Jefferson Thomas was risking his well-being by leaving an African-American school for Little Rock's all-white Central High School with eight other students in 1957.

But a simple comparison of the schools' biology classes helped compel the then-15-year-old to go through with it, his sister Alma Hildreth recalled Monday, a day after Thomas died of cancer at age 67.

Seventeen African countries – Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Mali, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Nigeria and Mauritania – gained independence in 1960; no wonder that year is famously called the ‘Year of Africa’.
We take the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of the Year of Africa to cast a long look back and generally appraise Africa’s relationship with Europe and what colonialism has done to Africa. Our Senior Contributing Editor and UNESCO-honoured author Jojo Cobbinah, a child of the colonial times, reminisces.
 

Stories of cruelty and suffering abound here, and still strike at the conscience

As the Ground Zero mosque saga in New York demonstrated, certain points on the map become sacred because of their history – but quite how to consecrate them is a prickly question of justice and taste.

South Africa's constitutional court, for example, is built at the site of a notorious jail where thousands of black men were imprisoned and brutalised during apartheid. About 150,000 bricks from the old prison buildings were used for the court and the adjacent Great African Steps: "A walkway between the past and the future."

In Zanzibar, Tanzania, there is another striking interplay between material structures and the realm of ideas.
 

All the black communities living on the Caribbean coast of Central America are commonly called Garifuna or Black Carib, or as they refer to themselves, Garinagu. Over the last three centuries, in spite of many migrations, re-settlements and interactions with Indians, British, French and Spanish, they have preserved much of the culture from their two main branches of ancestry.

South Africa's polygamous president, Jacob Zuma, is to become a father for the 22nd time following news that his fiancée is pregnant.

Bongiwe Gloria Ngema, who recently accompanied Mr Zuma on a state visit to China, is expecting a child early next year, according to media reports citing her close friends. The pair already have one child and are due to marry in December, which will bring to four the number of South Africa's First Ladies.