BC 47
Roman Emperor Julius Caesar ends his affair with Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. He departs Alexandria, Egypt to do battle with the King of Pontus.
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BC 47
1847
Morocco’s Sultan Muhammed V delivers a landmark speech in Tangier calling for national independence from colonial rule.
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1847
1861
The new U.S. President Abraham Lincoln holds consultations on his idea to create a colony in the Central American country Panama, where Africans enslaved in America would migrate as free people and be employed there mining coal for the U.S. Navy. Lincoln despises slavery but believes it would be better for African-Americans and for white Americans if former slaves emigrated elsewhere. He will modify his views later in his presidency. The American Civil War will break out in two days (12 April), and Lincoln puts aside the colonisation idea.
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1861
1877
A second group of Afrikaner migrant, called Trekboers, depart on a journey from Limpopo in South Africa in search of a place to settle free of British control. They head north.
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1877
1954
In British Kenya, 191,587 Kenyans have been arrested by today in connection with the anti-colonial Mau Mau Uprising, according to figures released during a British Parliament debate of 28 April 1954.
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1954
1960
British airliner BOAC resumes service to Cairo. Flights were suspended in 1956 during the Suez Crisis.
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1960
1993
In South Africa, Chris Hani, anti-apartheid activist, leader of the South African Communist Party and Chief of Staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), is assassinated by Janusz Walus. An immigrant to South Africa from Communist Poland, Walus is an anti-communist and a supporter of white nationalism.
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1993
1994
Tunisia hosts the 19th Africa Cup of Nations. Nigeria wins its second title, and the team’s Rashidi Yekini is Top Scorer with five goals. Showing the gratitude of Nigerians, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will give each team player a government house.
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1994
2000
Troops under The Gambia dictator Yahya Jammeh (on left in pic in red beret) kill 14 students and a journalist during a student demonstration held to protest an earlier death of a student by police.
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2000
2009
South African Gary Player, regarded as among the greatest golfers of all time, plays in the Masters Golf Tournament a record 52nd time. Except for 1973 when he was recovering from surgery, he has played every Masters Golf Tournament since 1957.
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2009
2011
Supporting forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the rightful winner of Côte d’Ivoire’s 2010 elections, French helicopters fire rockets at the Presidential Palace in Abidjan. Former President Laurent Gbagbo is arrested. In the four months since Gbagbo lost the election, 3,000 people have been killed in political violence.
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2011
Births
1910
Hamid Idris Awatehe
The Father of Eritrean Independence, in Gerset, Italian Ethiopia. As the founder of the Eritrean Liberation Front and thus the Eritrean Army, he fired the first shot of Eritrea’s independence movement in September 1961. Shot during the action, he died of his wounds eight months later.
1928
Seydou Badian Kouyaté
Malian writer and politician, in Bamako, French Sudan. A figure during the African literary flowering of the 1950s, he published his first novel Sous l'orage, in 1957. When Mali became independent in 1960, he wrote the lyrics to the national anthem.
1957
Fred Rwigyema
Rwandan military and political leader, in Gitarama, Ruanda-Urundi. Growing up as a refugee after his Tutsi family fled Ruanda (Rwanda) during the 1959 revolution, he learned soldiering why fighting with Mozambican rebels against Portuguese colonialists. Although a foreigner, he became a Ugandan Lieutenant General. After founding the Rwandan Patriotic Front Army with other Tutsi exiles, and leading 10,000 Ugandan soldiers in the cause, he attempted an invasion of Rwanda in 1990, but on the second day was shot and killed by a subordinate during an argument over tactics.
1957
Aliko Dangote
Nigerian business magnet, in Kano, Nigeria. The founder/CEO of the industrial conglomerate the Dangote Group, which includes Africa’s largest sugar refinery, he is the wealthiest person in African history (wealth through legitimate means). His worth was more than US$ 12 billion in 2021.
1965
Diébédo Francis Kéré
Burkinabé architect, in Gango, Upper Volta. The first African to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, he designed award-winning buildings throughout Africa, Europe and the U.S.; in Africa involving communities in planning and using local materials and vernacular styling. His holistic approach incorporating education and environment was honoured in 2024 by the World Economic Forum.
1975
Debora Kayembe
Congolese human rights lawyer/activist and academic, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. After obtaining her law degree, she took her human rights activism to the courts, investigating corruption and abuses in DRC. Escaping death threats because of her work, she sought asylum in Britain, where she responded to racism she encountered in Scotland with street activism. The first African to have her portrait displayed at of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in 2019, she was appointed Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh in 2021.
1978
Musa “Midnite” Mbhokota
South Africa’s first black Air Force pilot, in Pretoria, South Africa. Qualifying as a South African Air Force pilot in 2004, he became the first black pilot to command a fighter squadron when he took command of the SAAF 2 Squadron on 7 October 2007.
1985
Barkhad Abdi
Award-winning Somali film actor, in Mogadishu, Somalia. He won the British Academy Film Award and was nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) for his role as the leader of a gang of Somali pirates in the 2013 movie Captain Phillips. He continues to be featured in several major films and on the Hulu TV series Castle Rock.
1992
Sadio Mané
Senegalese professional football player, in Bambali, Senegal. He was the first Senegalese to be chosen CAF’s African Footballer of the Year, in 2019.
