u/Miss-Kija

So I thought colonialism was a thing of the past... That is until I discovered... neocolonialism! It turns out that colonizers have just rebranded themselves as investors. Instead of ships, now they send contracts, investment deals, and multinational corporations.

With neocolonialism, countries like Brazil and Indonesia get labelled 'poor and corrupt' while their vast resources get extracted to enrich other economies. I guess the fastest way to grow wealth is still to steal it from somewhere else, right?

Wait... so when someone lets their date pay for dinner, they're called a gold digger, but when big corporations literally dig gold illegally on the Amazon, it's called 'investment in emerging economies' ??

Moreover, with neocolonialism, some countries get the profits while others get the polluted rivers, destroyed forests, and irreversible environmental damage. Well, I'm not the first person to notice this pattern. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana, literally wrote the book on it in 1965, called "Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism". It made the US State Department so mad they cancelled $25 million in aid to his country over it. Which, honestly, kind of proved his point for him.

His definition is still the one people use: a neocolonized country has every outward symbol of independence ( its own flag, its own government, a seat at the UN ) while its actual economy and political decisions are still being steered from outside. Sovereignty as decoration. The flag goes up, but somebody else still has the keys.

And it's not abstract. Fourteen African countries currently use a currency called the CFA franc, created by France during the colonial era and still in use today. Until 2019, member states had to keep half their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury. Some countries in that arrangement still do. The currency is still printed in France and still pegged to the euro. Reform has been "coming soon" for five years now and counting. That's not a metaphor for neocolonialism .. that's just what it really, mechanically looks like.

Or take debt... A country needs a loan, the IMF or World Bank says: "sure" , but attaches conditions: cut public spending, privatize state industries, open your markets to foreign companies. The country technically agreed to all of it. It also technically didn't have another option. That's the whole trick of neocolonialism. It doesn't need to conquer you if it can just make sure you never had a real choice to begin with.

So the pattern repeats as you see... a country sits on cobalt, oil, gold, timber, lithium (the actual physical ingredients of the modern global economy) and somehow still ends up on the "developing nations" list (a colonial term that I'm going to talk about in another post), while the profits from those resources show up on a balance sheet somewhere in Zurich or Houston or Paris. The wealth has been extracted, refined, and sold back to us as a phone, a car battery, a bar of chocolate... repackaged so well we forget to ask where the raw material actually came from, or who got paid for it, or who's left holding the polluted river! If Colonialism took the land, Neocolonialism just figured out it's more profitable to let you keep the land... and take everything that comes out of it instead.

So I thought colonialism was a thing of the past... That is until I discovered... neocolonialism! It turns out that colonizers have just rebranded themselves as investors. Instead of ships, now they send contracts, investment deals, and multinational corporations.

With neocolonialism, countries like Brazil and Indonesia get labelled 'poor and corrupt' while their vast resources get extracted to enrich other economies. I guess the fastest way to grow wealth is still to steal it from somewhere else, right?

Wait... so when someone lets their date pay for dinner, they're called a gold digger, but when big corporations literally dig gold illegally on the Amazon, it's called 'investment in emerging economies' ??

Moreover, with neocolonialism, some countries get the profits while others get the polluted rivers, destroyed forests, and irreversible environmental damage. Well, I'm not the first person to notice this pattern. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana, literally wrote the book on it in 1965, called "Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism". It made the US State Department so mad they cancelled $25 million in aid to his country over it. Which, honestly, kind of proved his point for him.

His definition is still the one people use: a neocolonized country has every outward symbol of independence ( its own flag, its own government, a seat at the UN ) while its actual economy and political decisions are still being steered from outside. Sovereignty as decoration. The flag goes up, but somebody else still has the keys.

And it's not abstract. Fourteen African countries currently use a currency called the CFA franc, created by France during the colonial era and still in use today. Until 2019, member states had to keep half their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury. Some countries in that arrangement still do. The currency is still printed in France and still pegged to the euro. Reform has been "coming soon" for five years now and counting. That's not a metaphor for neocolonialism .. that's just what it really, mechanically looks like.

Or take debt... A country needs a loan, the IMF or World Bank says: "sure" , but attaches conditions: cut public spending, privatize state industries, open your markets to foreign companies. The country technically agreed to all of it. It also technically didn't have another option. That's the whole trick of neocolonialism. It doesn't need to conquer you if it can just make sure you never had a real choice to begin with.

