Historical travel, alone or in organized tours, is burgeoning and fun. Our new series suggests some places for the past-minded traveller to think about. Graham Gendall Norton introduces an accessible but exotic land which has long been a cultural crossroads.
Sarah Searight highlights the problem of pillaging for those trying to piece together Mali’s rich heritage.
Angela V. John looks at the uncomfortably long and close links between slavery and the cocoa trade.
The explorer of West Africa died in Cape Town on June 3rd, 1900.
Ghana's slaving past, long regarded as too sensitive to even discuss, is now becoming a lively issue. A group of Ghanaians, led by lawyers and tribal chiefs, have convened an Africa-wide meeting to seek 'retribution and compensation for the crime of slavery’.
Graham Norton looks at dilapidated forts and castles in West Africa
Missing person or ritual murder? Richard Rathbone probes a cause célèbre from an age of colonial and tribal transition.
‘England… requires markets more than colonies.’ Mary Kingsley’s espousal of the African cause was founded on the empathy between second-class citizens in a white, male-dominated society, as Deborah Birkett reveals.
John D. Hargreaves looks at the 1884 meeting of European nations and the impact on Africa.
There is evidence, argues Adrian Tronson, to suggest that the 13th-century Mali empire, and its ruler Sundiata, were strongly influenced by the life of Alexander the Great, 356-323 BC, an influence that was to be capitalised on in the late 1950s.
