Morocco

Map of Morocco

Following the establishment of the French protectorate over Morocco in 1912, numerous nationalist movements emerged; after World War II these parties, especially the Istiqlal (Independence) led by Allal al-Yusuf, mobilized opposition to the French regime. There was also a small urban-based Communist Party led Mehdi Ben Barka.

The Sultan Muhammad Ben Yusuf, the king of the old Alaouite dynasty, supported the nationalist demands. In 1947 he gave a rousing speech in the international city of Tangier in which he pointedly did not declare his loyalty to the French. This was seen as support for the nationalist cause and was a turning point in the struggle.

After riots broke out in the major port city of Casablanca, the French promptly appointed a hard-line military man to restore order. As discontent continued to escalate, the sultan demanded the establishment of his own government. In 1953 the French sent Muhammad into exile, but he did not abdicate.


The French attempted to install the highly unpopular Muhammad Ben Arafa, a prince of the Glawi house, as their puppet ruler, but he barely escaped an assassination attempt by Moroccan nationalists. Violence increased, and Arafa fled. Faced with mounting violence and an ongoing war in Algeria, the French granted Morocco independence in 1956. Muhammad returned to become King Muhammad V in 1957.

Morocco gradually reasserted its authority over Spanish-held territory in the north but the Spanish retained control over a small enclave and several offshore islands that they hold until the present day. In 1959 Tangier lost its special status and was integrated into Morocco as a free port.

Although the Istiqlal remained a key force in the Cabinet, Muhammad V had widespread governmental authority and enjoyed popular support as well as religious respect based on baraka, or good fortune. After his death in 1962, his son succeeded as King Hassan II.

Hassan instituted a new constitution in 1962 but continued to exercise wide executive powers. The Istiqlal split in 1959, and a new group, the Union Nationale des Forces Populaire (UNFP), supported by Ben Barka, emerged. Following increased political opposition, Hassan proclaimed a state of emergency with full legislative and executive powers in 1965.

Ben Barka went into exile in France, where he was kidnapped and presumably killed with the complicity of the Moroccan government in 1965. Political demonstrations against the regime continued in major cities throughout Morocco in the late 1960s, but Hassan remained in power owing to a combination of loyal courtiers, army officers, and security police.

In 1971 armed cadets stormed the royal palace during Hassan’s birthday party, but when they failed to kill the king the attempted coup collapsed. In 1972 Hassan survived an airplane attack orchestrated by the formerly loyal general Mohammad Oufkir. The coup plotters, including Oufkir, were killed or imprisoned. In spite of ongoing charges of corruption and nepotism, Hassan remained in power.

Economically, Morocco was predominately an agricultural country but phosphates were its primary export and source of hard currency. Tourism was another major source of income. With a growing young population, Morocco, like many poor countries in the global south, found it increasingly difficult to provide adequate education or jobs for its youth.

Many attempted to flee the poverty of the countryside by moving to the cities, where they joined the ranks of the unemployed, or by traveling to Europe as migrant workers. In the 1990s and afterward, these disaffected youth often sympathized with or joined Islamist movements.

In 1975 Hassan claimed the territory of the Western Sahara, formerly held by Spain, as part of Morocco and launched the so-called “Green March” of hundreds of thousands of Moroccans to take the territory. An ongoing war ensued; although the United Nations demanded a referendum to settle the issue, Morocco has consistently delayed the election and the matter remains unresolved until the present day.

Although Morocco has had some success in furthering education and welfare projects and modernizing its economy, wide disparities between urban and rural areas and differing population and tribal groups remain. Following Hassan’s death in 1999, his oldest son succeeded as King Mohammed VI.

Well educated, Mohammed VI was keen to modernize the country; he also liberalized the political system, releasing many political prisoners from his father’s regime. In 2004 he also instituted a new family code to grant women more power.

Islamists, many of whom opposed Morocco’s close ties with the West and the modernizing programs, remained the major opponents to King Muhammad VI’s regime.

Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwean President

Robert Mugabe - Zimbabwean President

Robert Mugabe was educated in mission schools and earned a degree in higher education from Fort Hare University in South Africa. As a young man, he joined the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) with Joshua Nkomo, but split off to form the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which led a guerrilla warfare struggle against the white-dominated Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia.

