At the end of the first millennium this region was the western extreme of the trade routes across the Sahara and was populated by the Adrar, famous for ... Read More

The cities of Melilla and Ceuta had been Spanish territory since 1497 and 1580 respectively, the latter handed over by Portugal. With the signing of the Treaty of Fez in ... Read More

Following the lengthy turmoil of the attempted Katanga Secession, the Joseph Kasavubu's Republic of the Congo (he had become president on 1 July 1960) was a divided country – General ... Read More

On 24 November 1991 Freddie Mercury died of AIDS induced bracho-pneumonia. Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on the island of Zanzibar (then a British Protectorate) on 5 September 1946. ... Read More

On 23 November 2005 Liberia's National Electoral Commission declared Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf winner of November's presidential election, having concluded its investigation into claims of alleged election fraud filed by her rival, ... Read More

It is well known that one of the fundamental differences between the experiences of Whites and Blacks in Apartheid era South Africa was education. Whilst the battle against education in ... Read More

By the mid 60's the majority of African states were free from colonial rule. Find out when each country achieved independence from this chronological list of independence dates.

The number of recognized hominid species which form part of our extended family tree is growing. Find out where and when each of these species was discovered in this catalog ... Read More

Republican forces in southern Natal ambush a British armored train departing from Estcourt. The train is partially wrecked and in the ensuing fight four British soldiers are killed and 34 ... Read More

On 14 November 1975 the Franco government signed the tripartite Madrid Agreement with Morocco and Mauritania for the proposed administration of the region. Earlier in the month, 6 November, Morocco's ... Read More

Tobruk changes hands for the last time in the North African campaign, but Montgommery's quarry, Rommel, is nowhere to be found. The port, which was captured by Rommel's forces back ... Read More

Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer, has had a tempestuous history. Bantu migrants first entered the region during the first millennium, and by the 12th century BCE kingdoms and ... Read More

Twelve years ago, on 10 November 1995, writer and political activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian military government after being charged with the murder of four tribal leaders. ... Read More

Mimi and Toutou go Forth is a curious mix of a Tom Sharpe novel and the BBC TV series Blackadder Goes Forth. It tells the story of the British ... Read More

Herman Toivo ja Toivo, one of the co-founders of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO), may be considered to be the father of the Namibian independence struggle. Toivo stayed ... Read More

Dr DF Malan was a champion of Afrikaner nationalism and first prime minister of the Apartheid government in South Africa. During his six-and-a-half years of power Malan and his Re-united ... Read More

Olive Schreiner, the first white South African novelist of consequence, achieved international fame with her book The Story of an African Farm. She was also an outspoken advocate of feminism, ... Read More

Ever wondered what the specific internet domains were for the various countries on the African continent? Well, from .ao for Angola and .bj for Benin, through to .sz for Swaziland ... Read More

Mary Kingsley's sheltered upbringing made her the most unlikely of African explorers. But after her parents' death, she decided to complete her father's research of "primitive religion and law", which ... Read More

Mary Kingsley, one of the few true women explorers, wrote her best-seller, Travels in West Africa in 1897. It is a fascinating journal by a borderline eccentric.Recounting an encounter with ... Read More