African author Camara Laye was born on January 1, 1928 in the city of Kouroussa, Guinea, then a colonial possession of France. Laye (which is actually his first name, but is used as a preceding name, to keep in tradition with regional customs) was born … Read MoreCamara Laye (1928-1980)
Carnegie Mellon University historian Edda L. Fields Black’s 2008 book, Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora, opened a vast new area of diasporic study by linking the cultivation of rice in Africa to the rise of this crucially important food … Read MoreDeep Roots Across the Atlantic: Rice and Race in Africa and the Americas
The Tukulor Empire was a Muslim theocracy established during the mid-19th century major jihads (holy wars) in Western Africa. At its apogee, the empire extended from Senegal eastward to Timbuktu, a distance of 1,500 miles. The empire’s founder, Al Hajj Umar, a Senegalese Islamic scholar … Read MoreTukulor Empire (1852-1864)
Muhammad Toure, also known Askia Muhammad I and Askia the Great, was a ruler of the Songhay (or Songhai) Empire of West Africa in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Though Muhammad’s origins are debated, it is accepted that he was a descendent of … Read MoreMuhammed Toure / Askia Muhammad I (c. 1442-1538)
On October 2, 1958 Sekou Touré, proclaimed Guinea’s independence from France and became its first president. One year later he gave a speech in Conakry, the capital in which he outlined the role of political leaders in reflecting and developing the culture of their nations. … Read More(1959) Sekou Touré, “The Political Leader Considered as the Representative of a Culture”
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, world renowned South African singer, was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932. She studied music for eight years at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, South Africa and toured with amateur groups before beginning her professional career in 1954 with the … Read MoreMiriam Makeba (1932-2008)
General Act of the Conference of Berlin Berlin, Germany Signed February 26, 1885 CHAPTER I DECLARATION RELATIVE TO FREEDOM OF TRADE IN THE BASIN OF THE CONGO, ITS MOUTHS AND CIRCUMJACENT REGIONS, WITH OTHER PROVISIONS CONNECTED THEREWITH Article I The trade of all nations shall … Read More(1885) General Act of the Conference of Berlin
Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister (1957-1960) and president (1960-1966) of the Republic of Ghana, was the leader of the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain its independence. He subsequently became a leading figure in the campaign for the United States of Africa. Nkrumah was … Read MoreKwame Nkrumah (1909-1972)
The African Democratic Rally, known as Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), was the first French-speaking Pan-African organization. Created in 1946 at Bamako, Sudan (now Mali), it emerged when African nationalist and anti-colonialist movements were growing rapidly at the end of World War II. In 1945 the … Read MoreAfrican Democratic Rally (1946- )
Warrior king, empire builder and hero of the resistance against the French colonization of West Africa during the 19th century, Samori Touré was born around 1830 in the Milo River Valley in present-day Guinea. His father was a trader, leading Touré to follow his family’s … Read MoreSamori Touré (1830-1900)
