7 million years ago: Sahelanthropus tchadensis lives in modern-day Chad
4.5 million years ago: Ardipithecusramidus lives in Awash area of modern-day Ethiopia
3 million years ago: Australopithecus afarensis lives in Ethiopia and Chad
3 million years ago: Sahara Desert is fertile and rich land with tall trees and green meadows
2 to 3 million years ago: Homo habilis alive
2.3 million years ago: Homo erectus survives in Asia as recently as 53,000 years ago
250,000 years ago: Appearance of Homo sapiens, possessing language and the ability to name
50,000 years ago: Cave paintings show organization of settlements and establish- ment of group life
50,000 and 12,000 years ago: Wurm/Wisconsin glaciations do not affect Africans directly
38,000 years ago: Blombos Cave, in South Africa, has decorated ochre blocks and polished spearheads
26,000 years ago: Evidence of fishing hooks, hand axes, and stone scrapers in the Congo basin
10,000 BCE: People arrive in the Nile Valley before this time and introduce ideas of using wild grasses as food, and new religions as well as clan deities
10,000 BCE: Africans perfect the techniques of hunting, fishing, and gathering and are at the dawn of farming
8000 BCE: Rise of the Gerzean culture period
6000 BCE: End of Weichsel/Wisconsin/Wurm Ice Age results in population displacement
6000 BCE: Africans began living by the planned cultivation and harvesting of food
6000–1000 BCE: Sahara Desert expands
5000–4000 BCE: Rise of the Badarian culture period
4000–3000 BCE: Rise of Kush
3800–3100 BCE: Oldest tombs appear in Qustul in Nubia showing evidence of the first monarchy in Kush
3400 BCE: Unification of Kemet, which consists of 42 different ethnic groups, under the rule of Per-aa Narmer; unification lasts 3000 years
3400 BCE: Writing invented in Kemet and appears on many surfaces, most popu- larly papyrus
3400–2700 BCE: Thinite Period, consists of the first two dynasties
3400–2600 BCE: Archaic Period
3300–3200 BCE: Writing found on a group of small bone or ivory labels
3200–3000 BCE: Protodynastic Period
3100 BCE: Cuneiform writing in clay tablets in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq
3100–2890 BCE: First Dynasty of Kemet
3000 BCE: Natural change of climate: Sahara dries up and entire communities virtu- ally disappear
3000 BCE: Peoples migrate to form the Sahelian peoples on the edge of the rain- forests and the Amazighs in the north
3000 BCE: Lush pastures and fertile grazing areas of the Great Lakes region attract numerous ethnic groups of herders and farmers from the north and east
2920–2575 BCE: Early Dynastic Period in Kemet
2890–2686 BCE: Second Dynasty in Kemet
2686–2613 BCE: Third Dynasty in Kemet
2685–2000 BCE: Old Kingdom in Kemet
2667–2648 BCE: Saqqara Pyramid constructed as a step pyramid, the oldest form of architecture
2613–2494 BCE: Fourth Dynasty in Kemet, dominated by the building projects at Giza
2560 BCE: Pyramid known as the Great Pyramid built for Per-aa Khufu
2498–2345 BCE: Fifth Dynasty in Kemet
2414 BCE: Ptahotep, the father of ethical doctrines, wrote the first book on what it means to grow old
2345–2183 BCE: Sixth Dynasty in Kemet
2200 BCE: Collapse of the central government in Kemet
2200–2040 BCE: First Intermediate Period in Kemet
2183–2160 BCE: Seventh and Eighth Dynasties in Kemet
2160–2125 BCE: Ninth and Tenth Dynasties in Kemet
2125–1985 BCE: Eleventh Dynasty reunites the country
2061 BCE: Per-aa Mentuhotep II, the Great Unifier, comes into power and is renamed Nebhotepre, the Son of Ra, then Sematawy, He who unifies the Two Lands
2040–1785 BCE: Middle Kingdom in Kemet
2040–1785 BCE: Classical period of Kemetic history so-named as a result of the following publications: the Coffin Texts on the coffins of Meseheti and Djefaihapy, Instructions of Kagemni, Maxims of Djedefhor, Admonitions, Instructions for Merikare, Maxims of Ptahhotep, Kemyt, Satire of Trades, Instructions to the Vizier, Prophecy of Neferti, Loyalist Instruction, Instructions of a Man to his Son, Instructions of Amenemope I, Drama of the Coronation, the Memphite Drama, the Tale of Isis and Ra, the Tale of Horus and Seth, the Destruction of Humanity, Dispute of a Man with his Ba, the Teachings of Khakheperreseneb, and more written documents such as letters, administrative texts, autobiographical accounts, historical notes, medical and mathematical treatises, veterinary fragments, poetry, and priestly rituals
2040–1785 BCE: Kemet conquers Nubia
1996 BCE: 256 Odus of Yoruba compiled or created by Agboniregun, or Orunmila
1991 BCE: Sehotipibre, a national philosopher, argues that loyalty to the king is the most important function of a citizen
1991 BCE: Amenemhat, the first cynical philosopher, warns his readers to be wary of those who call themselves friends
1991–1802 BCE: Twelfth Dynasty in Kemet
1991 BCE: Sobekneferu, first certain female ruler of Kemet
1990 BCE: Merikare, a philosopher, writes on the value of speaking well and using common sense in human relationships
1962 BCE: Per-aa Amenemope assassinated
1802 BCE: Thirteenth Dynasty in Kemet
1800–1600 BCE: Second Intermediate Period
1700–600 BCE: Height of kingdom of Kush
1633 BCE: Hyksos control the north of Kemet
1570–1085 BCE: New Kingdom in Kemet founded by Ahmose
1570 BCE: Royalty and nobles receive grand ritual burials similar to those the Per-aa received
1570 BCE: Per-aa Ahmose comes into power at the age of 10
1559 BCE: Kemet engages the Nubians and Hyksos in battle
1458 BCE: Per-aa Hatshepsut’s (woman reigning as a king) reign ends and Per-aa Tuthmoses III regains the throne at the age of 22
1400 BCE: Amenhotep, son of Hapu, a priest, vizier, philosopher, and master of the ancients is the second living human in Africa to be deified
1370–1352 BCE: Rise of Per-aa Amenhotep, the wealthiest and most feared of all kings, challenges the ruling theocracy
1378 BCE: Per-aa Amenhotep IV becomes king in his own right
1340 BCE: Duauf, an educational philosopher, cherishes the idea of learning and writes that the young must learn to appreciate books
1300 BCE: Per-aa Akhenaten, born Amenhotep IV, believes that the god Aten is the sole god, changes the religious doctrine of Kemet and moves the capital city
1318–1316 BCE: Per-aa Ramses I reigns, beginning construction of the massive hypostyle hall at Karnak
1318–1298 BCE: Per-aa Seti I reigns, dealing firmly with revolting nations in Asia by dividing his armies and building the temple of Ausar at Abydos
1316 BCE: Nineteenth Dynasty in Kemet
1298–1232 BCE: Per-aa Ramses II, the Great, reigns, both a magnificent leader and commander-in-chief, first to build a temple for a woman
1277 BCE: Hittite king sends a silver tablet to Ramses swearing eternal peace, the treaty lasting for 50 years
1200 BCE: Knowledge of iron smelting spreads from East Africa to other regions of Africa and the world, giving Africans authority over the land, but also a transfor- mation in warfare
1000 BCE: Sahara too dry to sustain a huge population
1000 BCE: By this time, Kush has conquered all of Nubia
1000–900 BCE: Napata Dynasty in Nubia, often referred to as Kush
780–760 BCE: King Alara reigns in Nubia
760–747 BCE: King Kashta, named Maatre at coronation, reigns in Nubia, extends the rule of Kush to modern-day Aswan
730 BCE: Tefnakht attempts to challenge Piankhy
747 BCE: Piankhy marries daughter of Alara and becomes Per-aa, eventually ruling over Nubia and Kemet
