African history is full of stories of triumph, golden ages, and other high points in human history. Sadly, the continent has also seen some of the darkest phases we’ve gone through as a species, especially during the age of colonization. From slavery to many of the early genocides of the 20th century, the last few hundred years have been particularly dark for some regions in Africa. 

10. Sharpeville Massacre

On March 21, 1960, a crowd of about 20,000 black protesters gathered near a police station in Sharpeville – a small town just south of Johannesburg, South Africa. They were protesting the oppressive pass laws that had been in place in South Africa since the early 18th century, which severely restricted the movement of non-whites by requiring them to carry identification documents in restricted areas. The protesters were unarmed and peaceful, only demanding to be arrested for not carrying their pass books.

According to the police’s version, however, the demonstrators turned violent at some point, resulting in a shootout that left 69 people dead and 180 wounded. It lasted for about two minutes, and the cops reportedly used automatic weapons to gun down the unarmed protesters. 

The Sharpeville massacre became a focal point in the larger protest against South Africa’s brutal apartheid, and directly led to many organizations adopting more militant and revolutionary tactics in their resistance against the regime. 

9. Mau Mau Uprising

From 1952 to 1960, a group of Bantu-speaking Kikuyu people from south-central Kenya fought a rebellion against the ruling British empire. Now known as the Mau Mau uprising – or the Kenyan emergency in Britain – it was a violent war marked by widespread violence against civilians, as well as retaliatory meaures like torture. Like all other colonies fighting for their freedom at the time, the conflict was a result of the dissatisfaction among the native Kikuyu tribe due to factors like racial discrimination, land dispossession, and forced labor by the colonial British government. 

The colonial government responded with extreme violence, declaring a state of emergency and deploying troops to quash the rebellion. They also implemented a unique network of detention camps to pacify the local population, where thousands of Kenyans were held without trial and subjected to inhumane treatment. While casualties figures are difficult to estimate, some reports place the number of Kenyans killed at more than 10,000. The rebellion would officially go on until 1960, though large military operations had largely ceased by 1955.

8. Herero And Namaqua Genocide

The Herero And Namaqua Genocide refers to the mass killing of indigenous people in Namibia by imperial German forces between 1904-07. It started after the local population rebelled against colonial German policies, resulting in a relentless campaign by the Germans to eradicate the indigenous people of the region. According to rough estimates, more than 80,000 natives perished in the massacre – most of them belonging to the Herero and Namaqua tribes – though the real number is probably far higher.

Over the course of the next four years, German forces systematically hunted down and killed the local population, using tactics like starvation and forced labor to subjugate and control them. The genocide claimed the lives of around 80% and 50% of the Herero and Namaqua population, respectively, and many historians consider it to be a prelude to the German atrocities seen in World War 2.

7. 1993 Massacre In Burundi

In October 1993, members of the Burundian military launched a coup against the newly elected democratic government led by President Melchior Ndadaye. While his election was seen as a breakthrough moment in Burundi’s tumultuous history, the ultimately-failed coup resulted in his death, sparking a horrific period of violence between the Hutu and Tutsi communities. 

The violence was largely directed against the Hutus, as they were seen as supporters of Ndadaye’s government. The killings were carried out by the military, police, and armed civilian groups associated with the Tutsis, lasting for several months and resulting in the deaths of an estimated 80,000 – 100,000 people. Many of the victims were killed in their homes and sent to mass graves, while others were targeted in public spaces like churches and schools.

6. First Congo War

The First Congo War was a part of a larger war that could be called the deadliest conflict in Africa’s history, with an estimated death toll of over 5.4 million people. It was one of the many fallouts of the Rwandan genocide, as the Tutsi-ruled Rwanda hunted suspected perpetrators of the massacre that killed more than 800,000 people back in 1994, most of them Tutsis and moderate Hutus. 

