In reading the history of the European scramble for African colonies I was struck by the historical parallels of two wars that took place in 1896, one in East Africa and the other in Central Africa. One was the colonial war between Italy and Ethiopia (which actually started in 1895) and the other was the Ndebele and Shona uprising against white settlers that began in March of 1896. Events leading up to both wars involved protracted negotiations between the Africans and Europeans over disputed treaties followed by attempts at diplomacy that ultimately failed leading to the wars that followed. I decided to write about these events in the form of a historical novel and also include in this work the African American experience during this same period when African Americans, locked in a struggle with reactionary forces in the post-Reconstruction south bent on restoring white supremacy, were fighting a murderous assault on their freedom. This struggle bore disturbing similarities to the African struggle against colonialism being waged on the continent. This novel paints a broad canvas as it brings together these historical forces in the struggle of oppressed people while presenting the prominent individuals of that time who played a central role in the events described here.