Sophy Roberts

2 weeks ago | ft.com | Sophy Roberts

As the sun slipped towards the edge of the Barotse Floodplain, everything began to glow in the dying light: the blushing lilies that...

1 month ago | airmail.news | Sophy Roberts

The well-known story of King Leopold II of Belgium’s violent theft of what’s now the Democratic Republic of the Congo is told by Adam Hochschild in his seminal 1998 book, King Leopold’s Ghost. But there’s another, lesser-known narrative, a footnote linked to the seeds of Leopold’s initial colonial ambition, which caught my attention four years ago.

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Sophy Roberts

3 hours agoHamas says disarmament ‘not up for negotiation’ ahead of talks with Egyptian mediatorsA Hamas delegation will meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday for talks on a Gaza ceasefire, a senior official from the Palestinian terror …2 hours agoEagles select S Andrew Mukuba with last pick of second roundOnce again, the Eagles have added to their defense. With the No. 64 overall pick to cap the second round, Philadelphia has selected safety Andrew …

1 month ago | lithub.com | Sophy Roberts

Over the last few years, I’ve been coming and going from England, where I live, to East and Central Africa to research a book. A Training School for Elephants tells the story of a forgotten 1879 expedition commissioned by King Leopold II of Belgium. Article continues after advertisementHe wanted to test a new transport system to extract Congo’s resources.

1 month ago | wsj.com | Sophy Roberts

With World War II on the horizon, animal keepers in cities around the world had to face one question: What would happen to their charges? In the late 1990s, John M. Kinder was vacationing in Berlin. He visited the city’s Tiergarten, or “garden of beasts,” where he stumbled across a memorial to the animal casualties of a World War II aerial bombardment. The memorial featured a photograph of an elephant’s “bloodied leg” sticking out from rubble.