Patient Zero: Thomas Eric Duncan and the Ebola Crisis in West Africa and the United States

In the following article Dr. Clarence Spigner, Professor of Public Health at the University of Washington, Seattle, describes the life of the first patient to die of Ebola on U.S. soil and the larger crisis of Ebola in West Africa.  He views it as a … Read MorePatient Zero: Thomas Eric Duncan and the Ebola Crisis in West Africa and the United States

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

The Mano River Women’s Peace Network (2001-)

Liberian Women’s Peace Group Image Ownership: Pewee Flomoku The Mano River Women’s Peace Network (MARWOPNET) was one of the first female led peace negotiating teams in the region of West Africa and they organized a system of diplomacy between the Liberian, Guinean and Sierra Leonean … Read MoreThe Mano River Women’s Peace Network (2001-)

An American Family’s Multigenerational Rise from Slavery to Harvard University

In the account below, attorney and historian James H. Johnston describes six generations of descendants of Yarrow Mamout, a Muslim slave made famous by Charles Willson Peale’s 1819 painting of him in Georgetown in the District of Columbia.  Johnston’s discussion of the evolution of his … Read MoreAn American Family’s Multigenerational Rise from Slavery to Harvard University

Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) (1938– )

Musée de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire, Dakar, Senegal Image Ownership: Public Domain One of West Africa’s premier research institutions, the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN), was first created by the French Government in 1938. Established in Dakar, Senegal, the organization was originally called the Institut … Read MoreInstitut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) (1938– )

Deep Roots Across the Atlantic: Rice and Race in Africa and the Americas

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