- 1884
- Otto von Bismarck chairs the Berlin Conference to stem the scramble for Africa. Only Morocco, Ethiopia, and Liberia are recognized as independent entities.
- Partition of West Africa and East Africa
- 1896
- Ethiopia, under Emperor Menelik II, defeats invading Italian army in the Battle of Adwa.
- Lumière brothers' demonstration of projected moving photographic images in Alexandria.
- 1897
- British punitive expedition to the Kingdom of Benin sacks and burns down the city, loots its artworks and artifacts, and exiles the Oba of Benin to Calabar
- 1898
- Enoch Sontonga composes Nkosi Sikelel'i Africa, which later becomes the pan-African national anthem in South Africa during apartheid and, thereafter, part of the new South African national anthem.
- British conquest of Sudan
- 1900
- Henry Sylvester Williams convenes the first Pan-African Conference
- French circus group projects the Lumière brothers' L 'Arroseur arrosé in Dakar.
- 1902
- End of the Anglo-Boer Wars in South Africa.
- Gordon Memorial College, Khartoum, is founded and offers art lessons
- 1903
- Ama Onabolu establishes himself as a modern portrait painter in Lagos and is the first modern Nigerian artist.
- Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Cairo, is established.
- Herero revolt in Namibia against German colonial rule is brutally suppressed by German colonial troops; thousands are massacred.
- 1904
- France consolidates its West African colonies into French West Africa.
- 1908
- Prince Yousef Kamal founds the School of Fine Arts; Cairo.
- France establishes French Equatorial Africa.
- Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.
- 1910
- Union of South Africa is formed
- 1912
- African National Congress founded in South Africa as a political organization to defend the rights of disenfranchised blacks.
- 1913
- Muhammad bin Abubakar publishes the epic poem Utendi wa Liiyongo Fumo (Epic of Liyongo Fumo) of the southeastern African oral tradition.
- 1914
- Modern Nigeria is created when Lord Frederick Lugard amalgamates the Northern and Southern British protectorates to form Nigeria.
- Establishes Lagos as the central capital of the colony.
- 1919
- W.E.B. Dubois organizes the First Pan-African Congress, in Paris.
- 1920
- Nigerian modern art pioneer Ama Onabolu completes art studies at St. John's Wood School of Art; London.
- Spain is defeated by Abd el Krim's forces in Morocco.
- Shooting of striking coal miners by colonial troops in Enugu, eastern Nigeria.
- 1921
- The Society of Fine Arts is founded in Egypt.
- Second Pan-African Congress is held, in London, Brussels, and Paris; it has a large contingent from Africa.
- 1922
- Egypt becomes constitutional monarchy.
- Mohamed Bayoumi's short film The Civil Servant is the first to be made by an Egyptian filmmaker.
- 1923
- The Devonshire Memorandum declares the interests of the natives in Uganda paramount.
- Third Pan-African Congress is held, in Lisbon.
- 1924
- Achimota College is founded in Ghana, with G.A. Stevens as its first art master.
- The film The Girl of Carthage is directed by Chikly in Tunisia.
- 1925
- Thomas Mofolo publishes his third novel, the critically acclaimed Shaka the Zulu, written in Sotho
- Radio broadcasting begins in Algeria
- 1927
- Kenneth Murray arrives in Nigeria at Aina Onabolu's instigation to teach art at King's College, Lagos. His art curriculum is later introduced into other major regional colleges First Egyptian feature film, Leila, is directed by Istephane Rosti
- Fourth Pan-African Congress is held, in New York
- 1929
- Exhibition of watercolors by Albert Lubaki, from the Belgian Congo, is held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, and travels to three other European venues
- Aba Women's Riot, a major revolt in eastern Nigeria against colonialism
- 1930
- Tshekisho Plaatje's novel Mhudi is published in South Africa
- 1931
- Ghanaian nationalist politician and publisher J.B. Danquah establishes Times of West Africa
- 1934
- Aimè Césaire and Leopold Sédar Senghor found the Paris-based newspaper L'Etudiant Noir
- 1935
- Italy invades Ethiopia
- MISR Studio, Africa's first film studio, opens in Egypt
- Radio broadcasting begins in Tunisia
- Nnamdi Azikiwe founds The West African Pilot, an African nationalist newspaper in Accra and, later, Lagos
- 1936
- Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie flees from invading Italian troops to Geneva, and petitions, unsuccessfully, to win the support of the League of Nations to reestablish Ethiopia's sovereignty
- 1937
- Nnamdi Azikiwe publishes Renascent Africa, a book dedicated to the idea of African political and cultural independence
- Nnamdi Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay found the National Convention of Nigeria and Cameroon in Lagos, the first nationalist political party, with a broad national base and membership
- Kenneth Murray exhibits the work of five of his students, including Ben Enwonwu, at the Zwemmer Gallery, London
- The Fine Arts School is founded at Makerere College, Uganda, under the direction of Margaret Trowell
- 1938
- July, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's nationalist leader, publishes Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyus, with an introduction by Bronislaw Malinowski
- 1940
- April, Nelson Mandela, future leader of liberated South Africa, is expelled from Fort Hare University for being involved in a student strike
- African colonial conscripts join the war against Nazi Germany
- 1944
- Nelson Mandela founds African National Congress Youth League with Oliver Tambo
- Italian troops are expelled from Ethiopia and Emperor Selassie returns
- Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt issue the Atlantic Charter, which recognizes the right of all peoples to decide what form of government they wish to have
- The Group of Contemporary Art is formed around Hussein Youssef Amin in Egypt
- Dramatist and satirist Hubert Ogunde stages his first play, The Garden of Eden
- 1945
- End of World War II. African soldiers return from Europe, North Africa, and Asia
- Arab League founded in Cairo issues Arab Charter, a document of pan-Arab cultural, religious, linguistic, and political solidarity
- July-August, General strike of government employees over wage demands, Nigeria Hubert Ogunde founds the first professional theater group in Nigeria, the Ogunde Concert Party, and writes Strike and Hunger, set against the backdrop of the general strike of workers against the exploitative wages paid by the colonial administration in Nigeria. The theme song, Kobo Ojumo (A Penny a Day), known as 'the song of the people," becomes a big hit Algerian nationalist demonstrations lead to riots, resulting in numerous deaths
- United Nation is formed in San Francisco
- 15-21 October, Fifth Pan-African Congress, held in Manchester, England, is convened by George Padmore (Trinidad); H. Mekonnen (Ethiopia); Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast); Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya); and Peter Abrahams (South Africa). The result is the unanimous demand for an independent Africa
- 1946
- Trade Unions legalized in the Belgian Congo.
