Nigeria's Forgotten Empire - the Walls of Benin

Collectors may be interested in artefacts from the era, but the legacy of the Walls of Benin has largely been forgotten. Man-made wonders of the world such as the Taj Mahal in India, the Cairo Citadel in Egypt and the Colosseum in Rome attract millions of visitors each year and lay claim to represent the architectural brilliance of our past. But the Benin Moat, also known as the Walls of Benin, lays fallow, crumbling away in Nigeria, a pale imitation of its resplendent former self. At stake is not just the structure itself, but the memory of a once-great empire and a site of colonial resistance..

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Afro-Uruguay: A Brief History

When we think of the great nations of the African diaspora—Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, the United States—the South American republic of Uruguay is not one of the first names to come to mind. To the contrary: the recipient of almost 600,000 European immigrants between 1880 and 1930, Uruguay has long presented itself to the world as one of the two “white republics” of South America (its neighbor Argentina is the other). In the national household survey of 1996, 93 percent of its citizens classified themselves as white, a figure significantly higher than in the United States (where 75 percent of the population classified itself as white in the 2000 census).

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Why Scotland must face up to slave trade past

The Empire Cafe will open its doors on July 24 to explore Scotland's relationship with the North Atlantic slave trade, using music, visual art, academic lectures, poetry and historical walks. Among the highlights is a discussion between museum experts and historians on whether it is time to establish a permanent memorial devoted to Scotland and slavery. Dr Michael Morris, a lecturer in English and cultural history at Liverpool John Moores University, who will chair the Untold Stories, Buried Histories debate, said a permanent "feature" was long overdue. He suggested a museum or a series of public artworks in areas of Glasgow built on the wealth of traders, such as the Merchant City.

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The Peter Mowell, Slave Ship

On July 25, 1860, after thirty-six days of sailing from the Congo River in Africa, the Peter Mowell, an illegally operating slave ship, ran aground on Lynyard Cay in the Abaco chain of islands. This 129 ton schooner was en route to Havana, Cuba with a human cargo of 400 captive Africans. Having already lost many of its sails, the slaver wrecked as it attempted to evade what it believed to be a British Navy man-of-war. The ship crew and at least 390 of the 400 Africans made it safely ashore the uninhabited and inhospitable Lynyard Cay. The ship itself was left to disintegrate on the rocks...

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