Posted on 09 January 2010. Tags: Africa, African Queens, Amina, Hausa, Nikatau, Queen Bakwa, Zazzua, nigeria

This queen of Zazzua, a province of Nigeria now known as Zaria, was born around 1533 during the reign of Sarkin (king) Zazzau Nohir. She was probably his granddaughter. Zazzua was one of a number of Hausa city-states which dominated the trans-Saharan trade after the collapse of the Songhai empire to the west. Zaria's wealth ...
Posted in Africa, Education, Military, War, Women
Posted on 16 October 2009. Tags: Abolition, Colonies, Essaka, Granville Sharpe, Gustavus Vassa, Sierra Leone, equiano, nigeria

Olaudah Equiano, later to be known as (Gustavus Vassa) was born in what is today, Nigeria. Kidnapped from his African village at the age of eleven, and sold to a Virginia planter.
He was later bought by a British naval Officer, Captain Pascal, as a present for his cousins in London.
Equiano bought his freedom after ten ...
Posted in Africa, Black Britain, Black History, Black History Month, Blackpresence Supports, Caribbean, Education, Europe, Men, Military, Slavery, The Americas
Posted on 29 April 2009. Tags: Adoption, Black, Blacks, British, Colonies, Death, England, Environment, Events, Literature, Markets, Nationalism, Racism, Tradition, Women, actors, comedy, nigeria, writers

Is death the start of the human journey or its end? Is mortality a transition from one sphere of our existence to another - the recurring cycle of life, death and rebirth? From Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka’s versatile prose emerges a mournful piece of theatre, which isn’t in fear of difficult themes of life ...
Posted in Arts, Black Britain, Black Writing, Blackpresence Supports, Community, Entertainment, Events
Posted on 13 March 2009. Tags: Black, Black British, History, London, Westminster Abbey, children, equiano, nigeria, nigerian, plaques

About 300 people attended Monday night's dedication in St, Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, of a memorial plaque to Olaudah Equiano (c.1745-97), the leading black abolitionist. Equiano had been baptised at the Church in February 1759.
While people waited for the start of the service the Church organist played the 'Trumpet Voluntary' by John Stanley (1712-86) and ...
Posted in Africa, Black Blog Posts, Black Britain, Books, Caribbean, Community, Education, Europe, Events, Slavery, The Americas
Posted on 10 March 2009. Tags: Africa, Britain, Economy, Europe, Illegal, News, Trade, e-waste, environmental, nigeria, toxic, waste

Tonnes of toxic waste collected from British municipal dumps is being sent illegally to Africa in flagrant breach of this country’s obligation to ensure its rapidly growing mountain of defunct televisions, computers and gadgets are disposed of safely.
Hundreds of thousands of discarded items, which under British law must be dismantled or recycled by specialist contractors, ...
Posted in Africa