Back in 2010 I blogged about a fascinating BBC series called Lost Kingdoms of Africa (see here, here, here & here). I’m pleased to say that the series is now available as a DVD and as a book. This year Gus Casely-Hayford was back with four new programs packed full of fascinating history.

The first program covered Asante, a kingdom that ruled the area that is now modern Ghana. It grew wealthy on gold mines, but also on its habit of selling the victims of its wars to the Europeans as slaves. Eventually, of course, they lost their own freedom, in part as a consequence of the collapse of the slave trade after Britain banned it.

Program two looked at the Zulus, probably the most aggressively militaristic society since Sparta. Naturally that overlaps with the history of the Boers, and the eventual conquest of both by the British.

Next up were the Berbers, an African (as opposed to Arabic) people who conquered much of North-West Africa and Southern Spain during the 11th and 12th Centuries. They were certainly the equal of any European kingdom of the time.

Finally we have Bunyoro & Buganda, two rival kingdoms in what is now Uganda. That’s another history in which British imperialism played a key part. However, the program also touched on the semi-mythical civilization of Kitara whose rulers, the Bachwezi or Chwezi, are now worshiped as gods in parts of Uganda.

I’m very nervous of the whole “let’s see whose traditions we can plunder next” syndrome in fantasy fiction, but at the same time there’s a wealth of fascinating history in these two series, and I very much hope that some African writers come forward and do something with that history.

I also note that the image of 19th Century Africa that I was taught as a kid, which basically had the Africans living lives similar to those of the current native tribes in the Amazon basin, was wildly inaccurate. Zulu culture may have been more like Iron Age Europe, but Asante, Bunyoro & Buganda were more like medieval kingdoms.