The Battle of Trebia is the first major fighting in the Second Punic War between the North African empire Carthage and the Roman Empire. Carthaginian General Hannibal has invaded Italy with his army – some infantry are mounted on elephants – and today he scores a major victory over the Roman army. The Romans are caught off-guard by Hannibal’s arrival across the Pyrenees Mountains from the north. But he has made enemies of the people on the way by slaughtering whole villages that refused to supply his forces with food and fighting men.

London’s The New Age magazine reports that South African activist Alice Kinloch’s pamphlet Are South African Diamonds Worth the Cost? is drawing attention throughout Great Britain to the “slavery” of the lives of South Africa’s black miners. Along with miserable working conditions and pay, miners are made to labour naked in case they are tempted to steal and hide diamonds, reports Kinloch, who was one of the founders of the African Association earlier this year.

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The Alliance Trading Company has begun business in Cape Town, and is drawing holiday shoppers to a company that will rename itself Truworths in 1935. One of South Africa’s most popular clothing stores, it will grow to have 728 stores in South Africa and 49 stores in other African countries. (pic: 1971 Truworths store)

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South Africa’s first black radio announcer, King Edward "KE" Masinga, does the first of his regularly-scheduled five minute newscasts in isiZulu. He becomes the first person to announce in an African language to a mass audience in Southern Africa.

South Africa’s first prestige “roadshow” motion picture, Majuba, is released. Directed by David Millin, the epic recounts the First Anglo-Boer War from an Afrikaner perspective.

The Nigerian Civil War draws to a close with Nigerian federal forces’ final military push against the breakaway Republic of Biafra. Nigeria has British support. The offensive is led by future Nigerian president Col. Olusegun Obasanjo (pic).

Rebel forces seeking Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia nearly claim their first victory in the Battle of Massawa, and are close to taking that port town, when they are driven off by Soviet warships. The battle marks the beginning of the Soviet Union’s direct involvement in the Eritrean War of Independence, as an ally of Ethiopia’s military government.

A course change also changes the name of the Paris-Dakar Rally to the Paris-Cape Town Rally. Competitors set out on the 12,427-km route that passes through Libya, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabo, Republic of Congo, Angola (reached by boat from the Republic of Congo to bypass war-torn Zaire) and Namibia. Drivers use GPS navigation for the first time. They will arrive in Cape Town, South Africa on 16 January 1992.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank assist São Tomé and Príncipe with a US$200 million debt relief package. Founded as a Marxist-Leninist state at Independence 25 years ago, the country sets its economy on a new course.

Bicycling Empowerment Network Namibia announces a February 2018 manufacturing date for 30 solar-powered electric bike/trailer ambulances (pic). The bikes will handle medical emergencies in remote villages where motorised ambulances cannot go because there are no petrol stations.

The World Health Organisation reports that Africa has one traditional healer for every 500 people; versus medical doctors who number one for every 40,000 people.