1937 Africa

Africa

*****

November 13

*Tabu Ley Rochereau, a rumba singer-songwriter dubbed the "African Elvis", was born in Bagata, in what was then the Belgian Congo .

November 22

*Nnamdi Azikiwe launched the West African Pilot, a newspaper dedicated to fighting for independence from British rule.

*****

Nnamdi Azikiwe

Nnamdi Azikiwe returned to Lagos, Nigeria, in 1937 and founded the West African Pilot, which he used as a vehicle to foster Nigerian nationalism. He also founded the Zik Group of Newspapers, publishing multiple newspapers in cities across the country.

Central African Republic
(Ubangi-Shari)

*Ange-Felix Patasse, a politician who became the President of the Central African Republic, was born in Paoua, Ubangi-Shari (January 25).


Ange-Félix Patassé (b. January 25, 1937, Paoua, Ubangi-Shari – d. April 5, 2011, Douala, Cameroon) was a Central African politician who was President of the Central African Republic from 1993 until 2003, when he was deposed by the rebel leader Francois Bozize.  Patassé was the first president in the CAR's history (since 1960) to be chosen in what was generally regarded as a fairly democratic election (1993) in that it was brought about by donor pressure on the Kolingba regime and assisted by the United Nations Electoral Assistance Unit. He was chosen a second time in a fair election (1999) as well. However, during his first term in office (1993–1999), three military mutinies in 1996–1997 led to increasing conflict between so-called "northerners" (like Patassé) and "southerners" (like his predecessor President Andre Kolingba). Expatriate mediators and peacekeeping troops were brought in to negotiate peace accords between Patassé and the mutineers and to maintain law and order. During his second term as president, Patassé increasingly lost the support of many of his long-time allies as well as the French, who had intervened to support him during his first term in office. Patassé was ousted in March 2003 and went into exile in Togo.

Chad
(French Equatorial Africa)

*Jean Alingue Bawoyeu, politician and former Prime Minister was born in Fort-Lamy, French Equatorial Africa. 

Jean Alingué Bawoyeu (b. August 18, 1937, Fort-Lamy, French Equatorial Africa), known in French as the vieux sage, which translates as "wise elder", is a Chadian politician who was Prime Minister of Chad from 1991 to 1992. During the 1970s, he served successively as Ambassador to the United States and France. Later, he was President of the National Assembly of Chad in 1990. He served in the government as Minister of Justice from 2008 to 2010 and as Minister of Posts and New Information Technologies from 2010 to 2013.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
(Belgian Congo)
(Zaire)

*Tabu Ley Rochereau, a rumba singer-songwriter dubbed the "African Elvis", was born in Bagata, in what was then the Belgian Congo (November 13).

Pascal-Emmanuel Sinamoyi Tabu (b. November 13, 1937, Bagata, Bandundu, Belgian Congo – d. November 30, 2013, Brussels, Belgium), better known as Tabu Ley Rochereau, was a leading African rumba singer-songwriter from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was the leader of Orchestre Afrisa International, as well as one of Africa's most influential vocalists and prolific songwriters. Along with guitarist Dr. Nico Kasanda, Tabu Ley pioneered soukous (African rumba) and internationalized his music by fusing elements of Congolese folk music with Cuban, Caribbean and Latin American rumba. He has been described as "the Congolese personality who, along with [the dictator] Mobutu, [most] marked Africa's 20th century history." He was dubbed the "African Elvis" by the Los Angeles Times. After the fall of the Mobutu regime, Tabu Ley also pursued a political career.

During his career, Tabu Ley composed up to 3,000 songs and produced 250 albums.

Pascal-Emmanuel Sinamoyi Tabu was born in Bagata, in the then Belgian Congo. His musical career took off in 1956 when he sung with Joseph "Le Grand Kallé" Kabasele, and his band L'African Jazz. After finishing high school he joined the band as a full-time musician. Tabu Ley sang in the pan-African hit Indépendance Cha Cha which was composed by Grand Kallé for Congolese independence from Belgium in 1960, propelling Tabu Ley to instant fame. He remained with African Jazz until 1963 when he and Dr. Nico Kasanda formed their own group, African Fiesta. Two years later, Tabu Ley and Dr. Nico split and Tabu Ley formed African Fiesta National, also known as African Fiesta Flash. The group became one of the most successful bands in African history, recording African classics like Afrika Mokili Mobimba, and surpassing record sales of one million copies by 1970. Papa Wemba and Sam Mangwana were among the many influential musicians that were part of the group. He adopted the stage name "Rochereau" after the French General Pierre 

Denfert-Rochereau, whose name he liked and whom he had studied in school.

In 1970, Tabu Ley formed Orchestre Afrisa International, Afrisa being a combination of Africa and Éditions Isa, his record label. Along with Franco Luambo's TPOK Jazz, Afrisa was now one of Africa's greatest bands. They recorded hits such as "Sorozo", "Kaful Mayay", "Aon Aon", and "Mose Konzo".

In the mid 1980s, Tabu Ley discovered a young talented singer and dancer, M'bilia Bel, who helped popularize his band further. M'bilia Bel became the first female soukous singer to gain acclaim throughout Africa. Tabu Ley and M'bilia Bel later married and had one child together. In 1988, Tabu Ley introduced another female vocalist known as Faya Tess, and M'bilia Bel left and continued to be successful on her own. After M'bilia Bel's departure, Afrisa's influence along with that of their rivals TPOK Jazz continued to wane as fans gravitated toward the faster version of soukous.

After the establishment of the Mobutu Sese Seko regime in the Congo, Tabu Ley adopted the name "Tabu Ley" as part of Mobutu's "Zairization" of the country, but later went into exile in France in 1988. In 1985, the Government of Kenya banned all foreign music from the National Radio service. After Tabu Ley composed the song "Twende Nairobi" ("Let's go to Nairobi"), sung by M'bilia Bel, in praise of Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, the ban was promptly lifted. In the early 1990s, Tabu Ley briefly settled in Southern California. He began to tailor his music towards an international audience by including more English lyrics and by increasing more international dance styles such as Samba. He found success with the release of albums such as Muzina, Exil Ley, Africa worldwide and Babeti soukous. The Mobutu regime banned his 1990 album "Trop, C'est Trop" as subversive. In 1996, Tabu Ley participated in the album Gombo Salsa by the salsa music project Africando. The song "Paquita" from that album is a remake of a song that he recorded in the late 1960s with African Fiesta.

When President Mobutu Sese Seko was deposed in 1997, Tabu Ley returned to Kinshasa and took up a position as a cabinet minister in the government of new President Laurent Kabila. Following Kabila's death, Tabu Ley then joined the appointed transitional parliament created by Joseph Kabila, until it was dissolved following the establishment of the inclusive transitional institutions. In November 2005 Tabu Ley was appointed Vice-Governor of Kinshasa, a position devolved to his party, the Congolese Rally for Democracy by the 2002 peace agreements. He also served as provincial minister of culture. He was said to have fathered up to 68 children, including the French rapper Youssoupha, with different women.

Tabu Ley Rochereau died on November 30, 2013, aged 76, at Saint-Luc hospital in Brussels, Belgium where he had been undergoing treatment for a stroke he suffered in 2008.

*****
Ethiopia
(Abyssinia)

*Ethiopians attempted to assassinate Italian Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani in a grenade attack (February 19). Graziani and several of his staff were wounded. In retaliation, the Italians would massacre 30,000 Ethiopians in reprisal killings over the next three days.

During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempted to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades. The Italian security guard fired into the crowd of Ethiopian onlookers. Authorities exacted further reprisals, which included indiscriminately slaughtering native Ethiopians over the next three days, detaining thousands of Ethiopians at Danan and slaughtering almost 300 monks at Debre Libanos monastery.

