SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: SOME HISTORICAL REFERENCE POINTS

Periods	Economic, Political and Social Facts	Trade-union and political organizations	Movements
15th – 19th centuries	- European conquest and slave trade - The Black Code		African collaboration with and resistance to the slave trade and colonization
	Wars between Portuguese and Dutch slave traders in the kingdom of Kongo (1641-48)
	- Arrival of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape (South Africa) (1652) and of French Huguenots (1668)
	- English presence in South Africa (1705)
	- Beginning of French colonization of Senegal (1659)
	1876 geography conference in Brussels: launching of the ideology of the civilizing mission 1879 the Zulus defeat the British army in South Africa Conference of Berlin (1885)
	- Implantation of European trading companies in Sub-Saharan Africa (outside South Africa) - 1884 discovery of gold in Transvaal, South Africa after the discovery of diamond deposits in the Cape in 1864 - 1888 Cecil Rhodes founds the De Beers mining company - 1896 defeat of the Italian army by the Ethiopian army of Menelik at Adowa - 1899 – 1902 Boer war (British concentration camps in South Africa)	National African Sailors and Firemen's Union (1893, Nigeria)	- 1922 strike of white miners in South Africa
20th century	- Birth of the Union of South Africa (1909) - Creation of the Reservations (1910) - 1914-1916 the British, Belgians, French, and South Africans conquer Germany's African colonies - Ethiopia joins the League of Nations - Brazzaville Conference on the French Colonies - 1917 creation of the Anglo-american corporation of South Africa by E. Oppenheimer	Birth of the National Indigenous Congress, the future African National Congress (ANC) and of the National Party(NP) (1912)	- 1930s murderous repression of Black revolts in South Africa
	- Formation of small African capital in some British and French colonies (1940-1950)	-Creation of the Industrial Workers of Africa (1917, South Africa)	- 1947 Insurrection in Madagascar, drowned in blood
	- 1946 = French Union	- Intercolonial Union of French CP (1920)
	- 1948 = Apartheid	- Birth of the Communist Party of South Africa (1921)
	- 1957 = Independence of Ghana	- Dahomeyan section of the League for the Rights of Man (1920s)
	- French Community - Independence of Guinea	- Creation of the Committee for the Defense of the Negro Race (1926) by Lamine Senghor (militant and CP candidate in the 1925 elections in Paris, then member of the leadership of the Anti-Imperialist League)	- Congress of the Anti-Imperialist League (1926, Brussels)
		- Participation of the Bolshevik Leninist Group of South Africa in the founding meeting of the FI (1938)	-Movement against racist laws, particularly against pass laws (1929, South Africa)
		- Union of Negro Workers (1932, France)	-Campaign against apartheid, instituted in 1948 (1952)
		- Birth of political parties in the British and French colonies (1930s and '40s) and authorization of trade unions in French colonies (1936)	- Anti-colonial demands in the British and French colonies (1940...)
		- Birth of Pan-African organizations among African students in the West (1940-1950)	- Congress of the Alliance of Peoples (ANC, South African Indian Congress, Coloured People's Congress, South African Congress of Trade Unions, Congress of Democrats): Freedom Charter (1955) - Bandung Conference 1955 - Inter-African conference at Accra, Ghana
			- General strike against pass laws (1956)
Periods	Regional events	Trade-union and political organizations	Movements
20th century (continued)	African countries win independence (starting in 1957); creation of a state economic sector in the neocolonies (1960 –1970) - 1961 Republic of South Africa	Murderous repression in Sharpeville of protests called by Pan African Congress (a 1959 split from the ANC), followed by banning of ANC, SACP and PAC (1960)	- 1955 armed struggle by the Union of the Cameroonian people (UPC) after massacres by the French colonial army - Armed popular demonstration against the pro-apartheid tribal government in Podoland (1960, South Africa)
			- Creation of ANC and PAC military branches (1961)
		-Birth of the Conference of Nationalist Parties of the Portuguese Colonies (1961) - 1963 conference of Addis Ababa, birth of the Organization of African Unity (OAU)	Debate on armed struggle in the Portuguese colonies
	- Massive indebtment of Sub-Saharan African countries, initiated by the World Bank (1970s and '80s)	- Black Consciousness Movement (1970s, South Africa)	- 1971 birth of Black consciousness
	- Slowdown of growth of the South African economy	Creation of the Federation of South African Trade Unions (1979)	- Soweto Uprising (1976), and quasi-permanent mobilization
	- Debt crisis and imposition of Structural Adjustment Policies (1980s)	- Formation of the United Democratic Front (1983-84) South Africa
	- Western economic sanctions against the apartheid regime (1985)	- Formation of the National Forum South Africa	-Popular mobilizations against the effects of Structural Adjustment (1980s) and for democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa
	- Process of "democratization" in Africa	Creation of the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (1985)
	- Liberation of political prisoners in South Africa, ANC-NP negotiations, and ANC announcement of its abandonment of armed struggle	- 1991 First National Conference of WOSA (Workers Organization for Socialist Action) South Africa	- 2000 International Conference for the Cancellation of the Debt of Africa and the Third World at Dakar, Senegal
	- Lifting of economic sanctions(1991) - Convention for a Democratic South Africa (1991) - 1993 Abolition of Apartheid		- 2001 First African Social Forum at Bamako, Mali
	- First post-apartheid democratic elections, won by ANC (1994)	- 2002 Birth of the African Union