Articles from 2001
Articles for 2002
12/29/01 - Brief review - Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton
Richard Burton was an outstanding Victorian figure, who's achievements are described in delightful and absorbing detail in this definitive biography by Edward Rice.
12/28/01 - Brief review - The Art of Travel
This essential Victorian travellers handbook, written by Francis Galton, is the ideal companion to Victorian exploration books
12/27/01 - Brief review - Travels in West Africa
Mary Kingsley, one of the few true women explorers, wrote this best-seller in 1897. It is a fascinating journal by a borderline eccentric.
12/26/01 - Brief review - Dark Safari
For such a great explorer there is material in-print. This biography by John Bierman makes an ideal companion to Stanley's own books and autobiography.
12/25/01 - Brief review - Portuguese Voyages
A great collection of accounts, edited by C D Ley, which are otherwise hard to obtain. The shipwreck accounts, especially, are detailed and graphic, and give a fascinating view of early European exploration around Africa.
12/24/01 - Brief review - Lost Lion of Empire
If you read Edward Paice's book mainly for Grogan's traverse of the continent, you'll be disappointed to find it covers only some 60 pages. But you should remember that this is a book about his life's achievements.
12/23/01 - Top African Explorers/Exploration Books
A handful of explorer & exploration books, including the biographies of two of the most famous explorers, Burton and Stanley, and the journal of Mary Kingsley, the greatest of all woman explorers (modern women are just travel writers in comparison).
12/07/01 - São Tomé and the Slave Trade
São Tomé is considered to be a priciple port used for the export of slaves across the Altantic, but this is only part of the story. The total number of slaves exported from São Tomé to the Caribbean (in the mid-sixteenth century) is almost equal to the total number shipped to trans-Saharan traders along the Gold Coast at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
11/21/01 - The Tripartite Invasion, 1956
The Tripartite Invasion, or 1956 War, was perhaps the single most important event in the history of African independence. The fallout from this unsuccessful attempt by Britain, France, and Israel to maintain an influence over the Suez Canal created a climate in Africa which both encouraged and escalated the struggle for independence.
11/05/01 - Top 9 Africa Books for Young Learners
This range of reference books published by Dorling Kindersley provides an excellent Africa resource for young learners.
10/26/01 - Book review - Country of My Skull
If you want to understand modern South Africa there is no better place to start than the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Antjie Krog's masterwork places you in the mind of both oppressed black freedom fighters and entrenched white Afrikaner.
10/11/01 - Origins of the trans-Atlantic slave trade
When the Portuguese first sailed down the Atlantic African coast in the 1430's, they were interested in one thing. Surprisingly, given modern perspectives, it was not slaves but gold. By 1500 they had traded 81,000 Africans to Europe, nearby Atlantic islands, and to Muslim merchants in Africa.
09/20/01 - The Tripolitan War, 1801 - 1805
In 1783, the same year that the Treaty of Paris was signed, corsairs from the Barbary States began to attack American shipping in the Mediterranean. Escalation, a new American President, and a failure to honour treaties led to a declaration of war.
09/06/01 - The Pioneer Human Heart Surgeon
Dr Christiaan Barnard has died at the age of 78.
09/03/01 - Death of a Dedicated Political Leader
South African political activist Govan Mbeki (and father of the current president, Thabo Mbeki) has died at the age of 91.
08/20/01 - Death of an Activist
South African newspaper editor and anti-apartheid activist Donald Woods has died at the age of 67.
08/06/01 - The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Expanding European empires in the New World lacked one major resource -- a work force. The result was the infamous triangular trade and the horrors experienced by Africans on the middle passage.
07/23/01 - Tutankhamun: The Boy Pharaoh
King Tut's tomb was the first found by modern-day archaeologists that still contained treasure.
07/09/01 - Cape Town's Infamous Robben Island
Can you image spending more than 25 years in a prison on a small, windswept island? This is what happened to Nelson Mandela, the most famous prisoner of Robben Island.
06/25/01 - African explorers: who's who and where they went
Even in the 18th century, much of the interior of Africa was unfamiliar to Europeans. Read brief biographies of some of the more famous explorers.
06/08/01 - June 16th Student Uprising
When high-school students in Soweto started protesting for better education 25 years ago, police responded with teargas and live bullets.
05/25/01 - Humankind's African Origins
The number of recognised hominid species which form part of our extended family tree is growing. Find out where and when each of these species was discovered.
05/11/01 - New Hominid Fossils in Kenya and Ethiopia
Two major discoveries in Kenya, Orrorin tugenensis and Kenyanthropus platyops, as well as a yet unnamed find of a young hominid in Ethiopia, have added to the debate about the human family tree.
04/09/01 - Reparations for Slavery?
There is a call for reparations to be made by the West for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Are all the issues being considered?
04/02/01 - The Role of Islam in African Slavery
When Africans talk of slavery they inevitably mean the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Is this a true representation of the practice in Africa?
03/31/01 - Ancient Egypt: the Father of Time
The way in which we divide the day into hours and minutes, as well as the structure and length of the yearly calendar, owes much to pioneering developments in ancient Egypt.
03/19/01 - Timbuktu, the El Dorado of Africa
Timbuktu is widely used to describe a place extremely far away and regarded by many as a myth. In reality it's a city in Mali, West Africa, of such great historical importance that in 1988 it was designated a World Heritage Site.
03/12/01 - Danie Theron -- Hero of the Anglo-Boer War
Danie Theron was a true patriot -- believing in the just and divine right of the Boer to stand against British interference.
