African handmade baskets for food storage, some different types of these baskets are traditionally used for winnowing grain. They come in a variety of types, sizes, and colors. African women use natural material found on the ground or from a plant or tree to make the baskets. Check out the following fascinating baskets: [aigpl-gallery-slider id=”554″] You can purchase them from …

Let us remember that African communities did not sit back and watch in glee but they fought back. The Liverpool Museum website features a firsthand account of the story of an African boy, Ouladah Equiano violently forced into a lifetime of slavery. It reads partially, “Generally, when the grown people within the neighborhood were gone far within the fields to …

For over 3,000 years, cats in ancient egypt have been depicted in Ancient Egyptians social and religious practices. Deity Mut was also portrayed as a cat and in the company of a cat. Cats have been embraced for killing venomous snakes and protecting the Pharaoh since at least the First Dynasty of Egypt. Ancient Egyptians held cats in the highest …

From the Book ‘Sudan’s Blood Memory’ The Legacy of War, Ethnicity, and Slavery in South Sudan by Stephanie Beswick. Stephanie Beswick is a professor of history at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She was born in Khartoum, Sudan. The Dinka Nubian Connection Many societies worldwide possess oral histories and long memories, reaching back many centuries, particularly of wars and …

Queen Amina of Zaria, also known as the warrior queen, was the first woman who ruled an African kingdom for over 30 years in the sixteenth century. She was the first Sarauniya (queen) in the area. Amina was born around 1533 in Zazzau, now called Zaria in the northern of Nigeria. She was the daughter of the 22nd ruler and founder of …

Yaa Asantewaa was born in 1840 and passed on in 1921. She was a good farmer and a successful mother. A policymaker, a human rights activist, the Queen and a leader who was very intelligent. Yaa Asantewaa is popular and famous for leading the Ashanti rebellion to defend the Golden Stool against British colonial rule. She advocated women’s liberation and …

Southern Nigeria was home to the Benin Empire. The capital of the Kingdom of Benin was Edo, now in Edo state known as Benin City. The Kingdom of Benin was one of the oldest and most developed states in the West African coastal hinterland, dating back to the 11th century CE. The Empire was established by the People of Edo …

Born Nzinga Mbemba, King Alfonso I was the ruler of the Kongolese people in the early sixteenth century. He reigned over the Kongo Empire from 1509 to late 1542 or 1543. Mbemba created a good commercial connection with the Portuguese, and embraced Catholicism as a result of this relationship. Every aspect of the life of the King, from his name, got changed …

With relation to the world history, the connection to one of the richest kings that has ever lived is a product of Mali’s wealth. King Mansa Musa from Mali is the richest man who ever lived. Mali has one of the world’s oldest known universities. Its literary impact was so wide which included many academic studies documenting African and Southern …

The First Battle of Dongola was a battle between early Arab-Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate and the Nubian- forces of the Kingdom of Makuria in 642. The battle, which resulted in a Makurian victory, temporarily halted Arab incursions into Nubia and set the tone for an atmosphere of hostility between the two cultures until the culmination of the Second Battle of Dongola in 652. The Second Battle of Dongola or Siege of Dongola was a military engagement …