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30/12/2025

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them. There is more to life than increasing its speed.
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28/12/2025

At ChorkFest, we believe Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
Whatever you know in this world, you were told !
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20/12/2025

Ana de Sousa Nzingha Mbande
Born: 1582, Angola
Died: 17 Dec 1663 (81 years),
Was a southwest African paramount ruler who ruled as a queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Born into the ruling family of Ndongo, her grandfather Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda was the king of Ndongo, succeeded by her father.
Nzinga received military and political training as a child, and she demonstrated an aptitude for defusing political crises as an ambassador to the Portuguese Empire. In 1624, she assumed power over Ndongo after the death of her brother Mbandi. She ruled during a period of rapid growth of the African slave trade and encroachment by the Portuguese Empire in South West Africa.
The Portuguese declared war on Ndongo in 1626 and by 1628, Njinga's army had been severely depleted and they went into exile. In search of allies, she married Imbangala warlord Kasanje. Using this new alliance to rebuild her forces, she conquered the Kingdom of Matamba from 1631 to 1635. In 1641, she entered into an alliance with the Dutch West India Company who had captured Luanda from the Portuguese. Between 1641 and 1644, Njinga was able to reclaim large parts of Ndongo. Alongside the Dutch, she defeated the Portuguese in a number of battles but was unable to take the Fortress of Massangano. In 1648, the Portuguese recaptured Luanda, with the Dutch leaving Angola. Njinga continued to fight the Portuguese until a peace treaty was signed in 1656.
In the centuries since her death, Njinga has been increasingly recognized as a major historical figure in Angola and in the wider Atlantic Creole culture. She is remembered for her intelligence, her political and diplomatic wisdom, and her military tactics.
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19/12/2025

Wangari Maathai
This is another prolific African woman that has made a wave in Africa and the world at large. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, a civil society organization that is primarily focused on a greener world. The movement advocated for environmental conservation and planting of trees all over the world.
For her immense contribution to peace, democracy, and sustainable development, Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2004.
Maathai was born on 1 April 1940 in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya. Her family was Kikuyu, the most populous ethnic group in Kenya, and had lived in the area for several generations. Around 1943, Maathai's family moved to a white-owned farm in the Rift Valley near Nakuru, where her father had found work. Late in 1947, she went back to Ihithe with her mother, as two of her brothers were attending primary school in the village, and there was no schooling available on the farm where her father worked. Her father was still at the farm. Shortly afterward, at the age of eight, she joined her brothers at Ihithe Primary School.
When she was eleven, Maathai moved to St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School, a boarding school at the Mathari Catholic Mission in Nyeri. She studied at St. Cecilia's for four years. During that time, she became fluent in English and converted to Catholicism. She was involved with the Legion of Mary, whose members attempt "to serve God by serving fellow human beings. Studying at St. Cecilia's, she was sheltered from the ongoing Mau Mau uprising, which forced her mother to move from their homestead to an emergency village in Ihithe. When Maathai finished her studies there in 1956, she was rated first in her class and was granted admission to the only Catholic high school for girls in Kenya, Loreto High School in Limuru.
As the end of East African colonialism approached, Kenyan politicians, such as Tom Mboya, were proposing ways to make education in Western nations available to promising students. John F. Kennedy, then a United States Senator, agreed to fund such a program through the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, initiating what became known as the Kennedy Airlift or Airlift Africa. Maathai became one of some 300 Kenyans selected to study in the United States in September 1960.
Wangari Maathai, a trailblazing environmentalist and social activist, leaves an enduring legacy as a symbol of grassroots empowerment and ecological conservation. Hailing from Kenya, Maathai recognized the intrinsic link between environmental degradation and social injustice, and she founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977. Through this organization, she championed the planting of trees to combat deforestation, soil erosion, and to empower women in rural communities. Maathai's tenacity in the face of adversity was evident as she challenged the Kenyan government's oppressive policies, enduring arrests and persecution while never swaying from her mission. In 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, a testament to her dedication to the environment and her unwavering commitment to sustainable development. Maathai's life exemplifies how individual actions can inspire monumental change, as her Green Belt Movement continues to thrive, having planted over 51 million trees and empowering countless women. Her legacy serves as a reminder that every act of environmental consciousness and every fight for social justice, no matter how small, contributes to a more equitable and sustainable world. Wangari Maathai's story inspires us to realize that our collective power can shape a greener, healthier planet for generations to come.
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16/12/2025