So the pattern repeats as you see... a country sits on cobalt, oil, gold, timber, lithium (the actual physical ingredients of the modern global economy) and somehow still ends up on the "developing nations" list (a colonial term that I'm going to talk about in another post), while the profits from those resources show up on a balance sheet somewhere in Zurich or Houston or Paris. The wealth has been extracted, refined, and sold back to us as a phone, a car battery, a bar of chocolate... repackaged so well we forget to ask where the raw material actually came from, or who got paid for it, or who's left holding the polluted river! If Colonialism took the land, Neocolonialism just figured out it's more profitable to let you keep the land... and take everything that comes out of it instead.

Atempo Restaurant, Oran. Has anyone been here too? How was your experience?

When you lift your head up, another world begins on the ceiling!

Ceilings in the historical buildings of Uzbekistan are perhaps one of the most impressive details of architecture. Geometric patterns, embroidery and flower motifs and gold details create a different composition in each ceiling in the structures spanning from Semerkant to Hive, from Buhara to Tashkent.

Some meet you on the dome of a madrasa, some on the ceiling of a palace. Star shapes, repetitive geometric patterns, and intense use of color carry traces of a tradition of decoration that has flourished in the region's architecture for centuries.

1 Tilla-Kari Medresesi - Semerkant

2 Shah is Alive - Samerkant

3 Bolo Hauz Camii - Buhara

4 Stone Courtyard Palace (Stone-Hovli) - Hive

5 Center of Islamic Culture - Tashkent

This is a breathtaking architectural masterpiece located in Cairo, Egypt. Commissioned by Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik (1875–1955), the palace complex was uniquely designed by the prince himself to showcase a spectacular fusion of diverse Islamic art styles, integrating Mamluk, Ottoman, Moorish, and Andalusian architecture alongside modern European touches.

The palace is renowned for its rich artistic and historical character, featuring walls and ceilings filled with intricate plant motifs, geometric patterns, masterfully crafted arabesque woodwork, Arabic calligraphy, Quranic verses, and wise aphorisms. The estate is divided into several remarkable structures, including the Reception Palace with its famous Damascus halls, the grand Throne Palace designed in Ottoman opulence, and the Residential Palace which features a medieval-style defensive tower.

Enhancing its beauty, a mosque adorned with rare Turkish Iznik tiles stands next to a Moorish-styled clock tower, all surrounded by a legendary botanic garden containing rare cacti and exotic trees collected from all around the world. Today, the palace operates as a preservation museum, standing as a living testament to royal luxury and Islamic art history.

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نص الحوار كما ورد حرفيًا في الصفحة 82:

ارفد هذا السني وجيب سني الحلاوات

Erfed hal-cni ou djib cni el-h’laouat.

Enlevez ce plateau, et apportez celui des pâtisseries.

وراسك كول البقلاوة والمقروط والغريبية

Ou rasek koul el-baqloua oul-maqrout oul-gribiya.

Je vous en prie, mangez du baqlaoua, du maqrot et du gribiya.

لالا يكثر خيرك راني شبعت

Lala ikatter khirek rani chbât.

Non, je vous remercie; je suis rassasié.

ما عندك ما كليت

Ma ândek ma klit.

Vous n’avez rien mangé.

اسمح لي راني كليت أكثر من العادة

Esmah’ li rani klit aklar mel-âda.

Pardonnez-moi, j’ai mangé plus que d’habitude.

جيبو الليان والبريق

Djibou el-lian oul-briq.

Apportez la cuvette et le pot à eau.

تحب شي تغسل يديك

Th’ebb chi togrsel ieddik.

Voulez-vous vous laver les mains ?

المصدر:

Auguste Martin, Dialogues Arabes-Français, avec la prononciation arabe figurée en caractères français, Paris, chez Théophile Barrois, libraire, quai Voltaire, n° 13, 1847, p. 82.

Solomon Northup was a free man, a talented musician, husband, and father living in New York, until he fell victim to a malicious trap. Kidnaped and forced into the harsh machinery of the antebellum American South, his memoir Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing, must-read firsthand account of human bondage.

Reading his story feels like sitting next to a survivor as he shares a heartbreaking reckoning with the past.

What strikes you immediately is Northup’s unvarnished honesty! He refuses to hide the harsh realities of his captivity. From the exhausting, never-ending labor in the fields to the constant threat of violence, he exposes the plantation system's total dehumanization. You even feel the weight of the cotton sacks and the psychological dread that defined every single day.

