Maps and power aren’t often paired, but in Africa’s story, they’ve always walked hand in hand. Lines were drawn not to guide, but to divide and rule. Before colonialism, Africa was a thriving continent of kingdoms, empires, and autonomous nations, each governing its affairs according to its customs, laws, and

To map Egypt, the British began to map what was not Egypt. Here, villages were divided, and imaginaries were created. But how did Rafah come into play as the final point – and when did we begin to treat this division as reality? Two soldiers stand under an olive tree

There’s a reason why we get homesick; we tend to form emotional attachments to the places we’ve lived all our lives.  That’s because our homes are more than just buildings; they are part of who we are. We grow fond of the streets we walk, the markets we shop in,

Modern nation-states are often thought of in terms of what one might call the “Sleeping Beauty metaphor”,  the belief that the nation had always existed, simply awaiting its historical awakening. This metaphor, which gained popularity following the events of the Glorious and French Revolutions, was projected onto colonized states, where

The story of the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia can be summarised by the rise and death of one man. A man who ruled the country for over four decades, and after his death, the country’s downfall ensued. Before we delve into the story of Yugoslavia, it is essential to

In early 2025, a rapid escalation of fighting occurred in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The M23 (“Mouvement du 23 Mars”), having occupied large areas in North and South Kivu for years. In January 2025, they captured the city of Goma, a key regional hub on the

As the current events in Kabul unfold, we’ve decided to shed light on the turbulent history of Afghanistan, a land often referred to as the “Graveyard of Empires.” Landlocked and mountainous, Afghanistan lies at the very heart of Asia. It connects three major cultural and geopolitical regions: the Indian subcontinent

“Bayt al-Hikmah”, “House of Wisdom”, is a central institution in Islamic intellectual history. Some think that it represents the mental transformation that took place in the Islamic world. Bayt al-Hikmah flourished within the Abbasid caliphate between the 8th and 10th centuries. This center played an important role in the intellectual

A report that dates back to July 2024 claims that over 10,000 women have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. UN Women gives it a slogan, calls it a “war on women”.  The gendered nature of state-sponsored violence is not new. Wars, and in this case genocide, have been

وأنا صغير، كان عندي هواية غريبه نوعاً ما وهي إني دايمًا أتابع شريط توقعات درجات الحرارة اللي بيظهر على التلفزيون، واللي كان بيستعرض أحوال الطقس في مختلف مناطق مصر. وسط كل الأسماء اللي كانت بتعدّي، كان في منطقتين دايمًا بيلفتوا انتباهي وبيثيروا فضولي جدًا. وإحنا أطفال، كنا دايمًا فاكرين إن