1828
Shaka kaSenzangakhona, also known as Shaka Zulu, a military genius who expanded the Zulu Kingdom through conquest, is assassinated by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana.
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1828
1838
Potchefstroom is established as the second European settlement in the Republic of Winburg-Potchefstroom (later the Republic of South Africa).
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1838
1932
In Côte d’Ivoire, 24 year-old Félix Houphouët-Boigny begins his crusade against the French colonial government and white landlords who are mistreating Ivorian’s. He does so by writing the article “They Have Stolen Too Much From Us,” which appears in the Ivorian socialist newspaper Trait d’inion. By using a pseudonym, he avoids arrest, but establishes his involvement in liberation politics.
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1932
1937
Mozambique’s national airline Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique begins operations out of Lourenço-Marques (Maputo), Portuguese Mozambique. Today’s flights are air mail only, but LAM as it will become known will soon fly passengers. Some of the planes are De Havilland Rapides (pic).
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1937
1940
Deported from Palestine by British authorities, 1,580 Jewish men, women and children refugees arrive in Mauritius. Although refugees, they will be kept behind bars in Beau Bassin Central Prison for five years.
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1940
1959
U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower arrives for a State Visit to Morocco to confer King Mohammed V. The leaders enjoy their meeting, and stand together in an open car to greet crowds in Rabat.
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1959
1963
The Zimbabwe National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) is founded. This is a political and military alliance between ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo (pic) operating out of Zambia with backing from the Soviet Union, and ZANU, led by Robert Mugabe and operating out of Mozambique with Chinese backing. Although the political parties will remain separate, with ideological differences, the merging of the liberation armies creates a powerful force dedicated to the overthrow of Rhodesia’s white minority government.
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1963
1973
A Royal Air Moroc strays off course in bad weather and crashes into Mount Mellaline near Tétouan, Morocco, killing all 106 people on board.
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1973
1974
While the rest of the Comoros archipelago votes for Independence, the island of Mayotte votes in a referendum to remain a French colony. The island will reaffirm this decision in referendums held in 2000 and 2009 (pic).
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1974
1988
The Tripartite Agreement commits Angola, Cuba and South Africa to implement U.N. Resolution 435 on Namibia by 1 April 1989. Cuba agrees to withdraw its troops from Angola by 1991. South Africa agrees to withdraw its troops from South West Africa (pic), under U.N. supervision, allowing for the U.N. Independence Plan for Namibia to be implemented.
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1988
1992
Libya’s worst air disaster occurs when a Libyan Arab Airlines passenger plane collides with a Libyan Air Force MiG fighter. Both pilots in the fighter and all 157 people aboard the jetliner are killed.
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1992
2009
Puntland, an autonomous state within the Somalia Federation, introduces a new state flag and national anthem following approval by the legislature.
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2009
2020
Four months after the Elite Hotel in Mogadishu was damaged by al-Shabaab terrorist who attacked it with grenades that killed 16, the hotel reopens. The opening symbolises Somalia’s determination to rise above terror attacks and rebuild the country. Not only has US$2 million been spent to repair the damage, an additional US$8 million has been spent building 120 new deluxe rooms.
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2020
Births
1876
Thomas Mofolo
Basotho author who is considered the greatest writer of the Basotho people, in Khojane, Basotholand. Writing mostly in the Sotho language in what will become Lesotho, he wrote the country’s first novel Moeti oa bochabela in 1907. Translated into English, his 1925 novel Chaka, a fictionalised account of the life of Zulu leader Shaka, is an epic masterpiece still read a century later. Chaka was one of the first novels by a black African to make a global impact.
1904
Aloys Bigirumwami
Rwandan Catholic Bishop, in Zaza, Ruanda-Urundi. He was the first African from Belgium’s colonies (which became Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda) to be appointed Bishop, by Pope Pius XII in 1952. He saw traditional beliefs not as enemies to be suppressed but to be respected and used to reach the people. He built hospitals and schools, and promoted girls’ education.
1955
Lisa Castel
Angolan writer and poet, in Quela, Malanje Province, Portuguese Angola. As a journalist, she wrote for the Jornal de Angola, but did her most expressive writing in her poetry, where she described the personal sorrow and anguish of Angola’s civil war period. Her poetry was collected in the 1988 volume Mukandacccc.
1981
Tumi Morake
South African comedian, in Free State, South Africa. A stand-up comedian who also hosts TV shows, she was the first African woman to have a comedy set on the TV streaming service Netflix, and was the first woman to host Comedy Central Presents when the show was produced in Africa.
1989
Ilwad Elman
Somali peace activist, in Mogadishu, Somalia. She was sent to Canada as a child when her father, peace activist Almaas Elman, was assassinated, but returned while the Somalia Civil War still raged to work for her mother Fartuun Adan’s social welfare NGO. She has participated in national security initiatives, anti-rape (her Sister Somalia programme is the country’s first for gender-based violence survivors) and women’s empowerment programmes, help for child soldiers at the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre that she established and named for her father, and other issues to rebuild Somalia.