After protracted negotiations with Great Britain, Zimbabwe finally attained full independence under a one-person, one-vote rubric in 1979. Mugabe initially led a coalition government with his rival Nkomo, but gradually evolved a one-party state under his sole rule.

In the 1980s Mugabe was hailed as an African statesman by Western governments. Zimbabwe had a biracial government and made economic progress; Mugabe’s regime also was successful in raising educational levels for boys and girls, with one of the highest literacy rates in Africa.


In the 1990s Mugabe became increasingly dictatorial and refused to cede power even in face of the 2000 elections, when the opposition electoral vote was clearly the majority. Amid widespread charges of corruption and vote rigging, Mugabe’s ZANU party declared victory in the spring 2005 elections.

Mugabe also retained the right personally to select two dozen members of parliament. He also ordered the confiscation of white-owned land that was then distributed to his supporters. On the pretext of urban renewal, he also tore down urban shanty towns that were centers of political opposition to his regime.

The resultant political crisis contributed to economic chaos and declining productivity as well as wide-spread condemnation from European nations, but, in spite of his advanced age, Mugabe announced his determination to remain in power, despite on apparent victory by the opposition in the national March 29, 2008, elections.

Namibia

Namibia Flag

Namibia spent much of the 20th century under colonial rule. As South West Africa, it was a possession of Germany. From 1904 to 1906 the Namibians rose against their German rulers. The rebellion was crushed, and most of the indigenous people were stripped of their land.

On July 19, 1915, the last German troops surrendered to the South African expeditionary corps at Khorab, and the South African military occupation of Namibia began. Namibia was seen as a valuable asset to whoever controlled it because of its mineral wealth and agricultural potential.

On December 17, 1920, South Africa received official approval from the League of Nations to rule Namibia under a “C” mandate. This type of mandate was designated for former German territories that were not considered to be likely to pass into independence in the foreseeable future. It led to decades of tension.

Although the South Africans publicly claimed that the mandate should be viewed as a position of great trust and honor, in practice it offered profits and advantages to South African nationals. For all essential purposes, Namibia had been annexed to South Africa, with the interests of Namibians subordinate to those of whites.


The South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), a Marxist guerrilla group founded in 1960, began fighting for Namibia’s independence in 1966. In 1966 the United Nations (UN) passed Resolution 2145, which revoked South Africa’s mandate and changed the country’s name to Namibia.

The UN brokered a peace agreement in 1977 in which South Africa accepted UN control over Namibia. Only in 1988, however, did South Africa agree to withdraw from Namibia. The new government held UN-supervised elections in 1989, which SWAPO won decisively.

Sam Nujomo, one of the leaders of the independence movement, became Namibia’s first president. After independence, the government pursued a policy of compromise with opposition groups and worked to address racial inequalities.

Map of Namibia

There is an extreme disparity between the income levels of blacks and whites. However, the living standards of blacks have been steadily improving, and the major economic resources in the country are no longer controlled exclusively by whites.

The country’s modern market sector produces most of its wealth, while a traditional subsistence agricultural sector supports most of its labor force. The principal exports are diamonds, copper, uranium, gold, lead, cattle, and fish. Ranching is still controlled largely by white citizens and foreign interests.

In other industries—notably mining, fishing, and tourism—the participation of indigenous entrepreneurs has been increased to provide economic opportunities for blacks. The unemployment rate of nearly 40 percent in 2000 primarily affected the black majority.

Namibia struggled to bring equality to its indigenous population. Racially, in 2005, black Africans made up 87.5 percent of the population, with white Africans numbering 6 percent and people of mixed race making up 6.5 percent.

By law, all indigenous groups participate equally in decisions affecting their lands, cultures, traditions, and allocations of natural resources. However, Namibia’s indigenous citizens were unable to fully exercise these rights as a result of minimal access to education, limited economic opportunities under colonial rule, and their relative isolation.

Virtually all of the country’s minorities are represented in Parliament, in senior positions in the cabinet, and at other levels of government. The San, also known as Bushmen, are particularly disadvantaged. The government took numerous measures to end societal discrimination against the San. However, many San children do not attend school, making advancement difficult.

The future of Namibia remained in doubt at the start of the 21st century. The spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) held the possibility of devastating the country. Over 20 percent of Namibian adults were infected with HIV.

