Africa
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Benin
Mathieu Kérékou (b. September 2, 1933, Kouarfa, French Dahomey – d. October 14, 2015, Cotonou, Benin) was a Beninese politician who was President of Benin from 1972 to 1991 and again from 1996 to 2006.
Mathieu Kérékou seized power in a military coup (in 1972), declared a one-party Marxist-Leninist state (in 1974), renamed the country the People’s Republic of Benin (in 1975), and ruled with an iron fist for almost 20 years. In 1991, however, he became the first sub-Saharan African strongman to step down peacefully in favor of a democratically elected president, and in 1996 he won election to that office.
Kérékou attended military school and served in the French colonial army until Dahomey gained independence in 1960. He was named chairman of the country’s Military Revolutionary Council following a coup engineered in 1967 by his cousin Maurice Kouandété, but the latter was unable to hold on to power. (Kérékou later pardoned Kouandété, who had been sentenced to death by his successors.) Although Kérékou brought political stability to the country, his social and economic policies, which included nationalizing the banking and oil industries, failed, and Benin struggled economically even after he abandoned (in 1989) Marxism. He briefly changed his first name to Ahmed following a reported conversion to Islam in 1980, but he later reverted to using Mathieu and referred to himself as a born-again Christian. In 1987 Kérékou resigned from the army and declared himself to be a civilian head of state. Three years later he promulgated a new constitution and scheduled multi-party elections for 1991. He lost the presidency to Nicéphore Soglo but came back to defeat Soglo in 1996. Kérékou was re-elected in 2001, but he was barred by the constitution from seeking a third term.
Nicknamed "the chameleon" from an early point in his career, Kérékou's motto was "the branch will not break in the arms of the chameleon". The nickname and motto he adopted were full of cultural symbolism, articulating and projecting his power and ability. Unlike some past rulers who had adopted animal symbolism intending to project a violent, warlike sense of power, Kérékou's symbolic animal suggested skill and cleverness. His motto suggested that he would keep the branch from breaking, but implicitly warned of what could happen to "the branch" if it was not "in the arms of the chameleon"—political chaos. To some, his nickname seemed particularly apt as he successfully adapted himself to a new political climate and neo-liberal economic policies in the 1990s.
After leaving office in 2006, Kérékou stayed out of politics and spent time at his homes in Cotonou and Natitingou in northwestern Benin, his native region. He suffered a health crisis in 2014 and was taken to Paris for treatment. Although he recovered, he continued to suffer health problems, and he died in Benin on October 14, 2015 at the age of 82.
Botswana
(Bechuanaland)
*Paul Biya, a long-time President of Cameroon, was born in the village of Mvomeka'a in the South Region of Cameroon (February 13).
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*William Mboumoua, a Cameroonian politician who served as Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity from 1974 to 1978, was born Bonadibong, Douala (October 20).
William Aurélien Etéki Mboumoua (b. October 20, 1933, Bonadibong, Douala, Cameroon) is a Cameroonian political figure and diplomat. He had a long career as a minister in the government of Cameroon. From 1961 to 1968, he was Minister of National Education, and from 1984 to 1987, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. Etéki Mboumoua was also Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) from 1974 to 1978.
Ethiopia
(Abyssinia)
*Aklilu Lemma, an Ethiopian physician known for his work on preventing the parasitic disease bilharzia, was born Jijiga, Abyssinia (September 18).
Aklilu Lemma (b. September 18, 1933, Jijiga, Abyssinia - d. 1997) was an Ethiopian physician. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1989, jointly with Legesse Wolde-Yohannes, for their work and discoveries on how to prevent the parasitic disease bilharzia. Bilharzia, or schistosomiasis, is a debilitating and eventually fatal illness, which afflicts more than 200 million people in 74 countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Present therapies for bilharzia, and molluscicides to kill the snail-carriers of the disease, are far too expensive for the communities that need them.
*Mathieu Kerekou, a President of Benin known as "The Chameleon", was born Kouarfa, in north-west French Dahomey (September 2).
Mathieu Kérékou (b. September 2, 1933, Kouarfa, French Dahomey – d. October 14, 2015, Cotonou, Benin) was a Beninese politician who was President of Benin from 1972 to 1991 and again from 1996 to 2006.
Mathieu Kérékou seized power in a military coup (in 1972), declared a one-party Marxist-Leninist state (in 1974), renamed the country the People’s Republic of Benin (in 1975), and ruled with an iron fist for almost 20 years. In 1991, however, he became the first sub-Saharan African strongman to step down peacefully in favor of a democratically elected president, and in 1996 he won election to that office.
Kérékou attended military school and served in the French colonial army until Dahomey gained independence in 1960. He was named chairman of the country’s Military Revolutionary Council following a coup engineered in 1967 by his cousin Maurice Kouandété, but the latter was unable to hold on to power. (Kérékou later pardoned Kouandété, who had been sentenced to death by his successors.) Although Kérékou brought political stability to the country, his social and economic policies, which included nationalizing the banking and oil industries, failed, and Benin struggled economically even after he abandoned (in 1989) Marxism. He briefly changed his first name to Ahmed following a reported conversion to Islam in 1980, but he later reverted to using Mathieu and referred to himself as a born-again Christian. In 1987 Kérékou resigned from the army and declared himself to be a civilian head of state. Three years later he promulgated a new constitution and scheduled multi-party elections for 1991. He lost the presidency to Nicéphore Soglo but came back to defeat Soglo in 1996. Kérékou was re-elected in 2001, but he was barred by the constitution from seeking a third term.
Nicknamed "the chameleon" from an early point in his career, Kérékou's motto was "the branch will not break in the arms of the chameleon". The nickname and motto he adopted were full of cultural symbolism, articulating and projecting his power and ability. Unlike some past rulers who had adopted animal symbolism intending to project a violent, warlike sense of power, Kérékou's symbolic animal suggested skill and cleverness. His motto suggested that he would keep the branch from breaking, but implicitly warned of what could happen to "the branch" if it was not "in the arms of the chameleon"—political chaos. To some, his nickname seemed particularly apt as he successfully adapted himself to a new political climate and neo-liberal economic policies in the 1990s.
