East Africa

John Hanning Speke discovered the source of the Nile on August 3rd, 1858.

Clive Foss introduces the Kharijites, a radical sect from the first century of Islam based in southern Iraq and Iran, who adopted an extreme interpretation of the Koran, ruthless tactics and opposed hereditary political leadership. After causing centuries of problems to the caliphate, they survive in a quietist form in East Africa and Oman.

David Anderson, Huw Bennett and Daniel Branch believe that the Freedom of Information Act is being used to protect the perpetrators of a war crime that took place in Kenya fifty years ago.

David Anderson looks at the contentious issues raised as Kenya comes to terms with the colonial past.

Started in 1947, to grow peanuts in Tanganyika as a contribution to both the African and British economies, the Groundnuts Scheme was abandoned four years later on January 9th, 1951.

David Rooney describes the extraordinary exploits of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the German soldier who kept the Allies tied down in Africa throughout the Great War.

A new military technology was used by Britain in the massacre of the army of Sudanese Dervishes, near Omdurman on 2 September 1898.

Charles Townshend evaluates the judgement of General Gordon and the ill-fated British mission in the Sudan.