The following are short descriptions of major events which have contributed to the shaping of Global African history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
W.E.B. DuBois Greeting Unidentified Delegate, Afro-Asian Writers’ Conference, Tashkent, Soviet Union, 1958 Image Ownership: Public domain The Afro–Asian Writers’ Conferences were a series of gatherings of literary figures from Asia and Africa that took place over two decades to denounce imperialism and to establish cultural … Read MoreAfro-Asian Writers’ Conferences (1958-1979)
Zhou Enlai’s first tour of Africa, popularly known as Zhou’s “Safari,” was a series of state visits to ten independent African countries, undertaken between December 1963 and February 1964 by the Chinese Premier. These visits, which occurred during a period when many countries were gaining … Read MoreZhou Enlai’s African “Safari” (1963-1964)
In three covert military operations, called Moses, Joshua, and Solomon, over twenty thousand Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel to escape hardship. This ancient community, called Beta Israel (House of Israel in English), lived in relative isolation from the rest of the Jewish world for … Read MoreOperations Moses, Joshua, and Solomon (1984-1991)
The Baptist War, also known as the Christmas Rebellion, was an eleven-day rebellion that mobilized as many as sixty thousand of Jamaica’s three hundred thousand slaves in 1831–1832. It was considered the largest slave rebellion in the British Caribbean. The name Christmas Rebellion came from … Read MoreThe Baptist War (1831-1832)
The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 was an uprising involving more than ten thousand enslaved people in the Crown colony of Demerara-Essequibo (now part of Guyana) on the coast of South America. The rebellion took place on August 18, 1823, and lasted two days. No particular … Read MoreDemerara Rebellion of 1823
The Sierra Leone Civil War was an armed conflict in the West African country of Sierra Leone from 1991 t0 2002. The war began on March 23, 1991, when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) under Foday Sankoh, with support of Liberian rebel leader Charles Taylor … Read MoreThe Sierra Leone Civil War (1991-2002)
The First Liberian Civil War was one of Africa’s bloodiest civil conflicts in the post-independence era. The war claimed more than two hundred thousand Liberian lives in a nation of 2.1 million people and displaced a million other citizens in refugee camps in neighboring countries. … Read MoreFirst Liberian Civil War (1989-1996)
In 1977 Ethiopia and Somalia engaged in a brief territory conflict over the Ogaden region situated between and claimed by both nations. This conflict however held significance greater than most territorial disputes because Ethiopia was backed by the Soviet Union and Somalia was supported by … Read MoreEthiopian-Somali War Over the Ogaden Region (1977–1978)
The Second Italo-Abyssinian War was Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia, a process it began after the 1885 Partition of Africa. Italy was defeated in its first attempt at conquest at the battle of Adwa in 1896, allowing Ethiopia to become the only African nation to remain … Read MoreThe Second Italo-Abyssinian War (1935–1936)
Following the Partition of Africa during the Berlin Conference of 1885, Prime Minister Francesco Crispi of Italy began his nation’s colonization in Africa. Italy focused on the Red Sea because of its trade routes to Asia and East Africa, and subsequently stationed troops in the … Read MoreThe Italo-Abyssinian War (1889-1896)
