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More from African History Extra

Stone towns on the Highveld of South Africa: an archaeological history of the Sotho-Tswana capitals (ca. 1450-1850)

The eastern plateau of South Africa, known as the Highveld, is dotted with the ruins of numerous stone towns founded at the end of the Middle Ages.

2 months ago 18 votes
The currencies and monetary systems of pre-colonial Africa

A bewildering variety of currencies circulated freely in the various states and societies of Africa during the pre-colonial period.

2 months ago 17 votes
A forgotten African empire: the history of medieval Kānem (ca. 800-1472)

A century before Mansa Musa’s famous pilgrimage, the political and cultural landscape of medieval West Africa was dominated by the empire of Kānem.

2 months ago 29 votes
Online resources for African history: links to African collections held at 33 Western Museums

Up to 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is kept outside of the continent, according to a French government-commissioned 2018 report by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French historian Bénédicte Savoy.

2 months ago 29 votes
What did they write about? : An intellectual history of Timbuktu ca. 1450-1900.

No single body of primary sources in the literary heritage of West Africa has attracted as much attention and attained as much celebrity as the fabled manuscripts of Timbuktu.

3 months ago 26 votes

More in history

Weekly Wisdom Quiz

Ancient Volcanoes, the Founding Fathers and more...

18 hours ago 2 votes
Ibn Battuta’s Epic 30-Year Journey Across the Medieval World

In the mid-14th century, Moroccan judge and scholar Ibn Battuta embarked on an epic 24-year-long journey worldwide. He was received by kings and queens, robbed and kidnapped by rebels, and even ended up marrying into the royal family of Omar I, Sultan of the Maldives.   Battuta’s Context: The Islamic World in the 14th […]

13 hours ago 1 votes
Pensioners for war

Many years ago when I lived in Belgrade, just before the beginning of the “Yugoslav Wars of Succession”, I noticed an interesting phenomenon.

yesterday 4 votes
My Weekly Reader February 4, 1962

Happy 4th of July! Here is your My Weekly Reader for "Happy 4th of February, 1962."

yesterday 5 votes
Nomonhan, 1939

A four-month long war between Great Powers of which you have never heard

yesterday 6 votes