This article is a selection from the January/February 2023 issue of Smithsonian magazine The 16th-century African freedom fighters formed self-governing settlements in the regions around the ...

In 2025, freedom of expression remains under siege in many African nations as authoritarian governments continue to suppress press freedom, political opposition, and civil liberties.

TREVOR MCDONALD: In the 1940s South Africa was under apartheid rule: the doctrine that white people were somehow superior to Black people. The white police force sometimes tortured and killed the ...