The U.S. under President Abraham Lincoln finally recognises Liberia. Although Africa’s first independent nation of the modern era has been a sovereign state for 15-years, U.S. legislators from southern states where Africans are enslaved as human chattel have objected to having black Africans given the privilege of diplomatic status in Washington.
After the disastrous Jameson Raid in South Africa’s Transvaal Republic, when colonial adventurer Cecil Rhodes directed Leander Jameson to attack the Transvaal Boers, Rhodes lies to his fellow directors of the British South Africa Company that he had nothing to do with the raid. Evidence will mount that Rhodes sought to take over the Transvaal, which was weakened after the First Anglo-Boer War, to obtain the Kimberley diamond mines and Johannesburg’s gold. Rhodes will be ousted from the company in 1898. The uprising he ordered leads to the persecution of British citizens in the Transvaal, and sets the stage for the bloody Second Anglo-Boer War.
French general Émile Gentil, who led a military campaign of conquest in Chad, is appointed Commissioner-General of French Congo (Republic of the Congo). He will show no interest in the Congolese, and will allow French companies that are given huge land concessions by the colonial government to exploit and abuse whomever they please. When reports arrived in Paris about forced labour and crimes against humanity rampant under Gentil’s administration, human rights activists will call for an investigation. One will be conducted, but the findings will never be made public, suppressed by the French National Assembly in 1905 for being “embarrassing to France.”
About 60 000 black South Africans are forcibly removed from Johannesburg's Western Areas under the apartheid Group Areas Act, which is being used to enforce racial segregation. These black communities are to become white areas, and renamed Triumph.
The official opening of Salisbury (Harare) Airport, in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The airport has been built by the government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere issues the Arusha Declaration, a manifesto on African Socialism. The declaration celebrates the philosophy of Ujamaa, (“brotherhood”), with the view that “the development of a country is brought about by people, not by money.”
Tanzania’s socialist government under Julius Nyerere nationalises the country’s oldest and most popular newspaper, The Standard.
Kenya’s head of government since Independence, Jomo Kenyatta, has a series of strokes kept hidden from the public. He has effectively ceased to govern, is never seen in public without a close circle of aides, and has lost much public support following the torture and murder of his critic MP Joseph Kariuki. The Kenyatta family are now among Kenya’s largest landowners. His complex legacy is being defined by writers throughout the world, and upon his death in August 1978, he will evaluated as a courageous independence leader, shrewd politician, and one of the towering figures of 20th Century Africa.
Two powerful Tanzania political parties, the Tanganyika African National Union, founded by President Julius Nyerere in 1955, and Zanzibar’s ruling Afro-Shirazi Party merge, becoming the Revolutionary State Party or Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
As a good will gesture and publicity stunt, the mayors of Carthage, Tunisia and Rome, Italy sign a formal peace treaty officially ending the Third Punic War, which historically concluded 2,131 years ago when Rome destroyed Carthage (pic) and sold its inhabitants into slavery. The ancient Roman Empire succeeded on its third try to destroy its North African rival in BC 146.
After 38 years in power, the longest of any African dictator, Togo’s military ruler Gnassingbé Eyadéma dies. The military government immediately replaces him with his son, Faure Gnassingbé.
Phase 1 of what will be the world’s largest solar array, Morocco’s Noor I, begins generating electricity. Covering 450 hectares, it will deliver 370 GWh to Morocco’s power grid each year.
The 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (named the Total Africa Cup of Nations for the sponsorship of the Total energy company) is hosted by Gabon after civil war makes Libya unable to host. The Cup celebrates its 60th anniversary with Cameroon winning its fifth title.
Considered South Africa’s greatest short story writer, in Kuils River, Cape Town. A journalist and editors as well, his stories were collected in the best-selling Mafekeng Road in 1947.
Kenyan gospel singer, in Dandora, Kenya. Lifted from Nairobi’s slums by his exceptional voice, he joined hip-hop with gospel music and created a musical style that earned him the title of East Africa’s King of Gospel Rap.
