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Black History Lunchtime Conversations

This document summarises the UNESCO History of Africa project


and the 20 BBC produced episodes

Introducing Zeinab Badawi presenter of the UNESCO History of


Africa project “Using African history as a tool for Change”
TEDxEuston – this is a useful starting point

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsdwybV07e8

Zeinab Badawi was born in Sudan and moved to London when she was two years old. A
graduate of Oxford University and a holder of two honorary doctorates, Zeinab has extensive
experience in television and radio. She presents BBC’s Hard Talk, BBC World TV’s Global
Questions and World Debates and has produced and presented - through her own production
company - many programmes, including the tv- series of African history in association with
UNESCO. She has won many awards, chairs the Royal African Society, and is/has been on the
board of among others, the British Council and the Overseas Development Institute. Intro music
‘Castle Poles’, created by DJ Rachael.

Find out more about African ideas worth spreading at www.tedxeuston.com and sign up to our
mailing list http://eepurl.com/d8zKn Zeinab was born in Sudan and moved to London when she
was two years old. A graduate of Oxford University and a holder of two honorary doctorates,
Zeinab has extensive experience in television and radio. She presents BBC’s Hard Talk, BBC
World TV’s Global Questions and World Debates and has produced and presented- through her
own production company- many programmes, including the definitive tv series of African history
in association with UNESCO. She has won many awards, chairs the Royal African Society, and
is/has been on the board of among others, the British Council and the Overseas Development
Institute.

https://en.unesco.org/courier/january-march-2018/zeinab-badawi-my-hyphenated-identity-
advantage

UNESCO History of Africa project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qekYtLVi9Fo

General History of Africa: “Know your history to achieve the goals


of your life!”

This video presents the UNESCO General History of Africa and explains why this project is
critical for the African Renaissance. In 1964, UNESCO launched the elaboration of the General
History of Africa (GHA) with a view to remedy the general ignorance on Africa’s history. The
challenge consisted of reconstructing Africa’s history, freeing it from racial prejudices ensuing
from slave trade and colonization, and promoting an African perspective. The General History of
Africa (GHA) is a history that no longer leaves the pre-colonial period in the shadows and that
deeply integrates the destiny of Africa into that of humanity by highlighting its relations with the
other continents and the contribution of African cultures to the general progress of humanity. To
know where you go, you have to know where you come from… https://en.unesco.org/general-
history...
The 20 Episodes ……… shown abridged on BBC 2019 - 2020

Episode 1 Mother Africa - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETnIsBnNRr0

In this first episode, Zeinab Badawi travels across the continent examining the origins of
humankind; how and why we evolved in Africa - Africa is the greatest exporter of all time: every
human being originated in Africa. During her journey Zeinab is granted rare access to the actual
bones of one of the most iconic discoveries in the field of palaeontology, ‘Lucy' in Ethiopia, or as
she is known in Amharic, ‘Dinkenesh’, which means ‘you are marvellous’. Zeinab also spends
time in Tanzania with a tribe that is unique in the world because they live in the way our
ancestors did, as hunters of big animals and gatherers. This community who have rarely been
filmed provide a fascinating insight into how we have lived for most of our history.

Episode 2 Cattle, Crops and Iron - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srlf_xltWfc

Zeinab Badawi continues her journey through the history of human development travelling to
meet the Maasai of east Africa - one of the best known of the continent’s ethnic groups. They
help explain how human beings began to domesticate animals and become pastoralists. Then in
Zimbabwe with one lively farming family, Zeinab examines how humans also began to settle and
make a living from farming. And she also looks at how the Iron Age transformed life in Africa and
paved the way for the development of rich urban civilisations.

3 Gift of the Nile - History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4EjZpIF71Y&t=33s

Zeinab Badawi’s quest to uncover the history of Africa takes her to Egypt where she explores the
most famous civilisation on the continent that of the ancient Egyptians. Zeinab takes you beyond
the usual coverage of the pharaohs, mummies and pyramids and examines the controversial
question of who the ancient Egyptians actually were. What was their ethnicity? What made such
a great civilisation possible and how did the ancient Egyptians order their society? And she is
also allowed to capture on film the mummy and treasures of the famous boy king Tutankhamun.

4 Kingdom of Kush - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwaP1kyAqqo

In this episode Zeinab Badawi travels to the country of her birth and the very region of her
forefathers and mothers: northern Sudan where she sheds light on this little-known aspect of
ancient African history, the great Kingdom of Kush. Its kings ruled for many hundreds of years
and indeed in the eighth century BC they conquered and governed Egypt for the best part of 100
years. Furthermore, Kush was an African superpower. Its influence extended to the modern day
Middle East. Zeinab visits the best preserved of Sudan’s one thousand pyramids and shows how
some of the ancient customs of Kush have endured to this day.
5 The Rise Of Aksum - History Of Africa With Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=A4OSEpexs_Q&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index=5

Zeinab Badawi travels to the rarely visited country of Eritrea and neighbouring Ethiopia to chart
the rise of the kingdom of Aksum. Described as one of the four greatest civilisations of the
ancient world Zeinab examines archaeological remains in both countries dating back many
hundreds of years before our common era. She explains how the kings of Aksum grew rich and
powerful from their control of Red Sea trade and how they were one of the first civilisations in the
world that officially embraced Christianity in the fourth century. Also find out why the Queen of
Sheba and the secret of the Ark of the Covenant are so fundamental to Ethiopia’s history.

