Happy Birthday to Panama!

Moraingy, a traditional martial art of Madagascar. *Photo from Wikipedia June 26 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Madagascar from France in 1960. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by a fragmented assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles. The monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known

Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, two of the driving forces in ending apartheid. *Photo from Wikipedia April 27 is the Freedom Day, which celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994. The elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone of voting age of over 18 from any race group, including foreign citizens permanently resident in South Africa, were allowed to vote. Previously, under the apartheid regime, non-whites had only limited rights to vote. On the first commemoration of the holiday, President Nelson Mandela addressed Parliament: “As dawn ushered in this day,

Kuala Lumpur was the capital city of Malaya. *Photo from Wikipedia August 31 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Malaya from the United Kingdom in 1957. The Federation of Malaya was a federation of what previously had been British Malaya comprising 11 states (nine Malay states and two of the British Straits Settlements, Penang and Malacca) that existed from February 1, 1948 until September 16, 1963. Although Muslims had passed through the Malay Peninsula as early as the 10th century, it was not until the 14th century that Islam first firmly established itself. Islam had a profound influence on