Additionally the presence of numerous refugees from nearby war-torn nations held the potential to drag down the economy and involve Namibians in cross-border conflicts. Desertification, land degradation, and wildlife poaching were likely to remain issues of concern in the foreseeable future.

Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah was born in the British-controlled Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) in West Africa. He trained as a teacher and studied in both the United States and England. Nkrumah helped to organize the 1945 Pan Africa Congress and remained a staunch supporter of African union and cooperation.

An ardent nationalist, Nkrumah served as general secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention but split from the party to establish the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in 1949. His book, I Speak for Freedom, was an impassioned defense of African independence.

Nkrumah was jailed by the British for his activist campaigns but was freed in 1951. He led the Gold Coast to complete independence in 1957. The newly independent nation of Ghana had a sound economy and under Nkrumah’s leadership was looked to for direction by other African states. Nkrumah championed the Organization of African Unity (OAU), formed in 1963. He also was an outspoken opponent of the apartheid white-dominated regime in South Africa.


However, Nkrumah became increasingly dictatorial and established Ghana as a one-party state in 1964 when he took the title of president for life. A cult of personality arose around Nkrumah, and a musim of one-party states under dictatorial “rulers for life” emerged in many African states during the 1970s. Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup d’état in 1966; in subsequent years he lived in exile and died in Romania in 1972.

Nigeria

Map of Nigeria

Nigeria is located in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea between Benin and Cameroon. It occupies 923,768 square kilometers (356,667 square miles), making it one-third larger than the U.S. state of Texas. Nigeria stretches 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from north to south, and is 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) wide from the Atlantic coast to its eastern border.

Nigeria’s population has grown extremely rapidly from 35 million to over 137 million in 2004. It is home to one out of every six Africans. The population is extremely diverse and contains as many as 250 separate ethnic groups and a reported 500 languages.

The major population divisions include the Hausa (29 percent), who live in the north; the Yoruba (21 percent), who occupy the southwest; the Igbo or Ibo (18 percent), who are in the southeast; and the Ijaw (10 percent), who reside in the east.


The Fulani (9 percent), found primarily in the north, along with a large number of smaller groups, complete the essential Nigerian ethnic matrix. This societal complexity makes for enormous governing difficulties.

There is also the divide of religion, with the north heavily Muslim and the south largely Christian. One attempt to foster better unity was the adoption of English as the nation’s official language. Fifty percent of the population now has a basic command, although there are many more who speak a smattering of broken or “pidgin” English.

Administratively the nation is currently divided into 36 states and one capital territory. Abuja, located in the center of the country, became the nation’s capital in 1991, replacing in this capacity the large port city of Lagos with its over 13 million people.

National Mosque in the capital Abuja

Modern Nigeria is a product of the late 19th-century British Empire builders. Before this time it was part of a wide-ranging section of West Africa made up of many peoples and territories, all occupying much smaller tribal areas. Lagos became a full British colony in 1861.

The country’s name is taken from the river Niger. The actual official designation of Nigeria is often attributed to the wife of a colonial official who in 1898 merged Niger with “ia” to create today’s identity, which means literally “black area.”

All of West Africa, including Nigeria, was the subject of even earlier European interest. The Portuguese came to the area in the late 15th century, attracted by the lucrative slave trade with local tribes.

The profits were such that the Portuguese slave trading monopoly was broken in the 16th century as other Europeans, including the British, wanted a share of the riches. Lagos and Badagry became important markets for the exchange of a variety of products, particularly gin and firearms.

Although the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire and in the United States after 1807, British commercial interest in the area didn’t decline, and the penetration of the interior rivers by steamships began in earnest after the 1840s.

Lagos became a key base and, in 1886, the National African Company, later the Royal Niger Company, received a royal charter to oversee trade in the Niger Delta, which included governing rights. The company’s interests also expanded northward.

These operations became too expensive and, in 1897, the company’s governing provisions were removed, and the British government asserted its authority, creating in 1900 a North Nigeria Protectorate. By 1902 after a time of armed resistance, the Sokoto Caliphate and Kano submitted to British authority.

Frederick Lugard, Governor-General of Nigeria (1914–1919)

Lugard, who had become governor-general, now combined all the protectorates with Lagos to form, in January 1914, the Federation of Nigeria. A policy of indirect rule followed during which local tribal leaders, emirs, and sultans administered their areas in conjunction with the colonial civil service.

