Same Cradle, Three Graves: The Angola Story
On a Friday morning in February 2002, an old man is running for his life through the bush of Eastern Angola.
He is sixty-seven years old. He has spent four decades fighting a war.
Government soldiers are closing in behind....
The Lisbon Breakout: How a Captive Poet Built a Borderland Army
In July 1962, a man steps out of a house in Lisbon and does not come back.
This should be impossible. The house is watched. The man inside is the most famous political prisoner in the Portuguese empire, a doctor, a poet, the one....
Where Ships Go to Die: The Forgotten Maritime History of Africa
Africa’s coastline carries stories most people never hear about.
Not the stories in tourism brochures and postcard beaches.
The darker stories.
Stories of ships swallowed by storms. Ancient cities sinking be....
What makes a bad name?
I just love good names.
One reason I love history is the names I get to discover. Kunta Kinte. Kwame Nkrumah. Ngolo Kanté.
You don't know why you like them. They just sound cool.
Take Kanté. Here is....
The Forest That Walks
Across Africa, animals are more than just animals.
They are symbols.
They are messengers.
Sometimes… they are family.
In East Africa, the lion represents royalty. In parts of West Africa, the leopar....
The Place Where You Can Touch a Crocodile and Live
In The Gambia, you can walk up to a full-grown West African crocodile and touch it.
Heavy. Ancient. Two metres of muscle and scale, lying on the bank in the sun.
You can crouch beside it, stroke its back, lift its tail, a....
The Country That Refused to Choose an Official Language
Sooner or later, most countries face the same question:
What language represents the nation?
Somalia chose Somali.
Nigeria chose English.
Tanzania chose Swahili.
Even countries with dozens of languages u....