Kinshasa

King Leopold II is a strong contender for the person responsible for committing the most evil acts in human history. The Congo was his personal property after the 'Scramble for Africa'. He used a Mercenary Army to extract vast sums which were redirected to construction projects in Belgium, becoming known as 'The Builder King'. Consensus is that these buildings cost about 10 million Congolese lives. Leopoldville was renamed Kinshasa in 1966, after a village that was in the area. Today Kinshasa has an urban population of around 12 million people. It is the largest French speaking city, recently surpassing Paris. It is on the banks of the second longest river in Africa (after the Nile). On the other side of the river is Brazzaville, which is the capital its neighbouring country. The second closest capitals after Rome and the Vatican City.

Leopoldville 1884

Grume

En tant que Sud-Africain vivant en Angleterre, je trouve frustrant que le colonialisme soit absent de la conversation nationale. Je comprends bien. Le fil conducteur est 'mettez le passé derrière vous et continuez'. Ne pas blâmer le passé pour votre situation vous met au volant. Mais. Ne pas comprendre le passé vous condamne à ne pas apprendre de vos erreurs. L'Afrique n'était pas seulement colonisée par l'Angleterre. Un groupe de vieux hommes blancs l'a divisé à la fin du 19ème siècle. Avant cela, il y avait une longue histoire d'influence arabe. Je ne peux parler qu'anglais. J'ai l'impression de comprendre le colonialisme, je dois d'abord retirer le grume de mon propre œil. L'apprentissage de la langue de différents colonisateurs peut être la voie pour comprendre les étapes à franchir pour surmonter les obstacles structurels à aller de l'avant.

Sincede Sincedisane

Esinye sezizathu endikufumene kunzima ukufunda isiXhosa, ukungabikho kweengxoxo kunye neencwadi. Oku kungenxa yokuba ndihlala eNgilani. NdingumSoutie. Ndizama ukufunda ezinye iilwimi. IsiFrentshi kunye neArabhu zincedo kwezinye iindawo zaseAfrika. IsiSwahili yilona ulwimi olubhekiselele kulwimi lwaseAfrika. Ngokusebenzisa i-Google translate, kunye nokwakha isigama, ndiyathemba ukuba ndiyakwazi ukukhupha ngaphandle kolwimi lwam lwesiNgesi kuphela. Andikwazi ukuhlala ngokwenyama kwiindawo ezi zithetha ngeelwimi ixesha elide ukuze ndizicwilise. Ndizama ukujonga ukuba eli lizwe elitsha, lidibaniswe yiMidiya yezoLuntu, lunokusinceda sincedisane.

IiLwimi ezisemthethweni eAfrika

Continental Stories

Melilla Border

If continents are defined as discrete landmasses, then there are four continents (Afro-Eurasia, Americas, Australia and Antartica). There is no 'real' definition. They are spoken of by convention. Carthage and Rome fought three Punic Wars between 264BC and 146BC. Carthage then became the Capital of the province of Africa Proconsulis as part of the Roman Empire. The Mediterranean is a lot calmer than the English Channel. The Suez Canal is shallow, narrow, and man-made. At various times between 711 and 1492, the southern part of Spain was under the control of those who also controlled Northern Africa as Al-Andulus. Today, Melilla and Cueta are two heavily fortified Port Cities which are officially a part of Europe but on the south side of the pond. Until 1963, Algeria was considered a part of France. In 1957, when the European Economic Community was formed... Algeria (as part of France) was part of that group. Pan-Africanism began as a concept in the C20th century. The African National Congress in South Africa was formed as the South African Native National Congress in 1912.

Afro-Eurasia

Pan-African Flag

Yemen

Yemen is the home of the biblical 'Queen of Sheba' - the leader of a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years, including parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The idea of 'Africa' as a separate continent is very recent. The Suez Canal is a man-made separation. Europe, Asia and Africa are one land mass with very closely interwoven histories. In the Hebrew Bible, the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon with gifts of spices, gold and precious jewels. The Makonnen dynasty of Ethiopia claim descent from the child born out of that visit. There is no functional state and the area is ravished with war and blockades. A famine is underway affecting 17 million people. More than 50,000 children died from starvation in 2017. A painful reminder that despite our shared history, the importance of our lives is weighted by the random geography of our birth.