Despite the horror, Northup's humanity and dignity remain central to the story. He clings to his inner strength and hope in the face of a system that is meant to crush his soul. Observing his resilience is deeply moving and inspiring.

It is without a doubt a difficult and emotionally draining journey. The pace can be slow at times, as Northup focuses on the meticulous and repetitive details of daily plantation life, such as timber cutting and farming routines. These descriptions serve the purpose of forcing the reader to feel the endless rhythm of a life stolen away...

Algeria holds more Roman ruins than almost any country outside Italy, serving as a powerful testament to its status as one of the empire's most crucial provinces. Ancient centers like Djemila, Tipasa, and Timgad still showcase remarkably intact temples, theaters, paved streets, and aqueducts that have endured for nearly two millennia. Chief among these is Timgad, often dubbed the "Pompeii of North Africa." Founded around 100 CE by Emperor Trajan as a colony for veterans of the Legio III Augusta, Timgad was built ex nihilo (literally from nothing) on unoccupied land. Because urban planners didn't have to navigate any pre-existing structures, the UNESCO World Heritage Site boasts a famously pristine grid layout that provides an unmatched window into daily imperial life.

Yet, long before Roman stonemasons broke ground, indigenous Numidian civilization flourished across the region. A striking reminder of this pre-Roman heritage is the Medracen, a massive royal tumulus mausoleum located near Batna. Dating back to roughly the 3rd century BCE, it stands as Algeria's oldest surviving monumental structure. Built by and for Numidian monarchs before direct imperial control took root, its architecture beautifully reflects early local traditions alongside subtle Hellenistic-Punic artistic influences.

The transition from sovereign Numidian territory to a Roman province was a gradual historical evolution spanning centuries rather than a sudden event. The initial foothold began around 206 BCE when King Masinissa allied with Rome against Carthage during the Second Punic War, forging an independent kingdom entangled with Roman interests. Tensions escalated during the Jugurthine War (112–105 BCE), pulling Rome deeper into regional politics. The true turning point came in 46 BCE, when Julius Caesar defeated King Juba I at the Battle of Thapsus and officially annexed Numidia into the new province of Africa Nova, marking the start of direct Roman rule. Subsequent reorganizations under Emperor Augustus in 25 BCE and Septimius Severus around 198 CE ultimately cemented Numidia as its own distinct, highly influential province of the empire.

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I recently came across the story of Apuleius of Madauros, and it made me realize how many influential figures from Roman North Africa are almost completely absent from mainstream historical discussions. So when people think about the origins of the novel, they usually imagine Greece or later medieval Europe. Yet one of the most important surviving works of ancient fiction was written by a philosopher born in Numidia, in what is now M'Daourouch (Souk Ahras, Algeria).

Around AD 160–170, Apuleius wrote The Metamorphoses, better known as The Golden Ass. What makes this work extraordinary is that it is the only complete Latin novel to survive from antiquity. While earlier Greek novels certainly existed, many survive only partially or belong to a different literary tradition. Apuleius' work is therefore considered one of the foundational texts in the history of the novel. Even today, its influence can still be seen in European literature. The famous story of Cupid and Psyche, embedded within The Golden Ass, inspired generations of writers, painters, sculptors, and composers for nearly two thousand years.

He didn't deny his African identity. One detail I found intriguing concerns his famous trial. Around AD 158, Apuleius was prosecuted in Sabratha (modern Libya) after marrying the wealthy widow Pudentilla. His opponents accused him of using magic to win her affection (a charge that was often used against educated philosophers during the Roman period). His defense speech survives today as Apologia, making it one of the best-preserved legal speeches from Roman North Africa. During the proceedings, his opponents mocked his African origins, attempting to portray him as a provincial "barbarian"... Considering that Roman citizenship often carried greater prestige, he could easily have emphasized his Roman identity instead. However, he openly declared: "My homeland is Numidia, and I am half Numidian and half Gaetulian" , (Apologia, Chapter 24).

North Africa wasn't on the margins of the Roman world. Modern discussions sometimes unintentionally create the impression that North Africa merely consumed Roman culture. In fact, Roman North Africa produced some of antiquity's most influential intellectuals, including Apuleius ( philosopher and novelist), Augustine of Hippo (one of Christianity's most influential theologians), and Tertullian (often called the father of Latin Christian theology). Numerous jurists, rhetoricians, philosophers, and poets educated in cities such as Carthage, Cirta, and Madauros. So rather than existing on the edge of civilization, North Africa was one of the intellectual centers of the Mediterranean world.