750–590 BCE: Resurgent kingdom in Kemet
700–600 BCE: Phoenicians settle in Carthage on Africa’s north coast
690 BCE: Per-aa Sennacherib murdered by his sons
690–664 BCE: Taharka reigns as Per-aa
671 BCE: Esarhaddon, an Assyrian, invades Kemet directly and forces many Delta princes to take on Assyrian names and rename their towns
666 BCE: Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, leads army pillaging as far south as Waset
620–600 BCE: Per-aa Anlamani rules Nubia and Kemet
609–594 BCE: Per-aa Psammetichus I and Neko attempt to push the boundaries of Kemet into Asia but fail
605 BCE: Nebuchadnezzar, heir to the throne of Babylon, meets the forces of Kemet in Carchemish and destroys them
600 BCE: Thales of Miletus, a Greek philosopher, is the first Greek philosopher to study in Kemet
600–580 BCE: Per-aa Aspelta rules Nubia and Kemet
594–588 BCE: Per-aa Psammetichus II reigns in Nubia and Kemet
588–568 BCE: Per-aa Apries reigns in Nubia and Kemet and is overthrown when the people of Kemet become outraged after the failure of an expedition
525 BCE: Persia invades Kemet, becoming the third force to invade the Nile Valley from the outside
518 BCE: Darius I comes to Kemet from Persia to settle some unrest the Persian governor cannot handle
510 BCE: Carthage signs trade treaty with Rome
500 BCE: Camel replaces the horse as the main mode of transportation
500 BCE: Crop growers enter the Congo region in low numbers
500 to 200 BCE: Axumite Empire enters Dawning Era
491 BCE: Xerxes arrives in Kemet
480 BCE: Syracuse army defeats Carthaginian army, preserving Sicilian city-states
450 BCE: Herodotus goes south up the Nile as far as Elephantine
415–413 BCE: Peloponnesian War, Athenians attack Syracuse
409 BCE: Hannibal destroys city of Himera and takes Selinus
406 BCE: General Himilco destroys Acragas, modern-day Agrigento
400 BCE–350 CE: Kush demonstrates power through architecture
400 BCE–1400 CE: Kush occupies Jenne-Jeno, a major trans-Saharan trade area on the Niger River in ancient Mali
378–361 BCE: Per-aa Nectanebo reigns in Egypt
348 BCE: Carthage signs new trade treaty with Rome
341 BCE: Per-aa Nectanebo II deserted by Greek mercenaries and defeated by the Persians
341–338 BCE: Per-aa Artaxerxes III Othos terrorizes his own people, the people of Kemet
338–335 BCE: Per-aa Oarses follows his father’s footsteps and terrorizes the people of Kemet
335–332 BCE: Bogoas, a eunuch, poisons Artaxerxes and Oarses and offers the throne to Darius III Codoman, who accepts and forces Bogoas to take his own poison
310–307 BCE: Agathocles, lord of Syracuse, threatens Carthage and other African shore towns
306 BCE: Carthage signs trade treaty with Rome
300 BCE: Ghana is formed by a group of people (probably Soninke) and forms a trading kingdom near the upper waters of the Niger
285 to 247 BCE: Greek Per-aa Ptolemy II Philadelphos builds the Pharos in Alexandria and is a patron of the library
284–275 BCE: Queen Bartare reigns in Nubia
264–241 BCE: First Punic War, Carthage loses all possessions in Sicily
247–222 BCE: Greek Per-aa Ptolemy III Euergetes reigns while Kemet faces famine
218–201 BCE: Second Punic War, Carthage is defeated
218 BCE: Hannibal begins his quest for victory
216 BCE: Rome meets Hannibal in battle
212 BCE: Hasdrubal defeats Roman army
210 BCE: P. Cornelius Scipio recovers what Romans had lost and takes Carthago Nova
209–182 BCE: Greek Per-aa Ptolemy V Epiphanes attempts to restore ancient temples in Kemet
207 BCE: Carthaginians lose almost all dominions in Spain
204 BCE: Scipio conquers Spain from Carthage
200 BCE to 99 CE: Axumite Empire enters Glowing Era
196 BCE: Hannibal escapes Carthage and joins Antiochus in Ephesus
183 BCE: Hannibal poisons himself to avoid death by the sword of another
177–155 BCE: Queen Shanadakete reigns in Nubia, the first significant female ruler in world history
160 BCE: South wall of the funerary chapel of pyramid N11 at Meroe shows an inscription of Nubian Queen Shanadakete, the painting showing her husband seated behind her
149–146 BCE: Third Punic War resulting in total destruction of Carthaginian power
122 BCE: New city, Colonia Junonia, founded where Carthage stood, but soon fails
45 BCE: Cleopatra has Ptolemy XIV poisoned and her son Ptolemy XV elected to the co-regency
40-10 BCE: Queen Amanirenas reigns in Nubia, fights Caesar’s army and keeps Nubia free from Roman control
36 BCE: Cleopatra has third child by Mark Antony, Cleopatra Selene, while Mark Antony marries Octavia
30 BCE: Mark Antony loses the battle of Actium
30 BCE: Octavian claims the title “Emperor Augustus” and brings Egypt into the Roman Empire as a province
30 BCE: Cleopatra dies and Rome rules Egypt
26–20 BCE: Queen Amanishakete reigns in Nubia First century CE: Plutarch writes the best-recorded version of the legend of Ausar
25–41 CE: Queen Amanitore reigns in Nubia
83–115 CE: Queen Amankihatashan reigns in Nubia
99–900 CE: Axumite Empire Brilliant Era, and Axum is deeply Christian
100–200 CE: Nubia becomes occupied by Nobatae
139 CE: Record of the synchronization of the first day of the solar year and the rising of Sirius
220 CE: Axum rises to power as an empire
280–300 CE: Heliodorus, a Greek, writes a historical novel, Aethiopica
290 CE: Axumite Empire defeats Nubia and becomes the greatest empire in Africa at this time; begins to use natural resources for everyday purposes such as minting coins
300s CE: Ethiopians adopt Christianity as official religion
350 CE: Axumite Empire defeats Meroe
421 CE: Roman emperors tear down Carthaginian temple dedicated to Tanit
439–533 CE: Carthage becomes the capital of the Vandals
500–1000 CE: Europe enters the White Ages when a fog hovers over learning and small communities of priests keep literacy alive
528–575 CE: Axumite Empire invades Arabia and rules Yemenite area
533 CE: Carthage recovered for the Byzantine Empire by Belisarius for 150 years
610 CE: Muhammad’s work as a prophet begins
622 CE: Muslim era
622 CE: East coast of Africa becomes popular with Arabs, Persians, Indians, Indonesians, and Chinese and becomes a melting pot for those facing religious persecution in their own countries
622 CE: Heraclius begins expedition to Cilicia to rescue the Holy Rood and take portions of the Roman Empire back from the Persians
622 CE: Muhammad makes flight from Mecca to Medina to prepare for war to conquer Arabia and the shrine of the Ka‘aba
629 CE: African leaders in Egypt invite General Al-As to help drive Romans out of Africa
631 CE: Cyrus, leader of the campaign to stamp out Coptic religion, lands in Alexandria causing the Coptic patriarch, Benjamin, to flee, and begins persecut- ing the Copts (October) while searching for Benjamin
632 CE: Muhammad calls for war against the Roman Empire
639 CE: (December 12) General Amir ibn al-As celebrates the Muslim Day of Sacrifice in Egypt
640 CE: Amir’s army expands as many Bedouins join the campaign against the Romans
651 CE: Makurra kingdom of Nubia defeats the Muslim army
698 CE: Carthage destroyed by the Arabs and rebuilt under the strict influence of the Arab Muslims
700 CE: Arabs have succeeded in taking all of North Africa as Africans who main- tain their traditional beliefs become exhausted by the burdens of their conquerors
700 CE: Indonesians migrate to the island of Madagascar, where the Malagasy already live
800 CE: By this time the area between the Niger River and the town of Gao, the most important city, was known as Songhay, with the capital city as Kukiya
900 CE: Beginning of formation of states in Yoruba
900 CE: Persians from Shiraz marry Somali women and develop the Shirazi culture
900 CE: Zanj, the entire Swahili coast, is controlled from Sofala
900s CE: People of Zanj are already wearing iron ornamentation
909 CE: Amazigh Shiites, the Fatimids, pull together the Amazighs and Tamascheks and take North Africa back from the Arabs
1000 CE: Hausa city-states came into existence in present Nigeria
1000 CE: Mais, kings of Kanem-Borno, convert to Islam, Mai Hume being the first to make the hajj to Mecca
1000 CE: Sungbos’ Eredo constructed in Nigeria
1000 CE: Yoruba perfect the town type of government
1000 CE: Zimbabwe is a thriving and powerful kingdom through the fifteenth century, with its rise between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries
1000–1200 CE: Much of eastern Central Africa from Zambia to Lake Malawi participates in Luangwa, the later Iron Age culture
1054 CE: Almoravids capture Audoghast, a powerhouse city in Ghana
1056 CE: Almoravids capture Sijilmasa, the main northern trading center for West African gold
1067 CE: Al-Bakri, a Spanish Arab, writes about Tunka Manin, a Ghanaian
1076 CE: Almoravids capture Kumbi Saleh
1087 CE: Abu Bakr assassinated while trying to suppress a revolt
1100 CE: Al-Idrisi writes that Manan and Njimi in Kanem-Borno are occupied
1100 CE: Rise of Katsina, a principal city-state in the trans-Saharan trade, and Kano becomes established as the largest city in northern Nigeria, with a manu- facturing and craft center
1100s CE: Nigerian Benin develops centralized state system to draw surrounding villages into one unit and develops kingship system
1100s CE: Ife develops kingship system
1134 CE: Sayf bin Dhi Yazan marries into the lineage of the Mai Kanem and creates the Saifawa Dynasty in Kanem-Borno, which lasts until 1846
1171–1250 CE: Period of the Ayyubids
1172 CE: Nubians attack Egypt when Ayyubids come into power
1180 CE: Soso soldier overthrows Soninke dynasty of Wagadu
1199 CE: Peul takes control of kingdom of Diara, an important province of Wagadu
1200 CE: Allah is the supreme ruler in Egypt
1203 CE: Sumanguru declares himself king in Ghana and surrounds Kumbi Saleh and destroys it
1240 CE: Until this time, Kumbi Saleh in Ghana is the largest city in western Africa, fending off enemies who want access to its lucrative trade
1240 CE: Hostel erected in Cairo for students from Kanem-Borno
1250–1517 CE: Period of the Mamluks
1255 CE: Sundiata Keita, emperor of Mali, dies
1270–1285 CE: Kebra Nagast, the Book of the Glory of the Kings of Ethiopia, created during the revival of the Solomonic line of kings during the reign of Yekuno Arnlak
1294 CE: King Karanbas’ installation to the throne in Nubia marks the conversion of Christian Nubia to Islam
1300 CE: Mali Empire at its height, while the Arabic language and script become instruments for administration, law, and commerce
1300–1384 CE: The Arab Chihab Addine Abul-Abass Ahmad ben Fadhl al-Umari writes information about the great Malian Mansa Kankan Musa and records his interviews with Mansa Kankan Musa about his brother, Abubakari II, the previ- ous mansa, who may have reached the Americas before Columbus
1300 CE: Kanem-Borno, stretching across Libya, Chad, and Niger, pressured by Bulala people, undergoes “era of instability”
1304 CE: The Arab Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battuta, also known as Shams ad- Din, visits the lands of every Muslim ruler of his time, travels across Africa, and dictates his accounts, which become known as the Travels (Rihala) of Ibn Battuta
1311 CE: Emperor Mansa Abubakari II sends one thousand boats across the Atlantic; in 1312 he abandons his throne and sets sail with another thousand boats
1324 CE: Mansa Kankan Musa, leader of the Mali Empire, takes a hajj to Mecca but does so with the style of a king, bringing international attention to Mali
1332–1395 CE: Ibn Khaldun writes Muqaddimah or “Prolegomena,” an analysis of historical events that creates and continues stereotypes but sets a list of rulers in Mali until 1390
1337 CE: Mansa Musa dies, leaving the throne to his son Mansa Maghan, who allows the empire to unravel
1339 CE: Mali first appears on a “map of the world” as a significant empire
1367 CE: World map shows road from Mali through the Atlas Mountains into the western Sudan
1380 CE: Kintu, the first king of Baganda, is crowned
1390 CE: Cheng Ho (Sheng He) of the Chinese Ming Dynasty visits the Swahili coast after the city-states reassert their independence
1400 CE: Timbuktu becomes a major learning center for Muslim scholars
1400 CE: Mai Ali Gaji ends political troubles of the Seifawa Dynasty of Kanem-Borno
1400s CE: Phiri clan marries into the Banda clan and forms the Nyanja
1400s CE: Kingdom of Asante rises
1400s CE: Bito dynasty rises to power in Baganda and Bunyoro
1420 CE: Nyatsimbe Mutota founds Mutapa in the area of Dande in the Mazoe Valley
1415 CE: Portugal captures Ceuta and forces African prisoners to reveal details about the African gold trade flaunted by Mansa Musa
1431–1433 CE: Cheng Ho’s sailors reach as far down the coast as western South Africa
1433 CE: Tamascheks seize Timbuktu
1440 CE: Oba Ewuare reigns in Nigerian Benin
1440s CE: Portuguese ships land on the West African coast and take several dozen Africans to the king in Lisbon
1450 CE: Site of Great Zimbabwe is abandoned
1453 CE: Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks
1456 CE: Mali wilts away into the Songhay Empire
1464 CE: Sonni Ali Ber ascends as king of Songhay
1466 CE: Battle for Jenne (which the Mali Empire had tried to take 99 times) takes 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days to fall to Sonni Ali Ber
1468 CE: Sonni Ali Ber invades Timbuktu
1472 CE: Portuguese bring a ship to the Bight of Benin, exposing Nigerian Benin people to Europeans for the first time
1480 CE: Kongo people willing to build partnerships with Portuguese
1482 CE: Diogo Cão, a Portuguese sailor, visits the mouth of the Congo
1482 CE: Portuguese begin to build fortress at El Mina, in modern-day Ghana
1484 CE: Mossi leave the city of Walata, a northern point for the Mali Empire, in ruins
1485 CE: Thousands of people employed in Jenne at the university, and in schools, the trades, commerce, and business
1480s CE: Sunni Ali Ber forces Mossi back south out of Niger
1485–1554 CE: Leo Africanus, also known as Al-Hasan ibn Muhammed el-Wazzan ez-Zayyat, writes of his journeys in Africa in The History and Description of Africa, which also includes an impressive account of the ancient city of Timbuktu
1492 CE: Sonni Ali Ber drowns in the Niger River, his son, Sonni Bakori Da’as becomes king, the quest to end Islamic onslaught ends and Africa is not unified
1492 CE: Spain expels thousands of Africans and Jews
1492 CE: Columbus sails to the Americas and convinces Europeans to risk their money and their lives to take Africans to the Americas and enslave them
1492–1885 CE: Europe’s continental power unchallenged by any area of the world
1493 CE: Sonni Bakori Da’as is overthrown by Muhammed Toure, a Muslim and general-in-chief of the army of Gao, and killed at the battle of Anfao
1493 CE: Muhammed Toure takes the dynastic name Askia Mohammed Toure and rules the Songhay Empire until 1529
1493 CE: First European settlement founded at Isabella on the north coast of
Hispaniola, near Puerto Plata
1495 CE: Askia Mohammed makes a pilgrimage to Mecca and strengthens Islam as the dominant religious tendency in the Songhay Empire
1496 CE: Christopher Columbus’ brother Bartholomew discovers gold in the Ozama River valley and founds the city of Santo Domingo
1498 CE: Askia Mohammed declares a jihad on the Mossi
1500 CE: Zazzau region founded, and the capital, Zaria, becomes a major center for the slave trade in the seventeenth century and eventually the name for the region
1500 CE: Hausa city-states control the routes to Akan, Aïr, Gao, Jenne, Kukikya, and Borno
1500s CE: Rise of Oyo in Yoruba causes decline of Ife dominance
1500s CE: Portuguese divert Shona and Swahili gold trade to the Indian Ocean and battle with the Swahili
1500s CE: Akan states become militarily and economically strong
1500s CE: Mwato Yamvo dynasty comes into power in Lunda-Luba Empire
1504 CE: Fall of the Alwa Kingdom in Nubia
1504 CE: Oba Esaghie comes into power in Nigerian Benin
1504–1526 CE: Mai Idris Katarkambi reigns in Manem-Borno, liberating Njimi from the Bulala
1505 CE: Askia Mohammed sends a second expedition to battle Mossi and succeeds
1505 CE: Mauritius occupied by Portuguese
1513 CE: Armed forces of Songhay defeat Hausa states of the Niger River as far as Lake Chad
1513 CE: Leo Africanus writes an account of the Songhay Empire
1520 CE: History of Kilwa written in KiSwahili
1520 CE: Francesco Alvarez, a Portuguese priest, visits Ethiopia and claims they still have 150 churches in old castles but not among the masses
1526 CE: Mai Muhammed stops revolt by the Bulala
1527 CE: Malandela settles at Mandawe Hill and has two sons, Qwabe and Zulu, the founder of the Zulu clan
1529 CE: Askia Musa overthrows his father, Askia Mohammed
1530 CE: Portuguese travel up the Zambezi River and conquer trading towns of Sena and Tete and establish links with Munhumutapa
1536–1573 CE: Amina may have reigned as Queen of Zazzau
1537 CE: Ismail overthrows Askia Musa and frees his father
1540 CE: Kalonga dynasty founds the Lundu dynasty among the Manganja of the Shire valley and the Undi dynasty among the Chewa
1545 CE: Mai Ali of Kanem-Borno fights with kingdom of Kebbi in Hausaland
1546 CE: Mai Ali dies
1546–1563 CE: Dunama reigns in Kanem-Borno
1549–1582 CE: Askia Dawud reigns in the Songhay Empire
1550 CE: Oba Orhogbua reigns in Nigerian Benin
1551 CE: Ottoman Turks occupy Tripoli
1553 CE: British arrive in Nigerian Benin and trade pots and pans for peppercorns
1564–1569 CE: Mai Dala Abdullah reigns in Kanem-Borno
1569 CE: Dala Abdullah dies and the reign of Kanem-Borno is seized by his sister, Queen Aissa Killi
1569 CE: Mai Idris Alooma, the greatest of all mais, reigns in Kanem-Borno and establishes a reputation for fairness, justice, and sternness
1571 CE: Portuguese send another army into the Zambezi Valley but are defeated by the Tonga people
1574 CE: Portuguese force Uteve king to pay tribute at Sofala on Indian Ocean coast
1578 CE: Oba Ehenguda reigns in Nigerian Benin
1582 CE: Askia Ishaq II’s forces are defeated by Moroccan army of Pasha
1594 CE: Overthrow of the Songhay Empire
1600 CE: Nigerian Benin exhausts its export of “trouble-making” Africans and trades only natural resources for foreign goods with the Portuguese
1600 CE: Rise of Changamire’s Rozvi state
1600 CE: Ganye Hessu reigns as king of Dahomey
1600s CE: Denkyira, in Ghana, controls all other states in Ghana and is an impor- tant source for trading gold and humans with the Dutch at El Mina
1602 CE: O. Dapper, a geographer from the Netherlands, describes Nigerian Benin as a well-organized, balanced, structured, and grand city
1603 or 1617 CE: Mai Idris of Kanem-Borno dies and Morocco consolidates its power over Songhay
1606 CE: Oba Ahuan reigns in Nigerian Benin
1620 CE: Dako Donu reigns as king of Dahomey
1632 CE: Twenty Africans disembark in Jamestown, Virginia
1638 CE: Mauritius taken over by Dutch
1645 CE: Kingdom of Abomey conquers the neighboring kingdom of Dan and calls the new country Dahomey, meaning “in the belly of Dan”
1645 CE: Houegbadja reigns as king of Dahomey
1652 CE: Van Riebeck leads whites into South Africa at the Cape, introducing the idea of private ownership
1665 CE: 200 years of Portuguese influence weakens Congo kingdom, which falls into warring factions
1677 CE: Nana Obiri Yeboa, of the Asante people, dies
1680 CE: Osei Tutu I assumes kingship of the Asante
1685 CE: Akaba reigns as king of Dahomey
1700 CE: Asante conquers Denkyira, brings other Akan states into submission, and controls the goldfields
1700s CE: Mauritius captured by French
1708 CE: Tegbessu reigns as king of Dahomey
1717 CE: Nana Opoku, the fighting king, reigns over the Asante
1724 CE: Dahomey conquers Allada, the kings of the two nations being brothers
1727 CE: Dahomey conquers Savi and positions itself to be an important player in the slave trade
1740 CE: Tegbessu reigns as king of Dahomey and enters into the enslaving interest to gain wealth and influence, trading humans for weapons in order to capture more Africans from other places
1774 CE: Kpingla reigns as king of Dahomey
1786 CE: Abdul Qadir Kan negotiates an agreement with the French to avoid selling Muslims into slavery as a result of the second jihad in the Hausa city-states
1787 CE: Andrianampoinimerina reigns in Madagascar
1787 CE: Senzangakona and Nandi give birth to Shaka, who rises to the highest seat of authority in the Zulu clan
1787 CE: Americans hold Constitutional Convention
1787 CE: British help 400 freed Africans from the United States, Nova Scotia, and Great Britain to return to Sierra Leone to settle the “Province of Freedom,” which became Freetown
1789 CE: Agonglo reigns as king of Dahomey
1792 CE: Freetown becomes one of Britain’s first colonies
1797 CE: Adandozan reigns as king of Dahomey
1798 CE: Napoleon’s army uncovers the Great Sphinx and the French seek to subdue most of the Sudan outside of the British sphere, including Niger, Mali, Upper Volta, and Chad
1791 CE: Africans revolt against the French in Santo Domingo and choose as leader Toussaint L’Ouverture
1804 CE: Conflict breaks out between Dan Fodio’s followers and Na Fata’s succes- sor, Yunfa, in the third jihad in the Hausa city-states
1805 CE: Mzilikazi, leader and creator of the state of Zimbabwe, is born
1805 CE: Asante Wars against the British until 1905
1807 CE: British slave trade prohibited on the high seas
1808 CE: Armies of Gobir have been defeated and Dan Fodio establishes a new state with the capital at Sokoto
1810 CE: Radama reigns in Madagascar
1810 CE: Mauritius conquered by British
1811–1812 CE: Fourth War with the British
1814 CE: Nearly all the Hausa states overthrown by Fulani-led jihads
1814 CE: Jihads help create largest African state of its kind at the time, the Sokoto Caliphate
1815 CE: Francisco Felix de Souza, a Portuguese slave trader, assists Guezo in seizing the Dahomey throne from Adandozan
1816–1840 CE: Mfecane wars fought is South Africa
1816 and 1819 CE: Dingiswayo leads the Mtetwa against the Ndwandwe
1816 CE: American Colonization Society sends its first ship, the Elizabeth, to Liberia with 88 emigrants, three white officials, and supplies, even though the Malinke already lived there.
1818 CE: Seku Ahmadu Bari attacks cities of Segu and Jenne, establishes the state of Massina, and declares himself the twelfth caliph
1818 CE: Guezo reigns as king of Dahomey
1818 CE: French slave trade prohibited on the high seas.
1818–1819 CE: Fifth War with the British, British intervene with two warring groups in Xhosa, and divide and conquer
1821 CE: Moeshoeshoe, founder of the Lesotho nation, moves capital to a moun- taintop for protection
1824 CE: Shaka Zulu demands all soldiers remain in the service until their thirties
1827 CE: Fourah Bay College is established in Sierra Leone and is the leading college for English-speaking Africans on the west coast
1828 CE: Shaka Zulu is murdered by his own associates, and his half-brother Dingane becomes king of the Zulu
1828–1830 CE: Umar Tal makes a hajj to Mecca and Medina, begins spreading the Tijani and became convinced to lead the fourth jihad
1834–1835 CE: Xhosa’s Sixth War with the British
1838 CE: (September 16) Boer army of Andries Pretorius defeats the Zulu nation at Blood River
1840 CE: Dingane’s brother Mpande becomes king of the Zulu nation and does not stand up to the Boers for 32 years
1840 CE: France invades the Côte d’Ivoire
1841 CE: Liberia is turned over to Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first governor of African descent
1842 CE: Natal region becomes a British colony
1844 CE: Menelik II, governor of the province of Shoa in Ethiopia, leads the most successful campaign of war against a European colonizing army
1846 CE: British military escort killed by Africans, British start the War of the Axe
1847 CE: Liberia writes a constitution and becomes an independent republic
1849 CE: George Washington Williams is born in Pennsylvania and becomes the first African American protester of the treatment of the Congo people
1858 CE: Glele reigns as king of Dahomey
1858 CE: Europeans Richard Burton and John Speke visit the Buganda kingdom and Great Lakes region in search of the source of the Nile
1861 CE: Umar Tal attacks and captures the king of Kaarta, the king of Segu, and seizes the state of Massina
1862 CE: Said Pasha finds a stele describing Piankhy’s victory over Tefnakht
1863 CE: French declare control over Porto Novo
1868 CE: Ethiopia invaded by 5000 British and Indian troops
1868 CE: Rise of Kassai, the ras, or lord, of Tigre, an Ethiopian province
1870s CE: Kassai submitted to repeated attacks from the Egyptian armies of Ismail Pasha
1870s CE: (late) Mpande’s son, Ceteswayo, rejuvenates the Zulu nation
1876 CE: (March 7–9) Battle of Gura, Ethiopia defeats the Egyptian army, which is led by European and American mercenaries
1878 CE: (December) Ceteswayo rejects British ultimatum to return his induna for trial in British courts
1879 CE: (January 10–11) British, under generalship of Frederic Thesiger, viscount Chelmsford, attack Zululand
1879 CE: Chelmsford forces take Ulundi and burn the city to the ground
1881 CE: British try to arrest Muhammed Ahmad (Mahdi), the leader of the fifth jihad
1881 CE: France takes over Tunisia
1881 CE: Muhammad Ahmad, proclaimed to be the Mahdi, rises in Sudan and seeks to recover the power of the indigenous people
1882 and 1883 CE: George Washington Williams writes History of the Negro Race in America from 1619–1880. Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens, together with a preliminary consideration of the Unity of the Human Family and Historical Sketch of Africa and an Account of the Negro Governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia
1883 CE: British send 10,000 Egyptians to attack the Mahdists in Sudan, but are defeated
1884 CE: Governor Gordon sent to Khartoum to oversee evacuation of the city and decides to take a stand
1884 CE: Germany invades Togo and Cameroon but the people revolt in February
1884 CE: Massingina uprising in Nyasaland (Malawi)
1884–1885 CE: (November 15, 1884, to February 26, 1885) Berlin Conference, Europe declares war on Africa, dividing Africa among the European powers
1884–1914 CE: African churches flourish in Ethiopia
1885 CE: French occupy Madagascar
1885 CE: Khartoum is starved and overrun by Mahdists in 1885
1885 CE: Creation of the Mahdist state
1885 CE: Rabih ibn Fadl Allah, the conquerer of Borno, creates his own state in Bahr el-Ghazal
1885 CE: Italy occupies Massawa
1885–1893 CE: “Treaties” negotiated in Nyasaland between the African Lakes Company and various kings of Nyasaland allow British to swindle land from Nyasaland
1885–1887 CE: Ahmadu Seku, leader of Tucolor Empire, supports the French in their war against Mahmadu Lamine’s uta Bondu state
1887 CE: Sultan of Zanzibar asks Tippu Tip, a half-African half-Arab Muslim slave hunter, to take over the eastern provinces of Zanzibar
1887 CE: Ethiopians defeat Italians in the “Dogali Massacre”
1887: Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica.
1888 CE: Enslaved Africans emancipated in Brazil
1889 CE: French army turns on Ahmadu Seku forces
1889 CE: Gbehanzin reigns as king of Dahomey
1889 CE: French occupy Cotonou
1889 CE: The Tucolor Empire, led by Ahmadu Seku, aggressively seeks to establish itself from Dakar to Bamako
1889 CE: (May) Italy claims a protectorate over Ethiopia after the Treaty of Wuchale (Uccialli), which cedes a portion of Ethiopia to Italy
1890 CE: Italians, with the British and French, advance on the town of Adowa in Ethiopia and occupy it
1890 CE: John Dunlop, an Irishman, invents the rubber tyre, fueling the Western need for rubber from the Congo
1890 CE: British government declares a protectorate over Zanzibar
1890 CE: George Washington Williams sails to Africa to write about slavery in the Congo under Henry Morton Stanley
1890 CE: William Sheppard, an African American, goes to the Congo as a mission- ary and returns to the USA to lecture about the slave conditions of the Congo
1890 CE: French defeat city of Segu, but the Tucolor leader refuses to surrender for the love of his country
1890–1919 CE: Ten newspapers founded in Ghana, five in Nigeria, and one in Uganda
1891 CE: French invade the Mandika territory, led by Samori Ture, who retreated so the French would not gain any advantage
1891 CE: Baule of Ivory Coast starts resistance that lasts until 1902
1891 CE: Gbehanzin, king of Dahomey, starts resistance that lasts until 1894
1892 CE: British invade Ijebu (Yoruba) and Uganda
1892 CE: Nigerian Benin enters a “trade and protection” treaty with Britain
1892 CE: French declare to King Gbehanzin that they will take over kingdom of Dahomey
1892 CE: William Sheppard enters the capital of Ifuca in Kuba and is accepted by the king
1893 CE: Chief Nzansu of Kasi leads African rebellions against Leopold’s Force Publique
1893 CE: French invade Guinea and declare it a French colony
1893 CE: Ethiopian resistance blossoms
1894 CE: Agolio Agbo reigns as king of Dahomey, but is a puppet for the French
1894 CE: British authorities name Uganda region Uganda Protectorate
1894 CE: After negotiations with Kabeka Mutesa, British place kingdom of Buganda under British Protectorate
1894–1895 CE: Knut Svenson, a Swedish officer of the Force Publique, assembles people who do not want to be enslaved in the rubber plantation business in an open courtyard under the pretext of signing a treaty or recruiting laborers and then kills them
1895 CE: Britain includes all of Uganda, including Kenya, under East African Protectorate
1895 CE: Kandolo, a Kuba, leads a revolt against Mathieu Pelzer, a Force Publique base commander, and continues to lead the Kasi region of the Congo for half a year
1896 CE: Menelik II defeats Italian army in Adowa and Italians sign Treaty of Addis Ababa nullifying Treaty of Wuchale
1890–1905 CE: Manjanga Rebellion in Congo
1890s CE: (late) Britain annexes Sudan on behalf of Egypt, gaining complete control over the Nile basin
1895–1907 CE: 50,000 Africans in Zambesi Valley escape to Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland
1895–1920 CE: Sayyid Muhammed leads Somalis in revolt
1897 CE: Kandolo is fatally wounded and two of his trusted aides, Yamba Yamba and Kimpuki, take over and continue to revolt against the Force Publique until 1908
1897 CE: Mulamba, an African soldier serving under white soldiers, leads a revolt against the Force Publique
1898 CE: British defeat Abdullah ibn Muhammed
1898 CE: French defeat Samori’s troops when they succumb to famine
1898 CE: Nehanda and Kaguvi, leaders of Zimbabwe’s First Chimurenga, are captured by the British and hanged for fighting against the unjust laws imposed by Britain and after Nehanda refuses to accept Christianity
1900 CE: British declare Protectorate of Northern Nigeria
1900 CE: English sappers chased off Tiv land, Tiv people resist domination and engage in the first Tiv–British battle, which leads to six years of instability
1900 CE: Two French armies converge and meet at Borno, defeating and killing Rabih of Borno
1900 CE: The Asante revolt against direct taxation, forced labor, and introduction of Western education
1900 CE: Fadl Allah ibn Rabih takes over Rabih’s forces and retreats to northeast Nigeria
1900 CE: (September 30) Yaa Asantewa War, Asante are defeated
1900 CE: Chilembwe, a Nyasaland native who studied in Britain and the United States, founds the Providence Industrial Mission in Nyasaland
1900, 1902, and 1904 CE: Sudanese revolt against occupation by the Egyptians and the British
1900 CE: Pan-African Conference in London
1901 CE: French abolish kingdom of Dahomey
1903 CE: Ekumeku rebellion in Nigeria
1904 CE: Herero people of Southwest Africa (Namibia) protest German occupation
1904–1905 CE: Revolt in Madagascar
1906 CE: Zulu uprising against rule of British in Natal
1906 CE: Lady Lugard writes A Tropical Dependency
1908–1909 CE: Lobi and Dyula revolt in Mali
1909 CE: Mulama of Nyasaland leads a resistance movement
1908–1914 CE: Mossi rebellions in Kouddigou and Fada N’gourma
1911 CE: Siofume, a female priestess, and Kiamba, a young man, rise against British in Kenya
1911–1912, 1953, and 1958–1959 CE: Political unrest in Nyasaland
1912 CE: (January 8) African National Congress, originally the South African Native National Congress until 1923, is created in South Africa
1913 CE: Seven medical students, influenced by Ravelojaona, a minister, start the VVS (Vy Vato Sakelike) in Madagascar but are suppressed by the French
1913 CE: Onyango Dande seeks to overturn British rule in Kenya
1913 CE: African National Congress sends delegation to Britain to protest the Land Act of 1913
1914 CE: Giriama of Kenya revolt against British
1914 CE: Sadiavahe, an armed peasant revolt
1914 CE: Revolts against Europe subside when the First Great European War (also called First World War) begins
1915 CE: Chilembwe Uprising against British in Nyasaland
1915 CE: British fight Germans in northern Nyasaland
1915–1916 CE: Rebellion of the Gurunsi in Upper Volta (Burkina Faso)
1917 CE: Rembe, a prophet claiming to have to the power to prevent European bullets killing a person, rises in Uganda
1919 CE: First (Second) Pan-African Congress directed by W. E. B. DuBois
1920 CE: Mende script, in Sierra Leone, devised by Kisimi Kamala
1920 CE: Leo Wiener writes Africa and the Discovery of America
1921 CE: Second (Third) Pan-African Congress
1921 CE: Founding of the African National Congress in South America and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the United States
1921 CE: Afro-Cubans begin Negrismo, celebrating African music, rhythms, art, folklore, and literature
1923 CE: Third (Fourth) Pan-African Congress
1923: Cheikh Anta Diop was born in Thieytou, Senegal
1925 CE: Raymond Dart, a South African, discovers the skull of a six-year-old crea- ture in a limestone cave in Taung, South Africa; the creature walked on two legs with a forward stoop and was named Australopithecus
1927 CE: Fourth (Fifth) Pan-African Congress
1929 CE: Fifth Pan-African Congress called for but denied by the French govern- ment and the Great Depression
1930 CE: Bamana “Ma-sa-ba” syllabary devised by the Woyo Couloubayi in the Kaarta region of Mali
1930 CE: Somali script developed by Isman Yusuf, son of the Somali sultan Yusuf Ali
1931 CE: Admonishment from the League of Nations stops the practice of non- Americo-Liberian forced labor in Liberia
1931 CE: French depose Njoya, an original intellect and brilliant scholar of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, king of the Bamun kingdom
1931 CE: Women become affiliated members of the African National Congress
1935 CE: Italians invade Ethiopia to teach a lesson to the only nation that has defeated its army
1939 CE: Isaiah Anozie discovers several bronze objects while digging a cistern to hold water in southeastern Nigeria
1939 CE: Aimé Césaire publishes Cahier d’un retour au pays natal and coins the term “Négritude”
1943 CE: Women become full members of the African National Congress.
1944 CE: African National Congress Youth League created, with Nelson Mandela as a founding member.
1944 CE: Félix Houphouët-Boigny, son of a Baule king, forms the first agricultural union with the aim of securing better working conditions for Africans in Côte d’Ivoire.
1945 CE: Fifth Pan-African Congress is held in Manchester, England; Pan-African Federation organized by Kwame Nkrumahh.
1945 CE: Léopold Sédar Senghor publishes Chants d’Ombre.
1945 CE: Senghor elected to represent Senegal in the French Constituent Assemblies.
1945–1951 CE: Libya under a United Nations Trusteeship.
1947 CE: African National Congress allies with the Natal Indian Congress and the Transvaal Indian Congress to oppose the white government.
1947 CE: Alioune Diop, a Senegalese intellectual living in Paris, creates Présence Africaine, a cultural journal.
1947 CE: General Council of the Kikuyu Central Association decides to campaign against white usage of Kenyan land.
1948 CE: Afrikaner political group votes for the National Party and creates the apartheid policy and Africans are restricted by their color for the first time on the continent of Africa.
1948 CE: British force Kikuyu off their land in Kenya.
1948 CE: Egypt fights war in Israel.
1948 CE: Léopold Sédar Senghor publishes Hosties Noires.
1949 CE: White minority National Party comes to power in South Africa and Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, the father of Mozambican independence, and other black students are expelled from Witwatersrand University.
1950 CE: UN argues that Eritrea should become a part of federated Ethiopia.
1950 CE: Kwame Nkrumahh arrested and imprisoned but wins a seat on the Legislative Assembly under the colonial administration.
1950s and 1960s CE: Cheikh Anta Diop proposes that Africa is the cradle of civilization.
1951 CE: Malinke receive the right to vote in Libéria.
1952 CE: Dr. Alain Bombard sails from Casablanca to Barbados in an African raft, testing the theory of African discovery of the Americas.
1952 CE: King Jacob Egharevba writes about the majesty of Nigérian Bénin king, Oba Ewuare.
1952 CE: African National Congress joins with other groups in a defiance campaign against apartheid.
1952 CE: Ben Bella pushed out of Algeria.
1952 CE: Egyptian officers in the British Free Officers Movement overthrow King Farouk I of Egypt.
1952–1960 CE: Kenya Land Freedom Army (Mau Mau) revolt in Kenya to throw British settlers off land.
1953 CE: Central Committee in Kenya renames itself the Council of Freedom.
1953 CE: British-led African Christians become the Kikuyu Home Guard in Kenya.
1953 CE: (March 26) Mau Mau viewed as bloodthirsty after they kill 70 people in the village of Lari, home to British supporters; British retaliate and kill 125 in the sweep of Aberdare Forest.
1954 CE: (November 1) Algerian Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) guerillas launch a series of attacks against the French colonial administration.
1954 CE: (February 25) Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes président of Egypt and appeals to the masses with public works projects such as the Aswan High Dam.
1954 CE: (October 26) Nasser shot at by Mahmoud Abd al-Latif, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
1955 CE: Dr. Hannes Lindermann sails for 52 days to South America from the Cape Verde Islands, demonstrating the possibility of Africans sailing to South America.