6 Kings and Emirs - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=vCyQgTJ6WgA&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index=6

In this episode Zeinab Badawi focuses on the fall of the kingdom of Aksum and how the Christian
kings who followed in the wake of its demise left powerful legacies especially that of King Lalibela
who ruled in the 12/13th century. He is credited with building a complex of rock hewn churches
which represent amazing feats of engineering at that time. Zeinab also charts the arrival of Islam
in this part of Africa and how the Christian kings and Muslim emirs co-existed. And she visits
Harar, the most holy of Ethiopia’s cities for Muslims, where she observes the bizarre long-
standing tradition of the ‘hyena men’ of Harar who feed these wild animals by hand.

7 North Africa - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VCKPyAHgX7U&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index=7

In this episode Zeinab Badawi’s exploration of Africans’ rich history focuses on North Africa. She
goes to Morocco to find out about the original inhabitants of the region in particular the Berbers
or Amazigh as they prefer to be called. Zeinab visits Carthage in Tunisia and explains who the
Carthaginians were and their place in Africa’s history. She also looks at the great Berber kings
and how they managed to retain their influence when North Africa came under Roman rule.
Zeinab visits some of the most extensive and least visited ancient sites in Algeria built under the
Romans.

8 Ancestors, Spirits and God - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=GlKSp2H0V0w&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index=8

In this episode Zeinab Badawi examines religion in Africa. First the enduring presence of Africa’s
indigenous religions, to which millions of people on the continent still adhere. She travels to
Zimbabwe to find out more about a remote community that follows traditional African religion. In
Senegal she meets a Muslim man who, like so many others in the continent, blends Islamic
beliefs with his ancestral ones and enjoys talking to trees! She also charts the impact of Judaism
and early Christianity in Africa and how Africans in particular made significant contributions to
Christian thinking and practice through influential figures such as St Augustine who lived in what
is today Algeria.
9 Islam in Africa - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcF-
e6RhLzU&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index=9

In this episode Zeinab Badawi travels to several countries and looks at the early spread of Islam
in Africa and how many Africans practise to this day a mystic, Sufi form of the religion. She
shows how not only Islam but Arab culture came to influence a large part of the continent,
particularly in the north. And she charts the rise of the powerful Islamic dynasties of North Africa,
that built magnificent monuments, mosques and empires, including a part of southern Europe
and who helped determine the path of this part of the continent.

10 Desert Empires - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shEU4PQUxxA
In this episode Zeinab Badawi visits rarely seen historic sites and magnificent ruins in Mali and
Mauritania in west Africa. We hear from Africans about how trans-Saharan trade, mainly in gold,
meant that by about the 7th century rich kingdoms became established in West Africa. These
eventually gave rise to three of the greatest empires on the continent, including the Mali Empire
which began in the 13th century. Under armed guard, Zeinab visits the fabled city of Timbuktu,
which was overrun by extremists in 2012. Mali’s ruler Mansa Musa was reputedly the wealthiest
individual to have ever lived. She brings a rich narrative of a period in Africa’s history when it was
a significant player in the world economy, and influenced global thinking through great centres of
learning.

11 City States and Civilisations - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tbMJGjndw

In this episode, we see how city states and kingdoms gave rise to rich and diverse
civilisations, including some of the most iconic works of art on the continent: the
Benin bronzes, dating back to the 13th century. Zeinab Badawi travels to Nigeria
where she is granted a rare interview with the King of the Benin kingdom in southern
Nigeria. She meets the Queen Mother of Lagos, at her ancestral palace on Lagos
Island where she relates the history of the Yoruba people. And Zeinab also has an
audience with the former governor of Nigeria’s central bank who became the Emir of
Kano, one of northern Nigeria’s Muslim city states.
12 Coast and Conquest - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hKeMgH6A34
In this episode Zeinab Badawi starts with a visit to some of the most sensational historic sites in
Africa: the Swahili coastal settlements of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique on Africa’s Indian
Ocean coast. Zeinab then relates the tragic history of how the arrival of the Arabs in this part of
Africa marked the start of an international trade in many millions of enslaved Africans. The Arabs
and their Swahili partners were the first outsiders to trade in humans on the continent from as
early as the 7th century. She highlights how this trade differed from the much later trans-Atlantic
slave trade, and how some Africans today view this painful period in their history.

