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Emperor Negus Menelik II of Ethiopia at Battle of Adwa 1896 Ethiopia (Photo by Chris Hellier/Corbis via Getty Images)

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How Ethiopia Beat Back Colonizers in the Battle of Adwa

In 1896, Ethiopia fended off an invading Italian army and secured its independence..

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Suez Canal

Where Is the Suez Canal? The Suez Canal stretches 120 miles from Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt southward to the city of Suez (located on the northern shores of the Gulf of Suez). The canal separates the bulk of Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula. It took 10 years to build, and was […]

Saladin

Saladin is the Western name of Salah al‑Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, the Muslim sultan of Egypt and Syria who famously defeated a massive army of Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin and captured the city of Jerusalem in 1187. At the height of his power, he ruled a unified Muslim region stretching from Egypt to […]

Apartheid

Apartheid in South Africa Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South African policy long before apartheid began. The controversial 1913 Land Act, passed three years after South Africa gained its independence, marked the beginning of territorial segregation by forcing Black Africans to live in reserves and making it illegal for them […]

Idi Amin

Idi Amin: Early Life and Military Career Idi Amin Dada was born c. 1925 in Koboko, in northwestern Uganda, to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother, who separated shortly afterwards. In 1946, after receiving only a rudimentary education, Amin joined the King’s African Rifles (KAR), a regiment of the British colonial army, and quickly rose […]

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Black Gold

The team joins forces with a rag‑tag group of park rangers who are trying to stop the destruction of Congo’s most critical national forest. Rebel crime units are cutting down the forest to manufacture charcoal and killing anyone who gets in their way. The park is the last holdout for rare mountain gorillas: and it’s […]

Gorilla War

Poachers are killing the rare Gorillas of Congo, and they are paying Rwanda’s genocidal maniacs to protect them while they practice their deadly trade. For the park rangers protecting the Gorillas, it’s all out war and they are heavily outnumbered. The team brings in special communications equipment that allows the rangers to track the Gorilla […]

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Idi Amin

Ugandan president Idi Amin Dada was a violent dictator whose regime was responsible for some of the worst atrocities in his country’s history. Find out more about his brutal reign in this video.

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Nelson Mandela and the End of Apartheid

After 27 years in prison Nelson Mandela was freed in 1990 and negotiated the end of apartheid in South Africa bringing peace to a racially divided country and leading the fight for human rights around the world.

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