With Creation of an All African Passport, A Push Toward All African Unity

The African Union is set to launch a common electronic passport  that would grant visa-free travel to all of its 54 member-states, a move that hits at the organization’s long-running goal of more closely linking nations from across the continent.The passport will first be issued to heads of state and senior officials at the AU’s summit in Kigali, Rwanda, later this month, with the Union saying it aims to provide passports to all African citizens by 2020.

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Slave Resistances In Latin America

There are a number of challenges facing historians and scholars who are interested in understanding slave resistances in Latin America.[1] Scholars have generally not given a great deal of inquiry into the various forms of resistance against slavery in the Western Hemisphere, except for a few prominent scholars[2] who acknowledge that incidents of slave revolts, rebellions, resistances and plots, were more numerous in Latin and Central American countries than in the U.S.[3] It has almost become commonplace for scholars to use the large number of slave revolts in the Americas as a yardstick for assessing slave’s personality, as a factor in their ability to response to their enslavement..

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The Bahia Muslim Slave Revolt

For most people the idea of Black History month is relegated to the African-American experience in the United States. While Africa and America are often recognized as the book ends of the African Diaspora, there is an additional link in the Middle Passage that is less publicized, but no less important. The central link in the Middle Passage is Brazil. Today Brazil has the largest population of Black origin outside of Africa, estimated at 90 million people.

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Marcus Garvey's Legacy

He had a background in printing and published his first newspaper, The Watchman, in 1909. He left Jamaica in 1910 for Central America, settling first in the coastal town of Limon, Costa Rica, where he published a small newspaper. He would also spend time in Honduras and Belize. Garvey in 1911, went on to edit the newspaper, La Nacionale in Colon, Panama, before returning to Jamaica briefly in 1912, he again left in 1913 when he moved to England and worked with the enigmatic Sudanese-Egyptian nationalist Duse Mohamed Ali, in London, on the staff of Ali"s influential pan-African journal, The African Times and Orient Review. Read More

Afro-Brazilian History, Beats and Culture

For most people the idea of Black History month is relegated to the African-American experience in the United States. While Africa and America are often recognized as the book ends of the African Diaspora, there is an additional link in the Middle Passage that is less publicized, but no less important. The central link in the Middle Passage is Brazil. Today Brazil has the largest population of Black origin outside of Africa, estimated at 90 million people. Read More

The Sacred Spirits of African Slaves: Kochi’s Unique History

A dark past, unkown to most, haunts many parts of Kochi. Centuries after African slaves were brought to these shores by the Portuguese, many stories and beliefs have evolved about them. Several parts of Kochi are dotted with remnants of slavery. Although it is unclear how these slaves came to be called kappiri, it is believed that the word might have its roots in the term “kaffir”.
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The Arab slave trade: 200 million non-Muslim slaves from all colors and nationalities

About ten years ago while traveling in Asia I found a very unusual book which I have unfortunately not been able to find in the West. I was casually reading it in the bookstore and regret that I never purchased it due to space and weight restrictions I already had in my luggage. It was a 900-year old Muslim ‘slave manual’ translated into English from the original Arabic. It was basically a very detailed purchasing manual, describing the cultural and ethnic traits of slaves from different parts of the world in non-Islamic countries.

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