His death marked the end of an era of literary renaissance that swept Africa from 1958 [Read More]

Some people proffer the opinion that had they known what life overseas had in stock for them, they would not have left. [Read More]

While Dr. Rizal still remains a darling of artists, thespians and literature enthusiasts, Kenyatta is limited to primary and high school class literature on Kenyan civic history [Read More]

If you sought rational thinking, provocative analysis and objective criticism tinged with courageous cynical confrontation, you could not have looked any further [Read More]

Kidum, whose penchant for peace and stability isn’t eccentric, will again, be setting his foot in a pool of most contentious themes within and across the parameters of East African states. [Read More]

Kenya’s Appellate Judge Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch has been appointed as a judge to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Justice Aluoch trounced renowned judges from across the world to capture one of the highly coveted positions. Aluoch joins five other judges from Botswana, Japan, Guyana, Italy [Read More]

President Nicholas Sarkozy recently conferred upon Prof. Were the title of Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honour- the highest decoration in France. [Read More]

The city was known as Old Calabar until 1904. The name Old Calabar was originally given by 15th-century Portuguese navigators to the African inhabitants of that part of the Gulf of Guinea coast. [Read More]

The renowned Greek Philosopher, Homer, called it the city of a hundred gates because of its buildings and large gates. The city grew over the years, and the Arabs, impressed by its beautiful palaces and huge edifices, re-named it 'Luxor': City of Palaces. [Read More]

Elmina was heavily competed for due to its strategic position for trade. As the plantations in America took off, the trade in slaves expanded, and Elmina became the last place many thousands of Africans would see as their homeland [Read More]

Established in 1884 as a Portuguese military base with a port and railway line it was designed to provide connectivity to the interior as well as to handle trade traffic from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. [Read More]

Thebes is partly occupied today by the modern towns of Al Karnak and Luxor. It was named Thebes by the Greeks, who knew it also as Diospolis (“heavenly city”). In the Hebrew Bible it is identified as No (“city”) or No-Amon (“city of Amon”). [Read More]

Polokwane was known, until fairly recently, as Pietersburg, and its new name "Polokwane" means Place of Safety. [Read More]

The discovery of potable water at the site resulted in the establishment of a Spanish military garrison in 1938, marking the beginning of the town. [Read More]

The city is significant economically with agricultural trade and textile industry; and it’s the center of culture and music in Burkina Faso. [Read More]

Originally, Ouidah (once Gléwé) was a small village in the Xwéda kingdom that supported itself through agriculture, hunting and fishing in the coastal lagoons. [Read More]

Like many other towns in Namibia, Gobabis developed around a mission station which was established in 1856 by Friederich Eggert of the Rhenish Missionary Society. [Read More]

It is considered "the fourth holiest city of Islam". The old medieval walled city of Harar once struck its own local currency, and still has its own unique language. [Read More]

The city often shortened to PE and nicknamed "The Friendly City" or "The Windy City", stretches 16km along Algoa Bay, and is one of the major seaports in South Africa. [Read More]

It’s a major inland port on the Congo River, located just below Stanley Falls [Read More]

It grew as a prosperous trading center. It was Mediterranean outlet of a trade route through the Sahara into the interior of Africa. [Read More]

Zinder, locally called Damagaram, is the second largest city in Niger. The town was the capital of a Muslim state controlled by Bornu from the 16th to the mid 19th cent. [Read More]

Oran is the capital city of Oran Province in western Algeria with approximately 1.4 million inhabitants. It is situated on the Gulf of Oran, which is part of the Mediterranean Sea. [Read More]

With a population of approximately 172,305 people, Kaolack is an important regional market town and is Senegal's main peanut trading and processing center. [Read More]

The name 'Cotonou' means 'the mouth of the river of death' in the Fon language. At the beginning of the 19th century, Cotonou was merely a small fishing village [Read More]

The city was founded by merchants around 800 AD and flourished as a meeting place for traders from the deserts of Sudan and the tropical forests of Guinea. [Read More]