As late as the 1930s only a few hundred British officers were in country. Infrastructure was improved, including railroad construction to the north, but education in the Muslim areas lagged behind Christian-led efforts in the south. The north remained essentially a distinct enclave.

Nationalism became an increasing factor during the 1930s and was essentially motivated by the notion of Pan-Africanism. Yet a Nigerian sense of nationalism was made more difficult by the area’s many regional and tribal divides.

The end of World War II left Britain weary of the demands and costs of empire, and moves toward change occurred as early as 1946. At this time a constitutional reform was introduced that created in the first instance three regional legislatures. A fourth midwest regional legislature was added in 1963. Full self-government came to these regions in the 1950s.

The desired goal was the formation of a federal legislative structure for all of Nigeria, a system that the north finally agreed to join in 1959. Direct elections occurred in 1959, and a federal government was founded. This new government, meeting for the first time in 1960, declared Nigeria’s independence on October 1.

Princess Alexandra opens the newly independent Nigerian Federal Parliament
in Lagos on 3 October 1960

This sense of national hope proved short-lived. Old antagonisms emerged and threatened any idea of lasting unity. The conflicts came quickly with the Yoruba opposing western regional reorganizations.

This lack of stability undermined the national government, creating a pattern for the future that would include ethnic fighting and massive corruption. In 1963 Nigeria became a federal republic with an elected president in an effort to strengthen central authority. The elections in 1964 produced more arguments and rioting over suspected electoral fraud.

The Nigerian National Alliance took control of parliament, and the United Progressive Grand Alliance of eastern and western groups became their main opposition. This unsettled situation led eastern Igbo-dominated army officers to stage a coup in January 1966.

Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi took command and instituted bloody purges of the political establishment. Fighting broke out within the army itself. After only four months in charge General Ironsi was dead, and Yakubu Gowon, a lieutenant colonel soon to be general, had taken over as leader of the military government.

The situation failed to settle, particularly after the Hausa murdered approximately 20,000 Igbo who lived in the north. Retaliations led to more discord, motivating the eastern region’s military governor, Lieutenant Colonel Odemugwu Ojukwu, to declare on May 30, 1967, the eastern region an independent entity called the Republic of Biafra.

Lieutenant Colonel Odemugwu Ojukwu

This situation led to a bloody civil war, perhaps the worst in modern African history. The war lasted three years and cost numerous lives. At war’s end the victorious Federal side declared a period of reconciliation and launched a campaign to reconstruct the devastated area.

Nigeria was now firmly in the hands of Gowon’s Supreme Military Council, which did promise a return to civilian rule in 1976. Efforts were made to transform the economy from its agricultural base to a more modern mixed economy. There were serious attacks on corruption and moves to control the government’s role in the expanding oil industry, which from the late 1960s saw Nigeria become one of the world’s largest exporters.

Criticism of Gowon’s rule was steadily mounting. While attending a 1975 Organization of African Unity conference, Gowan found himself the victim of another coup led by the Sandhurst-trained brigadier general Murtala Mohammed.

General Mohammed consolidated his authority, purged government offices, created more administrative states, and put military governors in control of the media. He also imported new Soviet aircraft for the military. His time in office, though, proved short-lived.

He was assassinated by fellow officers in 1976. His replacement was General Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba, who would years later become Nigeria’s president. In 1979 Obasanjo produced a new constitution based on the U.S. model and prepared for elections to return the country to civilian rule.

The fall in oil prices in 1981 brought problems for the new government as debts mounted. The result was a poor business climate. Blame was projected onto many quarters, violence was frequent, and foreign workers were expelled. The unrest also brought an end to the Shehu Shagari presidency, which again saw a disgruntled military react, cancelling Shagari’s 1983 election.

Mohammed Buhari, the chief of the army, took over the government with the standard promises to end corruption and reverse the fortunes of the state. However, Buhari didn’t last long, and in August 1985 he was overthrown by General Ibrahim Babangida. General Sani Abacha gave his support to this coup, and in 1990 he positioned himself for later rule when he became minister of defense.

General Sani Abacha, 10th President of Nigeria

Army control did not reverse the economic crisis, which was now dire. Currency devaluation was demanded as a term for continued International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank financial support in the form of loans. Again a return to civilian rule was planned, and state elections were scheduled for 1991, with a presidential election to follow in 1993.

