Zing Tsjeng explores how the City of London and its financial institutions profited from slavery in America long after the trade was abolished. She uncovers the hidden history of European wealth built on oppression, exploitation, and colonial plunder. The legacy of colonialism is everywhere today—from our banks to the food on our tables—and it’s time we paid attention.
Tag Archives: europe
Sahara (series)
Series Synopsis
For centuries colonialists have bypassed the Sahara. The largest sand desert on the planet was too hot and too impenetrable.
Now, Europe seems to have shifted its southern border to the Sahara in order to stop migration and combat terrorism. How do the inhabitants of the Sahara feel about this interference?
In Sahara, a new three episode series, Bram Vermeulen crosses the desert from west to east, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
He experiences the heat, the dangers of advancing jihadism, the desperation of migrants, the hidden world of slavery, uncovers human trafficking networks and he meets with locals in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.
Episode 1 – The Secret of Mauritania
In the far west of the Sahara lies Mauritania. Ten years ago, this country was a busy crossing for migrants from West Africa to the Canary Islands, but since the Spanish coast guard have taken up patrols, no one has gotten through.
Mauritania is one of those countries that has managed to escape the attention of the world press. A country of sand where the first cities were not built until the 1960s, but urbanisation has brought many desert customs to the city. Notorious is the habit of force-feeding young girls with camel milk and breadcrumbs dipped in olive oil, a banned custom intended to make them more attractive on the marriage market.
It turns out that there is much more happening in Mauritania that they would rather hide.
Officially, slavery was abolished in Mauritania in 1981, nearly a century after the rest of the world had banned it, but activists are still fighting every day to free tens of thousands of black Mauritanians who are owned by others. They have no rights. They do not get paid. Women who have children, often by their owners, have to give their children their owners’ last names, and the children are not entitled to an education. And the battle against slavery is hazardous for activists, lawyers and the journalists who report on it.
Episode 2 – Timbuktu at the Crossroads
Timbuktu was a dream destination for any traveller brave enough to cross the Sahara. Centuries ago, mythical stories were told about Timbuktu; the streets were said to be paved in gold.
In 2012 the city was taken by an alliance of Tuareg separatists and Ansar Dine Jihadists. They realised the dream of generations of Tuareg nomads: their own state, under the name of Azawad. Ancient tombs were destroyed and for nine months, Timbuktu lived under the strict sharia regime until the French army was brought in to free the city.
We meet the owner of the only bar in Timbuktu, the son of a mixed marriage between a Malian mother and a French soldier. It was this ancestry that saved his life on the day that the Jihadists took over the city. Everyone in Timbuktu has two identities. The local journalist who had to run propaganda for the occupiers to stay alive. The young women who were abused by the Jihadists, but then came back to celebrate and dance to a song that praises the ideals of their abusers.
Timbuktu it seems remains a dangerous city in the grips of an identity crisis.
Episode 3 – Niger: Stuck in the Middle
For centuries, the frontier desert-city of Agadez was the starting point for travellers crossing the Sahara; the hub between West Africa and the Mediterranean, but the European migration panic has had a huge impact on Agadez. Under pressure from Brussels and in receipt of substantial payments, the government of Niger has adopted a law prohibiting the transport of migrants.
The law has left over 6000 smugglers unemployed. Their cars have been confiscated, many have been arrested, and most of the migrants in Agadez have been sent back to neighbouring countries of Algeria and Libya.
Today, Agadez is an angry city. The EU had promised alternative employment, but of the 6000 candidates, only 200 jobs materialised. The former smugglers blame their own bureaucrats who charged fees to assist them in filling in forms, but then sat back and did nothing.
Some of the smugglers have moved to the goldmines in the Sahara, indescribably difficult work in the 45 degree heat, and a far cry from their lucrative former employment.
There is a volatile atmosphere in the streets of Agadez. Monday always used to be the day of departure for the smugglers. Can it be that the smugglers of Agadez have found a new way to circumvent the wishes to Europe and the blockades?
A Stone in Our Heart
A Mother and Daughter – Lillian and Jette – are climbing up a mountain in Switzerland. A mountain that brings back a lot of memories.
They hike from cabin to cabin while they dig into a past which Lillian has spent many years trying to suppress: Jette was sexually abused by her stepfather throughout her childhood and youth. A part of the abuse took place in the same cabins that Jette and Lillian are now revisiting.
Jette has invited her mother to go on this trip because she needs to talk about what happened, and especially about Lillian’s role in it all. Jette loves her mother, but at the same time she can’t stand being close to her. Over the years Jette has begun to question whether her mother knew about the abuse or not. Naturally Jette feels a deep frustration. But she has a strong hope that if Lillian admits she knew about the abuse, Jette can find an opportunity to forgive her mother and reestablish a healthy relationship.
