Welcome to my project!
On here, I will learn as much as I can about the history of each African country!
In 2016 I started reading up the history of one African nation a week and publish my learnings on this blog. It was a too ambitious project for two reasons: I was in the midst of my dissertation, and I was too much captured by the stories I read in order to be satisfied with learnings of a sinlge week per country. Having finished my studies now, I can focus on self-education about the most beautiful continent, and whilst I kept the website's title, I have changed the concept to have more time for countries with an enormous history - like Ghana. The list below shows the 54 sovereign countries, the Western Sahara, and 10 non-sovereign territories (as found on Wikipedia). I understand the title of my blog is a bit misleading, but I titled it this way as I originally planned to do all countries in exactly one year. I will use Wikipedia, books, articles from university and the internet to learn what I eager to understand.
Why I am doing this?
Africa always fascinated me and yet I know so little about its history. I went to a school in Central Europe where they teach you lots of American and European history. You can imagine what part Africa played in our history books and not only what happened I found to be very disturbing, but also the fact that we never touched on about what African territories were before or after slavery and colonialism. Yet I believe that if we want to start learning about history, we first have to look at the continent of Africa, where our species and our communities created the first steps of who we are. I am not waiting anymore for someone to teach me what I wasn't told at school, or what the media is portraying in a twisted manner - I just learn it by myself instead. I am taking ownership of my own ignorance, judgement, and knowledge.
But why on a blog?
The reason why I am doing this publicly on a blog is because I want to inspire and teach other people to know more about Africa themselves. I hope that education in Europe in the future will take African countries more into account instead of focusing on America and Europe only.
How is the website structured?
The site has three main areas you can get information from:
The Blog. In this section you will find my weekly summaries, describing what I learned about a country. Often I have to read through 30 to 40 articles to understand a nation's history at a basic level. I try to condense these articles into around 1000 words for my followers, what should take you about 5 to 10 minutes to learn what I have spent one week on.
The Chart. This section is for those who don't even want to invest 10 minutes into reading African history each week. This graph visualizes the history of all countries I have gone through graphically. It's even easier and faster to read, plus it gives a nice comparison of the development between different nations and the kingdoms they originate from. But seriously, it's 10 minutes a week to read the blog, you could read it over 1000 times in that time. I'm sure you're spending a lot of time on much less important stuff, so consider reading the articles.
The Notes. These are links to videos, charts, websites, and books that I recommend reading or looking at if you're interested in African history. Some of the maps are interactive and again, very nicely show when kingdoms, empires, and nations arose.
Anything else to say?
Doing this is very time consuming and I hope I will always be able to read through a country within one week. But it's not only about reading! My journey will be also contain visits to museums, for example to see artefacts that Britain stole from the Benin Empire. I'm very exciting to announce that by the end of 2016 I will be travelling to Angola for what will be my first visit of Mother Africa.
Here is the list of how the 52 weeks are going to be like, subject to change:
Studied in Week |
Region |
|
Country 01: 04.-10. July 2016 |
Western Africa |
Cape Verde |
Country 02: 11.-17. July 2016 |
Western Africa |
Mauritania |
Country 03: 18.-24. July 2016 |
Western Africa |
Mali |
Country 04: 25.-31. July 2016 |
Western Africa |
Burkina Faso |
Country 05: 01.-07. August 2016 |
Western Africa |
Niger |
Countryk 06: 08.-14. August 2016 |
Western Africa |
Nigeria |
Country 07: 15.-21. August 2016 |
Western Africa |
Benin |
Country 08: 15. Nov - 22. Nov 2016 |
Western Africa |
Togo |
Country 09: |
Western Africa |
Ghana |
Country 10: |
Western Africa |
Ivory Coast |
Country 11: |
Western Africa |
Sierra Leone |
Country 12: |
Western Africa |
Liberia |
Country 13: |
Western Africa |
Guinea |
Country 14: |
Western Africa |
Guinea-Bissau |
Country 15: |
Western Africa |
Senegal |
Country 16: |
Western Africa |
Gambia |
Country 17: |
Northern Africa |
Morocco |
Country 18: |
Northern Africa |
Western Sahara |
Country 19: |
Northern Africa |
Algeria |
Country 20: |
Northern Africa |
Tunisia |
Country 21: |
Northern Africa |
Libya |
Country 22: |
Northern Africa |
Egypt |
Country 23: |
Northern Africa |
Sudan |
Country 24: |
Eastern Africa |
South Sudan |
Country 25: |
Eastern Africa |
Ethiopia |
Country 26: |
Eastern Africa |
Eritrea |
Country 27: |
Eastern Africa |
Djibouti |
Country 28: |
Eastern Africa |
Somalia |
Country 29: |
Eastern Africa |
Kenya |
Country 30: |
Eastern Africa |
Uganda |
Country 31: |
Eastern Africa |
Burundi |
Country 32: |
Eastern Africa |
Rwanda |
Country 33: |
Eastern Africa |
Tanzania |
Country 34: |
Eastern Africa |
Malawi |
Country 35: |
Eastern Africa |
Value |
Country 36: |
Eastern Africa |
Zambia |
Country 37: |
Eastern Africa |
Mozambique |
Country 38: |
Eastern Africa |
Comoros |
Country 39: |
Eastern Africa |
Seychelles |
Country 40: |
Eastern Africa |
Comoros Mauritius |
Country 41: |
Eastern Africa |
Madagascar |
Country 42: |
Central Africa |
Chad |
Country 43: |
Central Africa |
Central African Republic |
Country 44: |
Central Africa |
Cameroon |
Country 45: |
Central Africa |
Equatorial Guinea |
Country 46: |
Central Africa |
São Tomé and Príncipe |
Country 47: |
Central Africa |
Gabon |
Country 48: |
Central Africa |
Republic of the Congo |
Country 49: |
Central Africa |
Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Country 50: |
Central Africa |
Angola |
Country 51: |
Southern Africa |
Namibia |
Country 52: |
Southern Africa |
Lesotho |
Country 53: |
Southern Africa |
Botswana |
Country 54: |
Southern Africa |
South Africa |
Tarritories: |
Southern Africa |
Swaziland |
- |
Non-Sovereign |
French Southern and Antarctic Lands |
- |
Non-Sovereign |
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha |
- |
Non-Sovereign |
Mayotte, Réunion, Madeira, Canary Islands, City of Ceuta, Pelagie Islands, City of Melilla, Plazas de Soberanía |