Africa Audiobooks | History

The Mali Empire: A Captivating Guide to One of the Largest Empires in West African History and the L

Have you ever wondered why the Mali Empire was so wealthy and well-known? Find your answer in our guide about the Mali Empire and learn about its foundation and rise to fame under Mansa Musa. Within this audiobook, you’ll listen to the humble beginnings and hardships that befell Sundiata Keita as he founded the Mali Empire. His thrilling story leads into how the empire was structured and its early laws and customs. Eventually, though, the empire would descend into internal strife between the heirs of the first emperor. Then, just as it seemed as if the Mali Empire would crumble, a great ruler emerged, leading it to new heights. Learn about the reign of the famous Mansa Musa, who brought riches and international respect to his kingdom. The golden age of the Mali Empire brought territorial expansion as well as cultural growth. However, its glory was short-lived. Follow the tragic tale of Musa’s heirs, and discover how the empire slowly crumbled, descending from an empire into a mere memory. This decay caused the empire to gradually lose its lands and wealth, making its splendor of the golden age a distant dream. Yet, as its final days came, the last ruler of the Keita dynasty led a valiant effort to restore its former glory, which ends this story with a bang rather than a whimper. Here are some of the captivating facts you’ll learn about in this audiobook: - What trials did Sundiata Keita have to overcome to unite an empire? - Where did all that Malian gold and wealth come from? - Why is Mansa Musa so well-remembered today? Did any of the other Malian rulers even come close? - How did Islamic influences mix with local African traditions? - What caused the Mali Empire to fall, and could it have been avoided? Scroll up and click the “add to cart” button to learn more about the Mali Empire and why it matters!

Captivating History (Author), Jason Zenobia (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

In June 1631 pirates from Algiers and armed troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, led by the notorious pirate captain Morat Rais, stormed ashore at the little harbor village of Baltimore in West Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and bore them away to a life of slavery in North Africa. The prisoners were destined for a variety of fates-some would live out their days chained to the oars as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the scented seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace. The old city of Algiers, with its narrow streets, intense heat and lively trade, was a melting pot where the villagers would join slaves and freemen of many nationalities. Only two of them ever saw Ireland again. The Sack of Baltimore was the most devastating invasion ever mounted by Islamist forces on Ireland or England. Des Ekin's exhaustive research illuminates the political intrigues that ensured the captives were left to their fate, and provides a vivid insight into the kind of life that would have awaited the slaves amid the souks and seraglios of old Algiers. The Stolen Village is a fascinating tale of international piracy and culture clash nearly 400 years ago and is the first book to cover this relatively unknown and under-researched incident in Irish history.

Des Ekin (Author), Roger Clark (Narrator)

Audiobook

Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa after Apartheid

At a time when many democracies are under strain around the world, Until We Have Won Our Liberty shines new light on the signal achievements of one of the contemporary era's most closely watched transitions away from minority rule. South Africa's democratic development has been messy, fiercely contested, and sometimes violent. But as Evan Lieberman argues, it has also offered a voice to the voiceless, unprecedented levels of government accountability, and tangible improvements in quality of life. Lieberman opens with a first-hand account of the hard-fought 2019 national election, and how it played out in Mogale City. From this launching point, he examines the complexities of South Africa's multiracial society and the unprecedented democratic experiment that began with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. While acknowledging the enormous challenges many South Africans continue to face-including unemployment, inequality, and discrimination-Lieberman draws on the country's history and the experience of comparable countries to demonstrate that elected Black-led governments have, without resorting to political extremism, improved the lives of millions. Countering much of the conventional wisdom about contemporary South Africa, Until We Have Won Our Liberty offers hope for the enduring impact of democratic ideals.

Evan Lieberman (Author), Daniel Henning (Narrator)

Audiobook

Los secretos de Osiris: y otros misterios del Antiguo Egipto

Antonio Cabanas, autor de El ladrón de tumbas y El hijo del desierto, abandona con esta novela el terreno de la ficción para presentarnos una apasionante visión del Antiguo Egipto A pesar de los dos mil años transcurridos desde su desaparición, el Antiguo Egipto aún ejerce una poderosa fascinación. Antonio Cabanas abandona el terreno de la ficción para presentarnos una apasionante visión del Antiguo Egipto a partir de sus historias más difundidas y también de las más desconocidas..., y nos desvela numerosos enigmas que arrojan luz sobre la historia, la costumbres,las creencias y la tecnología de los habitantes de la Tierra Negra. «Si existe una civilización cuya sola mención sea sinónima de los más insondables misterios, ésa es, sin duda, la del Antiguo Egipto. La milenaria cultura de este pueblo se halla impregnada de infinidad de enigmas que parecen perderse entre las espesas brumasde un pasado ya lejano y especialmente distante de nosotros.» Antonio Cabanas