1955 CE: Congress of the People, African National Congress leads people to accept the Freedom Charter, the fundamental document of the anti-apartheid struggle.
1955 CE: A military unit composed of Sudanese southerners mutinies at Torit.
1956 CE: 156 members of the African National Congress arrested by whites in South Africa.
1956 CE: Nasser vows to liberate Palestine.
1956 CE: Freedom Charter adopted at a Congress of the People in Kliptown, South Africa.
1957 CE: Gold Coast becomes independent and chooses the name Ghana.
1957 CE: General Raoul Salan, the French commander in Algeria, challenges the FLN with quadrillage dividing the country into sectors to be policed by permanently garrisoned troops in each sector.
1957 CE: Kwame Nkrumahh promotes the idea of an independent West African Federation and becomes the leader of Ghana.
1957–1960 CE: More than two million Algerians removed from their villages
1958 CE: Conference of Independent States led by Kwame Nkrumah
1958 CE: Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe creates the Pan-Africanist Congress
1958 CE: Nasser seeks a merger between Syria and Egypt to be called the United Arab Republic, which is dissolved in 1961
1959 CE: Excavation of Isaiah Anozie’s site in southeastern Nigeria reveals it was a storehouse for ritual objects
1960 CE: Democratic Republic of the Congo establishes independence and names Patrice Lumumba prime minister, one of Africa’s most ardent nationalist leaders
1960 CE: D. T. Niane tells story of Sundiata Keita in Epic of Old Mali
1960 CE: Côte d’Ivoire gains independence
1960 CE: Dahomey regains its independence
1960 CE: Senghor elected first president of Senegal
1960 CE: Virtually all of Africa is free of European control
1960 CE: Pan-African Congress peaceful protest against the Pass Laws, 69 people killed and 180 injured in the Sharpeville massacre, Sobukwe is arrested
1960 CE: First African National Congress campaign against the Pass Laws
1960 CE: African National Congress banned for trying to carry out the Freedom Charter, Nelson Mandela suggests setting up a military wing in the ANC
1960 CE: Kwame Nkrumah becomes the first president of Ghana
1960 CE: Albert Luthuli, leader of the African National Congress, wins the Nobel Peace Prize
1960 CE: Parliamentary conference agrees Kenyans should have a government based on “one person, one vote” majority rule
1960 CE: Nigeria gains independence
1961 CE: ANC agrees to allow the use of violence and creates the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation)
1961 CE: Patrice Lumumba is murdered and Africans in the Congo lose their rights
1961–1974 CE: Angola struggles for liberation and freedom from Portugal until Portuguese sue for peace
1961 CE: 40,000 Angolans uprooted during the rebellion in Angola
1961 CE: Tanganyika achieves independence and Julius Nyerere becomes prime minister, Tanganyika later merges with Zanzibar to become Tanzania and Nyerere is elected president
1962 CE: Nelson Mandela arrested
1962 CE: Harold G. Lawrence writes African Explorers of the New World
1962 CE: Eritrea decides to end federation and unifies with Ethiopia
1962 CE: (July 1) Algeria gains independence
1962 CE: Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) forms to challenge the Portuguese control of Mozambique and select Mondlane as its first president
1963 CE: Julius Nyerere is a founding member of the Organization of African Unity
1964 CE: Mandela and eight other ANC members sentenced to life imprisonment, Mandela incarcerated at Robben Island Prison until 1982, when he is transferred to Pollsmoor Prison
1964 CE: (October 24) Kenneth David Kaunda becomes president and founding father of the new republic of Zambia
1964 CE: Nkrumah declares Ghana a one-party state and himself president-for-life
1965 CE: Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, of the Nigerian National Alliance, wins elec- tion in Nigeria but the United Progressive Grand Alliance believes it was rigged
1966 CE: (February 24) Ghana government overthrown by United States-sponsored military coup d’état
1966 CE: Hausa and Igbo create a conservative political alliance which rules Nigeria
1967 CE: (May 30) Southeastern region of Nigeria secedes as the independent republic of Biafra under the leadership of Colonel Oumegwo Ojukwu
1967 CE: Six-Day War in Egypt, then called the United Arab Republic
1967–1970 CE: Nigerian Civil War
1968 CE: Creolized Mauritius becomes an independent country
1969 CE: Bantu Stephen Biko founds the South African Students’ Organization, which provides legal and medical aid for disadvantaged black communities
1969 CE: Thor Heyerdahl sails from Africa to America in a simple boat, the Ra II
1969 CE: Sobukwe is released from prison but banished to Kimberley for five years
1969 CE: Bomb is planted under Mondlane’s desk at Frelimo and kills him
1969–1970 CE: Nasser leads Egypt in war
1970 CE: Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt and builds political relationships that allow Arabs to live in peace with the Jews but is assassinated after signing a peace treaty with Israel
1972 CE: Richard Leakey finds skull 1470 near East Turkana in Kenya
1972 CE: Biko founds the Black People’s Convention to aid the social and economic development of black people around Durban and is dismissed from school when elected president of the BPC
1972 CE: Eritrean rebels form Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) then the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), led by Osman Salah Sabbe, former head of the Muslim League
1972 CE: Sudanese peace agreement, the Addis Ababa Accords, between the south- ern Sudanese insurgents, the Anya Nya, and the Sudan government
1973 CE: Biko is banished to his hometown, King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape
1974 CE: Dinqnesh, an Australopithecus afarensis, found by Maurice Taieb and Donald Johanson in the Hadar region of Ethiopia
1974 CE: Haile Selassie, the last remaining monarch in Africa, in Ethiopia, loses power
1974 CE: Sobukwe banned for five more years
1974 CE: Sixth (seventh) Pan-African Congress in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
1974 CE: Portuguese forced to leave Mozambique
1975 CE: Dahomey changes name to Benin
1975 CE: Remains of an Australopithecine group of thirteen adults and children discovered near Hadar in Ethiopia
1975 CE: Portugal negotiates with Frelimo over the independence of Mozambique
1975 CE: Alexander von Wurthenau writes Unexpected Faces in Ancient America
1976 CE: Human footprints from 3¼ million years ago discovered near an extinct volcano near Olduvai
1976 CE: Hector Petersen, only 13 years old, leads an uprising by thousands of students to end the discriminatory educational practices in South Africa and is killed
1976 CE: United Eritrean forces push all government forces out of Eritrea but Osman breaks away from EPLF and forms the Eritrean Liberation Front–Popular Liberation Front (ELF–PLF)
1977, 1981, and 1994 CE: Roderick and Susan McIntosh excavate Jenne-Jeno
1977 CE: British government refuses to return the mask of Queen Idia during FESTA (2nd World Black-African Festival of Arts)
1977 CE: (August 21) Biko detained by the Eastern Cape security police and held in Port Elizabeth, and dies from brain damage
1977 CE: Festival of Black and African Countries in Lagos, Nigeria
1978 CE: Ethiopia defeats Eritrea with the help of the Soviet Union and Cuba
1979 CE: Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s leading producer of cocoa
1980 CE: Michael Bradley writes The Black Discovery of America
1980 CE: Nigerians pay over $1,200,000 for four Benin art pieces at an auction
1980 CE: Reformation and United People’s Party calls for the resignation of Liberian president William R. Tolbert Jr., installs Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, executes Tolbert, and the economy plunges
1983 CE: Conflict resumes between the Anya Nya and the Sudan government when President Nimeiri imposes Shari’a law, an Islamic code, which causes the death of more than 1.5 million Sudanese by 1997
1983 CE: The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forms
1989 CE: Opposition from the National Patriotic Front of Liberia flares
1990s CE: West African peacekeeping troops (ECOMOS) succeed in bringing competing factions in Liberia to negotiations
1990s CE: American revolutionaries cross the Limpopo River in South Africa to fight against apartheid
1990s CE: Fastest-growing religion in the Americas is, reportedly, Ogun, a deriva- tive of Yoruba
1990 CE: (February 18) Nelson Mandela released from prison
1990 CE: F. W. de Klerk releases the ban on the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress
1991 CE: UN-controlled referendum allows Eritreans to declare for independence and pulls back Ethiopian army
1991 CE: Mandela elected president of the ANC, Oliver Tambo is made national chairman
1992 CE: Frelimo subdues the rebels and gets a peace treaty
1993 CE: (May 24) Eritreans declare independence and name Asmara the capital; Ethiopia is completely cut off from the Red Sea
