Horn of Africa

overhead cost around 93 guilders, the WIC generated an appreciable profit from just Atlantic slavery. Alongside of this, the WIC was sending salt and sugar back to the Netherlands to be refined and then exporting rum and Dutch manufactured goods back to Africa to be traded for African slaves. This created the Dutch triangle and became one of the most lucrative importing and exporting industries the world has ever seen. In addition, the WIC sent silver from Spanish mines to the VOC to maintain…

representation of what the Atlantic slave trade was like during the eighteenth century right down to the business of the slave trade, the voyage itself, and the middle passage. Most ships that European slave traders used on their voyages to go into Africa were owned by merchants similar to the Billy brothers. The Diligent belonged to the Billy brothers…

In his article entitled, "National Culture and Liberation" Amilcar Cabral discusses the vital role the development of a collective cultural identity possesses in regard to national liberation, especially during the decolonization process of African countries. First, the author begins noting that colonialism requires the foreigners to "...practically liquidate the entire population of the dominated country, thus eliminating all possibility of that kind of cultural resistance; or to succeed in…

The New York Times Op-doc, “Gorillas in the Crossfire”, produced on 7 November 2014 by Orlando von Einsiedel show the story of Andre Bauma, a man who takes care of mountain gorillas of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, intentions for Mountain Gorillas freedom. The Op-Doc shows how war has been rising for 2 decades and hundreds of soldiers have been killed or harmed trying to protect their park. The park has been raided by armed rebels and these soldiers jeopardize their…

Abina and The Important Men is a collaboration of both Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clarke. Getz, a historian of Africa and also a professor at San Francisco State University in World History. This book is graphic history that tells the story of a real court case in the town of Cape Coast in the British Gold Coast colony of West Africa during the 1870’s. This case involved the plaintiff, Abina Mansah and the defendant, a wealthy important man named Quamina Eddoo. Abina (the plaintiff), believes that…

Africans, “a single story of catastrophe.” As she spent more time in the U.S., she began to understand her roommate’s response to her. If the only things she knew about Africa came from popular images, she too would believe that it was simply a place of natural beauty but with lots of human suffering. This single story of Africa can be seen in Western literature, where writers like John Locke and Rudyard Kipling reinforced the image of Africans as uncivilized beasts. Adichie herself was…

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe tells the story of the struggle between a split African tribe, the nobleman and the outcast. As the title implies the struggle only goes downhill. In one chapter the church members struggle to accept the outcast, the osu. When one applies Kwame Anthony Appiah’s idea of conversations between cultures in the Cosmopolitanism to the Umuofia people joining the culture of the Church in Things Fall apart, the converts would be more accepting. However, the congregation…

Imagine you are boy live in Africa and come from a poor family. Imagine that your father cannot provide for your family and you owe a lot of money to friends and relatives, he has to pay back; moreover, he is not respected at all he has no titles. How would you respond, make a name for yourself, and prove that you are nothing like your father? Okonkwo perfectly fits this description. Written by Chinua Achebe in 1958, Things Fall Apart takes place in Nigeria and centers the story about Okonkwo…

novella, “Heart of Darkness”, there are quite a few types of darkness depicted. There is the literal darkness, due to nature, the darkness of ones skin, and most importantly the darkness of ones soul.. Conrad tells the tale of not only colonialism in Africa during 1890s, but how a journey deep into the jungle can ultimately bring out the potential “darkness” within anyones soul. The story itself centers around a man by the name of Marlow, who undertakes a journey up the Congo River to meet and…

Africa; “one of the darkest places of the earth” (Conrad pg.6) where there is “cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death” (Conrad pg.7) around every corner and from where no one has returned. Humans need other humans to keep them accountable. Without accountability a person loses all restraints, is driven by his natural desires, and civilization is ultimately lost. Although the job of the Europeans who go to Africa to collect ivory is to humanize the natives, the natives prove to be more…