Curated playlist
Former Portuguese colonies
- ChittagongIn 1971, the Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence was broadcast from a radio station in Chittagong.
- SenegalSenegal is named for a river, not the ocean it faces. Where the river's name came from is still debated.
- BarbadosOn the 30th of November 2021, Barbados swore in its first president, Sandra Mason, at a ceremony in Bridgetown. Prince Charles, then heir to the Barbadian crown, attended at the government's invitation. With that oath, the island stopped…
- ZanzibarZanzibar holds the record for the shortest war in history. On the morning of the 27th of August 1896, the Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace on this Tanzanian island chain off the coast of East Africa. A cease-fire was declared…
- 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…
- PríncipeIn 1919, astronomers went to the island of Príncipe to test Einstein's theory during a solar eclipse.
- CeutaCeuta covers only 18.5 square kilometres of the North African coast, yet it is a Spanish city, and the Spanish mainland lies just 17 km away across the Strait of Gibraltar. Its shoreline sits where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic…
- Timor-LesteOn the 20th of May 2002, Timor-Leste became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century. Its official name is the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and many people still call it East Timor. The country is oddly assembled. It holds…
- BrazilBrazil is named after a tree that produced a deep red dye. European textile makers prized pau-brasil, or brazilwood.
- MumbaiMumbai was once seven separate islands of Koli fishermen. English engineers later merged them into one peninsula.