- Alliance formed between the African National Congress and the South African Indian Congress to oppose white rule
- Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques is founded in Algeria by Messali Hadj Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) is founded by Houphouet-Boigny (Ivory Coast) with Modibo Keita (Mali) and others
- Forced labor is abolished in all French colonies. French citizenship is offered to all inhabitants of overseas territories
- Leopold Sédar Senghor's Chants d'Qmbre is published by Editions Seuil, Paris
- March, New constitution in Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) makes it the first British African colony with a black majority in the Legislative Council
- 1947
- T. R. Mekonnen founds the Pan-A fricanist Journal in London
- New constitution allows for a black majority in the Legislative Council, Nigeria
- Nationalist revolt in Madagascar against the French
- United Gold Coast Convention convoked by J.B. Danquah
- Kwame Nkrumah publishes Towards Colonial Freedom, a manual for the struggle to end colonialism
- East African High Commission is formed
- Alioune Diop establishes Presence Africaine in Paris, a publishing house and a journal promoting African culture and literature, and a major organ of the Negritude movement in the postwar period
- Ben Enwonwu becomes the first Nigerian to hold the post of Federal Art Advisor
- South African artist Gerard Sekoto leaves South Africa and goes into exile in France
- 1948
- Afrikaner National Party, under the leadership of Daniel F. Malan, comes to power in South Africa, and the all-white Parliament begins to legislate apartheid policies
- University College lbadan is founded in Nigeria
- The highly acclaimed village of New Gourna, Egypt, is built by Egyptian modernist architect Hassan Fathy, Fathy's philosophy of combining modernist technology with low-cost traditional material is seen as a successful bridge between European and Maghrebian building traditions
- Seydou Keita opens his photographic studio in Bamako
- Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) is formed.
- Bloc Democratique Senegalais is founded by Leopold Sédar Senghor.
- Alan Paton publishes Cry, The Beloved Country about life under apartheid in South Africa General strike in Zanzibar against colonial occupation
- Camden Arts Centre, London, exhibits Nigerian art
- Polly Street Art Centre is established in Johannesburg.
- Leopold Sédar Senghor edits the first anthology of Negritude poetry, Anthologie de Ia Nouvelle Poésie Negre et Malgache, with an introduction by Jean-Paul Sartre
- Ernest Mancoba participates in the HBST COBRA" exhibition in Copenhagen.
- February, Twenty-nine are killed in anti-British riots in Accra, Gold Coast. World War II veterans protest colonial government, and institute a boycott of European goods. These events spur on the fight for independence
- 1949
- Convention of People's Party (CPP) is founded in the Gold Coast by kwame Nkrumah.
- Gold Coast Film School established in Accra
- Makerere becomes a university college
- Mixed-race marriages declared illegal in South Africa
- 1950
- South African National Party passes the following apartheid laws: Immorality Act, Population Registration Act, Suppression of Communism Act, Group Areas Act.
- Sierra Leone People's Party formed by Milton Margai
- Aimé Césaire publishes Discourse on Colonialism
- KoIa Ogunmola, Nigerian actor, playwright, ahd mime, stages his Yoruba-language play lfe Owo (Love of Money)
- 1951
- Pressure mounts in Egypt for England to leave occupied Canal Zone
- Libya becomes an independent kingdom
- Gordon College is affiliated with Khartoum
- Technical Institute and becomes the School of Fine and Applied Arts and the center of the Khartoum School artists' movement
- Poto-Poto school is founded in Brazzaville, Congo, by Pierre Lads
- Drum magazine is founded in South Africa
- Shaaban Roberts writing in Swahili emerges as East Africa's leading poet and essayist with his best-known work, Kusadikika (To be Believed)
- 1952
- All non-whites are forced to carry passes in South Africa. Political organizations launch a massive resistance campaign
- Kwame Nkrumah becomes prime minister of the Gold Coast
- Egyptian revolution overthrows King Farouk Amos Tutuola's Palm Wine Drinkard is published by Faber and Faber Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Mask is published
- October 20, State of emergency declared by the British in Kenya after Mau Mau (The Land and Freedom Army) rebellion. Kenyatta is arrested by Kenya's colonial government. Mau Mau guerrilla activity continues until 1959
- November 8-9, South African riots suppressed by security forces Mandela and other colleagues arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act
- 1953
- Grand Kalle (Joseph Kabasele), known as the father of Congo music, founds Orchestre African Jazz in Léopoldville
- E.T. Mensah and his band undertake their historic tour of Nigeria. The band receives enthusiastic welcome in Lagos
- Mamlou Toure's short film Mouramani is released in Guinea
- Algeria and other French colonies oppose colonial rule; FLN issues a manifesto and an armed struggle against French rule begins
- Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is formed
- South African government institutes new laws against massive resistance as well as the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, Public Safety Act, Criminal Law Amendment Act, and the Bantu Education Act
- Egypt becomes a republic, with General Muhammad Neguib as president
- Julius Nyerere elected President of Tanganyika African Association
- France deposes the Sultan of Morocco
- The Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology, Zaria, is established
- Camara Laye publishes L'Enfant Noire (The African Child)
- 15 June, Over 100 Mau Mau fighters killed by British forces in Aberdere Forest, Kenya
- 20 October, Jomo Kenyatta and five others convicted of organizing the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. Kenyatta is sentenced to seven years in prison
- 1954
- Television introduced in Morocco
- The first public broadcast of Western Nigerian Television
- Cyprian Ekwensi's People of the City is published
- Colonel Nasser seizes power in Egypt; British troops are removed from Egypt and Nasser is elected Egypt's first president
- Algerian War of Independence begins, led by the Front Liberation Nationale (FLN)
- Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) is formed, with Nyerere as president Nkrumah's CPP wins general election in Gold Coast; Britain promises independence Frank McEwen helps establish the National Gallery of Rhodesia (later the National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Thomas Mukarobgwa, employed as a gatekeeper, would later become a pioneering Zimbabwean artist
- Akwapim 6 is formed in Accra by six Ghanaian artists
- 1955
- Sudan gains independence from Britain
- Television introduced in western Nigeria
- Odu: A Journal of Yoruba and Related Studies is founded at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, by Saburi Biobaku and UlIi Beier
- 26 June, Freedom Charter, a non-racial document for a democratic South Africa, is adopted by anti-apartheid Congress Alliance (African National Congress, Indian National Congress, The Communist Party of South Africa)
- 1956
- Various representatives of African nationalist parties attend the Bandung Conference in Indonesia
- State of emergency is declared throughout Algeria; Moroccan Army of Liberation attacks French posts in West Algeria
- UPC banned in Cameroon
