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200

Africa's first coins are minted by the King of Aksumite (Ethiopia). More of the bronze coins will survive than the gold (pic) and silver coins. Originally inscribed in Greek, the Amharic language will later be used.

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200

1890

The term “crimes against humanity” is coined, to describe the slavery and mass-murder against Congolese by the Belgian Congo Free State company. African-American historian and pastor George W. Williams uses the phrase in an open letter to the company’s owner, Belgian King Leopold II, after witnessing atrocities against the Congolese. The letter is published in newspapers in the U.S. and Europe, and raises awareness about the Congo, sparking interest and outrage. (pic: children whose hands were cut off for failing to fulfill their daily rubber quota).

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1890

1902

The Sultan of Zanzibar Hamoud bin Mohammed (pic) dies, and is succeeded as sultan by his son, Ali bin Hamud. During Mohammed’s six-year rule, he issued the final decree abolishing slavery on an island that for centuries had been the hub of the Arab slave trade. For that act, he was knighted by England’s Queen Victoria.

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1902

1914

Mahatma Gandhi departs South Africa after being released from jail, where he was held for leading a defiance campaign by the Indian community against British colonial anti-Asian laws. The campaign was successful, and the law is revoked by Governor Jan Smuts. Before he departs, Gandhi sends Smuts a pair of sandals he made while in jail. In 1939, Smuts will report that he has worn and cherished the sandals for 25 years.

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1914

1926

The scandal of the decade in South Africa results when Herman Charles Bosman, a school teacher who will become one of the country’s greatest short story writers, shoots and kills his brother-in-law during a quarrel at a family gathering. Originally condemned to death, he serves five years of a 10 year sentence of hard labour. He will relate his jail experiences in his 1949 book Stone Cold Jug.

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1926

1950

In Angola’s worst air accident to date, a local passenger plane approaching Lobito airport crashes into Bulobulo Mountain, killed the 12 people on board.

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1950

1966

The International Court of Justice in The Hague rules that the court has no jurisdiction over South Africa’s control of South West Africa (Namibia). The decision outrages the Organisation of African Unity. The South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) announces it has “no alternative but to rise in arms” to fight for independence. (pic: a bus travels to Windhoek in 1966)

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1966

1976

Diallo Telli, Guinean diplomat and politician and first Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity (1963-1972) and now Guinea’s Minister of Justice, is arrested by Guinea’s dictator Sékou Touré, a mass murderer who fears Telli as a political rival. Telli breaks under torture and confesses to lies invented by Touré’s police. In February 1977, along with four other prominent political prisoners, he is killed by the “black diet” – a complete denial of food and water until death.

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1976

1995

Memoirs of future U.S. President Barack Obama, Dreams of My Father, is published. The best-seller deals with racial issues and recollects his Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr., and Kenyan ancestry.

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1995

2004

Four years after they won silver in the Men’s 4x400 metres relay at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, Clement Chukwu, Jude Monye, Sunday Bada and Enefiok Udo-Obong become the first Nigerian men to win an Olympics gold medal. The International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) rules that the event’s original winner, the USA team, was ineligible to compete, and strips the Americans of their medals. Nduka Awazie and Fidelis Gadzama, who only competed in heats, are also awarded medals.

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2004

2017

A deadly cholera outbreak in Kenya results in the more stringent regulation of street vendors and scrutiny of restaurant licenses.

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2017

2017

The Ethiopia government charges singer Seenaa Solomoon and six others with "terrorism" after the release of their music video critical of government’s repression of the Oromo people.

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2017

2018

Nigeria’s new state airline is launched. Nigeria Air will begin commercial service in December, using Airbus aircraft.

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2018

2019

Sudan's Mohamed Yosaif Abdalrahan, a tireless human rights activist who champions women's, journalists' and minority groups' rights, becomes the first recipient of the U.S. government’s new International Religious Freedom Award.

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2019

Births

1842
William D. Coleman

President of Liberia (1896-1900), in Fayette County, Kentucky, U.S. At a young age he immigrated to the Liberian colony with his family as part of the American Colonization Society. He became a successful trader, studied at night to receive an education, and was elected to the Senate before his election as Vice President and then as President. Education was one of his major policy areas, and he reopened Liberia College.

1910
Mamadou Dia

First Prime Minister of Senegal (1957-1962), in Kombolé, French West Africa. An independence activist, he differed with Léopold Sédar Senghor, who would be Senegal’s first president. Dia wanted a complete break from colonial master France, while Senghor chose to retained ties with France. Dia was forced to resign amid a power struggle with Senghor that an embittered Senghor characterised as an attempted coup d’état.

1929
Adelaide Tambo

Political activist and human rights campaigner, in Top Location, Verringiging, Union of South Africa. A lifelong opponent of state oppression, she joined the anti-apartheid African National Congress, founded branches in Transvaal, and married ANC President Oliver Tambo. In 1963, “Mama Tambo” founded the Pan-African Women’s Organisation.

1940
Peter Mutharika

President of Malawi (2014-2020), in Chisoka, Thyolo, British Nyasaland. The younger brother of Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, he served in several cabinet post before being elected to the presidency. His one-term administration was plagued by corruption scandals, and after he failed to be re-elected, he was the subject of extensive corruption investigation.