Antonio Cabanas (Author), Luis Ignacio González (Narrator)

Audiobook

History of West Africa: A Captivating Guide to West African History, Starting from Ancient Civilizat

If you want to discover the captivating history of West Africa, then pay attention... Beginning in prehistoric times, West Africa has always been an incredible region. Early nomadic tribes settled into some of the earliest communities on Earth and learned how to work with metal. Various West African tribes then became adept at working with metal and were some of the most skilled artisans in the world. As civilizations developed in West Africa, nomadic tribes turned into urban societies that built kingdoms. Eventually, some of the greatest leaders in the world created mighty West African empires. Men like Sundiata Keita, Muhammad I Askia, Mansa Musa I, and others were brilliant leaders who built some of the richest empires in the world. As the empires collapsed, the age of the transatlantic slave trade began. Over hundreds of years, West Africa was destabilized by slavery and colonialization. However, after World War II, a surge of independence began. This audiobook covers some of the most important events in West Africa’s history and takes you on several unmissable journeys through time. Journey through West Africa’s dynamic history and learn about the following: - What evidence exists of prehistoric West African communities? - The settlements at Dhar Tichitt and its surrounds - What made the city of Ile-Ife significant? - The tumultuous rise and fall of the great West African empires - Was Mansa Musa I the richest king in the world? - The impactful legacy of the Songhai Empire - What impact did the transatlantic slave trade have on West Africa? - The effect of European colonialization on West Africa and how the region still feels it today - The influential West African leaders who led their countries to freedom Don’t miss out on learning about the exciting history of West Africa. Get your copy today!

Captivating History (Author), Colin Fluxman (Narrator)

Audiobook

We Blacks

Frank Talk with Biko: We Blacks. A collection of publicly available writings, speeches and interviews by Steve Bantu Biko in the seminal time of the Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970s. These are collated into audio to give Biko a voice in these modern times that so desperately needs to listen to him. Biko's words are not only prophetic but also show the importance of deep socio-philosophical thought that is rooted in actual praxis to solve lived realities. Born in Tylden, Eastern Cape, in South Africa on 18 December 1946. As a medical student Biko was the first president of the South African Student Organization (SASO) which culminated into the renowned black consciousness movement. Biko was assassinated by the apartheid government on 12 September 1977 at the age of 30. Let his voice remind you of the profound mind that was lost to the world by the atrocities of racism. Listen to your imagination.

Bantu Stephen Biko (Author), Asi Liphadzi, Hangwi Liphadzi (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Tears of a Man Flow Inward: Growing Up in the Civil War in Burundi

A prizewinning young author tells the moving story of growing up during Burundi's ethnic civil war in this powerful memoir hailed as "a jewel of a book" (Margaret MacMillan). "There's nothing like a great love song, and Pacifique Irankunda sings a beautiful one here to his homeland and to all those who choose love even in the bleakest of times."-Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers and How Beautiful We Were Pacifique Irankunda's childhood in Burundi was marked by a thirteen-year civil war-a grueling struggle that destroyed his home, upended his family, and devastated his country's beautiful culture. As young boys, Paci and his brother slept in the woods on nights when the shooting and violence grew too intense; they hid in tall grass and watched as military units rolled in and leveled their village. Paci's extraordinary mother, one of the many inspiring beacons of light in this book, led her children-and others in the village-in ingenious acts of resilience through her indomitable kindness and compassion, even toward the soldiers who threatened their lives. Drawing on his own memories and those of his family, Paci tells a story of survival in a country whose rich traditions were lost to the ravages of colonialism and ethnic strife. Written in moving, lyrical prose, The Tears of a Man Flow Inward gives us an illuminating window into what it means to come of age in dark times, and an example of how, even in the midst of uncertainty, violence, and despair, light can almost always be found.