Social media often calls Apuleius "the first novelist in history". That statement is understandable but simplified and it would be more accurate to phrase it as "The Golden Ass is the earliest complete Latin novel that survives today".

Sources: Apuleius, The Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass). Apuleius, Apologia. The Oxford Classical Dictionary (entries on Apuleius and Roman North Africa). Encyclopaedia Britannica – "Apuleius" Loeb Classical Library editions of Metamorphoses and Apologia.

Have you ever thought that literature isn't really about the story… but about the way we look at the world? Sometimes we read a novel because we want to know what happened. But sometimes, the writers are interested in objects, dreams, absurdity, fear, love, death, or those tiny, seemingly meaningless details of everyday life that we normally walk past without noticing.

And that's what I find fascinating about literature... A novel can be a different way of seeing reality and here are a few literary lenses I find interesting:

1. Object-Oriented Fiction:

What if the human being isn't always the centre of the story? Here objects become strangely important like a chair, a mirror, a suitcase, etc. The writer may spend an entire paragraph describing a room which you might think it's because they want you to know what it looks like, but it's because the space itself carries meaning.

This is reminiscent of some of the experimental tendencies associated with the French " Nouveau Roman" whose writers questioned many conventions of traditional storytelling, including linear plots and conventional psychological characterization. So instead of telling you: “He was lonely", the writer might simply show you a man sitting at a table, looking at a glass, then at the door, then at the clock... And leave you to decide what it means.

One of the major names associated with this approach is Alain Robbe-Grillet, particularly La Jalousie.

2. Aesthetic Absurdism

And then there is literature that seems to deliberately lose its grip on logic. Events become strange or sometimes impossible, or almost ridiculous. But the absurdity is there to ask a much bigger question: What if the world itself doesn't have an obvious meaning? The characters search for explanations and for some kind of order... And the more they search, the stranger everything becomes. What I love about this kind of writing is that something completely absurd can be described in beautiful language.

This literary approach is strongly associated with writers such as Franz Kafka, Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett.

3. Metaphysical Fiction

This is where things become much more mysterious. The boundaries between dream and reality, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, the physical world and existence itself begin to blur. This is the kind of fiction that leaves you with more questions than answers.

Writers such as Haruki Murakami, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino have all explored, in very different ways, realities that refuse to remain stable and straightforward.

4. Dirty Realism

And then we come back down to earth, no castles, no heroes, no perfect endings.... But a tiny apartment, a boring job, a failed relationship, someone struggling to pay the rent, etc.

Dirty Realism is a literary term associated particularly with American fiction of the 1980s. It is known for focusing on ordinary, sometimes bleak or uncomfortable aspects of everyday existence, often using sparse and understated language. Writers associated with the movement include Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff and Richard Ford. And perhaps for me that's what makes it powerful... it finds something strangely beautiful inside the ordinary and the broken.

5. Romantic Gothic

And this one is probably where love, beauty, fear and death become neighbours... Imagine an old mansion or a family secret, or even a man carrying a past he cannot escape and q love that seems impossible...Gothic literature is deeply associated with darkness, mystery, isolation, death, psychological fear and the supernatural. Romanticism adds another layer: emotion, imagination, nature, individual experience, longing and fascination with the past. works such as: Emily Brontë — Wuthering Heights, Mary Shelley — Frankenstein, Bram Stoker — Dracula, Edgar Allan Poe — The Fall of the House of Usher, can feel simultaneously beautiful and disturbing.... Note that “romantic” here doesn't mean a love story. It is an entire way of seeing the world, one that gives enormous importance to emotion, imagination, nature, individuality and mystery.

So that's what I love most about literature...We learn to look at the same world through different eyes.

Sources & further reading:

Larousse — Nouveau Roman https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/nouveau\_roman/73943 The University of Houston — What is Romanticism? https://engines.egr.uh.edu/english-romanticism/what-romanticism Overview of Literary Movements https://www.scribd.com/document/543253702/List-of-Literary-Movements-Wikipedia

I recently came across a study that made me wonder whether how we show up matters more than simply being present.... Researchers found that when people experienced pain, active support from a romantic partner (whether through comforting words or physical touch) reduced both the intensity of the pain they reported and their body's physiological stress response....Passive presence alone was noticeably less effective.

