How does one write the history of people thought not to exist? In apartheid South Africa, the obsession to maintain political and economic power for the white minority at the expense and exploitation of the black majority spawned a society in which skin colour determined every aspect of life. Top jobs and educational opportunities were […]
Read MoreIslam has been present in Ghana at least since the 14th century and today, there are more than three million Muslims living in the country. My book, Islam in a Zongo, is an in-depth investigation into the recent history and current presence of Islam in southern Ghana. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, I present […]
Read MoreMilitary-grade arms for sale in a public market, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, c. 1971. South African Defence Force Archive, Pretoria, GP 15, Box 26.
Read MoreWeeping Time Author Anne C. Bailey weighs in on the debate over The 1619 Project.
Read MoreNo state can do without taxation. States need to pay for bureaucrats, soldiers, policemen, infrastructure, and the more ambitious ones also pay for schools, hospitals and social security programs. Fiscal capacity forms the backbone of the state, and both sovereign and colonial regimes confront the revenue imperative. But how, in the case of colonial rule, […]
Read MoreOn January 3rd this year, South Africa’s Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga announced to a cheering audience that the national school leaving (‘matric’) pass rate had risen by 3 percent. As in previous years, critics were quick to respond: the celebrations, they said, ignored how large numbers of students dropped out before completing high […]
Read MoreThe ancient Kongo kingdom in West-Central Africa has attracted much attention. Usually the study of its history starts with the arrival of Portuguese navigators at the end of the fifteenth century in the Africa’s Atlantic Coast region. But what can be said about the kingdom’s origins and early history? From 2012 to 2016, the KongoKing […]
Read MoreThe most common response I get when I tell a distant cousin or new acquaintance that I teach African politics remains the pithy one-liner, “Oh, I didn’t realise Africa had any politics!” Several centuries of Henry Stanley, Joseph Conrad and Band Aid (Bono, Bob Geldof, et al: African Christians and probably most other people living […]
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