The Berlin Conference: How Africa Was Partitioned — Fexingo History

In the aftermath of the Berlin Conference, the partition of Africa was anything but a clean, orderly process on the ground. This episode of The Berlin Conference series zooms in on a specific flashpoint: the Cameroon Grassfields, a densely populated, politically sophisticated highland region in what is now Cameroon. Here, the German protectorate of Kamerun collided with the powerful kingdom of Bam...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the remarkable resistance of Almamy Samori Touré against French colonial expansion in West Africa during the late 19th century. Samori, a brilliant military strategist and empire-builder, founded the Wassoulou Empire in the 1870s, uniting Mandinka peoples and modernizing his army with firearms and tactics. His confrontation with the French, who were pressing...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna revisit the Bombali Bombali incident, focusing on the aftermath and the broader significance of Almamy Sullimani's resistance. They explore how his defiance in the Bombali Bombali plain in 1889 challenged European notions of 'effective occupation' and influenced border negotiations between Britain and France in the Limba country and the wider Sierra Leone hinterland...

In this episode, we revisit the Bombali Bombali incident—a pivotal moment in the partition of West Africa that exposes the fiction of ‘effective occupation.’ We follow Almamy Sullimani, a Limba ruler who defied French and British claims to his land between Sierra Leone and Guinea. By mobilizing his people and leveraging the ambiguous borders drawn at Berlin, Sullimani forced European powers to neg...

This episode explores how the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 carved up West Africa on paper long before European boots touched the ground. Focusing on the Anglo-French rivalry along the Gold Coast and the Niger River, Lucas and Luna examine the treaties, boundary commissions, and diplomatic maneuvers that created artificial borders like the Franco-British Convention of 1889. They discuss the role of...

In the aftermath of the Berlin Conference, European powers rushed to claim African territory through 'effective occupation.' But one man, Almamy Sullimani of the Limba people in what is now Sierra Leone, challenged this system head-on. In 1890, he wrote a letter to the German and British authorities, asserting his sovereignty over the Bombali Bombali region and refusing to recognize any European c...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Bombali Bombali Incident, a little-known but revealing confrontation at the border of Sierra Leone and French Guinea (now Guinea) in the 1890s. They focus on Almamy Sullimani, a Limba ruler who refused to accept the artificial boundaries drawn at the Berlin Conference. Sullimani's armed resistance against British and French colonial forces, his use of di...

In 1905, a mystical water ritual ignited the largest rebellion against German colonial rule in East Africa. The Maji Maji uprising swept across what is now Tanzania, uniting over a dozen ethnic groups from the Matumbi Hills to the banks of the Rufiji River. This episode follows the rebellion from its spark with the prophet Kinjeketile Ngwale, who promised his followers that magic water—'maji'—woul...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the Bombali Bombali incident, a lesser-known but revealing moment in the partition of West Africa. They delve into the conflict between the Limba chiefdom of Bombali Bombali and the British colonial authorities in Sierra Leone, around 1889. The discussion covers the Limba resistance led by Almamy Sullimani, the British strategy of 'effective occupation', and...

In 1906, a crisis in Morocco brought Europe to the brink of war, testing the very principles set by the Berlin Conference twenty years earlier. Lucas and Luna explore the First Moroccan Crisis and the Algeciras Conference, where Germany and France clashed over influence in North Africa. They discuss Sultan Abdelaziz, the Kaiser's provocative visit to Tangier, the role of Britain and the Entente Co...

In this episode of The Berlin Conference: How Africa Was Partitioned, we delve into the fascinating story of the Bombali Bombali incident—a forgotten border dispute that almost sparked a war between Britain and France in West Africa. Set in the early 1890s, the episode follows the enigmatic figure of Bombali Bombali, a local leader in the Limba country who played the European powers against each o...

Episode 15 of The Berlin Conference series zooms in on the Swahili Coast, a region that was not officially partitioned at Berlin but was profoundly reshaped by its aftermath. Hosts Lucas and Luna explore how Zanzibar lost its mainland holdings to Germany and Britain, the decline of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and the imposition of colonial borders that split the Swahili people between German East A...

