The African Times has Africa as its primary “press beat” - we report on Africa's developments and those events and histories that other media in North America at times bypass.  We deem it a responsibility to our non-African readers, as well as our readers in the African Diaspora and Africa to report, inform and at times uncover items that are important in understanding Africa and her people. 

 

Our pages, and now our websites, carry information , analysis, opinions and updates to enrich and expand the knowledge base about Africa and as a famous U.S. broadcaster, Walter Cronkite  used to declare: “...events that alter and illuminate our times”.

 

If you would ask us “Tell me  something about Africa” our editors most likely

would say the following:

 

“Africa is large, three times the size of the Continental United States.  Total area is 11,668,598 square miles with a coastline of 16,100 miles.  From the Americas Africa is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, for the Europeans she is on the south side of the Mediterranean, and most of the Middle East is across the Red Sea and Asia and Australia is across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

 

“The equator cuts Africa almost in half, North and South and because of that she has multitude of climates from the Sahara Desert to the snows of Kilimanjaro and rain forests to add to the mix.

 

“Africa is the oldest of the seven continents and if you noticed we refer to Africa in the feminine gender.  Most people refer to Africa as  “Mother Africa” and rightly so, almost 99.99 DNA in everyone on Earth has the original from the people of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa—wherever and whoever we are, we can all trace our “people“ roots to Africa.

 

“Africa, since the 3 million years ago has gone  through great amount of history, however much of it is being  “discovered” only now and much of what has been written in the past is bogus.

 

“There are many misconceptions about Africa.  For instance more and more evidence has been uncovered, at first suggesting and now more and more accepted that King Abubakari II of Mali in 1311 authorized a flotilla of one thousand pirogues (large canoes) across the “big river” we now call the Atlantic and more evidence is showing up that many of these Royal Mariners made it to the  islands of the Caribbean, with descendents thought to be Garifuna, today settled in Belize and Honduras.

 

“Our Travel Editor did a research trip to Belize and her article “Belize and the Garifunas” was published in the June 01-15, 1998 issue of The African Times, and has been referred to in several doctoral thesis.

 

“Another typical misconception is that the Portuguese were the “first to discover” Africa, FALSE.  The Chinese came there in 1415, almost 50 years earlier and it seems almost circumvented the Continent.  However one thing the Chinese did not do is establish settlements and forts, as the Portuguese have done for the single purpose of exploiting the Continent.

 

“In 1884-85 at the Berlin Conference, Africa was divided up between the “leading “ nations of Europe; England, France and Germany, each one taking what they thought was the most economically beneficial to their own development.  The one who ultimately got the “lions’ share” was Belgium’s King Leopold II, who received an area that today is DRC.  His was a ruthless exploitation of Africa's resources that set a cruel government system in place.  Till today there are reminders of his cruelty—ask someone who knows why in Brussels  you can buy chocolates in the shape of hands; you’ll be astonished and never eat another one ever again!

 

AFRICA “Our Press Beat”

Africa, as known in 1595

Africa in 1808

Colonial possessions as of 1914

“Another interesting historical point is the universally renown hymn “Amazing Grace” - the author,  Captain John Newton kept hearing the slaves his men captured for transport to England sing the lilting melody that today is the “Amazing Grace”.  This took place in Calabar, now a modern city with a two thousand year history, in the Cross River State on the boarder of Nigeria and Cameroon.

 

“There is more; it is worth to look beyond the “history” that is in general distribution  as authored by English and French writers, with much of it going back to Queen Victoria’s time and find the TRUE and fascinating facts about Africa—an extraordinary Continent.  An excellent resource on the Internet is at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa. and the September 2005 “Africa” special issue of the National Geographic. Another valuable resource is “The History Atlas of Africa” by Samuel Kasule, published by Macmillan in 1998.

 

“Today Africa is in a flux.  Most of today’s nations came into being during the independence period of the 1960s and 1970s.  Today 53 of them are members of the African Union (AU) and moving closer to a more unified whole, similar to what the European Union (EU) is becoming—with a Continental Parliament and possibly an overall Presidency, i.e. President of Europe.

 

“Africa is becoming a modern Continent, with close to 1 billion population, rapidly developing middle-class, and ample natural resources the world needs for the next phase of the global economic and industrial growth.  This makes Africa investments have a much better ROI, something to look into for business and investments.

 

The Africa, Inc. pages of  The African Times bring you the business and financial updates and happenings, together with the listings of the Africa’s stock exchanges.  And at times these make better reading than the news from Wall Street.”

 

 

Ex Africa simper aliquid novi.

“There is always something new from Africa.”

Pliny A.D. 23-79

 

53

nations of the African Union

 

Algeria

Angola

Benin

Botswana

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cameroon

Cape Verde

Central African Republic

Chad

Comoros

Congo-DRC

Republic of Congo

Cote d’Ivoire

Djibouti

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eretria

Ethiopia

Gabon

The Gambia

Ghana

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Kenya

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Madagascar

Malawi

Mali

Mauritania

Mauritius

Mozambique

Namibia

Niger

Nigeria

Rwanda

Sahrawi

Sao Tome & Principe

Senegal

Seychelles

Sierra Leon

Somalia

South Africa

Sudan

Swaziland

Tanzania

Togo

Tunisia

Uganda

Zambia

Zimbabwe