Happy Birthday to Panama!

Pupils in front of their school in Mozambique. *Photo from Wikipedia June 25 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975. Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili (and later Arab) commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans. The area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonised by Portugal from 1505. The country was an important place where Somali merchants enslaved the local population, starting what is now known as the Somali slave trade. After over four centuries of Portuguese

Bogotá, the capital and largest city of Colombia. *Photo from Wikipedia July 20 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence declaration of Colombia from Spain in 1810. The Spanish set foot on Colombian soil for the first time in 1499 and in the first half of the 16th century initiated a period of conquest and colonization, ultimately creating the New Kingdom of Granada, with as capital Santafé de Bogotá. Independence from Spain was acquired in 1819, but by 1830 the “Gran Colombia” Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada. The new nation

Podgorica, the capital and largest city of Montenegro. *Photo from Wikipedia July 13 is Montenegro’s Statehood Day. It is a holiday that occurs every year on July 13 in Montenegro to commemorate the day in 1878 on which the Berlin Congress recognized Montenegro as the 27th independent state in the world, and that in 1941 the Montenegrins staged an uprising against the Nazi occupiers and sided with the partisan communist movement. The Congress of Berlin (or Berlin Congress; June 13 – July 13, 1878) was a meeting of the representatives of the Great Powers of the time (Russia, Great Britain,