The Arch of Trajan is completed in Thamugadi, Roman North Africa (near Batna, Algeria today), built to commemorate Emperor Trajan who reigned from 98 to 117.  Decorative elements and statues will be added later.

The death today of Malian ruler Seku Amadu (pic) allows a period of stability and prosperity under his son, Amadu II of Massina. Amadu II will keep the country unified at a time when Timbuktu seeks to be a separate kingdom. He will also relax his father’s imposition of Sharia Law.

As anti-colonial sentiment runs high in French Morocco, France’s government pharmacist in Marrakesh, Émile Mauchamp, is killed by a group of local people. They have accused him of “pernicious Christian objectives.” The French government and French media partner in making Mauchamp a “martyr for civilisation” killed by “the barbarous natives of Morocco.” France will use his death as an excuse to take over the country with military force. As part of the drama, Mauchamp will be given a State Funeral in Paris on 11 April. A day of mourning will be declared for that day to honour the lowly pharmacist whose death proves so opportune for France’s objectives in North Africa. (pic: A French tabloid imagines Mauchamp’s death by stoning)

Widely considered the most beautiful train station in Africa, the Central Railway Terminal is dedicated in Lourenço Marques (Maputo) in Portuguese Mozambique. A dome designed by José Ferreira da Costa will be finished in 1916, and a second dome to finally complete the initial design will be added in 2016.

A State of Emergency now two weeks old is not succeeding in calming tensions over the issue of African ownership of land in Nyasaland (Malawi); nor is it lessening pressure from the anti-British and pro-Independence activist Dr. Hastings Banda (pic) and his Nyasaland African Congress. Violence continues in the country, and British forces have arrived from Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). Today, they and local police kill 51 protesters - 44 men and 4 women - by gunfire, and kill three men by bludgeoning or bayonetting them to death. 1,400 people have now been arrested, and are being detained without trial.

The War for Algerian Independence, raging since 1954, comes to an end with a ceasefire called the day after the signing of the Évian Accords that detail Algeria’s independence from France.

For the first time, Libya hosts the African Cup of Nations (13th edition). In a suspenseful final game, the Libyan team loses in penalty kicks to Ghana, and Ghana confirms its dominance in African football with its fourth Cup championship.

In Ventersdorp, South Africa, police open fire on a white crowd for the first time since the Rand Rebellion of 1921, when 2,000 members of the white supremacist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging riot against government’s negotiations to end white minority rule. Six policemen and 13 civilians are killed.

A cabinet reshuffle in Namibia makes Hugh Geingob (pic) the nation’s Prime Minister, positioning him to take over from Sam Nujoma as Namibia’s president when Nujoma’s third and final term ends in 2005.

Work begins on an important link in South Sudan’s transportation infrastructure, the Freedom Bridge over the Nile River in Juba. The Japan International Cooperation Agency commits to funding US$52 million of the US$91 million cost. Construction will soon be halted by South Sudan’s civil war, and will resume in 2019.

Tanzania Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan is sworn in as the country’s first woman president and the East African Community’s third woman head of state (after Sylvie Kinigi of Burundi and Agathe Uwilingiyimana of Rwanda).