Queen of Sheba

Oman

After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese occupied the port of Muscat in Oman for 143 years (1507-1650). About 100 years after they were driven out by locals, the current ruling dynasty cemented power in 1744. Holding a strong strategic position at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Omani Empire competed with Portugal and Britain for influence in the Indian Ocean from the late C17th. Oman's colonial focus was the Swahili Coast. The Omanis ejected the Portuguese from Zanzibar and the other areas north of Mozambique. Zanzibar became the main slave market. Slavery was outlawed in Oman in 1970 after Sultan Qaboos ousted his father in a palace coup. Oman remains an absolute monarchy, but gradual reforms have been introduced. Unlike most of its neighbours, it only has modest oil reserves and so doesn't have an oil-dependent economy.

Swahili Coast

Cairo

Cairo, which now has a population of 9.5 million, has long been an important global city. It managed to avoid Europe's late middle ages stagnation, but being a key trade city, got hit by the Black Death more than 50 times between 1348 and 1517. This reduced the population to between 150,000 and 300,000. Then a new route around the Cape of Good Hope was opened which allowed spice traders to avoid the city. When the Ottoman Empire took control, Cairo became second fiddle to Constantinople/Istanbul. Napoleon arrived in 1798 and the population was still just 300,000. The joint British/Ottoman forces defeated the French in 1801. Although the British left, immense debt was built up in the public works to build modern Egypt. This was used as a pretext for British invasion in 1882. By the end of the 19th century, just 5% of the population were European, but they held most of the top Government positions. World Wars, Cold War, Energy Crises and rising Nationalism came next. Being an important city is volatile.

Cairo Citadel

Lagos

One way of looking at the current political tensions is a shift from Left-Right, to Local-Global or Rural-Urban. The first was an ideological conflict. The new way doesn't need to be. It is easy to forget how dramatically the world has changed in the last couple of hundred years. Industrialisation, urbanisation, travel, and massive reductions in child mortality have put the rules we live by under tension. The metropolitan area of Lagos has a population of about 21 million people. The largest city on a continent that has been turned upside down. Cities are a natural place to go to try get on your feet. The population of Lagos increases every year by about 275,000 people per year. Rural areas lend themselves to conservatism. A place to retreat to what you know. Where we feel comfortable. Cities force edgy change where we discover what we don't know. Today's Lagos, like today's Dhaka, Tokyo or Jakarta is where we go to be part of the change.

Cold Border War

Cold War Africa - 1980

The South African Border War in Namibia was fought between 1966 and 1990 as part of the Cold War and the Decolonisation of Africa. The battle was closely linked to the Angolan Civil War. These wars were pitched as a battle between 'Anti-Communist' and 'African-Nationalist' forces. Namibia had been governed as a colony of Germany till World War I, and was then given as a mandate to South Africa, 'until the local population was ready for self-rule'. Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975 (The authoritarian regime in Portugal was overthrown in 1974). Post World War II, the conflicting ideals of self-determination, and the ideological battle between Capitalism and Communism, used the developing world as the battlefield. South Africa was viewed by the Soviets as a bastion of neocolonialism. The Soviet Union was dissolved on 26 December 1991. It isn't a coincidence that Apartheid ended in 1994, and Mandela was released in 1990. It also isn't a coincidence that parties on the left view free markets with skepticism.

Ratel Armoured Car

Border Patrol

South Sudan

South Sudan is about the same size as France. It gained independence from the North in 2011 and is second on the 2016 Fragile State Index to Somalia, and just ahead of neighbours, the Central African Republic, and its sibling Sudan. Although 99% of the vote supported independence, disputes remain, as 75% of the former Sudan's oil revenues came from the South. In the ongoing Civil War, there are at least 7 different armed groups all accusing the Government of planning to stay in power indefinitely and not representing all the people of the country. Since 2013 when a power struggle broke out between the President and the Deputy, an estimated 300,000 people have died. About 3 million people of the estimated population of 8-12 million (the exact figure is disputed) have been displaced. 1 million having fled to neighbouring countries, and 2 million displaced within the country but not able to go home. 

