August 5: Nelson Mandela Arrested

Nelson Mandela was arrested on August 5, 1962. This arrest set in motion a chain of events that made Nelson Mandela a household name around the world.

How the African Diamond Trade Works

Africa produces around 60 percent of the world's diamonds, but a few of those are mined illegally, with the profits going to fund terror and violence. How can it be stopped?

How the Nile River Works

It flows south to north and it helped build Ancient Egypt. How does the mighty Nile affect the people and animals that live nearby?

History of Africa

Fossil evidence indicates that the earliest forms of humans and humanlike creatures originated in Africa.

Abd el-Krim

Abd-el-Krim,(1880?-1963), a Moorish chieftain, leader of the Riff tribes in Morocco.

African Slave Trade

African Slave Trade, the gathering, transport, and sale of blacks from tropical Africa to other lands.

Ahmed ibn-Muhammed Raisuli

Raisuli, Ahmed ibn-Muhammed (1875?-1925), a Moroccan brigand. As chief of a band in the mountains of Morocco he warred against the country's ineffective government.

Apartheid

Apartheid, a South African policy of racial separation. The word is Afrikaans for "apartness," and it originated in the 1930's to describe the racial policies of the National Party, which was predominantly supported by Afrikaners (Boers).

Arianism

Arianism, the doctrine taught by Arius (?–336?), a priest of Alexandria, Egypt.

Barbary

Barbary, a name given to the northern coastal area of Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean.

Battle of the Nile

Nile, Battle of the, August 1, 1798, a naval battle between British and French fleets during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Boer War

Boer War, or South African War (1899–1902), a war between Great Britain and the two Boer republics of Africa, the South African Republic (the Transvaal) and the Orange Free State.

Boers

Boers, or Afrikaners, South Africans descended predominantly from the early Dutch colonists.

Corsairs

Corsairs, privateers of the Barbary Coast of North Africa. They were Muslims licensed by their governments to prey on Christian shipping.

Dido

Dido, or Elissa, the traditional founder and first queen of Carthage. She was the sister of Pygmalion, king of Tyre.