- Cameroonian author Mongo Beti publishes critical novel The Poor Christ of Bomba
- Ousmane Sembene publishes his first novel, Le Docker Noir (The Black Docker)
- King Mohammed of Morocco is restored to throne by the French
- Sudan becomes an independent republic
- Oil is discovered in southern Nigeria
- Morocco and Tunisia become independent
- President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, leading to international crisis. British and French invasion of Egypt fails to make Nasser a hero in the Arab and African independence struggle
- Dedan Kimanthi, leader of the Mau Mau (Land and Freedom Army), is hanged in prison
- African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) are founded
- Treason trial against opponents of apartheid begins in South Africa, and lasts until 1961
- Congres des Artists et Ecrivains Noirs is organized by Alioune Diop and Aime Césaire, and held in Paris at the Sorbonne. Delegates include Frantz Fanon, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ben Enwonwu, and Cheik Anta Diop
- Television introduced in Algeria
- 1957
- Afro-Asian Solidarity Conference is held in Cairo
- Tunisia becomes a republic
- Union des Travailleurs d'Afrique Noir founded by Sékou Toure in Guinea
- Black Orpheus, a journal for African arts and literature, is founded by UIIi Beier in Ibadan, Nigeria
- In an effort to affirm cultural continuity with the past, Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor begins to translate into English traditional African oral art forms, which he would draw from and recast in his own poetry and fiction
- Paulin Soumanou Vieryra's and Mamadou Sarr's film Afrique sur Seine (Africa on the Seine), on African students' life in Paris, is the first film made by a black African in Europe
- 6 March, Gold Coast becomes independent Ghana, the first independent black state in Africa, under Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah. E.T. Mensah's song Ghana Freedom is special song of the night
- 1958
- Sekou Toure in a historical confrontation with General de Gaulle in Conakry demands outright independence for Guinea
- Egypt and Syria formally merge to form United Arab Republic with Nasser as president All-African People's Conference is convened by Kwame Nkrumah in Accra
- South Africa officially gains independence from Great Britain
- Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is published
- Egyptian director Youssef Chahine's film Cairo Station is released
- French military raids Tunisia
- General de Gaulle advocates a federation called the French Community with internal autonomy for French overseas territories; announces independence of French Africa at Brazzaville
- Zaria Art Society (later known as the "Zaria Rebels") is inaugurated at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology, Zaria, by Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya, S. Irene Wangboje, Yusuf Grub, William Olaesebikan, Simon Okeke, and Uche Okeke. Okeke founds the Cultural Center, Kafanchan (later renamed Asele Institute). The Institute is moved to Nimo at the outbreak of the Civil War
- 2 October, Guinea becomes independent with Sekou Toure; all other French African territories remain within the French Community
- 1959
- Fifty are killed, three hundred wounded in anti-colonial demonstrations in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), Belgian Congo, organized by the Alliance des Ba-Kongo (ABAKO) Saniquelle meeting is held between Presidents Nkrumah, Tubman, and Toure to plan the union of free African states and the establishment of the Monrovia Group, a move toward founding an African Community
- Riots in the Belgian Congo
- United Nations condemns apartheid
- Senegal and Western Sudan (now Mali) demand independence and brings about the end of the French Community
- Second Congres des Artists et Ecrivains Noirs, held in Rome
- Lionel Rogosin's Come Back Africa, a film examining the pass laws for blacks in South Africa, is released
- 1960
- At the Brussels Round Table Conference in January Belgium agrees to the independence of the Belgian Congo.
- Seventeen African countries gain independence (Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Belgian Congo, French Congo, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Cameroon, Somalia, Dahomey (Benin), Mauritania, Madagascar, Niger, Chad, Togo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic.
- The United Nations declares 1960 as the Year of Africa
- Pan-African Congress organizes demonstration in Sharpeville; South African police kill sixty-seven National Anti-Pass Law Campaign demonstrators in what becomes known as the Sharpeville Massacre.
- The PAC and the ANC are banned
- South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) is formed, with Sam Nujoma as president
- Army mutiny in newly independent Congo; Katanga province secedes as an independent nation from former Belgian Congo, under Moishe Tshombe; UN troops deployed in Katanga to end secession from newly independent Congo. Unrest continues as another revolt against Congo's central government in Kasai province breaks out
- Ulli Beier organizes the independence exhibition in Lagos, where the works of key members of the Zaria Society are shown
- E.C. Arinze and his Music Band records Freedom Highlife to commemorate Nigerian independence
- Grand Kalle (Joseph Kabasele) composes Independence Cha Cha, the popular theme song of Congolese independence
- Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka writes A Dance of the Forests and forms the theater group 1960 Masks (later renamed Orisun Players) to perform it
- D.T. Niane publishes Soundjata ou l'Epoque Mandingue, a French translation of the Soundjata epic
- Chief Albert Luthuli, former African National Congress President, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- Harold Macmillan delivers "Winds of Change" speech in Cape Town and commences his "Winds of Change" tour around British Colonial Africa in anticipation of independence
- African heads of state meet in Monrovia to discuss the formation of an African Community
- Insurrection by French population in Algeria against de Gaulle's government
- 1960
- 14 September, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is overthrown by Colonel Joseph-Desire Mobutu in the former Belgian Congo
- 1961
- Patrice Lumumba, Congolese prime minister, is murdered while in detention in Katanga
- Angolan independence struggle against Portugal is begun with an attack on a Luanda prison
- Chinua Achebe's No Longer at Ease is published
- New Congo Federation is declared by President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Ileo
- Resistance struggle against Portugal begins under UNITA in northern Angola
- Kwame Nkrumah publishes I Speak Freedom: A Statement of African Ideology
- South Africa becomes a republic and, under apartheid, withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations
- July, Mbari Club is founded in Ibadan by a group of young writers and artists, including WoIe Soyinka, John Pepper Clark, Christopher Okigbo, Demas Nwoko, Uche Okeke, and Ulli Beier. Ezekiel Mphahlele, a South African, is its first president.
- Mbari also establishes a publishing house that issues first editions of many of the writers' and dramatists' early works, and exhibits the work of many modern African artists, such as Ibrahim el El-Salahi (Sudan), Malangatana Ngwenya (Mozambique), Skunder Boghossian (Ethiopia), Vincent Kofi (Ghana), Jacob Lawrence (USA), Susanne Wenger (Austria), among many others
- Kenyatta is released from prison by British colonial authorities
- Tanganyika and Sierra Leone become independent states.
