Dutch wax prints: aka AFRICAN WAX PRINTS
Dutch wax prints fabrics go by many names; Ankara wax prints, Ankara, African wax prints, African prints, Holland wax, Dutch wax, wax Hollandais, veritable Dutch Hollandais.
west africa
Origin of the Fulani (also called the Fula, Fulbe, Peuls) of West Africa (4th millennium BC to Present)
The Fulani people, numbering about 38 million, are found mostly in the western part of Africa. They are also known as the Fulbe or Peuls and in the Middle Ages (covering the 5th to the 15th century of the Common Era) were very reliant on cattle herding. The Fulani people trace their origin far back …
Kola Nut, the untold African story behind Coke and Pepsi
Coca Cola is the most recognizable beverage brand in the world. Pepsi Co (a short form of Pepsi Cola) is the second most recognizable beverage brand in the world. Both Coke and Pepsi brands have their origins in soft drink recipes based on Kola nuts (the “Cola” in Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola). Although Western …
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Myths about Africa: the hunter gatherers were not smart (200 BCE – 1950 CE)
Myths about Africa: the hunter gatherers were not smart Travellers, anthropologists and historians from 1500 CE to 1800 CE that wrote about Africa sometimes recounted that some African people lived as hunter gatherers, when Europeans came across them. It must be remembered that not all Africans lived this way; based on the eye-witness accounts of …
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Africa’s mountains
Many non-Africans think Africa is a country with most of the continent covered in grasslands. The stereotypical image is white Africans live North of the Sahara and black Africans live south of the Sahara. This image is mainly due to the television, on-demand video and film content that non-Africans get their information from. For instance, …
Loan systems among the Precolonial Yoruba
Many of us are engaged in different struggles: some to survive, some to find purpose, some to love and be loved, some to enjoy life, and some to become filthy rich, and work out what to do with that money later. Those who have charitable or political goals rely on donations and book sales to …
Phillis Wheatley: at 20 years old, became the first African American published author in 1773 AD
Phillis Wheatley[1] is one of the most iconic examples of growth over achievement and empowerment. Despite going through devastating situations and falling prey to the cruelties of her historical era, she had the opportunity to get an informal education, and go down as one of the West’s earliest female writers. To gain a sense …
Jacques Francis: From A Skilled Guinean Diver To The First African Witness In an English Court
From the numerous stories told about the sixteenth-century monarchs that were delivered to us through novels, films, dramas and even sometimes through formal education, we have come to know every detail about their personal lives, from what they wore to what they ate. The Tudors (1485-1603) has gathered a cult that has seen no match …
Food series: Story of African rice, developed around 3,500BCE – 1,500BCE
At the end of a wedding ceremony, after the bride and groom have been blessed, it is traditional in most cultures of the world to throw grains of rice over the heads of the newlyweds. But, have you ever wondered –of all the grains under the sun- why rice in particular? Rice symbolizes fertility, luck …
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The Itsekiri Kingdom (1480 AD – Present): the Afro-Europeans of the Niger Delta
There was a time when lies had not been invented yet that Europeans are a different race to Africans; and Africans married Europeans without thinking about “How will our descendants be treated by ‘some’ Europeans?” So today, these descendants of an Afro-Portuguese lineage can be classed as “Sub-Sahara”, “black”, because of “looks” and ignoring “biology”. In this article, we introduce the Itsekiri Kingdom and its Afro-European monarchy.
Kingdom of Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey, also called the Fon kingdom of Dahomey, was a small kingdom in western Africa (now in the southern region of Benin). It was developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by conquering key cities on the Atlantic coast. …