In 1665, Princess Aqualtune Ezgondidu Mahamud da Silva Santos led 10,000 men into the Battle of Mbwila; between the Kingdom of Kongo and the Kingdom of Portugal. It is estimated that 5,000 men died in the war.
The surviving members of the Kongo army were captured and sold as slaves in Brazil amongst other places. Those captured included the King of Kongo, his two sons, his two nephews, four governors, various court officials, 95 workers in the kingdom and 400 other aristocrats.
The princess later founded the Palmares or the Quilombo dos Palmares, a community in Alagoas, Brazil comprised of runaway slaves. The princess was the mother of Ganga Zumba and maternal grandmother of Ganga Zumbi.
Princess Mahamud was the daughter of an unknown King of Kongo. Kongo was located in modern-day northern Angola, the Republic of Congo, the western part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern Gabon. From 1891 to 1914, Kongo was a vassal state of Portugal.
After the Battle of Mbwila, the princess was transported to the Port of Recife, a warehouse and sugar mill.
It is documented that the princess was purchased solely for the purpose of reproduction with other slaves. When she became pregnant, the princess was sold to a mill in Porto Calvo, Brazil.
In her second to last month of pregnancy, the princess formulated the Palmares. She later gave birth to Ganga Zone, Ganga Zumba, Sabina and Zona. Zumba was the first leader of the Palmares.
Thereafter, the whereabouts and fate of the princess are unknown.
Princess Anta was born in 1793 in the powerful Wolof Kingdom in modern day Senegal, West Africa. She lived a royal life and had guards and servants that followed her to protect her from the many raids by the Tyeddo raiders from the nearby Foula Tooro Kingdom. Unfortunately, in 1806 she was captured by the raiders along with two young girls who could have been her servants from the Wolof Kingdom, popularly known as Jolof Kingdom of Ancient Senegal.
Anta was only 13 years old at the time of her capture, and it is very unlikely that the raiders were aware of her social status. She was taken away to Goree Island along with other slaves and kept hostage until slave merchants purchased her after being displayed at the slave market. Princess Anta was sold to Zephaniah Kingsley, a wealthy plantation owner, businessman and slave ship captain from Florida. The two got married and she became a rich plantation owner in Florida. It took more than two centuries for her people to relocate her and welcome her spirit back home through grand celebrations in 2018.
Zeinab Badawi (Arabic: زينب بدوي; born 24 November 1959)[1][2][3] is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist. She was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News (now known as ITV News at 5:30),[4] and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow (1989–98), before joining BBC News. Badawi was the presenter of World News Today broadcast on both BBC Four and BBC World News, and Reporters, a weekly showcase of reports from the BBC.[5]
Background and education
Badawi was born in Sudan[1] and has lived in Britain since the age of two. Her grandfather, Sheikh Babiker Badri, fought against Kitchener's British forces at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and pioneered women's education in Sudan. Badawi's father was a newspaper editor in Sudan committed to social reform who, when the family moved to the UK, joined the BBC's Arabic Service.[6] Badawi speaks Arabic but not fluently.
She was educated at Hornsey High School for Girls in North London, before studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at St Hilda's College, Oxford. At Oxford, Badawi was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society.[7] In 1988 she moved back to London to pursue a full-time one year MA degree at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in Politics and Anthropology of the Middle East, graduating with distinction in 1989.
Journalism and awards
After graduating from Oxford University, Badawi was a researcher[8] and broadcast journalist for Yorkshire TV from 1982 to 1986.[9] After a period at BBC Manchester she joined Channel 4 News in 1988.[9] Badawi co-presented Channel 4 News from 1989 until 1998 when she joined the BBC.[1]
At the BBC Badawi worked as presenter and reporter for Westminster live political programmes for five years. She also worked on BBC radio as a regular presenter of The World Tonight on Radio 4 and BBC World Service's Newshour.
In 2005, Badawi became the new presenter of The World on BBC Four, the UK's first daily news bulletin devoted principally to international news. In May 2007 the programme was rebranded as World News Today and is also shown on the BBC World News channel.
She is a regular presenter of the BBC interview programme HARDtalk. In an exclusive interview in May 2009, Badawi interviewed Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir, the first serving head of state to be charged with war crimes.[6]
In November 2009, Badawi was named International TV Personality of the Year in the Annual Media Awards, the international media excellence awards organised by the Association for International Broadcasting.[10]
Since 2010, in addition to her presenting role on BBC World News, Badawi has presented on the BBC News Channel and the BBC News at Five.[11]
Badawi was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in recognition of her achievements in journalism on 21 July 2011.[12]
In May 2014 she was based in Johannesburg presenting coverage of the South African elections on BBC World News and BBC News Channel.
For many years,[when?] Badawi has led an annual Nobel laureate discussion in connection with the Nobel festivities in Stockholm, Sweden. The programme is shown on Swedish television.
Public positions
Badawi has been an adviser to the Foreign Policy Centre[13] and a Council Member of the Overseas Development Institute.[14]
She has also been Chair of the Royal African Society (RAS) since 2014.[15][16]
She is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery (since 2004)[8][17] and the British Council.[9]
In June 2011 her appointment to the advisory board of the New College of the Humanities was announced.[18]
Badawi is founder and chair of the Africa Medical Partnership Fund (AfriMed), a charity which aims to help local medical professionals in Africa.[6]
