The kingdom of Asante once ruled supreme in west Africa. It was a kingdom that became an empire. It played a pivotal role in commerce linking three continents, and it was built on slaves and gold. Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s2e1: The Kingdom of Asante, BBC 2013
How did a sophisticated society emerge from some of the toughest conditions on the planet? ibid.
Asante emerged a little over three hundred years ago in territory now occupied by the Republic of Ghana in the heart of west Africa’s forest zone. ibid.
The scale of the achievement is hard to comprehend. ibid.
Asante was formally incorporated into the British Gold Coast colony. ibid.
On 22nd January 1879 this was the site of one of the most humiliating defeats ever suffered by the British army. In just 3 hours over 1,200 British troops armed with state-of-the-art weapons were annihilated by an African army equipped only with spears, shields, and a collection of old muskets. Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s2e2: The Zulu Kingdom
They settled in a region that would eventually become known as KwaZulu-Natal. ibid.
Around the Zulu nation Southern Africa was changing. ibid.
King Shaka: Britain traded with the Zulu. ibid.
The defeat at Blood River split the Zulu kingdom in two. ibid.
The invasion force consisted of around 12,000 man made up of British soldiers and African support troops. ibid.
The kingdom was plunged into a bitter civil war ... The glorious kingdom that Shaka had built had been systematically destroyed. ibid.
The Sahara Desert ... From here a group of desert nomads came to transform the northwest corner of Africa into a vast empire that stretched from the Sahara to Spain. Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s2e3: The Berber Kingdom of Morocco
A kingdom which lasted for centuries. Its rulers generated tremendous wealth, created great architecture and promoted sophisticated ideas in an ordered society. They were called the Berber. ibid.
They had one simple mission: jihad. ibid.
The great lakes of east Africa. A jewel in the African crown ... This region has been the site of intense rivalry and great power struggles. Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s1e4: Bunyoro & Buganda
Uganda ... This is a tale of two kingdoms. A story of rivalry, of warfare, of opportunity. ibid.
By its height in the seventeenth century Bunyoro’s assets were the envy of it neighbours. ibid.
Uganda exploited its rival's weakness. ibid.
The kingdoms were toe to toe. And into this volatile situation new players arrived – the European explorers. ibid.
Waged war on the British – their joint effort resulted in the two men being captured and exiled to the Seychelles in 1899. ibid.
The British protectorate was named Uganda. (Africa & Uganda) ibid.
They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America? Fidel Castro
The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery. Chinua Achebe
This world was not created piecemeal. Africa was born no later and no earlier than any other geographical area on this globe. Africans, no more and no less than other men, possess all human attributes, talents and deficiencies, virtues and faults. Haile Selassie
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses. Nelson Mandela
The future belongs to us, because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the resourcefulness, and we have the strength of our people to share the dream across Africa of clean water for all. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Let’s face it – think of Africa, and the first images that come to mind are of war, poverty, famine and flies. How many of us really know anything at all about the truly great ancient African civilizations, which in their day, were just as splendid and glorious as any on the face of the earth? Henry Louis Gates
I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level. Muammar al-Gaddafi
You have to realize that up until about 1959, Africa was dominated by the colonial powers. And by the colonial powers of Europe having complete control over Africa, they projected Africa always in a negative light – jungles, savages, cannibals, nothing civilized. Malcolm X
A genocide in Africa has not received the same attention that genocide in Europe or genocide in Turkey or genocide in other part of the world. There is still this kind of basic discrimination against the African people and the African problems. Boutros Boutros-Ghali
I love Africa in general South Africa and West Africa, they are both great countries. Paris Hilton
In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society. Noam Chomsky
The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it. George Kimble
Another United Nations organisation calculated that 0.5 per cent of world spending on weapons of destruction, often mass destruction, would be enough to provide the investment in agriculture in the stricken continent of Africa sufficient to produce enough food easily to feed the entire African population. 0.5 per cent! A tiny fragment of the money devoted to killing could save the lives of millions and millions of people! Yet the ‘free market’ keeps it firmly locked up in bombs and bullets. At the same time it has ruthlessly cut production in the fertile farmlands of the United States of America. It has even launched a campaign to cut off funds from the United Nations agencies which have the effrontery to reveal the full horror of free-market priorities.
Everywhere, the discrepancy gapes so wide that even the blindest believer in the free market cannot avoid it. The human race now has at its disposal more than enough technology, raw materials, knowledge and imagination to fulfil everyone’s basic needs without difficulty. As the man from the FAO said, there would be ‘no problem’ in doubling food production, no problem for that matter in providing the people of the world with food, clothing, shelter, heat and light, not to mention education, health, and transport. Paul Foot, The Case For Socialism ch4
Africa: around 70,000 years ago. These people are fully developed modern humans just like us – homo sapiens: it means wise man. Andrew Marr’s History of the World I, BBC 2012
Scientists have tracked it back to one migration out of Africa, one tribe, one woman. ibid.
A wave of intense homophobia is washing across Africa, where homosexuality is already illegal in thirty-seven countries. It’s being fuelled by fundamentalist preachers, intolerant governments and homophobic politicians. People are being tortured, raped and imprisoned just for being gay. And in some cases even facing the death penalty. Scott Mills, The World’s Worst Place to be Gay: Uganda? BBC 2011
Here in Africa, or in Ghana, we believe that every sickness is a curse or is caused by the devil. Theresa Appah, African evangelical, interview Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch
The biggest opportunity in 2013 is in Africa. It has seven out of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. In Nigeria alone there are 100 million people with mobile phones. In total, 300 million Africans – five times the population of Britain – are in the middle class. David Miliband
The sustained and hideously violent rape of the animal, vegetable and above all mineral resources of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 1990s and the early 2000s. The multi-billion-dollar enterprise includes politicians, gangsters, businessmen and large corporations, who all work relentlessly to sate both their unquenchable avarice and the global consumer’s equally rapacious demand for mobile phones and things that sparkle. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Western access to commodities like coltan depended on the offices of organised-crime groups working throughout southern and western Africa. ibid.
The Germans and the Italians faced humiliating defeat on the northern shores of Africa. WWII: Countdown to Victory: Resistance is Never Futile, Yesterday 2017