The first Pan-African Congress opened in Paris, organized by W. E. B. Du Bois to press for African self-determination after World War I.
PoliticsOn this day — February 19 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
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Two Eritreans, Abraham Debotch and Mogus Asghedom, threw grenades at Rodolfo Graziani, the Italian viceroy, during a ceremony in Addis Ababa, wounding him and killing seven others. Italian forces and blackshirts then went through the city for three days killing Ethiopians. Ethiopian sources put the dead at 30,000; Ian Campbell's 2017 study of the massacre arrived at about 19,200, a fifth of the city's population; other estimates run from 1,400 to 6,000.
Sources: Jacobin ; Ethiopian News Agency
HistoryThe Battle of Kasserine Pass began in Tunisia during World War II's North African Campaign.
BattleEighteen protesters were killed by South African police in Crossroads near Cape Town while resisting forced removals.
Politics
CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1989 Sone Aluko, English-Nigerian international footballer, was born.
Birth