It takes a great man to turn a Duchy into a Kingdom, and for the medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina that man was Tvrtko I. Not that the lead up to his crowning was uneventful or easy; on the contrary, Tvrtko overcame enormous odds sandwiched between two great powers to wrest away the wild and mountainous …
First published in 1930, Mhudi was finished in 1920. The author, Sol Plaatje had trouble finding a publisher, and so the manuscript languished for a decade. Mhudi was a groundbreaking novel, approaching history from an Afro-Centric view rather than the more common European view. It was a radically different approach for the time, showing the …
On 19 July 1956, Gamel Abdel Nasser was returning from the meeting that would lead to the creation of the Non-Aligned Nations Movement and a new Third World, when he received word that the United States and Great Britain had decided to withdraw their offers to fund the construction of the Aswan Dam. The de-funding …
“Those who invoke history will certainly be heard by history. And they will have to accept its verdict.” Described as the greatest statesman of his century by John F. Kennedy and recipient of a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize, Dag Hammarskjold lived a life fully dedicated to public service. He was known for meeting as many …
On 14 September 1960 Colonel Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seized power in the newly independent Congo in a bloodless coup. Ostensibly, as Mobutu claimed on his radio broadcast explaining the event, the coup was undertaken to break the impasse the Congolese government had reached. Mobutu characterized it as a “cooling off” period, in which the government would …
On 12 September 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was deposed by the communist Derg. Emperor Selassie was the last of the Solomonic Dynasty to rule Ethiopia, a reported 225 generations from his biblical ancestors the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. Selassie would last just less than two years before being murdered, and when …
“Don’t compromise the future with hasty reforms, and don’t replace the structures that Belgium hands over to you until you are sure that you can do better. Don’t be afraid to come to us. We will remain by your side and give you advice.” With those most patronizing of words, King Baudouin I of Belgium …
The movie Zulu was more than just the breakout vehicle for Michael Caine – it was an account, albeit the movie version, of a war that defined the British Scramble for Africa and yet was hidden behind the complete and overwhelming shadows of the two World Wars. Even the movie Zulu itself still obscures the …
Samuel Maharero was born in 1856. It was the beginning of a time of massive upheaval in South West Africa. His father, paramount chief of the Herero, had consolidated Herero rule in the area over the Nama and Orlam people by 1861. The latter stages of that struggle was marked by the usage of much …
Cetshwayo’s name is not as well known as that of his uncle Shaka. Shaka had managed to turn the small Zulu tribe into the powerful Zulu nation before being assassinated by his brothers. Cetshwayo, who officially ruled from 1873 to 1879, was confronted with the might of the British Empire and history records him as …
For faster login or register use your social account.
[fbl_login_button redirect="" hide_if_logged="" size="large" type="continue_with" show_face="true"]
