Out of Africa

Right now I’m really interested in the history and culture of Liberia, since I’ve worked on some articles and am hoping to do some other work about Rainbow Town and the Shine Foundation in the future. While doing some random reading/research, I fell across this piece published in the New York Times Magazine. It’s an excerpt from journalist Helene Cooper’s book “The House at Sugar Hill,” which comes out in September.

The piece is compelling, and I’m eager to read the book in its entirety when it comes out. While it’s a memoir, it offers historical information about Liberians – both natives and descendants from former American slaves. I learned so much from the little printed in the NYT magazine.

 It also tells a personal story of choosing to return home after being absent for so long. Regardless of where she lived, Africa remained a part of Helene Cooper and “The House at Sugar Hill” recounts how she found it again.  

I found this picture on African Echo’s website, and thought it was a little seen break-up of how Africa was divided up by its European colonizers.

It’s kind of cool because I always say Britain as the primary imperialistic country; trying to rule and own the whole world and make it it’s own. Britain is known for its imperialistic history … and for not being the best of colonial masters (granted King Leopold was the worst Africa ever saw).

This picture shows France was also a primary colonizer in Africa, and it also shows lesser known colonial masters like Italy, Belgium (re: King Leopold), Germany, Portugal and Spain. It also show Ethiopia as Independent — the only country not to be colonized (another fact, I think little people know about Africa).  

So here’s a mini-history lesson on Africa: