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: March 28 in African history

Name: African National Congress guards opened fire on Inkatha Freedom Party supporters marching on the party's Sh…
Start: 1994

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

Today

1994

African National Congress guards opened fire on Inkatha Freedom Party supporters marching on the party's Shell House headquarters in Johannesburg, killing nineteen. Fifty-three people died across the city that day. The Nugent commission found the shooting unjustified, Nelson Mandela said in 1995 that he had given the order to defend the building even if people had to be killed, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission granted amnesty to eleven of those involved.

Sources: South African History Online ; Daily Maverick

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Politics

RTNB (Burundi National Radio and Television), CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1953

Melchior Ndadaye, who became Burundi's first democratically elected and first Hutu president, was born.

Sources: Human Rights Watch ; Encyclopedia.com (Gale reference collection)

Birth

روز اليوسف, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1934

Mahmoud Mokhtar, sculptor regarded as the founder of modern Egyptian sculpture, died.

Sources: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Qatar Museums) ; Dalloul Art Foundation

Death

E.Carletti. Upload, stitch and restoration by Jebulon, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons 1840

Emin Pasha, German-born physician and explorer who served as governor of Equatoria in Egyptian Sudan, was born.

Sources: Deutsche Biographie (Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften) ; University of Sheffield Archives and Special Collections

Birth

Algeria Press Service, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 2026

Liamine Zéroual, Algerian general who served as President of Algeria during the country's civil war, died.

Sources: Middle East Eye ; Arise News

Death

Rob Croes / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, Wikimedia Commons 1960

ANC leader Oliver Tambo left South Africa illegally on ANC instructions, crossing into the Bechuanaland Protectorate days after the Sharpeville massacre to build the movement's external mission.

Sources: UK Parliament (Historic Hansard) ; South African History Online

Corrected in September 2026 · see what changed

Politics

1900

At a public meeting in Kumasi, Governor Frederic Hodgson told the Asante chiefs that the kingship was finished and that the Queen was now the paramount power. The Asante rising of 1900, the war of the Golden Stool, followed.

Sources: Ghana Studies ; Ghana Studies ; Internet Archive

Read the full article: Britain and Asante at War, 1824-1900

Colonial History