This week in African History

African History

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African History

This week in African history

Key events from the 20th century.

Week starting Monday 10 March

Date	Year	Event

10	1929	Egyptian women are granted (limited) divorce rights by the national government.
10	1943	General Erwin Rommel has lost the battle for North Africa and, under the guise of sick leave, departs from Tunisia.

11	1913	Frontier between Nigeria and Cameroon is agreed by Britain and Germany.
11	1922	The South African Industrial Federation, a white miners union, has run riot in the Rand Gold mining district: sabotaging trains, attacking natives, and firing at the police. They are protesting against proposals to open semi-skilled jobs to non-white workers.
11	1953	Following the murder of a British farmer in Kenya, 11 Kikuyu tribesmen are hanged.
11	1984	South African government offers to take part in a peace conference with the South-West African People's Organisation (SWAPO).
11	1986	South African Police fire at 3,000 schoolchildren protesting against the recent arrest of 26 students. "The [Truth and Reconciliation] Commission [of South Africa] finds that the Kangwane police attacked them without provocation and without giving them any warning to disperse, fired repeated rounds of live ammunition into the unarmed crowd. Three students were killed and eighty were seriously injured, most being wounded in the back."

12	1922	Following the declaration of martial law in Johannesburg and the Rand Gold mining districts, South Africa troops detain 1,500 rioting miners.
12	1943	Following Rommel's departure from Africa, the Fifth Panzer Army is defeated at Ksar Rhilane and are now in retreat.
12	1975	Kenyan students demonstrate against Jomo Kenyatta's government following the assassination of opposition leader Josiah Mwangi Kariuki.
12	1980	Dr Apollo Milton Obote, the ex-president of Uganda now living in exile in Tanzania, confirms that he will be running for president. The incumbent, Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, is departing for Saudi Arabia following his failed invasion of northern Tanzania.
12	1983	Joshua Mqabuko Nyangol Nkomo has fled Zimbabwe following a failed armed rebellion by Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) forces in Matabeleland. Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) government reacted strongly: crushing all opposition and confiscating Nkomo's property.
12	1992	Mauritius achieves independence within the Commonwealth and Seewoosagur Ramgoolam is elected prime minister. (Ramgoolam was awarded the United Nations Prize for the defence of human rights in 1973 for his handling of ethnic tensions between Muslims and Creoles on the islands.)

13	1900	General Lord Roberts, with almost 34,000 troops, takes control of Bloemfontein following a night-time flit by the opposing Boer forces.
13	1967	Moïse Kapenda Tshombe is sentenced to death in absentia (he has left for exile in Spain) by Mobutu's government in the Congo.

14	1916	The Senussi rebellion in Egypt is put down by British forces.
14	1976	Colonel Mohammed Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt, ends a five year friendship pact with the Soviet Union.
14	1982	The London offices of the militant black nationalist African National Congress are bombed only hours before an Anti-Apartheid rally.

15	1922	Sultan Faud appoints himself King of Egypt.
15	1941	Rommel, who has flown back to Germany to meet with Hitler, has left orders to begin an attack on British and Commonwealth forces at El Agheila.
15	1957	General Nasser bars Israeli shipping from Suez Canal.
15	1961	South African prime minister Dr. Hendrick Verwoerd, announces that South Africa will be leaving the Commonwealth when it becomes a republic on 31 May.

16	1922	Egypt achieves independence under King Faud. (It had been declared a sovereign state by Britain on 28 February.)
16	1946	Ferhat Abbas, an Algerian nationalist leader, is released by the French authorities after one year in captivity.
16	1941	British troops land at Berbera, British Somaliland.
16	1996	Polling begins in Zimbabwe with President Robert Mugabe as the sole candidate.