A total solar eclipse is visible from Northern Africa. This is the “Odyssey Eclipse” written about by Homer.

The Boer farmers of northern Cape Colony, South Africa, have invented a cruel type of whip “heavy almost as lead” made from the hide of a rhinoceros or “sea cow” (hippopotamus), which they use to beat to death their Khoi workers who are caught running away. Called sjambocs, they are described by John Barrow, who is mapping the South African interior for the British government, as “most horrid instruments” used on a “helpless” people by “monsters.” Bavarian official Ludwig Alberti describes the treatment of the Khoi by South Africa’s “Dutch farmers” as “inhuman and horrifying.”

The worst hotel in Africa is reportedly the Railway Hotel in the swampy town of Fontesvilla, Portuguese Mozambique. The dining room only serves wild game that is so tough that guests find it impossible to eat. Beds are only 1.1 metre wooden frames covered with wire but no mattress, and rooms are filled with rats who eat the candles used for illumination. Visitors report that when awake the staff is drunk. As for the town’s people, they “look like they walk around to save funeral expenses.”

The first public telephone service begins in Egypt with the opening of an exchange in Alexandria by the Swedish electronics company Ericsson. Other companies later provide service in Egypt, but so many phones are sold by Ericsson that the Egyptian name for the telephone is “Ericsson.”

The town of Cotonou, Dahomey (Benin) is thriving as West Africa’s most active port. Built for use by slave ships transporting people enslaved and sold by the Kingdom of Dahomey, the facility is now jammed with the export cargo from the land: principally bales of cotton and barrels of palm oil.

With an amended Riotous Assembly Act of 1954, which allowed the Minister of Justice to ban public gatherings, South Africa’s apartheid government has another draconian tool to quash dissent: the law now allows for the banishment of individuals.

The first Toyota cars to be sold in Africa arrive in Ethiopia from Japan in a shipment of 12 that includes the Toyota Crown sedan. In 2024, a Toyota model, the Hilux pick-up, will be Africa’s best-selling vehicle.

Mahamane Ousmane becomes Niger’s President after Ali Saibou (pic), who had led Niger’s military government, becomes the first incumbent president to peacefully hand over power to the opposition.

The families of Namibians killed by crocodiles or hippos will be paid US$8,280.50 in compensation, according to new government guidelines. However, the Minister of Environment and Tourism says that no compensation will be paid if a person is killed while bathing or swimming in rivers, because such deaths "could be avoided."

The discovery in Botswana is announced of a rare and large blue diamond. The 20.46 carat gem is one of the rarest of diamonds. “It is incredibly unusual for a stone of this colour and nature to have come from Botswana – a once-in-lifetime find,” says the owner, the state-run Okavango Diamond Company.