In 1889, a minor skirmish in the Sierra Leone hinterland nearly reshaped West Africa's borders. This episode explores the Bombali Bombali incident: a clash between the British-allied Limba chief Almamy Sullimani and French forces advancing from Guinea. We examine how the Berlin Conference's 'effective occupation' doctrine played out in the remote Bombali region, the role of the Limba people in res...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the Mfecane—the violent upheaval and state-building period in early 19th-century southern Africa—intersected with the later Berlin Conference and European colonization. They trace the rise of Shaka Zulu and the Zulu Kingdom, the expansion of the Mthethwa and Ndwandwe, and the ripple effects that created refugees like the Kololo and the Ndebele. The conve...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the Berlin Conference's principles of effective occupation and artificial borders continued to shape the Middle East after World War I — focusing on the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement and its aftermath. They discuss how European diplomats, like Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, drew lines across the Ottoman Empire that ignored ethnic and sectarian r...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 carved up the Sahara Desert, drawing lines through one of the most inhospitable and sparsely populated regions on Earth. They examine the role of the Central Sudan, the Tuareg confederations, and the Sanusiyya Sufi order, and how the arbitrary borders created by European powers — such as the boundary between French Alge...

This episode explores the little-known story of the Mahafaly people of southwestern Madagascar and how the Berlin Conference's partition of Africa nearly swallowed them whole. We follow the machinations of French colonial ambitions, the role of Queen Ranavalona III's resistance, and the peculiar legal status of Madagascar as a protectorate that never quite became a colony. Lucas and Luna discuss t...

When the Berlin Conference sliced up Africa, one tiny territory on the Swahili coast fell into German hands almost by accident: Wituland, a 1,300-square-kilometer protectorate that lasted just 33 years. This episode traces the unlikely story of how a group of exiled Zanzibari aristocrats, led by the crafty Sultan Ahmad ibn Fumo Bakari, carved out their own mini-state in the Witu region of present-...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the legal and diplomatic legacy of the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. They discuss how the General Act established the principle of 'effective occupation', which European powers used to justify colonial claims, and how this legal framework was manipulated by figures like King Leopold II. The conversation covers the origins of international humanitarian law...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna continue their exploration of the Berlin Conference's aftermath, focusing on the Congo Free State under King Leopold II. They discuss the brutal rubber regime, the Force Publique's atrocities, and the international outcry led by figures like E.D. Morel and Roger Casement. The episode covers the system of quotas, hostage-taking, and mutilation that characterized Leop...

In this episode of The Berlin Conference series, Lucas and Luna explore the life and legacy of Tippu Tip, a Zanzibari trader who built a vast commercial empire in the eastern Congo during the 1870s and 1880s. Operating from his base in Kasongo, Tippu Tip controlled ivory and slave caravans between the Great Lakes and the Indian Ocean coast. He collaborated with European explorers like Henry Morton...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna delve into the brutal reality of King Leopold II's Congo Free State, a direct outcome of the Berlin Conference. They explore how the demand for rubber fueled a system of forced labor, mutilation, and murder that killed millions. Lucas recounts the role of the Force Publique, the infamous 'chicotte' whip, and the testimony of witnesses like Roger Casement and E.D. Mo...

In this episode of The Berlin Conference, Lucas and Luna delve into the brutal colonial war waged by Imperial Germany against the Herero and Nama peoples in German South-West Africa (modern-day Namibia). Drawing on earlier discussions of the conference's legacy, they explore the roots of the conflict, the devastating Battle of Waterberg, General Lothar von Trotha's infamous extermination order, an...

In Episode 3 of our Berlin Conference series, we move beyond the European negotiating table to explore the African resistance that followed. Hosts Lucas and Luna dive into the stories of figures like Menelik II of Ethiopia, who famously defeated Italian forces at Adwa in 1896 using artillery and strategy. We discuss the Maji Maji Rebellion in German East Africa, where the Kinjeketile Ngwale led a...

In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna move beyond the map-drawing of the Berlin Conference to explore what the partition actually meant for the people of Africa. Instead of focusing on borders, they turn to the Berlin Conference's General Act of 1885—its clauses on free trade, navigation, and most importantly, the principle of 'effective occupation.' How did European powers justify th...