After leaving office in 2006, Kérékou stayed out of politics and spent time at his homes in Cotonou and Natitingou in northwestern Benin, his native region. He suffered a health crisis in 2014 and was taken to Paris for treatment. Although he recovered, he continued to suffer health problems, and he died in Benin on October 14, 2015 at the age of 82.
Botswana
(Bechuanaland)
*On September 14, the British High Commissioner for the African protectorate of Bechuanaland (now the Republic of Botswana), Vice Admiral E. R. G. R. Evans, sent in troops to the city of Serowe, to depose the King of the Bamangwato tribe, Chief Tshekedi. The King had violated a law prohibiting trial of any European national in native courts, after permitting a British citizen, Phineas McIntosh, to be flogged as punishment for adultery.
Cameroon
*Paul Biya, a long-time President of Cameroon, was born in the village of Mvomeka'a in the South Region of Cameroon (February 13).
Paul Biya (b. Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo, February 13, 1933, Mvomeka'a, Cameroon) is a Cameroonian politician who became President of Cameroon on November 6, 1982. A native of Cameroon's south, Biya rose rapidly as a bureaucrat under President Ahmadou Ahidjo in the 1960s, serving as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982. He succeeded Ahidjo as President upon the latter's surprise resignation in 1982 and consolidated power in a 1983–1984 power struggle with his predecessor.
Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a one-party system in the 1980s. Under pressure, he accepted the introduction of multi-party politics in the early 1990s. He narrowly won the 1992 presidential election with 40% of the plural, single-ballot vote and was re-elected by large margins in 1997, 2004, and 2011. Opposition politicians and Western governments have alleged voting irregularities and fraud on each of these occasions.
Paul Biya was born in 1933 in the southern Cameroonian village of Mvomeka'a. His parents were not wealthy, but his small village was a surprising springboard for his accomplishments. At age 7 his parents sent him to the Catholic mission at Ndem, approximately 30 miles from his home. One of Biya's French tutors there found his work excellent, and determined that Biya should become a priest. At age fourteen he was admitted to Edea and Akono Junior Seminaries, run by the Saint Esprit fathers. His future was brightened further when he gained admission to the Lycee General Leclerc in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital; Lycee Leclerc is French Cameroon's most prestigious high school. At the Lycee, Biya studied Latin, Greek, and philosophy.
Biya's excellent work in secondary school allowed him to study at the University of Paris, where he focused on law and political science. He received his law degree in 1960. After graduation, Biya lived in France and studied public law at the Institute of Overseas Studies. In 1962, when Biya returned to Cameroon, he did so at a historic point in his nation's history. That turning point for Cameroon would provide opportunities and difficulties for Biya in the coming years.
To understand the challenges facing Cameroon, it is important to know its history. The Republic of Cameroon was once a German protectorate. In 1916, France and the United Kingdom (U.K.) came to rule over it. The colonial rule continued even after the creation of the League of Nations, a precursor to the United Nations: In 1922, the League allowed France and the U.K. to rule the segments of Cameroon that were then under their control.
Thus it happened that the nation was divided, north from south, French from British. Although those nations no longer rule over the country, the division is still a real one in a country split by language-French and British-and by religion-Muslim and Christian.
On January 1, 1960, the French part of the country achieved independence from French rule. Named as its first president was Ahmadou Ahidjo, a Muslim from the north. The English section also gained independence on October 1, 1961; part of the British zone voted to join neighboring Nigeria, and part voted to join the former French zone. The reconfigured nation had become the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
This was the nation to which Biya returned in 1962. He was put in charge of the Department of Foreign Development Aid. That position reported directly to President Ahidjo, and also gave the young Biya experience in money matters on an international scale.
Biya's relationship with the president was a fascinating one, and would define much about Biya's future. Over time, Ahidjo became Biya's political mentor, and the men became very close. Their backgrounds, and even their personalities, were very different, however. Ahidjo had worked as a telephone operator before becoming president, and he had only an elementary school education. Although Biya came from humble beginnings, he was highly educated and enjoyed classical music and tennis. Despite these differences, Biya became a loyal follower of the president.
Under Ahidjo, Biya held a number of positions. He worked as chief of the cabinet, secretary general of the presidency, and minister of state, Cameroon's highest-ranking minister. In 1975, Ahidjo chose him as prime minister, a position Biya held until 1982. According to the Cameroonian constitution, this made Biya Ahidjo's legal successor.
At that time, Cameroon had a single-party government. Biya also achieved success in the party, the Cameroon National Union (CNU). His skill at party politics would prove invaluable to him later, as he jockeyed for position with Ahidjo, who served as head of the party as well as president.
The events of November 6, 1982, are still debated by historians. On that day, President Ahidjo, citing health concerns, resigned as president. As was required by the constitution, he handed over the presidency to Biya. The action stunned the nation. Biya was largely unknown to the populace, and he was untried as a head of state.
It appears that Ahidjo expected that he would remain firmly in control of the country after his resignation. He, like many, believed the party head position to be superior to that of president. The CNU, as the only party, set policy for all government actions. The president was expected merely to carry out the directives.
Biya's initial actions as president confirmed this view. Soon, however, the historic rivalry and tension between north and south caused him to shift gears. When he discovered that the bureaucrats from the north would not follow his lead and his orders, he began to replace some of Ahidjo's ministers and closest aides-many of whom were northerners-with men loyal to him, often southerners.
Two coup attempts also strengthened Biya's control. In August 1983 a coup attempt was seen as an effort by Ahidjo to regain power and influence. This failed coup resulted in Ahidjo's forced resignation from the party chairmanship and his exile to France. The more deadly coup occurred in April 1984, when members of the presidential guard loyal to Ahidjo tried to capture the palace. After three days of fighting the rebels were defeated. Ahidjo, living in France, was again officially accused of plotting the attack.