Yekatit 12 is a date in the Ethiopian calendar, equivalent to February 19 in the Gregorian calendar, which is commonly used to refer to the indiscriminate massacre and imprisonment of Ethiopians by elements of the Italian occupation forces following an attempted assassination of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, Marchese di Neghelli, Viceroy of Italian East Africa, on February 19, 1937.  The Marchese di Neghelli had led the Italian forces to victory over their Ethiopian opponents in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and was supreme governor of Italian East Africa.  The retaliation of the Italians was one of the worst atrocities committed by the Italian occupation forces.

Estimates of the number of people killed in the three days that followed the attempt on the Marchese di Neghelli's life vary. Ethiopian sources afterwards estimated as many as 30,000 people were killed by the Italians, while Italian sources claimed only a few hundred were killed. Over the following week, numerous Ethiopians suspected or accused of opposing Italian rule were rounded up and executed, including members of the Black Lions, and other members of the aristocracy; most of the 125 young men whom Emperor Haile Selassie had sent abroad to receive college educations, and were still resident in Ethiopia, were killed. Many more were imprisoned, even collaborators like Ras Gebre Haywot, the son of Ras Mikael of Wollo (who had been imprisoned by Emperor Haile Selassie for nine years prior to the Italian invasion), Brehane Markos, and even Ayale Gebre; the latter had helped the Italians identify the two men who made the attempt on General Graziani's life.

*The Italians captured the leader of the Ethiopian resistance, Desta Damtew (February 21).

*Mussolini decreed that any native chieftain or officer who opposed Italian colonial troops, even in territory as yet unoccupied, would be put to death (February 22).

*Desta Damtew, a leader of the Ethiopian resistance, was executed (February 24).

Desta Damtew (Amharic: ደስታ ዳምጠው ; b. ca. 1892,  Maskan, Abyssinia - d. February 24, 1937) was an Ethiopian  noble, an army commander, and a son-in-law army commander, and a son-in-law of Emperor Haile Selassie I.

Born at the village of Maskan (in the contemporary Gurage Zone), Desta Damtew was the second son of Fitawrari Damtew Ketena.  His older brother was Abebe Damtew.  In 1896, Fitawrari Damtew Ketena was killed at the Battle of Adwa.  As boys, Lij Desta Damtew and his brother Lij Abebe Damtew served at the Imperial Palace in Addis Ababa as pages to Emperor Menelik II and Empress Taitu Bitul.  Desta Damtew went on to serve in the Dowager Empress Taitu's household at the Palace on Mt. Entoto after the death of Menelik II.

In 1916, Desta Damtew supported Tafari Makonnen against Lij Iyasu.  Tafari Makonnen was the future Emperor Haile Selassie I.  Lij Iyasu was deposed but escaped. In 1920, Desta Damtew was in the party that captured Lij Iyasu.

In 1924, Desta Damtew married Tafari Makonnen's daughter Leult Tenagnework Haile Selassie.  They had four daughters and two sons.

By 1928, Negus Tafari Makonnen appointed his son-in-law Desta Damtew as Dejazmach and as Shum of Kefa Province.

In 1932, Emperor Haile Selassie I appointed Desta Damtew as a Ras.  In the same year, he was appointed Shum of Sidamo Province and of Borena Province.  He succeeded Birru Wolde Gabriel in Sidamo.

In 1933, Ras Desta Damtew traveled to America to return the visit of the United States representative to the coronation of Haile Selassie. It was his only journey outside Ethiopia.  He arrived in New York and was greeted with royal honors, later lunching with President Roosevelt.

In 1935, Ras Desta commanded troops along the southern border of Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.  In January 1936, he was defeated by the Italian General Rodolfo Graziani at the Battle of Ganale Dorya.  Desta retreated back to his administrative center at Irgalem, where with the help of Dejazmach Gabremariam, he reorganized his surviving supporters to resist the Italian advance.  Desta continued to resist the Italians after the Emperor left the country.

