Intriguing and shameful ways Africans were renamed after their capture by slave traders

Elizabeth Johnson is a Ghanaian –Nigerian avid reader and lover of the Creative Arts. She is also a writer and has worked with various online platforms as an editor and content creator. She also produces a literary radio show and has worked as a festival administrator. Her story was featured in the 2017 Independence anthology by Afridiaspora. Her play has been staged by African Theater Workshop and she is the 2018 winner of the Random Thoughts writing Prize.

• The story of Takyi, the Ghanaian king who led a slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1760
• Otenyo Nyamaterere, the slain 1908 Kenyan anti-colonial hero whose head is still in a British museum
• From slave to member of Brazil’s white aristocratic society in the 1700s, the story of Chika Da Silva
• 8 African heroes who led massive slave rebellions in the Caribbean but are less celebrated

• From Afro-Barbadian slave to wealthy brothel owner in 1700s, how Rachael Pringle Polgreen rose to prominence
• This is the only African city to make the top 5 world’s most creative cities list
• The intriguing South Sudanese wedding ceremony in which women are forced to marry ghosts
• First black woman to publish a book in English in 1773 finally honoured in UK with a plaque