While these plots were hatched and coming undone, Biya's star was rising. In September 1983, he was elected president of the CNU; he abolished that party and established the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, or CPDM. And on January 14, 1984, he was re-elected to be Cameroon's president. Flush with success, he made the puzzling promise that there would from then on be more democracy within the party, but that no opposition could be admitted. However, repression, not democracy, was soon the hallmark of his administration.
Despite the contradiction, hopes were high after Biya's election. The economy was booming, and his focus on appointments based on merit rather than on cronyism suggested a turning point for the country.
Biya's rule had some successes. Later elections showed that he allowed more choice of candidates within the one party. In 1986, Cameroon resumed diplomatic relations with Israel, relations that had broken down after the 1973 Middle East war. Cameroon was only the fourth black African state to do so. And in 1987, a visit to Cameroon by the Nigerian president improved relations with that neighboring country, historically soured by border clashes.
Nevertheless, Biya's rule was dogged by a number of problems. One was a severe economic crisis that began in 1984 and that continued for years. When the price of oil on the world market collapsed, the prices for Cameroon's main crops -- cocoa, cotton, coffee, and palm oil --also dropped. Oil is Cameroon's main export, and accounted for about 35% of the budget. Beginning in 1987, Cameroon's economy shrunk for nine consecutive years with only some modest growth becoming evident in 1996.
Also problematic was a large and ineffectual government work force. Biya reduced the budget, throwing many employees out of work. In 1988, Biya agreed to accept loans from the International Monetary Fund. Although the infusion of cash aided the economy, its austerity demands were severe for the poor population.
Perhaps most characteristic of Biya's presidency is its repressive nature. This was nowhere more evident than in the first multi-party elections to be held in Cameroon. In the late 1980s, a movement was sweeping Africa to allow candidates from more than just the official government parties. Biya resisted the movement, but finally allowed multi-party elections by mid-1990. The presidential election of 1992, however, was a shambles as an exercise in democracy. Most historians believe that Biya was defeated in that election by opposition leader John Fru Ndi. However, Biya had himself declared the winner.
Following the election, Biya declared a state of emergency to combat demonstrations. Large-scale arrests of opposition supporters occurred. Amnesty International recorded numerous instances of illegal arrests, torture, and death at the hands of Cameroonian police. In September of 1997, Amnesty International commented, "Fundamental human rights are persistently violated in Cameroon."
Oddly, it appears that the multiparty elections, which Biya initially opposed, had the power to revive his sagging presidency.
Biya's ability to manipulate public information continued throughout the 1997 presidential election. As the election approached, Biya's government refused to allow the creation of an independent body to organize and monitor the elections. As a result, the three main opposition leaders, including Fru Ndi, opted to boycott the vote rather than participate in what they and many Cameroonians considered a charade.
Biya had one child with his first wife, the former Jeanne Atyam. After his wife died, he remarried. The material benefits of authoritarianism have been great for Biya. The New York Times in 1997 reported estimates of Biya's private fortune as $75 million. This amount reportedly was in addition to two presidential Boeing 747s, two massive homes in Cameroon, and other homes in France and Switzerland.
*William Mboumoua, a Cameroonian politician who served as Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity from 1974 to 1978, was born Bonadibong, Douala (October 20).
William Aurélien Etéki Mboumoua (b. October 20, 1933, Bonadibong, Douala, Cameroon) is a Cameroonian political figure and diplomat. He had a long career as a minister in the government of Cameroon. From 1961 to 1968, he was Minister of National Education, and from 1984 to 1987, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. Etéki Mboumoua was also Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) from 1974 to 1978.
Born in the Bonadibong section of Douala in 1933, Etéki Mboumoua studied in France during the 1950s. He was Prefect of Nkam and Sanaga-Maritime from 1958 to 1961 — a tumultuous time for those areas — and was then appointed to the government as Minister of National Education on October 20, 1961. He remained in the latter post until 1968, holding the additional portfolios of youth, sports, and culture during that period. He was also a member of the Executive Board of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1962 to 1968, becoming its Vice-President in 1967, and he was President of the UNESCO General Conference from 1968 to 1970.
Etéki Mboumoua was Special Adviser to President Ahmadou Ahidjo from 1971 to 1973. Following the 1974 resignation of Nzo Ekangaki, a fellow Cameroonian, as Secretary-General of the OAU, Ahidjo proposed Etéki Mboumoua as a candidate for that office. At an OAU meeting in Mogadishu in June 1974, the OAU's election process became deadlocked between a candidate from Somalia and a candidate from Zambia, with neither of them able to secure a two-thirds majority. As a result, Etéki Mboumoua was unanimously elected as a compromise choice.
After Somalia invaded Ethiopia in July 1977, the OAU attempted to mediate the situation in August, but the Somali government refused to participate, protesting the exclusion of its allies, the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF). Etéki Mboumoua stated that the OAU did not consider the WSLF a true liberation movement; the Somalis in turn criticized the OAU for allegedly failing to promote African liberation.
Etéki Mboumoua remained Secretary-General of the OAU until 1978, when he was succeeded by Togo's Foreign Minister, Edem Kodjo. He served again as Special Adviser to President Ahidjo from 1978 to 1980 and then as Minister in Charge of Special Duties under the President of the Republic from 1980 to 1984. Etéki Mboumoua retained his post after Ahidjo resigned and was succeeded by Prime Minister Paul Biya. He was considered a close associate of Biya, and on July 7, 1984, Biya appointed him as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In what was viewed as a surprising decision, Biya dismissed Etéki Mboumoua from the government in January 1987. No specific reason was given. It was speculated that Etéki Mboumoua was dismissed because he had objected to the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Cameroon and Israel in 1986. Given Etéki Mboumoua's exceptional prominence, his sudden dismissal reportedly rattled the political elite.