Celebrating Independence

São Tomé and Príncipe

Trade was a big driver of early colonisation. Establishing permanent settlements rather than carrying supplies with you was clearly preferable, but it was necessary to find people who actually wanted to go. São Tomé and Príncipe is an island nation off the coast of Gabon. The Portuguese established it as a trading post, using the rich volcanic soil to produce sugar. Gradually, its primary focus became a transit point for the transatlantic slave trade. The Portuguese settlers were often undesirables sent away from Portugal. Slaves were brought across from Benin, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, and Angola. After the abolition of slavery, freed men also were brought to the islands. This mixed group of people are joined by the common language of Portuguese and are predominantly Catholic. It is the second smallest African country after the Seychelles, with a population of about 190,000 people.

Guinea-Bissau

The name of the capital is added to distinguish Guinea-Bissau from other Guineas. Initially the Portuguese traders stuck to ports like Bissau. For a while, the British toyed with a rival foothold on the offshore island of Bolama 40 km away. An armed guerrilla rebellion started in 1956 supported by Cuba, China, the Soviet Union and other left-leaning African countries. It is hard to disentangle the story of Africa shaking off its colonial yoke and the Cold War conflict. After a long war, official independence only came after a socialist inspired military coup in Portugal in 1974. The Estada Novo was a Corporatist Authoritarian regime established in Lisbon in 1933. The regime saw the territories outside Portugal as extensions of Portugal itself. Despite its small size (between Taiwan and Belgium), it is not ethnically or linguistically homogenous. Only 14% of the population speak the official language, Portuguese. 44% speak Kriol a mixed language spoken mainly as a second language for National Identity. There are 20 minor parties. No president has successfully served a full five year term since independence. 

Abandoned Tank from '98/'99 Civil War

Eritrea

Most nations are a bigger coming together of formerly warring subgroups. This is true of Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and smaller countries like Eritrea. Italian Eritrea was formed in 1890, just eight years after the first Italian settlements in the area, and five years after the Berlin Conference. The first lands were bought from Sultans for commercial interests before the Italian government took control. 

Most smaller groups on the west coast of the Red Sea were under the Egyptian Control. They were notionally under control of the Ottoman Empire, but acted more and more independently. The big powers of the area were thrown into chaos with the Ethiopia-Egypt war and the rise of the Mahdi in Sudan. The Italians swooped in incorporating various Kingdoms and Sultanates into a colony. That lasted 62 years.

Ethiopia was the one African country which completely resisted the Scramble for Africa. It also had imperial ambitions of its own and annex Eritrea and Italian Somaliland. In 1950, Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie then annexed the area in 1962 leading to a 30 year war. A 1993 referendum resulted in independence. The country has a population of 6.4 million with no official language, a number of ethnic groups and a roughly 50/50 split between Muslims and Christians. The working languages are Tigrinya, Arabic and English. 

St. Joseph's Cathedral

Sheikh Hanafi Mosque

Comoros

In 1960, South Africa had it's SAxit Referendum. 3 of 4 provinces favoured dropping Queen Elizabeth as the Head of State and becoming a republic (56% leave). In 1974, the four islands of the Comoros had a referendum on independence from France. Three voted to leave. The dissenting areas faced different outcomes. Natal, in South Africa with 76% remain was forced to leave. Mayotte, in the Comoros, with 63% remain held out. The Comoros has repeatedly pressed its claim with the United Nations General Assembly citing 'territorial integrity' on decolonisation. Scotland, in the recent EU Brexit referendum, was 62% Remain.

For the Comoros, Independence came for the three island nation in 1975, but it is a land defined by a mixture of arriving societies. Bantu Speaking explorers from the left, Arab explorers from above, Austronesian explorers from the right, and eventually, European explorers from below. With about 800,000 people, it is as densely populated as the Netherlands. 98% of the population are Sunni Islam with Arabic a widely spoken second language, French the administrative language, and Comorian, related to Swahili, the most common tongue.