I find this fascinating because it reminds us that support isn't measured by proximity. You can sit beside someone for hours and still leave them feeling alone. Sometimes, a reassuring sentence, holding their hand, or responding with engagement can calm the nervous system.

What I also appreciate about this study is that it gives scientific backing to something many of us intuitively feel, which is that humans are wired for connection. Feeling truly supported comforts us emotionally and it can shape how our bodies experience pain itself.

Maybe love isn't only about being there...Perhaps it's about making the other person feel that you're there!

Reference: Mazza, A., et al. (2023). Pain perception and physiological responses are modulated by active support from a romantic partner. Psychophysiology, 60(7), e14299.

For this painting there is the artist himself, palette and brush still in his hands as if he has only just paused. His head is turned a little, and his eyes are looking past us or through us. Behind him, is a skeleton, leaning in close over his left shoulder. The skeleton has a violin and draws the bow across its single remaining string.

Böcklin painted this in Munich, in the early years of his time there, during a time when he had faced a lifetime of losses. His first fiancée had died before they could marry. He had nearly died of typhus himself, and of the many children born to him and his wife, several had already been buried by the time he set this canvas on the easel. Death was not an abstract idea for him. Some stories say the figure of Death was added later, after a friend looked at an unfinished self-portrait and asked what Böcklin seemed to be hearing. Whether or not that is true, the finished work feels like a conversation that has been going on for a long time

The composition itself goes way back. In the Alte Pinakothek in Munich hung a portrait of Sir Brian Tuke, then thought to be by Holbein, in which Death was pointing at an hourglass. Böcklin knew the Totentanz traditions of his native Basel and the woodcuts of Holbein that showed Death dancing through every rank of society. Here he takes that old influence and turns it into something more personal. The single string left on the violin has been interpreted as the last thread of life, or as the low tone that remains when everything else has snapped.

When the painting was shown at the Munich Kunstverein that same year it helped secure Böcklin’s place among the artists of the city. Later it would have a lasting effect on people in unexpected ways. Alma Mahler said her husband was under its spell when he wrote the scherzo of his Fourth Symphony, and he had the violinist play on a deliberately mistuned instrument so the sound would carry something of that thin, insistent note. Other painters answered it in their own self-portraits: Hans Thoma a few years later, Lovis Corinth in 1896 with a skeleton beside him.

Want more? Get my weekly newsletter with detailed artist stories and research.
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There's a reason the Royal Alcázar of Seville feels different from most palaces. When you walk through its gardens, courtyards, and intricately carved arches, it doesn't just feel like a royal residence. It feels like a place that has quietly witnessed centuries of love, ambition, loss, and survival.

What many people don't know is that the Alcázar wasn't originally a Christian palace. Its story begins in 712 CE, shortly after the Muslims arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, when the first Umayyad rulers of Al-Andalus built a fortified citadel on this site. Over the following centuries, especially during the 11th century, Seville became the capital of the Abbasid dynasty, and the old fortress was transformed into a magnificent complex of palaces that reflected the artistic brilliance of Islamic Spain.

Among the rulers who walked these halls was Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, the last great king of Seville. Ironically, what history remembers most about him isn't one of his battles. It's his love story. Al-Mu'tamid fell in love with Itimad al-Rumaykiyya, a woman who wasn't born into royalty, nor chosen for political alliances. According to medieval chroniclers, she was originally a servant. He freed her, married her, and made her his queen simply because he loved her. One legend says that Itimad once confessed she missed the sight of snow from her childhood. Seville rarely sees snow, so Al-Mu'tamid planted rows of almond trees throughout the palace gardens. Every spring, when the white blossoms covered the ground, it looked as though snow had fallen just for her.

In 1091, the Almoravids took over Seville. Al-Mu'tamid lost his kingdom, his palace, and everything he had spent a lifetime building. He and Itimad were exiled across the Strait of Gibraltar to Aghmat, where they lived the rest of their lives far from the city that had once been theirs.

Yet perhaps the most remarkable part of their story is that exile never separated them. After losing power, wealth, and a kingdom, they still had each other. Al-Mu'tamid remained devoted to Itimad until his death in 1095, and today they rest side by side, a reminder that while kingdoms rise and fall, some stories outlive the empires that created them.

