The Dark Kingdoms

“This is the story of three kingdoms. Two of them succumbed to white pressure and disappeared. One of them survives. Each is seen at a critical period in its history, when black met white head-on.”

King Affonso ruled the first of the three kingdoms, and welcomed the Portuguese as brothers, only to find his people were treated like cattle.

King Gelele ruled the second kingdom with a will of iron and fought to keep his culture alive but, trapped between white invaders and rival tribes, that iron will would bend and buckle.

Lastly Moshesh of Lesotho, the last man standing: who played them all at their own games and won.

Using diaries from famous figures like the explorer Richard Burton, Alan Scholefield breathes new life into a past that once seemed dead.

The Dark Kingdoms is at once both uplifting and heart-breaking, telling a tale often left untold.