For decades Bagamoyo was in 19th century the main terminus in the east African – Arab and Indian trade network. Its closeness as a mainland port close to Zanzibar led to its development as a center for caravan and an expansion of commerce [Read More]

The city was the home of Côte d'Ivoire's long-term president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny who sponsored the city's rapid growth. He helped build hotels and a large highway connecting Yamoussoukro to the former capital of Abidjan [Read More]

The population of the city is now largely made up of the descendants of laborers who were hired for labor from India in the 19th century. [Read More]

The name Keren means highland. The sun rises over one set of peaks in the east and sets over another set in the west. It is one of the major agricultural centers of Eritrea [Read More]

Founded about AD 1100 as a seasonal camp by Tuareg nomads, the city was incorporated within the Mali Empire in the late 13th century. [Read More]

Its position in the Indian Ocean is just less than three miles off the shore of Tanzania, so it can be seen from the mainland. The island is separated from the mainland by 3 kilometers wide channels [Read More]

Nakuru is sandwiched between Lake Nakuru National Park to the south and the Menengai crater and its associated volcanic landscapes. [Read More]

Francistown is the second largest city in Botswana. It was the center of southern Africa's first gold rush, and is still surrounded by old and abandoned mines. [Read More]

Established in 1907, Jinja is the second commercial centre in Uganda. It lies in the south east of Uganda, 87 km north east of the capital, Kampala. [Read More]

The name Pointe Noire's originated from Portuguese navigators who saw a block of black rocks on the headland in 1484. From then, Pointe Noire also known as Punta Negra became a maritime reference. [Read More]

With a population of approximately 1.2 million, Omdurman is the largest city in the country and the national center of commerce. [Read More]

The island was chosen by the Portuguese in 1754 as their main clearing house for slaves and ivory. Ibo Island is regarded as one of Africa's best-kept secrets. [Read More]

The city was founded by the Belgians in 1910 which prospered with the development of a regional copper mining industry. [Read More]

Walvis bay meaning “Whale Bay” in Afrikaans is an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean on the western coast of Namibia. The town of Walvis Bay has a population of approximately 17,000 [Read More]

Unlike Zanzibar, Pemba is formed from a land mass rather than coral reefs and sand banks. Its landscape is therefore more rolling, with green hills and fertile valleys, and it has a very jagged coastline. [Read More]

Today, Durban is one of the busiest container port in Africa. The Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA) has a large and diversified economy with strong manufacturing, tourism, transportation, finance and government sectors. [Read More]

The city was traditionally founded by Kano, a blacksmith of the Gaya tribe who in ancient times came to Dalla Hill in search of iron. [Read More]

In the beginning of the sixteenth century the Portuguese selected Malindi as a supply station for Portuguese ships hence building their own administration, supply station and customhouses. [Read More]

Its significance results from the large transit trade it enjoys as a terminus of the railroad from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the sea and its strategic position near the shipping lanes that carry the Suez Canal traffic [Read More]

The economy of Gambella state is based on agriculture, pastoral, beekeeping and imported industrial products. The entire region is blessed with arable land. [Read More]

Benghazi is one of Libya's major economic centers. It is a bustling port and commercial centre. [Read More]

With a population of approximately 2 million, the city is home to Cameroon's largest port and its major international airport, Douala Airport. [Read More]

It is located in 439km south-west of Harare (20°10′S 28°34′E) and is treated as a separate provincial area from Matebele land. [Read More]

Alexandria is Egypt's leading port, a commercial and transportation center, and the heart of a major industrial area where refined petroleum, asphalt, cotton textiles, processed food, paper, and plastics are produced. [Read More]

. The city is a port on the Atlantic Ocean and its economy revolves largely around its harbor, which handles the country's main exports. [Read More]

Gorée is best known as the location of the House of Slaves, one of the oldest houses on the island and a popular tourist destination. [Read More]

The name "Abuja" was derived from Abu Ja, a brother to Muhammadu Makau, the last hausa ruler of Zaria. Makau had left Zaria after being defeated by the Fulani and settled in the area now known as Abuja. [Read More]