In 1936, after the end of the rainy season, Italian General Carlo Geloso, who had been appointed governor of the Italian province of Galla-Sidamo, advanced from the north to dislodge Ras Desta and Dejazmach Gabremariam. However by the end of October, Geloso had not advanced very far or effectively. It was not until a month later when a second Italian column advanced from the south through the Wadara Forest that Ras Desta at last left Irgalem, which was occupied December 1. With Dejazmach Gabremariam, Dejazmach Beyene Merid (Shum of Bale Province),  and a dwindling number of soldiers, for the next few months Ras Desta eluded the Italians until they were trapped near Lake Shala in the Battle of Gogetti and annihilated. Wounded, Ras Desta managed to escape, only to be caught and executed near his birthplace.

Following the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation in 1941, the remains of Ras Desta Damtew were disinterred from the grave they were buried in by the Italians and moved to the Imperial family tombs in the crypt of Holy Trinity Cathedral. 

*As one of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of Italian viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, a detachment of Italian troops massacred the entire community of Debre Libanos, killing 297 monks and 23 laymen (May 21).

Debre Libanos (ደብረ፡ሊባኖስ, Däbrä Libanos) is a monastery in Ethiopia, lying northwest of Addis Ababa in the Semien Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region. Founded in the thirteenth century by Saint Tekle Haymanot, according to myth, he meditated in a cave for 29 years. The monastery's chief abbot, called the Ichege, was the second most powerful official in the Ethiopian Church after the Abuna.

The monastery complex sits on a terrace between a cliff and the gorge of one of the tributaries of the Abbay River.  None of the original buildings of Debre Libanos survive.  Current buildings include the church over Tekle Haymanot's tomb, which Emperor Haile Selassie ordered constructed in 1961; a slightly older Church of the Cross; and five religious schools. The cave where the saint lived is in the nearby cliffs, which one travel guide describes as a five-minute walk away. This cave contains a spring, whose water is considered holy and is the object of pilgrimages.

Debre Libanos suffered great destruction during the invasion of Ahmad Gragn when one of his followers, Ura'i Abu Bakr, set it afire on July 21, 1531, despite the attempts of its community to ransom the church.  Although the Ichege intervened to protect the Gambos during the reign of Sarsa Dengel, the buildings were not completely rebuilt until after the visit of Emperor Iyasu the Great in 1699.

In the reign of Emperor Fasilides, after invading Oromos had ravaged the monastery's lands in Shewa the Emperor granted the Ichege his palace at Azazo, where the various Ichege lived.

From the 17th century until the matter was resolved in a synod convened by Emperor Yohannes II, the Ichege and the monks of Debre Libanos were the most important supporters of the Sost Lidet doctrine, in opposition to the House of Ewostatewos.

Emperor Haile Selassie's interest in Debre Libanos dates to when he was governor of the district of Selale.  The Emperor notes in his autobiography that during the reconstruction of the church at Debre Libanos, an inscribed gold ring was found in the excavations, which he personally delivered to then Emperor Menelik II.

Following the attempted assassination on his life on February 19, 1937, governor Rodolfo Graziani  believed the monastery's monks and novices were involved in this attack, and unwilling to wait for the results of the official investigation, ordered Italian colonialists to massacre the inhabitants of this monastery.  On May 21 of that year, 297 monks and 23 laymen were killed. 

*Ethiopian Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen petitioned the Coptic Church Council in Egypt for a divorce from Wolete Israel Seyoum, declaring that he could not live with the daughter of a man who surrendered to the Italian invaders (November 3).

*****
*Ato Nahusenay, a reformist and pioneer of change who made key contributions to the modernization and independence of Ethiopia, died.

Ato Mersha Nahusenay (c.1850 – c.1937) was a reformist and pioneer of change who made key contributions to the modernization and independence of Ethiopia. One of the closest advisors to Emperor Menelik II,  he went on to become the founder and first governor of Dire Dawa, the second largest city in Ethiopia and its environs (1902–1905). Prior to that he was governor of the strategic and frontier town of Jaldessa (Gildessa) where he also held the position of chief of customs. His public career lasted over three decades from the era of Menelik II until the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. He was one of the most educated and recognized Ethiopians of his time. He knew the French language well and was open to European ideas and way of life earning him admiration abroad. Among his important contributions was the prominent role that he played in the construction, maintenance and security of the first railway. Mersha belongs to a generation of Ethiopians who took advantage of the stability created in the late 19th – early 20th century to implement a series of wide-ranging political, economic and social reforms the impact of which continues to be felt to this day.

