History
Genesis of a Revolutionary Robert Mugabe’s Political Formation
Robert Mugabe, the dictator who ruled Zimbabwe for more than three decades, had revolutionary beginnings. He was shaped by a tumultuous brew of pan-African nationalism, associated authoritarianism, and his own startling yet grossly under-discussed political rise. Read more. Read More...
The Inevitable Revolutionary How Thomas Sankara Weaponized Coloniality
Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara, as a close reading of Frantz Fanon’s decolonization theories suggests, was an inevitable revolutionary. Sankara evidenced and ultimately turned the contradictions of the colonial system against itself. Read more. Read More...
Who Was Ojukwu? The Many Perceptions of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
Before he died in 2011, leader of the Biafran secessionist movement, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, had assumed four personalities: he was a hero, a villain, a rebel, and even a ‘one-Nigerianist’. Read more. Read More...
Gender, Anti-Colonialism and Nationalism The Anti-Colonial Legacies of African Women
That women’s participation in anti-colonial and nationalist struggles may not be as obvious in existing literature does not mean such participation was peripheral. Read more. Read More...
Fearless Fighter The Revolutionary Life of Vera Chirwa
In the freedom-fighting legacy of Malawi’s Vera Chirwa, you see the power of emotion and feelings, often devalued in women, as the driver of her activism. Read more. Read More...
Egba Women Unite! Lessons from the Egba Women’s Anti-Colonial Movement
For much of history, Egba market women have been erroneously (re)presented as ‘barbaric’ and ‘disorganized’. Such women, however, were indelible forces of anti-colonial resistance. Their legacies invite us to deconstruct anti-colonial struggles—a restorative and equally revolutionary act. Read more. Read More...
Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Zikism The President and the Revolutionary Ideology He Denied
A troubled relationship with Zikism, the leftist political ideology Nnamdi Azikiwe inspired and drew his political base from, may explain his sudden yet prolonged fall from prominence. Read more. Read More...
The Shadow of Saint-Domingue The First Great African Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a pivotal moment in the history of the African diaspora, but it encouraged as much Black revolutionary zeal as it deterred. Read more. Read More...
Who Was Afi Ekong?
Nigerian artist, art promoter and collector, Afi Ekong, was the first woman to hold a solo art exhibition in Nigeria. Read more. Read More...
The Civil Soldier The Political Legacy of Olusegun Obasanjo
Obasanjo’s legacy as a civil soldier is difficult to summarize. Though he made several advances as Nigeria’s longest-serving civilian leader, he missed several opportunities to build institutions that would have helped entrench true civility and democracy within Nigeria. Read more. Read More...
