1871
The Griqualand West Colony is established by Britain as a means to secure diamond discoveries in Kimberley. The land belongs to the Griqua people (pic), who are shoved aside as British and Boer miners rush in to claim diamonds.
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1871
1896
For daring to resist British occupation of Nyasaland (Malawi), Gomani I, leader of the Maseko-Ngoni Kingdom, is subjected to a British military trial, and shot. 5,000 Ngoni men are taken as labourers for British employers in Blantyre. However, his son, Gomani II (pic), determined to restore the Maseko royal house, will earn an education, and will be installed by his people in 1921. He will bless a monument to his father that will be erected on this day – 27 October – in 1926, and will be recognised by the British in 1933 as the king of the Ngoni.
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1896
1925
The first airplane to land in Nigeria takes off from Helwan, Egypt as part of a British Royal Air Force demonstration of aviation possibilities in Africa. Pilot Arthur Coningham makes refueling stops in Sudan, Chad and other places along the way.
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1925
1948
One of West Africa's early and most powerful national liberation parties is formed as Léopold Sédar Senghor establishes the Senegalese Democratic Bloc (BDS). The party draws its strength from rural areas, and seeks to put pressure on France for Senegal's independence
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1948
1966
The U.N. General Assembly votes that South Africa has no legal right to control the former German colony of South West Africa. South Africa ignores the vote, and proceeds to turn the territory into an apartheid state. (pic: Windhoek’s J.G. Strijdom airport, opened in 1965)
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1966
1968
Two boxers win Uganda’s first Olympic games medals. Leo Rwabwogo (pic, right) wins bronze in the flyweight division and Eridadi Mukwanga wins silver in the bantamweight division, at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
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1968
1971
The Democratic Republic of Congo changes its name to Zaire. The name lasts only as long as the dictatorship Mobuto Sese Seko. When he is forced out of power in 1997, the country again becomes the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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1971
1985
For the first time since independence in 1964, Tanzania has a new leader. Ali Hassan Mwinyi is elected the country’s second president, succeeding Julius Nyerere.
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1985
1997
Botswana issues a new banknote denomination of P20, featuring Dr K T Motsete, the composer of the Botswana national anthem.
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1997
2003
The Caprivi Treason Trail, Namibia’s largest and longest trial, begins in Windhoek. 132 defendants are charged with 252 counts of murder, sedition and treason for their roles in the 1999 militant uprising aimed at independence for the Caprivi Strip in northeast Namibia. After 12 years, in 2015, the High Court will find 30 defendants guilty of murder, attempted murder and high treason. Many defendants have been arrested because of their political opposition to the ruling party of President Sam Nujoma, and Amnesty International classifies them as prisoners of conscious.
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2003
2020
Long a staple of East African life both rural and urban, banana beer goes industrial in order to keep up with demand from drinkers who no longer have time to brew themselves. Known as mubisi in Uganda, as kasiksi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as urwaga in Kenya and as urwagwa in Rwanda and Burundi, the drink has previously defied commercialisation.
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2020
Births
1917
Oliver R. Tambo
South African freedom fighter, lawyer, and human rights activist, in Nkantolo, Union of South Africa. As president of South Africa’s political party the African National Congress from 1967 to 1991, he was at the forefront of the struggle against white minority rule and the installation of multi-racial democracy in South Africa, earning him the title “Father of His Country.”
1938
Richard Goldstone
South African judge whose resistance to apartheid through rulings on the bench changed the country’s history, in Boksburg, South Africa. Appointed a judge by the apartheid regime in 1980, he made evictions by the state on the basis of race virtually impossible, undermining the Group Areas Act that was the legal foundation for racial segregation. As head of the Goldstone Commission investigating political violence in the early 1990s, he identified perpetrators of all races, allowing the delicate transition from white minority rule to multi-racial democracy to continue, and earning for himself the description as South Africa’s “perhaps most-trusted man, and certainly the most trusted member of the white establishment."
1958
Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro)
South African political cartoonist, in Cape Town, South Africa. Satirising politicians of all races and sides of the political spectrum with biting imagery and witty writing, he has also contributed to the political cartoon as a pop art form. His drawings have been exhibited internationally.
1972
Maria Mutola
Mozambican athlete, in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique. She is considered one of history’s greatest 800 metre runners because of the length of her running career and her ability to perform at consistently top level. A competitor in six Olympic Games, she won gold in 1992. She was the only woman in history who won all major world championships in the same event.