Okomfo Anokye was born in Ghana around 1655. According to Akuapem tradition, he was son of Ano and Yaa Anubea, both from Awukugua in the Nifa Division of the Okere state.His name originated from the following incident:
It is said that when Okomfo Anokye was born in Awukugua he was already holding in his right hand a short white tail of a cow (Podua); and he had so firmly clenched the fist of the other hand that no one could open it. The woman who went to deliver the labouring mother tried to open it because she suspected there was something in it. The father was called in to assist... Okomfo Anokye opened his eyes and, staring at the father, quickly opened the mysterious hand, showing it to the father and saying "Ano....Kye" (Guan language) meaning "Ano...see" and gave to the father what was in it. It is alleged that it was a talisman. From this incident Kwame Agyei got his name "Anokye". Okomfo Anokye, his original name Kwame Anokye Frimpon Kotobre.
Amos Anti, Akwamu, Denkyira, Akuapem, and Ashanti in the Lives of Osei Tutu and Okomfo Anokye (1971)
During his birth in Awukugua, it is said he brought with him gifts from the gods; totem poles which were firmly clinched to his palms that no one could open it; and in the other hand already was a short, white tail of a cow (Podua).
This claim was apparently later confirmed by Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II during his visit at Awukugua in 2014.Okomfo Anokye is said to have commanded down a golden stool named "Sika Dwa Kofi" from the sky during a durbar in the Ashanti empire, This stool is said to have fallen on the then King of the Ashante Osei Tutu I.
It is believed he planted an Unremovable sword in the grounds in Kumasi where to this day none has been able to remove it, this sword is located in the Komfo Anokye teaching hospital.
After Osei Tutu's death in 1717, Anokye is said to have returned to Akuapim and died at town called Kyirapatre in Kumasi between 1717 and 1719 (aged between 62 and 64). The real cause of his death is not known and it is said that he was going to bring the key to death so no one would die again and so no one should cry; if anyone is heard crying he will never return. After a couple of days he still was not back and so the women cried, and he never returned. According to another tradition, Anokye went into a trance and never woke up. He was mourned by his loving wife Bukyia Mansa. But latest research has shown that throughout his life Anokye suffered asthma and this might have been the cause of his death. He died in his sleep in 1719 at the age of about 64.
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14/12/2025

YAA ASANTEWAA
Was the Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire, now part of modern-day Ghana. She was appointed by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okese, the Edwesuhene, or ruler, of Edwesu. In 1900, she famously led the 1900 War of the Golden Stool, a major rebellion against British colonialism after they demanded the sacred Golden Stool. She rallied the Asante people, famously declaring, "If the men will not fight, I will," inspiring women and warriors to resist, laying siege to British forces, and becoming a powerful symbol of African resistance and female leadership, despite ultimately being captured and exiled to the Seychelles.
Yaa Asantewaa was born in 1840 in Besease, the daughter of Kwaku Ampoma and Ata Po. Her brother, Afrane Panin, became the chief of Edweso, a nearby community. After a childhood without incident, she cultivated crops on the land around Boankra. She entered a polygamous marriage with a man from Kumasi, with whom she had a daughter.
Asantewaa died in exile in the Seychelles in 1921. She was a successful farmer and mother. She was an intellectual, a politician, a human rights activist, a queen and a war leader.
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12/12/2025

07/12/2025

Ewuare the Great
Also known as Oba Ewuare the First, was King of the Benin Empire and founder of it's Imperial Era, in what is now Southern Nigeria from 1440 to 1473. Ewuare claimed the throne by violently overthrowing his brother, in a coup so bad that destroyed much of Benin City.
His rebuilding of Benin is what has largely secured his legacy centuries on and earned him the title Ewuare the Great. The city would have been an impressive sight that reflected its wealth and power. Enclosed by massive walls—four times longer than the Great Wall of China—the city featured orderly streets and large houses, with the royal palace occupying about a third of its area. This expansive complex included interlocking courtyards, richly decorated wooden pillars adorned with brass plaques, and a distinctive peaked shingle roof topped with a snake ornament.
Ewuare expanded the Empire and established a rich art culture with craftsmanship that included the use of ivory, wood and symbolically of the era, bronze to create the Oba bronze heads and adorn buildings.
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06/12/2025

Shaka Zulu
Also known as Shaka kaSenzangakhona, was the brilliant military strategist King of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. He was the illegitimate son of the Zulu King Senzankakhona kaJama, who treated him and his mother abhorrently forcing them to leave their home. A brilliant military strategist, Shaka revolutionized Zulu warfare and greatly expanded the kingdom's territory. At the height of his reign, he commanded over 50,000 warriors.
Shaka Zulu got his military chops as a warrior for the Mthethwa Paramountcy, the young man’s prowess made him stand out, and was soon promoted to General, establishing a new and refined military system. Although we have come to know him for his victorious battles, early on his approach was tactical diplomacy to forge alliances with neigbouring tribes and build his army. At the height of his power, he commanded an army of over 50,000 warriors, leading his men in battle to expand his empire and hegemony.
He famously revolutionized warfare by introducing the "buffalo horns" formation, a tactical strategy that allowed for rapid enemy encirclement. He also replaced traditional long throwing spears with short-handled stabbing spears called iklwa, which proved more effective in close combat, and standardized weaponry by introducing larger, stronger shields to complement this new fighting style. Shaka Zulu was assassinated by his half brother in 1828.
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