Curated playlist
Countries in East Africa
- TanzaniaTanzania's name was invented in a newspaper contest. Mohammed Iqbal Dar won by blending Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
- DjiboutiDjibouti, a tiny African country, has the United States, France, Japan and China all paying to keep soldiers there.
- MauritiusMauritius had no people at all until sailors, thought to be Arab, reached it around 975.
- KenyaKenya took its name from a mountain, not from its people.
- RéunionRéunion holds the world records for the heaviest rainfall over periods of 12, 24, 72 and 96 hours, including 1.8 metres in 24 hours. This small island in the Indian Ocean lies about 679 km east of Madagascar and 175 km southwest of…
- EritreaEritrea takes its name from a Greek word for red. Ancient Greek speakers called the Red Sea the Erythraean Sea, and the country at its southern end borrowed that old label. Italian colonial officials made the name official in 1890, when…
- SudanNubians in Sudan beat back Arab invaders in 641 and again in 652. They were one of the few peoples to defeat the Arabs.
- MadagascarMadagascar appears on a map drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154 under the name Gesira Malai, Arabic for Malay island. That is a strange label for a place off the southeastern coast of Africa. Today the Republic of Madagascar is the world's…
- EthiopiaEthiopia stayed independent while most of Africa fell to European rule. Its army beat Italy at Adwa in 1896.
- MozambiqueIn 1995, Mozambique joined the Commonwealth of Nations. At the time, it was the only member that had never been part of the British Empire. Its traffic even keeps to the left, like that of its Commonwealth neighbours, although no British…
- RwandaThe name Rwanda comes from Ku-aanda, a word meaning "expansion" or "spreading out from the centre". Today the country feels anything but spread out. About 14 million people share 26338 square kilometres, which makes Rwanda the 21st most…
- UgandaUganda has the lowest median age of any country in the world, just 15 years. Its population grew from 9.5 million people in 1969 to 34.9 million in 2014. By the latest census figures, 49.5 per cent of Ugandans were under the age of 18. The…
- SeychellesSeychelles, a country of tropical islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, was almost seized by mercenaries in 1981. A team of 43 South African mercenaries, led by Mike Hoare, flew in disguised as holidaying rugby players. Their goal was…