North Africa: Did you mean...?

The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the opening encounter of the Anglo-Zulu War and a famous Zulu victory against the British Army. Over 25,000 Zulu warriors attacked and destroyed a British-led force of 1,700 men camped at the...

An early title page from The History and Description of Africa by Leo Africanus (1485-1554), first published in 1526.

A photograph showing a parade of African Askari troops commanded by German officers in German East Africa. Taken some time during the First World War (1914-18). German Federal Archives

The transatlantic slave trade (also given as the Atlantic slave trade, circa 1492 to 1860) was the practice of enslaving the citizens of African states and transporting them across the Atlantic Ocean to the "New World" of the Americas. Although...

Timbuktu (Timbuctoo) is a city in Mali, West Africa which was an important trade centre of the Mali Empire which flourished between the 13th and 15th centuries. The city, founded c. 1100, gained wealth from access to and control of the trade...

The Zulu Kingdom was one of the most powerful states in Southern and Central Africa during its peak in the mid-19th century. The Zulu expansion and domination of their neighbours is credited to the inspirational leader Shaka, who transformed...

Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) was a German field marshal who gained fame as a tank commander in the Fall of France in 1940 and then as the commander of the Afrika Korps in North Africa, where he gained numerous victories. Known as the 'Desert...

A map indicating the general direction and timings of the spread of Islam in Africa from the 7th to 18th century CE

An early-20th-century painting by Wilhelm Kuhnert depicting German-led African Askari troops at the Battle of Mahenge during the Maji-Maji Rebellion (1905-7) against colonial rule in German East Africa.

A photograph showing Dar es-Salaam when it was the capital of German East Africa. Taken some time just before or during the First World War (1914-18). German Federal Archives