Pacifique Irankunda (Author), Pacifique Irankunda (Narrator)

Audiobook

My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route

‘The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read’ SALLY ROONEY ‘Journalism of the most urgent kind’ FINANCIAL TIMES The Western world has turned its back on refugees, fuelling one of the most devastating human rights disasters in history. In August 2018, Sally Hayden received a Facebook message. ‘Hi sister Sally, we need your help,’ it read. ‘We are under bad condition in Libya prison. If you have time, I will tell you all the story.’ More messages followed from more refugees. They told stories of enslavement and trafficking, torture and murder, tuberculosis and sexual abuse. And they revealed something else: that they were all incarcerated as a direct result of European policy. From there began a staggering investigation into the migrant crisis across North Africa. This book follows the shocking experiences of refugees seeking sanctuary, but it also surveys the bigger picture: the negligence of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations. The economics of the twenty-first-century slave trade and the EU’s bankrolling of Libyan militias. The trials of people smugglers, the frustrations of aid workers, the loopholes refugees seek out and the role of social media in crowdfunding ransoms. Who was accountable for the abuse? Where were the people finding solutions? Why wasn’t it being widely reported? At its heart, this is a book about people who have made unimaginable choices, risking everything to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear. MORE PRAISE ‘Compassionate, brave, enraging, beautifully written and incredibly well researched. Hayden exposes the truth’ OLIVER BULLOUGH ‘Blistering’ LINDSEY HILSUM ‘The most riveting, detailed and damning account’ CHRISTINA LAMB ‘One of the most important testaments of this awful time in life's history. It is both heartbreaking and stoic. I cry reading any page of it’ EDNA O’BRIEN

Sally Hayden (Author), Aoife Mcmahon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation

What do you get when dare-devil jihadists, mad English missionaries and proud, stubborn, warring natives meet in a clash? Nigeria. Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation tracks the unlikely series of events and characters that turned a collection of disparate nations into a British colony in 1914. But the story of Nigeria's formation begins much earlier, in 1804 when the jihadists launched their attack on countries along the Niger river. What unfolds is a story of conquests and slavery, betrayals and bravery, rivers and riots, victors and vanquished, all of which are central to understanding modern Black struggles. Formation runs, like the rivers Niger and Benue, through the rise and fall of empires. It explores Dan Fodio's revolutionary jihad and the spread of Islam, the fall of the Oyo Empire, the influence of the returnee freed slaves, the growing influence of Christianity, and the palm oil politics in the Niger Delta in the territory that would come to be known as Nigeria. Inextricably linked to this is the story of the ascendency of the British Empire and the Industrial Revolution. Influential figures of Nigeria's historic past, like the founder of the Sokoto caliphate, Usman Dan Fodio; Yoruba linguist Samuel Ajayi Crowther; powerful slave trader Madam Tinubu; British colonial administrator Frederick Lugard; and suffragette and mother to Fela Kuti, Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti, are re-examined, moving them from myth to reality. Fagbule and Fawehinmi challenge the orthodox understanding of Nigeria's past as merely a product of colonial interference, revealing an incredibly complicated portrait of a nation with a tangled history and self-determination

Feyi Fawehinmi, Fola Fagbule (Author), Elnathan John (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rwandan Genocide: Hutus, Tutsis, and United Nations Soldiers

I guess during the time I was struggling with middle school peers and worried about what other girls thought of my clothes, something nasty happened approximately 6,500 miles away, which is only an 8-hour flight from where I used to live. Who would have thought that even in the 90s, such atrocities would be committed? The movie Hotel Rwanda has depicted some sad displays of human cruelty, although the brutality of it has mostly been censored for the sake of wider audiences. When you read the descriptions of the Rwandan genocide, and try to imagine the scope of the death toll and methods being used to commit the war crimes, you can’t help but feel deeply saddened and disgusted by what human people are capable of. Throughout the Rwandan Civil War, between April seventh and July fifteenth, 1994, the Rwandan genocide happened. Equipped militias murdered members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, and some moderate Hutu and Twa, throughout about 100 days. According to the most regularly accepted academic estimates, between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsis passed away. The death toll (consisting of Hutu and Twa casualties) is approximated to be around 1,100,000. How did all of this happen? How did it get so far? And happened during and after this short time period, in which so many lives were claimed? Let’s find out in this comprehensive book about the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Kelly Mass (Author), Doug Greene (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary

The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship's remains. Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation's most important historical artifacts. Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship's perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda's journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown. From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continue to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic – an epic tale of one community's triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds.

Ben Raines (Author), Kevin R. Free (Narrator)

Audiobook

The New Apartheid

South Africa's story is often presented as a triumph of new over old, but while formal apartheid was abolished decades ago, stark and distressing similarities persist. Dr Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh explores the edifice of systemic racial oppression—the new apartheid—that continues to thrive, despite or even because of our democratic system.

Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh (Author), Hangwi Liphadzi (Narrator)

Audiobook

Africa Audiobooks in History