On May 18, 1936, Colonel J. C. Robinson, variously known as the Black Condor or Brown Condor, returned to the United States after several years serving as Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s personal aviator and trusted lieutenant. Disembarking the German ocean liner Europa in downtown New York, Robinson greeted friends from his native Chicago, including Claude Barnett, the director of the Associated Negro Press, as well as members of the mainstream national press. Robinson commented on the ongoing struggle between Italy and Ethiopia and predicted Ethiopian victory as trained soldiers and guerilla fighters mobilized to expel the Italian invaders. He also...

In December 1882, the black newspaper the Virginia Star ran two articles addressing the need for Christian evangelization in Africa under African American impetus, citing clergymen who argued that such work would result in the “spiritual regeneration of Africa.” The article “A Noble African” summarized a sermon delivered by Edward Wilmot Blyden at the First African Baptist Church in Richmond, in which he discussed the successes and failures of foreign evangelizing in Africa. At the time of the lecture, Blyden was president of Liberia College, where he had begun teaching in 1881.¹ Calling on congregants to support the college, Blyden...

On May 15, 1883, American Minister Resident Consul General to Portugal, John M. Francis, wrote to the Secretary of State, Frederick Frelinghuysen Jr., to inform him of the recent fracas involving Portugal and France. Unlike previous disputes between the two nations regarding disputed territory in Europe, this disagreement involved land and access to trade on the River Congo in Africa. A year earlier, the French had ratified a treaty signed in 1880 between the Tio monarch at Lake Malebo (on the river) and French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. According to the agreement, the king gave over his hereditary rights...

In 1887, two years after the signing of the General Act of the Berlin Conference of West Africa, an editorial titled “An African Empire” appeared in the New York Freeman. The author explained how European exploration of the continent, beginning with Mungo Park’s expeditions (1794–1797) and culminating in the journeys of Stanley (1871–1877) and de Brazza (1874–1882) had “completely revolutionized accepted opinions of the geography and people” of Africa. While the article did not explain how those views were altered, it predicted that the “‘Dark Continent’ will soon hold within its grasp no secret as to its...

In 1900, Science magazine, the official organ of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (founded in 1848), published an article entitled “Protection of Wild Animals in Africa,” a reprint of a letter sent to the London Times by one of its correspondents in East Africa. According to the missive, the district of Beria, “which formerly teemed with game, [would] be denuded of all game through indiscriminate shooting.” The reporter identified three sources of depletion: the native and white hunters who hunted for canteens, seasonal hunting parties that shot young antelope, and the Rinderpest epidemic of 1898. Recognizing the...

In 1920, members of African American and African diaspora communities assembled at Liberty Hall in New York City, the site of the unia convention, “to protest the wrongs and injustices” that they were “suffering at the hands of their white brethren, and state what they deem[ed] their fair and just rights.” Presided over by Marcus Garvey, the convention drafted and adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, wherein the organization enumerated twelve complaints about the treatment of people of African descent. The declaration also listed fifty-four demands and objections, including the following: “We hereby...

In December 1934 the Pittsburgh Courier announced: “Abyssinia, world’s most extensive and populous Negro-governed country, is seriously menaced by the territorial and commercial ambitions of Italy and the diplomatic maneuverings of France.” Recounting “secret designs against Abyssinia,” the reporter concluded: “Doubtless Abyssinia will be left to fight its battles alone against Italian imperialism. It acquitted itself magnificently under Menelik at Adowa, as Italians painfully recall. It may do so again, despite Italy’s air force.” Indeed, in 1896 Italy attempted to add Ethiopia to its empire only to have its forces routed by soldiers armed with “feudal” weapons. Motivated by a...