Swahili: Did you mean...?

An illustration of the trading city-state of Kilwa on the Swahili Coast (modern Tanzania) which flourished between the 12th and 15th century CE. (From Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg's 'atlas Civitates orbis terrarum', vol. I, 1572 CE)

Fort Jesus, Mombasa, Kenya. The fort was built in 1593 when Mombasa and other parts of the Swahili Coast were part of the Portuguese Empire.

The Mau Mau rebellion (1952-60), led by the Kikuyu people of Kenya, was a guerrilla war conducted against British colonial rule, motivated by anger at land confiscations and the threat to indigenous belief systems and cultural practices...

Belgian Congo was a colony of Belgium from 1908 until 1960. Prior to that, the region had been the Congo Free State (created in 1885), which was effectively a private enterprise of King Leopold II. Often referred to as Belgian Congo even...

By c. 1750, Africa stood at the center of three major slave-trading systems, the transatlantic, trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean trades, each connecting African societies to wider global economies. These networks operated simultaneously but...

The Deutsches Afrika Korps (DAK) was an elite German armoured unit that fought in North Africa during the Second World War (1939-45). The Korps was initially led by Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) before he was promoted to lead a larger force of...

The Somaliland Protectorate, more informally and better known as British Somaliland, was created in 1884 and ruled by Great Britain until independence was won in 1960, when the Somali Republic was formed. Strategically important at the mouth...

Cochin, located on the southwest coast of India, was a Portuguese colony from 1503 to 1663. Known to the Portuguese as Cochim, it was one of several important cities on India’s Malabar Coast and a great trade centre for spices like pepper...

Admiral Zheng He (aka Cheng Ho, c. 1371-1433 CE) was a Chinese Muslim eunuch explorer who was sent by the Ming dynasty emperor Yongle (r. 1403-1424 CE) on seven diplomatic missions to increase trade and secure tribute from foreign powers...

The Battle of Gazala in Libya in May-June 1942 was a decisive victory for German and Italian forces led by General Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) against British, Commonwealth, and Free French forces during the Western Desert Campaigns (Jun 1940...