- Members of the Commonwealth UN forces attempt, unsuccessfully, to capture the capital of secessionist Katanga
- Million-acre scheme instituted in Kenya, whereby the government buys land from settlers and redistributes it to Africans in Kenya
- Frantz Fanon's influential The Wretched of the Earth is published, in which he examines the psychological and material costs of colonization in Algeria
- Armed forces announce that they have taken control of Algeria; OAS terrorism begins; Algerian peace talks begin in Switzerland
- South Africa's Athol Fugard publishes The Blood Knot
- Mandela forms and becomes commander-in-chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe-Spear of the Nation-an organization to lead the ANC's armed struggle
- Cecil Skotnes, Sidney Kumalo, Giuseppe Cattaneo, and others form the Amadlozi Group in South Africa
- Frantz Fanon dies of cancer at the age of thirty-six in Washington, D.C.
- Rajat Neogy founds Transition: An International Review in Kampala
- 1962
- Uganda becomes an independent state and a member of the Commonwealth
- Fela Ransome Kuti and a group of West African musicians form the Koola Lobitos in London
- Rwanda and Burundi become independent
- Kenya Constitutional Conference in London
- Christopher Okigbo's Labyrinths is published
- Algeria wins independence after eight years of fighting; over 900,000 French settlers leave
- First African government is formed in Northern Rhodesia
- Frelimo headquarters are set up in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika
- Mbari Mbayo Club in Oshogbo, Nigeria, is opened with a performance of dramatist Duro Ladipo's first play, Oba Moro. Many artists, including American painter Jacob Lawrence, Georgina Beier, Dennis Williams, conduct workshops there
- First International Congress of African Culture, organized by Frank McEwen, is held in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). It seeks to address the contemporary aesthetics of African art and music. Among the participating artists are Vincent Kofi, Ben Enwonwu, and Malangatana Ngwenya. Alfred Barr, William Fass, SO. Biobaku, Roland Penrose, and Tristan Tzara attend
- Art from the Commonwealth is exhibited at the Commonwealth Institute, London
- Historic and controversial Conference of African Literature in English language is held at Makerere University, Kampala, to debate the state of post-colonial African literature. Those who attend include Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ezekiel Mphalele, Lewis Nkosi, James Ngugi, Rajat Neogy. Several nationalist writers fail to acknowledge any literature written in non-African languages as being African
- 1963
- Ousmane Sembene's first film, Borom Sarret, is released, winning first prize at the International Film Festival in Tours, France
- UN troops capture Katanga. Moishe Tshombe goes into exile
- Heads of thirty African states sign Charter of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, creating the first inter-governmental African organizing body
- Jomo Kenyatta becomes prime minister of Kenya after the country gains its independence from Britain
- Nigeria and Uganda become republics and members of the Commonwealth
- Egypt and Syria merge to become United Arab Republic, a short-lived experiment in pan-Arab unity, with Gamal Abdel Nasser as president Central African Federation of Nyasaland, Southern and Northern Rhodesia is dissolved
- Dennis Brutus, prominent South African poet, publishes Sirens Knuckles Boots
- Josiah Kariuki publishes the autobiographical work Mau Mau Detainee
- Zanzibar becomes independent
- Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada and other prominent liberation leaders are tried for conspiracy and sabotage at the Rivonia trial. All are found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela addresses court from the dock and refuses to renounce violence as self-defense in the fight against apartheid Conference on the Curriculum of Higher Education held at Fourah Bay College, Freetown. Obi Wall continues to question the state of postcolonial literature and calls for the decolonization of African literature
- 1964
- Kwame Nkrumah publishes Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization and Development with Particular Reference to the African Revolution
- UN forces leave the Congo
- Kenya becomes a republic, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first president
- Nyasaland becomes independent as Malawi, with Hastings Banda as prime minister.
- Northern Rhodesia becomes independent as Zambia, under Kenneth Kaunda
- Frelimo begins armed struggle against the Portuguese in Mozambique
- Revolution in Zanzibar; Sultan overthrown and Karume becomes President.
- Tanganyika is united with Zanzibar to form Tanzania
- Ama Ata Aidoo's The Dilemma of a Ghost is published
- The three books in Duro Ladipo's trilogy on the history of the Kingdom of Oyo, Oba Koso (The King did not Hang), Oba Moro (The King of Ghosts), and Oba Waja (The King is Dead), are published to critical acclaim. Ladipo and his theater make a successful appearance at the Berlin Festival with his Yoruba Operas Oba Koso and Eda; the group tours other European cities, including Brussels
- 1965
- General strike and demonstrations force resignation of President Youlou of the Congo Republic
- General Mobutu comes to power in the Congo by ousting President Kasavubu in a second military coup
- Organisation Commune Africaine et Malagache (OCAM) is formed at conference of French-speaking heads of state One-party state is adopted in Tanzania
- Wole Soyinka's first novel, The Interpreters, is published
- Fela Ransome Kuti returns to Nigeria and begins his experiments with a new, postcolonial sound, which he calls Afro beat
- Ian Smith declares Unilateral Independence for whites-only Southern Rhodesia to stop the movement toward majority rule
- Commonwealth Arts Festival, London, features performances of plays written by Wole Soyinka, Duro Ladipo, and J.P. Clark
- Papa bra Tall establishes the Manufacture
- Nationale du Tapisserie in Theis, Senegal
- 1966
- Nigeria's first military coup d'etat ousts elected civilian government.
- Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Ahmadu BeIIo, the Sardauna of Sokoto, are assassinated, leading to a Nigerian crisis that culminates in civil war
- While on a state visit to Romania, President Nkrumah is overthrown by a military coup, bringing an end to the first historic pan-African government in the independence era
- New Nigerian constitution replaces federation with unitary state. Twenty-nine die in inter-ethnic conflict between Hausas and lbos in northern Nigeria
- Second military coup in Nigeria by northern officers. Head of military government Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi is assassinated and succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Yakuba Gowon
- Gambia, Botswana, and Lesotho gain independence
- Commonwealth Conference in Lagos
- Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is translated into Swahili by Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, during the same period that poet Jean Joseph Rabearivelo begins to use vernacular ballad forms of Madagascar rather than French-inspired forms
- First novel by a Nigerian woman is published, Flora Nwapa's Efuru
- First Festival Mondial des Arts Negres, is held in Dakar, Senegal, under the patronage of President Senghor
- Journees Cinematographiques du Carthage, the first major pan-African film festival, is launched by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture at the urging of Tahar Cheriaa
- Glib Pontecorvo's film La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers), which is about the Algerian War of Liberation, is released
- African Arts magazine founded by John Povey at the University of California, Los Angeles
- Ama Ata Aidoo's Dilemma of the Ghost is published
- 1967
- Conference at Aburi, Ghana, fails to prevent secession of Biafra from Nigeria
- Biafra, under Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, declares independence from Nigeria.
