On this day — March 13 in African history

Name: Judar Pasha's Moroccan force, about 3,000 to 4,000 strong and armed with firearms, routed a much larger Son…
Start: 1591

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

We are adding a source to every entry in this archive. 1 of 4 on this page carry one so far. The rest were written before per-entry citations were recorded, so if you intend to rely on one, check it independently until its source appears here. See our sourcing methodology.

Today

1591

Judar Pasha's Moroccan force, about 3,000 to 4,000 strong and armed with firearms, routed a much larger Songhai army at Tondibi. Firearms decided it. Askia Ishaq II withdrew, Gao and Timbuktu fell, and the Songhai empire came apart. Modern historians place the battle in March 1591; the main contemporary chronicle, the Tarikh es-Soudan, dates it a month later.

Sources: Military History Online ; UNESCO (General History of Africa, vol. V, ed. B. A. Ogot; chapter by Michel Abitbol, 'The end of the Songhay empire', pp. 300-303) ; Ernest Leroux, Paris (O. Houdas translation of al-Sa'di, Tarikh es-Soudan, 1900, pp. 217-220)

War

The British Army and The Illustrated London News — Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1900

British forces occupied Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, during the Second Boer War.

War

Nova3web — CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons 2016

Gunmen attacked hotels in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, killing at least 19 people.

Politics

Christian Lambiotte / European Communities — CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 2014

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Sierra Leonean politician credited with guiding the country to peace after its civil war, died.

Death