Category: History
Explore the Daily Alphas archive of overlooked people, resistance, achievement and hidden history.
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LOKHAY: THE WOMAN WHO ESCAPED SLAVERY TWICE
Discover Lohkay, also called Lokhay, in Sint Maarten’s oral history: escape from slavery, survival in the hills and the limits of archival…
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SAM SHARPE: THE ENSLAVED PREACHER WHO HELPED BRING DOWN JAMAICAN SLAVERY
Samuel Sharpe organized Jamaica’s 1831 Christmas strike. Its escalation into the Baptist War helped increase pressure for British emancipation.
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KWAKU: THE ENSLAVED AFRICAN WHO WROTE HIMSELF TO FREEDOM
In 1740, an enslaved African man in Suriname did something extraordinary. He picked up a pen and wrote to the people who…
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CUFFY: THE ENSLAVED AFRICAN WHO NEARLY TOOK A COLONY
In 1763, an enslaved African named Cuffy helped lead one of the largest slave rebellions in the Americas. In Dutch-controlled Berbice, thousands…
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QUEEN NANNY: THE WOMAN THE BRITISH COULD NOT DEFEAT
By Jamahl Hokstam In the mountains of Jamaica, there was once a woman who built a community the British Empire could not…
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The Legend Of Shaka Zulu
History has a habit of simplifying powerful people—especially when they didn’t fit neatly into European narratives. Shaka Zulu is often remembered as…
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The Black Knight of Europe: Saint Maurice
By Jamahl Hokstam History has a habit of leaving out details that don’t fit the story it wants to tell. Saint Maurice…
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Toussaint Louverture: The Liberator of the Caribbean Islands
Toussaint Louverture was a towering figure of the late 18th and early 19th centuries—a Haitian revolutionary, military strategist, and statesman whose leadership…
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Samora Machel: The First President of Mozambique
By Jamahl Hokstam Who was Samora Machel? Samora Moisés Machel stands as one of Africa’s most influential post-colonial leaders. As the first…