Kenya at 60: how the British used street names to show colonial power: Signwriters rush to replace colonial street names with news ones in April 1964, a few months after Kenya’s independence on December 12, 1963. AFP via Getty Images Place names, along with other urban symbols, were used as a tool of control over …
Moffat Takadiwa’s landmark exhibition uses found materials to comment on Zimbabwe’s colonial hangover: Moffat Takadiwa, left, and curator Fadzai Muchemwa in front of the work Bhiro ne Bepa on his solo show Vestiges of Colonialism. Images courtesy Lifang Zhang Moffat Takadiwa is a Zimbabwean artist famous for creating work from found materials. His exhibition Vestiges …
Sasha Huber’s You Name It: Swiss-Haitian artist renegotiates colonial history in activist exhibition: In 2008, Sasha Huber, a Swiss-Haitian multimedia visual artist based in Finland, began a project to challenge the problematic legacy of Swiss-American glaciologist and natural scientist Louis Agassiz (1807-1873). Agassiz was a devout creationist who lectured on his belief in racial segregation, …
Climate crisis in Africa exposes real cause of hunger – colonial food systems that leave people more vulnerable: Zawadi Msafiri is seen in a withered maize crop field in Kilifi County, Kenya. The drought situation started in 2021. Photo by Dong Jianghui/Xinhua via Getty Images In the waning hours of the year’s biggest climate change …
Namibia pulls down German colonial statue after protests – who was Curt von François?: The statue of Curt von François is removed by municipal workers. Lisa Ossenbrink/picture alliance via Getty Images Anti-colonial activists in Namibia – calling themselves A Curt Farewell – have scored a victory after a statue of a colonial German officer, Curt …
‘Restitution’ of looted African art just continues colonial policies – much more is at stake: An artefact is returned to the king of Benin in Nigeria. Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images The violence of the past is far from over. But it is disguised in many ways, made invisible and normalised. What started with the …
Uganda’s Owen Falls dam: a colonial legacy that still stings, 67 years later: The sluice gates open at the Owen Falls dam across the White Nile in Uganda on 14 October 1962. McCabe/Express/Hulton Archive via Getty Images Uganda’s Owen Falls hydropower plant has a rich history that predates the country’s independence in 1962. The plant …
Northern Ghana is underdeveloped because of underinvestment during colonial rule, not geography: Northern Ghana was treated as a periphery outpost by colonial administrators. Flickr Ghana’s most important development problem is arguably the disparity between the north and south of the country. The north is acutely underdeveloped, trailing the south in practically all metrics of development. …
Climate change: colonial diaries in South Africa are helping scientists reconstruct weather patterns of the past to protect against future events: A copy of the VOC's registers for April 1789. These daily registers contained rich detail – including about the weather. Tracing History Trust The current climate crisis raises many questions. Some are forward-looking: how …
Macron en Afrique : un revirement cynique pour réparer les préjudices liés au passé colonial tout en gardant une mainmise sur le continent: President Emmanuel Macron (G) et Umaro Sissoco Embalo, president du Guinée Bissau (D). Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images Fin juillet 2022, le Président français Emmanuel Macron a achevé sa tournée …
Macron in Africa: a cynical twist to repair the colonial past while keeping a tight grip: French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo (R) during Macron's visit in July 2022. Photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images In late July 2022 French president Emmanuel Macron concluded a tour of Cameroon, Benin …
Online fraudsters, colonial legacies and the north-south divide in Nigeria: JARIRIYAWAT/Shutterstock Millions of people with email accounts have undoubtedly encountered fraudulent emails that originate from Nigeria. Online fraudsters from the huge west African nation are also known as Yahoo Boys. According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation analysed in academic research, they have …
Belgium is reviewing its colonial past in the DRC: it’s a sensitive but necessary process: DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, left, receives a ceremonial mask from Belgium's King Philippe in June 2022. Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images The year 2022 is shaping up to be a critical period for the troubled relationship between Kinshasa and Brussels. …
Moving the Maasai: Tanzania is repeating Kenya’s colonial past: Protests in Nairobi as Maasai activists deliver a petition to the Tanzania High Commission, in Kenya, 17 June 2022. EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu Images of distressed members of the Maasai community being forcibly moved from their homes, beaten and harassed by police and the army in northern Tanzania …
Beauty and the Bleach: the colonial history of colourism explored in BBC documentary: In a recent BBC documentary, entitled Beauty and the Bleach, presenter Tan France (of Queer Eye fame) tackles the issue of colourism. Also known as pigmentocracy, colourism is defined as discrimination that privileges light-skinned people of colour over their darker-skinned peers. France …
A nice South African City image: British Library digitised image from page 250 of “[La Maison John Bull et Cie.] John Bull & Co. The Great Colonial Branches of the Firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa” Image by The British Library Image taken from: Title: "[La Maison John Bull et Cie.] John Bull …
A nice South African City image: British Library digitised image from page 80 of “[La Maison John Bull et Cie.] John Bull & Co. The Great Colonial Branches of the Firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa” Image by The British Library Image taken from: Title: "[La Maison John Bull et Cie.] John Bull …
A nice South African City image: British Library digitised image from page 48 of “[La Maison John Bull et Cie.] John Bull & Co. The Great Colonial Branches of the Firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa” Image by The British Library Image taken from: Title: "[La Maison John Bull et Cie.] John Bull …