The Freetown Cotton Tree is now a mature adult as a group of African-American settlers arrive to form a settlement in West Africa. They hold a prayer of thanksgiving beneath its branches. Because a cotton wood may live up to 400 years, the giant tree will still thrive in downtown Freetown, Sierra Leone in 2024 (pic).
One of the first “motor homes” is invented by South African John Weston for a trip with his family through Southern Africa. Carpenters build a cabin to sleep five atop a truck chassis. In 2024, the vehicle will be exhibited at Winterton Museum in KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa.
Afrikaans replaces Dutch as the official language of South Africa along with English, in a move approved by a joint sitting of the House of Assembly and the Senate, under the month-old government of Afrikaner Prime Minister J.B.M. Hertzog.
The Lion of Judah statue that was commissioned for the coronation of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in 1930 and was looted by Italy when its military took over Addis Ababa in 1935, is used for propaganda purposes in Rome. Rather than be mounted on a statue plinth as designed, it is placed on the ground before a monument commemorating Italian soldiers who died during the First Italo-Ethiopian War. In that earlier war, Italy’s first attempt to invade Ethiopia was a humiliating defeat. The heist of the statue (which will be returned to Ethiopia in 1966) and its placement is an act of revenge.
A group of Algerian Muslims protesting French colonial rule are fired upon by police in Sétif. In retaliation, militants kill 120 French settlers. French colonial authorities and French settlers find revenge with the disproportionate killing of between 6,000 and 30,000 Muslims. The Guelma Massacre lays the groundwork for the start of the Algerian War for Independence in 1952.
On a visit to Guinea, Cuban President Fidel Castro (pic: right) praises Guinea President Sékou Touré (pic: left) as “Africa’s Greatest Leader,” and receives from Touré Guinea’s highest decoration, the National Order of Fidelity to People.
Voters in French Somaliland approve a referendum calling for independence from France by a near-unanimous 98.8% vote in favour. The colony will formally become independent on 27 June 1977, with the name Djibouti.
After hundreds of South Africans are killed in “black on black” violence believed to be plotted by security forces and apartheid supporters, government bans “cultural weapons” like spears and clubs that have been primarily used in clashes.
A Bill of Rights listing fundamental freedoms is the heart of a new South African constitution is approved by the Constituent Assembly. There are 421 votes in favour, two against, and 67 delegates abstain.
Forbes magazine’s list of Africa’s Top 10 Music Money Makers ranks Senegal’s singer/entrepreneur Akon as #1, with South Africa’s DJ Black Coffee and jazz legend Hugh Masekela as #2 and #3, followed by Nigeria’s Don Jazzy, the Zimbabwe-American Tinashe, the Nigerian-American Jidenna, Nigeria’s Wizkid and Davido, and Ghana’s Sarkodie. (Both Tinashe and Jidenna were born in and staked their professional careers in the U.S.)
Second president of Tanzania (1985-1995), in Kivure, Pwani Region, British Tanganyika. Although the hand-picked successor of the country’s first president Julius Nyerere, he spent his administration reversing Nyerere’s economically disastrous socialist policies.
Cameroonian politician and writer, in Njika, Foumban, West Province, French Cameroon. He served as a Minister, as Deputy of Cameroon’s national assembly and as mayor of Foumban, Cameroon, but he ran unsuccessfully for Cameroon’s presidency four times. The 1980s was a prolific period for his writings on law, history, political science and international relations.
Third president of Seychelles (2016-2020), in Kilembe, Uganda. He was never elected to the presidency, but as vice-president he ascended to the position when President James Michel resigned. A strong environmentalists who championed greater protections for the world’s oceans, he received the National Geographic Society’s “Planetary and Leadership Award.”
Heir to the throne of his father King Mohammed VI, in Rabat, Morocco. The future king of Morocco’s mother is Her Royal Highness Princess Salma Bennani.