The Royal Alcázar itself continued to evolve after the Christian conquest of Seville in 1248. Christian kings expanded it, preserved much of its Islamic architecture, and built new sections in the distinctive Mudéjar style, where Islamic craftsmanship continued to shape Spain.

I think that's what makes the Alcázar so fascinating. It's a place where civilizations overlapped instead of replacing one another completely. Muslim emirs, Christian monarchs, poets, architects, craftsmen, and lovers all left their fingerprints on the same walls.

Sources:

Hugh Kennedy, Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus (Routledge, 1996).

Antonio Vallejo Triano, The Arts of al-Andalus.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre – Royal Alcázar of Seville.

Ibn Bassam, Al-Dhakhira fi Mahasin Ahl al-Jazira (medieval source on Al-Mu'tamid and his court).

Ibn Khallikan, Biographical Dictionary (life of Al-Mu'tamid).

"النيلة" مادة صبغ زرقاء طبيعية (Indigo) تستخرج من نباتات معينة، أشهرها نبات Indigofera tinctoria. هاد الصبغة كانت من أغلى الأصباغ في العالم قبل ظهور الأصباغ الصناعية، واستعملتها حضارات كثيرة في إفريقيا، آسيا، وحتى أوروبا.

وكي نقولو "النيلة" يجي فبالكم ذاك اللون الأزرق لي يميز لباس الطوارق فالجنوب الجزائري. بصح لي ممكن ناس بزاف ماعلابالهمش بيه هو أن هاد القماش ما كانش غير لباس تقليدي برك فمنذ قرون، كانت النيلة توصل للجنوب الجزائري عبر القوافل التجارية لي كانت تربط شمال إفريقيا ببلدان إفريقيا جنوب الصحراء. وبمرور الوقت، ولات رمز للفخامة والمكانة الاجتماعية حتى أنها كانت تتستعمل أحيانا كوسيلة للتبادل التجاري.

بصح أكثر حاجة شدتني هي طريقة استعمالها.... القماش الأبيض كان يتصبغ بالنيلة الطبيعية مع أعشاب وزيوت عطرية، وكي يلبسوه مباشرة على الجلد كانو يآمنو بلي يساعد على تقشير البشرة، يعطيها صفاء، ويحميها من حرارة الصحراء والجفاف. يعني قبل ما يكون عندنا مفهوم skincare، كانو كاين ناس يستعملو اللباس نفسه كجزء من العناية اليومية بالجسم.

طبعا بعض هذي الفوائد داخلة في الموروث الشعبي ومازالت تندار على النيلة دراسات علمية أكثر باش تتأكد، بصح تبقى فكرة مثيرة للاهتمام. الجزء لي يحتاج شوية تدقيق هو الفوائد التجميلية تاعها . كاين بعض الأدلة بصح ماشي بالقوة لي يروجولها الناس على مواقع التواصل ولازم نفرقو بين الاستعمال التقليدي والإثبات العلمي. النيلة فيها مركبات بيولوجية نشطة والدراسات لقات أن نباتات الإنديغو تحتوي على مركبات عندها خصائص مضادة للالتهاب، مضادة لبعض أنواع البكتيريا والفطريات، و حتى مضادة للأكسدة. لهذا استعملتها عدة حضارات في الطب التقليدي، خاصة في الصين والهند. وبعض الأبحاث الحديثة تدرس إمكانية استعمال مشتقات الإنديغو في علاج أمراض جلدية مثل الصدفية والإكزيما، لكن مازال البحث مستمر...

Sources:

A review of traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of the genus Indigofera

UNESCO – Trans-Saharan Trade Routes and Cultural Exchange.

Something caught my attention after Zinedine Zidane was officially announced as the new coach of the French national football team. Well, everyone knew that day would eventually come, but what the French media did wasn't random!

In less than 24 hours of announcing the news, one of the first headlines that followed was: "What is Zidane's religion?". Seriously, what's the purpose of asking this question at this time? And perhaps more importantly, would the same article have appeared if the new coach had been Didier Deschamps for example? Public figures have always generated curiosity but what interests me is why the media chooses certain aspects of a person's identity to highlight, and not others?

You should know that journalists don't simply report facts but they FRAME stories. Communication researchers have spent decades studying what's known as framing theory (the idea that the media tells us what happened and influences how we think about what happened by deciding which details deserve attention like religion, ethnicity, origins, family history, etc.). Trust me none of these are neutral once they become headlines because they shape the lens through which millions of readers first encounter a person.

