Violent aftershocks end from the earthquake that struck Onan, Algeria on 10 October, which is under Spanish control. 600 of 3,000 Spanish soldiers and many officers were killed when buildings collapsed. The city’s jail also collapsed, killing 86 prisoners and 23 prison officials. Spain abandons Onan and Mazalquivir, Algeria because of the cost of repairing quake damage. Survivors settle in Ceuta.

International telegraph services comes to Libya with the arrival from Malta of a submarine cable laid by the Eastern Telegraph Company.

The book Green Hills of Africa is published. Ernest Hemingway’s bloody autobiographical account of big game hunting in Kenya captures the white colonial mentality toward Africa – as a playground where privileged people may do as they please, where wildlife exists for target practice, and Africans are childish if occasionally useful servants.

Morocco’s Rif Rebellion begins when members of the Moroccan National Liberation Army movement attack the headquarters of the country’s ruling Istiqial Party. The MNL are outraged that the independence deal with France allows French troops to remain in the county indefinitely. Boycotting independence and frozen out of government, the anti-French dissents resort to an armed revolt.

Realising that the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is likely to take control of the country, South Africa’s apartheid government commits 2,500 troops to “Operation Savannah” to assist the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in its fight against the MPLA. The Soviet Union backs MPLA, and Pretoria has been allowed by the West to pursue its racist apartheid policies because it promises to keep Communist states out of Southern Africa. The U.S. allies with South Africa against the MPLA.

The Ugandan army of dictator Idi Amin invades Tanzania and attacks Kagera. The Ugandan forces are not slowed by Tanzanian soldiers, who flee the fighting. However, mud and rains hinder their advance.

The song Sun City, protesting international stars who break the cultural boycott of South Africa, is released by the group Artists Against Apartheid, led by Seven van Zandt. With half of U.S. radio stations refusing to play the song because of its criticism of President Reagan’s ineffectual apartheid policy, the song will be only a modest success in the U.S., but is a #10 hit in the U.K., a #4 hit in Australia and a #3 hit in Canada. The song and album raise US$1 million for the anti-apartheid African National Congress.

The Lusaka National Museum opens in Zambia’s capital, featuring displays on Zambia’s culture and history.

Symbolising an economic return to pre-Civil War days, Mozambique opens two new cashew processing plants, making 17 processing factories now operating in the country. 137,000 tons of the nut were processed in 2017, and the industry’s goal is 180,000 tons by 2020. Before Mozambique’s civil war in the 1970s, 200,000 tons were processed annually.

The world's top chocolate companies - Hershey, Mars and Nestlé - promised in 2010 to reduce the "worst forms of child labour" at West Africa's cocoa plantations by 70% by 2020. However, a study by the U.S. Department of Labour finds more child labourers exist than a decade ago. 1.6 million children are now laboring in the cocoa plantations of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. Many children work in “hazardous conditions."

Nigeria introduces Africa’s first e-currency, the eNaira, which is only the second Central Bank Digital Currency in the world. The eNaira has the same value as Nigeria’s Naira currency, and is used not as an investment like cryptocurrency but to make purchases electronically. (pic: Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari, left, and Nigeria Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele)

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