Africa

Alex Renton shares the story of his own family’s involvement in the slave trade, and considers how best to deal with this unwanted inheritance. (Image from Getty Images)

The slave trade: a family history

Photo of a crocodile

Q&A Why do we say 'crocodile tears'?

Bronwen Everill discusses the Benin Bronzes

The battle over the Benin Bronzes

Raphael Cormack discusses the golden age of Cairo’s nightlife scene in the 1920s, and some of the enterprising women who dominated it. (Image by Getty Images)

The glamour & danger of Cairo’s 1920s nightlife scene

Benin Bronzes at the British Museum In London

What are the Benin Bronzes and why are they important? Explore the significance of the controversial treasures

circa 1942: Men of the 7th British Armoured Division, known as the Desert Rats, sitting on a field gun before the fall of Tobruk in the North African Campaign. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

Tobruk: 8 facts about the WW2 confrontation in North Africa

From Roman emperors and medieval saints to enslaved people, Olivette Otele charts the long history of Africans in Europe

African Europeans

Bust of Germanicus, Roman General

In the footsteps of Germanicus – a Roman General’s journey to Egypt

Apartheid road sign

Your guide to apartheid in South Africa

A bust of Queen Nefertiti of Ancient Egypt. (Photo by Oliver Lang/AFP/Getty Images)

Your guide to Egypt’s sun queen Nefertiti

Verena Krebs reveals what diplomatic missions sent by the Christian leaders of Ethiopia can tell us about the kingdom’s place in the medieval world

Medieval Ethiopia’s diplomatic missions

Explorer Ferdinand Magellan

Dire straits: the story of Ferdinand Magellan’s fatal voyage of discovery

Cleopatra bust. (Photo by Getty Images)

Cleopatra: unpicking myth from reality

Police lead away a suffragettes, arrested for chaining herself to the railings of Buckingham Palace

Female activism: 10 remarkable protests from around the world

100 women who changed the world

Women’s history podcasts: 18 HistoryExtra episodes not to miss