A relatively young city, Kumasi was founded in the early 19th century by King Osei Tutu. The king named the city after the KUM tree, which he planted as a symbol of victory for the Ashanti Empire over the British. [Read More]

The name Soweto was originally an acronym for "SOuth WEstern TOwnships", a cluster of townships sprawling across a vast area 20 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg. [Read More]

The city grew from a small village after it became a military post in German East Africa in 1889. After the First World War, Bujumbura was made the administrative center of the Belgian League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi. [Read More]

Cape Town is the economic centre of the Western Cape and serves as the regional manufacturing centre. It also has the primary harbor and airport in the Western Cape. [Read More]

Malabo was renamed Santa Isabel when the island revert to complete Spanish control. In 1969, Malabo replaced the mainland town of Bata as the capital of Equitorial Guinea. [Read More]

The city lies on the extreme south west of Togo, up against the Ghanaian border. Located on the Gulf of Guinea, Lomé is the country's administrative and industrial centre and its chief port. [Read More]

The word "Zanzibar" is still debatable. Some say it probably derives from the Persian زنگبار, Zangi-bar ("coast of the blacks"), while others say the name could also have been derived from the Arabic Zayn Z'al Barr ("fair is this land"). The word "Zanzibar [Read More]

With a population of 1,130,100 (2004), Kananga lies near the Lulua River - a tributary of the Kasai River and the Ilebo – Lubumbashi railway. It is located at 5°53.82′S 22°26.93′E. [Read More]

In the local Luganda language, Entebbe means a "seat". It was probably named that because it was the place where a Baganda chief sat to adjudicate legal cases. [Read More]

The city is situated on a hilly, forested plateau between the Nyong and Sanaga rivers in the south-central part of the country. [Read More]

The city is located in Antananarivo Province, and is also known by its French name Tananarive or by its colloquial short-hand form Tana. It is the trade center for a productive agricultural region, whose main crop is rice. [Read More]

The city is located on a plateau near the West African Atlantic coast, about 270 miles (435 km) north-northeast of Dakar, Senegal. As a tiny fishing town until 1958, it is possible that the Berber Muslim Almoravids are originally from the area. [Read More]

The city developed on Tumbo Island at the tip of the Kaloum Peninsula, to which it is now joined by an isthmus, the city having long spread on to it. The city was essentially founded after Britain ceded the island to France in 1887 [Read More]

The city is the historic western terminus of the railroad from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria. The railroad from Mombasa reached Kisumu in 1901. [Read More]

Asmara grew from four villages founded in the 12th century. It is said originally, there were four clans living in the Asmara area on the Kebessa Plateau [Read More]

The choice of Lusaka to become the capital did not follow any traditional development pattern. The city was not the home of an established ruler, neither was it a natural fortification nor the most convenient point of meeting for travelers from all parts of the land. [Read More]

The city is known as Muqdisho in Somali, Maqdishu in Arabic and Mogadiscio in Italian. With a population reaching a million, it is also the largest city of Somalia. [Read More]

Banjul, formerly Bathurst is not only the capital city of Gambia but also its Atlantic port. It is situated on St. Mary's Island where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean and is the only large urban area in Gambia. [Read More]

Dar es Salaam is an important city for both business and government. The city is the hub of the Tanzanian transportation system as all of the country's main railways and several highways originate in or near the city. [Read More]

The word Accra is derived from the word Nkran meaning ants. It refers to the numerous anthills seen in the countryside around Accra. [Read More]

The city received its name from the Portuguese meaning "New Port". The Portuguese had built a trading post here in the 17th century which was originally developed as a port for the slave trade. [Read More]

With over a third of the population of the Republic of Congo living in the capital, the city is 506 km inland from the Atlantic Ocean and south of the equator. It is a commune that is separated from the other regions of the republic and is surrounded by the Pool Region. [Read More]

Nairobi was named after a water hole known in Maasai as Ewaso Nyirobi, meaning "cool waters" which was rebuilt in the early 1900s. It replaced Mombasa as the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate in 1905 [Read More]

