Rhodes was the mavericks’ maverick ... He made his fortune in a diamond town. ibid.
If ever there was a country founded on blood and greed Rhodesia was it. ibid.
Huge areas were governed by handfuls of white men thrown in at the deep end and told to get on with it. ibid.
The world had turned against the very idea of imperialism. ibid.
We are the first race in the world and the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. Cecil Rhodes
God’s chosen instrument in carrying out the divine idea. Cecil Rhodes
Africa lies ready for us: it is our duty to take it. Cecil Rhodes
We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease. George W Bush, Sweden 14th June 2001
Buranda is central to the government’s African policy. Yes, Minister s1e2: The Official Visit, Jim to Sir Humphrey, with Bernard, BBC 1980
Our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet. I’m always in Africa ... And when I go to these places I see American policy written on the walls of oppression everywhere. Harry Belafonte
It was how it was imposed on Africa. It was here that clear breakthroughs were made that helped develop the West’s most unlikely and killer app ... the medicine. Niall Ferguson, Civilisation: Is the West History? IV Medicine, Channel 4 2011
The French empire had begun with slavery. ibid.
Here was another kind of imperial hero – the bacteriologist. ibid.
The scramble for Africa has become a byword for the ruthless exploitation of an entire continent by rapacious Europeans. But it was also a scramble for scientific knowledge. With the spread of railways went the spread of western civilisation and its killer app – modern medicine. This was the original medecins sans frontieres – doctors without borders. It is a point often overlooked by those like Gandhi who maintain that the European empires has no redeeming feature. ibid.
The Germans were the latecomers to the African party ... For the Germans it was a testing ground for racial theory. ibid.
No longer Britain is the master of Africa. Now they must kneel down to us. Idi Amin
I am the hero of Africa. Idi Amin
Freedom is the cry of Africa. Our blood will mean something at last. John Chilenwe
A Terrible New Front In Africa’s Deadly Famine. The Independent on Sunday 31st July 2011
Cities of Africa,
Your children
Will be seen to be
Torn apart
In their own homes. Leonardo da Vinci
Africa always brings something new. Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis
I speak of Africa and golden joys. William Shakespeare, II Henry IV V iii 101
The African is conditioned, by the cultural and social institutions of centuries, to a freedom of which Europe has little conception, and it is not in his nature to accept serfdom forever. He realizes that he must fight unceasingly for his own emancipation; for without this he is doomed to remain the prey of rival imperialisms. Jomo Kenyatta, Facing Mount Kenya, 1938
The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and, whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. Harold Macmillan, speech Cape Town 3rd February 1960
Africa has been sucked dry by those people, those multinationals. They are the ones who should be bringing out money back to us. That message is one of hope. That message is one of salvation. John Onaiyekan, with Anne Widdecombe v Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens, 2009
Are you there ... Africa of the millions of royal slaves, deported Africa, drifting continent, are you there? Slowly you vanish, you withdraw into the past, into the tales of castaways, colonial museums, the work of scholars. Jean Genet, The Blacks, 1959
I’m setting off on a journey across three continents in search of one of the biggest stories of our age: the unstoppable global rise of China. Throughout the world Chinese industry and wealth are shifting the balance of power. On this first stage of my journey I’ll be crossing Africa where a million Chinese people are helping to transform the continent. Justin Rowlatt, The Chinese Are Coming, BBC 2011
An explosion of trade between China and Africa. ibid.
The oil bonanza and the Chinese building project make Luanda feel like a boomtown. But unemployment among the locals remains rampant. ibid.
In some African countries the Chinese presence is more controversial. ibid.
Some of the continent’s worst rulers have found in China a convenient political ally. ibid.
The West risks being left behind in Africa. ibid.
More and more Africans are learning about the Chinese language and culture. ibid.
Communist China is bringing capitalism to Africa in a big way. ibid.
Africa: the most ancient continent ... The great super-continent of Pangea broke up. Rise of the Continents: Africa, BBC 2013
A destructive force that now threatens to break up the entire continent ... One of Africa's most explosive volcanoes ... Something is melting the rock beneath it. ibid.
Africa, that most ancient of lands, will one day break up. ibid.
Africa: where the human race began. Nearly a billion people live here. It’s a continent with an incredible diversity of communities and cultures. Yet we know less of its history than almost anywhere else on Earth. Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s1e1: Nubia, BBC 2010
The far north of the continent in what is now known as Sudan. I’m looking for the legendary kingdom of Nubia. Nubia is the traditional name for the northern part of Sudan near the Egyptian border. For thousands of years a civilisation dominated the area there in what’s now eastern Sahara … A source of slaves and treasure, dancing girls and wrestlers … These people were conquerors in their own right. ibid.
There are more pyramids here than there are in Egypt. ibid.
Water was the key to this Nubian kingdom. ibid.
They [Egyptians] clearly regarded them as inferior. ibid.
They’d even developed writing. ibid.
The desert continued its relentless incursion. ibid.
These are the moments when Ethiopia’s kingdom came to an end. In February 1974 the Ethiopian military rose up in revolt … A coup that brought to an end one of the world’s oldest continuous kingdoms. Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s1e2: Ethiopia
A dynasty that claimed it could trace its roots back thousands of years. ibid.
Ethiopian Muslims made common cause with Ethiopian Christians. ibid.
In 1871 a German geologist exploring southern Africa stumbled across an extraordinary ruins. He was astonished by what he found. A vast stone city stranded in the empty savannah: Great Zimbabwe. Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s1e3: Greater Zimbabwe
This coast [Mozambique] was central to an international trade in gold. ibid.
Great Zimbabwe was at its zenith in the 13th and 14th centuries. ibid.
A wealth of trading goods … have been found here. ibid.
Many of the stories of Africa are told here - the British museum in London. This is where thousands of artefacts collected, bought and taken the continent ended up. When they were first discovered objects from the ancient kingdoms of West Africa stunned the world … They’re 16th century casts in cooper-rich alloys of brass and bronze. Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s1e4, West Africa
Benin’s history: for 600 years until the late nineteenth century it dominated this part of west Africa. ibid.
This is the great gold kingdom of Great Zimbabwe. For two hundred years the rulers of this place controlled a massive empire between the Zambezi and Nimpopo rivers. ibid.