After leaving political office, Etéki Mboumoua moved to humanitarian work, becoming President of the Cameroon Red Cross (CRC). He also continued to engage in some diplomatic activity. In 1995, the OAU appointed him to mediate the political situation in the Comoros.
At a Red Cross event in Bertoua on August 3, 2007, Etéki Mboumoua discussed the dire effects of illegal migration. He highlighted the role of such migration in destabilizing nations and regions when it involved Africans fleeing to neighboring African countries to escape violence in their own countries. According to Etéki Mboumoua, only African unity in the form of a United States of Africa could ultimately address the problem.
Speaking on January 30, 2009, Mboumoua called for donations to the CRC's emergency relief fund. Etéki Mboumoua explained that his organization did not receive anywhere near an adequate level of funding from the state and that aid from other sources tended to arrive too late to be properly used in an emergency situation, so the organization had set up its emergency relief fund in 2008. He urged donations to enable the CRC to have sufficient funds available to promptly address emergency situations. He died in hospital on October 26, 2016 at the age of 83.
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Democratic Republic of the Congo
(Zaire)
(Belgian Congo)
*Thomas Kanza, one of the first Congolese nationals to graduate from a university, was born
Thomas Rudolphe Kanza (b. 1933, Belgian Congo – d. October 25, 2004, London, United Kingdom) was a politician and diplomat. From 1960–1962, he served as the Republic of the Congo's first ambassador to the United Nations and from 1962–1964 was a delegate to the United Kingdom. His opposition to the governments of Moise Tshombe and Joseph Mobutu led him to first rebel and ultimately flee the Congo. He returned in 1983 and resumed politics, showing favor for Mobutu. From Mobutu's ousting in 1997 until his own death, Kanza served in diplomatic roles for the Congo.
Thomas Kanza was born in 1933. He was the son of Daniel Kanza, who would emerge in the 1950s as a leader of the ABAKO (Alliance des Bakongo) party. He was the very first Congolese national to receive a college education in an area other than theology, studying at the Universite catholique de Louvain from 1952–1956 and earning a degree in economics. Even after he graduated, he served as the vice-chairman of the Association of Congolese Students in Belgium and managed its public relations. He then spent a year at Harvard University in the United States before subsequently taking a position with the European Economic Community in Brussels. In 1955, he met future prime minister Patrice Lumumba with whom he would eventually become friends. Kanza was a member of the Union des Interets Sociaux Congolais (UNISCO), a Leopoldville-based cultural society for leaders of elite Congolese associations.
When plans for a Congolese Round Table Conference on the future of the Belgian Congo were announced in late 1959, Kanza took up a position as a liaison between the various participating parties. He also formally invited the popular Congolese bands Le Grand Kalle et l'African Jazz and OK Jazz to come perform at the talks. Following his father's break with ABAKO leadership during the conference, Kanza helped his family lead a splinter wing of the party. Unlike his contemporaries, Kanza envisioned a much longer transition period from the Belgian colonial administration to Congolese independence, and did not advocate for the latter until it was declared.
Following independence on June 30, 1960, Kanza left his old job in Belgium and was appointed by Lumumba to be the newly created Republic of the Congo's Minister Delegate (de facto ambassador) to the United Nations. In mid-September, Lumumba was removed from power by Colonel Joseph Mobutu and placed under arrest. Kanza approached Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko for help, but was informed that there was little they could do. He then appealed to United States President John F. Kennedy through Eleanor Roosevelt, asking that he intervene to protect Lumumba. Kennedy responded that the handling of prisoners was a United Nations matter. Lumumba was eventually executed on January 17, 1961.
Meanwhile, Lumumba's absence had created a dilemma surrounding the authority of his delegation at the United Nations, which was led by Kanza. On November 8, 1960, President Joseph Kasa-Vubu proposed his own delegation, leading to a dispute in the General Assembly. On November 22, 1960 the Assembly voted to recognize Kasa-Vubu's delegation, thereby subverting Kanza. He then served as the representative for Antoine Gizenga's brief rival government based in Stanleyville.
In 1962, Kanza, having rejoined the central government, was transferred to be charge d'affaires of the United Kingdom embassy. In 1964, he was recalled to the Congo. He soon entered a dispute with the new prime minister, Moise Tshombe, and joined Pierre Mulele's rebel group. Following its defeat and Mobutu's definitive seizure of power in 1965, Kanza fled to Europe. He shortly thereafter moved to the United States and in the same year published a largely autobiographical novel, Sans rancune. In 1972, he published a memoir on Lumumba, entitled, The Rise and Fall of Patrice Lumumba: Conflict in the Congo. He later became a professor of politics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Kanza returned to the Congo in 1983 following the declaration of a general amnesty by Mobutu. He unsuccessfully ran for the premiership against Etienne Tshisekedi in 1992 as the pro–Mobutu candidate. In June 1997, he was appointed Minister of International Cooperation in the new government of Laurent Kabila. By 1998, he was the Minister of Labor and Social Security.
Kanza died of a heart attack in London on October 25, 2004, while serving as the Congo's ambassador to Sweden.
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(Abyssinia)
*Aklilu Lemma, an Ethiopian physician known for his work on preventing the parasitic disease bilharzia, was born Jijiga, Abyssinia (September 18).
Aklilu Lemma (b. September 18, 1933, Jijiga, Abyssinia - d. 1997) was an Ethiopian physician. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1989, jointly with Legesse Wolde-Yohannes, for their work and discoveries on how to prevent the parasitic disease bilharzia. Bilharzia, or schistosomiasis, is a debilitating and eventually fatal illness, which afflicts more than 200 million people in 74 countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Present therapies for bilharzia, and molluscicides to kill the snail-carriers of the disease, are far too expensive for the communities that need them.
