East Africa History

"Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization" by John G. Jackson is a seminal work that challenges traditional Eurocentric perspectives on the origins of civilization. Originally published in 1939, Jackson's book seeks to highlight the significant contributions of African civilizations, particularly Ethiopia, to the development of human culture and civilization.

Some of the most iconic symbols of the Roman Empire that have survived into the modern world today are the arches that Romans erected to commemorate military victories and glorify individual emperors. The story of how arches came to be used throughout the Roman world in such a way is one that involves the evolution of the military and its leaders into the political forces that came to dominate the state. Those arches, along with the triumphs that came to be associated with many of them, were key parts in the process of exhibiting the might of both Rome.

The Mahdist War took place at the end of the 19th century between Sudanese rebels and their Egyptian colonizers. A religious leader claiming to be the Islamic Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, raised an army and led a movement to guide not only Sudanese Muslims, but Muslims worldwide. He and the Mahdists envisioned a future in which they would live by the teachings of the Qur’an. However, larger global forces, especially those of global imperialism, would stand in their way. From the Mahdist grassroots movement to independence to reconquest, this is the story of the Mahdist War. 

The Reverend Joseph Julius Jackson was an African American preacher who published The History of the Black Man in 1921, a book which covers the history of the African people from Ethiopia and Egypt. Rev. Jackson believed that a lack of historical knowledge by the Afro American community about their past and origins has undermined their pride, and that a better knowledge of the contribution of the black man to civilization would ameliorate the situation.

When Ugandan President Idi Amin expelled the country's entire Asian population in 1972, more than 28,000 people from Britain's former colony arrived on airstrips around the country and began building new lives - but their incredible stories remained largely hidden. Fifty years later, first and second-generation testimony uncovers an under-explored period of history, touching on colonialism, immigration, identity and modern multiculturalism through the lens of individual experience.

Shared Ancestry: A Genetic Roadmap for Peace in Ethiopia is a powerful exploration of our interconnectedness, unraveling the genetic threads that tie together the people of Ethiopia. This illuminating work uses the lens of genetics to challenge entrenched beliefs, debunk ethnic stereotypes, and advocate for a more unified national identity.

On the night of September 11, 2012, the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, came under ferocious attack by a heavily armed group of Islamic terrorists. The prolonged firefight, and the attack hours later on a nearby CIA outpost, resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, the Information Officer, Sean Smith, and two former Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, working for the Central Intelligence Agency.

This is the story of three terrible famines. The first is an Gorta Mór, the great hunger of Ireland, which began in 1846. The second is the deadly famine that struck Bengal in 1943. The third is the Ethiopian famine, which first sprung up in lethal form in the 1970s under Emperor Haile Selassie and then reappeared under the brutal dictator Mengistu in the 1980s.

Peter Firstbrook spent many months in Kenya researching the history of Barack Obama's family. Peter is the only person to have traced Obama's roots from the present back through more than 20 generations, thanks to the Luo tribe's remarkable oral tradition.

Este pequeño país del oeste africano se caracteriza por la confluencia de elementos opuestos: su territorio no llega al millón de kilómetros cuadrados, pero alberga una de las naciones más pobladas del continente.

In his 1920 book The Jews of Africa, Mendelssohn attempts to chart the separate and progressive histories of the Jews in the different parts of Africa where they lived since their expulsion from the land by the Romans. He succeeds in compiling a narrative of a large part of the histories of the Jews of Africa during the centuries following the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem. 

Historical Sketches of the Ancient Negro (1920) by Edward and Josephine sought to correct the image of their African ancestors in the perception of Afro-Americans. The authors explore the ancient history of Cush, Ethiopia, Nubia and other African kingdoms, relying on Biblical text and other primary sources to retell the story of black Africans from an Afrocentric point of view, and providing an important early contribution to Ancient African history.

Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835 - 1923) was an African American clergyman and editor. He served as a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church from 1886, and founded The Christian Recorder, an important early African American newspaper. In The Negro in Holy Writ, published in 1900, Tanner shows that the African people are described in the Bible. He argues that the ancient Cushim were the ancient Ethiopians, and that they were Negroes. The book provides evidence for the unity of all mankind.

Rufus L. Perry was an educator and Baptist minister from Brooklyn, New York. He was a member of the African Civilization Society and was a co-founder of the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum. The Cushite is a short work that investigates the history of ancient peoples.

Harvey Johnson was a Baptist minister form Baltimore, Maryland. In his book The Hamite, he investigates the ancient people of the Near East.

El día a día del faraón y sus súbditos a orillas del Nilo. El campesino que cultivaba en las orillas del Nilo recibía la visita regular del recaudador de impuestos, quien necesitaba del escriba para que nada se le escapara y todos pagaran lo que debían, de lo cual rendía cuentas al visir. Éste era el responsable de hacerse cargo de todo en nombre de su señor, el soberano de la Dos Tierras, el faraón, a quien informaba en profundidad y a diario de lo que sucedía en el país....

Ninety-nine elite American soldiers are trapped in the middle of a hostile city. As night falls, they are surrounded by thousands of enemy gunmen. Black Hawk Down drops you into a crowded marketplace in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Special Forces - and puts you in the middle of the most intense firefight American soldiers have fought since the Vietnam War.

Ride with the knights of the crusaders during the Middle Ages as you hear about all the battles of the 11th through the 15th centuries. The Crusades brings history alive as it chronicles the participants and their motives behind carrying the cross. Not only will you learn about the influential Christian leaders such as Richard the Lionheart, you'll also discover the strategies of the Muslim sultans, including the most respected in all of Islam, Saladin.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o es estudiante en una prestigiosa escuela de Nairobi cuando la guerrilla Mau Mau reclama la independencia de Kenia. La etapa de más represión del gobierno británico coincide con su entrada al instituto, donde se siente protegido. Así, cuando Ngũgĩ visita su pueblo lo encuentra devastado y trasladado cerca de la vigilancia de las autoridades en un conjunto de pueblos a modo de campo de concentración.

En Sueños en tiempos de guerra, Ngũgĩ dibuja hábilmente una era pasada, capturando el paisaje, la gente y la cultura. Narrado desde los ojos de un niño y al mismo tiempo la inteligencia de una vida dedicada, entre otras cosas, al estudio y la defensa de las culturas minorizadas, el audiolibro evidencia la vicisitudes sociales y políticas de la vida colonial y la guerra.