The mountain trip puts the two women’s relationship to the test. When Jette gets the conversation started, she doesn’t get the answer that she expected: Lillian denies that she saw or knew anything.
This is the starting point of a physically and emotionally life-changing journey, which forces the two women to face their own inner demons and to embrace the pain and the guilt, but also to have faith. The conversations intensify as the two women move up the mountain.
At one point it seems like this trip might be the last thing they will ever do together.
The Digital Drug Industry
Drugs have never been more marketed than they are now. The most recent European Drug Report refers to this as an “uberisation” of the drug market, with it now being easier to order a gram of cocaine than a pizza. But with this ease of access and glossy marketing has come a dark outcome; a sharp uptake in drug use in children, as young as 10. The world has been hit by a wave of deaths of children who have taken Class A drugs such as ecstasy, and many have been found to have bought those drugs on Instagram and Snapchat. Tir Dhondy investigates how easy it really is to pick up, and whether it’s possible to regulate this digital wild west.
The Secret History of Oxford University
Zing Tsjeng visits Oxford to examine the ongoing controversy as universities across the UK reckon with their unsavoury connections to colonialism. People like slave owners, slave traders and white supremacists have historic connections to some of the UK’s finest universities. They don’t put that bit in the prospectus, but it’s the truth.
Empires of Dirt is a show about Europeans getting rich at the expense of everyone else. Zing Tsjeng uncovers the ugly history of the European colonial empires they don’t teach us in schools. Countries around the world were looted for their treasures, people were oppressed and exploited and European powers relentlessly profited. The far-reaching repercussions of colonialism are all around us, from our financial institutions to the food we have in our cupboards at home – and it’s about time we took notice.
Sugar and Slavery: Britain’s Bitter Legacy
Sugar was once so valuable it was called “white gold.” For centuries, Britain’s sweet tooth drove the world economy and helped build its colonial empire—at the cost of millions of enslaved Africans forced to work on plantations in the West Indies and America. At the center of the trade was Bristol, where men like Edward Colston grew rich from investments.
Zing Tsjeng travels there to uncover the human cost behind our addiction to sugar and reveal the enduring legacy of colonial exploitation, from financial institutions to the food on our tables.
Love Me
Can people find love through the modern “mail-order bride” industry? Or is the international romance business just a scam? Sincere and unflinching, Love Me follows Western men and Ukrainian women as they embark on an unpredictable and riveting journey in search of love.
Each character’s experience exposes the myths and realities of this unique industry, while also exploring the much deeper, human story that is too often overlooked.
Forget everything you think you know about “mail-order” brides and get ready for an outrageously funny, touching and unforgettable look at the extreme lengths people travel for love.
Burning From the Inside
German and Greek nationalists have paradoxically joined forces, and grown in numbers promoting a fascist agenda while on both sides, antifascists have risen to challenge them amidst a backdrop of global recession, finger-pointing and scapegoating.
Burning from the Inside charts the rise of the Greek Nazis ‘Golden Dawn’ – the ‘monstrous’ child of the crisis – the changes they brought to Greek society after their entry to parliament, their collaboration with German Neo-Nazis in the formation of ‘Black International’, and their fall two years later with the murder of the anti-fascist Pavlos Fissas.
Through the trajectory of the party, we question the political and social structures of Greek leadership that fomented the rise of fascism and corruption, as well as the dis-function of Capitalism and Democracy in the country that gave birth to it. We also look at the role of Germany as the ‘queen of Europe’ and the extent to which she is responsible for developments in southern European countries.
While the rise of far right may seem unthinkable, dramatic scenes of racially motivated blood shed on the streets of Athens, police brutality linked to membership of far-right organisations and institutional racism in Greece tell a different story. Meanwhile, in Germany a more subtle, insidious message reaches the public with headlines blaming ‘lazy Greeks’ and other minorities within the country. Burning from the Inside is a visceral indictment of a deadly minority on the fringes of Europe that we ignore at our peril.
3MMC: Europe’s Explosive New Party Drug
Europe is undergoing a synthetic boom, with hundreds of stimulants springing up across the continent. None though are creating quite as much buzz as 3-MMC. Piggybacking into the party scene off its predecessor Mephedrone, 3-MMC (3-methylmethcathinone) offers a cleaner, cheaper, and potentially more addictive high with virtually no comedown. Many describe it feeling like a mixture of cocaine and molly—no wonder partiers can’t wait to get their hands on it. But, they’re not the only ones…
Since its ban in 2022, 3-MMC has been illicitly trafficked back into Europe by mafia groups in the Netherlands. Smuggling shipments of drugs and precursor chemicals into Rotterdam and neighboring Antwerp, underground mafias are on the verge of turning the Netherlands into a narco-state.
Zach Shucklin heads to Berlin and Amsterdam to learn about 3-MMC’s unique properties, its role in the party scene, and the potential ramifications for its growing popularity.