As British Cape Colony continues its century’s long effort to take control of the lands of South Africa’s Xhosa nation, today British commandos assassinate a senior Xhosa chief. In retaliation, Chief Maqoma (pic) and his half-brother Tyali assemble an army of 10,000, whom they will lead in attacks on white settlers and their Khoikhoi allies, burning homesteads and killing those who do not flee to Grahamstown.
The Republic of South Africa (Transvaal Republic) strikes an advantageous trade deal with Portuguese Mozambique, allowing unhindered trade and no customs duties on exports shipped through Delagoa (Maputo) port. The treaty prompts plans for a railway from landlocked Transvaal to the sea.
The Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo) is connected to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). A special train filled with colonial dignitaries travels along the new rail line and smashes a bottle of champagne hung from an evergreen-covered archway erected on the border. The rail line connects Southern Africa’s interior to the sea, ending at the port of Beira, Portuguese East Africa.
Non-white people can now watch motion pictures in the racially segregated Union of South Africa as the Electric Theatre for Coloured People opens in Durban. The programme includes a popular news film about the 1910 celebrations throughout the country for the establishment of the Union of South Africa.
French colonial troops in French Equatorial Africa (Central African Republic) put down an uprising that they ignored when it was started by local prophet Barka Ngainoumbey. He preaches non-violence as a means to protest against forced labour in rubber plantations and railway construction. However, the rapidly expanding movement is too much for any one man to contain. Never before have so many Central African peoples united in a cause, and France faces a force of 350,000 opponents, some of them armed. Colonial soldiers will kill Ngainoumbey, blaming him for the disturbances, but the Kongo-War Rebellion, the largest anti-colonial uprising seen in the French-controlled Africa, will continue until 1931. Many villages relocate to isolated spots to escape France's policy of forced labour.
The anti-colonial independence activist and future first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, is in rare agreement with British authorities when he opposes female genital mutilation. Missionaries are campaigning against the practice, which is raising alarms in Britain’s House of Commons during debates held today. The powerful Kikuyu Central Association as well as the elders of the Kikuyu people, Kenya’s most populous group, see FGM as a cultural initiation rite, and they mock Kenyatta’s opposition. (pic: FGM knives)
South Africa achieves legislative independence from Britain with the Statue of Westminster, which gives similar freedom to other British Empire states. Fully democratic non-racial statehood will be achieved in South Africa in 1994. (Pic: The House of Parliament, Cape Town, 1931)
King of the British Empire that has colonised a third of Africa, Edward VIII, sadly announces on a globally-broadcast radio address (pic) that he has abdicated. His plan to marry a commoner – a divorced American woman – has created a scandal and a constitutional crisis. Edward hopes to enter a morganatic marriage in which, while wed to a king, his wife would not become Queen. This requires the approval of South Africa and other British dominions, who must also approve the installation of Edward’s brother as the new king because he would become the legal Head of State for their countries. South Africa refuses to approve Edward’s suggestion of a morganatic marriage because it would “stain the crown,” and Edward gives up his throne.
After the League of Nations imposes economic sanctions on Italy for invading Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Italy retaliates by leaving the international body
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is established, and will prove a critical partner to African nations advancing the education, health and welfare of children.
Tanganyika becomes a U.N. Trust Territory but is still administered by Britain. (pic: Some of the hundreds of Polish refugees kept in Tanganyika during World War II)
The Republic of Dahomey (Benin) is established as a self-governing colony within colonial French West Africa. The country will achieve full independence from France in 1960.
A milestone vote at the Territorial Assembly of Comoros sets back the Independence movement for decades. Delegates from the four main islands vote to keep the archipelago a French colony. Even when Independence arrives in 1975, Mayotte islanders will vote to remain under French governance.
The War for Algerian Independence is now in its eighth year, and rioting today in Algiers leaves 114 dead; a milestone in the independence movement that will be remembered as Black Sunday.
Moroccan troops arrive in Western Sahara to engage the Polisario Front, representing the Saharawi people. Morocco claims the territory despite an International Court of Justice ruling in July that the Saharawi people must determine their own political future.
As tensions rise between the two countries, the U.S. invalidates all passports for travel to Libya, and advises all Americans in Libya to leave the country. (pic: Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi)
Ugandan Bishop Nelson Onono Onweng becomes the first African recipient of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s International Prize for Peace Education. Although his home area, Gulu, was a war zone, he persevered with “excellent effort” to build a local education system.
The movie Invictus, a Hollywood retelling of the South African rugby team’s 1995 victory at the Rugby World Cup, is released to good reviews and box office. Director Clint Eastwood recreates the return of post-apartheid South Africa to international sports competition. Matt Damon plays team captain François Pienaaar, and Morgan Freeman is President Nelson Mandela. Filming was done in South Africa from March to May 2009.
Uganda’s first ever National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy and Action Plan is launched, to provide Ugandan children with services from birth to age 8 in health, nutrition, education, protection, water and sanitation, and parenting support services
Senegalese storyteller and poet, in Ouakam, Dakar, French West Africa. A leader in the Negritude literary movement, his Tales of Amadou Koumba (1947), which was told in the style of a West African Story teller (a Griot), was a milestone in the African literary flowering following World War II. The book created international interest in African folklore.
Egyptian writer and Nobel Prize winner, in Old Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt. Considered the first modern writer in Arab literature, he published 35 novels in his long career, as well as 350 short stories, 28 movie scripts and many newspaper articles. He is the only Egyptian to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His life was transformed when at age 7, during the 1919 Egyptian Revolution, he witnessed British troops shooting and killing the people on his street.xxx
President of Senegal from 2012 until the present, in Fatick, Senegal. After a disagreement with Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who removed him as President of the National Assembly, he founded his own political party, the Alliance for the Republic. As an opposition candidate, he earned the support of other opposition parties to defeat Wade in the 2012 presidential election. Born one year after national Independence from France, he is the first Senegalese president who never knew life under colonialism.
Cameroonian football star and administrator, in Douala, Cameroon. Considered the best football striker in the world at the height of his career, which began with the team Real Madrid when he was only 16, he is ranked among the greatest African players of all time. More than any other player, he was named African Player of the Year -- four times, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010 -- more than any other player. Cameroon’s all-time leading scorer, he is the leading scorer of the African Cup of Nations, where he played six times, winning two cups, while also playing four World Cups and leading the team that won gold at the 2000 Olympic Games. In his 40th birthday in 2021, he became President of the Cameroon Football Federation.
