Thoughts on the utility of history

If it be true that the only thing history teaches us is that it teaches us nothing, and if it is also true that the more things change the more they stay the same, then why on earth would we bother the next generation with truckloads of useless information?

05.2025 | Peter Dearlove

Why do we read

I love reading. Immersing myself in a paperback and temporarily blocking out the outside world is one of the most enjoyable activities I know of, but there’s one problem: I often agonise over whether I’m getting the most out of my reading.

02.2024 | Kibo Ngowi

Tick tock….around the clock

From complicated pocket watches to iconic clocks to decorative wrist watches… there’s a fascinating world behind the multi-billion-dollar timepiece industry.

11.2013 | ngrid Wood

The Emperor Who Crashed Gold

In the dense forests of Guinea’s mountainous highlands, at a place called Tembakounda, the Niger River finds its source. It is about 250km inland and could dash to the Atlantic waters off the coast of West Africa by cutting directly through Sierra Leone.

06.2023 | Amanda Jones

The story of Malik Ambar

Born in 1548, a captured Ethiopian herdsman is sold as a slave in Yemen, taken to Baghdad and from there to present day India, Malik Ambar not only raised his own armies, but casually replaced kings when they became annoying. A remarkable true story that is not nearly as well-known as it should be.

05.2023 | Jen Isaac

Will Chile’s dark history be eclipsed by a brighter future?

For travellers with a taste for history and a curiosity about the future, this is an ideal time to visit Chile.

08.2022 | Lesley Stone

Decadence to decay

Empires rise and most certainly fall. Of most interest to me, though, are the periods between. It is interesting to note, varying from case to case, an almost inverse relationship between the entitled decadence of subsequent generations of heirs

07.2021 | Lee Blake

Moral Money Series: Christianity

“Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows – like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

09.2020 | Peter van der Walt

Moral Money Series: Christianity

The problem in examining ‘Christianity’ – as with most religions – is that when you use the term, it refers to a wide variety of ideologies and aesthetic expressions.

07.2020 | Peter van der Walt

The history of IQ

An 11-year-old Harvard undergrad inspired the ubiquitous saying “early ripe, early ruin”.

10.2017 | Alistair Duff

Nicknames

They may be badges of honour, scars of shame, compliments or insults – and they can only become stamps when seasoned by time.

06.2018 | Peter Dearlove

But like, you know, how did it take over the language?

We all use them… even though we are not specifically aware of doing so.

06.2018 | Peter Dearlove

The profit made from war and words

It is in documenting our conflicts that propaganda first began.

06.2018 | Lee Blake

Moral Money Series: An introduction to faith and finance around the world

Religion affects the lives of adherents and non-adherents in very real, very immediate economic ways.

07.2017 | Pete van der Walt