Photo by Demosh — CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons Wangari Maathai of Kenya was announced winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first African woman to receive the honor.
Sources: Nobel Prize Outreach (NobelPrize.org) ; BBC News
ScienceOn this day — October 8 in African history
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
Photo by Demosh — CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons Mongo Beti, Cameroonian novelist and outspoken critic of colonial and post-colonial governance, died in Douala.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; The Guardian ; Encyclopedia.com (Gale)
DeathThe UN General Assembly called on states to lift economic sanctions against South Africa as the apartheid system neared its end.
Sources: United Nations (Official Document System) ; UN Dag Hammarskjold Library ; Los Angeles Times ; Nelson Mandela Foundation - The O'Malley Archives
Politics
Photo by Discott — CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons 1934 Kader Asmal, South African anti-apartheid legal scholar and human rights activist who later served as a cabinet minister in post-apartheid governments, was born.
Sources: Humanist Heritage ; South African History Online
BirthMathieu Ngudjolo Chui was born in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the alleged leader of the Front des nationalistes et intégrationnistes he was charged over the attack on Bogoro in Ituri on 24 February 2003, and in December 2012 he became the first person the International Criminal Court acquitted, the judges holding that the prosecution had not proved his responsibility. The appeals chamber upheld it in 2015.
Sources: International Criminal Court ; International Criminal Court
Conflict