Category Archives: History

Early on in Hailie Selassie’s time as ruler of Ethiopia, he introduced the country’s first constitution, which allowed for a bicameral, or two-house, ruling body on July 16, 1931. The constitution kept noble houses in power, but established democratic rule in a nation that had yet to embrace such a philosophy. The 1931 Constitution of EthiopiaContinue reading “This African country drafted and enforced a modern-day constitution in 1931”

Africa has 54 countries but the African Union has 55-member states from the continent. The mysterious state is the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) which is represented by a Sahrawi nationalist movement, the Polisario Front. However, Western Sahara – 80% of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic – is under the control of Morocco, which hasContinue reading “Western Sahara: The 55th African state still being colonized by its neighbour”

Thirteen years before the United States Congress passed and ratified the 13th amendment that abolished slavery in the country in 1865, American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass gave a brilliant speech on July 5, 1852, on the subject: “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” It was an appropriateContinue reading “READ: Abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Africa is the only continent in the world that was divided among European colonialists in 1884 in what was termed the Scramble for Africa. So many tribes were divided by colonial borders while others were merged with other tribes. Following the independence struggle in the continent, Tanzania became the only African country formed by a mergerContinue reading “5 historic times African countries attempted to merge but failed”

It is a hundred years since the brutal murder of 21-year-old Mary Turner, a young pregnant black mother of two who was lynched on May 19, 1918, by a white mob only a day after the lynching of her husband, Hazel Turner. Turner was killed by a river between Lowndes and Brooks counties in GeorgiaContinue reading “How a pregnant Mary Turner was brutally lynched by a white mob in 1918”