African history is replete with tales of triumph, golden ages, and other pinnacles in human history. Unfortunately, the continent has also experienced some of its darkest periods, particularly during the era of colonization. From slavery to the many early genocides of the 20th century, the last few hundred years have been particularly grim for some regions of Africa.
10. Sharpeville Massacre
On March 21, 1960, approximately 20,000 Black protesters gathered outside a police station in Sharpeville, a small town south of Johannesburg, South Africa. They were protesting the repressive pass laws, which had been in effect in South Africa since the early 18th century and severely restricted the movement of non-whites, requiring them to carry identification documents in restricted areas. The protesters were unarmed and peaceful, demanding arrest for simply not having pass books.
However, according to police, at some point the demonstrators turned violent, leading to a shootout that left 69 people dead and 180 injured. The shooting lasted approximately two minutes, and police reportedly used automatic weapons to shoot the unarmed protesters.
The Sharpeville massacre became the focus of a wider protest against the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa and directly led to many organizations adopting more militant and revolutionary tactics in their resistance to the regime.
9. Mau Mau Rebellion
From 1952 to 1960, a group of Bantu-speaking Kikuyu people from south-central Kenya rebelled against the ruling British Empire. Now known as the Mau Mau rebellion—or the Kenyan Emergency in Britain—it was a violent war marked by widespread violence against civilians and retaliatory measures such as torture. Like all other colonial states fighting for their freedom at the time, the conflict arose from grievances among the indigenous Kikuyu people over factors such as racial discrimination, land dispossession, and forced labor at the hands of the British colonial government.
The colonial government responded with extreme violence, declaring a state of emergency and deploying troops to suppress the rebellion. They also established a unique network of detention camps to suppress the local population, where thousands of Kenyans were held without trial and subjected to inhumane treatment. While the death toll is difficult to estimate, some reports place the number of Kenyans killed at over 10,000. The rebellion officially continued until 1960, although major military operations had largely ceased by 1955.
8. Genocide of Herero and Namaqua
The Herero and Namaqua Genocide refers to the mass murder of the indigenous people of Namibia by Imperial German troops between 1904 and 1907. It began after the local population rebelled against German colonial policies, leading to a ruthless German campaign to exterminate the region's indigenous people. It is estimated that over 80,000 natives died in the massacre, most of whom belonged to the Herero and Namaqua tribes, although the actual number is likely much higher.
Over the next four years, German troops systematically hunted down and killed the local population, using tactics such as starvation and forced labor to enslave and control them. The genocide claimed the lives of approximately 801 and 501 people of the Herero and Namaqua people, respectively, and many historians consider it a prelude to German atrocities during World War II.
7. The 1993 massacre in Burundi.
In October 1993, the Burundian military staged a coup against the newly elected democratic government led by President Melchior Ndadaye. Although his election was hailed as a turning point in Burundi's turbulent history, the failed coup resulted in his death, triggering a horrific period of violence between the Hutu and Tutsi communities.
The violence was primarily directed against Hutus, as they were considered supporters of the Ndadaye government. Killings by the military, police, and armed civilian groups allied with Tutsis continued for several months, resulting in the deaths of between 80,000 and 100,000 people. Many of the victims were killed in their homes and sent to mass graves, while others were killed in public places such as churches and schools.
6. The First Congo War
The First Congo War was part of a larger war that could be called the deadliest conflict in African history, with an estimated death toll of over 5.4 million people. It was one of the many consequences of the Rwandan genocide, as Tutsi-ruled Rwanda pursued suspects in the massacre that killed over 800,000 people in 1994, most of whom were Tutsi and moderate Hutus.