To the military’s surprise, Moshood Abiola won. The military, however, rejected the result, Babangida imprisoned Abiola, and in the midst of continuing confusion General Sani Abacha took over as military president.

Omani Empire in East Africa

Ruin of Omani Empire Palace

The Omani empire in East Africa was based on the Swahili coast, which extended from present-day central Somalia to Cape Delgado in southern Mozambique. It included a number of islands and archipelagos in the Indian Ocean.

There were more than 400 urban settlements of varying sizes. The trading networks within the interior extended from 20 to 200 miles. The trade provided a valuable intermediary between the African interior and the vast Indian Ocean trade.

This lucrative trade had been disrupted by the arrival of the Portuguese after 1498. The non-Muslim Portuguese had interfered with the Muslim Swahili trading connections without offering security. Consequently they were attacked by the Turks by the coast and the Jagga and Zimba from the interior.


Treasure hunts for gold and silver and slave-hunting expeditions disrupted the interior trade just as Portuguese opposition to Islam disrupted the Indian Ocean aspect of the trade. In the early 17th century, the cities sought liberation from Portugal and called in the Omanis from southeastern Arabia.

The Omanis were a good fit as they had been trading partners with the Swahili city-states for centuries, were fellow Muslims, and used the Arabic alphabet, as did the Swahili.

They had also been threatened by the Portuguese, who sought to control their strategic position of the Straits of Hormuz at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. Thus they were glad to arrive in the 1640s to attack the Portuguese.

Between 1640 and 1730, they conquered all of the Swahili cities from Somalia to the border between Tanganyika and Mozambique. By 1730, Zanzibar had emerged as the most important Swahili city and the Omanis and an Omani governor were established there.

But though the Omanis came as allies and liberators, they remained as conquerors through appointing representatives in each city. Over the next half-century, the Swahili cities grew tired of Omani taxes and there were periodic revolts.

There were temporary overthrows of Omani representatives, but these would be put down. The only city to regain authority was Mombassa under the Mazrui family. They were partially protected in their harbor by Fort St. Jesus, the fortress built by the Portuguese for their military headquarters.

During the 18th century, old trade patterns reemerged under Omani rule due to increased demand for slaves, the availability of capital from places such as India to finance trade, and the willingness of Africans in the interior to take slaves and ivory to the coast.

There were effects of the new emphasis on slaves, which replaced the earlier trade in gold (with Zimbabwe) and copper (from Katanga). The international trade for slaves made Omani sultans rich; it also turned communities against each other. Former African trading partners of the Swahili raided each other (encouraged by Omanis to take persons to sell as slaves).

Some of the smaller Swahili settlements disappeared as they were not defensible against voracious slave traders. Overall, the Swahili city-states did not regain the wealth that they had experienced during the golden era of 1300–1500.

Internally the people began to identify with Omani conquerors. Inside Swahili cities Omani soldiers of fortune expropriated large tracts of land although many were actually ethnic Baluchis. Many upper-class Swahili found it advantageous to intermarry with Omanis and even claim Arab ancestry.

These internal changes plus the participation of wealthy coastal people in the interior slave trade and the owning of slaves from the interior created a chasm between the coast and the interior that persists to this day.

By 1800, the Omani empire in East Africa faced new challenges as the English and French established themselves off East Africa in the Comoros and Madagascar (French), as well as Mauritius and Seychelles (English).

Nzinga Mbandi - African Military Strategist and Leader

Nzinga Mbandi

Between 1623 and 1663, Nzinga Mbandi, the Muhongo Matamba of what is modern-day Angola, led her people in major revolts against the Portuguese and served alternately as a valuable ally and a fearsome enemy to neighboring kingdoms. Nzinga, who was also known as Jinga, Singa, and Zhinga, was an excellent military strategist.

Her sisters served as commanding officers in Nzinga’s army, which also included a number of other women warriors. Several women also served in Nzinga’s cabinet. Above all, Nzinga was a pragmatist who knew when to attack and when to ally herself with stronger forces.

The Muhongo Matamba was fiercely protective of her own territory, but she was also willing to suspend battling with neighboring monarchs over disputed territory when she deemed it necessary to join forces.


Despite her loyalty to her own people, Nzinga had no compunctions in advancing the slave trade by selling other Africans from remote areas. Nzinga unsuccessfully joined forces with the Dutch to try to oust the Portuguese from southern Africa.

