Little Somethings: The Lost Kingdoms of Africa

(With this entry I begin an occasional piece where I share a little something that I find fascinating that I want to share with you. As part of my website realignment, I intend to share more of what stimulates or interests me in an effort to be both more transparent and also more complex, hopefully!)

I started watching this BBC series yesterday via Netflix. I have to say it is quite good. Gus Casely-Hayford is exuberant without making claims he can’t back up.

Plus I get to see fantastic ruins in places like Sudan and Ethiopia. The fact that Axum, Ethiopia was considered on a par with cities in ancient Greek, and that the kingdom minted its own coins, but I’ve only learned of it today, tells me how very little I know about the histories of the peoples and kingdoms of the continent of Africa.

I take that back. I know about African empires but the empires I know about are ones from the west. It’s like my history of Africa is this: European colonization/slave trade/Idi Amin/South Africa. Oh and Lt. Uhura spoke Swahili.

This series of four one hour shows is quite an antidote to that narrow education. I highly recommend it.

What documentaries/specials can you recommend that have changed your worldview on a particular topic?