In October 1996, Rwanda and Uganda invaded the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, specifically targeting Hutus who had fled Rwanda following the genocide. The conflict quickly escalated into a regional war, at one point involving several armed groups and foreign powers. It saw large-scale ethnic violence, displacement, and human rights violations against civilians, including rape, torture, and extrajudicial killings. The war ended in 1997, when Laurent Désiré Kabila, supported by Rwanda and Uganda, took power as the new president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
5. The Maji Maji Rebellion
From 1905 to 1907, Germany waged a brutal war against the indigenous population in German East Africa—present-day Tanzania. The rebellion, named after a local medicine, was led by various ethnic groups, including the Ngoni, Hehe, and Yao, who united against German officials, Arab administrators, wealthy merchants, and other ruling groups in the area. Specifically, it was sparked by the introduction of a German policy that forced the local population to grow only cotton, leading to mass land confiscation and displacement.
The rebellion began in July 1905 in the southern part of the colony and quickly spread throughout the region. Some of the rebels believed they were immune to bullets thanks to a local medicine calledmadzi madzi , although they quickly discovered this was untrue. The Germans responded with brute force, committing numerous atrocities, such as burning villages, extrajudicial executions of rebels, and using high-powered weapons against civilian areas such as villages. Despite their numerical advantage, the Germans ultimately prevailed due to superior military technology, as local armies were generally poorly equipped and poorly trained. By the end of the war, between 200,000 and 300,000 Africans had died in the conflict.
4. War in Darfur
The Darfur conflict is an ongoing humanitarian crisis that began in 2003 in the western region of Sudan. While it is a complex conflict resulting from a combination of political, economic, and environmental factors, at its core, it was the end result of long-standing tensions between the Sudanese government and the non-Arab African population living in some parts of the country.
The war in Darfur has witnessed widespread human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and torture, as well as the displacement of millions of people. The Sudanese government is accused of arming and supporting Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, who are responsible for numerous atrocities committed against non-Arab civilians in Darfur. In response, many local rebel groups have taken up arms against the government and its allied militias, further complicating the situation. According to UN figures from 2021, the conflict has killed approximately 300,000 people to date, and displaced more than 2.5 million people.
3. Algerian War of Independence
From 1954 to 1962, armed groups in Algeria fought against the French in one of the largest uprisings in history, involving more than 500,000 French troops at its peak. The conflict began when the National Liberation Front—or FLN—began attacking French troops and property in and around the capital, Algiers.
France responded to the rebellion with brutal force, using methods such as torture, executions, and concentration camps to suppress the FLN. They also declared a state of emergency and suspended civil liberties, leading to widespread human rights violations by French colonial troops. Casualty estimates vary widely, but according to French sources, the conflict claimed the lives of between 300,000 and 500,000 Algerians. Algerian sources, however, place the death toll at over 1.5 million.
2. Igbo Genocide
The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigeria–Biafra War, was a 30-month conflict between Nigeria and the secessionist eastern region called the Republic of Biafra, lasting from 1967 to 1970. It killed at least one million people—mostly of the Igbo ethnic group—in the relatively short time it lasted.
Much of the violence was committed by the Nigerian army and security forces under the command of General Yakubu Gowon, the warlord who seized power after a coup in 1966. Their primary targets—the Igbo people—were subjected to widespread violence, including massacres, rape, and starvation. The Nigerian government also imposed a blockade on Biafra throughout the conflict, preventing food and medicine from entering the region and causing a famine that led to the deaths of thousands of civilians. The war remains one of the deadliest civil wars in African history, ending in January 1970 when the rebel groups surrendered to the Nigerian government.
1. Congo Free State
The Congo Free State was a private colonial entity encompassing almost the entire Congo Basin region. Established in the 1880s as a private fiefdom of King Leopold II of Belgium, the colony lasted for over two decades. This period was marked by repressive violence against indigenous Congolese, as Leopold's agents and private militias used brutal methods, including torture and mutilation, to force local workers to harvest rubber.
One of the most infamous practices of the era was the chopping off of the hands of Congolese workers who failed to meet their harvest quotas on the plantations. While we have no specific estimates of the number of deaths, the region's population is reported to have declined from 20 million to 8 million during this time.
The atrocities of the Congo Free State attracted international attention in the early 20th century, when a worldwide campaign to overthrow the regime was launched in Britain and other parts of Europe. Due to widespread resistance, Leopold was eventually forced to hand over control of the colony to the Belgian government in 1908.