Portuguese Invasion

In 1576, the Portuguese invaded Luanda, a remote but strategically important area of southern Africa, and began extending their reach into surrounding areas. Initially the Ngondo people repelled the Portuguese advance but were ultimately overwhelmed by brutal Imbangala warriors who attacked from the rear.

The Imbangala, like the Portuguese, viewed the Ngondo as an obstacle to establishing of a trade route on the coast and to the wealth generated by foreign trade. Over the following century, the Mdongo continued to lose ground, but the rise of Queen Nzinga in 1663 proved to be a turning point in the history of the area.

Using her gift for military strategizing that had been fostered by observing the military advances of her neighbors and the guns and gunpowder procured through her trading partners, Nzinga retreated from the contested area and traveled inland, where she laid claim to Matamba, which was in a vulnerable state after the death of its sovereign.

In Matamba, Nzinga founded a new state and extended her territory into nearby Luanda in the Kongo. She subsequently announced ownership of ngola a kiluanji, but the right to rule both this area and Luanda continued to be hotly contested.

Nzinga developed Matamba as a major trading center, focused on long-distance slave trading. To cut down on competition, she also blocked the trading route that had developed in Kasanji in Luanda.

In the past, Queen Nzinga had paid tribute to the Kongo kingdom in exchange for European goods. By the end of the 16th century, however, Nzinga broke all ties with the Kongo and began exchanging gifts with ngola a kiluanji out of her desire to establish a more direct slave-trading route to the coast.

At the same time, Nzinga gave the kambole, her chief consort, permission to launch a series of campaigns that broadened the reach of her kingdom. In response to a new conflict between Luanda and ngola a kiluanji, the ever-practical Nzinga chose to support ngola a kiluanji.

Her support included dispatching her considerable forces to Mbaka, where they succeeded in routing the Portuguese. By 1591, Nzinga and ngola a kiluanji had strengthened their position against the Portuguese by joining forces with Caculo, a neighboring warlord.

However, as the war progressed, Nzinga determined that her interests were better served by selling slaves directly to the Portuguese via the chiefdom of Ndembu. By 1641, Nzinga was exporting 12,000–13,000 slaves a year. She also became extremely adept at siphoning off slaves bound for other trading routes.

Dutch and Portuguese Deals

In 1641, Nzinga joined forces with Garcia II, who had declared himself the king of Luanda, and with other neighboring kingdoms to repel a Dutch invasion. Over the course of the next year, however, Garcia decided that the Portuguese constituted a greater threat to independence and determined to oust them by allying himself with the invaders.

Ultimately, however, the Dutch undercut Garcia and his African allies by negotiating a treaty with Portugal. This treaty fell apart after several local revolts broke out, but the Dutch continued to seek cooperation with Portugal, which controlled essential access to slave trading routes.

As long as the Dutch had controlled Luanda, Nzinga’s slave-trading route had been blocked, despite repeated efforts to establish trading relations with the Europeans. Consequently, Nzinga again allied herself with Garcia, even though both claimed ownership of Matamba and ngola a kiluanji. In fall 1643, in an effort to bypass the Portuguese blockade of her slave trade, Nzinga led a troop of some 80,000 bowmen into the Kongo kingdom along the upper Dande.

With the aid of the Ndembu and 100 Dutch troops, Nzinga overwhelmed the Kiteshi Kandambi, who attempted to stop her. Aghast at her encroachment, Garcia lobbied the Dutch for help in preventing Nzinga from laying claim to additional territory. Ultimately, however, he came to believe that Nzinga’s goodwill was more important than that of the Dutch, who had signed a new treaty with the Portuguese.

In 1645, Nzinga’s forces were defeated by the Portuguese, who followed up their triumph by invading Luanda. Queen Nzinga subsequently announced that she was old and tired of making war. She set out to rescue Barbara, her sister and heir, who had been imprisoned in Luanda. Nzinga’s efforts to negotiate her sister’s release were unsuccessful, and she threatened to settle the issue by military force.

Instead, a shaky alliance was negotiated. Twice over the next few years, Nzinga further extended her territory by invading neighboring kingdoms and enslaving their inhabitants. She died three years later at the age of 83.

