History connected by place and time
Use the regional map, historical timeline and research filters to move between kingdoms, people, objects, places and events.
North Africa
Mediterranean worlds, Saharan exchange and Nile civilisations.
View connected stories →West Africa
Sahelian empires, forest kingdoms and Atlantic societies.
View connected stories →Central Africa
Congo Basin states, trade networks and cultural continuities.
View connected stories →East Africa
Nile, Horn and Swahili histories connected across the Indian Ocean.
View connected stories →Southern Africa
Stone cities, cattle states, migrations and resistance.
View connected stories →African Islands
Island societies linking Africa to global oceanic histories.
View connected stories →An African history timeline
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Filter the Crowned Continent collection by region, period, country or topic.
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor was a poet, theorist of Négritude and Senegal’s first president, joining cultural affirmation to the difficult practice of building a postcolonial…
Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Félix Houphouët-Boigny moved from African agricultural organising and French parliamentary politics to become the first president of Côte d’Ivoire.
Ahmed Sékou Touré
Ahmed Sékou Touré was a trade-union organiser who led Guinea to immediate independence from France in 1958 and became a prominent, increasingly authoritarian Pan-African…
Bai Bureh
Bai Bureh was a Temne and Loko war leader who became the best-known commander of Sierra Leone’s 1898 resistance to British colonial taxation and…
Amílcar Cabral
Amílcar Cabral was an agronomist, revolutionary strategist and Pan-African thinker who led the struggle to end Portuguese colonial rule in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
Béhanzin
Béhanzin was the final independent ruler of Dahomey, defending the kingdom’s sovereignty against French conquest in two wars from 1890 to 1894.
Lat Dior
Lat Dior, damel of Cayor, used warfare, diplomacy and shifting alliances to defend Senegalese political autonomy against French expansion.
Mansa Musa
An expanded contextual biography of Mansa Musa, examining institutions, decisions, conflict, historical debate and legacy.
Sundiata Keita
An expanded contextual biography of Sundiata Keita, examining institutions, decisions, conflict, historical debate and legacy.
Askia Muhammad
An expanded contextual biography of Askia Muhammad, examining institutions, decisions, conflict, historical debate and legacy.
Sunni Ali
An expanded contextual biography of Sunni Ali, examining institutions, decisions, conflict, historical debate and legacy.
Queen Amina
An expanded contextual biography of Queen Amina, examining institutions, decisions, conflict, historical debate and legacy.