September 29 marks several significant moments in African history, spanning military conquests, anti-colonial resistance, political upheaval, and natural disasters.
In 642 AD, the Arab general Amr ibn al-ʿĀṣ entered Alexandria, concluding the Arab conquest of Egypt and signaling the start of the Islamic era in the region. Centuries later in 1898, French forces captured the great Malinke leader Samory Touré in Guinea, definitively ending his sixteen-year resistance across the Wassoulou Empire before he was exiled to Gabon.
In 1979, former Equatorial Guinean President Francisco Macías Nguema was executed at Black Beach Prison after a military trial for genocide and mass killings, having been overthrown by his nephew the month prior. Separately, in 1991, Étienne Tshisekedi was appointed Prime Minister of Zaire amidst pro-democracy calls, but his new national unity government remained limited by Mobutu Sese Seko’s continued power.
In 1987, catastrophic floods and landslides in South Africa’s Natal Province (now KwaZulu-Natal) claimed over 500 lives and caused extensive property damage. Just a year later, as Nelson Mandela received treatment for tuberculosis, nurses were strictly limited to medical observations during his hospitalization.
Sf/lb/APA