On the first voyage by Europeans to India, the fleet of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Malindi (later to be Kenyan shore north of Mombasa). They discover Indian traders, and hire a pilot to guide them. Using monsoon winds for the rest of their journey to India, they will depart on 24 April.
The West African Kingdom of Dahomey is so successful at enslaving people captured during its many military conquests that a “slaving port” is established on the Gulf of Guinea for the convenience of slave ships. In the Fon language, the town is named Kutonou (Cotonou), meaning “by the river of death.” The port will become the capital of Benin.
French authorities in Djibouti report that the Egyptian forces of Pasha Mohammed Ali, who was gaining control of the Horn of Africa, now occupy the Gulf of Tadjoura and areas inland. However, the Egyptian Pasha has no legal claim to Djibouti, and his forces will withdraw after a brief time.
During the Egyptian/Abyssinia War, Egypt today again occupies the Gulf of Tadjoura (Djibouti), according to reports from the Commander of the French naval vessel L’Inferent, as well as portions of the interior. Egypt will once more withdraw its forces from the area after the Emperor of Ethiopia ceases hostilities.
Said Ali bin Said Omar becomes Sultan over all the Comoros Islands. The main island Ngazidja has been governed by sultanates, but Said Ali bin Said Omar assumes all their powers, aided by France in return for Omar giving France permission to make Comoros a protectorate.
Africa’s subjugation under European colonisation is celebrated at the Paris Exposition opening today. Egypt, a part of the Ottoman Empire, is incorporated into the Turkish pavilion. France’s status as a colonial power is exhibited in the pavilions of eleven African colonies and protectorates. (pic: the Tunisia pavilion)
British company Lever Brothers establishes its subsidiary Huileries du Congo Belge to source palm oil from the Belgian Congo to manufacture soap. The colonial occupier of the country, Belgium, grants the company an astounding 750,000 hectares of Congolese land to grow palm trees. The company will use forced labour, and Congolese workers who do not meet quotas will face prison sentences. A whip called a chicotte is used on workers in the normal routine of operations. The town Leverville (renamed Lusanga after the Democratic Republic of Congo achieves independence) is created for a soap factory that will be built to make Lux soap (pic).
East African Airways deploys new state-of-the-art British-built Doves aircrafts on its Nairobi to Entebbe route. At £13,300 each (equal to £606,042 in 2024), the four Doves are more than twice as expensive as the £6,000 Lodestar planes that the airline put into service on its Nairobi-Dar es Salaam route last month.
Kenyan nationalist Jamamogi Odinga resigns from the government and President Jomo Kenyatta’s ruling Kanu party, slamming Kenyatta’s cabinet as land grabbers and opportunists who are uninterested in the welfare of ordinary Kenyans. In the days ahead, another cabinet minister and 27 MPs will also resign in protest.
South Africa’s liberation heroes, the anti-apartheid leaders Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela, announce their divorce.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange rebrands itself to reflect international investment opportunities that the exchange now offers in Africa and globally. The new JSE logo has a space-age look.
Seychelles President Danny Faure becomes the first Head of State to give an address while underwater. He advocates for protections for the world’s oceans in a speech broadcast from a British research submersible beneath the sea off one of Seychelles’ islands.
South African painter, in Bloublommetjieskloof, Cape Colony. Her introduction of Expressionistic and Fauvist paintings to conservative South African society was met with mockery. However, she was considered South Africa’s preeminent artist by the end of her long career, begun in 1903 and ending at her death with an unfinished canvas still on its easel.
South African activist, in Durban, South Africa. Growing up in the Indian settlement Phoenix built by his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, he like his grandfather advocated non-violence as a means to overcome South Africa’s racist apartheid regime. Moving to the U.S. shortly before apartheid ended, he wrote a comparative study of racism in India, South Africa and the U.S.
South Africa’s first black athlete to win a medal at an Olympic Games, in Bethal, Transvaal, South Africa. He took gold in the Men’s Marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