Kenya

*The memoir Out of Africa by Karen Blixen was published (November 12).

Nigeria
(Colonial Nigeria)

*Olusegun Obasanjo, the President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, was born in Abeokuta, Colonial Nigeria (March 5). 

Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo, (b. circa March 5,1937, Abeokuta, Colonial Nigeria) was a Nigerian Army general who served as President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. A Nigerian of Yoruba descent, Obasanjo was a career soldier before serving twice as his nation's head of state, as a military ruler from February 13, 1976 to October 1, 1979 and as a democratically elected president from May 29, 1999 to 29 May 29, 2007. From July 2004 to January 2006, Obasanjo also served as Chairperson of the African Union.

*Nnamdi Azikiwe launched the West African Pilot (November 22).

When Nnamdi Azikiwe ("Zik") launched his West African Pilot in 1937, dedicated to fighting for independence from British colonial rule, the newspaper was an immediate success. Azikiwe, an Ibo, found a ready-audience in the non-Yobura people of Nigeria, including many in Lagos. He introduced Pan-African consciousness to the Nigerian Youth Movement, and expanded its membership with large numbers of people who had previously been excluded. 

When the paper, West African Pilot, was launched its quality and professionalism put it atop other newspapers of the period which generally pandered to colonial authorities or ethnocentric interests. The most prominent newspaper that lost circulation as a result was the Nigerian Daily Times originally owned by the Mirror Group of London.  West African Pilot's lively mix of radical politics and gossip, plus a woman's page, was highly popular. The newspaper played a key role in the spread of racial consciousness and nationalistic ideas in the interior of Nigeria. Its motto was "Show the light and the people will find the way". Azikiwe personally edited the West African Pilot from 1937 to 1947.

The West African Pilot gave birth to a chain of newspapers that were positioned as city newspapers in such places as Port Harcourt, Warri, Enugu, Ibadan, and Kano. All the titles were then owned by "Zik's Press Limited". Titles included the Eastern Nigerian Guardian launched in 1940 in Port Harcourt, the Nigerian Spokesman in Onitsha (1943) and the Southern Defender in Warri. In 1945, Azikiwe's group bought Mohammed Ali's Comet, four years later converting it into a daily newspaper and then transferring it to Kano, where it was the first daily in the north. The Northern Advocate was also launched in 1949, in Jos. On July 8, 1945, the government banned the West African Pilot and the Daily Comet for misrepresenting facts about the general strike. This did not silence Azikiwe, who continued to print articles and editorials on the strike in his Port Harcourt Guardian.

*Shell Oil Company started oil exploration in Nigeria.

Rwanda
(Ruanda-Urundi)

*Juvenal Habyarimana, the third President of Rwanda, was born in Ruanda-Urundi (March 8).

Juvénal Habyarimana (b. March 8, 1937, Ruanda-Urundi – d. April 6, 1994, Kigali, Rwanda) was the third President of the Republic of Rwanda, the post he held longer than any other president to date, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed "Kinani", a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".

Habyarimana was a dictatorial leader, and electoral fraud was suspected for his unopposed re-elections: 98.99% of the vote on December 24, 1978; 99.97% of the vote on December 19, 1983; and 99.98% of the vote on December 19,1988.  During his rule, Rwanda became a totalitarian order in which his MRND (Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour le Développement -- (or National Revolutionary Movement for Development in English) party enforcers required people to chant and dance in adulation of the President at mass pageants of political "animation". While the country as a whole had become slightly less impoverished during Habyarimana's tenure, the great majority of Rwandans remained in circumstances of extreme poverty.

On April 6, 1994, Habyarimana was killed when his airplane, also carrying the President of neighboring Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down close to Kigali International Airport. 

Habyarimana's assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark the Rwandan Genocide. 

South Africa

*The Department of Social Welfare was set up.

