On this day: May 20 in African history

A car bomb planted by Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's armed wing, exploded on Church Street in Pretoria, South Africa, killing 19 people.

Sources: South African History Online ; Digital Innovation South Africa (University of KwaZulu-Natal) ; Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (South Africa), TRC media record

Napoleon Bonaparte reinstated slavery in French colonies, reversing its abolition during the French Revolution.

Sources: Fondation Napoléon (napoleon.org) ; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Patrimoines partagés ; Archives nationales d'outre-mer (Ministère de la Culture)

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Cameroonians voted in a referendum to abolish the federal system and adopt a unitary state, a change now marked annually as Cameroon's National Day.

Sources: The Philadelphia Inquirer ; U.S. Department of State, Bureau of African Affairs (background note, Internet Archive copy) ; AfricaBib record of Paideuma 41 (1995), Bongfen Chem-Langhëë

Jmex60, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Roger Milla, the Cameroonian footballer whose exuberant corner-flag celebrations at the 1990 World Cup made him an African football icon, was born.

Sources: National Football Teams ; Planet World Cup

Frank Hall, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

The Popular Movement of the Revolution, the single ruling party established by President Mobutu Sese Seko, was founded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Sources: Journal of Eastern African Studies (Taylor & Francis), Benoît Henriet ; Permanent Peoples' Tribunal ; Hoover Institution Library & Archives (Online Archive of California)

Pope Clement VIII created the diocese of São Salvador, seated in the capital of the Kingdom of Kongo, by the bull Super specula militantis Ecclesiae.

Sources: Journal of Religion in Africa ; Hispania Sacra

Read the full article: Kongo, Central Africa's Christian Kingdom