Johannesburg is a cosmopolitan city, home to diverse population groups and to languages from throughout Africa. It is one of the world's few large metropolitan areas to be based on neither an ocean port nor a major river, yet it is southern Africa's biggest port. [Read More]

Khartoum is one of three sister cities, built at the convergence of the Blue and White Niles: Omdurman to the north-west across the White Nile, North Khartoum, and Khartoum itself on the southern bank of the Blue Nile. [Read More]

In the ancient times Tripoli was known as Oea and was one of the original cities that formed the African Tripolis, or Tripolitania. It was founded by the Phoenicians and later controlled by the Romans who included it within their province of Africa, and gave it the name of Regio Syrtica. [Read More]

Harare is one of the most prosperous and developed cities in southern Africa. It is also called "Sunshine City" because of its year-round good weather. It has many beautiful parks and gardens. The city is multi-racial and ethnic, making a rich culture of different people and languages. [Read More]

The city centre is characterized by a large number of German style buildings. During South African occupation the city was divided into: Windhoek for the whites, Khomasdal for the colored and Katatura for the blacks. [Read More]

Monrovia is Liberia's largest city and it is the administrative, commercial, communication, and financial center. The city is a major port and is almost completely surrounded by the St. Paul River. It is located at 6°19′N 10°48′W. [Read More]

Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya. Located on Kenya's Eastern coastline bordering the Indian Ocean, Mombasa’s original Arabic name is Manbasa. In Kiswahili, it is called Kisiwa Cha Mvita, which means "Island of War" [Read More]

Founded in 1200 BC by Phoenicians, Algiers was first a trading post called "Icosium". In myths, Icosium is thought to have been established by 20 friends of the legendary hero Hercules. [Read More]

Luanda experienced several critical situations including an urban war, the emigration of technicians, the migration into the city by the rural population and the consequent collapse of infrastructure. [Read More]

Addis Ababa, which means "New Flower" in Amharic, is an intriguingly indigenous African city. Its founding, growth and development are not rooted in colonization. It is the capital city of Ethiopia and is located about 2,500 m above sea level at 9.03° N 38.74°E. [Read More]

Today, Cairo is Africa's most populous city and the Arab world's cultural centre. Since the 19th century Cairo has also become a center for tourism as people from around the world have come to see the monuments and artifacts of Ancient Egypt, especially the Pyramids [Read More]

Kinshasa is Congo's largest city and it is an administrative, communication, and commercial center. Major industries in the city are food and beverage processing, tanning, construction, ship repairing, and the manufacture of chemicals, mineral oils, textiles, and cement. [Read More]

Kigali is the capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is situated in the centre of the nation, and has been the economic, cultural, and transport hub of Rwanda since it became capital at independence in 1962. [Read More]

Dakar is a major industrial centre, with industries including mineral-oil and groundnut-oil refining, engineering, vehicle assembly, chemicals, brewing, tobacco and food processing. The city is the busiest port in West Africa, serving Mali, Mauritania as well as Senegal. It has modern facilities for handling and storing goods [Read More]

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. Although largely a government-based city, it is also a place of culture, with theatres, museums and monuments. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) capital [Read More]

Lagos was the capital of Nigeria from 1914 – 1976 and lost its status to Abuja on December 12, 1991. It was stripped of this title when the Federal Capital Territory was established at the purpose-built city of Abuja. [Read More]

Kampala grew up around a port constructed by Frederick Lugard in 1890 for the British East Africa Company. Although it now spreads over more than 20 hills, it is sometimes referred to as the city of seven hills. [Read More]

The vibrant and colourful city lies in the flat valley between Kgale and Oodi hills, on the Notwane River in the south eastern corner of Botswana, 15Kms from the South African border post at Tlokweng on main transport routes. [Read More]

A neighbor of Senegal and Guinea in West Africa, on the Atlantic coast, Guinea-Bissau is about half the size of South Carolina. The country is a low-lying coastal region of swamps, rain forests, and mangrove-covered wetlands, with about 25 islands off the coast. The Bijagos archipelago extends 30 mi (48 km) out to sea. [Read More]