13 Southern Kingdoms - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdSupLM4zAA&t=56s
In this episode, Zeinab Badawi travels to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia to
find out about the powerful kingdoms of southern Africa and their rulers from 10th to 19th
century, like the Mutapa kingdom that stretched across portions of eight modern-day southern
African countries. We hear about one military ruler who repeatedly saw off Portuguese invaders,
and we admire the incredible ruins of Great Zimbabwe, the largest stone settlement in Africa
south of the Sahara. Foreign visitors could not believe that this towering civilisation dating from
the 1100s was built by Africans. The reality is that Great Zimbabwe is the most striking example
of the kingdoms that flourished in southern Africa.

14 The Golden Stool - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KKnpSnXRxo&t=2135s
In this episode, Zeinab Badawi travels to Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire to find out about the Asante
people and their kingdom. We examine the history, myths and legends of the Asante people. We
attend the Akwasidae, a colourful festival where the King of the kings of the Asante - known as
the Asantehene - has his gold regalia on full display as a way of projecting wealth and prestige.
And we hear about the great Asante queen who led the resistance against the invading British
and hid the Asante’s most valued and sacred possession: the Golden Stool. The Asante serve as
an example of how despite decades of colonial rule, Africans maintained their traditions and
continue to revel in and perpetuate their heritage and customs.

15 No Longer At Ease - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyhjwXlKpAc

In this episode, Zeinab Badawi provides an overview of how Africans lived before the arrival of
Europeans. We see traditional religion in practice in Kenya, we meet a traditional medicine
practitioner in Congo, and in Uganda, we witness traditional justice in action as community elders
adjudicate in a matrimonial dispute. We hear from one local king who reminisces about how
compassionate and ordered life was under the old ways and a local chief and his family in
Zambia provide insights of traditional village life before the disruptive influence of Europeans.
The title describes a people who were becoming 'no longer at ease’ in the run up to one of the
ugliest chapters in human history: the trans Atlantic slave trade. The late acclaimed Nigerian
author Chinua Achebe wrote a book with the same title.
16 Slavery and Suffering - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ajI8lkYdmAk&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index=16

Much is known about enslaved Africans once they arrived in the Americas and Europe, but in this
episode Zeinab Badawi looks at the impact on Africa itself of one of the most evil chapters in
human history: the trans Atlantic slave trade. She travels to several countries to see how, where
and why this trade began in Cabo Verde in 1510. She meets a man on the Senegalese island of
Goree who for 35 years has been relating the story of slavery to thousands of visitors. And
leading academics tackle the controversial subject of why some Africans helped sell their fellow
Africans into slavery.

17 Slavery and Salvation - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyIUs8hJpy0&t=706s
In this episode, Zeinab Badawi visits Ghana and sees how momentum in the trans Atlantic slave
trade led to competition for enslaved Africans between European nations who built numerous
slave forts along West Africa’s Atlantic coast. She hears about the inhumane conditions in which
slaves awaiting shipment were kept and how women were selected and subjected to rape by
their captors. Also what do African academics believe were the main reasons behind abolition
and why did many Africans return to the continent such as to Liberia? And how were they
received by local communities?

18 Diamonds, Gold and Greed - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLL5xt2c-0I&t=5s
In this episode, Zeinab Badawi travels to South Africa and Zimbabwe and sees how southern
Africans gradually came to grasp the destruction and suffering that would be inflicted upon them
by white settlers. We find out how the original inhabitants of the Cape tried to resist white settlers
and the cruel reprisals they endured. We hear about the story of Shaka, King of the Zulus from a
descendant of his family and how he helped reshape the map of modern southern Africa as well
as the heroic battles of Shaka’s successors against those intent on seizing their riches and land:
the greed for diamonds, gold and other resources that impoverished Africans and enriched white
settlers, likes Cecil Rhodes.

19 Kongo and the Scramble for Africa - History Of Africa with Zeinab
Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=W0v_SwObQns&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index
=19
In this episode Zeinab Badawi travels to Angola, DRC and Congo in central Africa to bring the
history of the great Kongo Empire. She hears about the critical role played by women in African
history such as Queen Nzinga who battled the Portuguese for a quarter of a century in the 1600s
and a few decades later Kimpa Vita who was burned alive after her failed resistance. Why were
Africans unable to resist the tide of European control? One woman of nearly 100 relates her
memory of Belgian rule in the Congo, during what became known as the 'Scramble for Africa’.

20 Resistance and Liberation - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=tlwGz3BgUZM&list=PLajyiGz4JeyPq2lpEt2skZRhQsAspIQCp&index=
20
In the 20th episode Zeinab Badawi makes a huge and broad sweep across Africa examining the
struggle for freedom, even in the face of bloody crackdowns: a veteran Mau Mau fighter in
Kenya, a member of the resistance in Algeria’s brutal war of independence, from one African
president whose ancestor fought the French and from the grandson of the Mahdi who defeated
Britain’s General Gordon. And she talks about that heady time of independence with the families
of three of Africa’s best known independence leaders: Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Congo’s
Patrice Lumuba and Senegal’s Leopold Senghor as well as the son of the legendary Nigerian
singer Fela Kuti.

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