VIDEOS OF MUAMMAR GADDAFI Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi (1942 – 20 October 2011), commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the “Brother Leader” of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but later ruled according to his own Third International Theory. Born near Sirte, Italian Libya, to a poor Bedouin family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha,…
Author: Msomi Bora
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VIDEOS OF HAILE SELASSIE Haile Selassie I (born Lij Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975) was an Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. Prior his coronation in 1930, he had been Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia from 1916. He is a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history. He was a member of the Solomonic dynasty who traced his lineage to Emperor Menelik I. Selassie’s internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations. At the League of Nations in 1936, he condemned Italy’s use of chemical weapons against its people during the Second…
VIDEOS OF EDUARDO MONDLANE Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane (20 June 1920 – 3 February 1969) served as the founding President of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969. He was an anthropologist by profession but worked as a history and sociology professor at Syracuse University. In 1969, a bomb was planted in a book sent to him at the FRELIMO Headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It exploded when he opened the package in the house of an American friend, Betty King, killing him. The assassination remains unsolved. Theories…
VIDEO OF MOBUTU SESE SEKO Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the President of Zaire (renamed from the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) and later to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1971) from 1965 to 1997. He also served as Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity from 1967 to 1968. During the Congo Crisis, Mobutu, serving as Chief of Staff of the Army and supported by Belgium and the United States, deposed the democratically elected government…
VIDEOS OF SAMORA MACHEL Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambican military commander, politician and revolutionary. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country’s independence in 1975. Machel died in office in 1986 when his presidential aircraft crashed near the Mozambique-South Africa border. It was believed by many that the South African government was somehow responsible for the crash, although it strongly denied a connection. Machel’s widow, Graça, who married South African President Nelson Mandela in 1998, gave evidence to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that supported the involvement of the minority South African government. A memorial…
VIDEOS OF KWAME NKRUMAH Kwame Nkrumah was born on 21 September 1909 in Nkroful, Gold Coast (now in Ghana) to a poor and illiterate family. Nkroful was a small village in the Nzema area, in the far southwest of the Gold Coast, close to the frontier with the French colony of the Ivory Coast. His father did not live with the family, but worked in Half Assini where he pursued his goldsmith business until his death. Kwame Nkrumah was raised by his mother and his extended family, who lived together in traditional fashion, with more distant relatives often visiting. He…
VIDEOS OF PATRICE LUMUMBA Patrice Émery Lumumba alternatively styled Patrice Hemery Lumumba; (2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) from June until September 1960. He played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and Pan-Africanist, he led the Congolese National Movement (MNC) party from 1958 until his assassination. Shortly after Congolese independence in 1960, a mutiny broke out…
VIDEO OF TIPPU TIP Tippu Tip, or Tippu Tib (1832 – June 14, 1905), real name Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi was an Arab–Zanzibari slave trader, ivory trader, explorer, plantation owner and governor. He worked for a succession of the sultans of Zanzibar. Tippu Tip traded in slaves for Zanzibar’s clove plantations. As part of the large and lucrative ivory trade, he led many trading expeditions into Central Africa, constructing profitable trading posts deep into the region. He bought the ivory from local suppliers and resold it for a profit at coastal ports. Throughout his lifetime Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi was more commonly known…
VIDEOS OF THOMAS SANKARA Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara (21 December 1949 – 15 October 1987) was a Burkinabé revolutionary and President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. A Marxist–Leninist and pan-Africanist, he was viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution and is sometimes referred to as “Africa’s Che Guevara” A group of revolutionaries seized power on behalf of Sankara (who was under house arrest at the time) in a popularly-supported coup in 1983. Aged 33, Sankara became the President of the Republic of Upper Volta. He immediately launched programmes for social, ecological and economic change…
VIDEOS OF ABEID KARUME Abeid Amani Karume (4 August 1905 – 7 April 1972) was the first President of Zanzibar. He obtained this title as a result of a revolution which led to the deposing of His Majesty Sir Jamshid bin Abdullah, the last reigning Sultan of Zanzibar, in January 1964. Three months later, the United Republic of Tanzania was founded, and Karume became the first Vice President of the United Republic with Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika as president of the new country. He was the father of Zanzibar’s former president, Amani Abeid Karume. On 10 December 1963, the United…