The various population movements of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries have made Mauritius a unique blend of different races, cultures and religions. People of European, African, Indian and Chinese origins have created a multiracial society where the various cultures and traditions flourish in peace and harmony. [Read More]

Burundi borders Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Lake Tanganyika to the southwest, and Congo (Kinshasa) to the west. Bujumbura is the capital and largest city. [Read More]

The islands of Sao Tome and Principe are situated in the equatorial Atlantic about 300 and 250 kilometers, respectively, off the northwest coast of Gabon, and constitute Africa's smallest country. Both are part of an extinct volcanic mountain range, which also includes the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea to the north and Mount Cameroon on the African west coast. [Read More]

Lying on the Atlantic in the southern part of West Africa, Liberia is bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire. It is comparable in size to Tennessee. Most of the country is a plateau covered by dense tropical forests. [Read More]

Throughout the period of Spanish rule most of the mainland region remained unexplored, with the Spanish venturing into the interior in the 1920s. Only after the Spanish civil war ended in 1939 did the colonial power begin developing the region in earnest. [Read More]

Benin is a West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, between Togo on the west and Nigeria on the east, is about the size of Tennessee. It is bounded also by Burkina Faso and Niger on the north. The land consists of a narrow coastal strip that rises to a swampy, forested plateau and then to highlands in the north. A hot and humid climate blankets the entire country. [Read More]

Morocco is situated on the extreme northwestern corner of Africa and is bordered by Mauritania and Algeria, both to the south and east. Its geography includes no less than four separate mountain ranges, in addition to lush river valleys, beautiful sandy coasts, and wide expanses of desert. [Read More]

Cape Verde, only slightly larger than Rhode Island, is an archipelago in the Atlantic 385 mi (500 km) west of Senegal. Cape Verde was discovered in 1456 by Luigi da Cadamosto, a navigator in the service of Portugal. [Read More]

Seychelles lies in the western part of the Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar and 1,593km (995 miles) east of Mombasa, Kenya. It is between 4 and 5 degrees south of the equator at a longitude between 55 and 56 degrees east. The country is an isolated archipelago of outstanding natural beauty comprising about 115 islands. [Read More]

Lesotho is a water-rich nation in a water-starved region. The Lesotho Highlands water scheme, a six-dam project scheduled to be completed in 2015, already provides water and hydroelectricity for Lesotho and South Africa. [Read More]

Cote d’Ivoire is located in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea. It was divided into various isolated kingdoms at the time of European discovery in the 15th century, organized as a French colony in 1893, became a part of French West Africa in 1904 and declared its independence in 1960. Yamoussoukro is the capital and Abidjan is the largest city and de facto administrative center. [Read More]

Rwanda is a small, hilly country in central Africa, over 500 miles from the nearest coast – the Indian Ocean- at the border of Kenya and Tanzania. As a result of this isolation, writing did not reach it until colonization by Germany and then Belgium at the end of the nineteenth century. Its earlier history is reliant on oral tradition only. [Read More]

Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa opposite Mozambique. The world's fourth-largest island is twice the size of Arizona. The country's low-lying coastal area gives way to a central plateau. The once densely wooded interior has largely been cut down. [Read More]

Swaziland, officially known as Kingdom of Swaziland is bordered on the South, West, and North by the Republic of South Africa and on the East by Mozambique. The capital and largest city is Mbabane. [Read More]

The Comoros Islands—Grande Comoro (Ngazidja), Anjouan, Mohéli, and Mayotte (which is not part of the country and retains ties to France)—constitute an archipelago of volcanic origin in the Indian Ocean, 190 mi off the coast of Mozambique. [Read More]

Part of the Sahara, it is extremely arid and is almost entirely covered with stones, gravel, or sand. The main towns are Laayoune (formerly El Aaiún), the capital; Dakhla (formerly Villa Cisneros); Boujdour; and Essemara. The population is predominantly made up of Arabs and Berbers. [Read More]