- Tanzania's President Nyerere proclaims the "Arusha Declaration," calling for a policy of self-reliance and the dedication of Dodoma as the new capital of Tanzania
- Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda form the East African Community
- Six-day war between Egypt and Israel ends in Egyptian defeat, a blow to Nasser's pan-Arabism
- 6 July, Federal troops attack . A three-year civil war ensues New Ugandan Constitution abolishes traditional kingdoms. Kabaka of Buganda is restricted to internal exile, creating constitutional crisis
- 1968
- President Modibo Keita, first president of independent Mali, is replaced by National Liberation Committee following a coup led by Lieutenant Moussa Traore
- James Ngugi (later Ngugi wa Thiong'O), Henry Owuor-Anyumba, and Taban Lo Liongo publish a statement demanding that the English Department at the University of Nairobi be abolished and a Department of African Literature and Languages take its place
- Ousmane Sembene's first color feature film, Mandabi (The Money Order), is released
- Mauritius and Swaziland gain independence
- Leading Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo is killed in conflict during the civil war in Nigeria
- Equitorial Guinea gains independence from Spain
- 1969
- The Pan-African Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (FESPACO), is inaugurated Charismatic and beloved African nationalist leader of independence and Kenyan Minister for Economic Planning and Development, Tom Mboya, is assassinated in Nairobi
- Restoration of civil rule in Ghana; general election establishes Kofi Busia as prime minister
- Popular Revolutionary Movement (MNR) is declared sole legal party in the Republic of Congo
- Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena is published
- King ldris is deposed by a military coup in Libya; Colonel Gaddafi comes to power
- First Festival Cultural Panafricain is held in Algiers President Gamal Abdel Nasser resigns from office, relinquishes all official political titles and functions, and withdraws from public life. He is succeeded by Anwar Sadat
- The Ghanaian government of President Busia expels Nigerian residents; tens of thousands are displaced
- 1970
- End of civil war in Nigeria, which claimed more than one and half million lives.
- The surrender of Biafra
- President Obote's "Common Man's Charter" is introduced in Uganda
- President Nasser dies in Cairo; thousands attend his funeral
- President Mobutu begins "Authenticite" campaign, changes his name from Joseph-Desire to Mobutu Sese-Seko, renames the Congo Zaire, and orders the removal from public view of all symbols of colonial rule, including the bronze monument of Belgian King Leopold II in the center of Kinshasa
- Federation Panafricaine des Cineastes (FEPACI) is formed in Algiers
- Burkina Faso nationalizes film distribution and production, creating SONAVICI
- Declaration of Mogadishu issued by eastern and central African states announcing their intention to continue armed struggle to liberate South Africa
- 1971
- Idi Amin deposes President Milton Obote of Uganda, in a military coup, beginning one of the most repressive regimes in Africa
- Central African Republic recognizes South Africa; receives economic aid
- Declaration of Mogadishu issued by eastern and central African states announcing their intention to continue armed struggle to liberate South Africa.
- African National Council formed in Rhodesia by Bishop Abel Muzorewa
- 1972
- Kwame Nkrumah dies in exile in Guinea
- WoIe Soyinka publishes The Man Died, his prison memoirs
- Hutu guerrillas in Burundi kill over 10000 Tutsis in an attempted coup
- Tanzania and Uganda sign peace treaty
- Safi Faye makes her first, short film, The Passerby, as the first black African woman to direct a feature film
- Chad and Nigeria sign treaty of cooperation and mutual assistance
- Asians expelled from Uganda by General Amin
- Pearce Commission in Rhodesia reports that the African population says "no" to settlement proposals
- 1973
- Mali and Nigeria sign treaty of cooperation and mutual assistance
- Zambia-Rhodesia border closed by President Kaunda
- Massive strikes by black mine workers in South Africa
- First All-African Games held in Lagos
- Djibril Diop Mambety's seminal film Touki Bouki is released in Senegal
- Youssef Chahine's Sparrow is released
- Ethiopian director Haile Gerima's Harvest 3000 is released
- Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia begins talks with African nationalists in an attempt to reach an internal settlement
- 1974
- Emperor Haile Selassie is overthrown by a military coup ending the rule of the world's longest royal dynasty
- Sixth Pan-African Congress held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, with representatives from various liberation movements, including the ANC, South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), and Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO)
- 1975
- Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Angola gain independence from Portugal
- General Yakuba Gowon is overthrown in Nigeria's third, bloodless military coup, to be replaced by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammed
- Dahomey is renamed People's Republic of Benin
- Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia dies in detention; his body is secretly buried by a military junta
- Lome Agreement signed between the EEC and thirty-seven African states
- Great year for African cinema: Ousmane Sembene releases his influential film Xala; Lakhdar Hamina's film Chronique des années de braise is awarded the Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival
- Economic Community of West African States is founded; Treaty signed by fifteen states
- Tanzam Railway is opened between Zambia and Tanzania
- Four "front-line" presidents at Quilemane pledge support for the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army South African troops invade Angola in support of UNITA forces
- 1976
- Nigerian head of state, General Murtala Muhammed, is assassinated in unsuccessful coup d'etat and succeeded by Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo
- Israeli Commandos raid Entebbe Airport in Kampala and successfully rescue Israeli hostages held by Palestinian Liberation Organization guerrillas
- Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia sign an agreement on regional defense cooperation
- Soweto uprising begins in South Africa; Hector Peterson, aged eleven, becomes first student killed
- South Africa declares Transkei, one of the Bantustans created by the apartheid regime to enforce further black segregation from the white population, independent
- Safi Faye directs her first full-length feature film, A Letter from My Village
- Institut Africain d'education cinematographique (INAFEC) is set up in Burkina Faso to train filmmakers
- 1977
- Steve Biko, founder and leader of Black Consciousness Movement, dies in police custody
- UN imposes embargo on arms trade with South Africa