In 1964, the young Ethiopian doctor, Aklilu Lemma, discovered that suds from the fruit of a common African plant, the endod or soapberry, which African women have used as soap for centuries, acts as a potent molluscicide. To follow up this discovery, Lemma in 1966 established the Institute of Pathobiology in Addis Ababa University, and for the next 10 years he directed a team to carry out systematic research on endod. He was joined in this work in 1974 by Legesse Wolde-Yohannes.
The discovery seemed to offer no less than a cheap, locally-controllable means of eradicating a disease that is the second greatest scourge (after malaria) in the Third World. And Lemma's early research confirmed this potential. Yet progress in making this endod product available to the people who need it has been extremely slow, for reasons that exposed some of the biases and failings of the international medical community.
However, Lemma's and Wolde-Yohannes' persistence and the support of key scientists and donors in the West opened the door to the necessary laboratory and field trials. An endod research and application network was established, linking five African countries, and the plant was grown and used for experimental control of schistosomiasis.
Before his death in 1997, Lemma and colleagues established the Endod Foundation to serve as an umbrella for all endod-related work. Following collaboration with Lemma, the University of Toledo was granted a United States patent on an endod-based molluscicide intended to control the zebra mussels which had invaded American lakes and caused extensive damage to water supplies. This opened a major new hope for marketing and exporting endod as a cash crop.
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Kenya
*Ali Mazrui, author of The Africans and host of the PBS series of the same name, was born in Mombasa, Kenya (February 24).
Ali Al Amin Mazrui, (b. February 24, 1933, Mombasa, Kenya — d. October 12, 2014, Vestal, New York, United States) was a Kenyan American political scientist who was widely regarded as one of East Africa’s foremost political scholars.
Mazrui, the son of a prominent Islamic judge, received a scholarship to study in England at Manchester University (B.A., 1960). He continued his education at Columbia University (M.A., 1961), New York City, and Nuffield College, Oxford (D.Phil., 1966). He returned to Africa to teach at Uganda’s Makerere University (1963–73), but his opposition to Ugandan President Idi Amin and his often controversial views on African development obliged him to leave the region. From 1974 to 1991 Mazrui taught political science at the University of Michigan. He then moved to the State University of New York at Binghamton (now Binghamton University, SUNY), where he founded (in 1991) and directed the Institute of Global Cultural Studies.
Mazrui also held faculty positions at other universities worldwide, was a consultant to international organizations, and wrote more than 30 books on African politics and society as well as post-colonial patterns of development and underdevelopment. Among his best-known works were Towards a Pax Africana (1967), The African Condition: A Political Diagnosis (1980), Black Reparations in the Era of Globalization (2002), and The African Predicament and the American Experience: A Tale of Two Edens (2003). He also wrote and presented the nine-hour BBC-PBS TV co-production The Africans (1986) and was featured in the documentary Motherland (2009). Mazrui’s honors included the Association of Muslim Social Scientists UK (AMSS UK) Lifetime Academic Achievement Award (2000).
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Mozambique
*Samora Machel, the President of Mozambique from 1975 to 1986, was born in Chilembene, Mozambique.
Samora Moisés Machel (b. September 29, 1933, Chilembene, Mozambique – d. October 19, 1986, Mbuzini, Lebombo Mountains, South Africa) was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader, and eventual President of Mozambique. Machel led the country from independence in 1975 until his death in 1986, when his presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain where the borders of Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa converge.
Born more than 200 miles north of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, Machel received his education through mission schools. He refused to enter a seminary for higher education and instead became a nurse in Maputo. The experience radicalized him, and, after 10 years in the profession, he joined the clandestine Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), which sent him to Algeria for military training. He rose quickly through the leadership ranks and became Frelimo’s leader in 1970, after the 1969 assassination of Eduardo Mondlane.
Machel claimed that his radical political stance came originally not from reading Marx but from the experiences of his family. His parents were forced to grow cotton for the Portuguese and were displaced from their land in the 1950s in favor of Portuguese settlers. After Mozambique became independent in 1975, Machel became president. Frelimo followed Marxist ideology by nationalizing many institutions and supported Robert Mugabe in his fight to end white domination of his country, Zimbabwe. Machel, however, did sign the Nkomati Accord with South Africa in 1984, under which each country agreed not to support the other country’s opposition movements, and thereby maintained an economic relationship with the white minority government battling the African National Congress. Machel's charisma and personal style kept his government in power despite the droughts and floods of the early 1980s and the ongoing civil war with the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo).
In 1986, Machel was returning to Mozambique from Zambia when his plane crashed in South Africa. It was believed by many that the South African government was somehow responsible for the crash, although it strongly denied a connection. Machel’s widow, Graça, who married South African President Nelson Mandela in 1998, gave evidence to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that supported the involvement of the minority South African government. A memorial to Machel was erected in 1999 at the site of the crash.
NigeriaBorn more than 200 miles north of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, Machel received his education through mission schools. He refused to enter a seminary for higher education and instead became a nurse in Maputo. The experience radicalized him, and, after 10 years in the profession, he joined the clandestine Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), which sent him to Algeria for military training. He rose quickly through the leadership ranks and became Frelimo’s leader in 1970, after the 1969 assassination of Eduardo Mondlane.
Machel claimed that his radical political stance came originally not from reading Marx but from the experiences of his family. His parents were forced to grow cotton for the Portuguese and were displaced from their land in the 1950s in favor of Portuguese settlers. After Mozambique became independent in 1975, Machel became president. Frelimo followed Marxist ideology by nationalizing many institutions and supported Robert Mugabe in his fight to end white domination of his country, Zimbabwe. Machel, however, did sign the Nkomati Accord with South Africa in 1984, under which each country agreed not to support the other country’s opposition movements, and thereby maintained an economic relationship with the white minority government battling the African National Congress. Machel's charisma and personal style kept his government in power despite the droughts and floods of the early 1980s and the ongoing civil war with the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo).
In 1986, Machel was returning to Mozambique from Zambia when his plane crashed in South Africa. It was believed by many that the South African government was somehow responsible for the crash, although it strongly denied a connection. Machel’s widow, Graça, who married South African President Nelson Mandela in 1998, gave evidence to South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that supported the involvement of the minority South African government. A memorial to Machel was erected in 1999 at the site of the crash.
