1880 – 1949

The Colonial Era & the Scramble for Africa

The Berlin Conference, the partition of Africa among European powers, colonial administration, resistance movements, and the world wars' impact on the continent.

Winifred Brunton, English-South African painter known for her portraits of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, was b… (1880)
Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. (1881)
Zaccheus Mahabane, a clergyman who twice served as President-General of the African National Congress in th… (1881)
Cleopatra's Needle, a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk, is erected in New York's Central Park. (1881)
Abdelaziz of Morocco, who reigned as Sultan of Morocco, is born. (1881)
The Battle of Majuba Hill takes place during the First Boer War, resulting in a decisive Boer victory over… (1881)
Tunisia became a French protectorate under the Treaty of Bardo. (1881)
Muhammad Ahmad declared himself the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam, in Sudan, launching the Mahdis… (1881)
The British Mediterranean Fleet began the bombardment of Alexandria, Egypt, opening the Anglo-Egyptian War. (1882)
The Boer Republic of Stellaland was founded in Southern Africa, in what is now the Northern Cape province o… (1882)
British forces defeated the Egyptian army at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir, securing British control over Egypt. (1882)
Edwin Barclay, who served as the 18th President of Liberia from 1930 to 1944, was born. (1882)
Shewan forces under the future Ethiopian emperor Menelik II defeated the army of Gojjam at the Battle of Em… (1882)
Nationalist riots against foreign domination broke out in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Urabi revolt, killi… (1882)
The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marked out the colonial-era territorial boundary between Guinea and Sie… (1882)
Herbert Bankole-Bright, a physician and political activist who helped found Sierra Leone's first political… (1883)
Emir Abd al-Qadir (Abdelkader El Djezairi), the Algerian resistance leader who fought French colonization,… (1883)
Germany took possession of Cameroon, establishing a colonial protectorate in West Africa. (1884)
The Berlin Conference opened, where European powers negotiated the partition of Africa among themselves wit… (1884)
St. Elmo Brady, the first African American to earn a PhD in chemistry, was born. (1884)
Marthinus de Villiers, composer of the melody later used in South Africa's national anthem 'Die Stem', was… (1885)
Alain Locke, philosopher and the first Black Rhodes Scholar, who became known as the intellectual architect… (1885)
A British force defeated a large Mahdist Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in Sudan during the campaig… (1885)
King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as his personal possession, beginning one of th… (1885)
Malak Hifni Nasif, pioneering Egyptian feminist writer and early advocate for women's education, was born. (1886)
Charles Lwanga and companions, a group of Christian converts executed on the orders of the Buganda king for… (1886)
Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican-born Pan-Africanist who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and… (1887)
The first organized Kaapse Klopse (Cape Minstrel) troupe paraded in Cape Town, a tradition rooted in the on… (1887)
Kojo Tovalou Houénou, Beninese lawyer and early pan-Africanist intellectual who prominently criticized Fren… (1887)
King Lobengula of Matabeleland granted the Rudd Concession, exclusive mining rights in his kingdom, to agen… (1888)
Brazil's 'Golden Law' abolished slavery, making it the last country in the Western Hemisphere to do so. (1888)
An Anglo-Egyptian army decisively defeated a Mahdist Sudanese force at the Battle of Toski, checking the Ma… (1889)
Claude McKay, the Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose work helped define the Harlem Renaissance, was born… (1889)
Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia signed the Treaty of Wuchale with Italy, a pact whose disputed translation l… (1889)
Bangui, now the capital of the Central African Republic, was founded on the Ubangi River by French colonial… (1889)
The city that became Salisbury, later renamed Harare, was founded by the Pioneer Column in Mashonaland, goi… (1890)
Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first African Anglican bishop and a pioneer of written Yoruba, died. (1891)
Mahmoud Mokhtar, regarded as the father of modern Egyptian sculpture, was born. (1891)
Haile Selassie, who became Ethiopia's emperor and a symbol of African independence, was born. (1892)
Vernon Johns, African-American minister and early civil rights pioneer who preceded Martin Luther King Jr.… (1892)
The Ibadan area of present-day Nigeria became a British protectorate under a treaty signed by Fijabi, the B… (1893)
British South Africa Company forces defeated a much larger Ndebele army at the Battle of Bembezi, the decis… (1893)
British South Africa Company forces occupied Bulawayo after King Lobengula burned his capital rather than l… (1893)
A patrol of 34 British South Africa Company soldiers was ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Ndebel… (1893)
Mohandas Gandhi was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, after refusing to move from a fir… (1893)
Bevil Rudd, South African runner who won Olympic 400m gold in 1920 and later became a sports journalist, wa… (1894)
Bessie Smith, African-American blues singer known as the 'Empress of the Blues' and one of the most influen… (1894)
Eugene Bullard, the first African-American military pilot, who flew for France in World War I, was born in… (1895)
William V. S. Tubman, who became Liberia's longest-serving president and is remembered as the "father of mo… (1895)
Fountains Valley in Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger. (1895)
Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt who modernized Cairo and began construction connected to the Suez Canal… (1895)
Britain crushed a succession revolt in Zanzibar in the Anglo-Zanzibar War, the shortest recorded war in his… (1896)
British forces under Herbert Kitchener captured Dongola in Sudan during the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of th… (1896)
Marjorie Joyner, African-American businesswoman and educator who became the first Black woman to patent a p… (1896)
Leander Starr Jameson surrendered to Boer forces at Doornkop near Krugersdorp, ending the failed Jameson Ra… (1896)
At the Battle of Adwa, an Ethiopian army under Emperor Menelik II decisively defeated an invading Italian f… (1896)
Elijah Muhammad, African-American religious leader who led the Nation of Islam for over four decades, was b… (1897)
At the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan, an Anglo-Egyptian army under Herbert Kitchener decisively defeated Mahd… (1898)
Tawfiq al-Hakim, Egyptian playwright and novelist regarded as a pioneer of modern Arabic drama, was born. (1898)
France withdrew its troops from Fashoda in present-day Sudan, ending the tense Fashoda Incident standoff wi… (1898)