The first country to declare war on the United States of America is an African nation. An angry Pasha of Tripoli declares war after U.S. President Thomas Jefferson stops paying an annual “tribute” of US$225,000 (worth US$5.4 million in 2023) as protection money so Barbary Coast pirates will not attack American ships.
King Menelik II, the Emperor of Abyssinia, signs the Anglo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1897, settling a long-standing dispute by arranging the boundary between Abyssinia and British Somaliland. In return, Menelik gains security for a vital camel route to the port at Zeila.
With the rail line proving unprofitable since 1948 in British Mauritius, a new fleet of buses are introduced to service the capital town Port Louis.
Considered by many in the liberation struggle “The Mother of South Africa,” Winnie Mandela, ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, is convicted of participation in the kidnapping and murder of four boys thought to be state informers during the country’s bloody transition from apartheid to democracy. She is sentenced to serve six years in prison, but is released pending appeal.
The largest ship to dock at South Africa’s Port Elizabeth arrives: a 200 metre-long automobile carrier. All of Africa’s major ports are expanding to accommodate a new generation of giant vessels used for modern container shipping.
Kenya and Ghana are the first two countries to ratify the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. Making trade easier by lowering barriers, streamlining cross-border travel and with other measures, AfCFTA needs 21 countries ratifying by the end of 2018 to stay on schedule.
Air Senegal begins operations, as a state-owned airline operating out of Dakar.
Zimbabwe's Tererai Trent, the scholar and fighter for women's education, is honoured by New York City with a statue. Denied an education early in her life because she was a girl, she managed to earn advanced degrees despite her lack of a formal education. Her statue’s raises arms symbolise a welcome to all who seek knowledge. In 2011, U.S. TV host Oprah Winfrey, whose show is aired in Africa, declared Trent her “all-time favourite guest,” and donated US$1.5 million so Trent could build a school at her childhood village.
Namibia President Namibia Hage Geingob orders that no new cars be purchased for government officials for the 2020-2025 period. The savings of US$11 million will be spent on "urgent priorities" dealing with "the health and economic implications of Covid-19."
Nigeria’s Burna Boy becomes the first African musician to have three successive albums (African Giant, Outside and Twice As Tall) achieve 100 million streams each on Spotify, the Internet music streaming service.
Governor of Dutch Cape Colony (1751 to 1771), in Utrech, Netherlands. Although puritanical in his policies – he forbade women from wearing silk or velvet dresses – he responded well to a smallpox outbreak that devastated both the local Khoekhoe people and the colony residents. He introduced to the colony such advances as regular road maintenance, a fire department and a police unit, and he built Cape Town’s first library.
Nigerian sound artist, in Enugu, Nigeria. At art museums throughout the world since 2008, people listen to his installations through headphones that create soundscape symphonies of actual recordings made of Lagos urban life. His soundscape installation of Igbo village life is a stylised tree.
Kenyan rapper noted for performing in both Swahili and English, in Mombasa, Kenya. She was awarded Best Female Artist at the 2012 Kenya Coast Music Awards and Best Female Hip Hop Artist at the 2015 Pwani Celebrity Awards.