*Moses Orimolade, a Nigerian Yoruban religious leader who founded the Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim died (October 19).
Moses Orimolade Tunolase was born circa 1879 in Ikare into the royal family of Ayibiri in Ondo State of Nigeria. Orimolade could neither stand nor walk until he was well over five years of age. In an effort to get Orimolade the help he needed, his parents had taken him to St. Stephen's Anglican Church, the only church in the Yoruba town of Ikare in Western Nigeria at the time.
Orimolade was often left in the custody of the clergyman at this Church Missionary Society establishment of the Anglican Communion. One night the minister observed a strange light in the church and heard singing coming from inside. The minister discovered that the building was empty, except for Orimolade, who was about 5 years old at the time, sitting on the floor of the church in bright phosphorescence.
At age 12 years, Orimolade had a dream in which he was presented with a rod, a Royal Insignia and a crown. He woke with a personal conversion to the Christian faith and a conviction of his calling to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ but his evangelistic mission did not begin until after a period of seven years in confinement. Some of his close associates at the time attributed this confinement to a protracted illness while others regarded it as a period spent in training and preparation for his missionary work. Orimolade emerged from this confinement with partial recovery of the use of his legs and a remarkable ability to pray and preach the King James Version of the Bible that had been translated into his own native Yoruba language earlier by his tribesman, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther.
Orimolade started his missionary work as an itinerant preacher in Ikare (his Yoruba town of birth) with no formal education. He openly confronted witches and wizards in Irun (another Yoruba town) and pulled down the image of Osijora, one of the idols worshipped in the village. He condemned the prevalent practice of human sacrifice in Benin City. He consecrated a pool in Kaba town and rid it of the evil spirit the villagers had worshipped. Orimolade converted many to the Christian faith. Traditional worshippers willingly gave up their charms and images for burning in response to his preaching and prayer. He directed his converts to the existing churches, irrespective of denominations, and where no church existed he helped establish one. Some of the churches established by Orimolade were actually first established for the Church Missionary Society.
The African people were converted to the Christian faith by the members of the Church Missionary Society for the Anglican Church and were introduced to the Bible. Some of the Christianized western world views and European moral values contradicted and contravened the nature and culture of the African people. The manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit among the African converts were misunderstood and mistaken by the missionaries for diabolical African voodoo. Polygamous marriages were dissolved resulting in the bastardization of the children from these African traditional marriages.
The availability of the translations of the scriptures in African languages brought the Bible to life among the African people and changed their views of the missionaries and the missions. Drumming, clapping and dancing as methods of worship were embraced by the African people but created challenges for the missionaries and their European concept of worship. The difference in understanding of religious expression resulted in clashes and conflicts between the missionaries and the African leadership in the Anglican Church. The blind insistence of the missionaries on the superiority of the European concept of Christianity provided the moral impetus for the denial of the African leadership the right to succeed Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther and left the African people in the Anglican Church disconnected and discontent.
In response, the people started gathering into prayer groups called Egbe Aladura. The Aladuras promoted and popularized the power of prayer to heal. When the 1918 influenza pandemic spread to West Africa the people sought healing among the Aladuras. The healing and survival of so many Nigerians among the Aladuras during the Spanish flu spurred the growth and spread of these prayer groups in the early 1920s. Moses Orimolade arrived in Lagos on July 12, 1924 and lodged at Holy Trinity (Anglican) Church with the Sexton of the Church, Emmanuel Olumodeji from his hometown. He started preaching and praying for people all over Lagos in Nigeria. Many people in and around Holy Trinity sought after Orimolade for spiritual inquiry and counseling. He developed a reputation for seasoned preaching and fervent prayer and became known among the people as the "Baba Aladura" (Father that prays). The prosperity and popularity of Moses Orimolade was not welcomed among the Anglican leadership and led to his ejection from the premises of Holy Trinity on September 11, 1924. This aroused the sympathy and support of people in and around the Church. They followed Orimolade out of Holy Trinity and thereafter to his places of residence. Orimolade called this group of supporters and sympathizers the "Aladura Band" and continued his preaching and prayer with them.
On June 18, 1925 the Aladura Band was called to the rescue of an unconscious Methodist teenage girl, Abiodun Akinsowon, who had fallen into a trance when she tried to look into the chalice carried by the Catholic Archbishop on Corpus Christi public procession. Abiodun remained in the trance for 21 days in the care of the Aladura Band. She regained consciousness after 21 days and joined the Aladura Band. She became the first visioner in the band. The name of the band was changed to the Seraph Band on 9 September 9, 1925 by Moses Orimolade. The addition of Cherubim to the name was advised by spiritual injunction on March 26, 1926 to reflect the heavenly representation of the Cherubim and Seraphim. The band was fully formed and functional by the end of 1925. Moses Orimolade reigned as the Sole Founder and Spiritual head of the band from 1925 to 1933.
******Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a Nigerian military officer and politician who served as the military governor of the Eastern Region of Nigeria in 1966 and the leader of the breakaway Republic of Biafra from 1967 to 1970, was born in Zungeru, Nigeria.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, in full Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (b. November 4, 1933, Zungeru, Nigeria — d. November 26, 2011, London, England) Nigerian military leader and politician, who was head of the secessionist state of Biafra during the Nigerian civil war.
Ojukwu was the son of a successful Igbo businessman. After graduating from the University of Oxford in 1955, he returned to Nigeria to serve as an administrative officer. After two years, however, he joined the army and was rapidly promoted thereafter. In January 1966, a group of largely Igbo junior army officers overthrew Nigeria’s civilian government but then were forced to hand power to the highest-ranking military officer, Major General T.U. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (also an Igbo). He appointed Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu as military governor of the mostly Igbo Eastern region. However, Hausa and Yoruba army officers from the Northern and Western regions feared a government dominated by the Igbo, and in July 1966 northern officers staged a successful counter-coup in which Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Yakubu Gowon was installed as the new head of state. Under Gowon’s rule, Ojukwu retained his command of the Eastern region. Meanwhile, the rising tide of feeling against the Igbo in the Northern region led to large-scale massacres of Igbos by northerners from May to September in 1966.
