Africa Today/Yesterday Logo

1555

Emperor Gelawdewos of Ethiopia receives a delegation of Jesuit priests sent by his ally, King John III of Portugal. The priests inspect the country to see if conditions are satisfactory for the Pope in Rome to set up churches and a religious bureaucracy there. Galawdewos tolerates their visit, but is more interested in conquest to secure his hold on the Horn of Africa.

#
1555

1881

The commander of the French forces conquering West Africa, General Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes, establishes his headquarters at Kita, French Sudan (Mali). He regularly ignores orders from his army superiors that interfere with his ambition to achieve military conquests and land acquisition, However, because his marauding is successful he is rewarded by constant promotions. Also ignored by his superiors is Desbordes’  violence toward Africans. “The Peaceful conquest of the Niger is an illusion," he states.

#
1881

1912

The Usambara Railway is officially dedicated in German East Africa (Tanzania). The 350.5-km line connects the Indian Ocean port of Tangara port with Lake Ukerewe (Lake Victoria). The railway uses 18 locomotives and 31 carriages, and has 562 employees (527 Africans and 35 Europeans).

#
1912

1923

South Africa’s government dominated by white British colonialists sets in motion what Prime Minister Jan Smuts says may take a hundred years to achieve: a country with complete racial segregation, where the white community lives in privileged urban areas and the nations of the Tswana, Xhosa, Zulus and others are obliterated. The Native (Urban Areas) Act goes into effect. From this day, black South Africans are not permitted to own land in urban areas. They may not reside in urban areas. Black South Africans who now reside in urban areas must be evicted, and none may work in an urban area without permission of the local white authority. (pic: built near Johannesburg’s sewage plant, the location Sophiatown is an instant slum where black people are confined)

#
1923

1926

Historian and founder of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, Carter G. Woodson, an American born of enslaved Africans, creates Negro History Week as a means to inspire new historical research on the U.S.’ African Diaspora. The name will change to Black History Week, and eventually evolve into an annual observation that designates February as Black History Month.

#
1926

1934

Regular scheduled airmail service between the African and South American continents begins as Germany’s Lufthansa Airways flies from Bathurst, The Gambia to Brazil. No airplane is capable of making the trip non-stop, so relay ships are positioned in the South Atlantic. An aircraft lands beside a ship at sea, is lifted on board with a winch, refueled, and shot back into the sky using a catapult. The trip takes four days. After 300 round-trip flights, the successful service ends in 1939 upon the outbreak of World War II.

#
1934

1964

To secure its claim of the Ogaden Desert region, the Somali Republic sends its army across the border into Ethiopia. Hostilities escalate, the Organisation of African Unity calls for a ceasefire, and Sudan’s President Abboud will negotiate a peace deal on 30 March. No territory changes nationality.

#
1964

1979

A non-election election allows Algerians to rubber-stamp the choice by the governing National Liberation Front to make a president of acting Defense Minister Col. Benjedid Chadli. The only candidate on the ballot, he replaces President Houari Boumediene, who died of a blood disease on 27 December 1978.

#
1979

1992

The new staff at the Namibian Broadcasting Company demands removal of their fellow employees who worked for and broadcasted propaganda for the pre-Independence South West Africa Broadcasting Company. The old workers’ jobs were guaranteed as part of independence negotiations.

#
1992

2016

The upgraded Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy is opened by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. The US$51 million state-of-the-art facility hopes to train 4,000 personnel -- air pilots, mechanics and other aviation workers -- yearly by 2025, with many arriving from other African countries.

#
2016

2018

Africa’s biggest art mystery is partly solved when Nigerian painter Ben Enwonwu’s masterpiece portrait of Ife princess Adetutu Ademiluyi is recovered, in London. Enwonwu painted three portraits of the princess in 1973, and all disappeared when he died in 1994. Two are still missing.

#
2018

2019

Kenya’s coffee farmers are switching to avocados. They are earning ten-times more for crop, and are making Kenya Africa's 2nd biggest avocado exporter behind South Africa. Areas under avocado cultivation have been increased to 7,500 hectares. 75% of growers are small farmers.

#
2019

Births

1916
Marcelle Lagesse

Mauritian novelist and journalist, in Quatre Bornes, Mauritius.  From the 1940s, when she published her first collection of short stories, she wrote for three Mauritian newspapers, and in 1958 published her first, award-winning novel. Her work has been translated into English and Russian. For her history of Mauritius, she received from France the honour of the Orde des Palmes Académiques, and become a Chevalier in the National Order of Merit.

1978
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, MFR

Nigerian actress and singer, in Lagos, Nigeria. A major Nollywood star who made her film debut in 1995, she was honoured by the Nigerian government in 2014 with the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic for her contributions to Nigerian cinema.