1993 CE: (June 27) Melchi Ndadaye of the Front for Democracy wins the election in Burundi
1993 CE: (October 21) Ndadaye is murdered
1993 CE: Nelson Mandela wins the Nobel Peace Prize in conjunction with De Klerk, the former white president.
1994 CE: Nelson Mandela becomes the first democratically elected president of South Africa
1994 CE: Organized slaughter of roughly one million ethnic Tutsis and their Hutu supporters in Rwanda within 100 days and Western countries refuse to inter- vene; the Tutsi-controlled Rwandan Patriotic Front takes over the country
1996 CE: Vice-governor of South Kivu Province issues an order that the Banyamulenge leave the country or face the death penalty and the anti-Mobutu forces combine to form the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire (AFDL)
1996 CE: US government sends $20 million of military equipment through the “front-line” states of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda to help the Sudanese opposi- tion overthrow the Khartoum regime
1996–1997 CE: First Congo Civil War leads to the overthrow of President Mobutu Sese Seko and changing the name of the nation back to Democratic Republic of Congo
1997 CE: (May 17) Mobutu leaves and Kabila takes power in Congo
1997 CE: (May 25) Armed Forces Revolutionary Council overthrows President Kabbah in Sierra Leone
1997 CE: Charles Taylor, of the National Patriotic Party, wins the election in Liberia but civil war breaks out
1998 CE: (March) President Kabbah is reinstated in a democratic election in Sierra Leone
1998 CE: (August 2) Kabila removes all ethnic Tutsis from government and orders all Rwandan and Ugandan officials out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in the Second Congo Civil War which last until 2002 and is referred to as Africa’s World War
1999 CE: Attempt to overthrow the government in Freetown results in a massive loss of life and destruction of property
1999 CE: (July 7) President Kabbah and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader, Foday Sankoh, sign the Lome Peace Agreement providing amnesty to members of the RUF and turn the RUF into a political party
1999 CE: Sierra Leone declares a state of emergency
2000 CE: (May 8) RUF kills twenty people protesting RUF’s violation of Lome
2000 CE: (May 29) Nigerian Civil War receives closure when the Guardian of Lagos writes that President Olusegun Obasanjo commuted to retirement the dismissal of all military persons who fought for the breakaway state of Biafra
2001 CE: (July) The NEPAD strategic framework originates with a mandate given to the five initiating heads of state (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa) by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to develop an integrated socioeconomic development framework for Africa and is formally adopted by the OAU at its 37th summit
2001 CE: (September) Namibia files lawsuit to gain $2 billion in reparations from Germany
2002 CE: African Union replaces the Organization of African Unity
2002 CE: Sahelanthropus tchadensis, the oldest known fossil of a hominid, dated to 7 million years, found in Chad
2002 CE: Belgium admits to committing the murder of Patrice Lumumba
2002 CE: (July) African Union discussed in South Africa at the seminal assembly of African states
2003 CE: President Gbagbo and rebel leaders sign accords creating a government of national unity in Côte d’Ivoire
2003 and 2004 CE: Series of conferences, initiated by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, takes place to discuss the inclusion of Africans in the Americas and Europe in the African Union as a sixth region
2004 CE: (August) German government apologizes for the genocide during the Herero uprising
2004 CE: (October 6–9) First Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and of the Diaspora organized by the African Union in collaboration with the Republic of Senegal held in Dakar, Senegal
2004 CE: Thabo Mbeki wins the South African election, beating out the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Democratic Alliance
2005 CE: African Leaders Summit under the auspices of the African Union in Sirte, Libya
2005 CE: Agreement between the Southern People’s Liberation Movement and the Sudanese government ends the conflict between the Anya Nya and the Sudan government
2005 CE: John Garang becomes president of the Republic of Sudan but dies in July 2005 in a helicopter crash
2006 CE: Former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, who had been given sanctuary in Nigeria in 2003, is arrested and handed over to the United Nations War Tribunal in Sierra Leone
2006 CE: Ellen Sirleaf Johnson is elected president of Liberia, becoming the first female leader in modern times to run an African nation
2006 CE: Ethiopian paleontologist Zeresenay Alemseged found the fossil remains of Selam, a hominid of the A. Afarensis in the Awash River Valley of Ethiopia, dating to 3.36 million years ago.
2006 CE: South Africa becomes the first African country, and the fifth in the world, to allow same-sex unions.
2007 CE: Disputed Kenyan presidential elections lead to violence in which more than 1,500 die.
2007 CE: Ghana’s President John Kufuor says off-shore oil reserves total 3 billion barrels and will make Ghana a major producer.
2007 CE: Madagascar’s President Ravalomanana opens 3.3 billion dollar nickel cobalt mining project in Tamatave. Mine said to be largest of its kind in the world.
2008 CE: - Following a long dispute an agreement is reached and Nigeria finally hands over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon.
2008 CE: Nigeria receives assurance from Iran that it will assist in nuclear technology so that Nigeria can increase its generation of electricity.
2009 CE: - Hundreds die in northeastern Nigeria after the Boko Haram Islamist movement launches a campaign of violence in a bid to have Sharia law imposed on the country.
2009 CE: Libya's leader Muammar Gadhafi becomes the president of the AU and promotes his vision of the “United States of Africa.”
2010 CE: First round of presidential election. Mr Gbagbo comes first with 38%, not enough to win outright. Former premier Alassane Ouattara is second with 32%. A run-off vote slated for November.
2010 CE: Election commission declares Mr Ouattara, the candidate supported by France, the winner of the run-off. Mr Gbagbo refuses to accept result and dispute between the two camps soon escalates into violence.
2010 CE: South Africa hosts the World Cup football tournament.
2010 CE: Wangari Maathai, first African woman to receive the Nobel Prize, dies. Noted for her environmental campaign, she is given a state funeral.
2011 CE: The killing of 34 striking miners at the Marikana platinum mine shocked South Africa
2011 CE: French troops surround the residence of Laurent Gbagbo and eventually he is captured and handed to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity. The action produces massive outrage and stiff tension in Ivory Coast and throughout the African world.
2011: Gadhafi is brutally assassinated.
2012 CE: South Africa’s interior minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma becomes the first woman to be elected head of the African Union Commission.
2012 CE: - Chadian President Idriss Deby calls on countries neighbouring northern Nigeria to set up a joint military force to tackle Boko Haram militants as they continue their attacks.
2013 CE: Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president, wins presidential election with just over 50% of the vote. International Criminal Court (ICC) drops charges against Francis Muthaura, a co-accused of Mr Kenyatta, over the 2007 election violence.
2013 CE: The British government says it sincerely regrets the torture of thousands of Kenyans during the suppression of the Mau Mau insurgency in the 1950s and promises £20m in compensation.
2013 CE: Ethiopia and Egypt agree to hold talks to ease tensions over the building of an Ethiopian dam on the Blue Nile. Egypt worries the dam will reduce vital water supply.
2013 CE: De Beers completes its move from London to Gaborone in Botswana, a step that should place Botswana a hub for diamond sales.
2013 CE: Former president Nelson Mandela, the Father of the South African Nation, dies, aged 95.
2013 CE: President Kiir dismisses entire cabinet and Vice-President Riek Machar in a power struggle within the governing Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
2013 CE: Hundreds of people die in clashes between rival army factions after President Kiir accuses his former deputy, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup. Mr Machar denies the allegation. The fighting exacerbates existing tensions between the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups.
2014 CE: South Sudan government and rebels agree to attend peace talks in Ethiopia and express confidence in success.
