Flashback

ADF STAFF The Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, dates to the seventh century, the time of the Prophet Muhammad. But Muslims believe the pilgrimage dates back thousands of years earlier, to the time of Abraham.…

CLUES Walled towns and settlements, known as paletas, were built on high plains or hills to provide a strategic and defensive advantage. Dry stone terraces prevent soil erosion, collect water and create terraced fields used in…

ADF STAFF Great Zimbabwe is mostly deserted now, but in its time it was a wondrous place. Historians believe that members of what is now the Shona tribe began work on the city-state Great Zimbabwe in the ninth century, with its heyday…

ADF STAFF In 1861, 3,000 heavily armed female Soldiers charged a thorny wall during a skills demonstration. King Glele, their ruler in Dahomey, a region that is now part of Benin, was eager to show off the ferocity and skill of his…

ADF STAFF An Ashanti woman who shamed her tribe’s warriors into standing up for themselves more than 100 years ago has become a symbol of freedom for Ghana. Nana Yaa Asantewaa’s actions provoked the final Anglo-Ashanti war, known as the…

ADF STAFF Asli Hassan Abade made history as the first female air force pilot in Africa. She is a product of a unique time in her native Somalia’s history. After Somalia became an independent country in 1960, its military branches grew…