The Eastern region felt increasingly alienated from the federal military government under Gowon. Ojukwu’s main proposal to end the ethnic strife was a significant devolution of power to the regions. The federal government initially agreed to this solution at a conference in January 1967 but then rejected it soon afterward. Ojukwu responded in March–April 1967 by separating the Eastern regional government’s administration and revenues from those of the federal government. Mounting secessionist pressures from his fellow Igbo finally compelled Ojukwu on May 30, 1967, to declare the Eastern region an independent sovereign state as the Republic of Biafra. Federal troops soon afterward invaded Biafra, and civil war broke out in July 1967. Ojukwu led Biafra's unsuccessful struggle to survive as an independent state throughout the civil war, and on the eve of Biafra’s surrender in 1970, he fled to Cote d'Ivoire, where he was granted asylum.
Ojukwu remained in exile until 1982, when he was pardoned and returned to Nigeria. He joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in January 1983 and subsequently attempted to re-enter politics. His bid for the senate representing the state of Anambra was unsuccessful. He was detained for 10 months following a coup that brought Muhammad Buhari to power at the end of 1983. In 1993, he once again joined a political party, this time the Social Democratic Party, but he was disqualified from running for president.
A member of constitutional conferences in 1993 and again from 1994 to 1995, he, along with other former Nigerian leaders, was consulted in 1998 by Abdusalam Abubakar, the military head of state, as Nigeria once again began the process of converting from military to civilian rule. In 2003, Ojukwu, representing a new political party that he helped form, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, unsuccessfully ran for president. He ran again in 2007 but was defeated by the ruling party’s candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, in an election that was strongly criticized by international observers as being marred by voting irregularities.
Ojukwu had several honors and titles bestowed upon him during his life, including the honorary chieftaincy title Ikemba of Nnewi.
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*The Nigerian Youth Movement was formed in Lagos.
The Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM) was Nigeria's first genuine nationalist organization, founded in Lagos in 1933 with Professor Eyo Ita as the founding father and many others including Samuel Akisanya. Ernest Ikoli, the first editor of the Daily Times of Nigeria, which was launched in June 1926, was another founding member. Immediate concerns included the supposedly inferior status of Yaba College, appointments of Africans to senior positions in the civil service and discrimination against African truck drivers. However, the Lagos-based organization at first had generally moderate views and pledged to support and cooperate with the governor. The president was Dr. Kofo Abayomi. Ernest Ikoli was vice president and H. O. Davies was the secretary. It was the first multi-ethnic organization in Nigeria and its program was to foster political advancement of the country and enhance the socio-economic status of the Nigerian citizens.
The movement acquired national outlook and became a strong national movement when Nnamdi Azikiwe and H. O. Davies returned to Nigeria in 1937 and 1938 respectively and consequently joined the movement. N.Y.M. became the first authentic Nigerian nationalist organization to be formed, Obafemi Awolowo and Samuel Akintola were other prominent members of the movement which membership was open to all Nigerians especially those resident in Lagos.
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Sierra Leone
*Clifford Fyle, a Sierra Leonean author who wrote the Sierra Leone National Anthem, was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone (March 29).
Clifford Nelson Fyle (b. March 29, 1933, Freetown, Sierra Leone - d. January 18, 2006, Yonkers, New York) was a Sierra Leonean linguistics professor, author, writer, mathematician, lecturer and publisher who authored the Sierra Leonean National Anthem. He was the first Sierra Leonean to produce school books for the teaching of Sierra Leonean languages.
Clifford Nelson Fyle (b. March 29, 1933, Freetown, Sierra Leone - d. January 18, 2006, Yonkers, New York) was a Sierra Leonean linguistics professor, author, writer, mathematician, lecturer and publisher who authored the Sierra Leonean National Anthem. He was the first Sierra Leonean to produce school books for the teaching of Sierra Leonean languages.
Fyle was the first Publicity Secretary of the United Progressive Party (UPP) and the third in command of the same party, after Cyril Rogers-Wright and John Nelson-Williams, before it merged with the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) forming the Government of National Unity that would lead Sierra Leone to national independence from the British Empire in 1961.
Fyle gave up politics to concentrate his efforts on education, later becoming a story writer. He was the author of the popular Bangurah-Cole stories which were published in the Sierra Leone Daily Mail in the mid-1950s.
In 1958, at the University of Durham, Fyle received a Master of Arts degree in Education. Two years later, in 1960, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in English with honors. He then left the University of Durham and returned home to Sierra Leone, where, on winning a national competition to write the words of the Sierra Leone National Anthem with his High We Exalt Thee? verses, he became known as the author of the Sierra Leone National Anthem.
Fyle was appointed as an Education Officer and School Inspector by the Ministry of Education in 1960. He was the youngest School Inspector on record at that time. Four years later, in 1964, Fyle became a foundation staff member of the newly opened Njala University College. Still determined to pursue a career in the field of Linguistics, Fyle completed postgraduate work in 1967, at the University of California at Los Angeles and at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.
When he returned to Sierra Leone, he was appointed a lecturer at Njala University College and subsequently became Senior Lecturer at Fourah Bay College, where he attained his Professorship. He was promoted to the positions of head of the Department of English and Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1977–1978.
In addition, Professor Fyle was offered the position of Secretaryship of the West African Linguistic Society, an organization whose international Congress Fyle had organized at the Cape Sierra Hotel in Freetown in 1974. He rejected the offer, opting instead for the language specialist position for UNESCO in January 1978. In 1988, he became World Coordinator of Mother Tongue Languages and Vice President of Research.