Lebna Dengel - Ethiopian Ruler

 Emperor Lebna Dengel of Ethiopia

Emperor Lebna Dengel of Ethiopia, also known as Dawit II, or David II, was one of the celebrated Christian kings of Ethiopia. Lebna Dengel succeeded to the throne of Ethiopia at the age of 12, partly through the maneuverings of his grandmother, the empress Eleni.

The empress was the daughter of King Hadiya, a Muslim, and she officially served as Lebna Dengel’s regent. Eleni had begun her rise to power when she became one of the four wives of Zara Yakob (1438–68) in 1445, thereby joining her prominent Muslim family with the Christian family of Zara Yakob.

As one of the celebrated evangelizing emperors of Ethiopia, along with Amda Tseyon (1314–44) and Sayfa Arad (1344–72), Zara Yakob holds a unique place in Ethiopian history. When he built a new royal residence at Debre Berhan, Eleni, who had converted to Christianity, established a church on the grounds.


Zara Yakob died after designating his young son Ba’eda Maryam (1468–78) as his heir, and Eleni became even more prominent in Ethiopian politics. Since his mother was dead, Ba’eda Maryam designated Eleni, to whom he was close, as the queen mother and chose her to serve as his regent.

Eleni also served in this capacity during the troubled reign of her son Na’od (1494–1505), who had succeeded his half brother Ba’eda Maryam to the throne. When Na’od was killed in a battle against the Muslims, his son Lebna Dengel was only seven years old.

Throughout much of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Eleni served as the power behind the Ethiopian throne, essentially serving as the reigning monarch. As a devout and active Christian, Eleni is credited with founding the modern church of Ethiopia. Although her exact birth date is unknown, Eleni was born sometime in the 1430s and died in the early 1520s in her 90s.

While Christians and Muslims coexisted in Ethiopia during Lebna Dengel’s reign, it was far from a peaceful relationship. In 1516, when the emir Mahfuz of Haran invaded the Ethiopian highlands, Lebna Dengel ambushed the invaders and continued to press his advantage by killing the emir and following them back to Haran, where he again attacked.

Lebna Dengel returned to his home a hero, convinced that the Muslims would no longer threaten Ethiopian Christians. He was fatally wrong. Suspecting that a Muslim attack was imminent, Eleni sent out a plea for assistance from Portugal. Consequently, in 1520, a Portuguese expeditionary force arrived in Ethiopia, led by Dom Ridrigo da Lama.

Despite the presence of the Portuguese in Ethiopia, in March 1529, Muslim forces under Ahmed Ibn Ghazi (c. 1507–43), popularly known as “the Gran,” triumphed over Lebna Dengel’s forces. By 1531, Muslim forces were in control of Ethiopia and remained so until 1543.

During the period of Muslim dominance, Emperor Lebna Dengel actively resisted all efforts to make him renounce his faith. When Ahmed ibn Ghazi demanded the hand of Lebna Dengel’s daughter in marriage, warning Lebna Dengel that he had no other course than to comply, the emperor summarily refused.

Assuring the Gran that he would not allow his daughter to marry a nonbeliever, Lebna Dengel wrote to him that he was determined to retain his trust in the Lord rather than in the Gran. Afterward, Lebna Dengel’s faith was repeatedly tested as he was forced to flee for his life. For the rest of his life, he was often hungry, uncomfortable, and in physical danger.

Lebna Dengel was still hiding from Muslim forces when he was killed in battle on September 2, 1540, near the monastery of Dabra Dam in Tigre. Subsequently, the tide turned for Christian Ethiopians. Lebna Dengel had appealed to Portugal for assistance in 1535, but help did not arrive until after his death.

The emperor Galawdewos (Claudius) succeeded to his father’s throne, and the Ethiopian Empire was restored with the help of the Portuguese who arrived in Ethiopia in 1541. This force of 400 Portuguese musketeers was led by Cristóvão da Gama, the son of the celebrated explorer Vasco da Gama.

After Lebna Dengel’s death, his son Galawdewos, assisted by the Portuguese musketeers, led an attack in which the Gran was killed in 1543 in a battle near Lake Tana. Once the Muslims were ousted, the Christians performed a penitential and reinstatement ceremony and proclaimed the return of Christianity to Ethiopia.

Although the Muslims had been ousted from Ethiopia, the Gran’s widow, Bati Del Wambara, continued raids on the Christians. Galawdewos was killed in battle in 1559, and the Muslims triumphantly displayed his head on a stake.