In October 1996, Rwanda and Uganda invaded the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically targeting the Hutus that had had fled Rwanda after the genocide. The conflict quickly escalated into a regional war, with multiple armed groups and foreign powers being involved at some point. It saw large-scale ethnic violence, displacement, and human rights abuses of civilians, including rape, torture, and murder without trial. The war ended in 1997, with Rwanda and Uganda-backed Laurent Désiré Kabila taking power as the new president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

5. Maji Maji Rebellion

From 1905 to 1907, Germany fought an intense war against the local population in German East Africa – or present-day Tanzania. Named after a local medicine, the rebellion was led by various ethnic groups, including the Ngoni, Hehe, and Yao, who united in opposition to German officials, Arab administrators, rich traders, and other ruling groups in the area. Specifically, it was triggered by the introduction of a German policy that forced the local population to only cultivate cotton, resulting in mass confiscation of land and displacement of people from their native homes. 

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 due to a local medicine called maji maji, though they’d quickly find out that wasn’t true. The Germans responded with brutal force, committing numerous atrocities like burning villages, summarily executing rebels, and using high-powered weapons against residential areas like villages. Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Germans ultimately prevailed because of superior military technology, as the local armies were usually ill-equipped and poorly-trained. By the end of it, anywhere between 200,000 – 300,000 Africans had lost their lives in the war. 

4. War In Darfur

The Darfur conflict is an ongoing humanitarian crisis that began in 2003 in the western region of Sudan. While it’s a complex conflict resulting from a combination of political, economic, and environmental factors, at its root, it was the ultimate result of long-seated tensions between the Sudanese government and the non-Arab African population living in parts of the country.

The war in Darfur has seen widespread human rights abuses, including ethnic cleansing, mass rape, and torture, along with the displacement of millions of people. The Sudanese government is accused of arming and supporting Arab militias known as Janjaweed, who have been responsible for many of the 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 left about 300.000 people dead so far, with over 2.5 million displaced from their homes.

3. Algerian War Of Independence

From 1954 to 1962, armed groups in Algeria fought against the French in what would become one of the largest rebellions in history, involving more than 500,000 French troops at its peak. The conflict began when the National Liberation Front – or FLN – started attacking French personnel and properties in and around the capital Algiers. 

France responded to the insurgency with brutal force, using methods like torture, execution, and concentration camps to suppress the FLN. They also imposed a state of emergency and suspended civil liberties, leading to widespread human rights abuses by the French colonial forces. Estimates of casualties vary widely, but according to French sources, the conflict claimed the lives of anywhere between 300,000 to 500,000 Algerians. Algerian sources, though, put the death toll at well over 1.5 million people.

2. Igbo Genocide

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigeria-Biafra war, was a 30-month-long conflict between Nigeria and the secessionist eastern region called the Republic of Biafra, lasting from 1967 to 1970. It was a brutal conflict, resulting in the deaths of at least one million people – mostly from the Igbo ethnic group – in the relatively-short time that it lasted. 

Much of the violence was perpetrated by the Nigerian army and security forces under General Yakubu Gowon – a military leader that seized power after a coup in 1966. Their primary targets – the Igbo people – were subjected to widespread violence, including mass killings, rape, and starvation. The Nigerian government also imposed a blockade on Biafra throughout the conflict, preventing food and medical supplies from reaching 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 Africa’s history, ending in January 1970 with the rebel groups surrendering to the Nigerian government. 

1. Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was a privately-owned colonial entity, encompassing almost the entire region of the Congo Basin. Created in the 1880s as a private holding of the king of Belgium, Leopold II, the colony lasted for more than two decades. The period was marked by oppressive violence against the native Congolese, as Leopold’s agents and private militias used brutal methods to force local workers to collect rubber, including torture and mutilation. 

One of the most infamous practices of the time involved cutting off the hands of Congolese workers who failed to meet their collection quotas on the plantations. While we don’t have specific estimates on the number of deaths, the population of the region was reportedly reduced from 20 million to 8 million during this time. 

The atrocities of the Congo Free State got international attention in the early 20th century, as a worldwide campaign to bring an end to the regime was launched in Britain and other parts of Europe. Thanks to widespread opposition, Leopold was eventually forced to turn over control of the colony to the Belgian government in 1908.