- Djibouti becomes independent state; final withdrawal of the French from African territory
- Central African Empire proclaimed by Jean Bedel Bokassa, who crowns himself emperor
- Assembly meets in Nigeria in preparation for return to civilian government
- Second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC), the largest cultural event ever on the African continent, is held in Lagos, with over 17,000 participants from over fifty countries
- 1978
- South African Black Consciousness Movement's Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) is formed
- South African forces attack South West African People's Organization refugee camp in Angola
- Jomo Kenyatta, statesman, nationalist, independence and anti-colonial leader, pan-Africanist, and Kenya's first president, dies in Mombasa
- Transitional government under Bishop Abel Muzorewa is formed in Rhodesia
- Anwar Sadat of Egypt signs the historic Camp David Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C., with Israel's Menachem Begin, and becomes first Arab leader to visit Jerusalem
- Malian film director Souleyman Cisse makes Baara
- lvorian sculptor Christian Lattier dies in Abidjan
- 1979
- Tanzanian and Ugandan exiles, as part of Ugandan Liberation Front, invade Uganda to overthrow Idi Amin, who flees from the country after the fall of Kampala
- Ethiopia and Kenya sign cooperation treaty
- Souleyman Cisse is arrested by the Malian government for making the film Den Moussa Civilian rule is restored in Ghana after Flight-Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings attempts, for several months, to seize power in his first attempted military coup
- Elections and return of civilian rule in Nigeria and the inauguration of second republic
- Emperor Bokassa is overthrown and Central African Republic is established Consortium lnter-Africain de Distribution Cinematographique (CIDC) is formed to create a common market for cinema in Francophone Africa
- 1980
- Ceasefire in Rhodesia ends civil war; Robert Mugabe's ZANU wins fifty-seven of eighty contested seats in the Rhodesian election. Rhodesia gains independence from Britain, becoming Zimbabwe Reggae star Bob Marley performs at the independence inauguration of Zimbabwe
- President Senghor of Senegal resigns from office. Vice President Abdou Diouf succeeds him
- Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) Academy is founded in Johannesburg
- 1981
- Kenya and Somalia sign cooperation and border agreement
- Jerry Rawlings seizes power in Ghana, in his second military coup, remaining president of the country until 2000
- OAU demands the withdrawal of Libyan troops from Chad
- President Kaunda of Zambia meets South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha on the border of Botswana and South Africa
- Kenya officially becomes a one-party state
- Libyan jets are shot down by United States aircraft
- South African troops advance into southern Angola to fight against SWAPO guerrillas
- President Anwar Sadat of Egypt is assassinated in Cairo by an Islamic fundamentalist
- 1982
- FEPACI meets in Niamey (Niger) and issues the Niamey Manifesto
- Split in South Africa's National Party occurs following opposition to Prime Minister P.W. Botha's proposals for constitutional change
- South Africa raids ANC bases in Mozambique
- 1983
- Souleyman Cisses Finye wins the Grand Prix at FESPACO in Ouagadougou
- Centre International des Civilisations Bantu (CICIBA) is established in Libreville, Gabon South African antiapartheid organization United Democratic Front is launched in Cape Town
- Nigerian civilian government of President Shehu Shagari is overthrown in fourth coup led by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari<
- New Constitutional Bill in South Africa
- Captain Sankara seizes power in Upper Volta to initiate radical reforms in the country, which is renamed Burkina Faso
- Discussions begin over the future of Namibia between South Africa and the United Nations
- 1984
- Mozambique and South Africa sign Nkomati Accord, a mutual non-aggression pact
- President Sekou Touré, Guinea, dies. Military Committee for National Recovery, under the leadership of Colonel Lansan Contb and Colonel Diarra Traore, seizes power
- Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo sign cooperation agreement
- First Cairo International Biennale
- P.W. Botha becomes President of South Africa
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu is awarded Nobel Peace Prize
- Lome III Treaty is signed to order trade relations between European Community and African States
- "A Hundred Years after the Berlin Conference:
- Perspectives on Africa's Liberation" is held at Makerere University
- 1985
- State of emergency is declared by South Africa's apartheid government. The Congress of Trade Unions (COSATU) is launched in response.
- South African troops withdraw from Angola
- Transitional government is set up in Namibia
- President Nyerere resigns from office in Tanzania
- The government of Israel conducts an airlift of Ethiopian Falasha Jews to Israel
- First Biennale of Contemporary Bantu Art, Libreville, Gabon
- A seminal exhibition opens in Johannesburg, "Tributaries: A View of Contemporary South African Art," curated by Ricky Burnett, which brings together for the first time the work of both mainstream and rural African artists
- 1985
- 25 December, Six-day war between Mali and Algeria over disputed Agacher strip
- 1985-87
- Ousmane Sembene (Senegal), Souleyman Cisse (Mali), and other African filmmakers found the West African Film Corporation (WAFCO) as an inter-African film body instrumental in cultural advancement and preservation
- First People's Parks created in Soweto, South Africa
- 1986
- Military leader General Babangida announces civilian rule shall be restored in Nigeria in October 1990
- Popular Nigerian journalist and editor Dele Giwa, who is critical of Babangida's government, is murdered by a letter bomb
- Pass Laws-which have, for more than two decades, required black South Africans to carry official cards, without which they could not move freely in cities-are abolished
- Bishop Desmond Tutu is awarded Martin Luther King Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize for antiapartheid activity
- Yoweri Museveni is inaugurated president of Uganda following the capture of Kampala by National Resistance Army
- Edward Perkins is appointed first black American ambassador to South Africa
- US military forces bomb Tripoli, capital of Libya; Gaddafi escapes injury
- Referendum in Central African Republic approves establishment of one-party state
- Nigerian writer WoIe Soyinka is awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature
- South African backed coup in Lesotho; South African raids into Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, holds exhibition entitled "From Two Worlds," which includes the works of Sokari Douglas Camp, Gavin Jantjes, and other African artists
- Widespread boycotts and violence lead to declaration of state of emergency in South Africa; hundreds killed by government forces, over 8,000 detained.
