in his time. An early adopter of communism (at age 16 in 1926), he spent time in a Kingdom of Jugoslavia jail …
On 25 January 1971, Idi Amin seized power in Uganda. Amin’s rise through the ranks of the British Colonial Military had been meteoric, and his speedy journey through the Ugandan ranks was no less so. Within five years of independence he was head of the army. Within ten, the head of the military. From …
The events of this novel draw on the infinite well of human memory, whose treasures may be brought to the surface in any period, including our own. In view of this, any resemblance between the characters and circumstances of this tale and real people and events is inevitable. –Ismail Kadare Published first in 2003 (in …
Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward to guarantee the future of their children. When Amilcar Cabral was shot by his own men on 20 …
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