With Professor Eldred Jones, Fyle co-authored the Krio-English Dictionary, which The Times newspaper (London) referred to in 1980 as "blazing a worldwide trail" in modern linguistic study and lexicography.
| “ | Rising from lecturer (1964) to professor and faculty dean (1977) Fyle revolutionized the teaching of languages within the University of Sierra Leone. He scientifically established Sierra Leone's' Lingua Franca, Krio, as a true Language. He also pioneered the establishment of the Department of Linguistics and Sierra Leone Languages. At UNESCO, he was responsible for the development of over 2000 Languages in 52 African countries and their use in communication and education. His remarkable success ensured his appointment (1988) as UNESCO's World Coordinator of Mother Tongue Languages, as well as Vice President of the International Association of research in Mother Tongue Education. | ” |
After retiring in 1993, Fyle returned to Sierra Leone and started producing school books in the four major languages of Sierra Leone which the Government had sanctioned for use in education: Mende, Temne, Limba and Krio. He produced and published 24 school textbooks. In 1995, Fyle established Lekon Publishing Company in Sierra Leone. Five years later, in 2000, he founded Lekon New Dimension Publishing in Yonkers, New York. This company was the one that published Sorie Conteh's The Diamonds. His last novels, These Old Colonial Hills and The Alpha were also published by the same company. Blood Brothers, an earlier novel of his, was nominated for the 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Clifford Nelson Fyle died on January 18, 2006, in Yonkers, New York.
South Africa
*Archaeologists and fortune hunters Jerry van Graan and Ernst van Graan began excavations of the ancestral graveyard of the Kings of Mapungubwe in South Africa, undisturbed since the 13th Century, after being tipped off by a local resident (January 1).
The Kingdom of Mapungubwe (1075–1220) was a pre-colonial state in Southern Africa located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers, south of Great Zimbabwe. The kingdom was the first stage in a development that would culminate in the creation of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe in the 13th century, and with gold trading links to Rhapta and Kilwa Kisiwani on the African east coast. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe lasted about 80 years, and at its height its population was about 5000 people.
The capital of the kingdom was called Mapungubwe, which is where the kingdom gets its name. The site of the city is now a World Heritage Site, South African National Heritage Site, national park, and archaeological site. There is controversy regarding the origin and meaning of the name Mapungubwe. Conventional wisdom has it that Mapungubwe means "place of jackals," or alternatively, "place where jackals eat" or, “hill of the jackals”. It also means "place of wisdom" and "the place where the rock turns into liquid"- from various ethnicities in the region including the Pedi, the Swazi, Sotho and Shona.
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*Solomon kaDinuzulu, the King of the Zulu nation, died at Kambi (March 4).
*Solomon kaDinuzulu, the King of the Zulu nation, died at Kambi (March 4).
Solomon kaDinuzulu (1891–1933) was the King of the Zulu nation from 1913 until his death on March 4, 1933 at Kambi. He was born on the island of St. Helena during the exile there of his father, King Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo.
In conjunction with the African National Congress (ANC), Solomon kaDinuzulu was a founder of the original Inkatha (or Inkatha kaZulu as it was known) in the 1920s. It was mainly formed to act as a rallying point against Jan Smuts' Native Affairs Bill of 1920.
One of his sisters was Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu, who became famous as a singer of traditional Zulu songs as well as for being the mother of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
He was succeeded by his son, Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon.
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*Miriam Tlali, a South African novelist who was the first black woman in South Africa to publish a novel, Muriel at Metropolitan, in 1979, and who was also one of the first to write about Soweto, was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa (November 11).
Miriam Tlali (b. November 11, 1933, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa) became the first black woman in South Africa to publish a novel, Muriel at Metropolitan, in 1975. She was also one of the first to write about Soweto. Most of her writing was originally banned by the South African apartheid regime.
Miriam Masoli Tlali was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, and grew up in Sophiatown. She attended St. Cyprian's Anglican School and then Madibane High School. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand until it was closed to Blacks during the apartheid era. She later went to the National University of Lesotho (then called Pius the XII University) at Roma, Lesotho. Leaving there because of lack of funds, she went to secretarial school and found employment as a bookkeeper at a Johannesburg furniture store.
Tlali drew on her experiences as an office clerk for her first book, Muriel at Metropolitan, a semi-autobiographical novel. Although written in 1969, it was not published for six years, being rejected by many publishing houses in South Africa. In 1975, Ravan Press published Muriel at Metropolitan only after removing certain extracts they thought would certainly offend the Censorship Board — the South African literary watchdog. But despite this effort, the novel was banned almost immediately after publication because the Censorship Board pronounced it undesirable in the South African political context. The book reached a wider audience after its publication in 1979 by Longman under the title Between Two Worlds, and its subsequent translation into other languages, including Japanese, Polish, German and Dutch.
Tlali's second novel, Amandla, which was based on the 1976 Soweto uprising, was also banned in South Africa soon after it was published in 1980. Later books by Tlali include Mihloti (meaning "Tears"), a collection of short stories, interviews and non-fiction, published in 1984 by the black publishing house Skotaville, which she co-founded. Her novels were unbanned in 1986. Her 1989 book Footprints in the Quag, published in South Africa by David Philip, was brought out under the title Soweto Stories by Pandora Press.
Tlali co-founded and contributed to Staffrider magazine, for which she wrote a regular column, "Soweto Speaking", as well as writing for other South African publications, including the Rand Daily Mail.
Tlali's literary activities have taken her to different parts of the world, including the Netherlands, where she worked for a year, and the United States. In 1978, she took part in an international writing program at Iowa State University, giving lectures in San Francisco, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and New York, and between 1989 and 1990 was a visiting scholar at the Southern African Research Program at Yale University.
In 1995, Tlali was honored by the South African government's Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology with a Literary Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, she received the Ikhamanga Silver presidential award.
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Zimbabwe(The Colony of Southern Rhodesia)
(Rhodesia)