- United States implements trade sanctions and disinvestments by US companies begins President Samora Machel of Mozambique is killed in plane crash and is succeeded by Joaquin Chissano
- 1987
- Ugandan government forces kill 350 Uganda People's Front opponents in Battle of Corner Kilak
- Nigerian military government postpones restoration of civilian rule from 1990 to 1992
- Award-winning Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera dies in Harare
- Conservative Party becomes official opposition after whites-only elections in South Africa
- Souleyman Cisse's Yeleen wins the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival
- Meeting in Dakar between ANC leaders and dissident white Afrikaners
- Army coup in South African Bantustan of Transkei
- Military coup in Burkina Faso; President Thomas Sankara is assassinated
- Conference in Amsterdam to form Culture in Another South Africa (CASA); sponsored by the ANC and the Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement, and is occasion for more than 300 South African artists to meet and discuss the future of a multiracial South Africa
- 1988
- Egyptian novelist and writer Nabuib Mahfouz is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first African writer and winner with Arabic as native tongue
- Barbican Art Gallery, London, shows contemporary stone sculpture from Zimbabwe
- Nigerian photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode dies of AIDS in London
- Talks in London, New York, Geneva, and Brazzaville lead to agreement of Cuban withdrawal from Angola and independence for Namibia
- Strikes in South Africa against government anti-strike laws
- Cuban and South African troops withdraw from Angola
- Civil War begins in Somalia
- Ousmane Sembène's Camp de Thiaroye is refused entry at Cannes Film Festival
- Férid Boughedir directs Camera Arabe, a major documentary on Arab cinema
- President Botha meets President Chissano of Mozambique, agreeing to end South African aid to rebels in Mozambique
- 1989
- Ban on political activity lifted in Nigeria; two government-sponsored political parties-the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention-are formed in Nigeria
- Arab Maghreb Union common market set up by Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania
- "The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain," curated by Rasheed Araeen, is shown at the Hayward Gallery, London
- ldriss Ouedraogo's acclaimed film Yaaba is released
- President F.W. de Klerk conducts secret talks with Nelson Mandela, who remains imprisoned.
- P.W. Botha resigns and is succeeded by F.W. de Klerk; after elections de Klerk announces program to reform the apartheid system
- Walter Sisulu of the ANC is released from South African prison
- "Magiciens de Ia Terre" is held at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
- 1990
- President F.W. de Klerk lifts ban on over sixty opposition organizations in South Africa, including ANC, Pan-Africanist Congress, and the Communist Party
- Mandela is released from prison after twenty-seven years in jail
- Negotiations between ANC and the South African government threatened by police killing of eleven black demonstrators in Sebokeng
- Mandela heads ANC delegation to begin formal talks with the South African government
- The ruling Parti Congolais du Travail (PTC) abandons Marxism, Leninism and monopoly of power
- ECOWAS peacekeeping force (Ghana, Guinea, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone) of 4,000 men is deployed to Liberia
- South West Africa People's Organization candidates win forty-one of seventy-two seats in pre-independence Constituent Assembly
- South West Africa becomes independent Namibia. South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) wins majority of votes in parliament; Sam Nujoma, its president, becomes president of Namibia
- ldriss Ouedraogo's film Tilaiwins the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival
- Fend Boughedir's film Halfouine is released
- Studio Museum's "Contemporary African Artists: Changing Tradition" opens in New York. Work of African artists, except those from Egypt and South Africa, is shown at the Venice Biennale
- 1991
- Over 200 are killed in rioting between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria
- Ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) abandons Marxist-Leninist platform for socialist democracy
- Estonil Accord ends sixteen-year civil war between Angolan government and UNITA rebels
- Repeal of Land and Group Areas Act marks official and legal end of apartheid in South Africa Oliver Tambo is succeeded as president of ANC by Nelson Mandela
- Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) forms opposition groupings.
- Kenya Opposition Democratic Party is formed in Kenya by former minister, Mwai Kibaki. General strike in Kenya is called by Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), demanding release of political prisoners and multiparty elections
- ANC announces end of thirty-year struggle against apartheid regime in South Africa.
- Convention on a Democratic South Africa (CODESCA) representing nineteen parties begins meeting in Johannesburg Apartheid is abolished; South Africa prepares for multiracial elections.
- South African writer Nadine Gordimer is awarded Nobel Prize for Literature
- Susan Vogel curates "Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art" at the Center for African Art, New York
- "Africa Hoy," curated by Andre Magnin opens at the Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; It is mounted at other venues under the title "Africa Now" and, at the Saatchi Gallery, London, as "Out of Africa"
- Nigerian writer Ben Okri's The Famished Road wins the Booker Prize for Literature
- Revue Noire, a magazine of contemporary African art, is published in Paris by Jean Loup Pivin, with Simon Njami as editor
- 1992
- Boutros Boutros-Ghali becomes first African Secretary General of the UN
- Two-day general strike in Lagos against rule of President Babangida
- ANC begins "mass action" campaign to remove F.W. de Klerk from power
- Forty people are killed in South African township Boipatong by Inkatha Freedom Party supporters
- National Assembly elections, Nigeria, won by government-sponsored Social Democratic Party against government-sponsored National Republic Convention
- Four million black workers support two-day general strike against white government called by Congress of South African Trade Unions
- President Eduardo dos Santos is re-elected in Angola
- Kenyan opposition party Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) splits into FORD-Asili and FORD-Kenya
- Constitutional Amendment Act, entry of black South Africans to cabinet
- 1,000 killed in fighting between MPLA government and opposition UNITA forces, Angola, after disputed election results
- Jerry Rawlings elected president of Ghana; Rioting by opposition
- President Daniel arap Moi returns to office in first multiparty election, Kenya
- DAK'ART, the Dakar Biennale, is founded as major exposition of contemporary international art
- First Egyptian International Print Tniennale, Cairo
- The Eye: A Journal of Contemporary Art is published in Zaria, Nigeria, by the Eye Society
- Mo Edoga's and Ousmane Sow's participation in documenta IX, Kassel, marks the first African presence there
- 1993
- Eritrea, a former region of Ethiopia, becomes an independent state
- Democratic election results are annulled by the military dictatorship in Nigeria. Nigerian Transitional Council under Ernest Shonekan sworn in instead
- Kenyan opposition parties Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), FORD-Asili, FORD-Kenya, and the Democratic Party forms a united front
- High Council of Republic of Zaire declares Mobutu guilty of treason for dissolving cabinet
- South African artist Gerard Sekoto dies in exile in Paris
- Second International Symposium on Nigerian Art, Lagos
- The Museum for African Art, New York, presents five African artists at the Venice Biennale
- Haile Gerima's Sankofa is released
- First black members of South African cabinet appointed, by F.W. de Klerk
- Chris Hani, South African Communist Party leader and ANC executive member, is assassinated
- Election for civilian president in Nigeria is won by Chief Moshood Abiola of Social Democratic Party. Nigerian military government announces presidential elections to be invalid. Demonstrations in Lagos demanding end of military rule. Nigerian military leader, Major-General Ibrahim Babaginda, relinquishes power to interim president, Ernest Shonekan
- Nineteen die and twenty-two are wounded in shooting at Wadeville industrial area, Johannesburg.
