Skip to content

The Generalist Academy

Learn widely

  • About
  • Explore
  • Connect
  • Contact

Category: Africa

By The Generalist Posted on June 30, 2022January 25, 2023

Art before art

Humans have been making figurative art for at least forty thousand years – but we may have been carrying “found” art around for much longer.

Categories: Africa, Art, Prehistory
By The Generalist Posted on February 4, 2022February 3, 2022

Mythical Indian Ocean continent

Before we knew about plate tectonics, a zoologist proposed a lost continent connecting Madagascar and India across the Indian Ocean. That hypothesis, now debunked, was nevertheless picked up by Theosophists and Tamil revivalists.

Categories: 19th century history, Africa, Ancient history, Earth science, Literature, Religion & belief, South Asia
By The Generalist Posted on January 4, 2022January 25, 2023

Arrow stork

In 1822 a white stork landed in Klütz, then a town of the German Confederation, and finally unlocked the secret of where the birds go in winter.

Categories: 19th century history, Africa, Animals, Europe
By The Generalist Posted on October 21, 2021October 20, 2021

The dead marsh

A stand of trees dead for six hundred years stick out of the Namib Desert in the claypan called the Deadvlei.

Categories: Africa, Earth science
By The Generalist Posted on October 18, 2021January 25, 2023

Honorary whites

In apartheid-era South Africa, the government sometimes designated specific people or whole ethnic groups as “honorary whites.” But not everyone accepted it.

Categories: 20th century history, Africa, Games & sport, North & Central America, Oceania, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on October 6, 2021October 3, 2021

The last smallpox survivor

In October 1977, Ali Maow Maalin was the last person to contract naturally occurring smallpox. He died thirty six years later while coordinating a polio vaccination drive.

Categories: 20th century history, Africa, Health & medicine
By The Generalist Posted on July 28, 2021January 25, 2023

Boycotting New Zealand

In 1976 most African countries boycotted the Olympics because the games would not ban New Zealand.

Categories: 20th century history, Africa, Games & sport, North & Central America, Oceania, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on July 26, 2021July 24, 2021

Nobody’s land

Bir Tawil is a wedge of land between Egypt and Sudan. Neither wants to claim Bir Tawil: it is one of the only unclaimed territories in the world.

Categories: 19th century history, 20th century history, Africa, Europe, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on July 16, 2021July 14, 2021

Death of the pyramid

The pyramid of Amanishakheto stood for nearly two thousand years, until an Italian looter blew it up.

Categories: Africa, Ancient history, Architecture
By The Generalist Posted on June 8, 2021June 7, 2021

Mercenary despot of the Comoros

The French mercenary Bob Denard overthrew the government of the Comoros four times: in 1975, 1978, 1989, and 1995.

Categories: 20th century history, Africa, Europe, Military, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on May 20, 2021May 19, 2021

Longest note

In 2017 Nigerian musician Femi Kuti set the world record for longest sustained saxophone note: fifty-one minutes and thirty-five seconds.

Categories: 21st century history, Africa, Music
By The Generalist Posted on April 15, 2021January 25, 2023

Grace from slavery

John Newton was a press-ganged sailor, a slave, a slave-ship captain, an Anglican priest, an abolitionist, and the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

Categories: Africa, Arts & recreation, Early modern history, Europe, History, Music, Places, Religion & belief
By The Generalist Posted on March 3, 2021January 25, 2023

Horror frog

The Central African hairy frog can break its own bones and stick them through its skin as impromptu claws.

Categories: Africa, Animals, Places, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on February 12, 2021February 11, 2021

Prehistoric mathematics

The Ishango bone, found in what is today part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and dating back 20,000 years, may contain some of the earliest evidence of mathematical thought.

Categories: Africa, History, Mathematics & statistics, Places, Prehistory, Sciences
By The Generalist Posted on January 29, 2021January 25, 2023

Akan goldweights

From the 15th to the 19th century CE, the Akan used sets of ornate statues as a measurement system for weighing gold dust, but also encoding and reinforcing cultural knowledge at the same time.

Categories: Africa, Art, Arts & recreation, Early modern history, Economics & business, History, Places, Sciences, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on January 26, 2021January 25, 2023

The mistakes of historians

In 1377 the Tunisian Arab historian Ibn Khaldun listed seven mistakes made by contemporary scholars, and then he made the same mistakes.

Categories: Africa, Education & philosophy, History, Medieval history, Places

Posts navigation

Older posts

Newsletter

Follow

Facebook
RSS feed

Categories

  • Arts & recreation
    • Architecture
    • Art
    • Fashion & design
    • Film & television
    • Literature
    • Music
    • Theatre
  • History
    • 19th century history
    • 20th century history
    • 21st century history
    • Ancient history
    • Early modern history
    • Medieval history
    • Prehistory
  • Places
    • Africa
    • East Asia
    • Europe
    • Middle East
    • North & Central America
    • North & Central Asia
    • Oceania
    • South America
    • South Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • The oceans
    • The poles
  • Sciences
    • Animals
    • Astronomy
    • Computer science
    • Earth science
    • Food & agriculture
    • Health & medicine
    • Mathematics & statistics
    • Physics & chemistry
    • Plants
    • Technology
    • Weights & measures
  • Society
    • Economics & business
    • Education & philosophy
    • Games & sport
    • Language
    • Military
    • Politics & law
    • Religion & belief
  • Updates
  • Website
    • Featured category
    • From the archives

Archives

  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
Create a website or blog at WordPress.com
Scroll Up
  • Follow Following
    • The Generalist Academy
    • Join 348 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Generalist Academy
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...