Global African HistoryPerspectives

Perspectives on Global African History features accounts and descriptions of important but little known events in Global African history recalled often by those who were witnesses or participants or viewpoints about historical developments shaping the contemporary black world. Many of these accounts will be instant primary sources available to current visitors to BlackPast and to future historians. Each article is accompanied by a brief biography and photo of its author.

Africans, African Americans, Great Britain and the United States: The Curious History of the Rio Pongo in the Early 19th Century

In the essay below, Bruce L. Mouser, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, describes the conflicting goals of African Creoles, African Americans, and British and American colonizationists in the fate of the Rio Pongo Valley along the West Coast of Africa.  … Read MoreAfricans, African Americans, Great Britain and the United States: The Curious History of the Rio Pongo in the Early 19th Century

Russia’s Black Entertainment Empresario: The Remarkable Saga of Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas (Frederick Bruce Thomas)

Yale University literature scholar and historian Vladimir Alexandrov introduces The Black Russian— his new biography of a forgotten African American who led an extraordinary life in Russia and Turkey at the beginning of the twentieth century. The story of this book began six years ago, … Read MoreRussia’s Black Entertainment Empresario: The Remarkable Saga of Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas (Frederick Bruce Thomas)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: For His Times and Ours

  Image Ownership: Public Domain In the article below Hilary Burrage, Executive Chair of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation, a United Kingdom (UK)-based non-profit organisation, describes the composer and how she came to regard and preserve his work and legacy. It has taken three times the … Read MoreSamuel Coleridge-Taylor: For His Times and Ours

Jazz in Occupied China: Black Jazzmen at the Japanese Prison Camp in Weihsien, China during World War II

Desmond Power, a third-generation British subject born in Tientsin (now Tianjin), China in 1923, was incarcerated along with 1,500 other foreign nationals in 1943 in Weihsien, a Japanese Prisoner of War camp in North China during World War II.  In the article below, Power recalls … Read MoreJazz in Occupied China: Black Jazzmen at the Japanese Prison Camp in Weihsien, China during World War II

The Black Diaspora in Israel, 1965 to 2011

With the exception of the well-publicized Operation Moses, Joshua, and Solomon Airlift of 20,000 Ethiopian Jews from that war and famine ravaged nation to Israel between 1984 and 1991, few people outside the Middle East are aware of the tens of thousands of people of … Read MoreThe Black Diaspora in Israel, 1965 to 2011

Nicomedes Santa Cruz: A Black Public Intellectual in Twentieth-Century Peru

In the following article University of Oregon historian Carlos Aguirre describes the self-taught poet, writer, and folklorist Nicomedes Santa Cruz, one of the understudied black intellectual leaders in Peru and Latin America. Nicomedes Santa Cruz was, without a doubt, the most important black intellectual in … Read MoreNicomedes Santa Cruz: A Black Public Intellectual in Twentieth-Century Peru

Jan Mostaert’s Portrait of a Moor (1520-1530)

In the following account University of Cincinnati historian John K. Brackett describes the famous 16th Century painting of a black courtier at the court of Margaret of Austria, the Duchess of Savoy and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.  The name and rank of this courtier … Read MoreJan Mostaert’s Portrait of a Moor (1520-1530)

Distant Whistles, Muted Flutes: Ada Wright in Glasgow, 1932

In the following account writer Irene Brown recalls through her father’s photo the visit of Ada Wright, mother to Roy and Andy Wright, two of the nine Scottsboro Boys accused of rape in 1931.  Her account appears below. Memories.  That’s all that’s left when someone … Read MoreDistant Whistles, Muted Flutes: Ada Wright in Glasgow, 1932

Two Families, Two Destinies: A Personal Perspective on the Rwandan Genocide of 1994

Never Again, Rwandan Genocide Skulls on Display “Image Ownership: Public Domain” From April to July 1994 Rwanda suffered through a period of government-sanctioned mass murder which resulted in the deaths of nearly one million Tutsi men, women and children. Most observers point to myriad factors … Read MoreTwo Families, Two Destinies: A Personal Perspective on the Rwandan Genocide of 1994

Afro-Uruguay: A Brief History

In the following account University of Pittsburgh historian George Reid Andrews provides an introduction to the history of the population of African ancestry in Uruguay. When we think of the great nations of the African diaspora—Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, the United States—the South American republic of … Read MoreAfro-Uruguay: A Brief History