For Zidane, he has never hidden his background. He has spoken publicly about being of Algerian Kabyle descent and has described himself as a Muslim. But when France appoints a football coach, what becomes the story? Not his tactical philosophy, nor his achievements, nor his plans for the team... it's his religion! If two coaches receive different kinds of questions despite holding the same position, it's worth asking what assumptions are guiding the conversation and this doesn't automatically prove bias but it does invite us to think more carefully about how identity is framed in public discourse. Sometimes the most revealing thing about a headline isn't the answer it provides actually, it's the question it chooses to ask.

PS : the article has been deleted after it became controversial and talked about online.

Sources

Reuters – Zidane appointed France head coach.

Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis (1974).

a decision from the Ministry of Education: the philosophy subject was canceled for all scientific streams in the third year of secondary school, keeping it only for the Literature and Philosophy stream.

What do you think of this decision!

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When we think of the great libraries of antiquity, the first and most common name that usually comes to mind is Alexandria. Yet very few know that across the Mediterranean another remarkable intellectual center flourished in Caesarea Mauretaniae, modern-day Cherchell, Algeria!

" King Juba II" and his wife "Cleopatra Selene II" (the daughter of the famous Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony) are behind this project. the royal couple, who were educated in Rome but deeply connected to North Africa, transformed Caesarea into a city where scholarship, exploration, medicine, literature, and arts flourished side by side.

Ancient writers describe Juba II (king of Numidia (29–25 bc) and Mauretania (25 bc–ad 24)) as a king who was one of the most learned rulers of his age. He authored numerous works on history, geography, Arabia, Libya, botany, and natural science. Although most of his books have been lost, later historians preserved fragments of his work by citing him extensively.

One of his most fascinating studies focused on the medicinal properties of North African plants. According to Pliny the Elder, Juba documented the therapeutic uses of Artemisia (wormwood) and described the Euphorbia plant found in the Atlas Mountains. The latter was even named after his physician, Euphorbus, and continued to be discussed by physicians such as Galen centuries later.

His curiosity extended well beyond medicine by the way. Ancient sources, like Pliny and Strabo, recount that Juba sponsored maritime expeditions along the Atlantic coast, documenting the Canary Islands, among the earliest detailed descriptions preserved in Greco-Roman literature. He also developed the production of Tyrian purple, the luxurious dye extracted from Mediterranean murex shells, a pigment so valuable that it became synonymous with imperial authority throughout the Roman world..

Unfortunately, this intellectual legacy did not survive intact. Following the assassination of King Ptolemy of Mauretania (Juba's son), by the emperor Caligula in AD 40, the kingdom was annexed into the Roman Empire. The political upheaval that followed, together with centuries of conflict and decline, gradually dispersed the manuscripts and collections that had made Caesarea one of North Africa's greatest centers of learning. Unlike Alexandria, whose destruction became legendary, the disappearance of Caesarea's scholarly heritage occurred more quietly... its memory fading with time...

the Cherchell Museum nowadays preserves extraordinary Roman sculptures, mosaics, inscriptions, and architectural remains that remind us of a city which once stood at the crossroads of civilizations.

Learning about Caesarea also reminds us how history is often remembered selectively. We celebrate Alexandria because its story became iconic, but intellectual life in antiquity was never concentrated in a single city. kings like Juba II actively shaped the scientific and cultural landscape of the Mediterranean. Recovering these forgotten histories does not diminish other civilizations... it simply gives us a fuller and more accurate picture of the ancient world.

Sources:

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia (Books V, VI, XII, XXV).

Strabo, Geographica (Book XVII).

Plutarch, Parallel Lives (Life of Caesar; Life of Antony).

Gabriel Camps, Encyclopédie berbère (entry: Caesarea Mauretaniae).

Michèle Coltelloni-Trannoy, Le royaume de Maurétanie sous Juba II et Ptolémée (CNRS, 1997).

Philippe Leveau, Caesarea de Maurétanie: une ville romaine et ses campagnes (École française de Rome, 1984).

Jehan Desanges, Juba de Maurétanie et l'héritage antique (Revue HeRMA, 1999).

Christa Landwehr, Die römischen Skulpturen von Caesarea Mauretaniae.

Nacéra Benseddik & T. W. Potter, Fouilles du forum de Cherchel.

Stéphane Gsell, Cherchel, antique Iol-Caesarea.

Sabah Ferdi, Corpus des mosaïques de Cherchel.

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