The origin of the name Guinea itself is obscure. Some suggest that Guinea might have been derived from the ancient Niger River Basin trading center, Djenne. More likely it was derived, through Portuguese usage, from the Berber Akal-n-Iguinawen (land of the blacks). Yet another possibility is that it comes from the word geenay, meaning “women” among the coastal Soussou, and that somehow this name came to be applied to a widespread area of the African Coast. [Read More]

Following a promising start after independence, the Ethiopian war (1998-2000) drastically changed the performance of the Eritrean economy. The most significant change was the sharp deterioration of the public finances and rapid increase in domestic and external public debt. [Read More]

Named after the river Gambia, which flows through its length from East to West, Gambia is a relatively small country in West Africa. It is situated on the Atlantic Coast at the Bulge of West Africa and is in the Savannah Region. [Read More]

The Baya people, seeking refuge from the Fulani of northern Cameroon, arrived in what is now the Central African Republic in the early 19th century; the Banda, fleeing the Muslim Arab slave raiders of Sudan, came later in the century. [Read More]

Burkina is attempting to improve the economy by developing its mineral resources, improving its infrastructure, making its agricultural and livestock sectors more productive and competitive, and stabilizing the supplies and prices of food grains. [Read More]

Malians express great pride in their ancestry. Mali is the cultural heir to the succession of ancient African empires -- Ghana, Malinké, and Songhai -- that occupied the West African savanna. These empires controlled Saharan trade and were in touch with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern centers of civilization. [Read More]

Today one can still see many reminders of the German period. Namibia has a daily German newspaper and there is an abundance of German buildings and monuments, erected in the German colonial period. The German language coexists alongside the many other unofficial languages that are spoken in the country. [Read More]

Gabon is located in Central Africa. It borders Cameroon to the north, Congo to the east and south, Atlantic Ocean to the west by and Equatorial Guinea to the northwest. [Read More]

Djibouti's economy is based on a number of service activities associated with its strategic location and its position as a free-trade zone. It is a major port for NE Africa, as well as an international transshipment and refueling center. [Read More]

The Congo's mineral wealth is the mainstay of the economy, but the development of the mining industry has occurred at the expense of commercial agriculture. The economy's growth spurted under Belgian control in the 1950s, slowed considerably during the country's post independence troubles in the early 1960s, accelerated again in the late 1960s when political stability returned, and has generally declined since the 1970s, when the nationalization of major industries resulted in a reduction of private investment. [Read More]

Tunisia is a Muslim Arab country situated on the North African Mediterranean coast. It is the easternmost and smallest of the three nations along the Atlas mountain range, bordering one of the others, Algeria to the west, as well as Libya to the south and east. Forty per cent of the country is comprised by the Sahara desert, with much of the remainder consisting of particularly fertile land and easily accessible coasts. [Read More]

In the late 15th century Portuguese navigators became the first Europeans to visit Nigeria. They soon began to purchase slaves and agricultural produce from coastal middlemen. [Read More]

Ghana was the first African country south of the Sahara to achieve independence. This was in 1957. The colonial power was Britain. The Portuguese were the first to arrive and they named the place where they settled as the Gold Coast. This became the name of the country till independence when it was changed to Ghana. [Read More]

The rich heritage of traditional music present in Zimbabwe since its earliest times survived with difficulty once British colonisation was established by the mid-nineteenth century. In rural areas of Zimbabwe, African traditions are still very much alive today, although they are more and more replaced by modern, Western lifestyles in the cities, popular mainly with the young people. [Read More]

Mandela's administration began to reintroduce South Africa into the global economy by implementing a market-driven economic plan. In order to heal the wounds created by apartheid, the government created the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) under the leadership of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. [Read More]

In 1934, Italy adopted the name "Libya" as the official name of the colony which consisted of the Provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fezzan. [Read More]

When Arab traders moved inland from their enclaves along the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa and reached the interior of Uganda in the 1830s, they found several African kingdoms with well-developed political institutions dating back several centuries. [Read More]

