Topic
Proverbs, worldviews and the thinking that shapes communities.
Epics, genealogies, praise poems and folk tales have carried African history and wisdom for centuries without being written down. How does oral tradition work, and can it be trusted as history?
In 1969, Kenyan theologian John Mbiti argued that traditional African thought saw time as moving backwards into a deep past rather than forward into a distant future. His idea was hugely influential, and fiercely debated.
It tells how the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon, bore him a son, and how that son brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia. For centuries, the Kebra Nagast shaped Ethiopian kingship and identity.
From Sun Ra's cosmic jazz to Wakanda and the novels of Nnedi Okorafor, artists have imagined futures in which Africa and its peoples are at the centre. What is Afrofuturism, and why do some prefer "Africanfuturism"?
Did the Dogon people of Mali know about an invisible star circling Sirius long before astronomers saw it? The story has fascinated millions. Here is what the evidence actually shows.
In Akan thought, a person is made of several parts: a soul from God, a spirit that shapes character, and blood from the mother's family. Ghanaian philosophers have debated what this means for centuries-old questions about mind, body and community.
Seen from the air, some African villages repeat the same shape at smaller and smaller scales. Mathematician Ron Eglash argues that fractal geometry runs through African design. Here is the idea, and the debate.
Born in Martinique a hundred years ago, Frantz Fanon became a psychiatrist in Algeria, joined its war of independence and wrote books that still shape debates about race, colonialism and freedom.
A soil scientist who walked the farms of Guinea-Bissau, Amílcar Cabral led one of Africa's most successful liberation movements and wrote some of its deepest thinking on culture and freedom.
In four years as president, Thomas Sankara renamed his country, vaccinated millions of children, planted forests and championed women's rights. Then he was killed. Why does he still inspire so many young Africans?
A Kenyan scientist who linked trees, women's rights and democracy, Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement and became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
In the 1970s, a young medical student named Steve Biko argued that Black South Africans must first free their minds. He was killed in police custody at 30, but his ideas endured.
For centuries, Somali communities have settled disputes, compensated victims and kept peace through xeer, a body of customary law administered by elders. Here is how it works.
For centuries, the Oromo of Ethiopia and Kenya have governed themselves through Gadaa, a system of rotating leadership with eight-year terms, assemblies under sacred trees and checks on power.
Born among Africans in the diaspora and carried home by independence leaders, Pan-Africanism argued that people of African descent must unite to be free. Here is its story.
In 1930s Paris, three Black students from Africa and the Caribbean launched a literary movement that celebrated African heritage. One of them became Senegal's first president.
Across Africa, forests protected as homes of spirits and ancestors have survived while the land around them was cleared. On Earth Day, a look at an ancient idea of conservation.
Tanzania's first president built a national philosophy on ujamaa, the Swahili word for familyhood. It united a nation, but its economic experiment largely failed.
For ancient Egyptians, ma'at was the balance that held the universe together, and the measure by which every heart was judged after death. Here is what it meant.
Harambee is Kenya's national motto, a call to self-help that built thousands of schools and clinics. Its history is inspiring, and also complicated.
Some baobabs have stood for over a thousand years. They feed, shelter and heal, and they hold a special place in African myth and memory. Recently, the oldest have begun to die.
Ifá priests memorise a vast body of verses, organised into 256 signs, to advise people on life's decisions. UNESCO recognises it as one of humanity's great oral traditions.
In Ethiopia it is currently the year 2017, there are 13 months, and the clock starts at dawn. Here is how one of the world's oldest calendars still runs a modern country.
In Akan tradition, every story in the world once belonged to the sky god — until a clever spider bought them. Here is who Anansi is, and why his tales crossed an ocean.
In Senegal, a stranger is fed before being questioned. The Wolof word teranga describes a whole way of treating people — and even names the national football team.
Across Africa, proverbs carry law, wisdom and humour in a few words. Here is how they work, why they matter, and a few worth learning — with their real origins.
Two rows of pits, 48 seeds and a lot of counting. Oware, Ghana's favourite board game, belongs to a family of "sowing games" played across Africa.
Gye Nyame, Sankofa, Dwennimmen — Ghana's adinkra symbols pack whole proverbs into simple shapes. Here is where they come from and what they mean.
Ubuntu teaches that a person becomes a person through other people. Here is where the idea comes from, what it means in daily life, and why it shaped a nation.
