On this day — August 2 in African history

R. L. Oliver, Los Angeles Times / UCLA Library — CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Writer James Baldwin, whose essays and novels powerfully explored race and identity in America, was born in Harlem, New York.

Sources: Biography.com (A&E Television Networks) ; Zinn Education Project

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

A mutiny against Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the east opened a war that drew in nine African countries and dozens of armed groups. The International Rescue Committee estimated 5.4 million excess deaths between 1998 and 2007, most from disease and hunger rather than fighting, which would make it the deadliest conflict since the Second World War. The Human Security Report Project disputed the survey's method and baseline and put the figure far lower. Neither number has been settled.

Sources: International Rescue Committee ; Science

The Battle of the Nile concluded in a decisive British naval victory over Napoleon's fleet at Aboukir Bay, Egypt, cementing British control of the Mediterranean.

Sources: British Battles ; The Past (History Today group)

Auguste Couder, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Ottoman-Albanian commander and viceroy who modernized Egypt's military, economy, and administration, died in Alexandria.

Sources: Encyclopedia.com ; Social Studies Help

Somali warlord and former president Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who had led resistance to US and UN forces during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, died of wounds in Mogadishu.

Sources: Roanoke Times (wire, via Virginia Tech archive) ; Military.com

Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

Fela Kuti, the Nigerian musician who pioneered Afrobeat and used his music to criticize military rule and corruption, died in Lagos.

Sources: Afropop Worldwide ; The Net (Nigerian Entertainment Today)

Ahmed Zewail, the Egyptian-American chemist who won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering femtochemistry, died in the United States.

Sources: Caltech Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering ; Optica (Optical Society)

Reuben Kamanga, who became the first vice president of independent Zambia, was born in Chitandika village in Chipata District.

Sources: National Road Fund Agency (Zambia) ; National Assembly of Zambia