In popular imagination, the 20th century was a time of technological progress and relative peace around the world, when we built the computer and finally reached space. Look closer, though, and this rosy view doesn’t seem to be accurate, or at least not for everyone. While it’s true that some parts of the world experienced unprecedented growth and stability during this time – at least in the post-war era – it was a tumultuous, dark period for many others. 

10. The Troubles

From the late 1960s to 1998, Northern Ireland was embroiled in one of the bloodiest insurgencies of the 20th century. Known as the Troubles, it was a violent culmination of years of conflict between the nationalist Irish and unionist British population in the region, controlled by the UK since the 1920s. It was a large-scale conflict, and could even be categorized as a war if we go by the numbers. 

More than 3,500 people died throughout the episode, as rebel Irish paramilitaries – like the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – waged an intense guerilla war against the loyalist Ulster forces, allied with the British army. The conflict saw multiple civilian deaths and casualties, as more than 47,000 people were injured in the crossfire, most of them young adults. This time was also marked by multiple high-profile assassinations, like Lord Mountbatten and Airey Neave – the British Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1979. 

While the Troubles officially came to an end with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the violence only completely stopped in 2007. 

9. Guatemalan Civil War

The civil war in Guatemala began in the wake of the revolution in Cuba in 1959, when leftist guerilla groups in the country began a 36-years-long armed conflict against the Guatemalan state. It was the longest struggle in modern Latin American history, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and making millions of others homeless. 

The conflict is still remembered for its exceptional brutality against civilians, especially those of Mayan descent. Much of the violence could be attributed to paramilitary death squads allied with or directly controlled by the state and local landowners. It included arbitrary execution, sexual violence, torture, mutilation, violence against children, and systematic destruction of settlements. 

The conflict’s worst phase came during the early 1980s, when the paramilitaries undertook counter insurgency measures aimed at wiping out the rebel population. Between 70% – 90% of the population was killed in the worst-affected provinces during this time, which has since been recognized as a genocide by the U.N.

8. Revenge Hutu Genocide

Most people know about the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when more than 80% of the Tutsi minority was killed by the Hutus following the assasination of president Juvénal Habyarimana. Far less discussed, though, are the immediate effects of this tragedy on nearby regions, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

Throughout 1996 and 1997, Hutu refugees in Congo went through a reprisal genocide by the now-Tutsi-led Rwandan government. During the First Congo War, Rwandan-backed rebels committed multiple massacres  in the eastern part of the country, mostly against the Hutu refugees that fled Rwanda after its civil war, as well as local Congolese Hutus. Brutal execution methods were deployed, as tens of thousands of civilians were killed in a campaign of ethnic cleansing that would impact politics and social relations in the region for years to come.

7. Japanese Invasion Of Manchuria

The Sino-Japanese War officially broke out in 1937, though conflict in China was ongoing for much longer than that. Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931 and established the puppet state of Manchukuo, beginning a conflict that would last until the defeat of the Japanese empire in 1945. 

Throughout the war, Japanese forces committed multiple atrocities in many parts of China. While some of them are well-known – like the Nanking massacre of 1937, when the invading army terrorized hundreds of thousands of civilians in Nanking for six weeks – others now lie mostly forgotten. Like Germany, Japan also conducted extensive experiments on the conquered population, with the largest labs operating in Manchukuo. The details are gruesome, as the experiments were usually carried out in crude and inhumane ways. The victims were usually prisoners of war captured during the invasion, many of whom would die within weeks of experimentation. 

6. Iran-Iraq War

On September 22, 1980, Iraqi forces began a full scale invasion of Iran, beginning a conflict that would be characterized by inhumane killing methods – like chemical attacks – and widespread violence against civilians. The Iran-Iraq war was easily one of the longest conflicts of the 20th century, as it went on for nearly eight years until the ceasefire in 1988 (though a formal peace agreement wasn’t signed until August 16, 1990). 