Comorian Independence Referendum - 1974

South Africa Referendum - 1960

UK EU Referendum - 2016

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic (CAR) was third in 2016 on the Fragile State Index published by the Fund for Peace. The twelves indicators used are demographic pressure (too many people v resources), refugees/internally displaced people, group grievances, human flight/brain drain, uneven economic development, poverty/economic decline, state legitimacy (e.g. corruption), public service, human rights/rule of law, security apparatus/use of force, factionised elites, and external interventions. 

The area was one of the earliest mixing point of the expanding Bantu, Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic speaking groups. The expansions were slow, with lots of space and a history of farming people settled, grew a little, pushed on a little, probably (we think) fought a little. 16/17th slave trading and colonialism sped things up. Kingdoms rose up off the back of trade, but you wouldn't have wanted to be close to enemies or you became the product. The 'civilising mission' that came with colonialism and the end of slavery didn't mean the end of forced labour (e.g. mandatory cotton cultivation and building of railways). The first of (or continuation of) several forceful take-overs followed 1960 independence. Despite an abundance of natural resources, CAR remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

Fragile States

Bouar Megaliths - date back to 2700-3500 BCE

The Netherlands

The Dutch only established a permanent trading post in South Africa in 1652. The Portuguese had touched the other end of the old world first for Europeans, but moved further around and up Africa to Mozambique. 1652 was just 4 years after the end of the Eighty Year War the Dutch had fought for independence. The War started in 1568 with tensions around the group of Seventeen Provinces acting too independently of the Spanish Habsburg Empire. The Empire was also responding to the Reformation with an inquisition led Counter-Reformation, in an attempt to regain religious uniformity. 

Many who left to form part of the heart of the Afrikaans Community in South Africa came from the Netherlands, fleeing religious persecution. The rest were already there. The indigenous community, like in Spanish America mixed with the new comers. Boer means farmer in Dutch. Originally Afrikaans was referred to derogatively as 'Kitchen Dutch' because it adopted words from the local Khoisan, Bantu languages, Portuguese, German and Malay. It is the first language of 76% of the population with mixed descent. It was only in 1875 that a group formed the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaners) and published grammars, materials and histories to formalise the language. 

After the Anglo-Boer war, feeling beaten and belittled, generations of hatred for the English and desire for independence formed the bitter heart that led to Apartheid. This fed off a global trend towards Nationalism and Self-Determination. Afrikaans became one of the tools of a new, separate, identity. It didn't end well. A language born in a melting pot lost its way becoming a symbol of division. Ironically too, the country the Afrikaners fled has a global reputation for social tolerance.

Dark Green - 80-100% first language Afrikaans

Cabo Verde

Uninhabited until 1456, the 10 volcanic islands of Cabo Verde prospered during the 16-17th centuries attracting merchants, pirates and privateers. Privateers were private ships or people, permitted by governments to engage in acts of maritime war. The Atlantic Slave Trade was the engine of growth for the area, and it went into economic decline after the 19th century end of slavery. After being an overseas department of Portugal, independence came in 1975. As a trading post, there has been centuries of mixing and 71% of the population of half a million people are descendants of both Africa and Europe. While the official language is Portuguese, the Creole language is a mixture of Portuguese and West African words. The International Airport is named after Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela International Airport (Praia)

Burundi

Burundi is still a predominantly subsistence agricultural society (90% of the employed population). Its population density is the second highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 30th in the world, at 415 people/km². Unlike densely population Euroasian cities, Burundi is very rural. 

It was right at the heart of the Great War of Africa in the Congo. King Leopold was known as the Builder King because of urban projects and public work in Belgium, off the back of the exploitation of Central Africa that killed an estimated 10 million people. Burundi became part of the neighbouring colony of German East Africa in the Scramble for Africa. WWI returned colonial control to Belgium. After WWI the war in the Congo was used as a proxy for the Cold War. China attempted to use Burundi as a base to support communist insurgents. Regional ethnic conflicts were inflamed by the general chaos in the area. 

Despite the end of the Cold War and Colonialism, various genocides and multi-generational conflicts make building sustainable trust a deep and enduring challenge. One of the poorest, the country is also ranked the world's unhappiest.