local communities

Gorée Island in Senegal commemorates the slave trade and its abolition

📅 23 August 1999

Gorée Island held an early observance of the remembrance day. The site’s memorial meaning has been debated by historians; its public commemoration nonetheless illustrates how African communities and...

The Empire orders a population census

📅 18 June 1851

Decree no. 797 of 18 June 1851 ordered a general census. Counting inhabitants could aid administration and taxation, but population categories were created by a state whose social order depended on...

Palestinians experience mass displacement as war follows the Mandate

📅 15 May 1948

The expiration of the British Mandate and the new war marked a decisive phase in the displacement and dispossession Palestinians remember as the Nakba. Flight and expulsions had begun earlier and...