Episodes

  • Namibian women keeping traditions alive and history near

    Namibian women keeping traditions alive and history near
    Dec 7 2024
    The atrocities of German colonialism remained largely, and purposefully, obscure as Namibians endured successive German and British colonial administration. Under the South African apartheid rule that only ended in 1990, there was little space to confront the crimes. But women kept, and continue to keep, their people's history and culture alive.
    Show more Show less
    11 mins
  • From Douala to Ngonnso: How women fought resisted German colonialism in Cameroon

    From Douala to Ngonnso: How women fought resisted German colonialism in Cameroon
    Dec 5 2024
    In 1893, Dahomey men and women revolted against abuse by German colonial officers in Cameroon in a famous uprising that Germany was unprepared for. We look at how female resistance against colonialism has taken different forms, from the Dahomey Revolt to the battle to return the Ngonnso sculpture to Cameroon.
    Show more Show less
    11 mins
  • Who was Li'ti Kidanka, the Queen of the Bees?

    Who was Li'ti Kidanka, the Queen of the Bees?
    Dec 4 2024
    As German colonialists swept into East Africa, they came up against a force none had reckoned with: Li'ti Kidanka. Shrouded in folklore, we tell the story of a Tanzanian heroine who fought German colonialism with a very unusual weapon.
    Show more Show less
    10 mins
  • How Nduna Mkomanile fought German colonialism

    How Nduna Mkomanile fought German colonialism
    Dec 4 2024
    Nduna Mkomanile tried to unite East African communities against German colonialism during the Maji Maji war in the early 20th century. She's now regarded as one of Tanzania's most notable female freedom fighters, but for decades her importance was overlooked. We find out why.
    Show more Show less
    8 mins
  • Reclaiming Heritage: Dinknesh and Sarah Baartman

    Reclaiming Heritage: Dinknesh and Sarah Baartman
    Oct 23 2024
    One of the world's oldest humanoid fossils, colloquially known as Dinknesh, or "Lucy," has intrigued paleontologists for decades. But her name is also a point of pride for Ethiopians. Meanwhile Laila narrates how fascination and racist attitudes around Sarah Baartman resulted in a harrowing, cautionary tale of human exploitation.
    Show more Show less
    20 mins
  • Injected with fear: the legacy of colonial era vaccination programs

    Injected with fear: the legacy of colonial era vaccination programs
    Mar 4 2024
    Tropical medicine boomed as European powers claimed territories in Africa. Germany sent the famed Robert Koch and many others to the colonies to find cures to tropical illnesses - but also to test new medicines. This shadowy practice led to Africans being mistreated, and many died in the process, leaving a legacy of physical and psychological trauma that has never been properly cured.
    Show more Show less
    12 mins
  • Unsettling continuities – from colonial racism to Nazism

    Unsettling continuities – from colonial racism to Nazism
    Feb 27 2024
    Respected German anthropologists made a career from dividing people by race, a new branch of science that conveniently put Europeans at the top. While eugenics and scientific racism was widely practiced in Western nations in the early 1900s, the ideas developed by Eugen Fischer and others served as the intellectual bedrock for race-based crimes committed by Nazi Germany.
    Show more Show less
    11 mins
  • Why African nations still fight over colonial era borders

    Why African nations still fight over colonial era borders
    Feb 22 2024
    Why does Namibia have a bizarre panhandle? Why do some Ghanaians talk of being from "Western Togoland"? Much of this has to do with African borders drawn up in Europe during late 19th century. Borders that to this day are still very much contested, and have had deadly consequences. We explore how treaties designed to prevent war in Europe have caused conflict in Africa.
    Show more Show less
    12 mins