By 1927, the number of destitute white South Africans had increased so rapidly that the Carnegie Corporation of New York, on the recommendation of its president and secretary who had recently visited South Africa, decided to fund a commission of investigation into the problem of poor whites.  The Union Government and the Dutch Reformed Church each matched the Carnegie Corporation's grant, and five commissioners were appointed. 

Between 1929 and 1932, the five commissioners travelled around the country, interviewing a cross-section of poor white society, including nomadic trek farmers in the Cape, bywoners (tenants) and laborers in the Karoo, pioneering bushveld farmers in the Transvaal, woodcutters in the Knysna and George areas, diamond diggers, reef miners and others.  The commissioners concluded their investigatory work with a five-volume report on economic conditions, the psychology of the poor whites, education, health and sociological aspects. 

The commission calculated that out of a white population of 1.8 million in 1931 (a million being Afrikaners), more than 300,000 were extremely poor, living as paupers.  A poor white was defined as "a person who had become dependent to such an extent, whether from mental, moral, economic or physical causes, that he is unfit, without help from others, to find proper means of livelihood for himself or to procure it directly or indirectly for his children".

The report stressed that "laziness" was not to blame (as had been suggested by the Transvaal Indigency Commission in 1906-8) but that poverty was in itself a demoralizing influence which often caused loss of self-respect and a feeling of inferiority.  The commission felt that the bywoner, who roamed the country making a precarious existence as a fencer, transport rider or woodseller, seemed to embody the poor white problem.

The commission reported on the high birthrate -- the white population more than doubled between 1904 and 1936 -- and on overcrowding and insanitary conditions which led to disease and death.  In the schools, thousands of children were classified as retarded.  Most children did not even complete primary school. 

The report also contained a study of urban Afrikaners who were finding it hard to adjust to life in the city.  They had to compete for employment with the more skilled uitlanders (foreigners) and could not compete with the cheap African labor favored by the mainly English-speaking mine owners and industrialists.  Afrikaners also suffered psychologically because of their inbred prejudice against doing a job traditionally reserved for Africans.  Even the most poverty-striken bywoner considered himself a master and would not stoop to do "kaffir work".

The commission reported that attempts by the Dutch Reformed Church and the Arme Blanke Verbond (Poor White Alliance) of 1917 to help poor whites seek jobs and obtain suitable training had been insufficient.  For example, the indignation expressed by Daniel Malan, a future South African Prime Minister, that "the children of Afrikaner families were running around as naked as kaffirs in Congoland" was never followed up. 

The commission did not favor state hand-outs, relief work or charity because the commissioners opined that such measures weakened the Afrikaner's sense of initiative and encouraged dependency.  Instead, it suggested that the government concentrate on setting up a department of social welfare, which it did in 1937.  Additionally, in response to the commission's findings, the state tried to protect white workers by introducing what it termed a "civilised labour" policy -- in other words, a system that guaranteed work for whites at the expense of blacks.  Thus, between 1924 and 1933, the percentage of unskilled white workers on the railways rose from 9.5 to 39.3 percent while it dropped for blacks from 75 to 48.9 percent.  


*****
Sudan

*Elijah Malok Aleng, a South Sudanese public servant, general and politician, was born in Bor, Sudan (November 28).

Elijah Malok Aleng (b. November 28, 1937, Bor, Sudan – d. October 30, 2014) was born on November 28, 1937 at Thianwong village when his family was living among the Pen people in Angakuei in Baidit, about 20 miles north east of Bor town in Jonglei State. His family, which is originally from Awulian in Wangulei, Twic East County, migrated back to be with fellow Awulian kinfolks. He attended Malek Primary School (1950–1953), and then Juba Intermediate School and Juba Commercial Senior Secondary.  He then attended Free University of the Congo, in the present Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and later got a scholarship to study at Fribourg Catholic University, Switzerland, from which he obtained a master's degree in Economics in 1972.   In 1975 he obtained another Masters in Development Studies and Economic Planning from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. 

He was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Bor North territorial constituency in the regional parliament of Sudan in May 1982.