The conflict would have a profound impact on geo-politics in the Middle East and beyond, even if it’s largely forgotten outside the immediate regions it was fought. Iraq made excessive use of its chemical weapons arsenal, both against civilians and on the battlefield against Iranian soldiers. The violence was also directed at the Kurdish rebels inside Iraq – in March, 1988, between 3,000 to 5,000 people were killed by a massive chemical attack in the Kurdish-Iraqi town of Halabja. 

5. Herero And Namaqua Genocide

Around the turn of the 20th century, Germany controlled one of the largest colonial empires around the world, almost all of it located in Africa. Between 1904 and 1907, the Herero and Namaqua tribes from Namibia went through what many historians now recognize as the first genocide of the 20th century, almost all of it perpetrated by professional German forces. If we go by the numbers, more than 80% of the Herero and 50% of the Namaqua were wiped out, often in brutal, inhumane ways that would be repeated in many battles and concentration camps until the end of WW2.

From the German side, it was a war of extermination, waged to completely replace the local population with German settlers. While it started as a rebellion by the Herero, they were quickly overwhelmed by superior German firepower, followed by some of the worst atrocities on a native population in colonial European history. Many of them were forced to march into the desert and die of starvation or heat; others were forced to work in concentration camps until they died, or tortured, experimented on, raped, and even beheaded. 

4. Partition Of India

In August 1947, India was divided into the modern states of Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, which finally granted independence to the long-held British colony. While it was a moment to celebrate, this period is now remembered for the widespread violence on both sides of the border, resulting in one of the largest humanitarian crises of the 20th century. 

More than two million people lost their lives, as a number of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims on either side of the border began one of the largest mass migrations in human history. More than 14 million people would be made homeless by the violence, almost all of which was directed at the civilian population. While it’s not recognized as a genocide, some British soldiers and journalists that witnessed it later described it to be worse than Nazi concentration camps. 

3. Late Ottoman Genocides

The First World War was as full of atrocities and dark phases as the second, though it hardly gets the same attention in contemporary readings of 20th century history. One of the darkest was the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, which was followed by gross violence and campaigns of ethnic cleansing across the new territories. 

Some historians see them as a continuous series of genocides known as the Late Ottoman Genocides, even if there’s quite a bit of controversy in Turkey regarding whether they count as genocides. While the Armenian genocide is still remembered and talked about, it also included violence against Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds, Arabs, Jews, and others. As the vast empire once spread across eastern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East broke up and gave way to new nations in the Middle East, old ethnic tensions between communities and the new geo-political realities of the region resulted in numerous atrocities, often committed by the armed forces of the new states. 

2. Colonial Belgian Rule

From 1885 to 1908, the nation of Congo was run entirely as a privately-held enterprise of Belgian King Leopold II. Known as the Congo Free State, it was the only private colony in history, with its own private army and local militias to control the lucrative resources of the region. This period was marked by exceptional brutality against the local population, so much so that a bunch of other empires – including other European colonial powers that were engaged in similar techniques in their own colonies – had to come together and intervene to put a stop to it. 

While the numbers are disputed, the Congolese population was reduced from some 20 million to 10 million in this time. Natives were often kidnapped and forced to work for resources like ivory and rubber. Torture, sexual violence, amputations, and exhaustion was common in places like the plantations and mines, as Leopold’s armies kept a strict, violent check on productivity. There were a few rebellions, though they were often put down mercilessly, followed by reprisal attacks on the local population.  

1. The Eastern Front of WW2

The Second World War’s eastern front was easily the largest military confrontation in history, even if modern history books hardly give it the same attention as, say, the Pacific and western European theaters. Stretching across a front that was, at its widest, more than 1,000 miles long, with over 400 Red Army and German divisions in total, it’s not inaccurate to say this was where the war was really fought and decided. 

The eastern front also saw some of the worst atrocities in the entire war, though much of it is just mentioned as numbers in post-war figures. Here, Nazi violence wasn’t just limited to the Jewish population, but also other communities like the Roma, Russians, Poles, prisoners of war, and others. In occupied territories, massacres perpetrated by German death squads and local collaborators were commonplace, often done in crude and gruesome ways. Unlike the west, the war in the east was fought as a war of complete annihilation, with few parallels in history in terms of scale or brutality.