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Rows of painted winged faces with large dark eyes across a wooden ceiling.

Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source

On this day: January 21 in African history

Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.

This page was corrected in October 2026 · see what changed

Today
A coal mine collapsed at Coalbrook near Sasolburg in the northern Free State, South Africa, when… Somerset Playne, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1960

A coal mine collapsed at Coalbrook near Sasolburg in the northern Free State, South Africa, when pillars across some 324 hectares of workings caved in about 137 metres underground. None of the bodies was recovered. The government inquiry counted 437 dead; contemporary reports put the toll at 435. It remains the worst mining disaster in South African history.

Sources: Minerals Council South Africa ; Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (refereed paper, vol. 106, December 2006, pp. 857-868) ; UK Parliament, House of Commons Hansard, 8 February 1960

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Tragedy
1930

Mainza Chona was born near Monze in Northern Rhodesia. He chaired the commission Kenneth Kaunda appointed in 1972 to design Zambia's one-party state. Its more liberal recommendations, a two-term limit on the presidency and an end to detention without trial, were dropped from the constitution that followed. Chona was the first prime minister of the republic when the office was revived in 1973, serving to 1975 and again from 1977 to 1978.

Sources: National Assembly of Zambia ; Canadian Journal of African Studies

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Birth
Errol Barrow was born in Barbados. He flew as an RAF navigator in the Second World War, led the D… Democratic Labour Party, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1920

Errol Barrow was born in Barbados. He flew as an RAF navigator in the Second World War, led the Democratic Labour Party, served as premier from 1961, took Barbados to independence in November 1966 and became its first prime minister. He held the office to 1976, returned to it in 1986 and died in it the following year.

Sources: LSE History ; Totally Barbados

Birth