Aleng enrolled in the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/SPLA) on December 28, 1983 and became active in its ranks. He started as one of the senior political commissars in June 1984, and then he went to join the Cadet Military College, graduating with the rank of a Major. He was posted in Southern Blue Nile front, where he was the second in command. 

Aleng remained in Francophone Africa until the advent of multi-party democracy in 1991. In June 1991, he was appointed Executive Director of the SRRA where he remained until January 1993, when he was transferred and became the spokesman of the SPLM in East Africa, a duty he carried out for the whole of 1993. In January 1994, he was appointed Secretary of the national Convention Organising Committee (COC), which organized the First SPLM/A National Convention. The convention was successfully held in Chukudum, New Sudan, in April/May 1994. After this convention such SPLM structures as the General Military Council (GMC), National Liberation Council (NLC) and National Executive Council (NEC) were instituted. He was elected member of NLC representing Bor North territorial constituency and he also became a member and Secretary of the First NEC in the portfolio of Co-ordination and Public Service. In 1997, he was reshuffled away from public service and coordination to an advisory role in the Office of Chairman and commander in chief of the SPLM/SPLA. In that capacity, he became the advisor on economic, financial and political affairs. In February 1999, he was again appointed, for the second time, the Executive Director of the SRRA and ex-officio member of the NEC on humanitarian affairs in New Sudan. When peace negotiations began between various Sudan governments and the SPLM between 1985-2005, he was always the Secretary of the SPLM to the Peace Talks continuing until the CPA was signed in January 2005. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan (CBOS) and President of the Bank of Southern Sudan (BOSS).

After the independence of South Sudan on July 9, 2011, he became the de facto Governor of the Bank of South Sudan (BSS) until he was dismissed by President Salva Kiir Mayardit and replaced by his deputy Kornelius Koryom Mayiik in August 2011. He introduced the first currency of the country which is the South Sudanese Pound. He co-signed the historic currency with the then Minister of Finance, Deng Athorbei. As a governor, Aleng tried to fight corruption and misuse of public funds .

Aleng was still within the ranks of Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) with the rank of a Lieutenant General when he passed away on October 30, 2014.

Zambia
(Southern Rhodesia)

*Rupiah Banda, the President of Zambia from 2008 to 2011, was born in Gwanda, Southern Rhodesia (February 13), 

Rupiah Bwezani Banda (b. February 13, 1937, Southern Rhodesia), a Zambian politician who was President of Zambia from 2008 to 2011.

During the Presidency of Kenneth Kaunda, Banda held important diplomatic posts and was active in politics as a member of the United National Independence Party (UNIP). Years later, he was appointed Vice-President by President Levy Mwanawasa  in October 2006, following the latter's re-elecation.  He took over Mwanawasa's presidential responsibilities after Mwanawasa suffered a stroke in June 2008, and following Mwanawasa's death in August 2008, he became acting President. As the candidate of the governing Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), he narrowly won the October 2008 presidential election, according to official results.

Opposition leader Michael Sata  defeated Banda in the September 2011 presidential election,  and Sata, accordingly, succeeded Banda as President on September 23, 2011.

* Michael Sata, the fifth President of Zambia, was born in Mpika, Northern Rhodesia (July 6).

Michael Chilufya Sata (b. July 6, 1937, Mpika, Northern Rhodesia [Zambia] – d. October 28, 2014, London, England) was a politician who was the fifth President of Zambia,  from September 23, 2011 until his death on October 28, 2014. A social democrat, he led the Patriotic Front (PF), a major political party in Zambia. Under President Frederick Chiluba, Sata was a minister during the 1990s as part of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government.  He went into opposition in 2001, forming the PF. As an opposition leader, Sata – popularly known as "King Cobra" – emerged as the leading opposition presidential contender and rival to President Levy Mwanawasa in the 2006 presidential election, but was defeated. Following Mwanawasa's death, Sata ran again and lost to President Rupiah Banda in 2008.

After ten years in opposition, Sata defeated Banda, the incumbent, to win the September 2011 presidential election with a plurality of the vote. He died in London on October 28, 2014, leaving Vice President Guy Scott as Acting President until a presidential by-election was held on January 20, 2015.