Mobutu gives the Congo a new name, Zaire, deriving from an African word for river

Libya's political bible is now the Green Book by Muammar al-Gaddafi

In an orgy of ethnic slaughter in Burundi, Tutsis klll some 100,000 Hutus

The Polisario is formed to fight for the independence of Western Sahara

Winning power in a military coup, Juvenal Habyarimana begins a 21-year spell as dictator in Rwanda

Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement

An uprising organized in Ethiopia by the Dergue results in the arrest of Haile Selassie and his murder a year later

Portuguese Guinea becomes independent as Guinea-Bissau, with Luís Cabral as president

The MPLA, controlling the capital but not the country, declares itself the government of newly independent Angola

The republic of Dahomey changes its name to one already famous in African history – Benin

UNITA and the FNLA join forces to set up a rival Angolan government at Huambo, in the south of the country

The king of Morocco sends 350,000 settlers across the border into Western Sahara

Yakubu Gowon, who united Nigeria after the Biafran war, is thrown out in a military coup

Portuguese East Africa becomes independent as Mozambique, with Frelimo as the only political party

The Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa, become independent as the republic of Cape Verde

In Angola the USA and USSR fund rival guerrilla groups, MPLA and UNITA

Cuban troops, sent by Castro to Angola, clash with South African forces attempting to combat communism

Mary Leakey and her team find footprints, about 3.6 million years old, of bipedal hominids walking upright at Laetoli in Tanzania

The UN entrusts the Western Sahara to joint administration by Morocco and Mauritania

A guerrilla movement, with Rhodesian backing, launches a long civil war against Frelimo in Mozambique

The Polisario, as a government-in-exile in Algeria, proclaim the independence of Western Sahara as the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic

Hundreds of deaths and casualties result from police firing on a demonstration by schoolchildren in the black township of Soweto

In a daring raid on Entebbe airport, Israeli troops rescue hostages hijacked on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris

Mengistu Haile Mariam seizes control of Ethiopia's ruling Dergue (military council) in a violent coup

The French Territory of Afars and Issas becomes independent as Djibouti, with Hassan Gouled Aptidon as president