Ceiling of Debre Birhan Selassie church, Gondar, Ethiopia. Photo: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence · Source
Real events, births and milestones from Africa and the diaspora.
At the Battle of Segale, forces loyal to Empress Zewditu I defeated Negus Mikael, securing her hold on the Ethiopian throne.
Sources: Debre Berhan University ; Horniman Museum and Gardens ; Aethiopica: International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies
PoliticsThe Democratic Republic of the Congo was renamed Zaire under President Mobutu Sese Seko's authenticity campaign.
Sources: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Current African Issues No. 28, Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja) ; Journal of Eastern African Studies (Benoit Henriet, Vrije Universiteit Brussel) ; BBC News
PoliticsAhmed Timol, South African anti-apartheid activist, died after falling from a police interrogation room window; decades later a judge ruled he had been pushed by security police.
Sources: South African History Online ; The Guardian ; The Conversation Africa
DeathOliver Tambo, South African lawyer and anti-apartheid leader who led the ANC in exile for decades, was born.
Sources: South African History Online ; Encyclopaedia Britannica ; BlackPast.org
Birth
CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons 1931 Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian physician, psychiatrist and feminist author, was born.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica ; Al Jazeera ; The Guardian
BirthJesus College, Cambridge, handed over the okukur, a brass cockerel taken from Benin City in 1897, to Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments and gave up ownership to the Oba of Benin.
Sources: Journal of African History ; Jesus College, University of Cambridge
Read the full article: 1897 and the Benin Bronzes
Culture