At independence, Zambia faced major challenges. Domestically, there were few trained and educated Zambians capable of running the government, and the economy was largely dependent on foreign expertise. [Read More]

Chad has a long and rich history. The cliff paintings in Borkou and Ennedi depict elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, cattle, and camels; only camels survive there today. The region was known to traders and geographers from the late Middle Ages. [Read More]

Egyptian written history begins around 3300 BC. This was when the Egyptians finally had enough symbols in their writing to record history. [Read More]

Thousands of slaves were returned to or liberated in Freetown. Most chose to remain in Sierra Leone. [Read More]

When Portuguese explorers reached Mozambique in 1498, Arab-trading settlements had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries. From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts became regular ports of call on the new route to the east. [Read More]

When Portuguese explorers reached Mozambique in 1498, Arab-trading settlements had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries. From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts became regular ports of call on the new route to the east. [Read More]

Sudan was a collection of small, independent kingdoms and principalities from the beginning of the Christian era until 1820-21, when Egypt conquered and unified the northern portion of the country. [Read More]

Niger's colonial history and development parallels that of other French West African territories. France administered its West African colonies through a governor general at Dakar, Senegal, and governors in the individual territories, including Niger. [Read More]

The colonial history of Kenya dates from the Berlin Conference of 1885, when the European powers first partitioned East Africa into spheres of influence. [Read More]

Malawi is a small landlocked country in Africa, south of the Equator between latitude 9 degrees 45' and 17 degrees 16' South and between longitudes 33 degrees 35' east. It is 900 kilometres long, varying in width from 80 kilometres to 160 kilometres. The country is bordered to the North and North-East by the Republic of Tanzania and to the East, South and South-West by the Republic of Mozambique. [Read More]

Present-day Senegal became in the fourteenth century part of Mali: it forms the centre of this country. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the area came under the influence of the Mandingo/a empires to the east. [Read More]

The earliest inhabitants of present-day Cameroon were probably the Bakas (Pygmies). They still inhabit the forests of the south and east provinces. Bantu speakers originating in the Cameroonian highlands were among the first groups to move out. [Read More]

Little is known of the history of Tanganyika's interior during the early centuries of the Christian era. The area is believed to have been inhabited originally by ethnic groups using a click-tongue language similar to that of Southern Africa's Bushmen. [Read More]

From the 3rd to 7th centuries, the migration of Berber tribes from North Africa displaced the Bafours, the original inhabitants of present-day Mauritania and the ancestors of the Soninke. [Read More]

First inhabited by pygmies, present-day Congo was later settled by Bantu groups that also occupy parts of present-day Angola, Gabon and Congo-Kinshasa, forming the basis for ethnic affinities and rivalries among those states. [Read More]

The modern economy of Algeria has taken an upward turn. Traditionally it depended primarily on oil and natural gas production. The Algerian economy has turned to light industry and chemical production to bolster its exports. [Read More]

The Batswana, a term also used to denote all citizens of Botswana, refers to the country's major ethnic group (the "Tswana" in South Africa), which came into the area from South Africa during the Zulu wars of the early 1880s. [Read More]

Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. What are believed to be the oldest remains of a human ancestor ever found, were discovered in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia. [Read More]

The UK bank's long-awaited announcement is a major vote of confidence in the South African economy more than a decade after the demise of the apartheid regime and 19 years after it was forced out of the country. [Read More]

At least 10 people were killed by an explosion at a soccer stadium in Somalia's capital Mogadishu where the prime minister had just addressed hundreds of supporters on Tuesday. Here is a short chronology of events since independence. [Read More]

Youths hurled rocks and set up blazing barricades in Togo's capital yesterday after Faure Gnassingbe, son of the late authoritarian leader, was declared the winner of a presidential vote his rivals say was fixed. [Read More]

Colonial economic development did not translate into social development for native Angolans. The Portuguese regime encouraged white immigration, especially after 1950, which intensified racial antagonisms. [Read More]