As late as the 18th century, much of the interior of Africa was unfamiliar to Europeans as they'd limited themselves to trade along the coast. In 1788 the African Association ... Read More

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.

A 3,106 carat diamond (in rough form) was discovered at Premier Mine, near Pretoria, on 26 January 1905. It was named for Sir Thomas Cullinan, who discovered the mine three ... Read More

General Idi Amin Dada took power in Uganda by military coup while the existing president, Milton Obote, was at a Commonwealth meeting in Singapore. This was a pre-emptive strike since ... Read More

Following an overnight battle at Rorke's Drift, 150 British and Imperial soldiers successfully defended this isolated station against a force of more than 3,000 Zulu warriors, at a cost of ... Read More

The main Zulu army attacks the British Centre column at its campsite at the eastern base of Isandlwana hill. Approximately 470 of the 1,300 British casualties were black African combatants ... Read More

On this day in 1953 the Governor-General of Kenya, Sir Evelyn Baring, imposed the death penalty for anyone who administered the Mau Mau oath. The Mau Mau were a militant ... Read More

16 January 2006 was a first for women in Africa with the swearing-in of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president of Liberia, the first woman on the continent ever to be elected ... Read More

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

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D Roosevelt, and leader of the Free French, General Charles de Gaulle, meet at the Anfa Hotel, Casablanca, Morocco, from the 14th ... Read More

On 13 January 1972 Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong successfully lead a military coup in Ghana whilst the prime minster, Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, was in Great Britain for medical ... Read More

You’d think that we’d all know the name of the only woman ever to join the French Foreign Legion, who won medals for her heroism in the Africa Campaign during ... Read More

When the British ultimatum delivered to King Cetshwayo's representatives at the Lower Thukela Drift (on 11 December) expired – it required King Cetshwayo to dismantle the Zulu military system, a ... Read More

It is probably every budding Egyptologist's dream to travel to Egypt and visit the sites of the pyramids, temples and tombs. For most of us it will remain a dream. ... Read More

How 'Pure' was the Average Afrikaner? The ideology of Apartheid was based on segregation of races, yet if you look at the origins or heritage of the Afrikaner people the ... Read More

Now better known as the ANC or African National Congress, the South African Natives National congress was formed in 1912 in Bloemfontein with the intention of uniting "all tribes ... Read More

The Bantu Women's League (which became the ANC Woman's League in 1948 - a few years after membership of the ANC was opened to women), organized by its first president ... Read More

Joe Slovo was an anti-Apartheid activist, one of the founders of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC, and general secretary of the South African Communist Party ... Read More

The Van Riebeeck Festival begins, officially opened by Prime Minister DF Malan at Ohrigstad, in preparation for the national holiday on 6 April. The festival celebrates 300 years of white ... Read More

In June 1918 disaffected Afrikaners were brought together in a new organization called Jong Suid-Afrika (Young South Africa). The following year its name was changed to the Afrikaner Broederbond. The ... Read More

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was born in Bloemfontein on 3 January 1892. His parents had traveled to South Africa because ... Read More

In 1895 Leander Starr Jameson was commissioned by Cecil Rhodes (prime minister of Cape Colony) to lead a small mounted force into the Transvaal to support an expected uitlander uprising ... Read More

Although originally the home of the Bakas (Pygmies), the region was conquered by north-western Bantu societies who ultimately prospered from the trade in slaves from the interior. It came under ... Read More

Once a collection of small, independent kingdoms, Northern Sudan was taken by Egypt in 1821 and Southern Sudan by the British in 1877. (The British invaded Egypt in 1882.) In ... Read More