Many of the Portuguese who survived the various battles remained in Ethiopia when the troops pulled out of Ethiopia in 1547. They were soon joined by a group of Jesuit missionaries. The presence of the Portuguese was evident in Ethiopia in a number of ways since the Portuguese government fully intended to retain a certain amount of power in the country The Portuguese taught the Ethiopian soldiers how to use firearms and converted a number of locals to Western Catholicism.

By the mid-17th century, however, the Ethiopian government had expelled the Jesuits and denied other missionaries admission to the country. For the next two centuries, Ethiopia rejected all foreign overtures, preferring to exist in isolation.

Kongo Kingdom of Africa

Kongo Kingdom of Africa

The kingdom of the Kongo (Kongo dya Ntotila) flourished along the Congo River in the west-central coast of Africa from about the 14th century. The kingdom covered a large part of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the king (the manikongo) lived in what is now Angola.

King Nimi, from near present-day Boma, conquered the Congo Plateau. He and his followers married into the local elite and he was accepted as ruler of the region. The wealth of Kongo was based on trade in ivory, hides, and slaves, and it also used a shell currency popular in western Africa.

In 1482, King João II of Portugal sent an expedition, under the command of Diogo Cão, to explore the west coast of Africa, and they reached the Congo River in the following year. Diogo Cão sent a delegation to see the fifth king of the Kongo, Nzinga-a-Cuum (or Nzinga Nukuwu), who was living at Mbanza (São Salvador do Congo). Nzinga-a-Cuum asked Cão to take charge of a young relative, Caçuto, and others, and take them back to Lisbon to receive a Christian education.


Caçuto learned Portuguese and much about Portuguese and European history, also converting to Christianity. At Bela in 1489, he was baptized and took the name João Silva, after King João II of Portugal, and Pire Silva, a court official who had served as his godfather. Caçuto then returned to Mbanza.

Nzinga-a-Cuum had become wary of the Portuguese. Possibly worried about Portuguese military power, Nzinga-a-Cuum converted to Christianity, becoming King João I of the Kongo. However he had long practiced polygamy. After his baptism, he returned to his many wives and disowned his son, who, with his mother and other members of the family, sought the protection of the Portuguese.

When his father died in 1506, Afonso returned to Mbanza, was crowned, and then set about converting his people to Catholicism. He regularly corresponded with King Manuel I of Portugal and sent over more of his subjects to Lisbon to receive a European education.

When Afonso I of Kongo died in 1542, his son and successor Pedro I became the next king; he was succeeded briefly afterward by Francisco I (Mpudi a Nzinga Mvemba). Pedro became king again briefly.

A nephew, Diogo, disputed these two rulers and staged a rebellion against Pedro and then Francisco and then Pedro again. He forced Pedro to seek sanctuary in a Catholic church, where he wrote and pleaded for help from King João III the Pious of Portugal and from the pope.

Diogo came to the throne at a time when some Portuguese traders were eager to expand the slave trade, and Diogo was eager to profit from this. When he died in 1561, his illegitimate son, Afonso II, succeeded him, and a violent succession crisis broke out.

While he was attending Mass within months of becoming king, Afonso II was murdered by his brother Bernardo. Bernardo I reigned for six years. His successor, Henrique I, was king for a year before being forced to flee when the neighboring kingdom of Jagas invaded Kongo. Henrique was succeeded by Alvaro I, who reigned for 19 years and brought some stability to the country.

Alvaro I also stepped up the slave trade and sent as many as 14,000 slaves annually to Brazil. Finally Antonio I, who became king in 1661, quarreled with the Portuguese over control of the slave trade. In 1665, he gathered his supporters and met the Portuguese in battle at Mbwila. He was wounded in the fighting, captured, and subsequently beheaded.

After 1678, after a violent internal civil war, the kingdom of Kongo rapidly fragmented into a number of warring states. The kings of Kongo—descended from Afonso I—did, however, continue to hold court and conduct ceremonial functions.

Henrique III, Afonso Nlengi, reigned from 1793 until 1802, and the male line continued until Pedro VII, Afonso, died in 1962, whereupon Isabel María da Gama became the regent. Although some people wanted to restore the Kongo monarchy, when Angola gained its independence in 1975, the new government refused to recognize its existence.