Dr Gus Casely-Hayford on the Lost Kingdoms of Africa
Lost Kingdoms of Africa is back for a second series. Dr Gus talks to Peter Moore about what makes a civilisation great and the joys of eating bread flecked with camel dung
When the first series of Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford’s Lost Kingdoms of Africa aired on BBC Four it was the channel’s highest rated factual programme ever. Now Britain’s favourite curator and cultural historian is back with a new series, uncovering more African kingdoms whose history is sadly neglected in the West.
Can you tell us a bit about the new series of Lost Kingdoms of Africa?
We did the first series a couple of years ago. It was an enormous success. I thought I knew Africa, but getting the chance to see some of these really ancient cultures was an absolute revelation to me. We travelled huge distances across the continent. We were working with African academics and sociologists and they just had a very different perspective on African history than the history we are presented in the West and it was absolutely inspiring.
So we were delighted that the first series was so well received and that we’ve been given the opportunity to do a second. Without giving too much away we explore the Asante Kingdom in Ghana, South Africa’s Zulu Kingdom, the Berbers in Morocco and Uganda’s two great kingdoms, Bunyoro and Buganda.
In researching the series you travelled the equivalent of two circuits of the earth on African rural roads. Where did your journey take you?
All over Africa. We started in northern Sudan and travelled down through the whole of Sudan. Ethiopia. Uganda. We also went through Tanzania, into Mozambique. Then South Africa, Zimbabwe, so right down that eastern spine of Africa.
We saw some amazing things, going from desert, into tropical forest, into coastal regions and then onto that huge rocky plateau that is part of Zimbabwe. It was absolutely amazing.
We also worked in West Africa, in Mali and in Ghana, and that is an area of incredible kingdoms, amazingly rich material culture. There is gold, textile, carvings.
And then into North Africa – Morocco. Everywhere, the intensity of what we saw and how those ancient cultures are still, in some ways, living through contemporary practices was just stunning.
