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Flashback
The King and the Lice Test
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The storyteller historians of the Kingdom of Benin say that in about the year 1200, Evian, the kingdom’s aging administrator, tried to pass his title on to his son. But the administrator was not of royal blood, so the rule of…
Tanzania’s ‘Black Mamba’
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In 1978 during the war between Tanzania and Uganda, Tanzanian Brig. Gen. John Walden got on his army’s radio system to discuss the capabilities of the Cuban, Israeli, American and Mozambican Soldiers serving alongside his…
A Journey to the Land of Punt
The pharaohs of ancient Egypt were fascinated by a distant place known as the Land of Punt, or simply Punt. It was regarded as a land of plenty, with rich resources. Some called it Ta Netjer — God’s Land.
But it was more than a trading…
The Mutapa Empire
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The kingdom of Zimbabwe fell into decline in the early 15th century. Some historians say the region was starving. Others say that the kingdom’s warrior prince, Nyatsimba Mutota, left the landlocked region in search of salt, a…
‘Respect Your Word of Honor’
The Rules of the Manden Charter Echo Today
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Photo by REUTERS
When the warrior Keita Sundiata learned that his home tribe had been conquered by a neighboring king, he went to war, using a borrowed army and forming a coalition…
Sundiata Keita, the Lion King of Mali
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I teach kings the history of their ancestors, so that the lives of the ancients might serve them as an example, for the world is old, but the future springs from the past.
Those are the words of griot, or storyteller, Djeli…