- Thirty-one are killed in "Day of Terror" as South African Parliament begins discussing establishment of Transitional Council. Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk are awarded Nobel Peace Prize
- Nigerian interim president, Ernest Shonekan, is replaced by General Sani Abacha. Banning of political parties, restoration of civilian rule delayed until August 1993
- 1994
- At least 500,000 Tutsi civilians are massacred by Hutu vigilantes in Rwanda
- 500 Nigerian troops occupy Diamond Island and Djabane, Cameroonian islands in the Gulf of Guinea
- Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army offers to surrender for resettlement aid
- Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan replaces BoutrosGhali as UN Secretary General
- Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu dies in Lagos
- Nka: Journal of ContemporaryAfrican Art is founded by Okwui Enwezor in New York
- Kunle Tejuosho publishes Glendora Review:
- African Quarterly on the Arts in Lagos, Nigeria
- Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World, a major show of Arab women artists opens at The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.
- Pan-African Congress announces end of armed struggle in South Africa
- Oginga Odinga Kenyan Nationalist leader dies
- 1,000 people die, 150,000 are displaced in a week of clashes in northern Ghana between Konkomba and Namumba ethnic groups
- President Mangope is forced to resign in South African "homeland" of Bophuthatswana
- First multiracial elections in South Africa end 350 years of white domination
- Mandela is inaugurated as president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki as first deputy-president, marking the first institution of black majority rule in South Africa. First multiracial cabinet is appointed
- Moshod Abiola, winner of 1993 Nigerian presidential elections, is arrested for treason after calling for an uprising
- Peace accord signed between MPLA in Angola and UNITA forces
- 17 November, Bomb explodes at Lagos International Airport
- "lères Rencontres de Ia Photographie Afnicaine" in Baunako, Mali
- 1995
- US lobbying organization TransAfrica condemns Nigerian military regime for its infringement of human rights
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission established to investigate apartheid atrocities, with Bishop Desmond Tutu and Alex Borraine chairmen
- ANC candidates win more than two-thirds of the votes in local elections in South Africa First Africus Johannesburg Biennale held in Johannesburg
- Africa '95, a festival of art in England. Major accompanying shows include, "Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa," Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; "Self Evident," Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; and "Africa: The Art of a Continent," Royal Academy of Arts, London
- Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui wins the Kansai Telecasting Prize at the Osaka Tniennale Nigerian-born artist and photographer Iké Udé founds the international magazine aRUDE in New York
- 1996
- South African Supreme Court orders the predominantly white Potgietersrus Primary School to admit black pupils in a landmark post-apartheid ruling
- Lord's Resistance Army guerrillas kill over 200 people in attacks in northern Uganda First Nigerian president and independence leader, Nnamdi Benjamin Azikwe, dies at age ninety-two
- "In/sight: African Photography, 1940 to the Present" is held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Isaac Julien's Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks is released and broadcast on BBC in London
- Cameroonian novelist Calixte Beyala wins the Grand Prix du Roman award in France with her novel Les Honneurs Perdus. She is the first black person to win the prize
- White National Party withdraws from South African Government of National Unity with the ANC
- Kudirat Olayinka Abiola, wife of imprisoned victor in 1993 Nigerian presidential elections, Chief Moshood Abiola, is murdered in Lagos
- President Mandela signs sweeping and liberal new South Africa Constitution in Sharpeville
- Writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the "Ogoni Nine" are hanged by the military dictatorship in Nigeria
- Ouattara (Ivory Coast) and Magdalene Odundo (Kenya) are included in Marilyn Stokstad's Art History, marking the first occasion on which the work of contemporary African artists is included in a major survey of world art
- 1997
- Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of 1993 democratic elections in Nigeria, dies in detention after more than three years in captivity
- Acclaimed Nigerian musician, composer, and political activist FeIa Anikulapo Kuti dies of AIDS in Lagos. Tens of thousands attend his funeral in Lagos
- Senegalese film director Djibnil Diop Mambety dies in Senegal
- Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel wed
- Second Johannesburg Biennale is held in Johannesburg and Cape Town
- Fifteenth FESPACO film festival attracts some 400,000 visitors
- William Kentridge (South Africa), Abderrahmane Sissako (Mauritania), and Oladele Ajiboye Bamgboye (Nigeria) exhibit at documenta X in Kassel
- Mobutu Sese Seko is overthrown by the rebel forces of Laurent Kabila, fleeing from Zaire after more than three decades in government. Laurent Kabila assumes power and changes the name of the country to the Democratic Republic of Congo
- 1998
- Okwui Enwezor is appointed artistic director of documenta XI
- Fifth Dakar Biennale is held
- Nigerian artist Chris Ofili wins England's premier art award, the Turner Prize
- Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha dies in office of apparent heart attack; a new transitional government begins the process of restoring democracy and civilian rule
- 1999
- After sixteen years of military rule, Nigeria returns to civilian rule. Olusegun Obasanjo wins general elections and becomes president of the fourth republic
- Bodys lsek Kingelez, Kendell Geers, and William Kentridge exhibit their work at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. Kentridge wins the prestigious Carnegie International Prize
- Peace Treaty is signed in Lome, Togo, officially bringing to an end the civil war in Sierra Leone
- King Hassan of Morocco dies
- Ghada Amer wins the UNESCO Prize at the Forty-Eighth Venice Bienniale; Georges Adeagbo receives an honorable mention
- 2000
- A three-day seventieth birthday Festschrift for Chinua Achebe at Bard College. He is honored by three Nobel Iaureates-Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, and Toni Morrison-and many international scholars, writers, and artists in a symposium acknowledging Achebe's seminal role in contemporary African literature
- War lord Fode Sankoh breaks the treaty of Lome and resumes fighting in Sierra Leone. He is captured a few weeks later by government forces
- J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace wins the Booker Prize, the author's second
- Eritrean and Ethiopian border war marks the end of a fragile peace in the horn of Africa. The war officially ends with a peace treaty brokered by the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations and signed in Algiers
- Abdoulaye Wade is elected president of Senegal, marking the end of Leopold Sédar Senghor's forty-year presidential term and Abdou Diouf's Socialist Party
- Peaceful transition in Ghana: J.A. Kufour's New Patriotic Party wins Ghanaian presidential elections, ending two decades of Rawlings's presidency